Posted by Adam Ruth on Mon, Aug 30, 2010
Photo by Frankie Roberto
IT Expert Voice has a great article detailing what's coming up with USB 3.0 and what to expect. It's very informative and answered a few questions I had (such as backward compatibility and the nature of the cables and connectors.) A good and quick read if you're interested in what's coming down the pike.
The final section talks about Intel's Light Peak as a competitor and whether USB 3.0 will have the juice to fight against it. It's certainly a compelling discussion and it brings to mind other classic technology battles. It most closely reminds me of USB 2.0 vs FireWire. FireWire had a lot going for it, and I was in its camp thinking that it would win dominance over USB 2.0. But, as things usually seem to go, I was way off. A lot of people were.
Why is it so hard to predict the direction of technology? I think this question is really just a part of the larger questions of trying to predict markets generally. Markets and technology work like evolution, it's the strongest that survive and it's not always clear what attributes make them strongest. USB 2.0 won out over FireWire for a number of reasons, some of which are obvious, and some of which are not quite clear. Even in retrospect it's not always easy to see the factors that lead to one "species" surviving in the great marketplace of ideas while other seemingly stronger contenders fall by the wayside.
The lesson for me is to never be too confident in backing a single horse in the race. It's prudent to hedge those bets a bit. I'd love to just focus on one programming language or platform, but it would be a problem if that platform is pulled out from under me. I've known programmers who put all their eggs in one basket and never spend any time learning anything else. That may work well for them in the present, but the future is too hazy to see how that will continue to work.
In short, I'm scared to stop learning new and different things. I don't want to end up a dinosaur fossil in a programming museum.
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Posted by Shane Corellian on Fri, Aug 20, 2010
Photo by Lingaraj G J
We have a client that uses Microsoft SCCM to manage about 1,700 computers. The problem is that 130 of these computers needed to have the U.S. Government Configuration Baseline (USGCB) - formerly known as FDCC - version 2.4. These 130 computers had the 2.1 version of USGCB which still uses Vista Service Pack 1.
Performing the "USGCB Migration" to version 2.4 is a rather cumbersome exercise considering all of the updated applications and OS configuration changes it needs to make. The process (using SCCM) can take a few days even when the SCCM Service Windows are ignored. Many users were experiencing computers rebooting in the middle of the day as a result of the migration.
In an effort to minimize the reboots during the day (all the Migrations were started in the evening but due to SCCM polling and HW scan intervals the migration process always spilled into the work day) we used the new PDQ Deploy to quickly deploy applications that comprised the various parts of the Migration without having to wait for next Machine Policy or Advertisement. We started with the biggest reboot offender, Windows Vista SP2.
We simply ran a query in Admin Arsenal showing all machines that had Service Pack 1 of Vista and then, in the evening, deployed SP 2 with the following arguments:
/quiet /warnrestart:120
Within 3 hours almost all of the 130 computers had successfully installed Service Pack 2. We then deployed another "package" which was simply a CMD file which forced a hardware scan. (This client is not allowed to modify the set schedules that scans are run with SCCM). Using Roger Zander's suggestions the CMD file ran one command which utilizes WMI to initiate an SCCM hardware scan.
WMIC /namespace:\\root\ccm path sms_client CALL TriggerSchedule "{00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000001}" /NOINTERACTIVE
This was, to say the least, very painless.
Use PDQ Deploy. It is free and fully functional only from Admin Arsenal.
Posted by Adam Ruth on Wed, Aug 18, 2010
Photo by teclasong
While reading my daily blog roll I ran across a posting at the always informative Train Signal Training blog about VHDs, or Virtual Hard Disks. This really caught my eye as I hadn't heard of this functionality before. Virtual disks have been a part OS X since the beginning (I believe they go back to the NeXT days) and I find them to be very useful. It's great to see this capability now in Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2. The steps to create and use a VHD are a bit more complicated than creating a DMG on the Mac, but that's a small price to pay for the capability.
As usual, I'm interested in the command line options and here Microsoft doesn't disappoint. The DiskPart.exe utility provides all the necessary functionality to create, partition, format, and use a virtual disk. Here's a session that creates a 32 GB disk and assigns it a drive letter.
PS C:\> diskpart
Microsoft DiskPart version 6.1.7600
Copyright (C) 1999-2008 Microsoft Corporation
On computer: AADEV
DISKPART> create vdisk file="c:\test.vhd" maximum=32000 type=expandable
100 percent completed
DiskPart successfully created the virtual disk file.
DISKPART> select vdisk file="c:\test.vhd"
DiskPart successfully selected the virtual disk file.
DISKPART> attach vdisk
100 perent completed
DiskPart successfully attached the virtual disk file.
DISKPART> create partition primary
DiskPart succeeded in creating the specified partition.
DISKPART> list partition
Partition ### Type Size Offset
------------- ---------------- ------- -------
* Partition 1 Primary 31 GB 1024 KB
DISKPART> select partition=1
Partition 1 is now the selected partition.
DISKPART> format quick fs=ntfs
100 percent completed
DiskPart successfully formatted the volume
DISKPART> list volume
Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ---- ----------- ------- --------- ------
Volume 0 D CD-ROM 0 B No Media
Volume 1 System Rese NTFS Partition 100 MB Healthy System
Volume 2 C NTFS Partition 127 GB Healthy Boot
Volume 3 NTFS Partition 31 GB Healthy
DISKPART> select volume=3
Volume 3 is the selected volume.
DISKPART> assign letter=V
DiskPart successfully assigned the drive letter or mount point.
DISKPART> exit
Leaving DiskPart...
PS C:\> copy license.xml v:\
PS C:\> dir v:\
Directory: v:\
Mode LastWriteTime Length Name
---- ------------- ------ ----
-a--- 9/08/2010 2:41 PM 418 license.xml
As you can see, it's pretty straightforward to create and use a VHD. You can even install Windows on a VHD and boot to it, which can be very useful for troubleshooting. I love finding a new features that I didn't know about and can explore.
Looking for unattended installation software? Download a free copy of PDQ Deploy.
Posted by Adam Ruth on Fri, Aug 13, 2010
Cloud computing is all the rage these days with online storage & backup being one of the most well-known aspects of it. Over the years I've played with a number of online file sync services and I always left a little less than impressed. Each service had advantages and disadvantages with the disadvantages outweighing the advantages (at least for me.)
I've been hearing about Dropbox for a long time and just assumed that it was like the others that I've tried and it was only recently that I decided to give it a go and I must say that I'm very impressed. Here's the scenario that got me started:
I am the current secretary for our local Lion's Club (Lions Club of Palm Beach-Currumbin) and the club recently decided to buy a laptop to be used by each new secretary, instead of passing CDs of files and big boxes of records around. I needed a way to keep the files on the new laptop backed-up in a way that I wouldn't need to maintain even after I leave the position and that would sync with my own computer so I don't have to keep switching back-and-forth between the two computers (I do most club work on my own laptop.) Back in my dusty memory I remembered hearing about Dropbox and that it had a free version, so I thought I'd give it a whirl. It worked perfectly right out of the gate, so well in-fact that I was stunned, I'm used to something going wrong at some point.
Here's the features about Dropbox that I really like, and work perfectly in my situation:
- It's free for 2 GB of storage. That's big enough for all of our Club's records and with it tied to the Club's e-mail address it keeps me out of the loop when I pass on the secretary laptop.
- The sync is seamless. And I really mean seamless. It's so simple to set up that practically anyone can do it and the sync just worked and kept working. At no point in the process was I wishing I could have some kind of manual control, the automated system worked great.
- LAN sync. If you are syncing files between two computers in the same subnet then it will copy the files directly instead of going up to the cloud and back down. Particularly helpful for that first sync on a new computer.
- Shared folders. I now have two Dropbox accounts, one for the Club and one for me. I share the files in the Club account with my account so that I can edit them on my own computer. It's also a very handy way to share some files with friends and co-workers.
- Web access. All files can be accessed on a web site that works very well, it's not slow and kludgey feeling like I've seen before.
- Previous versions. Works great as a backup solution.
- Cross-platform. Supports Mac, Windows, Linux, iPhone, iPad, Android and soon Blackberry.
Now, there are some disadvantages, but they didn't affect me. Your mileage may vary.
- Size limit. You can pay to get more than 2 GB of storage, but they only go up to 50 GB. That may grow in the future, but for some people it won't be enough. There is a 250 MB bonus for referrals (which I got because I referred myself... shhhh...)
- One Dropbox per computer. Each computer can only be tied to a single account. There are some workarounds, but they aren't perfect. Proper use of shared folders makes this much less of a problem than it seems at first.
- Only one Dropbox folder. You only get one folder syncing up to your Dropbox account. It would be nice if you could map different folders to different locations and there may be some workarounds for this. It's not a concern for me now, but I could see me wanting it in the future.
All-in-all Dropbox is a perfect solution for most cloud storage problems. They've left some things out that I'm sure make it easier to perfect those few things they do, so I won't quibble. It's free and so easy to install you really can't go wrong to take it for a spin.
Posted by Shawn Anderson on Wed, Aug 11, 2010
This is the last in a series of posts dedicated to Adobe Reader. The first post discussed how to customize Adobe Reader for your company, the second discussed how to deploy Adobe Reader to your entire company, and today we'll tackle the last portion - patching Adobe basebuild from 9.3.0 to 9.3.3.
If you don't already have the Adobe Reader 9.3.3, the patch must be obtained directly from Adobe.
Step 1: Open PDQ Deploy and select the Adobe Reader patch.
NOTE: If you are at the base build version of 9.3.0, you will need to install the 9.3.2 patch before applying 9.3.3.
Step 2: Select the target computers for the software deployment
There are three methods to select targerts:
- Import (from a text file)
- Active Directory
- Admin Arsenal
Step 3: Select the account to initiate the installation
This can be an Active Directory or a local account.
Step 4: Verify your settings and deploy
Much like the instructions on a shampoo bottle, if you are deploying 9.3.2 first, then wash, rinse, repeat. This will get you to the latest secure version of 9.3.3.
If you haven't taken the time to join Adobe's mailing list for security patch notification, I suggest you do so. This is a different list than their marketing distros.
You can sign up for their patch notification when you enter into your EULA to distribute Adobe Reader. The same notifications are also available for Adobe Flash and other Adobe products.
Since Adobe Reader is such a widely used application we get many requests from users on how to remotely install the program. Here is a video that demonstrates deploying the Adobe Reader 9.3.3 patch.
Note: For optimal viewing select HD playback.
If you have a software application that you would like us to demonstrate deployments in a step-by-step blog and video, shoot us the request.
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Posted by Shawn Anderson on Mon, Aug 09, 2010
There are three methods that Adobe provides for deploying Adobe Reader to all of your computers:
- EXE - (AdbeRdr933_en_US.exe)
- MSI - (AcroRead.msi)
- MST - (AcroRead.mst)
The self contained version of Adobe Reader simply deploys the application as packaged by Adobe with no ability to customize. If you want to simply push Adobe Reader with all defaults, use this method. The /sAll and /rs switches make the install silent for all products and suppress required reboots, respectively.
The .MSI version of Adobe Reader is obtained by extracting it from the EXE. With the MSI you have a little more flexibility in certain aspects, like suppressing EULA acceptance.
The .MST (transform file) requires the AcroRead.msi and is created using the Adobe Customization Wizard. This method and its associated benefits were demonstrated in last weeks blog "Adobe Reader 9.3 - The Adobe Customization Wizard".
Here are the three examples of deploying Adobe Reader 9.3.
Example 1: The self contained Adobe Reader file.
Example 2: The .MSI installation.
Example 3: The .MST (transform) installation.
Simply open PDQ Deploy and select your .MSI in the "Installer File to Deploy" field. You call your .mst file in the Parameters field (TRANSFORMS="AcroRead.mst").
Complete the next three steps within PDQ Deploy (select targets, verify administrative account, and deploy). It's that simple.
Here's a video of deploying Adobe Reader 9.3 using PDQ Deploy.
Last of all - patching. We've noticed something decidedly odd about Adobe 9.3.3. If you install using the EXE you will install the latest security patches, up to 9.3.3. However, by extracting and using the MSI you will only be installing the base version of 9.3.0.
Be sure to patch your systems, and note that if you are at 9.3.0, you must first install 9.3.2 and then 9.3.3. The instructions for this will be posted on our next blog.
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Posted by Adam Ruth on Fri, Jul 30, 2010
I've been recently catching up on watching Red vs. Blue which is a web video series created by a company called Rooster Teeth. If you're already familiar with the show, then you can skip all of this. Otherwise, you're in for a treat.
Red vs. Blue is a comedy series set in the world of Microsoft's Halo video game. The footage is all from within the game itself, with conversations between characters as they get into various predicaments. The basic premise of the show is a satirical look at these types of first-person shooter games. The Red and Blue armies have outputs located in an isolated box canyon called Blood Gulch, which is just the kind of map that you might find yourself in while playing the game. No real reason for being there, other than to set up a battle.
The show's greatest strength is its characters, who are a collection of clueless misfits bumbling around their artificial world finding new and interesting ways to irritate each other. Plenty of nerd based humor makes its way into the dialog and situations, which is funny even if you've never played a computer game. Each episode is a short couple of minutes, and you can watch most of them on the RoosterTeeth YouTube channel.
Enjoy!
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Posted by Adam Ruth on Mon, Jul 26, 2010
Photo by Tom Anderson
The Internet is full of successful protocols such as HTTP, FTP, DNS, SNMP, IMAP and myriad others. Let us not forgot those protocols that never quite reached stardom, or died right out of the gate. Here are the top 10 protocols that, for one reason or another, never made it mainstream.
10. HTTPf
Hyper Text Transfer Protocol fecure
Similar to HTTPS but everything is encrypted by converting to old English.
9. FCP
File Corruption Protocol
Never really found a practical use.
8. PIDP
Pornography Instant Delivery Protocol
Renamed HTTP.
7. CBDP
Caffeinated Beverage Delivery Protocol
Rejected after computer modelling showed it would require 132% of the world's aluminium resources to make the cans.
6. BFMP
Butter Finger Messaging Protocol
Problems with dropped packets spelled its demise.
5. VOAT
Voice Over A Telephone
Duplicated talking on the phone.
4. N411SS
Nigerian 411 Scam Service
A member of Nigerian royalty is still trying to get this one started, if he could only get some seed money.
3. RFTP
Renewable File Transfer Protocol
No different than regular FTP, but used exclusively by Hybrid owners.
2. PLPR
Priceline Packet Routing
William Shatner allows packets to name their own number of hops.
1. SJRDIP
Steve Jobs Reality Distortion Interface Protocol
Catastrophically fails if you touch the antenna in the wrong place.
There are many I've missed, so please share them in the comments.
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Posted by Adam Ruth on Mon, Jul 19, 2010
Photo by kretyen
This article on Tech Republic showing a computer that was the victim of a lightening strike got me thinking. (WARNING: if you're squeamish about graphic computer carnage, don't view the photos.) What it got me thinking about was static and computers. Back when I first got into IT I constantly heard about the dangers of static electricity. It was only the most daring soul who would breach the hermetic seal of the computer case without guaranteeing they were properly grounded.
It didn't take me long to start thinking that there was more hype than substance to the claims of static damaging computer components. I have no doubt that are plenty of components lying in pauper's graves that were killed by an errant arc from someone's fingertip. But how many times was static the go-to scapegoat when something went wrong that no one wanted to bother explaining? I remember very early in my career when I accidentally dropped a screw onto the motherboard of a running computer, so I am certain why that ISA slot was broken (I did say it was early in my career.) However, there was a time when the mysterious death of a component almost required that static be the first straw grasped.
It hardly seems that way anymore. "You must have static-ized it," is very rare these days. Have we System Administrators gotten better at dealing with static or do we know better that static is usually just an easy excuse? I'm sure it's still possible to build up enough of a charge to fry some modern components, but how likely is it while standing on a tiled floor after touching metal racks and server casings? I'm sure that if your server room is located in the middle of a cotton-ball factory carpeted with 1970s era shag and your company uniform is a corduroy jumpsuit with fuzzy bunny slippers you may want to slip on a grounding strap. Otherwise, we've learned to be less paranoid.
So what does that tell us about modern computing concerns? Are there things today that are like the static of yesteryear where blame seems to automatically go in a knee-jerk fashion? It seems to be when some new, and not yet fully ripe, technology starts to get adopted it continues to be blamed for problems long after those problems have been ironed out. That makes sense, because there was a time when the problems were real, so the knee-jerk reaction was probably right.
Windows instability seems like one of those historical issues. There was a time when a BSOD was almost certainly a bug in the OS and a reboot was the fix. Nowadays, though, a BSOD is more likely to be a hardware problem that isn't going to go away with a simple reboot. I'm sure you can think of some others.
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Posted by Adam Ruth on Fri, Jul 09, 2010
It's a question that has been on the minds of system administrators for a long time. As the number of laptops (and now slate devices and even phones) continues to grow and displace desktops, so does the management headache. At some point, it seems, that desktops themselves will become extinct leaving only servers and portable devices left to manage.
Farhad Manjoo proclaims the imminent death of desktops at Slate, he makes some very good points. Eric Raymond makes some good counter-points about how peripherals (especially screens and keyboards/input devices) will always keep people tied to a desk. I think that they may be talking past each other, at least from the perspective of IT folks.
From the standpoint of managing computers, there isn't much (if any) difference between a truly portable computer and one that can be moved between office and home. It's the fact that the computer is used in different environments and at different times that creates the management friction. Even if a user lugged their big, boxy desktop computer between home and work (I've known people to actually do this) it's still a greater burden on system management than a truly portable computer that never leaves the office.
So, while the death of the desktop PC may be exaggerated in the sense that there will continue to be a "desk" involved most of the time, we are soon to see computers moving from desk to desk as the standard and the static workstation becoming the specialized, niche product.
Also, I'd like to add that I can envision a world where screens and keyboards will become unnecessary. I can see wearable computers become more and more practical over time. For those that scoff, I remind them that people scoffed at the ideas of laptops after seeing the first portable computers. I would love to be able to look up IMDB to win bets without even moving out of my hammock or so much as picking up anything. That's when my Homer-Simpson-esque dreams can finally come true.