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[Keith] Welcome to the Mind Of Root. I'm Keith Albright

[Rich] and I'm Rich Niemeier.

[Keith] This is Episode 79 streaming live on Ustream.tv on December 10, 2008. Today's show is sponsored by Quest Software; Helping you rule your domain. And by Idera, the makers of PowerShellPlus?; making PowerShell easier to learn and master.

Chit-Chat - What's going on with you?

[Steve]

[Rich]

  • On a 10MB connection at my primary site now....Lov'n It.

[Keith]

  • How did your PowerShell training gig go Steve? Did you preach the gospel of PoSH? to the masses? Did you serve Kool-Aid?

Housekeeping Items

[Rich]

[Steve]

[Keith]

  • Missing Steve tonight. You'll have you get your PowerShell fix some other way.
  • Thanks to Jason for posting a review on iTunes.
  • Looks like Frappr is slowly getting fixed. I kept wondering if something was wrong with it as we were getting no pins, yet folks were posting pix. All of a sudden, we got 20 pins. Some of which were "Unknown location". Thanks to Blowfish, ExtraJustin?, and LToot? for posting pix. ExtraJustin? points out the GoogleAPI? fail that Frappr is apparently experiencing.

____________________________READ IDERA AD COPY____________________________

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  • How long has your system been up? [KEITH]
-Use the systeminfo command built into Windows XP and above to see how long the system has been up. It's in the top header section, so either '| more' or scroll up when the command is done.
-I needed this the other day when I was VPN'd into work to reboot some servers over the weekend and I got a message that one server had been restarted and needed a reason code. I checked the logs, but couldn't find any events showing it rebooted recently. Check uptime and found it was restarted back in November, but I had never cleared the message.
-You can also find this info through the 'NET STATISTICS SERVER' or 'NET STATISTICS WORKSTATION' commands. It doesn't give you the time up, but the time the system was booted and you can roughly figure from there.
-Oh, yeah. In Unix, just type 'uptime'.
-Link: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555737
  • One way to help determine a location of a duplicate IP [RICH]
- you can try and determine the mac address of an IP by using arp -a as well as NBTSTAT -a
- Use the following website to look up manufacture of Network Interface.
-Link: http://www.coffer.com/mac_find/
- So I have EU's that for support reasons need to change ip addresses on Symbol(Motorola)handhelds.
- They have addressed at least one with the address of the application server they report to.
- I pinged ,from a PC local to the subnet, the netbios address of the correct device while it was able to report, also did an NBTSTAT -a add.res.sof.device.
- I then looked at the arp table on a machine local to that subnet and determined the mac address. As well as comparing it to the one reported by NBTSTAT command.
- pinged the netbios name continuously until it dropped. After which I pinged the IP address and then looked using arp for the MAC address which was different.
- I then submited the MAC addresses to a website with a look up utility. I determined the bad MAC belonged to a Symbol device and the good one to an HP.
- luckily for me they both weren't HP devices.
- I could also have gotten the MAC Address directly from the Windows Server who's ip was being duplicated by either using the getmac or ipconfig /all.
  • Excel View problem [KEITH]
-User who recently got one of the laptops I deployed comes to me and says he can't see borders and shading in Excel 2003. He says he didn't change any options in the view and otherwise they docs print fine. Just can't see it when editing the sheet.
-Brings in the laptop and I review the settings and all looks good. I search online and find one other person that had the problem. They indicated it might be a profile issue.
-I log on as another user, and Excel works fine. So it is looking like the profile is the culprit. I tried an Office repair since it was quick and required less labor, but it didn't work.
-Link: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/811151
-Link: Excel View Problem

____________________________READ QUEST AD COPY____________________________

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  • Crapware removal - Why should I pay.... [RICH]
- i guess because maybe it defers a small cost of a PC by the manufacture?
- December 8, 2008 12:14 PM PST
-Free crapware removal from Support.com
-Posted by Erica Ogg
- Get it removed free by support.com see article for details
-Link: http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10118333-1.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=Crave
-Link: http://www.pcdecrapifier.com/
  • HP Easy Printer Care Software [KEITH]
-Massive Fail. I had high hopes for this. Proactive alerts, firmware updates, usage reports......
-It is supposed to allow you to proactively monitor your printers. It does, but only for certain printers.
-Worst part. On uninstall, it doesn't remove all of the components it installs. It added two ancillary packages 'HP Proactive Services' and 'HP Update'. Uninstalling Easy Printer Care software did not remove those two items.
-Also, I think the network discovery hosed up my Canon copier/printer. I can't say for sure, but on the two occasions I ran it, the copier rebooted itself.
-Link: HP Easy Printer Care Software
  • Microsoft Dynamics GP Upgrade [KEITH]
-Have consultants in to do the upgrade. We are way behind...On v7.00 and upgrading to v10.0.
-No direct upgrade path, so they have to upgrade through successive versions. I gave them a temp server to do all the upgrades to keep my final production server clean.
-Annoying thing is fighting with consultants at each step. First, they tell me SQL 2008 not supported. I go online and find it is fully supported with GP10?.
-Now we are arguing whether Business Portal (Sharepoint Services) can go on the same server as GP10?. They say no, MS says yes.
-And before someone says, "But should it?". We fall way below the 250 user limit they set for breaking the apps apart, so I think so.
-It's a tough situation to me. I'm paying them because of their expertise with the product, but at the same time, I won't blindly follow them.
-Trust but verify concept.
-Link: http://

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Listener Feedback

From listener....Marty G

My company wants to hirer a Customer Service person. they want them to be remote from the office. they want me to setup some kind of video link so the remote person has the look, and feel of being in the office. they also want the office people to see the remote person. they want it for "Free", they want it "yesterday", and they don't want the customer service computers doing live video and not being able to do customer service work.

At first i was thinking something like "google video chat", but as i thought about it, i don't think it would work the way we want it to. This live stream would have to stay up for at least 8 hrs per day, 5 days per week. hardware, i am thinking a PC dedicated to live video at each end. i am thinking a web cam at each end. i don't know what service / software to use to stream the video to each site. please feel free to offer any suggestions or a different idea.

the setup will go like this: In our New York office will be 3 customer service people, with the ability to answer the CS phone when it rings. in Florida will be 1 customer service person, with the ability to answer the same CS extension. the management want the people in New York to inter act with the person in Florida. they want the people to each be a part of each office. to have the person in Florida be a part of the CS group in New York. ( i would set up a PC and monitor with unknown type of camera, to run the live feed.) They want the CS person in Florida to have the CS people in New York be part of CS in Florida. (i would setup a PC and monitor with unknown type of camera to run the live feed) As an example: A call comes in and says he just got off the phone with john smith, can he talk to him again. the CS person can check to see if john is at his desk and then ask John about the call and then forward the call to him. all as if they were all in the same office. Voice and video would be up and running at least 10 to 12 hrs per day, 5 days per week.

[KEITH] I'd say Skype fits the bill. A good webcam on each end and a good mic to pick up ambient voice conversations (so they don't have to go over to the PC to talk to each other) would fit the bill. Skype also has auto answer and video start to make it easy to bring up the connection each day. One problem I can see is the possibility of your Skype nodes becoming supernodes. Since Skype is peer-to-peer, your node routes traffic for other users. Being up for 8 hours might get you in that class. One other thing...configure your Skype clients with custom ports and do a port forward rule on your firewall to that host. It improves performance significantly.

[RICH] I like Keith's idea of Skype. But I tried to research last night if there was something you could setup and keep internal. My first thought was some sort of open source PBX. I found a lot that support IM but couldn't find one with Video. Although I would assume there could be one.

Another thought I had was a domed webcam with bi-directional audio. Open a web browser and login. I found this one for ~$800.00 Axis P3301 Fixed dome IP camera with two-way audio, Power over Ethernet connectivity and H.264 compression http://www.networkwebcams.com/product_info.php?products_id=708. Never used anything like this so it is more of a guess than a true recommendation. Depending on what you looking for could be a little impersonal but might allow for a move global view of the room and surroundings.

Website Picks

Rich - http://www.netlingo.com Site to update yourself about online communication that will help you decipher a child's communications.

Steve - http://

Keith - http://www.stackthememory.com/ This one comes courtesy of a friend. Thanks Doug. It's a rap song video for geeks. I love the on-screen note at the beginning..."Made on company time".

Last Call

Anyone....Anyone....Buehler.....Buehler....

Closing

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.