‘The Longest Day of My Life’ - D-Day Survivor Recalls Tragic Day
Posted on June 6, 2009, under Current Events.
UBCD for Windows
Posted on May 31, 2009, under Web Dev/Tech.
We went out to see some family this weekend, and they were having some issues with their WinXP computer. I was thinking about taking a Linux Live CD, but ended up giving the Ultimate Boot CD for Windows a try. It is pretty slick. You have to have your own copy of the Windows XP install files to create the boot disk ISO, but after that you can configure all types of software to be included on the CD image. Worth checking out as a handy tool to have lying around.
Memorial Day 2009
Posted on May 25, 2009, under Current Events.
Delicious Toolbar hangs IE8
Posted on April 27, 2009, under Web Dev/Tech.
I’m running into a problem with the Delicious Toolbar 1.12.273.0 causing IE8 to hang on Windows XP SP3. It is super annoying, as I would like to use the Favorite Tags functionality on this machine.
worksforme - On Vista
I have the Delicious Toolbar running with IE8 on Vista with no problems. However for some reason the other computer I use running WinXP is choking on the Delicious addon.
Issue
After I install the Delicious Toolbar, I can open IE8 for one session. After closing the browser, the IE window disappears like everything is normal. When I try to open IE again, the chrome starts to load, but the window hangs. My home page doesn’t open, and the IE functions are frozen.
Behind the scenes, there are two iexplorer.exe processes, and one DeliciousManager.exe process still running. IE8 becomes responsive again once I kill the DeliciousManager.exe process in the Task Manager. Once I kill the DeliciousManager.exe process, the iexplorer.exe processes are freed up and end normally. Then I can start a new web browser session, until I run into the issue again when I close IE.
Attempt 1 - Disable potential conflicts
I tried disabling all other IE addons, setting exclusions in antivirus for real-time scans on the Delicious Toolbar data directories, and disabling the firewall. The DeliciousManager.exe task would still hang IE8.
Any Ideas?
Does anyone out there have any other ideas? If I find a solution, I will post a follow-up here.
Team Site Search Broken on SharePoint 2003
Posted on April 13, 2009, under SharePoint.
I realize SharePoint 2003 is fairly old by now, but there are a few production installs out there I’m sure. I still see frequent hits on the account lockout post from awhile back. Here’s a tip from some troubleshooting last fall in case it helps someone else.
We ran into an issue on one of our SPS 2003 installations where the team site information was not searchable at the team site level. We could successfully search all content at the portal/area level, but no results would come back when we performed the same search inside of a team site.
After some troubleshooting with our DBA and Microsoft Support (mostly our DBA), we realized that a required column by SharePoint for indexing the team site content was missing. The column name was Extension.
The resolution for this problem ended up being fairly simple once we figured it out:
- Open SharePoint Central Administration on the front-end server
- In the left-hand navigation, click “Windows SharePoint Services”
- Under “Component Configuration”, click “Configure full-text search”
- Uncheck “Enable full-text search and index component”
- Click OK
- Under “Component Configuration”, click “Configure full-text search”
- Now re-check “Enable full-text search and index component”
- Click OK
- At this point the required column “Extension” should be recreated in the SQL database
- Force a re-index or wait for the next schedule
- Test
This fixed the issue for us, and we were able to bring back search results at both the portal and team site level again.
Harley Davidson has the right idea
Chinese Ghostnet
Posted on March 31, 2009, under Current Events, Web Dev/Tech.
Everyone in normal IT is focused on Conficker right now, but the news on a Chinese Ghostnet is pretty fascinating:
…is controlled by computers almost exclusively located in China and has infected 1295 computer in 103 countries in the last two years…
They report that, not only can the espionage software monitor email and documents on infected computers, it can also control a PC remotely, switching on any cameras or microphones attached to it, to carry out surveillance of its surroundings.
Creepy.
IE8 Performance Problems
Posted on March 25, 2009, under Web Dev/Tech.
I am still testing IE8 on my home machine, and ran across a page that shows some performance issues with the new browser.
When I open up this page in IE8, the browser is extremely slow after the page finishes loading. I have not taken the time to dig real deep, but AJAX is being used to bring in the body content, and I see jQuery in use quite a bit behind the scenes. For what it’s worth, I used the “Report a Webpage Problem Internet Explorer 8 Add-On” to let Microsoft know of the performance issue.
When I use Firefox 3.0.7, I have no performance issues on the test page. I have not tested IE7 yet to see if the performance problem is in that version as well.
Quote
Posted on March 25, 2009, under Current Events.
“… you cannot carry on squeezing the productive bit of the economy, in order to fund an unprecedented engorgement of the unproductive bit.”
The devalued Prime Minister of a devalued Government (worth watching) - Daniel Hannan MEP
My Take on the AIG Bonuses
Posted on March 22, 2009, under Current Events.
Based on the update from 3/25, it is apparent not all of the details ‘out there’ are accurate, primarily when it comes to the bonus structure of all the business units within AIG. Unfortunately, these inaccurate details ‘out there’ are what is driving the anger towards people who deserve, contractually and morally, to be compensated for their work.
Update (3/25/2009): A resignation letter, from the Executive Vice President of AIG’s financial products unit, has been posted on the New York Times that provides far more accurate detail. If the anger and envy towards business people who work hard and are compensated for it continues, we will see more and more businesses lose the effort and drive of people who are able to help raise the financial economy of the country.
Pre Bail-out
Personally: I don’t care. If a company’s Board of Directors decides to structure the business leaders’ compensation plan so they receive very large bonuses regardless of the profitability of the company, that’s their problem. It has a very strong odor of bad business, but it’s their problem as a company. If the business fails, there will be a wave in that sector of industry as competitors and new start-ups take care of the clients that were not being served well at the failing business, and then everything will be fine.
Principally: Not having variable compensation in place for a business’s top leaders is bad for that business. It allows for politics and laziness to enter the top tiers of decision making, rather than shaping the company according to how its clients are better served. If other people are not well-served by your business, your company won’t be that good at making money, monopolies aside. Now that we are all more familiar with the term ‘golden parachutes’, I would be nervous working for a company where the top business leaders are not primarily incented through a variable compensation plan. (This is a great question to ask at any future interviews from now on.)
Post Bail-out
I read and hear a decent amount of anger (understatement?) at AIG over their bonus plans. I think this outrage is misplaced. AIG had contracts with their business leaders for that money. Legal contracts must be honored in this country, regardless of how business savvy they are. If contracts mean nothing, we might as well all go plant gardens and learn how to build our own huts, because the business economy is over. I know this anger is only because we, as tax payers, have now been tied to failing businesses with bad business plans. If our money hadn’t been put into the ledgers of these companies, as a general public, we wouldn’t care. There would be no vested interest in how AIG set up their bonus plans.
Here’s an example. Say you have a money manager over your nest egg. I don’t care what kind of nest egg, or how much, but you have a person overseeing where the money is going. Let’s say your money manager has some acquaintances at a business that has been around for quite awhile, and those acquaintances tell him the company is going to go under unless they get some cash from investors. They lost 6% (or whatever minor percentage it was) of their normal business, and the tower of cards is falling, not able to weather any change in their cash flow. It’s obvious they have business plan problems, not being able to handle a small percentage change in their business, and are looking for outside cash to prevent the business from going under. Let’s say your money manager, without conferring with you, puts xx% of your nest egg in this failing business, saying this is a company we still need to have around. After your money manager moves a decent chunk of your nest egg, you start to discover details of how this company is poorly managed. Before you can call your money manager, he sends out a newsletter saying he can’t believe this business is managed poorly, and expresses his outrage that it has bad business plans in place. But wait… isn’t that why your money manager rationalized putting money in their pockets in the first place? Wasn’t that the original conversation? Because the current business plans were structured in some way that prevented the company from weathering a change in the landscape?
Do you get mad at the company who essentially stated they were poorly run before getting your money, or do you get mad at your money manager who knowingly tied you to the failing business and then feigned outrage that it had failing business plans?
I know what I would do - I would fire my money manager on the spot. Only after that would I begin to look out how do I get away from the failing company.
Unfortunately, in the real world scenario, we have to wait before we have the opportunity to replace ‘our money manager’ (ie, the sitting administration and Congress who can move our money without asking first). AIG told the world they were poorly managed as part of begging for a bail-out, thus the request for the bail-out. So we knew they had business problems before our money was given to them. We just didn’t know how bad the current administration was with business decisions until they decided to tie the country to failing businesses, and then pretend to be outraged to find out they had failing business plans… which was their rational for giving them money in the first place!
Dilemma for other businesses in the financial sector
Other financial businesses that are competitors with AIG, etc., are now in direct competition with the U.S. government, the same entity that can regulate their companies. Regardless of if tax payers get their money back, and regardless of quality business plans, the government will want its money back. The regulating body now has a vested interest in seeing AIG, and others who took tax-payer money, beat out its competitors. Conflict of interest?