Thundermain has a new RSS feed that lsts the ten most recent downloads posted in the Microsoft Download Center. This is a simple way to keep up with new white papers, documents, and patches. Check it out.
For bonus points, check out Jiri Ludvik’s list of security blogs, from which this blog is inexplicably absent. It’s still a good list. (Hat tip: Susan Bradley via NTBugTraq.)
New MS RSS feed
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Filed under Security
A few changes
I’ve tweaked the site layout to accomodate the presence of Google AdSense ads. I think they’re unobtrusive, and when you click on them you help support the cost of maintaining this site. There are still a few browser-specific bugs in my CSS layout, which I’ll gradually eliminate as I get better with CSS. Thanks for your patience!
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Filed under General Tech Stuff
Physical security on my mind
I’ve been thinking about physical security a lot, mostly because I happen to be revising chapter 5. Take a minute right now to look around and see whether your physical security procedures are adequate. Could someone easily walk off with a server? (If someone can steal a DC, they can 0wn you totally, basically forever). Do you have adequate environmental protections– power conditioning? heating/cooling? fire warning & suppression? I could write on and on about this, but I bet that if you spend a few minutes thinking about your environment you’ll see what you need to do to improve it, probably at very low cost. The US Army’s Field Manual 3-19.30 has some interesting thoughts that may help you.
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Filed under General Stuff, Musings
While you’re waiting for book 6…
I was recently forwarded what purports to be an intercepted email from J.K. Rowling to her publisher. Now that Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix has been released (and it’s quite good so far), Rowling has apparently decided to get a head start on book 6, the penultimate title in the seven-book series. Titles under consideration include:
- Harry Potter and the Freshmaker
- Harry Potter and the Nocturnal Emission
- Harry Potter and the Quaint British Public-School Tradition of Sodomy
- Harry Potter and the Inopportune Pimple
- H. Diddy
- Harry Potter and the Weed of Wackiness
- Harry Potter and the After-School Minimum-Wage Job
I look forward to seeing the book when it’s released.
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Filed under Musings
It was a dark and stormy night
Well, it was storming at 0445 when I got up this morning. Since I work in the basement, the thunder was nicely muted. Then, however, I fired up the Haunted Tape Drive, an old ADIC FastStor library I bought off eBay. I hadn’t had a chance to use it yet, but I finally installed the drivers yesterday so I could take a refreshing full backup first thing this morning. Long story short, that thing squeaks, mutters, and beeps so much that it’s like being trapped in a basement with Beetlejuice, only without Geena Davis. I’m sure I’ll either a) get used to it or b) start scheduling my backups to happen overnight.
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Filed under Musings
Happy 4th of Julie
So, thanks to Julie’s inspiration, I now have Sousa’s Stars and Stripes Forever as my phone’s ring tone. Bring on the fireworks. This process was relatively straightforward:
- Install Kyocera’s MP3 maker, which takes an MP3 file and produces a .pdb file.
- Move the Sousa file out of my iTunes Music folder and put it back in my shared folder where it’s supposed to be
- Sync the shared folder with my ThinkPad
- Run the MP3 utility, producing a file named “stars.mp3.pdb”
- Helpfully rename the file and copy it onto my SD card.
- Struggle with figuring out why the file doesn’t appear (hint: it doesn’t appreciate being renamed to “stars.pdb” vice “stars.mp3.pdb”)
- Say “to hell with it” and sync the phone normally
- Soft reset
- Profit! (no, wait, that comes later)
- Notice that the ringtone appears in Prefs Phone where it belongs.
- Crank up the volume and enjoy.
(And let’s not forget that traditional toast: “God bless the United States, and success to the Marines!”)
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Filed under General Tech Stuff
Sending SMS from iChat
This is extremely nifty. From Dave Farber’s IP list:
With today’s release of AIM4.6b1.1131, the capability has been added to
allow AIM users to send SMS messages to mobile phones. All you do is type
the message you want to send as an SMS into a new IM window and change the
screenname field to +16175551212. Replace 6175551212 with the phone number of the SMS-capable mobile phone. The “+1” is the country code, which is required; however, I don’t think AOL supports non-US numbers yet, but they
do plan to.
To utilize this cool feature in iChat, simply type Shift-Command-N for a “New Chat with Person,” and enter the phone number in the above format. When you send the message, you’ll receive confirmation from AOL that it was sent. Pretty neat!
I tested this and it works like a charm. Finally, a use for iChat 🙂
Update: As Mike Wendland and I found out, it does matter if you enter the “+1” before the phone number.
Filed under General Tech Stuff
The hacker tourist
If you like Neal Stephenson, go read this now, but allow some time: it’s a long article.
In other SF news, my copy of this year’s edition of The Year’s Best Science Fiction anthology is on its way! I’d forgotten about preordering it, but Amazon helpfully mailed me to tell me the good news.
Update: Hat tip to Mike Strock for pointing out my broken link. Spackerhood runs in the family.
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Filed under Uncategorized
Verizon: “Is there some reason you’re looking at me?”
In which Paul suffers a broken phone and gets satisfaction from the warranty while simultaneously getting rudeness from a store employee; a missive to the CEO
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Filed under Smackdown!
Confidential to the MailMarshal folks
Is there some reason why you can’t just give me a context menu item to add a sender to the server’s whitelist? Having to review messages in the console and then add them to the configurator is a pain in the butt– just let me right-click an item in the console and say “add to Friendly Senders” or “Add to Friendly Listservers”. Just a suggestion that your competitors have already implemented…
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Pink page #1
I had a rough day yesterday. Arlene and I got into a big argument; she admitted fault and apologized, but I was having a hard time letting go of some of the things she said. We eventually smoothed things over, then she left for a Relief Society meeting. I had the kids, and they were being, if not bad, then certainly not good– lots of fighting and arguing over whose turn it was to do what. I finally fled to my room for a few seconds of quiet, and in frustration I prayed to the Lord, asking Him to help me remember why I loved these people so much, and to help soften my heart and give me patience.
He did. He always does, so this probably shouldn’t be a big surprise. I calmed down, and so did the boys, so we had an enjoyable evening together instead of a running screamfest. I’m grateful to have seen such quick results, too.
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Filed under Spiritual Nourishment
More flying, less yapping
According to this story, American Airlines will change their policies on 8 July to allow broader use of cellphones while an aircraft is on the ground. According to the story, passengers can use their phones until the boarding door is closed (nothing new) and during taxi to the arrival gate. I’m not sure what to think about this. On one hand, it legitimizes what many people already do– fire up the ol’ cellphone as soon as they’re back on terra firma. On the other, it might be useful to be able to check emai lor voicemail first thing after a transcon flight.
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Filed under Travel
For want of a fuse
Remember our air conditioner problem? The fine folks at Ultra Heating and Cooling told us that our compressor had failed and that we’d need a new compressor– say, $900 or so– and that given the age of our unit, we’d be better off buying a new one (oh, $2800 or so).
The home warranty company required me to call a company that they have a contract with, so I did: Oasis Heating and Cooling. Their guy came out, puzzled over the unit for about 10 minutes, and brought in a dead fuse. After it was fixed, voila! 61° air from the air vents.
I don’t know whether to ascribe Ultra’s diagnosis as incompetence or malice on the part of their tech. Either way, a) I won’t be calling them again; b) you shouldn’t either; and c) their pres is going to get a letter from me in the near future.
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Filed under Smackdown!
Another reason to like Ohio
Our air conditioner’s compressor bit the dust about a week ago, so we have no cooling in the house. Right now, it’s 76° outside with 62% humidity. In Athens, it’s currently 80° with 79% humidity. It would be much less pleasant inside this house if it were in Alabama; in fact, the one time our air conditioning failed, we fled to a hotel until it could be fixed. Thankfully, we have a home warranty that should cover the cost of getting it fixed, although they may try to get us to accept a new compressor instead of an entire new unit. Either way, I’m thankful that we bought the warranty, and I’m glad that the weather outside is pleasant enough to render the lack of air a minor inconvenience.
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Filed under Musings
MS launches “trial size” Outlook Web Access
This is really cool: as part of the Exchange Server 2003 RTM, Microsoft is passing out 7-day trial OWA accounts. This is a great idea for two reasons: it gives MS a chance to further dogfood OWA in xSP-scale deployments, and it gives those who don’t have immediate plans to migrate to Exchange 2003 a taste of what the new OWA looks like. Sign up here.
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Filed under General Stuff, Musings
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