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In March, 2004 I wrote and posted this article to my website. I was reminded of it this evening when I opened an e-mail from someone warning me of the latest and greatest virus. Some of the wording had not even changed in six years! ...
I had never been to Halifax (or anywhere in Nova Scotia) before, so I was not upset that a scheduling blunder gave me a free day to tour around. My arrival coincided with the arrival of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, who began her 22nd Canadian...
This morning my son broke a rule. He was punished. Last week he forgot a school book at home. He had to suffer the consequences by sitting in class without his book. While as a father I was not happy with either situation, I was at least...
As many of you know I spend a lot of time working in, consulting with, and teaching virtualization. Because I am such a strong believer in certifications I was proud of the three virtualization certs I previously held – two Microsoft Certified Technology...
If you are looking for a good deal on electronics, you should consider heading to one of the big electronics stores in the weeks after Christmas. .Not only do they have pretty good specials, but you are also very likely to find open-box specials...
If you are looking for a good deal on electronics, you should consider heading to one of the big electronics stores in the weeks after Christmas. .Not only do they have pretty good specials, but you are also very likely to find open-box specials...
As I sit watching Rabbi Wise’s computer upgrade from Windows Vista to Windows 7 I am thinking about a conversation that he and I just had. Three weeks ago he and I started discussing the benefits of Windows 7 over his currently Windows Vista, and he asked...
In her recent article ‘ Windows 7: Seven points of imperfection ’ (posted on IT World Canada, and written for PC World US) Jacqueline Emigh calls out seven deficiencies in Microsoft’s new client operating system. While I understand that columnists...
This article came over my RSS feed from Global Knowledge; it is an article from January by David Davis which outlines 10 things you shouldn’t do with your Cisco router. If you were to turn it upside down, it is a really good reminder of ten tips...
<Originally posted October, 2006> Earlier today someone referenced this article from my old blog which will, eventually, be migrated over to my new blog. However in the meantime I am reposting it. To be frank the perfect record no longer...
There are two schools of thought when it comes to physical memory over-commitment between virtual machines. The first school of thought is that it is a great way for virtual machines to leverage more memory than the host server actually has. the memory...
My wife’s 17” HP Pavillion laptop broke; when I say that it broke I do not mean that the OS crashed or that the hard disk was defective, or even that the motherboard fried, which are all legitimate reasons for computers to stop working. It seems...
Back when I was a computer support technician I used to carry a binder of CDs and DVDs, including (but certainly not limited to!) every version and edition of Windows client and server. This came in handy every time I replaced a hard drive because...
If a tool is cumbersome, unwieldy, inefficient, and difficult to use, would you use it? Would you look forward to the experience? Neither would I; so when at the end of last year my son’s Grade 5 homeroom teacher told me that the computers in the school...
This article explains how to install a new domain forest on Windows Server Core, or in the Windows Server CLI (Command Line Interpreter). I will not discuss any other option for RODCs, existing domains, child domains, and so on… there are a plethora...
I want to start this article by stating that I do feel sorry for Joel… but I have no sympathy for him. If you are unfamiliar with the case, here is the article written by none other than Joel Tenenbaum about his case: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog...
I have noticed of late a trend… a plethora of articles listing the contents of one’s laptop bag. Far be it from me to miss a writing bandwagon, so here it goes! Laptop Bag: Firstly I should mention that I switch laptop bags with boring frequency;...
Of all of the innovative technologies I came face to face with at TechEd last month the most incredible of them all was a gentleman in a wheelchair. It wasn’t just any wheelchair of course… it was (I would later learn) an iBOT… a wheelchair designed to...
I am a member of a private community of Microsoft Certified Trainers on a well known networking site. In the last couple of days one of my colleagues complained that his students were passing their exams by using Brain Dumps, and that these tools...
I came across this piece in the 180 Systems Blog ( www.180systemsblog.com ) this evening and found it fascinating. Please feel free to visit them for more insightful pieces. -M A man sat at a subway station in Washington DC and started to...
On Sunday I was shoveling my driveway, and quite enjoying myself. I had decided ahead of time to only do one side of it that day, and finish it Monday or Tuesday. As I stood at the base of the driveway admiring my work someone came...
The following message appeared in my Junk Mail box today. (These are only the first few lines… it looked complete and quite official) From: paypal.support@520838.com Security Center Advisory! PayPal is constantly working to ensure security by screening...
So now that I have a day or two to play (and need it up already!), I decided to start installing my Essential Business Server environment today. This is not my first kick at this can (I have installed eight or nine previous iterations in either...
I encountered a problem this week-end that baffled me for a while… Here is the infrastructure, the problem, and the solution. This network diagram is a rough sketch of the relevant portions of the network. At present I have a server (HP DL585 G2...
The entire world runs on DNS. While that is not true, the Internet does, and without it the entire infrastructure would screech to a deafening halt. In short, DNS (or Domain Naming System) is the directory service that lets us use friendly(ish)...
(Note: It has been brought to my attention that I inadvertently named this article the same thing I had named a previous article. As such I am renaming this article, four hours after the original publication time. Thanks for understanding...
There is a big difference between things that can be done as opposed to what should be done. I have discussed virtualization in great detail of late because of how interesting it is to the average IT Professional. Windows Server Virtualization...
For years I have been saying that Small Business Server was the best solution for small businesses that did not have huge IT budgets; it allowed them to take advantage of the same enterprise-level tools such as Microsoft Exchange Server, SQL Server, and...
The following is a comment I made to a blog article on Network World on the topic of certification exam security. The actual post can be found here: http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/26502 Using the MCP ID card as your security poses...
I got to Sweden on Tuesday and it did not take me an hour to be fleeced by a taxi driver (A four minute taxi ride from the Kista subway station to the Microsoft office which was not my intended destination cost me 195SEK, or about USD$33). Later...
I have a confession to make: I was a bad kid. I was rebellious, I was anti-authority, I did or tried to do what I thought was cool without much concern for what was right. Up until my eighteenth birthday and probably a bit beyond that I was...