It's true. Not only can you monitor UNIX and Linux computers from System Center Operations Manager 2007 using Cross Platform Extensions, but you can now also use Interop Connectors to share information between Operations Manager and both IBM Tivoli Enterprise Console and HP OpenView for Windows and UNIX.
Yeah, I KNOW!
These new goodies are in public beta. If you use multiple enterprise management systems and/or need to monitor computers on multiple platforms, you must check out these links!
- A motherboard tattoo is a unique code that can be written in the basic input/output system (BIOS) of a computer to ensure that System Restore or diagnostic compact discs (CDs) will work only on the machine or line of machines with which the CDs are sold. The tattoo process ensures that recovery or diagnostic CDs cannot be illegally used with computers other than those for which they are intended to be used.
A tattoo consists of an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM) chip that contains information about the machine, such as the serial number and operating system data. This chip is unique to each machine. If the motherboard, or certain components on it, are replaced, the EPROM chip must be reprogrammed. The same is true if the original recovery or diagnostic CDs are lost. The technical support department of the computer vendor, or the technician who performed modifications or repairs, should be contacted for details about the reprogramming (re-tattooing) process.
If the above techno-babble didn't make sense to you... If you buy a computer that utilizes tattooing - and they don't have to - then if you want to upgrade your hard drive, say for all those downloaded tunes and cute kitten videos, you have to call the manufacturer - you'll have no choice. Anything you try to install will be ignored by the motherboard. The process of upgrading is also more complicated, having to deal with flashing the motherboard, dealing with DMI's, burning specialized ISO's to bootable CD's - all in addition to the normal steps for upgrading a typical HDD.
I bet using the tattoo technology described above would work well as a data mining tool. You visit a website, that website server runs software to scan all incoming webpage requests for the requester's machine information, including the chip information, your operating system, IP address and a ton of other identifiable information. Why not program in a backdoor as well - say for "technical support" purposes. Do you see how this gets more creepy by the minute?
I had to share this video of Microsoft Surface...the technology is cool and it's worth watching the video all the way through. But what I really want to know is, who wrote that intro song?
Since the very first day I started my site I used Sitemeter.com to look at my visit statistics, but after joining Technorati and FeedBurner to get the word out about job scams I found their stats somewhat lacking.
After some research I made a switch to Statcounter.com. It only logs the last 100 visitors (which you can pay to increase), but I don’t care about that. What I like is being able to see so many more options for reading the data. I’m a stat FREAK, and I like to compare search engine referrals, learn which keywords were successful, and see my site hits sliced and diced in so many ways.
Today I read a great article (see: source) about how Statcounter.com turned down an advertiser who wanted to include spyware cookies on member sites, and were given a firm NO in response.
I don’t know if Sitemeter was doing that, but I do think their stats are kind of lame compared to the info I get at Statcounter. On top of that, I have the added bonus of knowing there won’t be any back-door money-making going on at the expense of me or my site visitors.
Thanks, Statcounter.com!
–TM
PS - Thanks to all the bogus job offers, my site is now getting anywhere from 1000-1500 hits per day. I have 3 new questionable opportunities joining the list soon and expect the visits to my little blog will climb some more. I promise to hurry up with those posts - gotta keep getting the word out!
I’ve been a busy grrl, getting my work machine ready to give to my colleague, which means backing up all my data and transferring back to my own machine. I ran into some issues with my personal machine and had to do a system recovery. I’ve had to copy huge (one of them is 20GB) backup files between machines so I don’t lose any of my data. I need to get it done for this week, so it’s had to take priority over researching or posting job scam reports.
Once I’m done rescuing my files and switching machines, I’m planning a major overhaul to the look and functionality of my site. It’ll be a big job, but I hope to unveil it in early May. I’ve got a new look too, so I’ll be sure to post a new photo.
April will be a busy month for me, but I’ll do my best to keep researching the suspected job scammers and promise to post any new information I find. In the meantime, if anyone else has the bandwidth, please become a member and report your findings. If my posts brought you here, then yours can bring others here too!
Whenever I have a problem with my blog, my good friend Chip can always be counted on to save the day. I was complaining that I hardly ever find the time to blog because using the WordPress Web interface bites. If I create text in the Web UI and something about my connection borks, there goes my unsaved draft. I have tried typing my entry into a plain editor and then pasting it into the Web UI, but by the time I’m done formatting and previewing and adding whatever other final touches to it, ultimately the same thing happens. The post disappears, never to be seen again.
Chip surprised me yesterday. A die-hard Linux/Mac boy, he told me I had various options, but out of all that he described, his recommendation was to try Windows Live Writer (Beta).
Not only does it work like a charm, but I was easily able to configure my own blog settings so I didn’t need to create a Windows Live Space. All Live Writer needed to know was my Web URL and the username and password I use to access my WordPress interface.
That’s it! Done!
Who would have thought Chip, of all people, could ever find it in his heart to evangelize a Microsoft product?
Now it’s time to post my first entry using Live Writer and see how it all turned out.
Back in the day, technocratic folks like myself used to refer to the kiddies as ankle-biters. As long as there has been a connection to the outside world, whether by BBS or Web, there have always been ankle-biters a-plenty.
Now, the Internet can generally be a decent experience for most anyone, depending on what one types or clicks. But we’re talking about kids here. As indestructable and savvy as teens like to think they are, the reality is that not everyone can smell trouble.
MySpace, not even worthy of a link on my page, is one of those places. Yes, I browsed it. No, I didn’t like it. And I’m not the only one to share this view, either. Check out this article from the King County Journal, one of many articles now circulating about these types of sites and what you can do to protect your kids.
For those of you who have only been using computers for the past dozen or so years, you should know that this type of predatory activity has been going on for much longer, even as far back as during the BBS heyday. Over the past 20 years I’ve watched this issue grow progressively harder to control. And I’m sorry, but you can’t blame the Internet.
There are a lot of sick people out there just waiting to see your teenager online. As a parent, it is your obligation to make sure you know what your ankle-biter is doing at all times. Surely you care enough?
Take the computer out of their room and put it in a more common area, so you can walk by and see what’s going on! Don’t let them hide behind a closed bedroom door where you can’t monitor their activities. Most of all, warn your kids about stranger-danger. Just because they aren’t in elementary school anymore doesn’t mean they don’t have a thing or two to learn. They aren’t teaching our kids in school how to deal with this type of danger, so it’s your job to remind them that a stranger is a stranger, whether they’re in person or virtual.
The machine I allow my kids to use sits in the living room, in a relatively high-traffic area, so that anybody walking by can see. My teen is not allowed to have an account on MySpace, nor is he permitted to post pictures of himself or create a profile that will reveal the area in which he lives. If he really wants to talk to his friends that badly, he can have one instant messaging account (and I must know everyone on his list at all times), or use the good old-fashioned telephone.
Please take care of your children. The stories are scary, and you can prevent this type of thing from happening by just taking a little more interest in what they’re doing.
Since my desktop machine runs on Linux and my notebook computer (a tablet PC) is optimized for Windows XP, I’ve had to get a little creative with respect to my work tools to ensure cross-platform compatibility. Only a couple of the applications below are uniquely Windows-oriented, and the rest either work in both Windows and Linux, or are dished up from a server at work.
This combination of tools allows me to perform a lot of Linux-like activities when I’m not able to be at my desk and am stuck with my Windows machine. It’s not necessarily the best toolkit, but until I find the time and resources to change them, this combination seems to be doing the trick.
Application
Local vs. Networked
Platform
Thunderbird Email & Enigmail Extension
Local
Windows / Linux
OpenOffice 2.0
Local
Windows / Linux
Imendio Planner
Local
Windows / Linux (Windows version doesn’t export HTML or do print previews
It appears that thanks to over 20 years of computer use, I now have carpal tunnel syndrome (also known as Repetitive Motion Injury) in my right wrist. Nothing could be worse for a writer/geek!
Over the past 3 or 4 years I have used notebook computers almost exclusively, and I believe this was the majority of the problem. Posture aside, when you type on a laptop, your hands are cramped and your wrists sit at weird angles. I also found myself resting the base of my palm on the machine just to the right of the touchpad, which probably aggravated things. It got so bad that I had muscle spasms in my index finger and thumb, and throbbing in the base of my hand, not to mention the shooting pains that went up my wrist all the way to the elbow.
I want to be able to type for a few more years yet, so I decided to be proactive. I went out and picked up a Belkin USB dual PS/2 adapter to plug in a mouse and keyboard. Next, I picked up a used natural keyboard. I’ve used these in the past and found that they keep my wrists at a more normal angle. Finally, I bought a beaded wristpad from IMAK so I could keep my wrist from bending too awkwardly.
I seem to have found the solution! By just adding a keyboard, mouse, and wristpad, my many hours per day spent on the computer are much more comfortable. I haven’t had any pain in my wrists or muscle spasms since I bought these items.
I’ve always advocated that if you keep your wrists straight you can avoid the pain of carpal tunnel. Sometimes we forget though, and need a little help. If you’re having similar problems, a few inexpensive changes can really make the difference!
Not that long ago I switched from Evolution email to Thunderbird for email.
My Mandrake 10.1 Linux work machine was having a hardware issue and I transfered everything onto a Windows XP machine. I will eventually get my desktop machine ready for remote Linux use (Cygwin ROCKS!), but for the time being, I just needed to get email up and running, and the Windows machine was convenient.
I had difficulty trying to learn how to import my old Evolution email into Thunderbird on Windows. All my Google searching told me was that the “mbox” format used by Evolution was compatible with Thunderbird, and that moving the folders into my Thunderbird profile should do the trick.
Well, those explanations were lame, so I’m going to fix that and give you all some detailed instructions.
My migration was from Linux to Windows, not to another Linux machine. Even still, locating your own mail folders shouldn’t be too difficult. This is the first thing you should know before you get started:
1. On Linux, Evolution stores mail in “/home/username/.evolution/mail/local” (don’t forget to substitute “username” with your actual user name!).
2. On Windows, Thunderbird stores mail in “C:/Documents and Settings/username/Application Data/Thunderbird/Profiles/default/Mail/Local Folders (substitute drive letter and username for the actuals; your default folder may have a string of 8 numbers and/or letters before the word “default”).
3. On Linux, Thunderbird would store mail in “/home/username/.mozilla/default/Mail” (again, as above, the username and profile name will be slightly different).
The next thing you need to know is which files actually contain your email data. For example, if you go into your local mail folder (in one of the above directories), you would find something like this:
…and so on, for Drafts, Outbox, Sent, Trash, and possibly Junk.
If you look at these files carefully, you’ll see that the files without the extensions contain your email data; you can tell because they are usually greater than 0-1K in size. You’ll also notice that if you drill into the directories, you will find the same structure in each one, representing all your Evolution subfolders.
Now that you know the basics, how do you get the mail into the right spot? Here’s what I did:
1. Make a working copy of your entire Inbox folder (the directory you want to “import”), including all subdirectories and files. I recommend that you put this copied directory in your home folder in Linux, or your “My Documents” folder in Windows. For a naming example, I called mine “archived-email”.
2. Go into the working copy of your old mail directory and rename your Inbox (that file without the extension, as shown above), so you won’t get it confused with the existing Inbox in Thunderbird when you move it over. (Alternatively, if you don’t have an account set up yet, it would be perfectly safe to leave the name as-is.) I called my old Evolution Inbox “Inbox-Archived”.
3. Move or copy this renamed inbox file to your Thunderbird directory–the one noted above. Load or restart Thunderbird and you will now see a new mail folder called, as in my case, “Inbox-Archived”.
4. Back in the working copy of your old Evolution directory, you can also move the Drafts, Outbox, Sent, Trash and Junk files over to your Thunderbird directory, but again, if you don’t want to overwrite the folders that already exist, better rename them and then move the files over.
NOTE: A nifty thing happens when you move the file into your Thunderbird profile directory–a folder is created, which goes by the same name as the file you copied over. You will place the files that represent your subfolders into this directory and they will magically appear in your “Inbox-Archived” mail folder when you start/restart Thunderbird!
5. Return to the working copy of your old Evolution directory. If you go into the inbox directory, you will find files and directories that correspond with all the subfolders you had in Evolution. As with your “Inbox-Archived” file, move or copy the files that have no extensions into the “Inbox-Archived” directory that was created earlier. They will automatically appear in that mail folder when you start/restart Thunderbird.
1. Evolution: (bundled in several Linux distributions, owned by Novell) 2. Mozilla Thunderbird: http://www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird/ 3. Cygwin: www.cygwin.com
Make no mistake–I love my Linux machine. But I seem to go through laptops like they’re disposable, and my Mandrake Thinkpad recently started giving me DMA errors. Until I get my desktop machine back in shape, Windows XP on the tablet notebook will have to suffice (don’t worry–I’m running Cygwin so I can satisfy my command-line urges from time to time).
I thought I’d take the safe route and grab my data off the Thinkpad while I still can. This left me looking for an email program that would handle GPG but not have the same problems Outlook and other Windows-based email clients have with poor junk mail control and allowing in threats that might infect my machine (isn’t it bad enough that it’s infected with Windows?)
On the advise of my friends at NORLUG, I decided to give Thunderbird a try. I’m so grateful to developers who go the extra mile by making great Linux applications cross-platform!
After installing Thunderbird and setting up my email accounts, I learned that to support GPG encryption I needed the Enigmail extension. Once that was installed I was able to import my public/private keys and import all the keys from my colleagues and friends very easily.
So far the only drawback I can find is the inability to manage my time. A calendar would be great. I suppose the Mozilla people might suggest full-blown Mozilla Mail for that, but I’d rather stick to Thunderbird since it’s just for email.
I want to thank all my friends at NORLUG who put up with all my questions today because I was too busy to RTFM (I honestly thought someone might have had to make this jump with email before–that’s my story and I’m sticking to it!).
- A motherboard tattoo is a unique code that can be written in the basic input/output system (
