Neal's Admin.Notes.

New York Times weblog link generator

Articles in the New York Times disappear in a pay-per-view archive after a month. But there’s a way to link to free copies from weblog articles, because of an arrangement between the Times and Dave Winer’s Userland company. The simplest way to generate those weblog-safe links is through the New York Times Link Generator, written by Aaron Swartz.

30 Hornets vs 30,000 Honey Bees

Amazing footage of 30 giant hornets slaughtering 30,000 bees in order to get their honey.
Courtesy of Madville.

Blogging at Admin Notes

I initially started this blog in hopes of one day getting MVP status. Those goals were quickly forgotten in a matter of days when I soon realized I was helping out with Windows 2003 Server , Outlook 2003, Exchange 2003, Clustering ...the list goes on. Anyways. I'm usually hit with about 5 questions ( not nearly as advanced as some questions posted on other blogs ) a day and I know I will take the following statement back someday soon but " I love answering the questions, and I find it totally gratifying helping others find solutions to MSFT relation issues, or offering opinions on products that I currently use"

Maybe cause its my boredom at work or my thirst to be challenged and desire to learn as well.

In all event..this is allot of fun so keep the emails coming and I'll keep posting !

A Few Good SysAdmins

Here is a different take on a very popular scene from the movie " A Few Good Men". Please...feel free to act it out .

User: I want some answers.

Administrator: You want answers?

User: I think I'm entitled to them.

Administrator: You want answers?

User: I want the truth!

Administrator: You can't handle the truth!
We live in a world that has Computers, and those Computers have to be connected by people with a clue. Who's gonna do it? You?
You users make me sick. I have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom. You weep for your email and you curse the local administrator. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know: that this network, while screwed up, and confusing to you, probably saved time. And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves time. You don't want the truth, because deep down, in places you don't talk about at parties, you want us in this office. You need us in this office.

We use words like DNS, LDAP, and SCRIPTS...we use these words as the backbone to a life spent playing with computers. You use 'em as a reason to whine.

I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a person who surfs and emails under the blanket of the very network I provide, and then questions the manner in which I provide it! I'd rather you just said thank you and went on your way. Otherwise, I suggest you pickup a mouse and design your own network. Either way, I don't give a damn what you think you're entitled to!

User: Did you shutdown my email?

Administrator: You don't want to know.

User: Did you shutdown my file server?

Administrator: You don't want to know.

User: Did you shutdown my internet access?

Administrator: You're damn right I did!!!

Nerd Name Generator

Browsing around the web came across another name generator, this time its the Nerd Name Generator.. My name Neal Mohammed converted to Toby, the Scheme Wannabe . Totally cool :-)

So whats your Nerd name ?

XBCONNECT

XBox Live is great for playing games on-line, but there are some games such as Halo which only let you multiplayer games through a system-link (LAN) game.

Enter XBConnect, a tool which creates a tunnel through the Internet to other players around the world, and which tricks your XBox into thinking they are playing on the same local network as you.

I tried it and, after realizing I had to configure my router to forward UDP/TCP port 8602 to the XBox, it worked surprisingly well.

It will even support voice-chat via the headset on games which support it such as Rainbow Six 3. However, it doesn't come close to XBox Live, so expect to see me there alot more as MAXIMOOSE

LongHorn Product Key

Ahhhh ! My MSDN Product Key links are down....bummer, now I gotta wait before I install LH on my laptop.

:(

Microsoft’s Xbox 2 Architecture Unveiled

Microsoft will use IBM’s POWER 64-bit processors in the Xbox 2. The 65nm chips were reportedly taped-out recently and are now evaluated by engineers at Microsoft and IBM, though, the architecture of those microprocessors still remains to be investigated.

As everybody knows, there is a lot going on with multi-core, multi-threaded designs at IBM. Apparently, Microsoft also wants to jump on that bandwagon, or so it may seem. Microsoft wants to incorporate IBM’s POWER 976 architecture into the CPUs for Xbox 2 console to allow truly high-performance processing. POWER 976 is expected to be a dual-core processor able to handle two threads at once. What may seem a pretty hard to believe is that Microsoft wants more than 1 such chip to power its forthcoming console, according to the scheme published there are three of such chips.

The whole Xbox 2 CPU system will be capable of processing a number of threads simultaneously; because of its RISC nature, the new architecture is a big-endian system, a term that describes the order in which a sequence of bytes are stored in computer memory. Traditional x86 architectures use the little-endian approach.

The graphics processor of the Xbox 2 is to be developed by ATI Technologies, the I/O controller is to be developed by Silicon Integration Systems Corporation.

Microsoft is expected to formally announce the Xbox 2 (the “Xenon”) on the 2nd of June 2004. They may adjust some parameters but will not change the overall structure of the console.

Here is a PIC of the System Block Diagram

Can't wait to get me one !!

Call me on my wireless PPC or Notebook

Wanna chat? Try calling me on my notebook or pocket pc.

Basically there few FWD SIP lines and softphones as well as Cisco 7960 phones I've been using alot for the past year or so. Its VOIP on Steroids. This is very similar to Vonage ( which I've been using since its inception ) and other VOIP solution providers, except its free !!.
There are limitations to using internet SIP. Since it uses an ActiveX control, it will most likely only work inside of Internet Explorer (IE). Also, the website visitor needs to be on a platform which supports the Microsoft RTC platform.
Before you even start, you must have a microphone and some good speakers.

When you click on one the icons below, the ActiveX control will attempt to download. Depending upon the security settings of your IE browser, you may need to add: fwd.pulver.com to your list of trusted sites.
Menu Tools-->Internet Options
Security tab, Trusted Sites
Sites button on the right
Enter fwd.pulver.com to the box that says: "Add this Web site to the zone:".
Confirm check box [ ] Require server verification (https:) for all sites in this zone is unchecked
Press the Add button

You may need to press "reload" at this time.
Now to call press DIAL.

If I don't pickup, maybe I'm in a meeting or doing something else (like actually working), but you will be forwarded to my voicemail. Look foward to hearing from you !

Test Lab

So I recently "aquired" a few servers ( see list below , pics on the way ). And I want to add them to my test lab. I was thinking a mix of exchange 2003 - probably clustered (so I can easily recreate virtual servers when I break it ), a dash of Live Communication Server, a Domain Controller here or there, and a drop of a SharePoint Portal Server.
Now here is my thinking.....
Add them all up to create an environment where, when a users ( using outlook, sharepoint or any office 2003 app ) wants to "share" or "discuss" a particular document , basically they can right click on that document,click "Call Fellow Worker" and along with having messenger and netmeeting bring them together, their SIP based phone will automatically do a voice intercom on "Fellow Worker" adding voice into the whole scenario. Now I know this is nothing new and this has been done already..sorta.., but tying in an IP based phone system or even harder..a digital based PBX into the Global Address Book along with Live Communication Server with all this would be too cool.

6 DELL 6400 with Dual Xeon 800mhz; 4 GIG RAM, 110GIG HD
3 DELL 120 PowerApps Dual P4 1.3mhz; 1 GIG RAM 100GIG HD
2 DELL 8450 8 Xeon 700mhz; 4 GIG RAM 500GIG Raid Array

Now if my ramblings are far fetched and you have a better idea of what to do with this wealth of equipment, please feel free to let me know... and NO I will not put Linux on it !!
:)