Tech Support Forums - TechIMO.com - Blogs http://www.techimo.com/forum/blogs/ en Sun, 22 Nov 2009 05:53:30 GMT vBulletin 60 http://www.techimo.com/forum/images/misc/rss.jpg Tech Support Forums - TechIMO.com - Blogs http://www.techimo.com/forum/blogs/ Itunes on windows 2003 http://www.techimo.com/forum/blogs/groundzero3/476-itunes-windows-2003.html Sat, 21 Nov 2009 15:00:22 GMT This worked for me: Installing iTunes on Windows Server 2003 | MS9 (http://www.ms9.co.uk/index.php/2009/08/installing-itunes-on-windows-server-2003/) This worked for me:

Installing iTunes on Windows Server 2003 | MS9 ]]> GroundZero3 http://www.techimo.com/forum/blogs/groundzero3/476-itunes-windows-2003.html Locking the screen for Snow Leopard http://www.techimo.com/forum/blogs/groundzero3/475-locking-screen-snow-leopard.html Sat, 17 Oct 2009 13:04:58 GMT This kind of baffles me, there is no default screen lock for the Snow Leopard desktop which seems a bit odd to me. Either way, to enable it go into /Applications/Utilities/ and click on keychain access. Under the keychain access menu, click preferences, then click show status in menu bar. A little lock will appear in the menu bar. You can now click it and lock the screen. Hope that helps others! This kind of baffles me, there is no default screen lock for the Snow Leopard desktop which seems a bit odd to me. Either way, to enable it go into /Applications/Utilities/ and click on keychain access. Under the keychain access menu, click preferences, then click show status in menu bar. A little lock will appear in the menu bar. You can now click it and lock the screen.

Hope that helps others! ]]> GroundZero3 http://www.techimo.com/forum/blogs/groundzero3/475-locking-screen-snow-leopard.html New laptop http://www.techimo.com/forum/blogs/athlonxpguy/474-new-laptop.html Thu, 10 Sep 2009 18:08:17 GMT Just picked up a new laptop to replace my 3 yr old Acer 5100. I went to Future Shop with the intention of buying a Mac, but ended up with a Toshiba L500 instead ;) Nice laptop running Vista Premium 64bit. Just picked up a new laptop to replace my 3 yr old Acer 5100. I went to Future Shop with the intention of buying a Mac, but ended up with a Toshiba L500 instead ;)
Nice laptop running Vista Premium 64bit. ]]> athlonxpguy http://www.techimo.com/forum/blogs/athlonxpguy/474-new-laptop.html Ghostbusters: The game, first impressions http://www.techimo.com/forum/blogs/aaron_8015/473-ghostbusters-game-first-impressions.html Thu, 03 Sep 2009 01:47:25 GMT Okay its been a while since I have done a game review, and this is my first for this site.



Me being a major fan of both the films had high anticipations for this basicly film sequel/game. The game starts out as most with a small introduction In the year 1991 two years after part II (I could'nt help but have a slight grin on my face as the credits started and the music kicked in). You are the new recruit and you go through a simple training/tutorial exercise of the basics, the controls are easy to grasp and the whole trapping ghost ordeal I feel has been done rather well. You must weaken the ghost first, then you must grab them and force them towards the trap you have laid onto the floor. It is rather satisfying capturing your first ghost then retrieving the smokey trap from the floor.




Most of the characters are back Peter, Ray, Egon and Winston. All of which have their original voice actors, there are other character's including Janine Melnitz the receptionist and Slimer, Dana Barrett appears to be abscent. All the quirky humour and dialoge from the films is there thanks mostly to Bill Murray's character, it does feel like another film.



The graphics I feel have been well done all the surface's and texture's look fresh, the character's look great and have been well modeled after their human counterpart. The detail in the 'proton packs' is something else and you find yourself for the first 5 minutes constantly eyeing it. The health bar and such have been implimented into the pack to keep the HUD down to a minimum which is a nice touch, although having a quick glance at it in the middle of trying to grab 4 or 5 ghosts is challenging. The physics are also a nice touch with objects flying all over the place when you knock them over or ghosts pick them up and throw at you. Also you can pick up large objects with your proton pack and move them when they are in your way.




The only nag I have at the moment is loading times which after a quick stopwatch took around 34 seconds, now when you are sitting there waiting for it, it feels much longer.

Will add more thoughts when I progress further. ]]> Aaron_8015 http://www.techimo.com/forum/blogs/aaron_8015/473-ghostbusters-game-first-impressions.html WSUS 3.0 Service pack 2 http://www.techimo.com/forum/blogs/groundzero3/472-wsus-3-0-service-pack-2.html Fri, 28 Aug 2009 10:08:25 GMT http://www.techimo.com/forum/applications-operating-systems/235554-wsus-3-0-sp2-out.html As I noted in this thread, I updated all my servers yesterday without a problem. It will make you run the wizard again and it can be slow! http://www.techimo.com/forum/applica...0-sp2-out.html


As I noted in this thread, I updated all my servers yesterday without a problem. It will make you run the wizard again and it can be slow! ]]> GroundZero3 http://www.techimo.com/forum/blogs/groundzero3/472-wsus-3-0-service-pack-2.html Absurdly simple pasta http://www.techimo.com/forum/blogs/theophylact/471-absurdly-simple-pasta.html Thu, 20 Aug 2009 23:29:55 GMT
This has practically nothing in it, and it's absolutely delicious. Marcia got it as a test kitchen for Cooks Illustrated, we tried it, and it's great:
Quote:
Spaghetti with Pecorino Romano and Black Pepper

Use the small ragged holes on a box grater to finely grate the cheese and the large holes to coarsely grate. Alternatively, a food processor may be used to finely grate the cheese. Cut the Pecorino into 2-inch pieces and process until finely ground, about 45 seconds. Do not adjust the amount of water for cooking the pasta. Make sure to stir the pasta frequently while cooking, so it doesn't stick to bottom of pot. Allowing the dish to rest before serving allows the flavors to develop and the sauce to thicken.


4 ounces Pecorino Romano, finely grated (about 2 cups)
1 pound spaghetti or linguini
Table salt
2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
1½ teaspoons finely ground black pepper
2 ounces Pecorino Romano, coarsely grated (about 1 cup)

1. Place finely grated Pecorino in medium bowl, set aside. Set colander in large bowl, set aside.

2. Bring 2 quarts water to boil in large Dutch oven. Add pasta and 1½ teaspoons salt; cook, stirring frequently, until al dente. Drain pasta into colander set in bowl, reserving pasta cooking water. Pour off 1¼ cups of pasta cooking water into liquid measuring cup and discard rest; return pasta to now empty bowl.

3. Slowly whisk 1 cup reserved pasta cooking water into finely grated Pecorino, until smooth. Whisk in oil and black pepper. Pour cheese mixture over pasta in two batches, tossing to coat after each addition. Let pasta rest 2 minutes, tossing frequently, adjusting consistency with remaining ¼ cup reserved pasta water. Serve, passing coarsely grated Pecorino separately.

Serves 4 to 6.

]]> Theophylact http://www.techimo.com/forum/blogs/theophylact/471-absurdly-simple-pasta.html Virtualizing Cisco Unity Messaging on VMware ESX http://www.techimo.com/forum/blogs/groundzero3/470-virtualizing-cisco-unity-messaging-vmware-esx.html Tue, 18 Aug 2009 00:48:09 GMT Design Guide for Cisco Unity Virtualization - Virtualizing Cisco Unity Messaging on VMware ESX* [Cisco Unity] - Cisco Systems

Our primary server will be a physical box running Unity 7.xxx and our back up server will be a vm. Should be interesting to see how well this works out! ]]> GroundZero3 http://www.techimo.com/forum/blogs/groundzero3/470-virtualizing-cisco-unity-messaging-vmware-esx.html Test http://www.techimo.com/forum/blogs/j1mmy/469-test.html Mon, 27 Jul 2009 18:49:47 GMT [Testing Blog] ]]> J1mmy http://www.techimo.com/forum/blogs/j1mmy/469-test.html Businesses Shun Windows 7 http://www.techimo.com/forum/blogs/bpadraic/468-businesses-shun-windows-7.html Fri, 17 Jul 2009 20:49:46 GMT I read an article recently citing a survey that shows that nearly 60% of businesses have absolutely no plans to upgrade to Windows 7. Of the 40% who plan to, only about 5% plan to do so by the end of 2009. When the survey was done, Windows 7 had a September release date, so that meant within 4 months. The other 34% said they planned to upgrade by the end of next year. But what I don’t get is that 60% of businesses don’t have any plans to upgrade to Windows 7, the OS that’s been getting rave reviews for months, and hasn’t even been released yet. You can’t read a tech website or blog anywhere without hearing all about Windows 7. And I can see why: it’s really good. The release client is installed on my home computer, and I’ve pre-ordered my copy from Amazon.com. So far, Windows 7 is a far superior product to Vista. So why aren’t businesses going to use it? Do they actually prefer Windows Vista? I guess one of the big issues companies are having is the price of upgrading. And I totally get that. People are getting laid off left and right, and companies are shutting down every day. But really, the cost to upgrade to Windows 7 isn’t that prohibitive. If budgets are tight and you’re already running a solid version of Windows XP, I could see prolonging the upgrade for a while (though not skipping it entirely). But if you’ve got machines running Vista, I think it’s ridiculous to skip the upgrade. You’ll be getting a far superior product, for really not that much money. The other things people are complaining about is that they’re afraid their stuff won’t be compatible with Windows 7. I guess they remember the horrible time businesses (and home users) had when Vista came out, and practically nothing worked. But that just won’t be the case here. Windows 7 has been available in one testing stage or another for months now, and it’s already been shown that compatibility issues are few and far between. If you’re already running Vista, then there really shouldn’t be any major issues. And if you’re running XP, then there’s XP mode available. So I don’t think that excuse holds any water, either. Maybe it’s just me, but I really don’t get why businesses wouldn’t want to jump all over upgrading to Windows 7 from an older version of Windows. I understand being wary of change, but trust me: this is one that people need to accept. I read an article recently citing a survey that shows that nearly 60% of businesses have absolutely no plans to upgrade to Windows 7. Of the 40% who plan to, only about 5% plan to do so by the end of 2009. When the survey was done, Windows 7 had a September release date, so that meant within 4 months. The other 34% said they planned to upgrade by the end of next year. But what I don’t get is that 60% of businesses don’t have any plans to upgrade to Windows 7, the OS that’s been getting rave reviews for months, and hasn’t even been released yet. You can’t read a tech website or blog anywhere without hearing all about Windows 7. And I can see why: it’s really good. The release client is installed on my home computer, and I’ve pre-ordered my copy from Amazon.com. So far, Windows 7 is a far superior product to Vista. So why aren’t businesses going to use it? Do they actually prefer Windows Vista?

I guess one of the big issues companies are having is the price of upgrading. And I totally get that. People are getting laid off left and right, and companies are shutting down every day. But really, the cost to upgrade to Windows 7 isn’t that prohibitive. If budgets are tight and you’re already running a solid version of Windows XP, I could see prolonging the upgrade for a while (though not skipping it entirely). But if you’ve got machines running Vista, I think it’s ridiculous to skip the upgrade. You’ll be getting a far superior product, for really not that much money.

The other things people are complaining about is that they’re afraid their stuff won’t be compatible with Windows 7. I guess they remember the horrible time businesses (and home users) had when Vista came out, and practically nothing worked. But that just won’t be the case here. Windows 7 has been available in one testing stage or another for months now, and it’s already been shown that compatibility issues are few and far between. If you’re already running Vista, then there really shouldn’t be any major issues. And if you’re running XP, then there’s XP mode available. So I don’t think that excuse holds any water, either.

Maybe it’s just me, but I really don’t get why businesses wouldn’t want to jump all over upgrading to Windows 7 from an older version of Windows. I understand being wary of change, but trust me: this is one that people need to accept. ]]> bpadraic http://www.techimo.com/forum/blogs/bpadraic/468-businesses-shun-windows-7.html Cisco WLC 6.0.182.0 gateway issues? http://www.techimo.com/forum/blogs/groundzero3/467-cisco-wlc-6-0-182-0-gateway-issues.html Sat, 04 Jul 2009 05:12:13 GMT I upgraded our Cisco WLC 4404 to 6.0.182.0 tonight and I came up with a serious issue :(

All my remote access points are showing up as offline (and yes they are online as I can see them through show cdp neighbors and ping their ip addresses). They don't even show up in the controller as connected. However the access points on the same subnet as the controller connected just fine. Apparently this seems to be a gateway issue on the controller? I can ping the management address on the local network just fine, however I cant not ping it from the remote networks (and yes routing is working fine) However something very interesting, if I go into the management interface and just press apply the I get a few ping requests (from the remote sites) from the ip but then it times out again. If i go into the access points section I see a few of the remote access points have joined and started to download the new IOS. However they disassociate again. How odd, guess I need to contact Cisco and see if they have any clues.

*Update 7/06/2009*
Contacted Cisco TAC, its very hard trying to talk to someone about the problem when they barely can understand you and you can barely understand them. The woman on the phone suggested I try the Option43 for the DHCP server, I continue to tell her that I cant ping the controller at all from the remote site!! I also told her that I never had to use the option43 before, and of course her response was it should have never worked in the first place. :rolleyes: If you put the Controller name into DNS, it works perfectly fine. On top of that, if no device can even ping the controller address, the option43 isnt going to fix anything. I'm still sticking to my guns that its an issue with the software and it not applying the the gateway to the controller.

7/7/09
Rebooted the controller this morning while pinging the management address from the remote site. Got one ping and then it times out again. Users are stating the wireless works fine, however several of the access points are still offline as they cant communicate to the controller. The best way to describe my issue is having a computer with a static address but not gateway address assigned. Locally everything works fine, however it the computer has no idea how to forward packets outside the subnet

8/17/2008
Oops forgot to update! Two issues came up:

First the Cisco 4400 has four 1 Gigabyte ethernet ports on the front. We are currently using two in a port channel for redundancy and speed. I added another port to the group and all of a sudden the remote sites could ping the controller. I need to do some more testing on why this is happening, I am still suspecting its the Cisco software.

Also Cisco decided to change the name of its LWAPP protocol to CAPWAP. I had to change the DNS entry from LWAPP.ad.xx.xxx.xxx to CAPWAP.ad.xxx.xx.xxx. I noticed this when I logged into the LWAPP access point and checked the logs (thank god Cisco finally implemented this) It seems TAC wasn't even aware of this change either (they also gave me LWAPP debug commands instead of CAPWAP)

So things are running now, like I said more testing needs to be done ]]> GroundZero3 http://www.techimo.com/forum/blogs/groundzero3/467-cisco-wlc-6-0-182-0-gateway-issues.html WSUS/Client issues http://www.techimo.com/forum/blogs/groundzero3/466-wsus-client-issues.html Tue, 16 Jun 2009 17:17:31 GMT For the last couple of days ive been fighting clients not reporting their update status to WSUS. After some digging around and playing with the WSUS Client Diagnostic Tool. I think I finally figured it out.

All my clients were showing up with this error:

Quote:
WinHttpDownloadFileToMemory(szURLDest, NULL, 0, NULL, NULL, NULL,&downloadBuffer) failed with hr=0x80190194

I found this fix that cleared it up. Supposedly it has something to do with SP1 breaking everything. :rolleyes::heh:

1. Create a virtual directory (right click on website folder, new, folder) called 'selfupdate'.
2. Set the pathname to C:\Program Files\Update Services\Selfupdate
3. Enable anonymous access on the virtual directory.

Hope this helps anyone else having this problem!!! ]]> GroundZero3 http://www.techimo.com/forum/blogs/groundzero3/466-wsus-client-issues.html Studying for my PMP certification exam http://www.techimo.com/forum/blogs/bpadraic/465-studying-my-pmp-certification-exam.html Fri, 05 Jun 2009 21:40:22 GMT There’s, like, three stages to earning a Project Management Professional certification and you’ve got to do a ton of work before you even start training for the exam. First, you have to have 7,500 hours of project management experience before you’re even eligible to take the exam. Fortunately, I’ve got a Bachelor’s Degree, so I’m eligible for the exam with only 4,500 hours. But still, this is a pretty hardcore certification. Once you have those hours, or concurrently while you’re building those hours, you need to be able to show 30 hours of approved professional training. I’ve undergone what amounts to 20 hours of training in a local community college Intro to Project Management course , and I’m registered for another course of 20 hours (it’s funny how the courses don’t add up evenly to 35 – they’re going to make you pay for the extra training somehow). Now, after all of that, you’re eligible to take the exam (once you’ve paid for the Project Management Institute membership fee.) The thing is, I’m not sure that the approved courses will properly prepare me for this exam. From everything I’ve heard, it’s really hard. I think I’ll also need something that’s targeted toward helping me pass the exam. PrepLogic had a title called Project Management Professional LearnSmart Video Training. My friend used PrepLogic to get his MCSE, so I’ve heard some good things about them, plus I read a good Preplogic PMP training review (http://www.linuxquestions.org/blog/pereb-472699/2009/6/23/good-decisions-pmp-and-preplogic-2055/). I’ll just have to see what my needs are after the “approved” coursework. It may sound snarky, but I believe this certification is totally worth it. (I saw on PrepLogic.com that the average salary is something like $98,000!) For right now, it’s back to studying. I’ve got a Friday deadline to take the final exam for my current course, and I’ll totally need to cram for the next 2 days if I want to pass. There’s, like, three stages to earning a Project Management Professional certification and you’ve got to do a ton of work before you even start training for the exam. First, you have to have 7,500 hours of project management experience before you’re even eligible to take the exam. Fortunately, I’ve got a Bachelor’s Degree, so I’m eligible for the exam with only 4,500 hours. But still, this is a pretty hardcore certification. Once you have those hours, or concurrently while you’re building those hours, you need to be able to show 30 hours of approved professional training. I’ve undergone what amounts to 20 hours of training in a local community college Intro to Project Management course , and I’m registered for another course of 20 hours (it’s funny how the courses don’t add up evenly to 35 – they’re going to make you pay for the extra training somehow).
Now, after all of that, you’re eligible to take the exam (once you’ve paid for the Project Management Institute membership fee.) The thing is, I’m not sure that the approved courses will properly prepare me for this exam. From everything I’ve heard, it’s really hard. I think I’ll also need something that’s targeted toward helping me pass the exam. PrepLogic had a title called Project Management Professional LearnSmart Video Training. My friend used PrepLogic to get his MCSE, so I’ve heard some good things about them, plus I read a good Preplogic PMP training review. I’ll just have to see what my needs are after the “approved” coursework. It may sound snarky, but I believe this certification is totally worth it. (I saw on PrepLogic.com that the average salary is something like $98,000!) For right now, it’s back to studying. I’ve got a Friday deadline to take the final exam for my current course, and I’ll totally need to cram for the next 2 days if I want to pass. ]]> bpadraic http://www.techimo.com/forum/blogs/bpadraic/465-studying-my-pmp-certification-exam.html Move on? http://www.techimo.com/forum/blogs/bpadraic/464-move.html Tue, 26 May 2009 19:21:56 GMT I've been wondering whether it's a good idea to try a career change during a recession? All my previous training has been in marketing, but much of my experience is in project management. Should the national/global economy and the growing unemployment rate have an effect on how I manage my career? On one hand, you could say that you should ignore the big picture and just focus on your own prospects. Like a shark, if you're not moving forward you're dying. There may be very stiff competition in the job market, but you're competing against people who were expendable, right? The one concession it may be smart to make is in regards to salary. Usually, you don't want to make a lateral move in your career. But in a recession, accepting a job with an identical salary may in fact be seen as an upward move. Or maybe the conventional wisdom is right, and that it's safer to "turtle" and use this time for additional training that will be useful when the economy picks up. Thinking that way, it makes me want to continue training for my project management certification.

Here's another thing I've wanted to know. Has anyone ever calculated the relationship between the length of time you're out of work, and how broad your job search is? There's this steady decline in your expectations that can be seen when you're looking for work. At first you're still looking to continue your career. It's funny, the first couple of days you'll do a very precise search. You figure you've built your career on years of training and even though you lost your job, you still deserve an upper level salary.

"IT Project Management, $150,000 Salary, within 1 mile of home."

After a couple of days you're dropping the salary requirement,

"Project Management within 50 miles."

Finally you're looking at anything even close.

"Gas Station Management," "Project Runway," "Product Management" (Why do Project Management and Product Management get lumped together so often?)

The guys I know who've been looking for a long time drop all of those keywords and just search "Jobs USA"; maybe not even that specific. They're not even considering their career or their salary anymore; they're just trying to pay the bills. The lousy job market over the last year has to factor in here somewhere. People are being made to change careers by force. You've got all this training and all these certifications? So what? You've got to drop the associations you've made for yourself over the years. When you're starting to panic, you're no longer "Joe the Project Manager", you're "Joe the Dude Who's Rent is Due." What advice is there for somebody who isn’t sure what to do next with their career? ]]> bpadraic http://www.techimo.com/forum/blogs/bpadraic/464-move.html Vmware converter and test environments http://www.techimo.com/forum/blogs/groundzero3/463-vmware-converter-test-environments.html Wed, 20 May 2009 14:12:27 GMT Anyone who is an application/server engineer knows the pains with upgrading third party software on a physical machine. Issues such as crashing, blue screens, software incompatibilities, data corruption can occur leaving prolonging the downtime of a server (and in some extreme cases a total server install/backup) This is a huge inconvenience to network admins and users, and this is where virtual environments really shine. Running ESXI in our environment there is a tool called vmware converter you can get for free with an account. VMware vCenter Converter, Convert Physical Machines to Virtual Machines (http://www.vmware.com/products/converter/) This allows for two options, moving a physical machine completely over to a vm environment or (if you don’t want to move it) making a testing environment in a VM. It takes a few clicks and depending on the size of the machine, your network speeds and the computer speeds to convert a physical machine a short amount of time. Just be careful if you leave the physical box on and power on the VM! :heh::p;) Anyone who is an application/server engineer knows the pains with upgrading third party software on a physical machine. Issues such as crashing, blue screens, software incompatibilities, data corruption can occur leaving prolonging the downtime of a server (and in some extreme cases a total server install/backup) This is a huge inconvenience to network admins and users, and this is where virtual environments really shine. Running ESXI in our environment there is a tool called vmware converter you can get for free with an account.

VMware vCenter Converter, Convert Physical Machines to Virtual Machines

This allows for two options, moving a physical machine completely over to a vm environment or (if you don’t want to move it) making a testing environment in a VM. It takes a few clicks and depending on the size of the machine, your network speeds and the computer speeds to convert a physical machine a short amount of time. Just be careful if you leave the physical box on and power on the VM! :heh::p;) ]]> GroundZero3 http://www.techimo.com/forum/blogs/groundzero3/463-vmware-converter-test-environments.html Is the PMP worth it? http://www.techimo.com/forum/blogs/bpadraic/462-pmp-worth.html Wed, 20 May 2009 13:04:05 GMT I've worked in marketing and product development for a biotech startup for about three years. I have no formal training in project management and it hasn't been mentioned in my job description, but I've been working in a project management capacity for most of my time here. Shortly after I came on board, we were forced to do a major overhaul of our flagship product. Suddenly I went from writing copy and placing ads to sourcing vendors, developing prototypes and creating entire new product development plans. Talk about on-the-job training. I was a project manager and I didn’t even realize it. I came to this realization as I started reviewing the requirements for the Project Management certification exam. I have some friends with IT certifications, and they recommended this to me. Listening to their experiences, I thought I could go through some sort of training, take the project management exam and have the certification quickly. It's not that easy. In addition to formalized training, you also need experience. Getting this certification has the same kind of catch-22 as getting a job. Fortunately for me, I think I have the difficult part under my belt already. It seems easier to accumulate the 30 hours of training for the exam than it is to get the hours of experience. I have a bachelor’s degree, so the requirements aren’t as stiff, so I’ve got that going for me (which is nice).

My decision is mostly made up, but I'm trying to find out what the consensus is. Is the PMP exam worth it? Should I consider training for other project management certifications, like Project+ or this Project Management with Microsoft Project certification exam I've read about (Microsoft Project seems cool, but is it really useful on the job.) I want to add some formal credentials and training to the sweat equity I've already earned. What does everyone think? I’ve never been much of a blogger, but I’ll be sure to check back for responses and post more stuff. ]]> bpadraic http://www.techimo.com/forum/blogs/bpadraic/462-pmp-worth.html