An ordinary guy trying to make a difference
So the day after British Gas announce a 9% increase in their electricity prices and a 35% yes 35% increase in gas prices it’s expected they’ll announce a 6 month profit of £880 million.
Now I’m not against any company making a profit – there’s no point in being in business unless you are making a profit (unless you’re either a) mad b) do it for the love of it or c) you’re a millionaire of have a rich relative – sadly I’m only a) and b), mostly a).
This in the same week that BP announced it made half yearly profits of $16,916 MILLION.
Who is paying for all of this? Us the consumer. Now I’m not just singling out these 2 companies (neither of which I personally use), but all of the companies in these and other industry sectors that make these obscene profits yet don’t give two hoots about us the consumer.
Why can’t the Government cap the profits these companies make which should result in cheaper prices? Although knowing our Government they’d introduce legislation that any extra profit above the limit would go to them rather than result in cheaper prices.
The UK as far as I’m aware STILL has the most heavily taxed fuel in Europe if not the world and what good has it done us? Well the economy speaks for itself. What with rising energy, fuel and food costs (let alone everything else that’s indirectly increasing as a result of these), but with no equivalent or indeed greater increases in people’s salaries to try to keep up then eventually something has to give BIG time if it hasn’t already.
If you’re already struggling I feel for you. With other energy companies expected to announce price increases both now and in the future and with the state of the world economy things can only get worse. So baton down the hatches and get ready for the ride which hopefully we all come through safely through the other side.
I’ve just stumbled across the Evalu’08 website as it was featured in one of the many newsletters I get from Microsoft. Basically this is a single website giving you the opportunity to either download trial versions or take Virtual Labs in the following products:
If you try one product you can win a Zune, two an X-box 360, three a Windows Home Server.
As usual there’s the following small print:
“*NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Open only to legal residents of the 50 U.S. (includes D.C.) 18+ employed in an IT or software development role. Sweepstakes ends September 30, 2008. For details including free, alternate method of entry, see the Official Rules.” (the link to which doesn't work btw)
So guess I won’t be winning then unless they host the same competition on Microsoft UK. Still cool idea as it puts all of the evals in one place rather than you having to go hunting for them.
I was just thinking to myself “wouldn’t it be cool to create a single page with evals for all of the SC products and put it on the SC home page” only to find when I visited there low and behold underneath the menu bar is the “Win a Windows Home Server” graphic which takes you to the Eval’08 website.
Yes you can. In SMS you couldn't upgrade an evaluation copy to an RTM version without uninstalling and reinstalling the product. With ConfigMgr it is possible to upgrade an eval copy… [more]
In his latest blog post Carlos explains how to work round the fact that TranGUID.exe doesn’t work on Native Mode Clients:
“On my previous post I suggested the use of a collection and TranGUID.exe to clean up from the SMS database clients with duplicate GUIDs. Unfortunately tranguid.exe from the SMS 2003 Toolkit, does not generate a new GUID on SCCM clients running in Native mode. The tool does work on SCCM clients running in Mixed mode. At the time of this writing, there is no tool for SCCM that will force a Native mode client to get a new GUID. The best workaround to generate a new GUID on a Native mode client is to:...”
http://blogs.technet.com/carlossantiago/archive/2008/07/29/tranguid-exe-does-not-work-native-mode-clients.aspx
Following on from my Virtualisation post I decided to do some digging round for System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM).
The current versions of SCVMM is 2007 but the Release Candidate of SCVMM 2008 is available from Connect.
Here’s some useful links for SCVMM 2007:
Automating Software Updates for Offline Virtual Machines Using Virtual Machine Manager 2007 and Configuration Manager 2007 Download this white paper which provides guidance and script samples for integrating System Center Configuration Manager 2007 and Virtual Machine Manager 2007 to provide automated software updates for virtual machines stored in a VMM library (offline).
Download the Microsoft Assessment and Planning tool for your Application Virtualization Project Get ready for Microsoft Application Virtualization 4.5 with the new tool called Microsoft Assessment and Planning. This automated tool can assess your network infrastructure by creating an inventory of your server and desktop infrastructure and generate assessment reports to help you plan your Microsoft Application Virtualization deployment. Download Microsoft Assessment and Planning Beta today!
Virtual Machine Manager Configuration Analyzer Virtual Machine Manager Configuration Analyzer (VMMCA) is a diagnostic tool that verifies configuration settings for your computer that are important to running Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager.
Well it seems that what with Microsoft’s release of Hyper-V and other movements in the virtualisation market VMware has decided to stop charging $500 for it’s ESXi Hypervisor and instead give it away for free as my friend Paul kindly pointed out to me on this article from The Register.
If you want to downloaded your free copy head over to:
https://www.vmware.com/tryvmware/login.php?eval=esxi&t=1
The "Actions" pane is one of the new panes of new Admin Console in ConfigMgr. However it takes up valuable screen estate and once you get to grips with the product you might find you no longer use it. It is possible to load the Admin Console without the "Actions" pane by adding a new Registry Value as shown in this article…
I’m going to be honest I hate Microsoft’s Virtualisation strategy or at least I did until now. I was born and bred on VMWare. I tried Virtual PC and it was OK. Virtual Server well even saying the name makes me cringe so you know my opinion on this.
But I’m someone that can forgive and forget most things and from what I’ve heard of Hyper-V it seems time for me to re-evaluate Microsoft’s virtualisation strategy. I’m also keen to look at System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM), as I’m hearing good things about this to.
Sure at the moment I’d say I have some general skills when it comes to non-ConfigMgr/ SMS products and maybe that’s a bad thing. However, I’ve decided to branch out a bit into the world of virtualisation as I can see a LOT of people going down this path which of course has some major implications not just from a ConfigMgr perspective and also across the field.
So I’m going to take the plunge and start reading up on Hyper-V and SCVMM sharing my experiences (and useful stuff I find), along the way starting with some useful links for Hyper-V:
SQL Server 2005
954831 FIX: In SQL Server 2005, the session that runs the TRUNCATE TABLE statement may stop responding, and you cannot end the session
954049 Description of the hotfix rollup package for System Center Operations Manager 2007 Service Pack 1 and for System Center Essentials 2007 Service Pack 1: July 25, 2008
953141 Support for running System Center Operations Manager 2007 Service Pack 1 and System Center Essentials 2007 Service Pack 1 on a Windows Server 2008-based computer
954429 After you apply hotfix 951126 on a computer that is running Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, or Windows Server 2008, the computer may stop responding when you try to resume from standby again
956190 DNS queries that are sent across a firewall do not use random source ports after you install security update 953230 (MS08-037)
956188 You experience issues with UDP-dependent network services after you install DNS Server service security update 953230 (MS08-037)
956187 Microsoft Security Advisory: Increased threat for the DNS spoofing vulnerability
953876 Performance decreases when you use side-by-side (SxS) activation in a COM application on a computer that is running Windows Server 2003 SP1
954896 A stack overflow issue occurs when you use the incorrect name format to enter a user name as a parameter for the TranslateName function on a Windows Server 2003-based computer
558115 The kerberos client received a KRB_AP_ERR_MODIFIED error from the server
950820 The system stops responding during the logoff, shutdown, or restart process on a computer that is running Windows Server 2003 or Windows XP and that has the Japanese IME installed
955410 A memory leak occurs every time that you use a smart card to authenticate against a Windows Server 2003-based domain controller
The Environmentally Friendly bunch have been lobbying retailers here in the UK (and probably elsewhere), to either do away with free plastic carrier bags or start charging for them.
The trend is starting to catch on. Some shops that used to give you a free bag have now started charging for them. The other day I went into WH Smith’s (one of the UK’s largest newsagent, stationary and bookstore chains in the UK), and bought a magazine. In the past they’d always give you a bag no problem.
However, last week the girl took my money and just gave me the magazine and receipt but no bag. So I asked “Can I have a bag please?”
To which she replied “Yes, but I’ll have to charge you 1p for it.”
So I paid my 1p and got my bag. But how is this helping the environment?:
I’m all for doing my bit for the environment but this seems an ill-thought out strategy implemented by companies that just want to be able to say “Look at us we’re doing our bit for the environment by charging for bags, aren’t we good?”
Errr no? Why not give people bags that don’t have the issues of the plastic carriers (such as being biodegradable), and THEN you’ll be doing your bit for environment.
What is Asset Intelligence? [28/07/08] Contributed By: Cliff Hobbs [MVP ConfigMgr/ SMS] Asset Intelligence is a new, optional feature included in SP3 that offers enhanced reporting...
Shame you can’t view this video full screen:
“In this video tutorial watch Gareth Hall, Windows Server Product Manager for Microsoft, explains how to get the most of Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V.”
http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1653590857/bctid1655880292
I was interested to read in the latest copy of Computer Weekly an article on managing software assets (it’s not online yet otherwise I’d link to it).
What really caught my eye was a comment from Joy Jerram of the Leonard Cheshire Disability charity. It seems they tried using ConfigMgr to help get to grips with their software assets but were overwhelmed with the amount of information ConfigMgr returned.
This to me demonstrates a couple of key points here:
I’ve sent an email letter to Computer Weekly with my comments hoping to raise awareness that help is available should folks need it. I’ll keep you posted if it gets published.
I’m also going to try to get in touch with Joy to get more information on their experiences.
If any of you using have experienced similar issues I’d be interested to hear about them and how you resolved them (if you have), so we can maybe get something published somewhere to help those new to the product who might feel inundated when they first try to use it.
The MVPs have been asked to help spread the word in the community about a potential issue when it comes to upgrading a Site to ConfigMgr SP1.
As part of the upgrade process SP1 attempts to upgrade the Windows Automated Installation Kit (AIK) on the server hosting the SMS Provider to version 1.1. Now this is all fine if you don't already have a PXE Service Point in the same Site.
However, if you DO have a PXE Service Point in the same Site you could experience:
I've written the following articles on FAQShop based on the "Upgrading the Windows AIK for Configuration Manager 2007 SP1" post:
IMPORTANT: Please ensure you read this information BEFORE you apply SP1 as it is currently NOT available in the ConfigMgr Documentation Library and won't be until the R2 documentation is released.
What changes have been made to the Client Platforms supported by SMS 2003 SP3? The Client Platforms supported by SMS 2003 SP3 have changed...