Posts by John 104

Let's kill off the meaningless concept of SW-defined storage

Your point?

Other than to be a ranting dickhead?

Secure web? That'll cost you, thanks to Mozilla's HTTPS plan

Firefox = The Funny

This just looks like more of FF trying to stay relevant - and failing. First they were going to own the mobile space with their new browser OS, now this. Looking forward to more antics.

Forgot to mention network printers - how many of them support https? And how well is that going to work with DHCP?

What does DHCP have to do with HTTP/HTTPS? Oh yeah, nothing....

Also, you do a dis-service to systems admins/engineers by repeatedly writing that only developers can manage redirects and handling the nuances of making SSL work. I've seen both sides do their part and realistically, the sys/network camp method handles all transactions for a given name space far better than coming from code by using the tools that were meant to do it.

'The Internet of Things is like the Cloud 8 years ago' ... Boss of Dell's new IoT biz spills beans

Re: "95 per cent of IoT data is useless"

95% of IoT data is useless. And will remain so, despite our pathetic attempt to enter the market"

And I say again, why are people so quick to spew their personal habits to the world?

Man sparks controversy, fined $120 for enjoying wristjob while driving

Pathetic

"This is my life," he said. "Its products have really helped me."

Time to get a real life my friend...

Google I/O FORTRESS: Sold-out dev conference is in LOCKDOWN

Anyone who scans the code will be able to read not only the name associated with the badge, but also the email address. Not sure I remember signing up for that feature.

Then don't go...

Mozilla: We don't give a damn about cheap smartphones

Funny

Mobile, that's it, Mobile!

How do people like this stay employed?

Multiple fondling on the MIGHTY 12-INCH iOS 9 SLAB — so, so close now

Re: two screens? good idea! Proposed by Microsoft in 2008...

Yes, but when Apple invent it it is new and magical.

Tossers

This reminds me of the amazing feature they introduced in the iPhone of being able to *gasp* talk AND do something outside of the dialer at the same time!

Re: Double the pane?

@Will Godfrey.

Have a pint on me.

Apple announces 'Home' iOS 9 app to run the Internet of Stuff

in creating networked devices which can share data with manufacturers, it is hoped some of that data might, eventually, one day, maybe, be worth something.

Why are there so many idiots out there seem to think that it is OK to just spew their personal details to the world? Do I really want my light bulb or refrigerator habits living in a DB somewhere? Perhaps when I leave my house and when I come back? Because that data would NEVER get compromised. No thank you.

This is the same reason why I didn't buy a Cisco wireless router a few years ago. It was cheaper than the Asus I ended up with (RT-N66U and loving it). However, Asus doesn't require the user to create an account online to manage advanced features.

Maybe I'm just too rooted in reality and don't get all jittery when the opportunity to be a "geek" presents itself. Or maybe its because I work in the industry and know how badly corporations take security...

Microsoft's certification exams: So easy, a child of six could pass them. Literally

Kudos to the kid.

My son took his power point and word exams in middle school. It was NOT part of an IT curriculum, however.

Now in high school, he is taking engineering classes as a freshman. So far this year he has learned auto cad, 3d printing techniques, laser etching, and vacuum molding. He's done some cool stuff and is well on his way to a non-IT career in aerospace or mechanical engineering.

Re: Why Reg, Why?

And while you're at that, at least change the photo out for a boy.

Use your Apple gizmos only for good, says Tim Cook

Re: Wow...

You got that wrong, return...

Timmy doesn't give a tuppeny for your iPod, he got your money already.

Re: cook meeting wallace

In Birmingham they loved the gov'ner, boo hoo hoo

Funny

Cook noted that Steve Jobs envisioned the company as one which "turned powerful technology into tools that were easy to use, tools that would help people realise their dreams and change the world for the better".

Since the rebirth of Apple via the iMac, I've always looked at Apple like I look at Harley Davidson.. HD is NOT a motorcycle manufacturing company. They are a wann-be tough guy looking, Easy Rider Born To Be Wild dreaming marketing machine that happens to sell motorcycles along with their branded clothing, accessories, etc. There motorcycles are adequate but overpriced. Just like an iPhone...

Re: LOL - how?

Apparently you aren't into mob's as much as you say you are... Holding the volume down to go into silent mode has been a feature since... Well, my original Galaxy S had that feature...Not sure about prior to that.

Instagram's HTTPS cert expires, millions of crap photographers panic

Inexcusable

Completely inexcusable. Certs can be bought for next to nothing and can have expiration dates that span years. We all know this. How is it that no one at IG noticed that this certificate was expiring? Bad management, rookie admins, and overall unprofessional work ethic.

Then again, what do you expect from the likes of social media megas like FB and their minions. Somehow these business are surviving with one of the most pathetic products I've ever seen. FB reminds me of the web in the 90s...

Welcome, stranger: Inside Microsoft's command line shell

Alias

Don't fret, children. You don't really have to type get-childitem to get the contents of a directory. Those memorable commands still work as aliases. You can also type ls. That's what I usually use. I'm thankful they added that in as a default alias. Switching between Linux and Windows systems I used to always manage to type the wrong one... :)

As for the cmd line being dead. It isn't really. You can still type it from the run box or a powershell window and get all your old commands back.

You can also run commands the old fashioned way in PS by using invoke-expression or invoke-command. Then you can do all sorts of nifty management things with it like error control, writing events to log files or the windows event log, etc.

To all of you die hard batch writers, give PS a chance. You may just expand your scripting chops and stay relevant to the IT world while you are at it...

Re: Which is to say...

Microsoft is still learning to reinvent Unix -- slowly separating text-mode core OS from graphical layer; learning the importance of a rich command line; learning to write graphical commands that emit said CLI, easing automation. But it's not doing it terribly well.

You could say the same thing in reverse for Linux and the desktop. I can't recall the number of flavors of Linux GUI/Apps I've tried over the years just to toss them out because they were too much hassle to make work.In the end, as a consumer of a desktop OS, I want to use it for productivity.

Ubuntu is the latest trend and it is getting better, but I would never throw it at my users.

And managing users in nix is a joke. LDAP is the king, and MS has the single best implementation of that technology to date.

Back on topic, Unix systems have had, hands down, the best command line power for decades. At this point, I'd say PowerShell is getting MS to where it needs to be to be a serious tool for command line junkies. But it sure wasn't there to begin with!

Re: Piping and conditional logic

(Note to kids: a pager was a sort of proto-smart watch that you wore on your belt rather than your wrist, but it had it's own radio so you didn't require a phone)

Wins the internet for the day.

Re: Obscure knowledge got me a job ....

The trick to remembering "what the fuck did I do here" is to write comments in your script so you don't have to remember in 6 months...

And in case you don't know how to do that....

#

Personally, I've been using it since inception and it is hands down better than the endeared dos command line. And it blows the shit out of VBS.

Stay current, learn new tools, stay employed...

Looking for laxatives, miss? Shoppers stalked via smartphone Wi-Fi

What Stores....

I'd like to know what stores employed this snooping so I can stop shopping there...

Oh, and first post.

Mine's the one with the 386DX-40 in the pocket...

Apple Watch shipments: Pick a number, double it. Hey, it worked for them

Troll....

Except that in this case, Apple are copying Android...

The data centre design that lets you cool down – and save electrons

Cold Air And Things

you wouldn't want the opposite, after all, because it'd mean using the hot efflux to gently cook whoever is standing in front of the cabinet typing on the keyboard.

Try working in a server room for more than an hour and you'll be wishing for trips to the hot isle just to get the circulation back into your fingers...

Raised floors are actually not quite the fashion these days either. While they provide a nice place for cables and such, they also provide a huge amount of volume for all your expensive cold air to hang out and do nothing. Cold goes down, hot goes up... Newer data centers will have your described hot/cold isle and curtains, (captain obvious), but dump cold air from above, letting physics do some of the work. Hot isles have returns that draw that heat away located up top as well.

Either way, its damned cold for anything after 30 minutes, which is why I keep a nice coat at my desk for those longer work sessions (and headphones because damn its loud in there!)

Amazon CTO destealths to throw light on AWS data centre design

Sales Pitch?

This article was more sales pitch and regurgitating known practices than revealing of how big As infrastructure is set up. Yawn...

Is hyper-convergence a good thing? Ask a mini computer veteran

Re: Looks like someone got the EMC marketing packet

No kidding. I couldn't even get past the first page. Came to the comments to see if I was missing anything.

Pre-order consumergasm will leave Apple Watches out of stock for months

Old Tricks are the Best

I'll stick to my never had the case opened, battery has been pulling strong for 10 years Citizen EcoDrive. Looses a second or two every 6 months and charges in about 15 minutes in direct sunlight (longer under indoor lighting), which is good for 6 months.

It does one thing and it does it very well and will continue to do so for many years I expect.

A hearty downvote for you sir.

Just because technology is old, doesn't mean it isn't cool. A precision built watch or clock is just as technically challenging to engineer as a smart watch or other gadget. The quartz movement was brought to the consumer in the 70's. To date, it is still an accurate method of keeping track of time and has been improved upon immensely.

Oh, and all those old timey watches that tell time and maybe the date tend to go for years on a battery, not a day.

Everything's code, 'zero tolerance for assholes': Yup, it's ChefConf

Fail. Win.

The win is MS showing up and promoting their own tool set. DCS is not something I've played with, but certainly seems easy to implement and program for in Windows platforms from the examples I've seen.

Fail is chef for Windows. I worked at a shop that spent 3 years trying to get it to work. All it created was headache and longer deployments than if we had simply copied the updated code manually and edited config files. Hell, a simple batch job would have done it.

The driving force for this direction was a pointy headed boss who had a strong Linux/development background and little to no experience in the Windows/.Net world. The thinking was all wrong and caused all sorts of problems, and friction with the operations team. Advice was never listened to until it was too late and then blame was shifted. Ultimately, it led to me being let go due to "not being on board". Call it what you wan't but if it affects production systems and our customers user experience, you can bet your ass that I'm going to ask tough questions and raise alarms.

They are still trying to make it work and said pointy haird boss is still at the helm. And frustrations are still there...

In order for Dev/Ops to really work, both sides have to be on board and actually willing to listen to the other team. Devs know dev but it is surprising to me how little they understand the systems/infrastructure that are used to present their wares. Having an open dialog and not just one team lording over the other is essential to success for the business. Oh, and software sprints are great for a development team but are absolute garbage for Ops. :)

Non-American nerds jam immigration pleading for right to live in the US

@luckibastard

You are wrong on the beer. The Pacific Northwest has some of the best beer in the world. I'm not talking piss beer like Bud, or euro beer like Heinikin. I'm talking about high quality craft brews that are flavorful mouthgasms. :) Oh, and Kalifornia and Colorado have some good stuff too.

As for the H1B crap. I've been a victim of layoffs and seen folks holding visas get to keep their jobs...

Most recently I was at M$ as a contractor prior to their 18 month BS. I promptly started looking for, and got a permanent job at a local company and couldn't be happier (wasn't interested in waiting around until a) the market got flooded with talent, or b) I got lucky(?) enough to get hired full time). That being said, there are thousands of full time MS employees who are working with visas. Are they good at their jobs? Sure. Are they any more qualified than I am? Hardly.

The whole thing should be thrown out except for highly specialized fields of work. IT used to be in that bucket but isn't really any more specialized than the next field of play.

Apple swears that NO FANBOI will queue for its new gumble

They got it backwards

As stated above, the watch isn't worth the ask. Having people make appointments, etc and not allowing anyone to buy in the shop without one, will cost them sales.

New Policy: Fanboi makes an appointment, goes in, tries on shiny watch and decides, "nah, not worth the dosh.". Leaves cash in pocket and leaves. New phone stays in sales drawer collecting dust.

Old, retard way of bying iProduct: Lines of people waiting outside the shop. Doors open, fans rush in, crowd mentality takes over and everyone who can get one buys one without even touching it. Fanboi wears watch for a few weeks then realizes its rubbish and puts it in desk drawer so it can collect dust.

Backup Exec worships VMware's spanking new ESXi appeal

Ugh

We have BE here. I hate it. Licensing isn't too expensive as of yet, but with their new product and split I expect things to get expensive for our next renewal in Dec. Might be a good time to check out Veem.

Oh, and I'll need a towell to clean up the urine in my shoe that someone else put there prior to my arrival...

Dot-com intimidation forces Indiana to undo hated anti-gay law

Huh

And I though the intent of the law was to prevent business owners from getting sued for refusing right to serve anyone. Once again the GLBT militants are on the hunt, and anyone who disagrees with their lifestyle for any reason is the target.

I for one am tired of the reverse bigotry from this group. Its sad, really. I'm guessing that this is the 5% of the GLBT community that are militant in nature, tarnishing the rest of the club with their hate.

Snakes on a backplane: Server-room cabling horrors

Re: As long as there is one cable in the universe...

@SmittyWerb blah blah

Great pic.

Oh, and shame on your network team for not disabling unused ports... :)

IS 'hackers' urge US-based jihadis: 'Wipe yourselves out trying to kill 0.00005 of US forces'

Do they even wonder..

"kill them in their own lands, behead them in their own homes, stab them to death as they walk their streets thinking that they are safe"

Do they even wonder why the world tends to hate them so much? Just a big bunch of babies throwing a tantrum because they'd rather be given shiny things instead of earn them...

Our 4King benders are so ace we're going full OLED, says LG

traditional LED TV

haha, Am I that old that that sounds funny to me? LED, LCD, OLED, Plasma. They are all too new to be called traditional in my book. When one of them has been around for 50 years or so, then that term will be more appropriate. Of course, I'll likely be dead and gone in 50, but hey, its the thought that counts!

Want to deploy virtual machines in a hurry? PowerShell is your friend

Scripting FTW

For those of you poo pooing this, shame on you. The whole point of scripting, in any language and on any platform, is to remove or reduce the possibility for human error. VMWare or Azure/Hyper-V GUI is great, but you can just as easily screw something up by checking the wrong box and clicking OK. The best practice is to do just that....practice. In a lab. Away from your production systems. Figure it out, then move it to prod. I guess they don't teach that in IT 101 these days...

/rant

;)

Windows Server 2012 has PowerShell remoting enabled by default, but if you are running 2008r2 then you will need to Google how to enable it manually.

Let me google that for you...

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=https%3A%2F%2Ftechnet.microsoft.com%2Fen-us%2Flibrary%2Fhh849694.aspx

Nice write up. I might suggest for future episodes to tag your PS code in a different color for ease of reading.

Have you tried using PSExec to remotely run your post deploy scripts? I haven't, just curious.

I like to wrap certain bits of code in scripts that I can run repeatedly vs copy paste each time I need it.

The "switch" ($option) function is great for this:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

# Write path options to console

Write-Host "Enter Number to Select Option"

write-host

Write-Host "1. Option 1"

Write-Host "2. Option 2"

Write-Host "3. Option N+"

Write-Host "X. Other"

write-host

# Option Selection

$Option = Read-Host -Prompt "Select Path From List Above"

switch ($Path)

{

1 {$Option="Image 1"}

2 {$Option="Image 2"}

3 {$Option="Image N+"}

8 {$Option= Read-Host -Prompt "Your Text Here"}

default {$Option="Whatever"} # Use this as a default deploy or catch it as an error and exit.

}

$ImageOptoin = $Option

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You can add/remove as many options as you like. Then when you are ready to deploy your VMs, just fire up this script and pick the one you want. You should be able to add in any other parameters that you desire further down in the script once you have selected your machine type. Just use if else statements to capture the option name and run with it.

Apple Watch: HOT WRIST ACTION plus slim $1299 MacBooks - and HBO TV

@VinceH

I can't thumbs up that enough!

Whoops! AVG data centre KO'd by 'unplanned' outage

@Nate Amsden

"AVG doesn't sound like a big company"

They're nobody. No customers, no revenue, no computers. The whole thing is vaporware.

Where have you been for the last decade? Or two? These guys are long time players in the AV market.

Network competition? Puh-lease. It's all about the Apple-Android Axis of Fondle

OOB Experience Matters

A large determining factor in the success of a handset OS is the OOB experience. Perhaps why Apple is so successful. If you buy into their ecosystem, its a great experience. Android is a close second, but I hear a lot of complaints from people about it. I'm hearing more and more satisfaction out of beta testing for WinMo10 though. Some great features in there for calendar management and ease of use. A big selling point also is the ability to just uninstall apps with no rooting required. We'll see if it gains traction in the coming year or two.

*Android user for the last 6 years.

Apple Watch 'didn't work on HAIRY FANBOIS, was stripped of sensor tech'

Re: Reading comprehension

@AC

"Yes, and of course without the iWatch, it would be completely impossible to do that."

Well, you could, but you'd probably be doing it wrong...

ATTENTION SETI scientists! It's TOO LATE: ALIENS will ATTACK in 2049

A problem of scale...

"they will surely do so at once under such a stimulus: in order to revenge themselves upon a civilisation which"

But due to a miscalculation in scale, just as the fleet arrives it will be swallowed by a dog...

Mine's the one with the bag of peanuts in the pocket...

Over 50? Out of work? Watch out because IT is about to eat itself

pfff

what a bunch of bollocks.

Information is information. Applying it in creative ways is something that AI will never be able to accomplish.

Me, I'm 45 and not horribly worried about the next 15-20 years of IT employment. Just be ready for change and roll with the punches. And stay away from big companies!

Patch now: Design flaw in Windows security allows hackers to own corporate laptops, PCs

@AC

God I wish people would grow up. M$? Windoze? Seriously? After all these years?

Linux? Seriously?

Nix systems aren't without their issues either and for an overall enterprise solution MS is still the only game in town.

Extol all the virtues of how secure nix systems are and how awesome your VI skillz are. But nix systems are not particularly practical for getting real work done outside of the server room...

Legitimate Question

Deployment question here.

I've read the release for MS15-14 and am unclear on one aspect. It appears to me that the highest vulnerability is with client machines connecting on disparate networks. If that is the case, then it would follow that those mobile workstations should be patched soonest. I'm seeing less of an issue or need for urgency for DCs unless the UNC hardening is desired?

'Giving geo-engineering to this US govt is like giving a child a loaded gun'

@bigman

Silly conservatives. How dare they ask for scientific method instead of wild declarations based on a few decades worth of manipulated figures. The whole problem with this agenda is that the politicians and their lackey bureaucrat/scientists throw terms like " settled science" around when the "facts" that they are spouting are only unproven theory at best.

It's a money game, plain and simple. The whole thing sickens me, mostly because its my money...

Keyless vehicle theft suspects cuffed after key Met Police, er, 'lockdown'

Trunk Monkey

All you need....

http://www.stupidvideos.com/video/just_plain_stupid/Trunk_Monkey_4/

Not just Imation's imagination: That sinking feeling is real

Imation?

I looked to see what they even sold these days. Looks like the same idea in a different package that they used to sell. Craptastic proprietary direct attached storage solutions. And LTO tapes. Wow. No wonder they can't make a profit.