It's alive! Run for your lives! Ahhhhh! Ok, don't do that. Run for the web site and order your copy today. I hope you like it. I tried to fill in the things I thought were missing in the previous book. As always: I look forward to your feedback. If you purchase a copy, please post your comments and ratings on Amazon? I really want to know what you think. Be honest. Your feedback is the only thing I have to go on for future books.
Here's the direct link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004U2UWRU
Every so often, it does the mind good to learn about, or experience a situation which demonstrates unsolvable problems. I think this is important in that it reminds us that we are not all-powerful. There are problems that the smartest humans on this planet, past and present, have not been able to make a dent in. Some are sad, some are curious, some are tragic. Ask anyone who's experience combat firsthand. Ask anyone who works in law enforcement or the fire department. Ask an ER doctor. Logic oftens runs for the nearest door before anyone notices it's gone.
Two documentaries I've watched in the past few months that have brought this home to me are:
I highly recommend both of these. Grab a box of tissues and tell all your macho guy friends that you're sick and can't come out to play. I would caution you not to watch them both back-to-back. I would suggest you watch something funny in between, and probably afterwards as well.
I was describing my thinking and speaking process to someone and realized it was a pretty good analogy:
Picture a big, open grassy field under a warm, sunny, blue sky. At the far end of that field is a gigantic pile of big, fluffy, happy-looking stuffed toys. On the near-side of the field is a school bus, stopping and opening the door to let dozens of happy, yet screaming, little over-caffeinated toddlers off. They see the stuffed toys. Now imagine the field is full of land mines.
Some of you might read that and get the wrong idea that I'm favorable to that scenario. I'm not. It's how my mouth runs out ahead of my brain without bothering to look for the dangers in between. That is all.
I just submitted the final cut to Amazon for publishing. It should be available for purchase in a few days. I'll be honest: This one snuck up on me. I really didn't expect as much work and time to be involved in this edition. My first impression of the changes in AutoCAD 2012 were that it was all about the product itself and very little (if any) to do with deployment aspects. I was wrong. Not incredibly wrong, mind you, but somewhat wrong. Is that proper English? "Somewhat wrong"? Is that like "sort of dead" or "kind of pregnant"? I don't know.
I put more work into the new Deployment building process, the small-but-important changes to the components and prerequisites (DirectX 9, 10 and 11 now), Visual C++ Runtimes 2005, 2008 SP1 and 2010, and of course - no party would be jumping without .NET 4.0 showing up with four bottles of heavy liquor in each hand.
I also spent more time capturing screen shots of the Development build process, discussing the options and caveates of folders, permissions, shares, logging and so forth. In addition, I spent more time with SCCM on the packaging, customization and advertising aspects with DirectX, and .NET 4.0 as well as with AutoCAD 2012 itself. I included some screen shots of Wise Package Studio 8 during the DirectX component packaging process. There are updates, tweaks, adjustments, shifts and changes scattered throughout the book this time. I hope the structure is better this time as well. I will post an update here when the book is available for purchase.
I'd like to thank Ralph Grabowski, Shaan Hurley and Rod Trent for being supportive and offering valuable advice and guidance, as well as the readers of the previous edition for (A) purchasing the book and (B) providing valuable feedback. Cheers!
Michael Pietroforte posted another in his series of articles on dissecting the impact of mobile apps on tradtional (i.e. desktop-based) web applications and web sites. It's a very good series to read if you (a) work in a field related to web development, web-based marketing, or (b) manage desktops and/or mobile devices on a large scale, and (c) give a crap about tech trends as a whole. I have been known to occassionally give a crap, but mine don't exude a fowl aroma, of course. posh posh and all that, pass me another crumpet please?
Here's why small, handheld mobile devices cannot completely wipe out desktops and laptops, or at the very least: tablets. The following tasks are simply impractical and painful to even attempt on a small handheld device form factor:
Ok. I'm sure some of you are shaking your heads and spinning up into a decent argument mode right now. "Oh yeah?! Well, what about…" Ok, let's hit those counterpoints too…
Some will say that it will soon be common practice to dock mobile devices within stationary systems (large video display, larger keyboard, mouse/pointer, etc.), which is already possible with some devices, but still is a limited practice. This concept defeats and NEGATES the mobile form-factor argument entirely. Sure, it makes the core computational device a bit more portable, but you're still only able to expose and exploit the full capabilities while it is docked. In between it is less capable. Period. Sure, you can message, tweet, take pictures, play music and all that, but compared with the docked experience it's a subset, because everything that can be done while undocked can be done while docked, but more can be done while docked. This is a basic mathematical principle.
Are mobile devices then an inferior form factor? No. Just different. But if we confine our discussion to comparing the aspects of a mobile device with what "threat" it poses to traditional desktop form-factors, then the gloves come off and it's apples-vs-apples from that point on.
* By "REAL Multi-tasking" I am referring to the ability to visually and manually view multiple sub-environments at the same time and simply move the eyes between them to consume their individual dynamic states. You cannot do that on a smart phone. Period. You have to hide one app to access another. I don't care how tricky the UI engineers get with that process, it's hamstrung by viewing space. On a desktop video display (or my flat-panel TV, even better, umm…. "Hello? Winner!") I can have multiple applications open without them competing for display real estate. I simply move my eyes to see what each is doing and make a quick decision as to which I want to interact with. On a mobile device I have to use my fingers to view each one, then discern the state and make a singular (serialized) decision about interaction priority, not a multi-nodal comparison with only my eyes (which are faster than my hands).
So. In the end: desktops, laptops and tablets aren't going to dissappear anytime soon.
From Ralph:
I wanted you to let you know that the brand-new What's Inside? AutoCAD 2012 ebook is now available.
In this release, Autodesk concentrated on 2D drafting -- along with throwing in a copy of Fusion, access to AutoCAD WS, and a host of 3D CAD translators. AutoCAD 2012's got 46 new commands, 26 new system variables, 64 changed commands and system variables, 9 removed commands and system variables, 6 undocumented commands, and 2 commands converted from Express Tools. The guide to all of this is the 120-page What's Inside? AutoCAD 2012 ($12.00 ).
To Order by PayPal or by Mail
To order this brand-new ebook, follow these steps:
1. Go to www.upfrontezine.com/wia12 .
2. Scroll down to the PayPal link.
3. Click the Buy This eBook Now button.
4. Follow the instructions.
You can expect the 3.5MB PDF file in your email in under 24 hours.
To pay by cheque , money order, or purchase order, include your email address and write to:
What's Inside? AutoCAD 2012
34486 Donlyn Avenue
Abbotsford BC
V2S 4W7 Canada
Thank you for being a customer!
Ralph Grabowski
Publisher
If you're one of the many folks that wishes Autodesk would put a leash/muzzle on InfoCenter (wscommcntrl.exe, etc.) you should be happy to read this:
"If you're upgrading to AutoCAD 2012, don't forget to also disable InfoCenter (unless you really need it). Just download and install AcadInfoCenterOff to disable it on any version of AutoCAD or AutoCAD LT. If you already have AcadInfoCenterOff installed, you can just run a repair install to apply to a newly installed instance of AutoCAD 2012."
Read the source:
PS. Thank you Owen! 
I haven't mentioned that I've been a very busy boy lately. I'm probably over busy, if that's a legit phrase. In between work, family, side work, and kids sports, I'm once again working on a book. After the third pass through it I realized something that I need to define, declare and document: I am no longer going to talk about Windows XP. It's done. It will soon (not soon enough) be relegated to the history books. Add to that the fact that I absolutely hate Vista and I completely love Windows 7 (and Windows Server 2008 R2, by the way), and here it is:
While I have to support Windows XP for some of my clients by day, I will no longer discuss Windows XP or Vista in my blogging or book writing endeavors. It's all Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 or 2008 R2 from here on out.
I'm shooting for an April 1 book release date. Fingers are crossed. No sleep ahead.
Autodesk will continue to “unofficially” support VBA in its 2012 products, thus VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) is still available and as a separate installer.
http://www.autodesk.com/vba-download
The Express Tools command REVERT still requires VBA.
Trying to click on Installation Help, System Requirements or Readme does not work.
At least the actual installation works. If you have AutoCAD 2012 verticals like AutoCAD Architecture 2012, AutoCAD MEP 2012, AutoCAD Electrical 2012, AutoCAD Map 3D 2012, and AutoCAD Mechanical 2012, and AutoCAD Structural Detailing 2012 or AutoCAD Civil 3D 2012 the installer will install for all of them.
Software developers are strongly encouraged by Autodesk to base all future Microsoft Windows based development for AutoCAD based products on the Microsoft .NET Framework (VB .NET, C#, managed C++ etc).
If Autodesk’s future versions (AutoCAD 2013?) still will be able to run VBA or not only future can tell but don’t hold your breath.
JTB World offers fee based porting of LISP or VBA applications to .NET.
Content
[program code]
More content
- In Wise Package Studio, with the Acad2012DX project still open:
- Select the "Installation Expert" tab (at bottom)
- Under "Package Options" heading (left-hand panel), select "Administrator Options"
- Change Install for Profile to: "Per-machine installation"
- Change Reboot Option to: "Never reboot"
- Check "Do not display reboot prompts"
- Change Rollback Option to: "Fail if out of disk space"
Then compile (F7)
Aside from lack of interest, it's now become a matter of *time*. Time is drying up fast for me. My kids are entering a new spoprts season, I'm helping with coaching, new AD and SCCM projects have landed on me, house repairs and bills are still mounting, and my dog is feeling rejected I think.
I've uploaded build 2011.03.23.001 this morning. That will be the last of its kind. I will leave the site up for a few more days or a week maybe. On to new challenges now - cheers!
Over the years I've observed a quiet trend that doesn't get brought up in many focused discussions. If at all, it's usually a side topic. But in any case, I felt like blabbering about what are the most typical items inserted into what many IT folks call a "base image" of Windows used for installing new computers (or re-imaging/reloading existing machines that become corrupted)
Most common items:
Less common items
Did you hear the news? ConfigMgr 2012 will support Windows Phone 7, Symbian, iOS (iPhones and iPads) and Android-based devices, and the new Beta 2 is available for download starting today. From the download site:
Consumerization is a growing challenge for IT organizations. System Center Configuration Manager 2012 helps IT empower people to use the devices and applications they need to be productive, while maintaining corporate compliance and control. The boundaries between work and life have blurred to where people expect reliable, consistent access to corporate services from wherever they are, on any device they're using. Using System Center Configuration Manager 2012, organizations can:
- Empower people to be productive from anywhere on whatever device they choose. This includes the wide range of devices that connect to Exchange ActiveSync, including Windows Phone, Symbian, iOS, and Android-based devices. Through the new application model, the best application experience can be delivered to the user based on their identity, their device, and their connection.
- Streamline operations with a unified infrastructure that integrates client management and protection across mobile, physical, and virtual environments. Improved capabilities such as Forefront Endpoint Protection integration, role based administration, and virtualization scenario support will simplify both infrastructure and processes for IT.
- Drive organizational efficiency for IT with improved visibility and enforcement options for maintaining system compliance. This means fewer mouse clicks to accomplish tasks and higher degrees of automation in activities such as patch management and settings enforcement.
For all the details and a download link click here.
Fantastical wrapping of verbage around one of the dullest topics around. Ned is a master of making un-fun things almost fun to read. - Enjoy!
Sure. PDF was cool ten years ago. Now it's just stupid, bloated and inflexible. Looks like shit on most e-book readers (Kindle, Nook, Sony, etc.), save for maybe a Kindle DX, maybe an iPad. If you can zoom and adjust contrast it can be acceptable, sometimes. Many times it isn't. Actually, MOST of the time it isn't. It's just outdated. So you feel that you can protect it, sort of. I haven't seen an effective safeguard on PDF documents that's lasted. It's a double-edged sword, isn't it? You want people to read your creative works, yet you want to make it difficult to propagate. If you're charging money for it, that's one thing. But if you're not, then why put a leash on it?
If you're in the middle of writing a document and plan on publishing it to PDF format: STOP. Don't do it! It's 2011. Catch up. Make it an HTML document and crank out an EPUB or PRC/MOBI file so the growing masses of ebook readers can use it efficiently. Why make it more difficult to tote your fantastic creations around with us on-the-go? Converting Word, TXT and HTML to EPUB and PRC/MOBI is not only FREE, it's ridiculously easy to do. In fact, 2epub.com is one of the best examples of just how easy it is.
I know that I'm not alone in standing firm on my conviction that if I can't buy a book to read on my Kindle, I'm not buying it. Period. I don't buy paper books anymore. Nothing against them. It's just that they don't fit my needs or mobility constraints. Being a consultant, I have to have access to a multitude of subjects and documents, often without having Internet access or a practical space to open, boot and log into a laptop or netbook (shielded data centers, remote locations, sitting in a fast food parking lot, etc.). My Kindle (and to be fair, a Nook or Sony Reader) are much more practical and portable, and are fantastic in outdoor situations (I know, I know, nerds don't go outdoors, but I try to). e-Ink displays are also infinitely easier to read for hours on-end than any backlit display devices like laptops, computer screens or even tablets. They don't have the glossy sheen glare and reflection to bother my eyes either. My Kindle requires a charge about once a week, which is not bad for a frequent reader like myself (I read for at least a few hours every day if possible).
But the difference between reading a standard e-book versus a PDF book is about as different as eating a grilled steak versus gnawing on a steak made from dog food. Word-wrapping is crap. Zoom and pan sucks. It's just horrible. My rant is complete. Thank you.
An article in today's New York Times analyzes the impact of the aftermath of the tsunami disaster on Japan's rural communities and elderly inhabitants. It's a very interesting and well-written article (as most NYT articles are). But after reading it, I paused, stared out into space to ponder the ramifications and context and realized, that it's almost embarrassingly obvious that this is nothing new. History is riddled with thousands of examples of communities, even entire cultures, vanishing or migrating in the wake of a disaster. Sometimes suddenly, sometimes very gradually. Examples range from Mongolian villages, to South American village towns, to Balkan trading towns, to North African trading cities. They even run right up to recent times with small examples like the abandoned town of Wash Woods, Virginia.
We like to say that we "learn from history", but we rarely do. We are informed about it. We remember details and some trivial aspects like names, dates, and other nonesense, but actual learning is rare. Humans repeat the mistakes of history all the time. A great example is the Financial market systems we've pandered to for hundreds of years. From the Tulip market bust of the 1600's Holland era, right up to the 2007 nose-dive, the same lead-ups occurred. The same rhetoric and political arguments were spewed out, but we followed the same script as if blindfolded and led down a cattle slaughter corrale. What does this have to do with tsunamis and Japan? From one aspect it has everything to do with it: we read history and ignore it. Then when something occurs again, as it has for thousands, if not millions, of years, we act as if it's all new. Brand, spanking new.
Stop and think, over the past thousands of years, before we had any way to report "news" or even write things down, of how many times Earthquakes must have occurred in the western band of the ring of fire (tectonic plate stuff), and how many times tsunamis must have come in and wiped out entire villages, towns, cities and the lives and cultures along with it? We won't likely ever know. Only cultures that have survived the onslaught of history have been able to record their experiences. Many that perished never had the ability or the chance to do so. Those are the things left for Archeologists to dig up later.
So before you buy into the sky-is-falling hype, or start worrying that our planet is suddenly turning against us, keep in mind that from a geological and cultural/societal aspect, we live in some of the most calm and relatively uneventful times in the history of this planet. While horrifically tragic, these are relatively small blips in the violent history of this planet. Some will parish. Some will move and start over. Some will barely notice it happened. But the Earth will move on, just as it did with every previous disaster, of which we only know of a small number. Imagine if this happened today in a populated area? It's called: luck (or bad luck).
Disclaimer: I really don't know shit about what I'm talking about.
Anyone who really knows would nod in total agreement and understanding at this title without hesitation. While most people arrive at each Friday with the hope and excitement of a weekend and promises of something exciting, or even mildly interesting, to look forward to… I see Monday on the horizon. I don't go on vacations. I don't have any serious hobbies, well, besides an occassional jog or bike ride. Other than that, I sit and read or write program code.
So, here it is on a Saturday night. Clear skies and stars beginning to pop out. And I'm building a VM to prepare for swapping out a flaky AD domain controller. It's the only DC for my network, which although violates my own strong convictions about redundancy and failover planning, it is what it is: a single point of failure. What's worse is that I broke it.
It works from a AD services standpoint. And SP1 seems to have fixed that annoying problem I've had to deal with in the Server Manger console that puked up an error every time I tried to access "Roles" or "Features". Feh. All the fixes I'd tried before that worked for a few hours at most, then the problem would return. SP1 seems to have been the real fix.
But what I "broke" was WSUS. You see, when you configure WSUS to maintain a local updates cache, and you swap out the drive which contained that cache without doing proper due diligence and preparation, well, it leaves WS08 R2 unable to do ANYTHING with it. I had a 500 GB IDE drive stuffed in the server and it was running out of space, so I bought a 1TB SATA drive and swapped it out. Then I tried to get WSUS to use it. Ha ha ha ha …. so unfunny. You can't even uninstall it after that happens. Well, you can (by using the vice grip approach with MSICUU), but it still won't allow you to reinstall it. Take my advice, and don't do that kind of transplant surgery without doing it right.
So, my hair-brained plan is to stand up and join a new DC, transfer the FSMO roles, reload the original DC and switch it all back. Maybe. I'm still dealing with how to address some technical issues with DNS, and GPO settings, but whatever. It's not like I have anything else going on.
So, if you're sitting at a friend's house, or at a bar, movie theater, pub or eatery, and even the slightest whisp of thought passes your brain suggesting you lead a boring life… think again.
So, I already mentioned that I had made a foolish decision to chase the scripting path for deploying an Office 2010 upgrade to our 2007 users (as well as being part of our SCCM OSD task sequence for imaging new machines). Rather than describe the steps in nausiating detail, since there's already a bunch of articles, blogposts, wikis and whatnots out there that do that just fine, I will summarize by saying that all you need are:
Then the package program simply does the following…
setup.exe /adminfile custom.MSP /config config.xml
Done.
Make sure you follow some standard best practices for customizing the MSP from OCT, like turning off the prompt for updates at the end or first-launch of an Office app. The default option is to remove previous versions. But be sure to set the config.xml to properly hide the progress, disable the completion notice and suppress modality. Then you're good. I'm good. We're all good. Let's drink something good now. Cheers!
Not even five minutes ago, I finished reading "War" by Sebastian Junger. From the first sentence, to the first chapter, and through to the end, including the bibliography and acknowledgements, I could not put this book down. It's funny. It's sad. It's awe-inspiring. It's poetic. It's fucking incredible.
I could have chosen another word, possibly a much less profane word, but that wouldn't be honest. I've read a lot of good books, especially since I bought my Kindle. This book stands out above the rest. It's not "pro" war. It's not "anti" war. It's just an honest first-hand experience of being closely involved with a group of men trying to maintain sanity in an insane surrounding, and looking out for one another. What can I say: I was floored. I hope you will read it also.
@echo off
rem ****************************************************************
rem Filename..: setup.cmd
rem Author....: David M. Stein
rem Date......: 03/16/2011
rem Purpose...: install microsoft office 2010 (remove 2007 if found)
rem ****************************************************************
CLS
title Installing Office 2010
echo Installing Microsoft Office 2010...
SETLOCAL
set APPNAME=Office2010_x86
set LOG=%TMP%\%APPNAME%_install.log
rem set MSI=/quiet /norestart
echo %DATE% %TIME% installing... %APPNAME%... >%LOG%
echo %DATE% %TIME% source....... %~dps0 >>%LOG%
echo %DATE% %TIME% target....... %COMPUTERNAME% >>%LOG%
echo %DATE% %TIME% windir....... %WINDIR% >>%LOG%
echo %DATE% %TIME% progfiles.... %PROGRAMFILES% >>%LOG%
echo %DATE% %TIME% temp......... %TMP% >>%LOG%
echo INSTALL LOG: %LOG%
echo ----------------------------------------------- >>%LOG%
echo *** REMOVE OFFICE 2007 *** >>%LOG%
rem ------------------------------------------------
echo %DATE% %TIME% info: checking if office 2007 is installed... >>%LOG%
if exist "%ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Office\Office12\winword.exe" (
echo %DATE% %TIME% info: *** removing Office 2007... >>%LOG%
cscript /nologo "%~dps0uninstall2007.vbs" >>%LOG%
) else (
echo %DATE% %TIME% info: Office 2007 was not found on this compuer. >>%LOG%
)
echo ----------------------------------------------- >>%LOG%
echo *** INSTALL OFFICE 2010 *** >>%LOG%
echo %DATE% %TIME% info: app-log is %temp%\Microsoft Office Professional Plus Setup(*).txt >>%LOG%
echo %DATE% %TIME% command is "%~dps0setup.exe" /adminfile "%~dps0custom.MSP" /config "%~dps0ProPlus.WW\config.xml" >>%LOG%
rem --- intentional line break for blog post ---
"%~dps0setup.exe" /adminfile "%~dps0custom.MSP" /config "%~dps0ProPlus.WW\config.xml"
echo installation completed!
if %errorlevel%==0 (
echo %DATE% %TIME% info: installation was successful >>%LOG%
) else (
echo %DATE% %TIME% fail: exit code is %errorlevel% >>%LOG%
)
ENDLOCAL
exit %errorlevel%
Yeah, yeah yeah, whatever. I'm not going to blow my horn anymore, f*** that. The horn is broken anyway and all I usually blow is hot air. But sometimes, just sometimes, I can whistle a tune. In any case, I thought I'd post something fairly relevant today:
Someone asked me (offline of course, the way I HATE it. I'd rather get feedback via the site so others can see the back-and-forth, and thereby bore themselves to sleep without me having to retype it all, but whatever, on with it…) they said
"Hey Dave. Why would I want to manage AD or SCCM through a web browser?"
I responded with one word: "Mobile"
And like David Caruso, I shoved my imaginary sunglasses up on my nose and turned to walk away. If only there were a door in that direction. Ouch!
It got him thinking though. I had to demonstrate it on my crappy little Blackberry (that makes for a crappyberry I suppose). Bring up the web app from the SSL connection, authenticate, and voila! WWA interface is smiling back at me (through the pinhole screen on my crappyberry). View collections, packages, programs, advertisements, sites, site boundaries, distribution points, distribution point groups, drill-down into computers and view inventory data, linked over to the user account reports pulled seamlessly from AD, including phone, email, department, all the groups the user is a member of, other users in that department, other users with the same computer model, same operating system and service pack, all the non-windows resources in AD which aren't discovered by SCCM, and on and on and on…
blah blah blah blah.
But you know what the best part of this is? Nobody. And I mean NO-BODY is interested. It's a short-lived one-trick dog. The March 31 date is being moved up to Saturday, March 26. No reason to drag this poor decrepit beast around in the mud longer than it needs to. Oh well, it's been fun building it.
Dave "I can't wait to upgrade my phone" Stein
P.S. I adopted that closing from Ned Pyle, one of my heroes.
Some notes about the current WWA project:
Keep in mind that this is still "beta" and very much a "work in progress", so it may likely change quite a bit, and possibly in rapid succession. These are screen shots from work completed this weekend. I'm still interested in any feedback on this. If it's a waste of time I can easily dump it. It's an extrapolation of multiple production projects, which will each live on in their own environments, so this isn't really necessary. I'll let the comments decide. Silence = doom.
I'll post some screen shots of the SCCM features soon.
It dawned on me as I've been working feverishly to develop this project that I'm using as many Active Directory features as I am SCCM features. Users, Groups, Printers, Shares, Servers, and most of the usual suspects that end up getting added into "Saved Queries" for most seasoned Sys-Admins. I'm hoping to make this thing a useful tool to view and manage some of the most common aspects of an Active Directory network environment, as well as a System Center Configuration Manager 2007 environment.
And most importantly: it will be FREE. In fact, it will be offered under Creative Commons 3.0 licensing (attribution, non-commercial, share-alike), for anyone to use, private or business, with very few restrictions.
If you'd like to be involved in shaping this thing to your needs, just let me know. I prefer developing with some constraints, rather than wandering in an open field. While some view the word "constraints" as a negative concept, I don't. A constraint is simply a defined parameter. A boundary you have to work within. There are constraints everywhere in life. Every second of every minute of every life in ever part of the world, we live with, and depend on, constraints. They are the edges of the road on which we drive our lives. Whoa! That was almost deep! See what happens when I consume a triple-venti Latte? Dangerous. I need to stop that.
Back to the story…
So, I'm going to rename this project to something else. I don't know if I want to step into a trademark quagmire at this point, so it will probably be something fairly utilitarian and blandly techno-oriented, but I don't know yet. I'm anal about picking software product and project names. I've been known to spend weeks deciding on a name.
Aside from the name and somewhat-expanded scope of this, I'm also going to make it so you can toggle the SCCM and AD features independently. So if you want to use it for only AD management and not SCCM, that'll work fine, and the same will hold true for the opposite. Does that sound about right? Let me know.
According to Microsoft Support Article 2496904, there is a nasty little problem with the App-V 4.6 client when installing Service Pack 1 on Windows 7 clients. The problem occurs after the reboot, during the post-configuration process…
The Application Virtualization Client FSI encountered an exception during shutdown. A minidump may have been generated. (mini-dump garbage follows…)
The "Cause" is stated to be "Conflict with SFTLIST.exe", that's it. That's it?! Wow.
The "Solution"? Wait for a forthcoming patch, or simply hold off deploying Service Pack 1 to your Windows 7 App-V clients.
The actual resolution given by Microsoft is: "An optional patch is planned for availability through Windows Update and should be available by the end of March 2011."
Apparently, according to Microsoft Support Article 2496653, there is a "known issue" with regards to using a virtual Q: install target while sequencing AutoCAD 2008 with Microsoft App-V 4.6 SP1. The solution is to create a physical partition named Q: to do the sequencing and it will work. I suspect this may apply to other 2008 Autodesk products, as well as other Autodesk products in general. If you use App-V then this may be of interest to consider. If you don't, well, move along - nothing to see here.
After reading the latest post by Shaan Hurley ("Between The Lines" blog) about statistics on visitors, I thought I'd try the same on my feeble scruffy little blog. In order to even come close enough to Shaan's stats to see them with binoculars, I had to set the window of data to one year (3/11/2010 to 3/11/2011). Here goes…
Visitor Status
13,545 total visits
75% new visits
25% returning visits (I scare/bore a lot of visitors away)
Top 5 Countries:
42% United States
7% United Kingdom
7% Germany
4% Canada
4% Australia
Top 5 Operating Systems:
94% Windows
3% Mac OSX
1% Linux
1% iPhone and Other
Browsers:
44% Internet Explorer
30% Firefox
18% Google Chrome
8% Other
Traffic Sources:
47% search engine leads
30% referring sites
23% direct traffic
Mobile Devices (visits):
62 iPhone
60 iPad
35 Blackberry
23 Android
4 iPod
2 Symbian
2 Windows Phone / Windows Mobile
5 Most popular posts:
Windows 7 MSG.exe and Group Policy
Packaging DWG TrueView 2011
Enabling Windows 7 Remote Management
What Does the AutoCAD "PURGE" Command Do?
Packaging & Deployment Autodesk 2011 Products with System Center Configuration Manager 2007
That last one is probably one of the longest titles yet.
Conclusion?
Ho hum. I'm more boring than even I thought I was. I may fall asleep typing this. Sheesh!
I ran my mouth about the comparisons between the movie "The Social Network" and the Ben Mezrich book "The Accidental Billionaires" from which the screenplay was based. Ok, I still stand behind my mini-rant about the irritating hand-job sucking up the author spewed out in the early part of the book (the part where he calls Zuck a "god" and saying he has "god-like powers" and so on).
But aside from that, the rest of the book does in fact get better as you move on towards the end. So, where I originally gave it a thumbs-down, I would now give it a thumbs-up. If you're at all, even marginally, interested in this subject matter, this is worth reading. Ok, I said it. I'm sorry I crapped on the book. Are you happy now? Here's some bonus perspectives from yours truly…
Some interesting deviations between the screenplay and book:
