Archive for April, 2008
Firefox 4.0 Alpha Anyone?
Apr 30th
We found this directory up on Mozilla’s servers today with this note in place:
Welcome! This directory contains pre- pre-pre-alpha builds of Mozilla2. They are not yet representative of what Firefox 4 will look like. These builds are not regularly tested - use at your own risk. For those interested, the source code is here.
Windows XP SP3 Enables The Firewall even If you have it disabled as a Group Policy! Quick Fix!
Apr 30th
So after installing Windows XP SP3 this morning I noticed that the Windows Firewall popped up on restart asking me if I wanted to allow My VNC server access to the internet then my instant messenger. WTF?
I hate the Windows Firewall. You can see my feelings illustrated by the picture at the top of top of this post. I have a domain group policy in place – explicitly disabling the service via a few options. That didn’t stop them from re-enabling it.
After closer inspection I discovered M$ has renamed the Firewall services’ name to be “SharedAccess” and this breaks some stuff. (I am sure they did it intentionally for the MalWare authors of the world!)
Since we do not use the Windows Firewall in my domain it is NOT configured – so when it automagically pops on – SHIT DON”T WORK FOR THE GOOD OLD END USERS!
After querying my machine for services using this command:
I got a full listing of my services and after scrolling down I found this:
Now I needed a quick work-a-round for my SP3 test group. I created a line in my default user login script:
And that shut it down! Thanks for letting me know M$ as always I appreciate the curve ball. I know your just keeping us Admin’s on our toes!
On some happier notes, I am seeing some other great results with memory allocation and overall speediness. I am digging the updated MSTSC remote desktop client as well.
_TheNotSoBetaTestingAdmiN_
Get the REAL XP SP3 download before the rush!
Apr 29th
How long was it after Windows XP SP 2 came out before you were ACTUALLY able to download it?
I remember the mad dash to download XP SP2 and how the Windows Update Servers were crawling. With this tip you can skip the 56kbps downloads and have it in a jiffy.
This super secret download link (Waiver: Not so super, nor secret but VERY nifty and a download link!) will get you ahead of the game. Totally legit files hashes and all direct from the ms servers.
Let’s see if those damn rumors of XP running 10-20% quicker after the Service Packing is done. Keep your fingers crossed for some good improvements rather than some system crashing blue screening!
Warning: This update will turn on the Windows Firewall – even if it has been previously disabled due to GP! I need to look into this further!
Double Warning: This SP has a compatibility issue with Microsoft Dynamics Retail Management System (RMS) if you use this hold off on the update
Size: 316.5 MB (331 805 736 bytes)
MD5: bb25707c919dd835a9d9706b5725af58
SHA-1: c81472f7eeea2eca421e116cd4c03e2300ebfde4
Size: 331,805,736
We found this tidbit from one of our great Admins/Writers Yaron Major out in Israel. He linked us to this story from a website called Tip and Trick.net. You can grab other languages of Windows XP SP3 from there as well including:
Windows XP SP3 Simplified Chinese
Size? 335M
MD5? a9d6f4586ec6929918b2c3fe29d0ce87
Windows XP SP3 Russian
Size: 303.8 MB (318 533 672 bytes)
MD5: e38b5c19a3d12ae8de0a12b1e098dd73
SHA1: 850cda9f57033a17d046a56d422547ea80dcaf61
- Windows XP SP3 Traditional Chinese
- Windows XP SP3 Chinese (Hong Kong)
- Windows XP SP3 German (Deutsch)
- Windows XP SP3 French
- Windows XP SP3 Czech
- Windows XP SP3 Spanish
- Windows XP SP3 Japanese
The download came in SUPER fast at around 2200kbps. I had the 316mb file in under 3 minutes.
I am installing it on one desktop, one laptop and one Virtual Machine. I will keep you guys updated! And if you want those fast downloads I suggest downloading it quickly before these servers are all jizammed up! [Yaron Maor Via TipAndTrick]
Let’s here in the comments all you early adopters takes on it! I know some of you have this installed already!!
Can I add random quotes to my blog or website for FREE?
Apr 26th
The title of this question here is a little misleading because you can use this little web app to serve lots of stuff besides quotes, like random ads or words of wisdom.
Get your geek on and swap out scripts and images galore!
Originally we used the free RandomQuote ASP generator to feed our geeky quotes in our sub header above. Have you seen it before?Pretty cool stuff huh? Now what if I told you the Busted Tee Shirt Ads on the right bar were also served up by this generator?
Result: Different ad and quote ,out of our database, on every refresh!
After tweaking, pushing, prodding (our coder not the program) this proved to work very well and we have been very happy with the results. But after a while we realized that this handy little random generator, complete with a very aesthetically pleasing back-end editing system, (pictured to the bottom) would be perfect to randomly feed out anything our geeky little hearts desired.
You’ll see a different quote, different ad on every page load, and all the same geeky love in front and behind it. You’ll need an .ASP compatible web hosting plan at the very least to get started. Don’t get scared – all this means is that you need a web hosting plan on the side but it doesn’t necessarily have to point to your site. Just a server that supports ASP. This is because the files need to live somewhere on a server with Microsoft extensions. It also needs to give you a few MySQL Databases to make this easier but you can also pull it off with a connection to an Access Database, and with some basic ASP knowledge you can probably modify it to work with an Excel file as a data source as well.
The first thing you need to do is go to here and snatch this free package called RandomQ from Expirion.Net:
The directions are fairly simple. Here’s the skinny:
- First copy the files/folders to your (ASP Compatible) web server.
- Then modify the config.asp file to point to your database and give it the correct credentials to do so. Refer to your web hosting control panel to see various details about your DB – you’ll need that info to put into the config.asp file.
- The package comes with a convenient little script that creates all the necessary tables/columns when run against your database. Your DB will need this structure to properly communicate with the application.
- Now open the index.asp file in the /admin folder in your RandomQ directory to see if any errors arise. If they do arise, the problem is most likely with your config.asp file. Be sure it points to the correct place and that the credentials are correct. Next be sure the tables were created properly by browsing thru the database using the web interface usually provided by your web hosting service. If it’s not provided you’ll need to get into some of the graphical database management proggies, provided at MySQL.com, to connect to and be able to view your DB data.
- Once you get the inc_random.asp file to display properly and you can login successfully to the /admin/index.asp file, your in business. All in all, barring any technical issues, this whole process should take no more than 10 minutes.
- Now you have to get the inc_random.asp file to display on your blog, so the only way to accomplish getting information to be displayed cross-domain is with the use of an html iframe as follows (we’ve removed the html open and close brackets so the code won’t get munched by blogger’s server and you’d still be able to copy and paste the code for your own evil doing):
iframe src=”http://www.YOURWEBHOST.com/RandomQ/inc_random.asp” vspace=”0″ marginheight=”0″ marginwidth=”0″ hspace=”0″ frameborder=”0″ height=”40″scrolling=”no” width=”100%”.
Make sure you close your open Iframe tag with a /iframe
Now the fun part – put in your data by logging into the RandomQ admin console and get to steppin!
Which of our quotes do you like the best? Got any ideas?
Damn son!! Let us know in the comments! Why are you all quiet and shit?
Oh and thanks to Mike aka Commodore64 for his assistance on this article and a great find on the application as well as implementation of it.
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