April 2005 - Posts

• Rogue wave stikes Norwegian Cruise Lines ship

  My wife and I love to cruise in the tropics and Norwegian has always been our favorite line.  One of their newest ships was returning from the Bahamas on the way to New York when it was struck by a 70 foot rogue wave.  Read the full story HERE on CNN.com. Posted Apr 18 2005, 01:55 PM by Anonymous with 5 comment(s) Filed under: News, Views and Rants

• New Article - Managing your Dell Servers with SMS - Part One

  Read the full article HERE.  This is the first of a series of three articles about an implementation of Dell’s software and inventory tool for SMS. Posted Apr 18 2005, 01:01 PM by Anonymous with 5 comment(s) Filed under: Articles - SMS 2003

• Adobe agrees to buy Macromedia for $3.4 Billion

  Digital media mega-company Adobe pays 25% premium over Friday’s closing price of $33.45 pershare.  Macromedia investors will receive $41.86 per share through a stock swap of Adobe shares.  Each share of Macromedia will get the user 0.69 shares of Adobe.  Read the full story HERE on CNNMoney. Posted Apr 18 2005, 12:47 PM by Anonymous with 6 comment(s)

• 'Frozen Light' in your CPU?

  No - it's not an April Fools joke. I had to read the timestamp on the article to be sure, myself.  Researchers at Harvard University have 'frozen' light in an ultra-cold cloud of sodium atoms.  Professor Lene Hau and her team at Harvard are some of the leading researchers in this field.  They have proven experimentally that the ultra-cold atoms can be used to "perform controlled coherent processing" with light at speeds 10 times greater than possible today.  Read the story on PhysOrg.com. Posted Apr 14 2005, 02:32 PM by Anonymous with 4 comment(s) Filed under: News, Views and Rants

• Query - Hardware Details with User, machine, HDD, model & More

  This query was developed to give a quick glance at all of the major items we need to know about a machine.  It is easily modified to give a simpler report with less information if this is overkill for you. select distinct SMS_R_System.Name0 AS 'Netbios Name',SMS_R_System.User_Name0 AS 'User Name', SMS_R_User.Full_User_Name0 AS 'Full User Name', SMS_R_System.Operating_System_Name_and0 AS 'Operating System', SMS_G_System_OPERATING_SYSTEM.CSDVersion0 AS 'Service Pack Level', SMS_G_System_LOGICAL_DISK.Size0 AS 'Disk Size', SMS_G_System_LOGICAL_DISK.FreeSpace0 AS 'Free Disk Space', SMS_G_System_X86_PC_MEMORY.TotalPhysicalMemory0 AS 'Physical Memory', SMS_G_System_PROCESSOR.CurrentClockSpeed0 AS 'Processor Speed', SMS_G_System_COMPUTER_SYSTEM.Manufacturer00 AS 'Computer Manufacturer', SMS_G_System_COMPUTER_SYSTEM.Model0 AS 'Computer Model' from System_DISC AS SMS_R_System  INNER JOIN Operating_System_DATA AS SMS_G_System_OPERATING_SYSTEM ON SMS_G_System_OPERATING_SYSTEM.MachineID = SMS_R_System.ItemKey   INNER JOIN User_DISC AS SMS_R_User ON SMS_R_User.User_Name0 = SMS_R_System.User_Name0  INNER JOIN Logical_Disk_DATA AS SMS_G_System_LOGICAL_DISK ON SMS_G_System_LOGICAL_DISK.MachineID = SMS_R_System.ItemKey  INNER JOIN PC_Memory_DATA AS SMS_G_System_X86_PC_MEMORY ON SMS_G_System_X86_PC_MEMORY.MachineID = SMS_R_System.ItemKey  INNER JOIN Processor_DATA AS SMS_G_System_PROCESSOR ON SMS_G_System_PROCESSOR.MachineID = SMS_R_System.ItemKey   INNER JOIN Computer_System_DATA AS SMS_G_System_COMPUTER_SYSTEM ON SMS_G_System_COMPUTER_SYSTEM.MachineID = SMS_R_System.ItemKey   where SMS_G_System_LOGICAL_DISK.Name0 = 'C:' order by SMS_R_System.Name0 Posted Apr 13 2005, 09:45 AM by Anonymous with 5 comment(s) Filed under: SMS Report Queries

• Query - Computer Name, Model, OS & BIOS

  This query was developed from a WQL query posted in the myITforum forums. It was "translated" from the format and tables used in SMS queries to the SQL code needed for SMS reports. SELECT distinct SYS.Netbios_Name0 as "Computer Name", CSYS.Model0 as "Computer Model", opsys.CAPTION0 as "Operating System", BIO.name0 as "BIOS Maker" FROM v_R_System SYS  JOIN v_GS_PC_BIOS AS BIO ON BIO.ResourceID = SYS.ResourceID   LEFT JOIN  v_GS_COMPUTER_SYSTEM CSYS on SYS.ResourceID = CSYS.ResourceID  LEFT JOIN v_GS_OPERATING_SYSTEM OPSYS on SYS.ResourceID=OPSYS.ResourceID WHERE SYS.Netbios_Name0 is not null ORDER BY SYS.Netbios_Name0 Posted Apr 12 2005, 04:55 PM by Anonymous with 1 comment(s) Filed under: SMS Report Queries

• Convergence of IP Convergence Companies!

  Friday, Micromuse announced its acquisition of Quallaby Corporation.  Both are companies that specialize in providing management software for converged IP networks.  "We are impressed with Quallaby's unique approach to data aggregation and correlation, which enables both realtime and trended performance analysis to be conducted reliably within the world's largest networked infrastructures," said Dr. Craig Farrell, Micromuse's Chief Technology Officer. The importance of this is that companies depending on Quallaby software include British Telcom, Telia Sonera, TELUS, France Telecom and Telecom New Zealand.  The deal should be a boon for Micromuse, though their own customer base is a whos-who of the telecom industry including Cable & Wireless, Deutsche Telekom, EarthLink, ITCDeltaCom, J.P. Morgan Chase, MCI, T-Mobile and Verizon. You can read the full release HERE Posted Apr 11 2005, 02:59 PM by Anonymous with 4 comment(s) Filed under: News, Views and Rants

• Reporting on Software Patch Compliance

  The final product when you are developing a report is only half the picture. This article follows the thought processes I went through as I created the report. This could be instructional for new users of SMS 2003 and even those new to SQL.  You can read the article HERE. Posted Apr 08 2005, 03:25 PM by Anonymous with 5 comment(s) Filed under: Articles - SMS 2003

• Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 Released Last Week

  Microsoft released to manufacturing Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 (SP1) on Wednesday evening. But the Windows Server team also RTM'd its 64-bit Windows desktop and server updates.  Read about it HERE. Posted Apr 05 2005, 03:10 PM by Anonymous with 3 comment(s) Filed under: News, Views and Rants

• Software Deployment in SMS 2003

  There are several ways to deploy software in SMS, but most of us are stuck in the rut of how we do it.  I’m going to cover a few of the ways you can distribute software – maybe one of them is a different method than you currently use.  You can read the article HERE. Posted Apr 05 2005, 02:46 PM by Anonymous with no comments Filed under: Articles - SMS 2003

• Creating Static Reports

  SMS reporting is a "live" query of the database. Values that you want updated only at a certain frequency must be done a different way. Static reports are a simple, low-tech way to do that.  This article steps you through creating your own static report.  Read it HERE. Posted Apr 01 2005, 02:56 PM by Anonymous with no comments Filed under: Articles - SMS 2003

• Setting up Software Metering in SMS 2003

  The follow-up to my article on software metering steps you through how to get software metering working.  It's a short one & you can read it HERE. Posted Apr 01 2005, 11:44 AM by Anonymous with no comments Filed under: Articles - SMS 2003

• Software Metering in SMS 2003

  I just posted an article on software metering in SMS 2003.  It covers the old way of doing it and the new & better way Microsoft now handles the task.  Read about it HERE. Posted Apr 01 2005, 11:35 AM by Anonymous with no comments Filed under: Articles - SMS 2003

• Welcome to the Weeds

  Well - here it is - my blog.  It's funny, but I never thought I'd do one.  It would be just one more thing for me to try to juggle in an already insane world.  Oh well (you hear that a lot from me if you ever spend any time around me). As I'm really new at this whole thing, this site will probably wonder around a bit and may change drastically.  That's life in the Tech lane. Posted Apr 01 2005, 10:58 AM by Anonymous with no comments Filed under: News, Views and Rants