Archive for February, 2009
IT Pro Momentum: Offering up free TechNet Plus subscriptions for some feedback! Save $350!
Feb 27th
That’s right boys and girls Microsoft has an awesome offer on the table and it appears it has been around for more than a month. AskTheAdmin reader and contributor Peter Diamond put me on in an email last night. Apparently Microsoft wants YOUR feedback on how you can use their services to evaluate their products and in return you get access to lots of Microsoft resources like Beta Support, free downloads of new software and loads of tools.
Of course you have to be serious about the program and submit your Full Name and contact information. You need to participate in giving feedback on the program and letting MS use it in a online post.
Users just text messaging Matt an email address will obviously be rejected. We know how much AtA readers LOVE giving out personal information – But, this could be your leg up in the evaluation efforts of new software evaluations like Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 – hell there is even support for Vista. What are you waiting for?
Just the TechNet Plus Subscription usually costs $350 find out more about TechNet here – http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/subscriptions/default.aspx.
You can find out more about this IT Momentum Program Here: http://blogs.technet.com/matthewms/archive/2009/02/17/it-pro-momentum-program-still-accepting-applications.aspx
All Microsoft wants for your free enrollment in this IT Momentum Program is a little feedback so they can write a blog article on how people are using these resources and if and how they help them. A small price to pay for all this support and help! I just signed up… What are you waiting for?? Tell them AskTheAdmin.com sent ya!
Here is how you go about signing up:
Email mhester@microsoft.com or please contact one of my teammates (U.S. TechNet Presenters) tell them that you want to be a part of the program and that you are willing to share you experiences with them! I just signed up and got my invite how about you?
Peter also sent us this link – http://www.microsoft.com/click/thrive/ It is a site dedicated to help you THRIVE as an IT Professional. Check it out.
Enjoy and go be productive young admin! Every dollar counts in this horrible economy!
[UPDATE for 3/3/2009] If you sent Matt a note requesting consideration but didn’t bother to send me your full name or more than a subject line of text to get into the program then your email was deleted. Sorry folks, this is a professional program not a text message from your phone and I will not guess at your name.
A better add remove program for free. (Windows Download)
Feb 26th
Freeware application Revo Uninstaller has both an installed version and a portable version for your thumb drives. We used the newest version release on June 17th 2008.
So I hear you all asking : “what does Revo do? Why is it better than the built in Windows Uninstaller?”
If you’ve ever had a piece of malware install itself on your machine, you can probably already answer that question. I hate malware and I hate spyware. Not because it takes time to undo what they have done, or the possible security issues. Well actually yeah I do hate those as well but I am talking about the virtual hoops these companies go through to make sure you CAN’T uninstall or disable their crap-ware. More >
Network documentation and inventory made easy with free tools.
Feb 23rd
For reasons I cannot fathom, the words “network documentation” are like kryptonite for IT people. I’ve seen hardened SysAdmins cringe in fear at the mere mention of network documentation, and it always makes me shake my head and wonder why.
Network documentation is your friend. Unlike tech support for your backup software vendor (who universally seem to only be available 8-5 Monday to Friday), network documentation will be there to hold your hand at 3am after you’ve been trying to restore a downed server for 10 hours, and your $10,000 tape library has just gone up in flames like it was a Dell laptop battery (taking all of your current backup tapes with it).
Everyone seems to have this misconception that network documentation is this incredibly long and difficult process. I would put forth that it is neither. Let me show you just how easy some simple network documentation can be. All of the tools mentioned here are FREE (some may be ad supported, but as is the case with Spiceworks, for a small annual fee the ads can be disabled).
First we start with the Servers. These are likely the most valuable asset in your network, and should be treated as such. The first tool we will look at is the SYDI project.
SYDI is essentially a set of scripts (extensively for Windows, some Linux as well), which will gather TONS of information about the machine they are run on, and optionally create a nice Word document from that information (you must have Microsoft Word installed on the machine you run SYDI from for this feature to work).
SYDI was created by Patrick Ogenstad, and I have found it to be incredibly useful. I currently use SYDI to generate basic documentation for all of the servers on my network (currently all of my Linux servers are Gentoo, and I was able to get the Linux script for SYDI working on them with minimal effort). I have these scripts set to run on the first day of every month, and output the resulting files to a network share.
There is going to be some information (which you will definitely want) that SYDI does not gather. I’ve found that there are a great many tools that can help you get this data automatically, and rather than attempt to cover everything available, I am going to focus on the tools that I use.
I am a big fan of finding ways to do things with the Least Amount Of Administrative Effort (or LAOAE, often pronounced “lay-away”), so when available I like to use tools that can fit multiple needs. The next tool I am going to cover is Spiceworks Desktop, and it fills several of my needs.
Spiceworks is agentless, can be installed on either a server or a desktop machine, and can be accessed from any computer on the network using a web browser (don’t worry, it has extensive security capabilities, including Active Directory integration). One caveat for spiceworks is that you should not try to install it on a machine who’s name contains any “illegal” characters (-,!,?, etc. – this causes weird issues with device discovery). Spiceworks does many things, but the one we are really interested in here is inventory.
The inventory feature of Spiceworks will discover and attempt to identify every device on your network. Once discovery is complete you can view and categorize the devices it finds. The really useful feature for me is the ability to attach notes and files to the devices it finds. Also at this point you can fill in the information that SYDI omitted in your Server Documentation.
Among other things, I use Spiceworks as a repository for my network documentation and as an archive for system event logs. This provides a way for me to keep everyone in the IT department on the same page, and makes it really easy to keep a running changelog for every machine on our network.
No, how do we get those event logs? If you are running Windows machines, I have a script that I’ve written that I use to gather the event logs from my servers to a network share. The code for logArchive.vbs can be found here.
Now then, see how easy it is to generate basic network documentation?
Of course you will also want to eventually create a network map, an IT Service catalog, and… well let’s just say that you can follow this particular rabbit hole as far down as you’d like to go.
Im addicted to Googles Image Labeler Game – HELP ME!
Feb 23rd
It started, way back when, I read a Boing-Boing post about Google Image Labeler. It warned me about how addictive it is but I mean really who would think that:
- You would want to help Google and add labels to their images.
- You could easily spend HOURS on the site.
- You have more fun mocking other players then playing.
Well they are all true! You log in and Google finds a partner for you and they show you pictures one at a time. You and your partner only see the same picture nothing else. You need to match your labels with theirs. The more obscure the word is the more points you will get. I went into this thing laughing and walked away 5 hours later very serious and very solemn. I almost made the leader board! Wait – when did that become my goal of the day? What happened to my work?
I do find myself mocking the other players as I have already typed in 7 valid labels and then started with Idiot, moron, do you sense a pattern… Now why does that entertain me? Well you see everything your partner typed at the end of the round. And you know how we like to harass people :)
So in conclusion whatever you do DON’T play this game and when you do DON’T try and beat the high scores. I have a feeling that the top cats are playing this thing 10 hours a day. I got 11 images in the 90 seconds twice – if you do better then me…
I don’t want to hear it kids! It will keep me up at night. I don’t know if this will ever be as addictive as SNOOD but it is right up there.
(Note, this game is inspired by the ESP Game created by Luis von Ahn, and I believe Google licensed the game from Carnegie Mellon.) [Via Boing-Boing and MattCutts]
_TheTwitchingAdmiN_
Is there a way to Change the Pre-Login Background in Windows XP?
Feb 21st
I hate the default colors in Windows XP. Don’t get me wrong, blue is a fantastic color, and I certainly don’t want to offend anyone whose favorite color is blue. I just like to be different.
Changing the default color is pretty easy though. All it takes is a few changes in the registry. Of course to do that you need to be a local administrator. If you aren’t a local administrator, there are ways of becoming one. The quickest way to figure out if you are a local administrator or not is to right-click on the start button. If you see “Explore All Users” as a menu option, you are an administrator. If you don’t, well…you aren’t a local administrator.
For the sake of argument, and to move along with this article, lets say you are a local administrator. Click on Start > Run and type in regedit then click OK.
Before we go any further, I should probably CMA by saying that changes to the registry can seriously screw up your computer if you don’t know what you are doing. Pay careful attention to these instructions, and do not deviate from them. I will not be held accountable for mistakes you make when editing the registry.
Now with that little bit of unpleasantness out of the way, lets continue. So you have the registry editor open. Now you need to browse to HKEY_USERS\Default\Control Panel.
To simply change the background color, go to HKEY_USERS\Default\Control Panel\Colors. Find the background string and double click on it. The three numbers in there are a RGB color code. You can find a list of RGB color codes here: (RGB Colors). Change the number to your corresponding color code. I like mine black, so I changed mine to 0 0 0 (All zeroes).
For an even cooler look, you can set your favorite wallpaper as the default background. The login wallpaper must be in BMP format for it to work when you boot your computer up. If you use a jpg, or gif or something else, it will only kick in after you login and log out once. To set an image as the background, go to HKEY_USERS\Default\Control Panel\Desktop. Find the wallpaper string and double click on it. Enter the full path to your wallpaper. I like to put my wallpaper in c:\windows so that it also shows up in my wallpaper list. As an example, my string says c:\windows\wallpaper.bmp.
To check if everything worked fine, simply log out. If all went well, you will see your changes right away!
Written by El Di Pablo of Bauer-Powe.
Review and Contest of the OtterBox for iPod nano 4th generation Defender Series™.
Feb 17th
The guys over at Otter Box sent us a review unit of their magic water proof case for the iPod nano. UPDATE:
UPDATE: The Case is NOT WaterProof! This is Armor to protect it from the elements! And guess who will be getting fired this weekend!
We gave the unit to our intern Joe and let him have at it. We didn’t sponsor his trip to Cancun but it did happen to coincide with the review. While Joe was out enjoying the warm tropical air he was also able to kick back and listen to his tunes in the pool and out on the boat. There is not much to say about the case other than it works, it works well and it is not that expensive! And best of all our slightly used Otter Box Armor could be yours – all you need to do is leave a witty comment on why you want it or shoot an email to contests at asktheadmin.com.
We will pick one winner at random! Good luck.
