Raining at Bristol
I’m currently under the grandstands at Bristol Motor Speedway. It’s been raining, so the last practice session was cut short. We sat underneath as a thunderstorm went by a few hours ago. The rain has stopped, and the jet dryers are currently on the track. If the rain holds off, they should be able to get the Nationwide Series race in a bit later.
Because of the high banked track…and the fact that it’s only a half mile long, they should be able to accomplish the drying process in a couple of hours as long as the rain doesn’t come back.
I’m going to post again with some pictures when we get back to the motor home tonight.
That Logic Doesn’t Work
On my flight to Bristol yesterday, I’m checking in at the airport. My bag is slightly overweight…52.5 pounds. I looked at the guy and asked if I could have a little grace or if I needed to take something out. He told me, “with the price of fuel, our managers are really cracking down, so you need to take some things out.”
I didn’t mind so I took 2.5 pounds out, and put them in my laptop bag. About that time it struck me…if fuel cost is the reasoning, what difference does it make if that 2.5 pounds is in my checked bag or my carryon?
I know that guy is just doing his job, and I didn’t say anything. But the logic that his manager is using is simply a bit faulty.
Let’s Go Racing!
Last November or so I got a phone call from a good friend (who also happens to be one of the financial supporters of my ministry with Campus Crusade) asking the question, “Dude…you want to go to Bristol?” For those who don’t know the significance of that question, this friend and I had been competing in a Fantasy NASCAR league. One of the tracks that NASCAR goes to is in Bristol, TN. Bristol is a “short track”…only a half mile around with 36 degree banking in the corners. You still have 43 cars driving 120MPH…each of which are pushing approximately 750 horsepower…but they are only doing a half mile loop. Lots of car contact, very close to all of the action, very loud. One description of Bristol that I read last year was that it’s like flying jets around your living room. All of that from what I have heard makes for one of the most exciting races to watch.
Anyway, my friend went on to tell me that he was paying for everything…ticket, flight, etc. I could essentially leave my wallet at home. Hmmm. Let me think about this…okay…sign me up!
So, I fly out tonight headed to Bristol, TN. I’ll be doing some work on the plane, and since my friend is a SMS/SCCM guy, I expect that the trip will also be productive from a work perspective as well. It’s gonna be fun. I’m going to try to take pictures and post a couple of times from Bristol.
Network Solutions is Evil
This weekend I was all set to register a permanent domain name for my blog. It would still be hosted here at wordpress.com, but would have my personalized domain name instead of verbalprocess.wordpress.com. I knew there were lots of domain registrars out there, but went blank on all of them except for the one that is doing a fair amount of TV advertising…godaddy.com…which I refuse to use because of their insistence on using sex to sell their services.
So I did a quick Google search for “domain registration” to remind myself of other registrars. One of the first ones in the list was Network Solutions. Okay…(my mind said) that’s one I can trust…they were after all the first registrar back in 1993. So I did a search off of their home page to see if the domain name I had chosen was available. [Warning…don’t do this at Network Solutions’ website. Keep reading to find out why.] Sure enough, their site came back telling me that the domain name was available. So the next step…
I headed back to my wordpress.com dashboard and started going through their process of having them register the domain name and link it to my blog. I kept getting an odd message…it wouldn’t register the domain…it acted like the domain was already owned by someone.
So I sent a message to WordPress.com support (which I found out is only available from 8am-4pm Pacific Time). The message came back from them that “It looks like another registrar is holding onto this domain.” They pointed me to a whois page that showed the following, “This domain is registered through Network Solutions.” WHAT?
I checked another registrar…sure enough it came back that my chosen domain was taken. But if I go back to Network Solutions, the domain is available…ONLY through them. That flipped the switch in my mind. I thought I remembered some news articles about some registrar domain tasting. Sure enough…it was Network Solutions…see articles here, here, here, and here . They started this practice in December 2007. There has even been a class action lawsuit brought against Network Solutions and ICANN because of this.
Did Network Solutions actually buy the domain? No. They are using the five day grace period to keep it with themselves for four days. This also opens up this domain to being sniped up by folks doing domain kiting…which would effectively keep me from ever getting it. Because of this practice, there is no way that I will ever knowingly give Network Solutions any of my business.
Is it the end of the world that I can’t get my domain name right now? No. Is it an unethical practice for Network Solutions to engage in? Absolutely yes. Would it be good for everyone who reads this to register a complaint with the Better Business Bureau (of which Network Solutions is a member)? I’ll leave that to your discretion…but I will provide a link to do so.
In the end…Friends don’t let friends use Network Solutions.
[Update: After waiting five days, I was able to register the domain that I wanted.]
Full Moon at the Swim Meet
We have some friends whose teenage sons are swimmers. They have only started swimming in the last year, but they are apparently really really good. The oldest placed third in his first swim meet…before he learned how to do a flip turn. He literally had to swim to the wall, stop, turn around and start swimming again. And he placed third.
Anyway, he was in a fairly big swim meet today. He doesn’t normally do the whole body shave thing, but this was a big enough meet that he did. One of the events that he was entered in was the 100 Meter Butterfly. Before the event, he didn’t make sure that his speedo was adequately tied/fastened/whatever…having never worn a speedo, I don’t know what he didn’t do right. But I know you can see where this is headed…
He dove in. The water ripped the speedo off. And he proceeded to finish the event naked…and mooned the spectators with every stroke.
His mom told us that there was professional level cheering going on. She also later told her son that it could have been worse…he could have been swimming the backstroke. He said he would have stopped if that had been the case! He also made sure everything was properly fastened before every other event.
Installing Vista Games via CMD Line
By default when you install Vista Business, it does not install the built in games (Chess Titans, Freecell, Hearts, Inkball, Mahjong Titans, Minesweeper, Purble Place, Solitaire, and Spider Solitaire). Many businesses like it that way and want to keep it that way. I don’t. If someone has a laptop and they want to play Chess or Solitaire at home…I don’t care…knock yourself out. What I don’t want is someone coming to me complaining that the games aren’t there. I want the games to be part of our default install. (Other admins can argue that point if they wish…that’s the decision I made for my environment.)
So…with my default install being completely driven by SCCM Task Sequences…I need to find a way to put that in a task sequence. In a Task Sequence, I need to be able to do this with a “Run Command Line” task. So…what is that command line?
First..it’s not easy to locate. I hunted way to long for this bit of info. I found other cryptic webpages about similar items, but nothing specifically addressing this one…imagine that…not many people want to install Vista’s games via the command line…who woulda thunk it? I finally figured it out through a bit of trial and error. That magic command line is:
pkgmgr.exe /iu:InboxGames /quiet
Note: “InboxGames” is case sensitive.
[Note: I have also found another command line for this: “ocsetup.exe InboxGames /quiet”. ]
What I would really like at this point is to have a command line way of uninstalling “Purble Place”. While I don’t mind if our staff play chess, solitaire, etc…I really don’t want them letting their kids play Purble Place on their work laptop. Anyone know how to do this?
Also…the way to point and click to do this is by opening up “Programs and Features” from the Control Panel, then clicking on “Turn Windows features on or off”, then checking the Games checkbox.
SCCM Reference Sites
I’ve spent a ton of time learning SCCM from various resources. I just discovered another one today, and figured there are probably others out there who are also looking for information related to SCCM. Here are the sites that I have found to be the most useful.
myITforum.com
This is a great place to get help from the user community. Response times are typically pretty good, and there are some folks on there that are really brilliant. I try to help when someone asks a question that I know about, but I am by no means one of the experts on the forum. My username on the forum is jdavis375.
Technet Forums
The best thing about this forum is that members of the SCCM product team are answering the questions (at least they are right now). I have gotten very timely definitive answers on the posts that I have left here.
OSD Technet Blog
Just found this one today. Pretty good resource for certain aspects of Operating System Deployment in SCCM.
SCCM Documentation Library
Need to read the manual? Here it is. Personally I have been frustrated with this. The documentation isn’t live updated…updates come in chunks. Also…I’ve had trouble finding the information that I am looking for in the documentation. Most of the time, the info is there…I just can’t locate it. Even searching is of limited use. Maybe I’m missing something, but I haven’t been able to find a way to limit the search to just the SCCM section…it returns results from all of Technet. Still a good resource…I just have issues with it.
Tim’s Blog
Okay..it’s just one post, but it’s a really good post. Tim has lots of knowledge…just not lots of time to put that knowledge on his blog. However, if you have dealt with SPN issues related to using a remote database in an SCCM install, you need to look at this post.
Rod Trent’s Blog
A few of Rod’s articles have helped me. In particular, the one on subselect queries…I no longer fear them.
Sherry Kissinger’s Blog
Sherry is one of the “really brilliant” people that I referred to above. She has responded to a couple of my questions…always with good information. She is a Microsoft MVP for SMS.
If anyone reading this knows of other good resources, leave a comment to let the rest of us know about them.
Airport ODBC Connection
I realize the picture below is pretty bad…it was taken with my phone in less than optimal lighting. At first glance it doesn’t appear to be anything exceptionally unusual. It’s just a computer where someone is setting up an ODBC connection to a database.
What made this one comical to me is that the monitor that this ODBC setup was taking place on was a giant flat panel monitor hanging above the baggage claim carousel in the Wichita airport.
Dude…next time you might want to turn off that screen before you go advertising your database server’s name and other info to everyone waiting on their luggage!
And yes…I blacked out the server name…just in case. I really don’t want a visit from Homeland Security! Although honestly, the picture was such low resolution that you couldn’t make it out anyway.
Sprint Mobile’s NASCAR Coverage
I’m a NASCAR fan. I’m also a Sprint cell phone subscriber. I also have a data plan on my Sprint plan that allows me internet access on my smartphone. Because Sprint is the title sponsor for NASCAR’s top racing league…it used to be Winston Cup, then it was Nextel Cup, now it is the Sprint Cup….because of that, I naturally expected that the features built into my smartphone would give me excellent NASCAR coverage.
Not exactly…the coverage leaves a LOT to be desired. I am specifically looking at a news aggregator program on my phone called “On Demand”. I hit update, and it goes out and updates news, weather, sports, etc with current information. Then I drill down through sports, down through auto racing, then into the “NASCAR Insider” section.
Keep in mind, the third race of the 2008 season completed on Sunday. We’ve been through Daytona, Fontana, and Las Vegas and are headed into the fourth race in Atlanta this weekend. So what are the headlines in the NASCAR Insider? The same stories that were up just before and just after the Daytona 500… Nothing at all has been updated for either of the last two races.
No it’s not the end of the world. I just expected a bit more considering that Sprint is so heavily invested in NASCAR.
Butterflies
My youngest daughter loves butterflies. Last summer she could walk up to flowers and the butterflies would just sit there and wait for her to catch them and put them in her “bug box”. When she got ready to let them go, they would wait until she reached in to pull them out. It was really amazing to watch.
So her birthday was a month or so ago. My mom gave her a present that our whole family has been enjoying. It’s a Butterfly Bungalow from insectlore.com. It’s a net tent that is big enough for a child to climb into, and it comes with a coupon to send off to get live caterpillars shipped to you. The caterpillars they send are for Painted Lady butterflies. You get to watch them go through the entire life cycle.
Our daughters have been watching with great excitement as they have gone through each stage, and yesterday the first one came out of its chrysalis. Today we have four…with six more left to “hatch”. Tonight, I crawled into the bungalow with my five year old to play with the butterflies. I did mention that the tent was big enough for a child to climb into…right? Big fat daddy was a bit cramped! It was fun though…and my wife took plenty of pictures of us playing with them. As she was taking pictures of me and our daughters with butterflies on our noses, Julie commented that it reminded her a bit of the advertisements for the movie Silence of the Lambs. That’s just a bit creepy.
Love Me If You Can
For a while I’ve been hearing the Toby Keith song “Love Me If You Can” on the radio. It has struck me often that the chorus very much describes me. It goes:
I’m a man of my convictions. Call me wrong, call me right. … You may not like where I’m going, but you sure know where I stand. Hate me if you want to, love me if you can.
In the important things in life, I am very “black and white”. I have my convictions, and I can tell you why I believe what I believe. You may not agree with me. For that matter, I’m positive that some people despise me because of some of my beliefs. Regardless of how you feel about my beliefs…if you know me…you will know where I stand on core issues in life.
Why is Snake Phobia Hardwired?
Today I saw an AP article written about a researcher at UVA who was looking at why humans typically have a fear of snakes. The question she asked herself was, “Where did that fear come from?” They did an experiment with 24 adults and 24 preschoolers that gives a logical conclusion that people do have an innate snake phobia. Her conclusion was “We have an evolutionary bias against snakes…”
I’d like to offer another possibility. I know that many of the people reading this won’t necessarily agree with my world view…that’s okay…just hear me out. (Side note: perhaps I need to put up a post about my world view…that could be a good discussion starter.)
Part of my world view involves taking a look at the part of the Bible called Genesis. Specifically at chapter 3 of Genesis. If you aren’t aware, Genesis chapters 1 and 2 talk about how God created everything. Chapter 3 then talks about how sin (think of it as wrongdoing) first entered creation…and the effect that sin had on creation. Part of that narrative is that Satan takes the form of a snake to deceive the first two humans. Jumping ahead to the middle of chapter 3, we read where God says to the snake, “You and this woman will hate each other; your descendants and hers will always be enemies…”
So…it’s no surprise to me that humans typically have a snake phobia. God said we would.
Yeah, the researcher can postulate that it is based on “an evolutionary bias”. The writer of the AP article states that the researcher “believes it is because snakes would have posed a significant threat to our ancestors…”
Personally, I’m gonna believe that what Genesis has to say about it has more validity.
Dyslexic T-shirt
I have a nephew who is dyslexic. His mom is really wanting to find a t-shirt for him that reads:
Dyslexics of the world untie!
Online Backup – Follow Up
A friend emailed me this morning asking for a recommendation about online backup options. I knew that I had posted before on this topic, so I was just going to forward the links to him. But in reading the two posts (here and here), I realized that I never posted the follow up that I said I would. Well…better late than never.
For people who don’t feel confident in doing technical things, I would still recommend Mozy.com. Also, if you have more than 33GB of data, Mozy is your most cost effective backup solution.
For those who can handle a small amount of technical setup, you can use the service that I use. My data is using Amazon’s Simple Storage Service (S3). The data is on saved on the same servers that run Amazon.com, and as a result have the same geographically dispersed backup system. They did have a recent outage, but nothing was lost. And honestly…for backup purposes, I was never concerned. The liklihood that I am going to need to pull something out of my online backup during an outage is extremely slim.
All that said…I have about 12.5 gig of data in my online backup (digital pictures and music make up the majority of the space). I think my charge from Amazon last month was $1.99.
The program that I use to upload/synchronize/download/encrypt my data is JungleDisk. It costs $20 for a lifetime license…and you can install it on all of your computers. So…I paid $20…I have it on my work laptop and my home desktop. Both of them are backing up. The nice thing is that if my wife needs one of the files (digital picture maybe) from my backup, she can go to the S3 backup through JungleDisk and pull it out. If I need a file from her backup, I can do the same thing. That has been very handy. It has an automated backup function, and is just all around very easy to use.
One really nice thing is that it is so cheap to simply try out. JungleDisk has a 30 day trial. And you only pay for the amount of space you use on S3. So even if you tested it with a gigabyte of data, you would only spend 25 cents for the first month.
One thing to be aware of…choose a good encryption key. Don’t use a simple encryption phrase…your data security is only as good as the encryption key. And…once you choose a key…don’t lose it. If your computer dies, and you don’t remember the encryption key…no one can help you…you just lost your data. Also…having dealt with a similar issue when my cousin died recently (link, link and link), it’s not a bad idea to let someone that you trust know where they can find the password/encryption key/etc in case you die. Your spouse/family might need it to be able to get to your data.
Build and Capture Task Sequence Failure
I have fought with this before and didn’t figure it out. Been fighting with it again and finally made an educated guess that has since been backed up by finding a thread to support my findings.
I created a Task Sequence in SCCM to “Build and capture a reference operating system image”. I am using the Vista SP1 DVD that I imported into Operating System Install Packages. It gets part of the way through the install, and then fails. By opening a command prompt on the machine running the Task Sequence (F8), I was able to look at the log files. In looking at the x:windowstempsmstslogsmsts.log log file, I saw an entry that stated “Windows Setup Failed, code 31”. That was followed by “Exiting with code 80004005“. Not a lot of help. Then I found the x:\windows\temp\smstslog\windowssetuplogs\setuperr.log log file. That contained the following lines:
Callback_Productkey_Validate: EditionID for product key was NULL.
Callback_Productkey_Validate: An error occurred writing the product key data to the blackboard.
Callback_Productkey_Validate_Unattend:Invalid product key; halting Setup.[gle=0x00000490]
Callback_Productkey_Validate_Unattend: An error occurred preventing setup from being able to validate the product key; hr = 0x80300006[gle=0x00000490]
Now…I know that my volume license product key is good. I’ve been using it for a long time. Just for grins I popped the Vista DVD in a spare computer and confirmed it. Why is it telling me the license key is invalid?
So here comes the educated guess. I modified the Task Sequence to not use a Product Key…just left that field blank. Hmmm…the install works perfectly fine. That led me to search on something different and find this thread. Basic gist is that if you are using a Task Sequence to install an OS using an Operating System Install Package, you should NOT specify a product key. Perhaps that is documented somewhere, but I haven’t seen it. It is however doggone frustrating to have wasted as much time as I have on this problem.
Error 80004005
If you have worked with Windows systems for long, at some point you have seen the infamous 80004005 error code. It seems to pop up everywhere. Problem is that it is a bit infuriating to try to figure out what it means.
Last year I was at the Microsoft Management Summit, and Johan Arwidmark was giving a presentation on Operating System Deployment. During the presentation, he mentions that error code. He then asked the audience if we would like to know what it meant. Since all of us had seen it and been frustrated by it, all of our ears perked up. What does that crazy code mean?
Johan then let us know. In his characteristic deadpan delivery he informed us that it means:
“That thing you were trying to do…it didn’t work.”
Subselect Query in SCCM
Update (1/30/2010): We recently discussed subselect queries at the Minnesota System Center User Group. That discussion prompted me to write an updated post on subselect queries.
Please refer to the following post for better information on how to create subselect queries that are faster and more efficient.
https://verbalprocessor.com/2010/01/30/better-subselect-queries/
Original Post:
One of the things that I have fought with in SMS/SCCM is a “NOT” query. Example is needing a query that shows me all computers that do not have Office 2007 installed. If you create your query to look in Add/Remove Programs and find a “Display Name” that is not “Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2007”, you will not get what you might expect. The reason is that it finds a computer that has something like Adobe Acrobat installed. Well…that is a display name in Add/Remove Programs that isn’t Office 2007…so that computer gets returned by the query.
To get the expected results you have to run one query that selects all computers that DO have Office 2007 (or whatever other program you are interested in…for that matter it doesn’t have to be a program…could be anything you want to query on), then you run another query that gives you all of the computers that are NOT in the first query. This is called a subselect query. This query ends up looking like the following:
select SMS_G_System_SYSTEM.Name from SMS_R_System inner join SMS_G_System_SYSTEM on SMS_G_System_SYSTEM.ResourceID = SMS_R_System.ResourceId where SMS_G_System_SYSTEM.Name not in (select SMS_G_System_SYSTEM.Name from SMS_R_System inner join SMS_G_System_ADD_REMOVE_PROGRAMS on SMS_G_System_ADD_REMOVE_PROGRAMS.ResourceID = SMS_R_System.ResourceId inner join SMS_G_System_SYSTEM on SMS_G_System_SYSTEM.ResourceId = SMS_R_System.ResourceId where SMS_G_System_ADD_REMOVE_PROGRAMS.DisplayName = “Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2007”)
I am not a database guy. I am not a really proficient query writer. Subselect queries confuse the heck out of me. I have fought trying to write subselect queries for a couple of years now. I have really struggled with them.
Today while setting up something in SCCM, I needed a subselect query. I need to find computers that are a member of a particular AD OU, and if they don’t already have certain programs, I want the programs to automatically install. That requires a subselect query. They confuse me. I went to myITforum.com to find an example that I could then modify.
In my searching, I came across this thread. In that thread, someone linked to an article written by Rod Trent about how to create subselect queries. WOW is that a good article! What makes me feel really stupid though is that there has been a way since SMS 2003 to create a subselect query by pointing and clicking…I had no idea and wish I had known before today. It made me really happy to find it and see it work. I actually got out of my chair and started dancing in the office. The people around me looked at me funny, but honestly I was happy enough that I didn’t care!
And for those of you who know me…go ahead and try to get that image of me doing the happy dance out of your head! Good Luck! :-)
Beach Ball Freeze Tag
Recently we were visiting Julie’s grandparents. My daughters and I were playing on their really large back porch. It started with me just throwing a beach ball at them. It ended up being a game of freeze tag. I was always “it”, and the way to freeze them was by hitting them with the beach ball. Because of the nature of the beach ball…it doesn’t matter how hard it is thrown, it’s not going to hurt anyone. They loved it…and it was a very easy way for me to keep them entertained for a long time.
Today, we had two neighbor kids over at the house. I took the four of them out to the back yard and started up a game of Beach Ball Freeze Tag. Again, I was “it”. I had two beach balls this time. It’s a lot more challenging in a larger environment. The beach ball will only travel just so far before losing all of its velocity and being easy to dodge. I also instituted a new rule…if I threw and missed, then any of them could pick up the thrown ball and be a second “it”. To keep them from fighting over the ball, whoever touches the ball first is “it”, and if someone touches it second, then they are immediately frozen. Also…the two people who are “it” can attempt to freeze each other.
The challenge for the person who is “it” is to freeze all of the kids at the same time. The challenge for the kids is to learn to not clump together. It’s a lot more challenging and fun when they stay separated…makes the person who is “it” have to work harder.
Sinus Garbage: Take 2
Headed back to the doctor on Saturday. Since starting the azithromycin, my throat got significantly worse, and both ears were killing me. Saw a different doctor yesterday. Definitely sinusitis, and add an ear infection in on top of it.
She took me off of the medication I was on, and put me on Avelox and Rhinocort. I really hope those two get the job done…I discovered as I was checking out at the pharmacy that neither of them are on the “preferred drugs” list for our health insurance. $50 co-pay EACH. I went in expecting to pay $10…I was a bit surprised to see the extra zero.
She also recommended Benadryl for some of the symptoms, so I picked some up. Boy did I ever figure out that I hate that stuff. It made me loopy. I was barely functional…I didn’t exactly lose the ability to sit upright, but it wasn’t far from it. After that one dose wore off, I went back to the Mucinex-D that I had been using before. It handled the symptoms and leaves me able to walk around and carry on a conversation.
It has really struck me how much this sickness has taken out of me. I am just all over weak. In the middle of the night I woke up hungry (because I haven’t felt like eating much in four days), so I grabbed a banana. I got out of breath standing in the kitchen eating a banana. Everything I do just wears me down. I simply have no energy at all.
Note to self…
Next time you start feeling the sinus garbage coming on…go to the doctor the first day. Don’t be stupid and wait to see if your body will beat it on its own…it won’t. You’ve proven it to yourself too many times. Spend the copay, get your $5 antibiotic, and get on with life instead of allowing this thing to hammer you for a week. Next time…remember what your head felt like yesterday and what your throat feels like today. That outta motivate you.
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The Realm of the Verbal Processor 