Do people not realise you can tax your bloody car online these days without moaning at the Post Office? #waiting or perhaps they can't read!
Change of Platform
Posted by Kevster in Site Updates on 27/08/2009
Having run this blog and others on Community Server for quite a while not, I decided it was time for a change.
As this sites only used for blogs (no media, forums etc) there did not seem much point in continuing running the site on CS. In addition, for some reason they have decided to remove support for running multiple ‘virtual’ CS sites within the same database. Also I have issues with the stability, updates etc. Hence moving this to WordPress.
Lets see how it goes……
Windows 7 – How to add ‘difficult’ applications to the tray
Windows 7 rocks as they say. Been running it for a long while now and makes Vista seem as bad a shell as XP these days.
The Beta, then RC and now the RTM code is very, very solid. Amazingly fast and a dream to use. Owning a Mac as well, there are some compelling reasons why I still think its the premier desktop OS.
One annoyance though is being able to ‘pin’ applications to the tray. Depite all your efforts, some will not do it. Instead follow this procedure how to do it. Its a frig, but one that works !
http://www.unawave.de/windows-7-tipps/folder-to-taskbar.html?lang=EN
Flushing SQL Transaction Logs
Can never remember the syntax so here is is as a reminder:
Make the database current then run
DBCC
SHRINKFILE(‘Foo_LOG’,1)
BACKUP
LOG Foo WITH TRUNCATE_ONLY
DBCC
SHRINKFILE(‘Foo_LOG’,1)
go
ASP.Net and SharePoint
Its taken me long enough but finally had a reason to write some true ASP.Net code. One problem I hit was that trying to run code on a server that is running SharePoint Services …. so you need this exceprt….
You may see this error:
An error occurred during the processing of /test.aspx. Code blocks are not allowed in this file.
Reason: SharePoint does not allow server side code to execute in aspx pages contained in the SharePoint site.
Fix: Edit the web.config (I.E. C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\wss\VirtualDirectories\80\web.config) file:
<PageParserPaths>
<!– To allow a single file: –>
<PageParserPath VirtualPath=”/test.aspx” CompilationMode=”Always” AllowServerSideScript=”true” />
<!– To allow global: –>
<PageParserPath VirtualPath=”/*” CompilationMode=”Always” AllowServerSideScript=”true” />
<!– To allow global within a subsite: –>
<PageParserPath VirtualPath=”/websitefoobar/*” CompilationMode=”Always” AllowServerSideScript=”true” />
</PageParserPaths>
<!– To allow a single file: –>
<PageParserPath VirtualPath=”/test.aspx” CompilationMode=”Always” AllowServerSideScript=”true” />
<!– To allow global: –>
<PageParserPath VirtualPath=”/*” CompilationMode=”Always” AllowServerSideScript=”true” />
<!– To allow global within a subsite: –>
<PageParserPath VirtualPath=”/websitefoobar/*” CompilationMode=”Always” AllowServerSideScript=”true” />
</PageParserPaths>
Gadget or Useful Mobile tool
Posted by admin in Mobile Computing on 10/10/2007
Picked up on this from one of the MS UK teams blog http://blogs.technet.com/eileen_brown/archive/2007/10/09/communicator-mobile-2007.aspx
Essentially a 3D barcode and app software for mobile devices with cameras.
Heres the barcode generator http://reader.kaywa.com/ and mobile device reader code http://www.quickmark.com.tw/En/basic/download.asp
Not sure of uses but like the idea of ‘tagging’ objects – posters, ad’s, screens etc
Change Ubuntu Server from DHCP to a Static IP Address :: the How-To Geek
Posted by admin in Linux / *Nix on 07/10/2007
Change Ubuntu Server from DHCP to a Static IP Address :: the How-To Geek
Quick note about this because as ever in Unix nothing is ever the same.
Quick and dirty Virtual Machine re-sid’ing
Posted by admin in VMware / Virtual Box / HyperV on 18/05/2007
For a test environment its handy to have pre-build OS’s (especially on Windows) to run a new one up quickly. For those who dont need support or havnt got the time to spend getting Sysprep to work properly try this script below in conjuction with the SysInternals NEWSID application.
- Copy NewSID.exe to c:\
- Copy the script source below to c:\NewSid.cmdstart /wait c:\newsid.exe
del “c:\documents and settings\all users\start menu\programs\startup\newsid.lnk” /q
del c:\newsid.exe /q
shutdown /r /t 10 /f /c “SID Change” /d 2:4 /m \\HOSTSERVERNAMENote: Change the \\HOSTSERVERNAME to reflect the servers current hostname
- Add a shortcut to c:\documents and settings\all users\start menu\programs\startup called NewSID that links to c:\newsid.cmd
- Clear the eventlogs etc and shutdown
- Clone the disks
When the machine first boots and you logon, NewSID will run and ask you if you want a new machine name etc. Dont reboot at the end otherwise the util will keep running
I know its nasty but its quick. dorty and works 
Device Naming conventions – Part 1
Posted by admin in Uncategorized on 17/05/2007
Amazing……. how long have ‘we’ been bleating on about this ? – I was pointed to a good article the other day on ZDNET that seems to fit the bill…..
http://www.zdnetasia.com/insight/hardware/0,39043471,61985296-39000220c-1,00.htm
Next post I think all up some of my suggestions that have been used in sites in the UK buisness, financial and government.
Windows Firewall Network Awareness….. how it works it out
Stolen from Mark Minasi’s supurb site…. at http://www.minasi.com/newsletters/nws0409.htm handy referance how Windows XP SP2+ detects between Standard and Domain settings. In Vista this changes but its the same principle.
===
There’s a personal firewall built into XP that’s always been there. But now it’s kind of “in your face,” as it’s turned on by default and it’s much easier to configure and control from the GUI, group policies, and command-line tools.
Even better, it’s got two “profiles;” it behaves one way when you’re inside your domain and another when you’re outside, such as when you’re connected to the Internet with your laptop from home or a hotel.
You might have heard about Firewall’s two profiles, the “standard” and the “domain” profile. (“Domain” means you’re in the domain, on site; “standard” means you’re somewhere else, out of the firewall.) But did you ever wonder, how does it know when you’re “in the domain?” I wondered. Is it something as easy as IP address ranges? Pinging the domain controller to measure the latency periods? Arcanely measuring the Earth’s magnetic field to estimate how far you are from Headquarters? Nope. It’s like this:
- Windows Firewall (call it WF) remembers the last time that you got group policies.
- It remembers the DNS suffix of the system that you got them from. (So, for example, if your AD domain was called bigfirm.com, then the domain controller (DC) that your system got the group policies from almost certainly had a DNS suffix of bigfirm.com.)
- WF then looks at all of your network adapters — here’s where it gets geeky — and examines their adapter-specific DNS suffixes. If any of them match the DNS suffix of your last GP update, then it assumes you’re in the domain.
In English, then… suppose you’re out on the road and for some reason want the firewall to think that you’re in “domain” mode rather than “standard” mode. Just go to the Advanced properties of your NIC, click the DNS tab and punch in your domain’s name in the “DNS suffix” field, and your firewall will behave as if you’re on the corporate grounds.
That, by the way was the simplified version; if you’d like to know more about how the network location awareness in Windows works, get this article:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/community/columns/cableguy/cg0504.mspx
Controlling SSL Ciphers on Windows 2003/2008 Server
On Windows 2003/2008 Servers running anything over SSL (ie HTTPS) via applications like IIS, Terminal Services (SP1+) and ISA Server even if the application can set ‘Force 128bit encryption’ other weak ciphers are still availible on the server.
To stop this:
1) Backup your registry or at least export the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL
2) Copy below into a text document and rename to .reg
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\PCT 1.0\Client]
“Enabled”=dword:00000000[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\PCT 1.0\Server]
“Enabled”=dword:00000000[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\SSL 2.0\Client]
“Enabled”=dword:00000000[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Protocols\SSL 2.0\Server]
“Enabled”=dword:00000000[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Ciphers]
“Enabled”=dword:00000000[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Ciphers\DES 56/56]
“Enabled”=dword:00000000[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Ciphers\RC2 40/128]
“Enabled”=dword:00000000[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Ciphers\RC4 40/128]
“Enabled”=dword:00000000[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SecurityProviders\SCHANNEL\Ciphers\RC4 56/128]
“Enabled”=dword:00000000
3) Double click the .reg file to run and answer Yes to dialog
4) Confirm working ciphers. A good site is http://www.serversniff.net/content.php?do=ssl