“Winter” in Florida
A couple of days ago a “cold” front came through Florida where I live. The lows at night have been around 48-50 degrees. This morning while driving to work I stopped at a grocery store to pick up something. It was really amusing to me to see the really large display of firewood for sale in front of the store. Yep…”winter” has hit Florida. If the temp drops to 40, I expect to see people walking around in parkas.
Securing Hard Drive Data with firepower
When a computer is decommissioned / thrown away / given away / etc. how do you wipe the hard drive to ensure that the data on the HD is unreadable? This is a topic that comes up from time to time. Knowing that there is a good liklihood of Quicken data, Social Security numbers, or a myriad of other personal data that could be mined from an old hard drive, what can be done to secure it?
There are many great programs for this out there. I have personally used DBAN (Darik’s Boot and Nuke). It works well and is free. Honestly, I haven’t looked beyond that one for a software based hard disk wiper. It works and is free. It wasn’t worth my time to look elsewhere.
However…while it works well, it takes a bit of time…and well…it lacks panache. So, a few of us have had a bit more fun with the process of securing the data on our hard drives. So, what could we do to both secure the data and have fun at the same time? How about if we add some firepower to the process? Like maybe a .45 Auto? Below is a video of my wife helping in one of our “Data Security Sessions”. She’s about 4’11” and sub-100 pounds. She is holding a Sig Sauer P220 in .45 Auto. What you see Continue reading
Daylight Saving Time – missed
Despite Daylight Saving Time being on the calendar in our kitchen. Despite the half dozen reminders we got from our church. Despite the fact that I had a conversation with a friend about DST earlier in the week. Despite all that…we forgot about it. When I put my phone on just before leaving for church this morning, I turned it on to ensure it was on vibrate…and there was the message on the screen about the time being automatically changed for DST. We are ready for church in plenty of time! So…what do I do with an extra hour? Well…you just read part of it.
OS for SCCM Install. 32bit or 64bit?
[NOTE: I have revisited this thought process in a more recent blog post. I no longer recommend what I wrote below.]
Over the last week, I have been emailing a few people and have been hitting various newsgroups, etc looking for info on whether it is best to install SCCM on 32bit Windows Server 2003, or to put it on x64 Windows. Let’s just say that there is room for discussion.
First, SCCM is a 32bit server application. It is not native x64. So you will not be getting a performance bump directly in SCCM by installing it on x64 Windows…matter of fact you will have the overhead of the x64 OS having to operate the 32bit program.
However…SCCM isn’t the only component that will be operating on the box that will impact performance. Depending on what your SCCM architecture looks like Continue reading
Bible Study
I lead a LIFE Group at my church. That’s my church’s equivalent to a Sunday School class. My class is made up of married couples ranging from mid-20s up to mid-50s. It’s a good group of people.
In the last six months or so, I started thinking about what I wanted to teach next. What went through my mind at the time was if I only had one more thing to pass on to the class, what would I teach? It occurred to me that as a result of being in full time vocational ministry, I have had access to a lot of training in how to study the Bible that most people simply don’t have access to. I’ve had a Seminary level class on Bible Study Methods that was really really good.
I’m currently taking my class through a workshop style class studying the little book of Philemon. I’ve added a page for my class (and others if they are interested) to access the files that we are creating as a class through our study of Philemon.
NASCAR and the California fire victims
I’m a NASCAR fan. Not as big a fan as my neighbor with the “8AFTER3” license plate and the Dale Earnhardt memorial tattoo…but a fan nonetheless. I watch the races. I have a couple of preferred drivers.
As I write this, I’m watching the Pep Boys Auto 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. I just heard the announcers say something about Jimmy Johnson. JJ is going to donate all of his winnings from today’s race to the California fire victims. That’s cool…but it’s not all. The racetrack owner (I think that’s who it is) heard about it and committed to matching that donation. Then JJ’s sponsor, Lowe’s, heard about it and committed to matching the donation. Then Hendrick Motorsports (who Jimmy drives for) also committed to matching it.
Currently JJ is running third. If he finishes in the top ten, that could mean a million or more dollars for the fire victims. Very cool.
Update: JJ finished first. Cool for him…great for those affected by the fires in California. His winnings totaled $349,561. The way I understood it, that is being matched by three other companies/people and being sent to the American Red Cross California Wildfire Relief Effort.
Office 2007 Silent Deployment
Wrote an e-mail to a friend who was asking about Office 2007 Deployment yesterday. Figured it would make a good post on how to go about creating a silent/unattended install of Office 2007.
In previous versions of Office…specifically I’m thinking of 2003…a silent custom install involved a long hairy command line such as:
setuppro.exe /Settings Files\Custom\Custom_Setup.ini TRANSFORMS=custom.MST /qb!- /m off11
Yes…that is the actual command line from the SMS 2003 program for Office 2003 that we have used. Now…on to Office 2007. Boy did Microsoft make this easier. Customizations in Office 2007 are handled essentially the same as patches. They are an MSP file that you apply to the installation. And how do you go about creating the MSP? Simple…go to the CD or folder where the Office installation files are and run “setup.exe /admin”. This runs the “Office Customization Tool“. With this tool you can modify most Office setting before a user ever sees the program. You can also control the installation process…entering the product key as well as controlling what level of interaction a user has during the install. You can make it completely interactive or completely hidden…along with several levels in between.
Specifically Joey’s question yesterday was about settings to use when installing Office 2007 via a Task Sequence in SCCM. There are three pre-requisites to a program running in a TS. Continue reading
Photography Spurts
One of my hobbies is photography. It typically goes in spurts. I’ll go for a long time without taking any pictures…then will go a couple of months and take a ton. This summer was a spurt. In a six week period I took almost 850 pictures on my digital camera. No way that I could have ever afforded my photography with a film camera!
I’ve started a Flickr site and uploaded some of my favorites. Most are from that spurt this summer. Most have not been retouched from what came off of the camera other than cropping. A couple have been retouched a bit. I’m no expert…I just did what looked the best to me with what I had. I’ve posted a bunch of them on my photography page. The Flickr site has better quality images, although you won’t see the difference on your computer screen.
As for what I use for editing pictures. I really like the power of Paint.Net. It’s really powerful…and free! I also use Microsoft Office Picture Manager that is part of Office 2007. I also use Windows Photo Gallery that is part of Windows Vista. I typically use Photo Gallery more for managing photos than editing. I’m probably 50/50 on which of the first two I use…depends on what I’m trying to do. Basic cropping and retouching probably gets Picture Manager. It’s just really simple to use. More advanced stuff gets Paint.Net.
Love Letters
For my wife and I, there are a couple of months where the 26th day of the month is special…her birthday and our anniversary both fall on the 26th day of different months. I decided to start doing something special on the 26th of every month…writing a love letter to Julie. Not digital…on paper.
I bought a Moleskine notebook specifically for this purpose. Starting on Julie’s birthday, I wrote her a love letter…front and back of one page. I set a recurring task in Outlook to remind me on the 22nd of each month to start thinking about the letter. Each month I write another letter in the book, and on the 26th, I put it somewhere where she will find it as she goes about her day. There are 240 pages in the book. 12 months per year. 1 page per letter. That’s 20 years worth of letters. We will be celebrating 32 years of marriage that year. I’ll buy another book at that point.
One of the cool things about this process has been that it forces me to slow down, sit down, and think about how to express the love I have for Julie. Let’s face it…as guys, we tend to default to grunts as communication tools. Surprisingly, women don’t tend to respond positively to grunts. The letter gives me the opportunity to think not only of what I love about Julie…but also how to express it. I know that Julie has enjoyed the letters, but honestly I think I have benefited more from them than she has…it has caused me to be a better husband.
I forget exactly where I first got this idea, but it has been a great experience. Today being the 24th of the month, I sat down this morning and wrote the letter that I get to deliver on Friday. It may have been my best work yet. I’m looking forward to blessing her with it!
SCCM and WSUS issues
[Update June 3, 2008: Refer to this post for issues related to SCCM and WSUS as well. The info in it might be more relevant.]
Lately I have been working with System Center Configuration Manager 2007 (SCCM)…the latest version of Systems Management Server from Microsoft. Wow is this thing powerful. I enjoyed SMS 2003, but SCCM is a huge improvement. The process has not been without speed bumps, but overall it is just simply an awesome framework for computer management.
The most significant speed bump I have had lately has been in the area of computer patching. SCCM uses WSUS (Windows Server Update Services) for its patching component. Basically you install WSUS and SCCM manages WSUS. There are several settings that need to be lined up for this to operate. Links to those settings can be found here, here, and here.
A couple of the things to make sure are in order are:
- Proxy settings on the SUP properties are set correctly. (Use it or not, and if so make sure it is pointing to the right place.)
- On the SUP component configuration, ensure that the port numbers are correct. If WSUS is installed to the default web site, the ports should be 80/443. If it is using a custom web site, it defaults to 8530/8531…unless you told it something different. Open IIS Administration to check the properties on the WSUS Administration web site to see what it is set to. Make sure the ports in IIS and the SUP component match.
I had all of those settings lined up per the documentation (no proxy required…ports configured correctly), but was still getting errors. I first reported these issues on myITforum.com and a TechNet forum.
Basic gist is that after setting things up per documentation, SCCM was not able to successfully connect to WSUS and manage the WSUS settings. The SMS_WSUS_SYNC_MANAGER log shows that the synchronization failed because of an HTTP 401 “unauthorized” message. This is followed by another log entry that states “SMS WSUS Synchronization failed” because “WSUS Server not configured”. It also gave the incredibly helpful [sarcasm] error code of “214500037: Unspecified error”.
Fret Pain
From time to time I have attempted to learn to play guitar. Now is one of those times. Tonight was my first time in years. My fingers hurt. And I sounded terrible. And I realized that what has held me back every other time I have tried to learn guitar (and subsequently quit) has been hand strength. Don’t know that I ever realized that before. I’ve always been frustrated with bar (or barre…not sure which way to spell it) chords. Tonight it occurred to me that my frustation before was most likely tied to simply not having the strength (and dexterity) in my left hand to hold all of the strings down. I’ll see what I can do to intentionally increase my hand strength as I am learning. We’ll see what happens.
How much does God love us?
I was talking with my four year old tonight, and she asked me if I knew how much God loved us. When I asked her how much, she answered, “115. That’s a LOT of love.”
[Edit…October 25…everything that follows]
Ya know…I’m sure 115 meant something to her. But realistically…while it’s cute and funny coming from the mouth of a four year old…it just doesn’t get the job done for the people who have been hitting this post since it first went up. In the last hour, there was someone who hit this post when they typed “how much does God love me” in a search engine.
There’s something about that question that strikes a chord with us. We want to know that we are loved. We want to know that God cares about us. We want to know that He loves us. How can we know? That’s a question I’d be glad to dialog with you about. Just send me a message. I’d be glad to answer your questions or walk with you through the process of discovering how much God really does love you. I promise it’s not a trite answer…and it’s a lot more than 115.
You could also take a look at this ShockWave thing called Life@Large. It walks you through a process to see how your story fits into the story of life.
iPhone Vulnerabilities
Saw these links today about vulnerabilities in the iPhone that I thought were quite amusing given how much Apple users poke at Microsoft about security. Basic gist is that all of the applications on the iPhone run as root. So any exploit that gives you shell access gives you everything. Apparently Apple didn’t learn from the “everybody is an admin” mistakes that Microsoft made in older OSes. This could be really comical to watch…or scary depending on how many of them make it into the office.
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2191373,00.asp
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2197476,00.asp
http://blog.metasploit.com/2007/10/cracking-iphone-part-21.html
http://blog.metasploit.com/2007/10/cracking-iphone-part-3.html
A couple of interesting quotes from the first article…
“The iPhone has been turned into a “pocket-sized … network-enabled root shell,” said H.D. Moore, thanks to the well-known security researcher having published shell code for the smart phone and instructions on how to use it as a portable hacking platform.”
“A rootkit takes on a whole new meaning when the attacker has access to the camera, microphone, contact list and phone hardware. Couple this with ‘always-on’ Internet access over EDGE and you have a perfect spying device,”
“It’s going to be such good times,” one blogger wrote after Moore published his findings. “…we have the accessibility/vector. What we need are market saturation (some predict 14M sold by end of 2008,) a mesh networking application (or something to cross-connect the myriad of networking options) and an attractive application to encourage the owners to share amongst each other (say, some funky music sharing application or social networking tie-in, or instant messaging.) That’ll lay the ground work for some very effective malware.”
Checkers
Yesterday I got a phone call from my four year old. She was excited. Really really excited. So excited that I couldn’t understand what she was saying. I finally made out the phrases “beat Mommy” and “triple jump” from which I deduced she was talking about checkers. At that point I figured that Julie had played checkers with her and had let her win, and that Marybeth was very excited about “beating” Mommy.
Then Julie got on the phone. Her first words let me know that I hadn’t exactly gotten the story correct. “WHAT did you teach her?” Turns out that Marybeth beat Julie fair and square! Julie started by playing easy and letting Marybeth get a couple of jumps. Then Julie started hearing Marybeth thinking out loud… “if I move there Mommy will jump me, but if I move here then I’m safe.” And that’s exactly what she did…she made all safe moves. Julie was forced into taking moves that got her jumped. At one point Julie makes a move and Marybeth proceeds to triple jump her…something Julie didn’t see until Marybeth had started the jumping. A bit later she followed that up with a double jump.
In the end, Marybeth just plain won. She was understandably excited, and Julie was stating that she wasn’t going to let her guard down next time!
Just a note…I didn’t intentionally teach her anything! I played with her last week helping her beat her sister, but all I did was tell her where to move. Apparently she learned by watching.
Colorado Rockies, Part 2
Following up on my previous post about the Rockies.
Last night they made it to the World Series. They have won 21 of their last 22 games.
In light of what I wrote in the previous post…I’m still rooting for them. Mike Coolbaugh’s widow benefits from every win they have through the post season.
Online Backup…encryption
While talking with a friend about the combination of Amazon S3 and JungleDisk, he asked me a simple question…”who holds the encryption key”. Basically the concern is that if the encryption key is known by or obtainable by someone, then the encryption is worthless. It got me thinking and doing a little digging.
By default JungleDisk uses the “Secret Access Key” from your Amazon S3 account. It’s long hairy and convoluted…very secure…but it is also a key controlled by and viewable by Amazon. And since the encryption key is essentially the keys to the kingdom…I don’t want anyone other than me and my wife to know it.
Therefore…I deleted the 5.5GB that I had already uploaded…changed the encryption key…and restarted the upload.
Big thanks to Tim for asking the right question.
Related post: Online Backup.
Online Backup
From time to time I get asked about what I would recommend for backup of data on your computer. My answer has changed over time. There are several factors to consider for backup of data…amount of data, worst case disaster recovery, ease of use, etc.
I used to recommend that people get an external hard drive for data backup. The problem with this is that people simply don’t run the backup and typically the drive never leaves the same house that the computer is in. If you have a fire/tornado/etc (worst case), then your backup is destroyed along with the original data.
Now I recommend one of two online backup services. They have different pluses/minuses. NOTE: a high speed internet connection (DSL/Cable Modem) is necessary for this option. If you don’t have that…back up to CD/DVD/Hard Drive…and make sure you always have a copy of your backup at another physical location…preferably a long distance from your home. (Think Hurricane Katrina).
The first one is Mozy.com. VERY simple interface. Automated backup (I think the default is to backup any new or changed file every two hours.). Very reasonable price…for home users it is $4.95/month for unlimited data backup. If your data is less than 2GB…you can use Mozy’s free service. Very nice.
Second is Amazon’s Simple Storage Service (S3). This one has the potential to be significantly cheaper. Just in raw storage, you would need to have 33GB of data to go over the $4.95 that Mozy charges for unlimited. I currently have over 9GB on S3, and my bill last month was $1.46. Now…here’s the trick…it’s not nearly as easy as Mozy. If you aren’t an advanced user…just go with Mozy. If you are more advanced…read on.
You can read about and sign up for S3 here. What that does is give you the account to be able to upload your data. Amazon does NOT provide a client or mechanism for doing the actual upload. That is where the third party apps come in. I have used two clients. Currently both are installed on my computer. I’m still determining which I will end up using long term. JungleDisk is commercial software that costs $20 and has a lot of functionality. There is a free 30 day trial. S3 Backup is currently at Beta 12. It’s currently free…who knows about after it goes gold code. I have used S3 Backup before and was happy. It had a few quirks (but that was at Beta 9 or 10). There have been some improvements. I am looking at both of them now and will post again with the results of my evaluation.
Related post: Online Backup…Encryption.
Suicide Prevention Resources
In a recent letter I referenced some suicide and depression resources that I would post. Here they are. Basic gist of the letter is that a former co-worker and one of my uncles committed suicide within a month of each other. It definitely got me thinking a bit about what would drive someone to that point…as well as wanting to be able to be to point to some resources that could help someone overcome that temptation.
As always, Julie and I are available to talk if you are struggling. If you need to reach us, you can use the contact page to send me a message.
There are a ton of suicide prevention resources on the internet. I’ve just linked a few that I found that seemed likely to be helpful.
*************************************************************
Links to resources on Henry Cloud and John Townsend’s website for:
Resources from FamilyLife
Two websites from Focus on the Family
Sermon resources that John Piper has preached on suicide in the past:
A site titled “If you are thinking about suicide…read this first.” [Disclaimer: Much of this site is really good. However there is one aspect I noticed on this site that I disagree with. It states that suicide is neither right nor wrong…that it is morally neutral. That’s just not so.]
Here is what seems to be the motherlode of links aimed at survivors of suicide.
Rich Mullins wrote a song titled “Verge of a Miracle“. It was written for a boy who attempted suicide. The link is to an intro that Rich gave at a live performance of the song along with the words to the song. The YouTube link below is to the song itself.
Colorado Rockies
I’m not a pro baseball fan. I just don’t watch it. I sometimes tune in to the World Series, but then I also tune into lacrosse and curling occasionally. Anyway…I saw an article recently about Mike Coolbaugh. He was a minor league baseball coach who was killed during a game when a line drive hit him in the head while he was coaching first base. Really brutal.
Anyway, the team he was coaching was a Double-A team in the Colorado Rockies organization. The Rockies made the post-season. The Rockies players got together and voted to give Mike’s widow a full share of the team’s playoff winnings. Note: Mike was not a MLB coach…he was coaching in the minors.
THAT is cool. It’s enough to get me to pull for the Rockies through the postseason.
You can read the article here:
Did that change your plans?
Last year, my oldest daughter (who is now 8 years old) asked me to teach her how to play chess. I’m not very good, but I taught her what I know. She enjoys playing and never makes a mistake moving the pieces. She hasn’t figured out the strategy of getting multiple pieces working together to get a checkmate, but she has fun. We play a few times a week.
Last week we were playing, and I looked at the board knowing what I had set up and what her tendencies were and told her, “In four moves I will have you in checkmate.” She quizzically looked at the board, said “ok” and moved her knight. I then moved my bishop. She then took her knight and killed my queen. Then she innocently looked up and with perfect voice inflection asked, “Did that change your plans?” My wife who was sitting behind me on the couch cracked up laughing.
That was excellent! I gave her a high five…and then spent the next twenty minutes re-tasking my remaining pieces to get her in checkmate…without the queen!
Subscribe
Recent Comments
-
The Realm of the Verbal Processor 
