October 2007 - Posts

UK Events: 1E
Wednesday, October 31, 2007 3:51 PM

Rod from MyITForum pinged me an email about a UK 1E event thats coming up in November:

The next 1E Roadshow is Thursday, November 8th at:

Queens Tennis Club
Palliser Road
West Kensington
London
W14 9EQ
Website: www.queensclub.co.uk

http://myitforum.com/cs2/blogs/rtrent/archive/2007/10/29/1e-roadshow-in-the-uk-are-you-attending.aspx

by Rob - MVP | with no comments
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SCCM2007 VHD - Evaluation
Tuesday, October 30, 2007 6:14 PM

Microsoft have released a SCCM2007 VHD for download at Microsoft Download Center

 Not too sure why it's saying the download can be between 551.6MB and 7551.6MB when there are several files that seem to be parts of a single archive:

WIN03_SCCM.part01.exe - 700.0 MB

WIN03_SCCM.part02.rar - 700.0 MB

WIN03_SCCM.part03.rar - 700.0 MB

WIN03_SCCM.part04.rar - 700.0 MB

WIN03_SCCM.part05.rar - 700.0 MB

WIN03_SCCM.part06.rar - 700.0 MB

WIN03_SCCM.part07.rar - 700.0 MB

WIN03_SCCM.part08.rar - 700.0 MB

WIN03_SCCM.part09.rar - 700.0 MB

WIN03_SCCM.part10.rar - 700.0 MB

WIN03_SCCM.part11.rar - 551.6 MB 

I'll down this tonight, but almost 8GB for a virtual machine? Come on thats not funny!

Will update the post once i've explored this RAR file.

by Rob - MVP | with no comments
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Top 87 Bad Predictions!
Monday, October 29, 2007 9:16 AM

Worth a read while you've got a spare 10 minutes :>

http://www.2spare.com/item_50221.aspx

So much trivia on this site, you'll probably blow an entire lunch break on it if you're not careful!

by Rob - MVP | with no comments
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The Tree of Life project
Friday, October 26, 2007 7:54 PM

Funny how a "quick" read of your fav sites front page, can end up killing tons of time by taking you to places you didn't know existed or hadn't thought of looking up Big Smile

For example BoingBoing sent me off on a voyage after I saw a squid with strange-human-like-teeth, and i finally arrived at The Tree of Life Web Project!

Blurb from their front-page:

The Tree of Life Web Project (ToL) is a collaborative effort of biologists from around the world. On more than 9000 World Wide Web pages, the project provides information about the diversity of organisms on Earth, their evolutionary history (phylogeny), and characteristics.

Each page contains information about a particular group of organisms (e.g., echinoderms, tyrannosaurs, phlox flowers, cephalopods, club fungi, or the salamanderfish of Western Australia). ToL pages are linked one to another hierarchically, in the form of the evolutionary tree of life. Starting with the root of all Life on Earth and moving out along diverging branches to individual species, the structure of the ToL project thus illustrates the genetic connections between all living things.

Check it out :>

BBC interview with Lord Triesman over UK Anti-piracy measures
Thursday, October 25, 2007 6:31 PM
I'm certainly no Pirate, but even so I was totally bowled over by this one, straight out of the blue!
The UK government could legislate to crack down on illegal file-sharers, a senior politician has told the BBC's iPM programme.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7059881.stm
What irks me about this is that special-powers are being shaped by the music and movie industry "behind-the-scenes" and without public consultation to stop "Piracy" on the internet. This must be stopped immediately whether piracy is right or wrong. We've deliberately stopped legislation for over a decade that could stop some minorities from using the internet for their kicks (kiddie p0rn freaks, suicide sites et al), so why should we legislate now due to corporate pressure? This would make a farce out of all the efforts to keep the internet free of oppressive censorship (think China).The M&M industry finger point, take down pensioners and cripple students lives before they have begun in high-profile cases. They bring up ridiculous figures of losses (none of which are adjusted for trends) and they say Piracy is the downfall of CD's\DVD's and is crippling the M&M industries. The reality is far from their apoplectic, bubble-wrapped vision of how things are. Put simply, not many people buy CD's anymore, they either down the stuff via iTunes or go to other websites that either give it to them free (naughty!) or have a business model for digital downloads that generates both a profit and return for the artists. Welcome to the digital 21st Century where new business models are required to survive.

As I just pointed out there is no "adjustments" made to show the true impact (if it can be pinned down) that Piracy is having on them. I do sympathise with artists not making money, and think instead of securing their future with legislation they should rethink and introduce a business model (digital!) that makes them a reasonable amount of money, but most importantly actually gives the artists a fair deal. Their time has come and gone. They cannot honestly expect to continue making reams of money surely? You'd be TRUELY stunned at how much money heads towards an artist for his content, the figures for how much is bled off along the line is horrific. How someone can justify their fat profit margin, whilst pushing the artists away from the pot of gold doesn't deserve any sympathy from you or me.

We're starting to see an interesting trend whereby artists are starting to give their music away for free on the internet to generate interest, as well as to get their music out to the world, which is ultimately what drives them (not so much the money). And then they try to make their money from doing tours. Look at Prince (Mr Symbol!) who is doing exactly that, and is promoting the idea to other artists. That's the future right there. That alone shows you that the artists can actually exist without a producer\distributor, while making the same kind of money, maybe even more. This isn't the 90's with 56k dialup modems; we're in the digital DSL\Cable age. If the herd are becoming more reliant on digital transfers than physical media, then go along with it, and stop trying to force people to stop by suing them. Give them a model that works for both parties, a fair model where “everybody wins”.

Essentially if the artists are moving away from their producers\distributors, well it shows that they, the music industry are now seen in the 21st century as a redundant business model by those that actually prop them up, the artists.

As for Movies, again give us a digital model please. One where I can watch ANY movie EVER released in HD (if available). Everyone wins; I watch more movies than ever before, and the movie machine make even more money due to the sheer MASS of people using the system in comparison to the rent-and-return model that exists today.

Sure, it’s not a well thought out posting, but I wanted to point out the BBC article, and spam some thoughts. Please do comment if you have an opinion pro\against what I’ve sketched out here. I’m always willing to contemplate other angles on the issue.

SMS2003 - Phantom Site Components
Tuesday, October 23, 2007 12:22 PM

Picture the following:

You upgrade an SMS 2.0 Child Site server to SMS2003, this sites Parent Site server is already SMS2003. A few days later you notice on the Parent Site server that there are still SMS 2.0 components present in the Site Status \ Site Component list for the Child site.

Two Components that might be shown are:

LICENSE_METERING  (Part of Software Metering)

SMS_NT_LOGON_SERVER_MANAGER (Part of SMS Logon Points urgh)

Opening an SMS Administrator Console on the Child Site server shows that these components are no longer listed under it's Site Status \ Site Component list.

Several days after the upgrade, these components are still listed on the Parent, but no new status messages have arrived since the upgrade took place.

To summarise: The Parent Site server shows Components that are definately no longer present on the Child Site Server. And, the last message date for the offending Components have not changed since the upgrade date, confirming that the Child Site server is no longer replicating Status Messages up to the Parent for this Component.

The problem is that the Summarizer (or whatever mechanism would do this) on the Parent has not removed the entries in the Summarizer_Components and Summarizer_ComponentTallys tables. Why this has not happend I cannot determine. The Parent is pretty much up to date on everything else about this newly upgraded SMS 2.0 site, and the site itself is fully operational with no errors being reported.

Before you begin working magic on the SMS Database, ALWAYS make a backup as your “Get out of Gaol free card”. 

 

Ideally you should take the SMS Backup and restore it in to a Dev environment then perform these steps before taking the proverbial blade to the Prod environment instance.

 

If at any time you encounter any issues I’d suggest stopping, reviewing what you are doing and if it makes no sense then thinking twice about proceeding. Although these steps in themselves are not adversely destruction, the SQL Delete clause is quite powerful and can be used to great effect in hosing an SMS Site server down.

 

Use at your peril. Use only if you are comfortable with everything discussed below, and feel confident that your problem is identical to that described in the introduction above.

 

Let’s start with the procedure.

 

We will remove the SMS_NT_LOGON_MANAGER component entry from the SUMMARIZER_COMPONENTS and SUMMARIZER_COMPONENTTALLYS tables on the Parent Site server for the Child Site server.

1. Open SQL Query Analyzer, and connect to the SMS database on the Parent Site server

 

2. Run the following Query, and record the details in Notepad: 
Select sitecode, machinename, componentname, componentdataid from summarizer_components where machinename = ‘<SERVER>’ and sitecode = ‘<SITECODE>’
<SERVER> and <SITECODE> should be replaced with the Child Site servers identity information 

 

3. Note the COMPONENTDATAID listed for the SMS_NT_LOGON_SERVER_MANAGER component

 

4. Now run the following query to determine that the COMPONENTDATAID value exists in the SUMMARIZER_COMPONENTTALLYS table: 
Select * from SUMMARIZER_COMPONENTTALLYS where componentdataid = ‘<COMPONENTDATAID>’ 

5. Before you continue beyond this point, are you getting the right information back, are you ready to perform deletions?

 

6. Run the following query to delete the SMS_NT_LOGON_MANAGER component from the SUMMARIZER_COMPONENTTALLYS table on the Parent Site server: 
Watch for how many rows are deleted (16 rows from my experience) 
Delete from SUMMARIZER_COMPONENTTALLYS where componentdataid = ‘<COMPONENTDATAID >’
7. Now, Delete the COMPONENTDATAID for the SMS_NT_LOGON_SERVER_MANAGER component from the SUMMARIZER_COMPONENTS table on the Parent Site server: 
Watch for how many rows are deleted (1 row from my experience) 
Delete from SUMMARIZER_COMPONENTS where machinename = ‘<SERVER>’ and sitecode = ‘<SITECODE>’ and componentdataid = '<COMPONENTDATAID>' 

8. Restart the SMS_EXECUTIVE service on the Parent site once you have completed the above steps

 

9. Perform a refresh of the SITE STATUS \ COMPONENT STATUS 

If after performing the above tasks the component is no longer present, then you’ve performed the operations successfully. If not, then I’d suggest restoring the database and retrying (you are doing this in Dev aren’t you?), or having another go with the Select Queries above to determine if the Deleted rows are still present. Also, if these components reappear then it means the Child site is replicating the information back up to the Parent, in which case this article is not the solution for you, and you need to figure out why these components are still present on the Child site.

by Rob - MVP | with no comments
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WMUG October Event
Tuesday, October 23, 2007 12:17 PM

What an event,

I was pleased to see the turn out, and this time around it was mostly SMS engineers, compared to the Reading MMS Summit where we had mostly MOM engineers!

My presentation wasn't very technical at all. It was real tricky for me, as I was trying to gauge the audience based on the previous meeting (all MOM!) and expected no one to really know anything about Configuration Manager! Much to my suprise, we had several people who not only knew it reasonably well but have plans to deploy it within their environment.

I will put together a deep-drill down presentation of ConfigMgr for the next meeting, and this time no Slides ok! Pure VM live demonstration.

Thanks for attending, you all helped make our first meeting a total success!

by Rob - MVP | with no comments
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Royal Albert Hall - The Four Seasons by Candlelight
Monday, October 15, 2007 11:29 AM

Went to the Royal Albert Hall on Saturday to a concert called "The Four Seasons by Candlelight", truely a wonderful experience. We were no more than 40 feet away from the musicians, the seating and ambient temperature was comfortable, the seating even though it faced away from the orchestra, swivelled 30 or so degrees so you could sit then turn towards them.

This exquisite concert of beautiful 18th-Century classics performed in full period costume in an evocative candle-lit style setting with Vivaldi's masterpiece as a fitting finale returns to the Royal Albert Hall following last year's sensational performance.

http://www.raymondgubbay.co.uk/displayEvent.asp?eventid=214

As my Boss just said to me ... "Consider yourself cultured now, but this does not mean you'll get a pay rise!"

by Rob - MVP | with no comments
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Hotfix rollup package for SMS2003 SP3 client
Friday, October 12, 2007 5:35 PM

MS have released a post SMS2003 SP3 Client hotfix rollup

As the hotfix says, you can only apply this to SP3 SMS2003 AdvCli's

Here's the link

by Rob - MVP | with no comments
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WMIC Process Call Create
Friday, October 12, 2007 4:51 PM

Handy to know:

Start an application

wmic process call create "calc.exe"

Terminate an application

wmic process where name="calc.exe" call terminate

You can also do this remotely

WMIC /NODE:Machine Name /User:UserName /Password:Password process call create "calc.exe"

Drop /Password off the command line to be prompted.

You'll get the following appear if it's successful:

Executing (Win32_Process)->Create()

Method execution successful.

Out Parameters:

instance of __PARAMETERS

{

ProcessId = 22080;

ReturnValue = 0;

};

Something I noticed is that it creates the process but it's not interactive. The process is running on the target but not in the current users session. So even though CALC is now running on the remote machine, you cannot interact with it. This is ok for stuff that runs silent, but how do you get processes to run and become visible to the logged on user when using WMIC Process Call Create?

 

Thinking of buying an Alfa Romeo 159 2.2 JTS 4dr Lusso
Monday, October 08, 2007 4:13 PM

This car has obsessed me since I hired one for Bank Holiday August, and took the lady to Wales and a few other places on the South Coast of England.

Jeremy Clarkson reviews the 159

I'm up for the Alfa Romeo 159 2.2 JTS Lusso 4dr at around £22,650 - I could buy new or second hand, thinking of new so I can pimp it up a bit, red leather interior (oo er) and some other bells and whistles (no built-in SatNav as I have a TomTom 720!)

Wondering if any of you have an Alfa? I get mixed reviews on Afla's from people saying DONT go near one (as their trouble) or you've not had a car until you've owned an Alfa.

Anyone out there have a 159? Any guidance would be cool! I can only hold off until the end of November, then i'll either buy one or bin this dream and continue using tFL Buses and Tubes to scoot about. Not having a car in London is bearable but you do realise how limited you are when you have friends and family outside of the city or it's outskirts. Getting to Kent or anywhere not well connected is a no go without a car, as it takes a zillion hours by train. 

Ps ... I don't want a Merc or a BMW :>

NYT article on left-handedness
Saturday, October 06, 2007 12:16 PM

Found this on the New York Times website, interesting read for an insight in to the understandings, and there seem to be several, of left-handedness.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A01E1D6103BF935A25756C0A9669C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=print

The article is 7 years old, I'll see if I can dig up anything more current than this.

by Rob - MVP | with no comments
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SMS2003 MCP Exam 70-089
Friday, October 05, 2007 1:21 AM

I took the SMS2003 70-089 MCP exam today. 40 of the easiest questions i've ever had to answer!

Got a score of 984 out of 1000 (that's worth some bragging rights surely?!?!), I must of missed a question :<

I did hardly any prep-work for this exam . I use the product daily, and I think as long as you're up on the product and the feature packs you'll pass this easily. But then, you might be one of the unlucky ones that gets the nasty sick questions from the question pool :>

I'd definately recommend anyone using SMS2003 to take the exam, just bone up on prereqs for the site upgrades, site installs, A/D Integration and feature packs and you'll sail through the rest of the content as it's all pretty much core to what you do as an SMS2003 Administrator ;-)

If my passing spurs you on to taking the exam (after all if I can ....) then come back and drop a comment, be nice to hear how you get on!

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