Dan Thomson at myITforum.com

What did your wife bring home from the store today?

My wife returns from a day of shopping and enters the house saying “Look what I got”. My wife can come home with some interesting stuff and this announcement usually makes me cringe. I turn around to see my wife on one end of a dog leash and on the other is a 70 ish pound Labradoodle. This is a mix between, yup, you guessed right, a Labrador and a Poodle. It pretty much looks like a thinner Lab with longer legs. The best part of this breed is that it has hair like a Poodle -vs- the fur of a Lab. Yeah, no shedding fur to constantly vacuum up.

He is approximately a year old and is named Max. He must have a pretty good temperament because he's been around for half the day now and I have yet to hear hardy a murmur out of him. I guess he's going to be a keeper. However, my wife must have temporarily lost her mind because we are about to move into a very tiny apartment for 9 months while we wait for our new house to be built. Needless to say, we'll be in some pretty cramped quarters for a while...

Posted Thursday, April 28, 2005 12:19 AM by dthomson | with no comments

Are you using the "Do It Yourself Script Center"

If so, here is some modified code to make the exported scripts a bit more user friendly.

I modified the code_maker.vbs file so that it produces a header at the top of the file for each item exported.

Here's the modified code_maker.vbs

Const adOpenStatic = 3
Const adLockOptimistic = 3

Set objConnection = CreateObject("ADODB.Connection")
Set objRecordSet = CreateObject("ADODB.Recordset")
Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")

objConnection.Open _
    "Provider= Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0; " & _
        "Data Source=script_center_2.mdb"

objRecordSet.Open "SELECT * FROM Scripts WHERE ScriptLanguage = 'VBScript' ORDER BY Category1, Category2, Category3, Title", objConnection, adOpenStatic, adLockOptimistic

objRecordSet.MoveFirst

Do Until objRecordSet.EOF

    strPath = objRecordset.Fields.Item("LocalPath")
    strFileName = objRecordset.Fields.Item("Title")
    strFileName = "C:\Code" & strPath & strFileName & ".vbs"

    Set NewFile = fso.CreateTextFile(strFileName)
    NewFile.WriteLine CHR(39) & "This script is part of the TechNet Script Center's " & _
                      CHR(34) & "Do It Yourself" & CHR(34) & " script repository"
    NewFile.WriteLine CHR(39) & "and was exported on " & Now()
    NewFile.WriteLine ""

    NewFile.WriteLine CHR(39) & "Title:       " & objRecordset.Fields.Item("Title")
    NewFile.WriteLine CHR(39) & "Description: " & objRecordset.Fields.Item("Description")
    NewFile.WriteLine ""
    strCategory1 = objRecordset.Fields.Item("Category1")
    strCategory2 = objRecordset.Fields.Item("Category2")
    strCategory3 = objRecordset.Fields.Item("Category3")
    If Not IsNull(strCategory1) Then NewFile.Write CHR(39) & "Categories:  " & strCategory1
    If Not IsNull(strCategory2) Then NewFile.Write " \ " & strCategory2
    If Not IsNull(strCategory3) Then NewFile.Write " \ " & strCategory3

    NewFile.WriteLine ""
    NewFile.WriteLine ""
    NewFile.WriteLine CHR(39) & "Supported platforms"
    NewFile.WriteLine CHR(39) & vbTab & "Win 2003: " & objRecordset.Fields.Item("Win2003")
    NewFile.WriteLine CHR(39) & vbTab & "Win XP:   " & objRecordset.Fields.Item("WinXP")
    NewFile.WriteLine CHR(39) & vbTab & "Win 2000: " & objRecordset.Fields.Item("Win2000")
    NewFile.WriteLine CHR(39) & vbTab & "Win NT:   " & objRecordset.Fields.Item("WinNT")
    NewFile.WriteLine CHR(39) & vbTab & "Win 98:   " & objRecordset.Fields.Item("Win98")

    NewFile.WriteLine ""
    NewFile.WriteLine CHR(39) & "Script Code"
    NewFile.WriteLine CHR(39) & "************************************************************"
    NewFile.WriteLine ""
    strText = objRecordset.Fields.Item("ScriptCode") 
    NewFile.WriteLine strText
    NewFile.Close

    objRecordset.MoveNext
Loop

objRecordset.Close

Here's a sample exported script

'This script is part of the TechNet Script Center's "Do It Yourself" script repository
'and was exported on 4/13/2005 1:07:44 PM

'Title:       Copy an Active Directory Computer Account
'Description: Retrieves the attributes of an existing computer object and copies the attributes to a new computer object created by the script.

'Categories:  Active Directory \ Computer Accounts

'Supported platforms
' Win 2003: Yes
' Win XP:   Yes
' Win 2000: Yes
' Win NT:   Yes
' Win 98:   Yes

'Script Code
'************************************************************

Set objCompt = _
    GetObject("LDAP://cn=Computers,dc=NA,dc=fabrikam,dc=com")
Set objComptCopy = objCompt.Create("computer", "cn=SEA-SQL-01")
objComptCopy.Put "sAMAccountName", "sea-sql-01"
objComptCopy.SetInfo
 
Set objComptTemplate = GetObject _
    ("LDAP://cn=SEA-PM-01,cn=Computers,dc=NA,dc=fabrikam,dc=com")
arrAttributes = Array("description", "location")
 
For Each strAttrib in arrAttributes
    strValue = objComptTemplate.Get(strAttrib)
    objComptCopy.Put strAttrib, strValue
Next
 
objComptCopy.SetInfo

Don't forget to create a directory named C:\Code and then run the code_folder_maker.vbs script before running this script.

The Do It Yourself Script Center can be downloaded from TechNet's Script Center.

Posted Wednesday, April 13, 2005 2:23 PM by dthomson | 3 comment(s)

Call me crazy

After doing our taxes this year, my wife suggested I go ahead and replace my aging MagnaScan 20 CRT. I've been eyeing up a few LCD panels for a while now and didn't hessitate. I really like some of the dual screen setups, but didn't think I could justify the expense. Call me crazy if you want, but I've settled on a Dell branded wide screen LCD model #2405FPW. I can't wait for this thing to arrive.

I'll post a follow up with my thoughts on the LCD's design, features and function in a few weeks.

Posted Thursday, April 07, 2005 2:51 PM by dthomson | with no comments