Date: 10/16/06     Keywords: no keywords

Has anybody here had any experience with Safari Books Online?  What are your opinions.

I was doing some research and this site (an offered book) was one of the results.

A colleage said that he felt it was pricey, but there have been periods of time that I have spent more than the yearly fee in a month or two, if not one order.

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/itprofessionals/45289.html

Date: 10/12/06     Keywords: software, sql, web

Hi all.

Im new to the community. Quick intro is needed I guess:

Im a 24 year old student from the North East of England, currently studying computing for business at Northumbria University.

Im now on my 3rd year and I have been on my work placement for about 3 months. Its great. Three lads sitting in a room, supporting an entire companies I.T resources.

My job is also to maintain and improve upon a piece of inhouse software called TrackIT. It pretty much keeps track of all telesales activity within the entire company. They sell training to other companies such as water and eletricity.

Anyhoo!

TrackIT, is wrote in that lovely language visual basic 6. Now I know nothing about visual basic 6, but im done a pretty good job so far. My education was within Visual Basic.NET, but that education left alot to be desired.

So my issue is this:

I know this is probably a really simple question and YES I have looked on every website I can find, and used every text book I can get my hands on.

Im astounded I cant find this anywhere.

I very simple need to take the value which has been selected inside a datacombobox, and send it as a string to an SQL statement. The result of which would be a filtered datagrid.

I did a test with a message Box saying, "MsgBox (dcFilterCompanyName.Item.Text)", because that code wasnt working.

Am I being completely stupid thinking that piece of code would return the value selected in the datacombo?

If I am, then can someone please tell me what code to use to retreive the value selected?

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/itprofessionals/44969.html

Date: 10/12/06     Keywords: programming, software, security, microsoft

Are any of you familiar with the Microsoft Shared Computer Toolkit? It's a handy little tool from Microsoft that allows you to optimize a user profile for shared usage, or as we've found, for stations or kiosks that need to perform a very specific task. We primarily use it as a means to prevent Windows from accumulating profiles as AD users log in - part of the toolkit is Windows Disk Protection, which saves redirects all "writes" to the Windows partition to a seperate partition, then simply discards the changes upon a reboot.

I work at a university computer lab with approximately 4000 users connected to a school-wide Active Directory domain forest. Part of the predicament we are having is Administrator access. See, to even get into the door you have to be a computer science major, so these kids are a little more intelligent than your standard computer user. As CS majors, they're required to write programming assignments using Visual Studio and god knows how many debuggers. We fear that while one student uses his computer all night to further his research, another student is writing and installing a rootkit or a keylogger, another is serving porno movies he downloaded from Bittorrent, yet another is using his administrative rights to steal his peer's homework assignments, and another is logging everyone out with the shutdown command so he can build a botnet. As such, we've denied them Administrator rights.

If you can imagine hell, it's getting 30GB of specialized software to run in anything but Administrator mode. Students can't install it themselves, so we have to install it on an image and deploy it to a set of computers using Ghost. We use the Toolkit to facilitate this, as it automatically saves Microsoft Updates and is capable of running a maintenance script of our choosing when it runs (which calls another script on a network share). However, we have students and professors screaming at us to give us Administrator rights on the machines, and we're trying our damndest to provide that to them. My questions for all of you are as follows:

As Administrator, the student would have full access to the hard drives, including the folder which holds the Toolkit. It holds that even if we lock the folder down with permissions, ownership, and security, another Administrator can just reverse all that an unlock it. Is there any way around this, so that only ONE administrator can modify ownership and permissions for a folder?

They can modify our maintenance scripts to run whatever they want, provided they disable or save changes to the drive with the toolkit first. I'm vaguely aware that Group Policy can forbid access to certain programs, but I've never used it. How simple is it to set up? Does that apply to EVERY profile created on the machine, including our own?

We're specifically eyeballing Faronics Deep Freeze to replace the SCT if necessary, but the free SCT appears to do all we need it to do. If you've used both, which did you prefer?

If you were in my situation, realistically how would you accomplish this? Assume you have roughly 200 identical computer shared between 4000 users in an Active Directory environment. You don't control the domain controller, but you have full control over a specific OU on the controller. We're simply looking for a way to allow Administrator access without the student saving any changes to the Windows Partition.

Thanks for your help!

~Elliot

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/itprofessionals/44673.html

Date: 10/10/06     Keywords: no keywords

The League of Professional System Administrators presents our first training event: two days of technical and professional classes aimed towards junior and mid-level system
administrators.

Topics include:
- Disaster recovery
- Time management
- Perl 6
- Automating windows administration
- Ethics & professionalism
- Telephony & VoIP

and much, much more.

"Early Bird" registration ends soon, register now!

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/itprofessionals/44379.html

Date: 09/29/06     Keywords: no keywords

Anyone using Split-DNS with Windows XP clients?

We have an internal network domain.com and the same domain.com on the internet.
What we want is to setup resources on both the intranet and internet so they're accessible from both sides at the same name.

For example the email server mail.domain.com inside our network, and we want to use it on the internet.

The problem we have is, that after the users connect to the VPN, they're not able get to the resources anymore! The hostname still resolves to the INTERNET IP address! Even when using ipconfig /flushdns to clear the local cache and using a script to statically set ALL adaptor's DNS server addresses to the internal DNS servers (which obviously work correct for internal users).

Anyone have experience setting this sort of situation up? I can't even thinnk what could be wrong with these clients!

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/itprofessionals/44125.html

Date: 09/28/06     Keywords: database

anyone has any clue how to do this in a freeware manner?

I'm writing a program that will read the latest email from outlook and store it in a database blob as a pdf file.

the reading from outlook is mostly ok, except that outlook comes up with this access warning which I must figure out how to disable it

1)
""A program is trying to access e-mail addresses you have stored in outlook,
do you want to allow this?"

How can I disable this message on a permanent basis?

2)
I do have a pretty decent distiller called cutepdf printer, however, each time it prints, it comes up with saveas dialogue, ie: there is no programmatical way to specify filename and click the ok dialogue.

my question regarding point 1 and 2, is there anyway to trigger this remotely via the windows kernel api or something, getwindows or something then remotely triggering the events (using dde?)

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/itprofessionals/43841.html

Date: 09/27/06     Keywords: no keywords

I am doing some research for a project on Cyberwarfare/Cyberterrorism and I'd appreciate as many opinions as I can get. If you have a moment I'd be grateful if you would fill out a short survey for me:

http://catch.gotdns.org/public/research/

Thank you kindly.

*cross-posted to several relevant communities*

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/itprofessionals/43533.html

Date: 09/16/06     Keywords: software, html, security, virus, antivirus, linux, hosting

So... I am trying to help a (very) small school actually get some IT going.  Could I get some opinions on how to build a low-cost file and print server for a place with about 50 computers?

Right now, they're running a mix of MacOS X and Windows XP Home / Win98.  They have NO server to speak of (not even an IT guy), and teachers print by connecting to some other workstation's shared printer or they figure it out on their own.  They have no backups whatsoever, and many computers don't print because they don't have the right drivers installed, etc.  I think they should have some solution that costs very little in recurring maintenance, and I'm torn between the options at this point.

I was thinking of 3 ways to go about this, but I'd love to see what others may recommend...

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/itprofessionals/43276.html

Date: 09/05/06     Keywords: web

To all:

I've been googling this for a while, and really haven't found anything other than a few demo pictures on panduit's website. I am trying to come up with a game plan for managing the cabling on the front of a Catalyst 6513 chassis. Right now, we have five 48 port blades on the chassis. We will be adding an additional five blades with PoE capability to push all of our VoIP phones in the near future.

that will bring me to a port density of 480 on the front of that chassis, most of which will be populated. I'm considering statically wiring every port on the 6513 to the back of a bunch of patch panels in the next rack over, but even this is a lot of work, and leaves another possible point of failure in a termination...

My question is: how is everyone managing cabling on their larger chassis?

x-posted a few places.

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/itprofessionals/43085.html

Date: 08/21/06     Keywords: no keywords

I'm about to recreate the scene from the movie Office Space where they take the printer out to a field and smash it to bits. Only, I'm going to substitute my iSeries-AS/400 machine.

If anyone has any kind of knowledge about this type of machine, I'd appreciate your thoughts..

I'm trying to get the network working.

I've setup a line called ETHERLINE connected to CMN01 (which appears to be operational) I've also tried connecting it to CMN04 and CMN05. When I try to vary it on, I just get "Line ETHERLINE vary on failed" I've tried to IPL the system a few times to see if that would cure anything, but it did not.

I don't even know where to begin.. I've followed these instructions: http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/tstudio/lan2/lantype/lineth1.htm

Any ideas or suggestions for a place to smash this thing would be great.

Thanks

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/itprofessionals/42883.html

Date: 08/11/06     Keywords: virus, antivirus

I need recommendations please for an Antivirus program for a Home PC for the Owner of one of my consulting customers. She does not want to use Norton or McAfee, and I hate the CA products....What else is anyone using?
EDIT: Sorry should have specified, the PC is Windows XP Professional. Suggestions to switch OS will be ignored, sorry.

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/itprofessionals/42421.html

Date: 07/26/06     Keywords: no keywords

In my XP system, I have manually set the virtual memory double that of my physical memory. Meaning if I have 512MB, I set the VM as 1GB.

I did this out of habit that I have carried out since Windows 3.1 days.

What are your settings like?
Do you manually set the VM space or let XP run it automatically?
Does it matter at all?
If I have 4GB of physical memory, would it affect anything if I were to turn off the VM space?

x-posted.

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/itprofessionals/41705.html

Date: 07/25/06     Keywords: html, web

Any clues?
---my email to hp which didn't receive any good solutions ---


---
i have is a
HP ML150 XN2.8GHz 256MB
36GB SCSI HDD +
and 3 units of 72GB U320 10K HP ML150 HDD in a raid5 config

and a Adaptec SCSI RAID 2010S ML150

the specs for this machine states
"Maximum Internal Storage 730 GB Internal drive cage maximum SCSI capacity (5 x 146 GB)"


I recently ordered a Maxtor 147GB SCSI U320 10Krpm 80Pin Hot Plug HDD , after plugging it in, it will not spin up at all. ie: at the point of power on, all harddisks lights should turn on, for this unit, it just blinks once and goes out.

I asked my vendor for help, they then contact hp enterprise support only to be told two part numbers that are discontinued.
73 GB 10K Hot Swap Drive Ultra320 :344689-003 / 344689-001
144 GB 10K Hot Swap Drive Ultra320 :344691-003 / 344691-001

-- alternative part numbers are suggested --
289044-001 SPS-DRV,HD,146GB,U320,10K,HP
404708-001 SPS-DRV,HD,146GB,U320,10K,HP
377682-001 SPS-DRV,HD,146GB,U320,10K,HP
347779-001 SPS-DRV,HD,146GB,U320,10K,HP

BUT none of these has any 100% guarantee of working, and the cost of it (eg: the first item 289044-001 is quoted at 3x the price of the maxtor harddrive I got. (sgd 3000 vs sgd 980) which is completely atrocious.



I'd like some suggestions?
a) is the problem with the raid card? ie: should I upgrade it, if so, do you have suggestions?
b) is the problem that particular model of harddrive? should I change to another brand (quantum?)
c) who is HP's harddisks' OEM, given the crazy pricing I'm being offered, I should try to get the OEM version instead.

any other suggestions?

--clueless HP helpdesk replied--


From your mail I understand that you are facing issue with the Maxtor 147GB SCSI U320 10Krpm 80Pin Hot Plug HDD configuration for the ProLiant ML150 server.

I need to share with you that in case if you are using third party hard drive then HP shall not be able to guarantee how the same will function, as HP have not tested the third party product with HP servers.

In this case I would suggest you to use the supported hard drives for ProLiant ML150 server. And in case if you face any issue with the HP supported part then HP will provide the technical support.

However in order to resolve this issue, I would suggest you to upgrade the driver of the array controller. Please download the latest available drivers for array/storage controller from the below mentioned web link:

http://h18007.www1.hp.com/support/files/server/us/locate/69_5768.html#3

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/itprofessionals/41323.html

Date: 07/18/06     Keywords: xml

I have briefly examined language specifications for VB9 and C#3. I am correct to think that only VB9 has Deep XML Support, Nested Extension Methods, Nullable Types, Relaxed Delegates, Strong “Duck Typing”? Also, it is the case that only C#3 has Lambda expressions, Implicitly Typed Arrays, and Expression Trees?

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/itprofessionals/41049.html

Date: 06/27/06     Keywords: database

Am I the only person remaining on this planet, who strongly believes that one's resume needs to be rock-solid down to the most minute detail? A resume is the very first impression that a prospective employer will ever have of you. And if it is filled with BASIC spelling and grammatical errors, what kind of impression does that give me, if you're going to be writing code that cannot afford to have syntax errors?

"... to meet company standers... that do not match company standers..."

"... analyzing systems, and administrate different database engines..."

"Analyses, design, deployment..."

"After creating the ERD model and thereby creating the database, and database, and ETL processes."

These are all from one person's 4 page resume, that I was asked to interview this morning. Doesn't anyone bother to proof-read their resumes any more?!?!

*bangs head against desk*

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/itprofessionals/40315.html

Date: 06/24/06     Keywords: software, web

This may be a somewhat trivial question, but I'm pretty new to all of this IT stuff, and self taught so I'm trying to piece things togeather. At the place where I work, we have around 10 printers you can get to over the network, or by IP if you have a mac. I check all of those for paper, etc, once a day but sometimes the paper will run out between checks and create a bottleneck on another printer, not to mention those with the mentality of "oh, i didn't work the first time, let me hit the print button 20 more times to see what happens" so when we do get the printer up again a couple hundred pages come shooting out that we throw away (huge waste). So, the vision I have, is a webpage that updates itself to reflect the status of our printers, that I can check to see when a printer has an error like no ink, and everyone else can use if they want to find a printer without a long que of jobs. Is there any way to do that, preferably without extra software we have to pay for? A friend suggested using lcp status in terminal to get the number of jobs in the que, however we were off location and unable to test if the number in the que reflects every job waiting in the printer, or just ones that computer has sent to be printed, and after googling it I wasn't clear on the answer. Also, more than that, I'd really like the page to show when the printer is, say, out of paper. I found a log in the cups part of console for errors, and I was thinking that if I could simply make an apple script that checked the console, pulled text from it to the website, anytime someone tried to print and there was an error the site would reflect it and I could take care of it (basically, no need for the status to constantly update, just reflect when someone tried to print and there is an issue). However, if my logic is right (and again, I haven't tested this out) then, because it's an error message, the error would only show up in the log of the computer that was trying to print, not any computer on the network... unless someone can think of some way around that so that it does show up? My idea was to use one of our old G3's and, should we work some way out to get the consule file to show any error on the printer, run the apple script on that and somehow have that dynamically update the website. I'm not sure if the concept I'm going for makes sense at all, but has anyone tried anything similar before, or have any steps in the general direction I might could try?

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/itprofessionals/40092.html

Date: 06/23/06     Keywords: web

We are currently in the process of building a new, more robust Intranet.  One of the things being sought is a replacement for an extremely large network share for shared files.

I can create a page to parse out, display and present a download for a file.  Likewise, I can provide functionality to allow for a file upload.  However, there has been, on more than one occasion, mention of drag and drop functionality.

I have accomplished this with WebDAV previously, but that is not "integrated" into the web site.

I am going to check out Sharepoint services or even server.  However, as we are a coldfusion shop, I'd like something that is fully integrated in to the pages we create and not a stub site for a single purpose.

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/itprofessionals/39807.html

Date: 06/19/06     Keywords: security

I am doing some research for a project for work, we want to set up some longtime housing with a security login that grants people access to the internet (et all) [a wireless gatekeeper if you will]. It would be for an extended amount of time (~1 year) and we want to use the MAC for tracking. I have seen what PublicIP (http://www.publicip.net/) brings to the table, but its going to be for a number of people and we want to make it specific to them (that and we have some sort of confirmation of the user creation).

So I was woudering what if at all you all in this group have seen or have used.
-Dead_Bob

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/itprofessionals/39619.html

Date: 06/12/06     Keywords: database, microsoft

I was recently approached by my boss for suggestions on storing our company's system account/passwords and other information in some secure fashion. Right now, most of the information is kept in a password protected excel spreadsheet on the boss's laptop.

I can create a small database that I can lock down and put on the network, but I would prefer an out of box solution. I know that there are plenty of personal password managers out there, but I would like to find something that we can install onto our network so that multiple people can access the information, if given permissions. Something that would tie into Microsoft AD would be great. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/itprofessionals/39173.html

Date: 06/02/06     Keywords: web

What do you people think of salary websites, like http://salary.monster.com ?

Do you think they are accurate?

Just asking because I'm entertaining job offers in a different geographic area, and I'm not sure if this data is reliable to base my expected salary on.

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/itprofessionals/39015.html