Joseph Hinkle at MyITForum.com

Some of these are really funny.  The C# debate appeals to the geek in me.

C#

In the name of the programming language C#, is that # thing (octothorpe) after the C a number sign or the musical sharp symbol? What should the wrongname template say? Some argue that a Microsoft FAQ supports the sharp symbol, while others argue that the ECMA standard promotes the # symbol and that it has better browser support. Some propose using # as a superscript (C^#), which few editors like. Editors repeatedly reverted between each other, some refusing to discuss the issue on the talk page. The issue was resolved with an e-mail exchange with Microsoft stating that in their view it's an octothorpe symbol representing the sharp symbol, similar to how "<=" represents the less than or equal symbol, and that thus Microsoft does not disagree with ECMA. Written "Netscape" but pronounced "Mozilla", eh?

Wikipedia:Lamest edit wars - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I can remember when I took that class, albeit not at Stanford.  It was the fall of 1996 and I had never written a program in C before.  I did have some really bad habits from teaching myself BASIC and Pascal though. 

Now, you can get all of that knowledge for free on the Internet.  I can't image how much farther along I would be if I had had the opportunities then that I have now.  The world is an amazing placew.

This course is the largest of the introductory programming courses and is one of the largest courses at Stanford. Topics focus on the introduction to the engineering of computer applications emphasizing modern software engineering principles: object-oriented design, decomposition, encapsulation, abstraction, and testing.

Stanford School of Engineering

Since 1953, Atlantic tropical storms have been named from lists originated by the National Hurricane Center. They are now maintained and updated by an international committee of the World Meteorological Organization. The original name lists featured only women's names. In 1979, men's names were introduced and they alternate with the women's names. Six lists are used in rotation. Thus, the 2008 list will be used again in 2014. Here is more information about the history of naming hurricanes.

Worldwide Tropical Cyclone Names

I still have an "accordion-style" laptop bag that I'm very happy with.  I'm tempted to get a new laptop friendly one if I keep flying so much.  Theoretically, this week is the end of my travels for a while though (YEAH!).

The guidelines below took affect on August 15th.  You can leave a laptop in a bag  in the OK section when you send it through the x-ray machine.

TSA: New 'Checkpoint Friendly' Laptop Bag Procedures

Interesting solution.

Adeona is the first Open Source system for tracking the location of your lost or stolen laptop that does not rely on a proprietary, central service. This means that you can install Adeona on your laptop and go — there's no need to rely on a single third party. What's more, Adeona addresses a critical privacy goal different from existing commercial offerings. It is privacy-preserving. This means that no one besides the owner (or an agent of the owner's choosing) can use Adeona to track a laptop. Unlike other systems, users of Adeona can rest assured that no one can abuse the system in order to track where they use their laptop.

Adeona: A Free, Open Source System for Helping Track and Recover Lost and Stolen Laptops

The Microsoft RDP Client for Mac update went official today. Download here.

This hit a few weeks ago, but I just got back to it. Funny stuff.

World of World of Warcraft

I've been thinking about getting an Amazon Kindle. It's driven mostly on the portability The book prices are a fairly compelling argument as well, since business books tend to be fairly expensive for the amount of content. My biggest problem is that I haven't actually seen one yet. It probably won't stop me from getting one in the end. Have any of you seen one? Owned one?

Garth mentioned that he was running Vista 64 on his laptop. I've been running it on my Latitude D531 for the last month or so with few issues. I had some initial touchpad driver issues, but I found a driver for the 630 that would work on Vista x64. Cisco doesn't have a full VPN client, but the AnyConnect SSL VPN client works well.

On the bright side, it performs well compared to Vista32. I haven't run XP64 to see if it performs better or worse though. I have the RAM maxed out at 4GB, so it's nice to get the full compliment when running VMWare Workstation on it.

Scooby Doo can get behind the wheel again in Florida.

Not in real life, of course. The talking dog doesn't exist. But opponents of a bill to let Georgia's habitual traffic violators take court-ordered driving classes online signed the cartoon canine up for an Internet course in Florida, which has a similar law.

Ruh-roh. Not only did he pass, Doo got a certificate.

The stunt was pulled by Driving Educators of Georgia, a statewide association of driving schools trying to persuade Gov. Sonny Perdue to veto the legislation known as HB 1027. The group argues such a system would make it easier for reckless drivers to get their licenses back. It also would be prone to fraud, the group says.

[From Foes of Web driving class get Scooby Doo certified | ajc.com]

At least he gave me credit this year. At the bottom. Next year, I expect a general pronouncement of my greatness at the top of the document. It's the least you could do.

:)

I've been using Xobni for a couple of days and I'm really impressed. I'm a statistics junkie about stuff that I do, so email statistics are just fantastic. The search engine is nice, but the forwarding and reply controls from the Xobni bar make that much more valuable. It does duplicate some of the functionality that was introduced in Outlook 2007, so it you already are using 2007, it isn't as mind-blowing as it would be on 2003.

That said, statistics rule, therefore Xobni rules. People are ranked by the number of emails sent to and received from them, thought it seems that sent counts more than received. The Xobni Analytics feature is fantastic. It gives views on email by time of day and some other neat layers that I can't remember right now. Good stuff.

Outlook contact information is integrated, but Global Address List contact information, like phone numbers, is not integrated. There may be a way, but I haven't found it yet.

Give it a try if you haven't already.

I stopped subscribing to discussion lists long ago, but I decided to try it again with MyITForum. I was apparently missing something the last seven years.

Brian mentioned Xobni a few weeks ago. I just hopped over to the site and noticed that it isn't invite only anymore. I'll give it a try at work tomorrow.

Run out right now and download Wise Package Studio 7 SP3. You know you want to.

The second sentence is a little scary, isn't it.

Wise has announced the availability of WPS 7 SP3. You can get a copy from the License Management Portal.

It will also be available in a couple of weeks from the Wise download page when the guys who administer this site return from a sales conference.

[From Wise Package Studio 7 SP3 | Altiris Juice]

If you use Last.FM, Soundamus generates and RSS feed of upcoming releases from the artists that you listen to. Interesting stuff.

I just realized that I missed the Service Manager session. Did anyone go and take notes?

I was having this problem on my home computer. Yeah. that's it.

SYMPTOMS
Consider the following scenario:
• You have a multiprocessor computer that is running Windows Vista or Windows XP.
• The computer has exactly 32 processors.
• You resume the computer from hibernation (S4).
In this scenario, the computer stops responding on a black screen.

[From A multiprocessor computer that is running Windows Vista or Windows XP stops responding on a black screen after you resume the computer from hibernation]

My wife found this at Walgreens. Her response: "I caught you a delicious bass".

Sorry the picture isn't bigger.

Interesting trend in music.

In the spirit of Las Vegas, I present Casino News! I'm not terribly surprised. We walked past the Tropicana last week and it looked like it had gone down-hill a lot since my first MMS.

The owner of Tropicana casinos in Atlantic City and Las Vegas filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Monday, nearly five months after New Jersey regulators stripped the Tropicana Casino and Resort of its license.

[From The Associated Press: Tropicana Entertainment to file for Chapter 11 protection]

My Enterprise Agreement was accepted by Microsoft today. I can actually deploy ConfigMgr now!

An excerpt from an email I had to write tonight, explaining why some folks in my group spent way too much time trying to do something that could have been solved for $1500.

Macintosh computers can access Windows file shares in a variety of ways. For many years, Macs communicated to all network shares using AFP, or Apple Filing Protocol. As such, Microsoft developed what is now known as Windows Services for Macintosh. Windows Services for Macintosh adds AFP support to Windows 2000 Server and Windows 2003 Server. This implementation, based on AFP 2.2, has several limitations, including a 31 character file names, 65,536 files per volume, as well as a 2TB volume size. Windows Services for Macintosh also requires an index to be built when a server is restarted and at other times through the life of the volume. Our Mac-specific volumes are shared using Windows Services for Macintosh.


The location was experiencing an issue where the index was not properly being rebuilt, due to the size and number of files in the share. This was preventing the plant from mounting the volume properly on the Macs using AFP. When mounted using SMB, the Windows file sharing protocol, additional detail was lost. This detail is stored as a resource fork that is automatically "joined" with the original file using AFP.

There is a lot more than that, but that generally details the problem. Group Logic has a product named ExtremeZ-IP that fixes many of the limitations of the Microsoft implementation of the older version of AFP. It does it by implementing the latest version (of course). It will also support Windows Server 2008 shortly.

In case you missed it, a Vista roundtable hosted by Mark Russinovich. I'm most of the way through it. It's good, but not terribly surprising.

Still undecided about Windows Vista? Join Mark Russinovich and a panel of experts for a discussion on adopting Windows Vista into a desktop infrastructure. The panel features subject-matter experts and IT pros from around the world who have tackled Windows Vista deployment—hear about the challenges, workarounds, and tips & tricks they have learned along the way.

[From Springboard Live #1]

I found out that the problem is when you do the XP Sp3 slipstream process on a WIndows Vista machine, the API gives a different response and screws up the PID process. This is a bug and Microsoft knew about this in December, still the bug remained and made it all the way to RTM, nice work Microsoft. So XP SP slipstream only on XP or 2003 machines!!!

Neat. I wish I had this a couple of years afo.

HP SoftPaq Download Manager provides a simple, powerful way to download software updates for the HP client PC models in your environment. HP SDM can significantly reduce the amount of time it takes to locate and download updates. SoftPaqs can be downloaded in as few as three easy steps from a single user interface after initial setup.

[From HP SoftPaq Download Manager]

I'm glad to see everyone made it home safe and sound. I have a couple of funny things to post later, but for now, it is time to sleep. The conference was great this year, especially the 'Advanced OS Deployment' and 'Configuration Manager Installation' sessions. As always, it was well worth the trip.

Presented by Jason Leznek and Lilia Gutnik. Props to Lilia for mentioning XKCD. She seems almost as sarcastic as the comic. Not that I know anything about sarcasm.

• What are group policy preferences?
  • Acquired Desktop Standard in Oct 2006
  • GPOVault - Advanced Group Policy Management - MDOP
  • PolicyMaker - managing clients through group policy - a component of GPMC in Windows Server 2008 and also part of Remote Server Administration Tools
  
  
• Where can I manage GPP?
  • Windows Server 2008
  • Vista SP1 with rSAT
  
  
• What can GPP manage?
  • Windows Server 2008
  • Client Side Extensions for Vista RTM+, Server 2003 SP1, XP SP2+
  
  
• What do GPPs do?
  • Preferences are not true policy - set defaults
  • Not limited to policy-aware settings
  • Better admin UI
  • Better targeting
  
  
• Policies vs prefrences
  • Policy - Admin sets and locks user out - highest precedence - specific registry keys
  • Preferences - user may change - apps don't have to be policy aware - can be pulled back if it fall out of scope
  
  
• Precedence - LSDOU - Computer beats users, policies beat preferences, Client-side extension process order
• More settings are available - Control Panel: Folder options, scheduled tasks, services, power options; Windows Settings: drive maps, folders, shortcuts, registry keys, applications
• UI is same as end-user - looks like the appropriate dialog
• Better targeting - Can target individual computers, IP range, time, OS, free space, etc
• Added drag and drop and multiple instance support
• New settings can create, replace, update, or delete - Can be set to apply once and not to reapply
• Can control local admin group on a user by user basis
• Report - all included, including targeting criterion - GPResults shows winning items, but doesn't necessarily reflect final settings

The official title is "Unfogging the future - Making Windows Vista application compatiblity, testing, mitigation, and packaging more predeictable with effective project management"

Presented by Chris Jackson and Jeremy Chapman

http://blogs.msdn.com/cjacks

• What is the end result? You are testing all applications at once. This is an opportunity to fix things. Get better at testing. Take notes so testing can be reproduced.
• Two things are usually changed: Testing procedures and lack of documentation
• Coordinated deployment: communicate so that testing is identical to production. Make sure corporate group policy matches testing.
• Application Compatibility Toolkit 5.0 for application data, can use SMS, but some detail is not discovered
• ACT data collection - deploy agent then have it capture inventory and other data
• ACT is made to run in a production environment, so it is at a high level. It is not a low level diagnostic.
• Inventory checklist: OS Version, Service Pack Level, etc. Want to capture where it is and what is it used for.
• Make deployment role-based so structured roles can be done quickly.
• Must have an agent to collect data.
• ACT can not import SMS data at this point. They're working on it.
• The MSI to install the agent disappears quickly. Don't use it for inventory.
• Objective 1: The list - get a list of applications.
  • Define standards and conflict resolution rules.
  • Find all of the application stakeholders.
  • Prioritize applications.
  • Identify dependencies.
  • Sharepoint Services site can help share the data.
  
  
• Analysis best practices
  • Define objective standards
  • Define categories that are business goal-oriented
  • Keep task of who is assigned to categorization
  • Accept that some things won't change
  • Filter the dupes and other unneeded data
  
  
• http://www.appreadiness.com for third-party software.
• Objective 2: The Real List
  • Testing - Can you do all of the work for me?
  • Build a test environment - can be pilot machines, labs, terminal services
  • Define mitigation strategy
  • Test and remediate - SME defines strategy and does test, store test library, automate
  • Leverage partners for investigation
  • Don't test what you're not going to fix
  • Give the user a "buddy" who will work with them through the process
  • Repackage
  
  
• Remediation
  • Acquire updated versions
  • Manage shims if using them to fix without changing code
  
  
• Objective 3: The Completed List
  • Goal is zero-touch
  • Repackage applications - make sure you are ready for a silent install
  • Integrate core applications into the standard OS image - if it is on all desktops
  • Test application installation - Test and retest
  • Test all roles and combinations of applications
  
  
• Train your users
• Things to remember
  • Microsoft is making big progress is app compatibility.
  • Application compatibility is not trivial. Be prepared.
  • Help can be found in Application Compatibility Toolkit and Microsoft Deployment Toolkit
  
  
• Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit for hardware compatibility
• http://www.technet.com/appcompat

Presented by Johan Arwidmark. This session was very lite-touch deploy focused. The previous content from the Advanced OS Deployment sessions might be of more value to you.

• No technical reason for having separate server and client tools
• Imaging considerations
  • Hardware - 32-bit and 64-bit, Intel and AMD
  • Software - Packaging, Time window allowed for deployment, Maintaining the image
  
  
• Distribution share
  
  • MDT 2008 - documented and well tested, requires some work, but is worth the effort
  • Use Lite Touch Deployment
  • wpeutil initializeNetwork to setup up network connection
  
  
• Drivers - MDT can inject drives based on PNPID, Driver Grouping, Per model, OS, or architecture, or custom
• Reference Image
  • Scripted setup for XP/2003 - Add Storage drivers then capture and image
  • Deploy Vista/2008 - Capture an image
  • Use virtual machines so there are no textmode drivers
  • Security - patch from WSUS server before capture
  
  
• Sysprep - add mass storage; Hotfixes in SP3 (audio: KB888111)
• Add storage drivers to sysprep.inf for STOP 0x7B - Don't use build mass storage, build your own
• Use Johan's HAL document from MyITForum.com
• Vista/2008 device drivers - ranking - "Treat all digitally signed drivers equally in the driver ranking process" group policy can be used to resolver driver installation issues - MSDN has an article that describes the driver ranking process
• Post-installation process
  • Let post-installation task sequence actions control the flow
  • Per hardware applications