Well, someone pointed out that the start of BrainShare falls on the same day as the Super Bowl. Novell and it's partners stepped up and there will now be big screen TV's on site to provide you with your Super Bowl fix. Check out the Facebook page on BrainShare for more details. BTW, on FB it is spelled Brainshare because FB in their infinite wisdom has decided how things are to be capitalized.
I hope you all have a blast. More urgent, and important, issues will be keeping me home this year. I had been looking forward to going and will miss catching up with everyone. Someone will have to be my mooch-replacement...at least it will save the shipping folks from some back strain.
Friday, November 16, 2012
Thursday, November 8, 2012
Is it a TimeWarp?
It's beginning to feel a bit like the late 80's/early 90's to me when it comes to Microsoft and hardware vendors. It may be time for me to Time Warp back to the olden days when I built my own desktop and moved to only the PC platform from Apple due to the OS being too locked down from my POV.
Windows 8 is here and while it may be a good "consumer" grade OS, it's not a gamer's OS (heck World of WarCraft won't run on it, but it will run on Linux), nor is it an OS-centric IT tech's OS. I can't run the vast majority of my tools on it, not to mention that color explosion makes my eyes water.
I need to be able to get to a command prompt. I need to see how my machine is performing. I need a keyboard. What I don't need is what I consider a dumbed-down UI, that's what I have my iPad for. And I like my external mouse, my fingers are simply too fat to deal with the on-board touchpad let alone a touch screen device (have you not seen some of my text messages?) ,and don't get me started on those pencil eraser styled doo-hickeys.
HP is what's triggering this potential shift back to building my own desktops. They've recently announced that consumer grade laptops and desktops are to be left at Windows 8 and that they are not to be back revved to Windows 7. For those of us who've been around long enough, we recognize that this latest version of Windows is nearly pre-destined to be a "bad" version, and one to be skipped in our larger environments. Makes me wonder what M$ is doing on the backside in terms of licensing with the OEM vendors. I had the "oh-so-wonderful-joy" of dealing with licensing M$ on OEM hardware when we also sold an OS2 version of our solution.
We're just starting a big Windows 7 roll out at my new gig, I can't imagine the headache if we get forced into Windows 8. Just thinking about it makes my head hurt! Will someone please pass the Excedrin?
ComputerWorld has a good article on this:
HP to consumer customers: don't downgrade new PCs to Windows 7
Windows 8 is here and while it may be a good "consumer" grade OS, it's not a gamer's OS (heck World of WarCraft won't run on it, but it will run on Linux), nor is it an OS-centric IT tech's OS. I can't run the vast majority of my tools on it, not to mention that color explosion makes my eyes water.
I need to be able to get to a command prompt. I need to see how my machine is performing. I need a keyboard. What I don't need is what I consider a dumbed-down UI, that's what I have my iPad for. And I like my external mouse, my fingers are simply too fat to deal with the on-board touchpad let alone a touch screen device (have you not seen some of my text messages?) ,and don't get me started on those pencil eraser styled doo-hickeys.
HP is what's triggering this potential shift back to building my own desktops. They've recently announced that consumer grade laptops and desktops are to be left at Windows 8 and that they are not to be back revved to Windows 7. For those of us who've been around long enough, we recognize that this latest version of Windows is nearly pre-destined to be a "bad" version, and one to be skipped in our larger environments. Makes me wonder what M$ is doing on the backside in terms of licensing with the OEM vendors. I had the "oh-so-wonderful-joy" of dealing with licensing M$ on OEM hardware when we also sold an OS2 version of our solution.
We're just starting a big Windows 7 roll out at my new gig, I can't imagine the headache if we get forced into Windows 8. Just thinking about it makes my head hurt! Will someone please pass the Excedrin?
ComputerWorld has a good article on this:
HP to consumer customers: don't downgrade new PCs to Windows 7
Thursday, October 18, 2012
BrainShare 2012
Well, if you're not planning for it yet, you should get started on it. Rooms tend to book fast.
At Novell's request (okay, Kim's request...might as well blame the "guilty" here), I now have a BrainShare page on my blog that is a compilation of all my tips from over the years.
Alas, do to a lackluster board WMNUG is not doing BrainShare Buddies this year, which may work out okay as it looks like I won't be making it to BrainShare this year either. All travel has been put on hold by my employer, which includes BrainShare.
For those of you traveling from the MidWest, you might want to check out the train. My buddy Rusty and I took the train out last year and had a wonderful trip. Saw things we wouldn't normally see. Our standard line was "Look! Can't see that from the plane!". It was really wonderful...much more leg room, no security pat-downs and all our luggage was accessible the entire trip.
If anyone else wants to take up the reigns of the old BrainShare Buddies program, give me a holler. I'll be happy to tell you how we've done it in the past.
At Novell's request (okay, Kim's request...might as well blame the "guilty" here), I now have a BrainShare page on my blog that is a compilation of all my tips from over the years.
Alas, do to a lackluster board WMNUG is not doing BrainShare Buddies this year, which may work out okay as it looks like I won't be making it to BrainShare this year either. All travel has been put on hold by my employer, which includes BrainShare.
For those of you traveling from the MidWest, you might want to check out the train. My buddy Rusty and I took the train out last year and had a wonderful trip. Saw things we wouldn't normally see. Our standard line was "Look! Can't see that from the plane!". It was really wonderful...much more leg room, no security pat-downs and all our luggage was accessible the entire trip.
If anyone else wants to take up the reigns of the old BrainShare Buddies program, give me a holler. I'll be happy to tell you how we've done it in the past.
Thursday, October 11, 2012
Conference Reminder and Wow!
The wow is that I've got nearly 11,000 page views. Amazing!
Now, a reminder of a local users group conference coming up in the MidWest:
Novell is sponsoring the Illinois Valley Network User's Association Fall Conference which is on October 17 in Utica, IL. This year's conference is on the topic of Mobile Device Management. I'll be
giving the keynote address in the morning and will be there all day to demo ZENworks Mobile Management.
This is a conference that's been going on for a long time now, and worth the trip if you're in any "nearby" state. Nearby being a relative term for this native Californian.
Anyway, here's the link to get more info and/or register:
http://www.ivnua.org/training-seminars.php
Now, a reminder of a local users group conference coming up in the MidWest:
Novell is sponsoring the Illinois Valley Network User's Association Fall Conference which is on October 17 in Utica, IL. This year's conference is on the topic of Mobile Device Management. I'll be
giving the keynote address in the morning and will be there all day to demo ZENworks Mobile Management.
This is a conference that's been going on for a long time now, and worth the trip if you're in any "nearby" state. Nearby being a relative term for this native Californian.
Anyway, here's the link to get more info and/or register:
http://www.ivnua.org/training-seminars.php
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
BrainShare Registration Now Open!
Registration for BrainShare 2013 is now open and they're updating the web page as well. Just a reminder that it's in February this year so if you're a skier or snowboarder plan some extra days around the trip to hit the slopes!
Also, believe it or not, my blog has surpassed 10,000 views. Surprised the heck out of me I must say. So perhaps it's time for a contest? It may have to be limited to USA though as I've not had to deal with customs in forever and have forgotten all that I knew about getting stuff to other countries (other than letters that is).
Been busy in ZCM land and doing POC work lately. I almost missed the announcement that SP1 for GroupWise 2012 is now available.
Also, believe it or not, my blog has surpassed 10,000 views. Surprised the heck out of me I must say. So perhaps it's time for a contest? It may have to be limited to USA though as I've not had to deal with customs in forever and have forgotten all that I knew about getting stuff to other countries (other than letters that is).
Been busy in ZCM land and doing POC work lately. I almost missed the announcement that SP1 for GroupWise 2012 is now available.
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
AlienWare Disappoints Me
I've been rolling around the idea of getting a newer desktop than my current i3 Aurora box that I've had for less than 3 years now. Mainly because the new "consolidated" server farm of SWTOR has caused my machine more than a few hiccups and I'm a spoiled brat who wants a faster machine because my little MX11 laptop runs circles around my desktop now. Since I'm paying for it, I figure I should be able to get what I want.
As I went through the build process for a new Aurora just to see what the price is roughly going to be when I'm ready to pull the trigger I run into the MS Office (augh! bloatware!) options. One of the big reasons I've kept going back to AlienWare has been the ability to not have that odious piece of filth trash up my system's registry causing me to do a fresh, untainted install right after getting the new machine. To my dismay the option of "None" is no longer there, by default you get stuck with a trial version.
So, I guess it's back to finding the lowest price point with the hardware that I want and face the possibility of going back to building my own desktops. I haven't really missed my days of building machines (I've frankly done enough of those, starting back in the day when a chip puller was a necessary piece of equipment), so there remains the possibility of buying a warrantied machine from one of the larger vendors (no eMachines allowed at my house tyvm!).
Hmmm....wonder if I can find one of those cute little Penguin cases around anywhere and if their power supplies would be sufficient.
As I went through the build process for a new Aurora just to see what the price is roughly going to be when I'm ready to pull the trigger I run into the MS Office (augh! bloatware!) options. One of the big reasons I've kept going back to AlienWare has been the ability to not have that odious piece of filth trash up my system's registry causing me to do a fresh, untainted install right after getting the new machine. To my dismay the option of "None" is no longer there, by default you get stuck with a trial version.
So, I guess it's back to finding the lowest price point with the hardware that I want and face the possibility of going back to building my own desktops. I haven't really missed my days of building machines (I've frankly done enough of those, starting back in the day when a chip puller was a necessary piece of equipment), so there remains the possibility of buying a warrantied machine from one of the larger vendors (no eMachines allowed at my house tyvm!).
Hmmm....wonder if I can find one of those cute little Penguin cases around anywhere and if their power supplies would be sufficient.
Thursday, August 23, 2012
Mary's been slacking!
I've been ignoring my blogs for far too long. So much has happened out there in the world of Novell that I haven't updated you all on, that you probably already know all the stuff I'll be posting here today. Been too busy in ZCM-land and not busy enough in GroupWise-land.
Today I'll catch you up with two posts of Dean's that you should be aware of, one of which was just posted today, so I'm kind of on top of it.
A new version of Data Synchronizer is out - 1.2.4 is officially Released! Several new enhancements like support for Android Jelly Bean (yay!) and improved log management. Expect to see iOS 6 support soon too. Here's the link to Dean's post:
Today I'll catch you up with two posts of Dean's that you should be aware of, one of which was just posted today, so I'm kind of on top of it.
A new version of Data Synchronizer is out - 1.2.4 is officially Released! Several new enhancements like support for Android Jelly Bean (yay!) and improved log management. Expect to see iOS 6 support soon too. Here's the link to Dean's post:
Another really good post on Dean's blog comes from Kari Wolff who I had much fun working with a few months back. Discussing the true cost of migration, she pretty much nails it.
Don't shake your head just yet; while I am admittedly a devout GroupWise user, that doesn't mean I can't see the value in other solutions or that I haven't used other solutions. (Remember I'm a cranky-old-broad I've used LOTS of other email solutions). Anytime you are migrating from one email system to another, regardless of vendor, it will cost a pretty penny - above and beyond licensing costs. Kari has some really good points here, you should take a peek at it.
If you haven't seen GroupWise 2012 yet, you should go take a peek at it, it's pretty sweet. Also, you might want to take check out GWAVA since they now support both GroupWise and Exchange and can help you with a migration in either direction. (No, I don't get paid to promote GWAVA, I just really like their products). I haven't seen a date for GWAVACon 2013 in America yet, but chances are it will be in Torrance in January.
I must
admit though, Microsoft's best kept secret seems to be their pricing.
They even have a certification for Microsoft licensing, which caused me a
major headache recently as I was trying to work on a CBA and ROI for
a dummy project and was wanting only MSRP prices for all the vendors
involved. Even the MS partners came back with differing numbers, what
the heck? I finally did get it done, but with the way MS pricing is
setup, they were at the bottom of the pack for both CBA and ROI numbers.
I wasn't looking for any clear winners, I was just trying to get an
idea of how much a certain type of project would cost in terms of
licensing across several vendors...I vaguely remember this being a whole
lot easier when I was in charge 3rd Party products for a proprietary medical system many, many moons ago.
Saturday, May 19, 2012
Major pouting over non-technical stuff
Last night I was having a major pity party, throwing a bit of a
tantrum and in tears. I received devastating (well, for me it was
devastating) news yesterday afternoon that the axle that we had a line
on for my old Bubba truck wasn't the correct one. At best, we can hope for an axle rebuild, should we be able to
find the parts.
Thank to the efforts of my state's idiot Senators (yes, Debbie Stabenow you are one of the guilty!) push to pass "Cash for Clunkers" in an effort to boost auto sales, there are far fewer replacement parts for vehicles of all ages. Even more so for a 22 year old pickup. My beloved Bubba truck isa victim of that *oh-so-brilliant-move* (can you hear the sarcasm dripping here?).
Fast forward to this morning, when I did just what the idioticlegislation wanted me to do all along, and I "replaced" Bubba with a new vehicle. But not quite in the way they'd hoped for. My new vehicle is a new Ford F-150. Oh, don't get me wrong, I may have bowed to buying a new vehicle, but no I did not spend the extra $3K to get the new Eco-boost V6 Ford is so proud of. Nope. I got me a big honking V8 that gets an estimated 14mpg and 19mpg. Which is far less than Bubba's 22 and 24. Bwahahaha!!!
Fortunately for my old beloved Bubba truck, it's not completely falling victim to the evil plans of DC. Instead, it's becoming my project truck. My poor hubby bowed to my pouting and shouts of "I don't want to get rid of Bubba truck!" and we will slowly get it restored as funds and parts cooperate.
If you happen to live in the Greater Grand Rapids Michigan area, I highly recommend Tony Betten & Sons Ford. They let me take off with the keys and drive the new beastie around sans sales guy, got it all washed and shiny, gassed it up, and dug for every rebate and discount possible for me. Had Bubba been 5 years newer, I would have gotten another rebate, but alas, no go. As it was he found us over $4K in discounts to go with our X-plan discounts.
Thank to the efforts of my state's idiot Senators (yes, Debbie Stabenow you are one of the guilty!) push to pass "Cash for Clunkers" in an effort to boost auto sales, there are far fewer replacement parts for vehicles of all ages. Even more so for a 22 year old pickup. My beloved Bubba truck isa victim of that *oh-so-brilliant-move* (can you hear the sarcasm dripping here?).
Fast forward to this morning, when I did just what the idioticlegislation wanted me to do all along, and I "replaced" Bubba with a new vehicle. But not quite in the way they'd hoped for. My new vehicle is a new Ford F-150. Oh, don't get me wrong, I may have bowed to buying a new vehicle, but no I did not spend the extra $3K to get the new Eco-boost V6 Ford is so proud of. Nope. I got me a big honking V8 that gets an estimated 14mpg and 19mpg. Which is far less than Bubba's 22 and 24. Bwahahaha!!!
Fortunately for my old beloved Bubba truck, it's not completely falling victim to the evil plans of DC. Instead, it's becoming my project truck. My poor hubby bowed to my pouting and shouts of "I don't want to get rid of Bubba truck!" and we will slowly get it restored as funds and parts cooperate.
If you happen to live in the Greater Grand Rapids Michigan area, I highly recommend Tony Betten & Sons Ford. They let me take off with the keys and drive the new beastie around sans sales guy, got it all washed and shiny, gassed it up, and dug for every rebate and discount possible for me. Had Bubba been 5 years newer, I would have gotten another rebate, but alas, no go. As it was he found us over $4K in discounts to go with our X-plan discounts.
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Novell North America Tour 2012
Novell is running their re-connect tour and is coming to - of all places - Grand Rapids. Why did no one at Novell let me know!?
Anyway, they're coming - woo-hoo! Way better than hitting Detroit.
For those in Grand Rapids, here's the link to the tour page, just look for Grand Rapids on the right and click to register. It's being held at the JW Marriott in downtown, quite a lovely place, once you find parking and which floor the party's on. :)
http://www.novell.com/events/tour2012.html
BTW - Novell, have you contacted your few partners in town? Have you contact your customers? Please do!
Anyway, they're coming - woo-hoo! Way better than hitting Detroit.
For those in Grand Rapids, here's the link to the tour page, just look for Grand Rapids on the right and click to register. It's being held at the JW Marriott in downtown, quite a lovely place, once you find parking and which floor the party's on. :)
http://www.novell.com/events/tour2012.html
BTW - Novell, have you contacted your few partners in town? Have you contact your customers? Please do!
Thursday, April 26, 2012
ZCM and new phone keeping me busy
My new gig is in health care, where we are pushing ZCM to it's limits, working closely with Novell to resolve a bundle of issues related to how we are specifically using ZCM. That along with learning all the ins-and-outs of a big project that I was hired into the middle of has kept me very busy and off the GroupWise administrative side of things.
What I can tell you about ZCM at this point is - patch to the latest version before calling Novell. Chances are we've run into the problem and Novell's already fixed it with a patch or FTF. It might save you a headache, and a wasted SR.
Now on the totally unrelated topic of cell phones. I absolutely love, love, love my Nextel Blackberry Curve. But after nearly 5 years of abuse - including drops down stairs, drops in parking lots where it's skittered under more than one car, getting chewed and slobbered on by big puppies, and drops on concrete - the jack for a wired headset is broken, making it hard on my work from home days to handle conference calls and still get other stuff done easily.
I caved, gave in and picked up the Samsung Galaxy S II Epic 4G (or whatever order those words go in) running the Gingerbread version of Android. I'm liking it "ok". I still despise the touch keyboards as I have fingers that are apparently "too fat" for touchscreens. I'm constantly having to correct and I hate not being able to simply tap on a space between 2 letters to correct a word, rather than having to backspace over everything else that was spelled correctly and reenter it all. That's where the Blackberry kicks butt over everything else for me.
We don't have 4G at my house, and the Sprint coverage is worse than I had on my Nextel Blackberry, but it seems to work okay at this point. I'm giving it 2 weeks to decided if I'm staying with Sprint or dumping it all and moving to Verizon - which does have 4G at my house but not unlimited data and will cost me $30/month more than my current Sprint contract discounts. I'm okay without 4G at home as I can just jump on our wireless and I do have 4G at work.
For those that may ask why I didn't go with iPhone? Well, to be blunt, it cost a hell of a lot more to get the equivalent "power" in the iPhone over the Samsung. $150 more to be exact. (And it's not 4G ready.) That's because the local Sprint store was having an in-store special making the Samsung drop to $49.95 if you bought an accessorie (which I needed anyway). Walking out the door with a new bluetooth headset and a case, I was still $30 under the cost of the Samsung if there wasn't a special.
I do still have my Blackberry - I love the password manager on it and have so many on there it'll be a pain to transfer, so it's staying until I've completely decided which way I'm going yet. We'll see, two weeks to go. If I haven't thrown the phone across the room by then, I guess I'll keep it.
What I can tell you about ZCM at this point is - patch to the latest version before calling Novell. Chances are we've run into the problem and Novell's already fixed it with a patch or FTF. It might save you a headache, and a wasted SR.
Now on the totally unrelated topic of cell phones. I absolutely love, love, love my Nextel Blackberry Curve. But after nearly 5 years of abuse - including drops down stairs, drops in parking lots where it's skittered under more than one car, getting chewed and slobbered on by big puppies, and drops on concrete - the jack for a wired headset is broken, making it hard on my work from home days to handle conference calls and still get other stuff done easily.
I caved, gave in and picked up the Samsung Galaxy S II Epic 4G (or whatever order those words go in) running the Gingerbread version of Android. I'm liking it "ok". I still despise the touch keyboards as I have fingers that are apparently "too fat" for touchscreens. I'm constantly having to correct and I hate not being able to simply tap on a space between 2 letters to correct a word, rather than having to backspace over everything else that was spelled correctly and reenter it all. That's where the Blackberry kicks butt over everything else for me.
We don't have 4G at my house, and the Sprint coverage is worse than I had on my Nextel Blackberry, but it seems to work okay at this point. I'm giving it 2 weeks to decided if I'm staying with Sprint or dumping it all and moving to Verizon - which does have 4G at my house but not unlimited data and will cost me $30/month more than my current Sprint contract discounts. I'm okay without 4G at home as I can just jump on our wireless and I do have 4G at work.
For those that may ask why I didn't go with iPhone? Well, to be blunt, it cost a hell of a lot more to get the equivalent "power" in the iPhone over the Samsung. $150 more to be exact. (And it's not 4G ready.) That's because the local Sprint store was having an in-store special making the Samsung drop to $49.95 if you bought an accessorie (which I needed anyway). Walking out the door with a new bluetooth headset and a case, I was still $30 under the cost of the Samsung if there wasn't a special.
I do still have my Blackberry - I love the password manager on it and have so many on there it'll be a pain to transfer, so it's staying until I've completely decided which way I'm going yet. We'll see, two weeks to go. If I haven't thrown the phone across the room by then, I guess I'll keep it.
Saturday, April 7, 2012
Call for Conferences
If you'd like your upcoming conference listed on my blog, please let me know, I'm happy to help spread the word.
Mind you, I will give preferential treatment to user group organized events and things that include Novell products. :)
Mind you, I will give preferential treatment to user group organized events and things that include Novell products. :)
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Heads-up MidWesterners!
Sorry for being so absent here, but wanted to make sure this gets posted.
IVNUA's Spring Conference is being sponsored by Novell this year. This annual Training Conference is being held on May 3 & 4 in Utica, Il.
They have big names coming! Laura Chappell, Doc Hodges, Loyal Moses, and Jeremy Moskowitz are a few of the presenters.
Check out www.ivnua.org for more info, and let Bill know I sent you. ;)
IVNUA's Spring Conference is being sponsored by Novell this year. This annual Training Conference is being held on May 3 & 4 in Utica, Il.
They have big names coming! Laura Chappell, Doc Hodges, Loyal Moses, and Jeremy Moskowitz are a few of the presenters.
Check out www.ivnua.org for more info, and let Bill know I sent you. ;)
Thursday, March 1, 2012
GroupWise 2012
Well, GroupWise 2012 is here - yay! - and reports are that it's a smooth upgrade. Better yet, after "chatting" with Dean Lythgoe, the apparent client push woes with ZCM have been resolved.
The team put in a lot of work during the beta phase of GW 2012 and - if you're using the latest ZCM - the push issues appear to have been resolved. There is also the GWTuner which can be used to modify the .msi file.
I haven't had my hands on it yet, I'm hoping to build a sandbox with GW installed this weekend - given I can find enough hours in the day - so I can post what I find here.
Also, new job has me in the ZCM realm so expect to see more about ZCM in future posts.
The team put in a lot of work during the beta phase of GW 2012 and - if you're using the latest ZCM - the push issues appear to have been resolved. There is also the GWTuner which can be used to modify the .msi file.
I haven't had my hands on it yet, I'm hoping to build a sandbox with GW installed this weekend - given I can find enough hours in the day - so I can post what I find here.
Also, new job has me in the ZCM realm so expect to see more about ZCM in future posts.
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Windows StickyNotes
Because this came up at work today, I figured I'd post a portion of a post I did on different blog.
On my Windows 7 boxes, and my SUSE Linux boxes, I love the StickyNotes / TomBoy apps. StickyNotes showed up first in the Linux world and I fell in love immediately. How cool to be able to pull up a virtual StickyNote, jot down some info, and place it somewhere on your screen, or close the app but not lose the data. In Windows 7, not only can you drag the notes around on the screen, stack them on top of each other, but you can also change the colors. This helps me keep track of notes for my different book series. For instance, the first series gets Purple, second gets Green, fourth gets Yellow, third gets Pink, and my blog post notes get White.
The only problem with the StickyNotes on Windows 7 is that most backup solutions won't copy it because it doesn't reside in the Documents folder, and many users have no idea where the little data file is stored. That means, if you're machine has to be re-imaged (i.e. Windows has to be installed from scratch) you may lose that data. The good news is that all of your StickyNotes are in one little file and that can simply be copied to an external drive, USB stick, or CD; take your pick. The file name is StickyNotes.snt and it sits in the c:\Users\curentusername\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft (where currentusername is who you log in as).
Another issue is you when you click on what is normally the "close" button in the top right corner (the "X"), it deletes the note rather than close it down. So to close your StickyNotes you actually have to go to the taskbar, right click on the StickyNotes icon and select "Close Window". Your notes will be saved and reopened next time you launch StickyNotes
Friday, January 20, 2012
Microsoft Support Lied
I had to call to straighten out a huge snafu on their part with a customer's purchase of MS Office 2010 and gaining access to their product keys.
While I was on the phone (and being talked down to - you all know how much I *love* that) I was told that you MUST burn the ISO to a DVD, and that no the installer won't work if you mount the ISO via something like Virtual CloneDrive. Big lie!
Proved it today that, yes in fact, Virginia, you can run the MS Office 2010 setup from a virutal DVD, using Virtual CloneDrive just fine.
Just thought I'd share.
While I was on the phone (and being talked down to - you all know how much I *love* that) I was told that you MUST burn the ISO to a DVD, and that no the installer won't work if you mount the ISO via something like Virtual CloneDrive. Big lie!
Proved it today that, yes in fact, Virginia, you can run the MS Office 2010 setup from a virutal DVD, using Virtual CloneDrive just fine.
Just thought I'd share.
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Richard Bliss
Thought I'd share with you all that Richard Bliss, formerly of GWAVA and GroupWise fame, has just released his book today on lulu.com. He is in the process of porting it to Kindle and Nook formats as well.
Here's the blurb on the book:
If you're interested, here's the link to it as well:
http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/stealing-the-show/18832009
Here's the blurb on the book:
This book is a collection of 9 BlissPoints. They are unique marketing concepts that the author has developed over the past 22 years of marketing for Hi-Tech Start-ups and Fortune 500 organizations. These BlissPoints have enable him to see things differently, no matter the situation. They are examples where he has stolen the show and literally moved the spotlight away from the traditional and focused it on the unusual or the unique. Each point is a different area where he has found success by emotionally connecting to his audience and by doing things a little differently. The author believes in going against traditional thinking and exploiting things that others have missed. So, here's his challenge to you: "Look for the value and overcome the fears that keep you from stepping out on stage, whatever that stage may be. Go ahead! Steal the show."
If you're interested, here's the link to it as well:
http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/stealing-the-show/18832009
Well whadda know?
Somebody paid attention AND I passed 7,000 page views. Didn't realize that many people found me.
Anyway, there are 2 winners currently: Amanda and Rhonda. If anyone else is paying attention and emails me my page view count, I probably have a t-shirt around that you'd like. :)
Anyway, there are 2 winners currently: Amanda and Rhonda. If anyone else is paying attention and emails me my page view count, I probably have a t-shirt around that you'd like. :)
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Hey, I'm at almost 7,000 page views!
First person(s) to email me at wmnug at yahoo dot com to tell me I'm over 7,000 page views (scroll to the bottom of this page to find my counter) will get....well, I don't know what you'll get yet. It will most likely depend on where you live because customs can be a pain.
I just noticed today, and I've no idea how I got to this many page views to begin with, so I don't know when this will end. But it might be fun. :)
I just noticed today, and I've no idea how I got to this many page views to begin with, so I don't know when this will end. But it might be fun. :)
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
OES2 Linux Activation Fails or OES2 Linux says there are no updates available
Another issue related to the cloning of virtual servers from a VMWare template. Don't get me wrong, I love VMWare, but the human element involved in cloning servers (especially after some time has passed) always shoots me in the foot.
I stumbled upon this when I was doing updates for a customer. A few servers updated just as they should, while others were saying there were no updates available. Then when re-activating them via Novell Customer Center I realized I'd used the wrong server name. Doh! SMH - again. One of those steps I overlooked after cloning the server. Part of this depends on your particular template process, but if you're not controlling the process this "fix" is a good thing to have in your toolbelt.
This comes from a Novell TID that was not easy to find. Hopefully this post will make generic searches outside of the Novell KB a bit easier.
These are the error messages you may encounter:
Here's how to fix it:
This is all laid out in Novell TID #3818394 with the title of "Activation fails with an error downloading XML data" if you want to see the official resolution.
I stumbled upon this when I was doing updates for a customer. A few servers updated just as they should, while others were saying there were no updates available. Then when re-activating them via Novell Customer Center I realized I'd used the wrong server name. Doh! SMH - again. One of those steps I overlooked after cloning the server. Part of this depends on your particular template process, but if you're not controlling the process this "fix" is a good thing to have in your toolbelt.
This comes from a Novell TID that was not easy to find. Hopefully this post will make generic searches outside of the Novell KB a bit easier.
These are the error messages you may encounter:
- ERROR: Could not add'https://update.novell.com': Failed to download XML metadata: Download failed: (https://update.novell.com/repo/repoindex.xml) serializationStream supports seeking, but its length is 0
ERROR: Could not add 'nu.novell.com': Failed to parse XML metadata: Can't add repository at https://nu.novell.com/repo/$RCE/SLED10-Updates/sled-10-i586: Unknown Error: Downloading metadata failed (is YUM source?) or user did not accept remote source. Aborting refresh.
ERROR: Could not add 'nu.novell.com': Failed to parse XML metadata: Can't add repository at https://nu.novell.com/repo/$RCE/SLES10-Updates/sles-10-i586: Unknown Error: Downloading metadata failed (is YUM source?) or user did not accept remote source. Aborting refresh.
Here's how to fix it:
- Close the Novell Customer Center Configuration tool if it's running
- Open a terminal window and su if you're not already logged in as root
- Run the following commands
- rczmd stop
- rm -rf /var/cache/zmd/*
- rczmd start
- Launch Yast2 and select Software | Novell Customer Center Configuration
- Correct the server name if it's wrong and finish the activation process
This is all laid out in Novell TID #3818394 with the title of "Activation fails with an error downloading XML data" if you want to see the official resolution.
Cannot create NSS volume on OES2 Linux box
This was one of the aggravating issues I ran into over this past Summer/Fall. It was my own fault, but trying to find a solution was not easy.
Here's the assorted searches I performed:
If you have cloned the server in question from another server - for instance using VMWare templates - you may be using the same NSS admin name as the orginally created server. This is the real issue. It's not a VMWare issue and it's not really an OES2 Linux issue, it's a doh!, slap my forehead issue.
Here's how to fix it:
I ran into this after having used a template for a multiple server migration for a customer. First one that I'd missed this on, but it wasn't my last.
Here's the assorted searches I performed:
- cannot install an NSS volume to eDirectory
- ERROR: NSS Admin Failed Creating Edirectory Objects
- Error -676 When Trying To Create A Pool Or Volume via NSSMU or iManager
- cannot create NSS volume on OES2 Linux on VMWare
If you have cloned the server in question from another server - for instance using VMWare templates - you may be using the same NSS admin name as the orginally created server. This is the real issue. It's not a VMWare issue and it's not really an OES2 Linux issue, it's a doh!, slap my forehead issue.
Here's how to fix it:
- Open up a terminal window
- Type the command "id novlxregd" and confirm that the nssadmin name is wrong
- Go into Yast | OES Install and Configuation.
- "Enable" reconfiguration under the NSS section.
- If the name doesn't match your server name, i.e. cn=server2admin,o=novell if the server with the issue is named server2, simply run through the NSS configuration after changing the name to the corrected name
- Let it finish and the type the "id novlxregd" again and you should see the correct response now.
I ran into this after having used a template for a multiple server migration for a customer. First one that I'd missed this on, but it wasn't my last.
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