Search results for 'app:weblogs' matching tag 'News'

The ghost of Karl is haunting me tonight

bradley — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 05:00:00 GMT

First off I'd like to say that Karl Palachuk really screwed up this time. Calling his company "Great Little Book" when his latest is great, but it sure isn't little, is not truth in advertising. At a whopping 590 pages, that is not a little book by any means. http://greatlittlebook.com/ Great yes, little, no way.

I'm in the pre-planning mode for the migration... or rather I should say the "Ghost of Karl Paluchuk" is hanging around me in my server room tonight telling me to "Document! Document! Document!" as I'm setting up a new firewall, writing down (YES WRITING DOWN) the passwords and making sure that they aren't variations of the SAME password over and over again. For a temp dry run test setup, I have the server and the new Calyptix firewall hanging off the second of two DSL connections (long story as to why we have two, the old one was under the original firm name and when we went to change the name they said "Oh no we have to set up a new account". I tested the DSL line when it first came in and it was SLOWER than our old line so I've kept the old line all this time while waiting for about 6 months for the speed to bump up to the promised speed.) It's now coming in handy as a second line to stage some of this stuff without interacting and interfering with my real server just yet.

But I realized that on this Netopia DSL router model I had never bothered to change the default password from the serial number default it was. Way to go Susan on that one. Just stick a "Hack me" sign on my router on that one. So I've changed that from the default it once was.

In addition I want to ensure that I have a "bus book".. you know ensuring that someone will have the documentation of the network should I get hit by a bus? And too many times in small firms we do not take the time to document what we should.

Quick, where's the passwords for your routers that you have, that you manage? Do you use the same variation of a password over and over again? If someone guessed just ONE of your passwords, could they guess at the others? See how important it is to understand the human nature of password choosing and just using the variations of that and doing something better than that? Right now this box is bog standard, and not with what I'd consider to be fighting condition for production.

Right now I have full RDP open to anyone not limited down to a per IP restricted range. Port 25 is also not limited. AuthAnvil is not loaded up for the two factor authentication I need. All of these screws to tighten up my firm I'll add, I'll document, and I'll ensure they aren't the defaults.

Another reason to do clean install versus inplace from Vista.

bradley — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Another reason to do clean install versus inplace from Vista.

It ain't gonna fit. You need at least 20 gigs free and on this year old Vista system even after using the Compcln.exe tool it didn't thin down the drive enough for comfort. And that WinSxS folder is still huge.

"After the cleansing process, users will notice the free hard disk space has increased substantially. "

Uh...not in my personal experience....

So when did big hunking servers start shipping with laptop harddrives?

bradley — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 05:00:00 GMT

When I get new hardware, the first thing I do is open it up... okay for a large server.. when did big hunking servers start shipping with laptop harddrives?

Another entire bay unused for future expansion

Lots of room for expansion!

And the box "just" fit in the back of the mini cooper... a few more laptop harddrives and I may have needed to get a Uhaul to get the server back to the office!

When you roll out a brand new server...

bradley — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 05:00:00 GMT

HP SmartStart Software - Download drivers and software - HP Business Support Center:
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareIndex.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodNameId=344318&prodTypeId=18964&prodSeriesId=345557&swLang=8&taskId=135&swEnvOID=4024

Throw away the CD/DVDs that come with it and start downloading the latest stuff.

HP Smartstart 8.25 was shipped with the server and already 8.3 is out and is highly recommended as the one to use for the install.

Since the fate of Response Point is up in the air

bradley — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 05:00:00 GMT

http://www.cigear.com/support/2009/10/21/aastra-releases-rp-to-sip-conversion-firmware-for-aastralink-rp-phones/

Aastra released an RP to SIP conversion firmware today. This is designed to help customers of AastraLink RP phones to re-use their existing phones with standard SIP based phone systems and soft switches.

The Aastralink RP phones were originally designed to work only with Microsoft Response Point phone systems including the Aastralink Pro RP system. Since the fate of Response Point is up in the air with Microsoft’s plans for further development on hold, some customers are looking for alternate solutions in case they outgrow RP or in case Microsoft decides to pull the plug on it.

This conversion release provides some investment protection for AastraLink RP customers since it helps simplify the upgrade path by preserving the customer’s investment in phones. This release will change the firmware in the Response Point phone to that of an Aastra standards-based SIP phone – allowing it to be used with standard based SIP PBXs such as the Aastralink Pro 160, 3CX, pbxnsip, Trixbox and hosted soft-switches, such as Asterisk, MetaSwitch and BroadSoft. The conversion process is easily accomplished through the phone’s Web UI, requiring only a TFTP server and the firmware downloaded from our website.

The new conversion firmware can be downloaded here.

Join the live celebration of worldwide availability of Windows 7

Anonymous — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 05:00:00 GMT

"Join the live celebration of worldwide availability of Windows 7 with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer at the Windows 7 Launch event on October 22, 2009, at 8:00 A.M., Pacific daylight time. If you can’t watch the event live, come back later to watch the webcast on demand."

Well we had our party... Snow Leopard versus Win7. Snow booted faster but to be fair, Vlad stacked the deck as it was newer hardware. We talked about our likes, (faster boot, performance), I talked about how folks in my CPA listserves were already buzzing about Windows 7.

Tomorrow is the "official" party day.

Join the live celebration of worldwide availability of Windows 7

admin — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Tomorrow is the "official" party day.

Are you ready for Windows 7?

bradley — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Having a launch party here at the office tonight for our SMB Fresno group...

And we're doing a MacBook Pro (courtesy of Vlad from www.ownwebnow.com) versus Win7 comparison. First comparison, there's no video output for the MacBook Pro.

Tomorrow Steve Ballmer will be doing the "official launch".

Are you ready for Windows 7?

Anonymous — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Having a launch party here at the office tonight for our SMB Fresno group...

And we're doing a MacBook Pro (courtesy of Vlad from www.ownwebnow.com) versus Win7 comparison. First comparison, there's no video output for the MacBook Pro.

Tomorrow Steve Ballmer will be doing the "official launch".

Online advertising regaining momentum

siljaline — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 05:00:00 GMT

After bogging down in the recession, internet advertising is regaining the momentum that has made it the decade's most disruptive marketing machine.

The signs of an online revival are emerging even while advertising in print and broadcasts remains in a slump that has triggered mass layoffs, pay cuts and other upheaval.

Internet advertising was just about the only bright spot in the third-quarter reports of two major U.S. newspaper publishers, Gannett Co. and McClatchy Co.

Meanwhile, the companies still are dealing with steep declines in print ads — an imbalance most analysts predict will take years to address.

More: http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2009/10/21/online-advertising-rebound.html