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[Keith] Welcome to the Mind Of Root. I'm Keith Albright
[Rich] and I'm Rich Niemeier.
[Steve] and I'm Steve Murawski and this is Episode 105 streaming live on Ustream.tv on Wednesday July 1st, 2009. Today's show is sponsored by Quest Software; Helping you rule your domain.
Chit-Chat - What's going on with you?
[Steve]
- I'm hitting podcast/blog/book overload... I'm behind on my podcast listening and blog reading. I keep passing up interesting topics because I want to dedicate time to them, but when I do have a larger block of time, I just can't work up the motivation to listen/read.
[Rich]
[Keith]
- No Rich tonight. I think he's taking the Farrah Fawcett thing pretty hard. He has all her posters. Awkwardly, he still has them hanging in his house.
Housekeeping Items
[Rich]
[Steve]
- Congratulations to a couple of new PowerShell MVPs? - Joel "Jaykul" Bennet and Jonathan Noble. Also, several other pretty well known PowerShell MVPs? were renewed today - Shay Levy and Jeff Hicks are two I can think of off the top of my head. Congratulations all around and thanks for your contributions! The MVP thing is pretty great, since Microsoft is basically rewarding people for helping others with their products. It not only encourages people to share their hard won expertise, but it also helps those of us who have benefited from their help by providing them incentives to continue sharing.
[Keith]
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____________________________READ TPN PROMO____________________________
-I've used
PowerGUI? intermittently for quite some time, particularly the script editor.
-I've toyed with creating some
PowerPacks? a while ago, but never got to far.. I started a Hyper-V
PowerPack?, but Kirk Munro already had one under way which was much more comprehensive.
-I was trying to figure out a way to pass on as much of the scripting I've done at my current job without writing reams of documentation and expecting my successor to immediately be familiar with
PowerShell and SQL.
-The latest version (1.8 currently) has some great features for working with
PowerPacks?
-Profiles
-Object association management
-Possible discussion point - how long would you give an employer (best circumstances) and how should you leave your network/applications?
- Windows 7 Version Comparison [KEITH]
-Nice comparison chart from
PCWorld? showing the features included with each version of Windows 7.
-No encrypting file system for you home users. You buy the cheap version. You're too poor to deserve security.
- Perfmon Counter - Processor Queue Length [STEVE]
-This is the number of threads in the processor queue
-If this number is greater than twice the number of cores in your system for an extended period of time, you might need faster processors or more processors (or both)
- PAL - Performance Analysis of Logs [STEVE]
-Suggested to me by Alan Renouf of the Get-Scripting Podcast.
-Dynamically creates and audits perfmon logs
-Options for IIS, MOSS, SQL Server,
BizTalk?, Exchange, and Active Directory
- Video Killed The Win2K? PC [KEITH]
-I have a dual-screen workstation for the GIS system that is idle except for when we have an intern.
-Found out we were getting a summer intern, so I went over to refresh the station. Still running
Win2K? since it is just a spare, no need to go through effort to upgrade. Until now...
-Something I did (suspect ATI drivers since I've had a lot of issues with their stupid Catalyst package) corrupted the SOFTWARE.DAT registry file since I got a flash of a blue screen on startup indicating it was corrupt before rebooting.
-Tried repairing registry using a couple tools. Microsoft has one, but you have to create 6
WinXP? SP1? floppies then run a utility that modifies disk 6 to create a utility that can repair
Win2K? registry.
-Wound up rebuilding the box with XP. I'm wondering if it is worth the effort to do automated reg backups on my systems in case of future problems. MS has the REG.EXE utility that can be called from command line (native in Vista) and I could call it from login script to write to a central share names with PC name on a weekly basis. Just not sure if it is worth it.
- Conventional Network Interface Setup Wisdom Caused Some Of My Network Issues [STEVE]
-Normally the conventional wisdom when setting up network interfaces is to specify the speed and duplex. I've had the settings fixed on my firewall since I started the job over three years ago.
-I'd been having some frustrating issues with my internet connection and I thought, "Hey, this probably won't make a bit of difference, but at least I will have ruled it out" and changed interface to autoconfigure. About 90 percent of the network "oddities" stopped. Errors stopped accumulating in the cable modem/router and I stopped having to restart it. Traffic patterns returned to a more normal consistency...
-I changed the autoconfigure from 100Mb and duplex to autoconfigure. When checking the interface, it tells me that it is set for 100Mb and duplex communication... I don't really get it, but I'm not going to press my luck by digging into it much more.
-Just a quick note.. same ISP and type of network connection, but I have had a series of newer routers/cable modems of later.
- SugarOS? Now Available In A Stick [KEITH]
-Filling in for Rich in his absence. Get the latest Sugar OS from the XO laptop on your USB stick and boot away.
-
- WS-Management Protocol Documentation [STEVE]
-Want to build your own interface to interact with
PowerShell on remote machines?
-The Open Specifications do not require the use of Microsoft programming tools or programming environments in order for you to develop an implementation. If you have access to Microsoft programming tools and environments you are free to take advantage of them. Certain Open Specifications are intended for use in conjunction with publicly available standard specifications and network programming art, and assumes that the reader either is familiar with the aforementioned material or has immediate access to it.
-
- The Problem With Excel [KEITH]
-Excel is a fantastic tool. I think it can be used too often though.
-We have been in the process of designing a new asset management system that will centralize a bunch of systems and processes. One of the tasks was identifying reports and data that should be in the new system. Much of it was in Excel files.
-Oddly, I had a discussion with a consultant from the company engaged to design this. When I spoke about the functions performed by the Excel spreadsheets I talked about the reports and data. He dismissed the reports aspect and focused on the data.
-It took me a while, but I finally made him understand that those Excel workbooks were Reports as well as data repositories. The format and formula are basically an ad hoc report of the embedded data.
-This goes back to Steve's discussion on Data Mining. With all these disparate data sources, nothing like Data Mining would be possible.
-I recently wrote an article for Windows Administration in Realtime on Network Access Protection and am working on another article for an upcoming issue.
-I just wanted to point out that RTWA is a monthly magazine with great articles from authors like Greg Shields, Don Jones, Eric Beehler (from the CS
TechCast?), Jeffery Hicks (formerly of Sapien Technologies), and Peter Bruzzese (who does the Exclusively Exchange series in the magazine).
-Realtime publishers also have a great collection of ebooks and articles on many other topics. The articles are sponsored by companies, but they approach the topics in a vendor neutral manner.
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Listener Feedback
From listener....
Website Picks
Rich - http://
Steve - http://ogdisdk.cloudapp.net/
Keith - http://data.gov
Last Call
Anyone....Anyone....Buehler.....Buehler....
Closing
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I'd like to thank everyone in the chat on UStream?.tv we always enjoy the additional comments and interaction.
everyone should remember that there are numerous ways one can interact with the show. For listener feedback post comments on the main show site, or email us at feedback[at] MindofRoot?.com.
It's always fun to see where our listeners live, put a pin on our frappr map there is a link to this on the main show site.
To become even more involved you can leave suggestions for future shows on the topics request wiki. Again a link to the wiki can be found on the main show site.
There is a link to the wiki on the main show site. If you would like to participate in the show; either through an interview, a segment contribution, or any other way, please let us know. We are also a member of the Techpodcast network. Check out some other great shows by going to Techpodcast.com.
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All right, well that is it for the show. For listener feedback; you can email us at Feedback [at] mindofroot.com or post a comment on the main site at mindofroot.com. If you use iTunes, you could write a review. If you just want to show us your listening, drop a pin on the Frappr map...there's a link on the show site.
Lastly, you can drop any show ideas or topic requests on the wiki. There is a link to the wiki on the main show site. If you would like to participate in the show; either through an interview, a segment contribution, or any other way, please let us know. We are also a member of the Techpodcast network. Check out some other great shows by going to Techpodcast.com.
