Problem:

You can’t install SharePoint 2007 with SP1 on to a fresh copy of Server 2008 R2. You get a “This program is blocked due to compatibility issues” message, and asked to look at KB Article 962935 (which doesn’t actually exist at the time of writing!)

Solution:

You’ll need to slipstream Sharepoint 2007 SP2 into the Setup file. Brief summary is below:

Download the following…

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Trial Version (x64)

Sharepoint 2007 Service pack 2 (x64)

Perform the following…

1. Extract OfficeServerwithSP1.exe by executing “OfficeServerwithSP1.exe /extract:C:\Sharepoint2007\”
2. Delete all the files inside C:\Sharepoint2007\Updates\
3. Extract officeserver2007sp2-kb953334-x64-fullfile-en-us by executing “officeserver2007sp2-kb953334-x64-fullfile-en-us /extract:C:\Sharepoint2007\Updates\”
4. Run C:\Sharepoint2007\setup.exe

Now you can install Sharepoint 2007 on Server 2008 R2!

Full instructions/references:

MSDN Blog
Technet Social

One of the stand-out things for me is the easing of OS upgrades. Hopefully the days of checking out the crackberry.com forums for the latest software will be long gone. The ability to actually schedule remote OS upgrades at a time convenient for the end-user is also very, very welcome.

I’m looking forward to 5.0

I’ve spent all morning trying to log on to Microsoft’s eAgreement website in order to sign our new OVS agreement, but have been getting error messages all over the place. I made sure I was using IE and not Chrome or Firefox, as they often cause issues.

After emailing their support team, it turns out that their website it not compatible with Internet Explorer 8.

So much for dog-fooding

The procedure should also apply to most recent Dell Servers running ESX 3.5, but your mileage may vary

Get your hands on the Software Update Utility DVD ISO and Burn it.

In terms of time, this is pretty much half the job, believe it or not. You’ll need to goto support.dell.com, find your Dell Server, and get the Dell Updates DVD ISO. For the PowerVault 1950 III, go here and then look under Systems Management for “Dell – DVD iso Images” “applies to: DVD ISO – Dell Server Updates”.

Patching the Dell Server

1. Be sure to VMotion off any Guest OSs that you need to keep running. Shut down everything else, and then put the target server into Maintenance Mode.
2. Insert the Updates DVD into the Server
3. Bring up a command prompt, as root, on the Server and run the following to mount the CD-ROM: mount /mnt/cdrom
4. Now navigate to the CD-ROM: cd /mnt/cdrom
5. Check what’s upgradeable on your system: sh suu -c
6. If you’re happy, then run the upgrade: sh suu -u
7. That’s it, you’re done

Dell OpenManage Server Update Utility User’s Guide

If you just do a straight Google search for “Dell OpenManage Server Update Utility User’s Guide”, the top result is the documentation for OpenManage Server Administrator 5.2 and not the actual Server Update Utility, which makes it pretty confusing!

And yes, it’s a Saturday and I’m patching Servers

If you prefer video/speech to reading, there’s a very good video available for download as well

systeminfo | find /i “install date”

Picked this one up from windowsnetworking.com

If you want to get the Visual Studio setup to install SQL Server 2005 Express Edition SP2 instead, check out these great instructions by Aaron Stebner.

Here’s what I did for reference:

1. Went to the SQL Express 2005 SP2 download page.
2. Downloaded both packages.
3. Navigated to the Visual Studio install share and located the SQL Express installers (\wcu\SSE\).
4. Renamed the existing installers to *.old
5. Copied the new installers to the same directory.
6. All done

Here’s what you need to enable Remote Desktop remotely:

Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Network > Network Connections > Windows Firewall > Domain Profile > Windows Firewall: Allow Remote Desktop Exception

Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Terminal Services > Allow users to connect remotely using Terminal Services

Enable both of those options and you’ll be Remote Desktop-ing into PCs by the next day (or rather, until your Domain clients refresh their Group Policy settings )

The info seems slighty…wrong :/

Here’s where I found mine:

C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\Sun\Java\jre1.6.0_11

Enjoy

Smart Technology – Quick Logons through Facial Recognition

Continuing with the tradition of breaking tradition, ASUS introduces a whole new way in which users logon to their computers—through facial recognition. The SmartLogon system detects the user’s face and logs on without any intervention from the user. This system is designed to learn the variations of the user’s facial features, and is capable of performing detection in different lighting conditions.

Maybe I’m a cynic, but I wonder what happens if you take a photo of the target user, print it out life-size and show it to the camera? It might even work with a high-res passport photo scan. Hmmmm, curious…

Two pieces of malicious software affecting Apple’s Mac OS X appeared this week: a Trojan horse with the ability to download and install malicious code of an attacker’s choice, and a hacker tool for creating backdoors, according to security vendors.

The Trojan — called ‘OSX.RSPlug.D’ by Intego, the Mac security specialist that discovered the threat — is a variant on an older piece of malicious code but with a new installer, Intego said.

Naturally, it targets users in a traditional way:

The Trojan is found on porn websites posing as a codec needed to play video files, a technique used to trick the user into downloading and installing it.

I find myself saying this a fair bit: Mac OS X is not necessarily more secure than any other OS. At the present time, given their lower market share, they’re just not as sweet a target as the Windows install base. As Macs reach a critical mass, they’ll become just as desirable to infect as any other computer.

Windows 7 also manages wireless radios better allowing them to drop below 100% power draw while managing the connection. And by tweaking the OS kernel, the CPU can sometimes run at a lower frequency and stay idle longer. This results are a minimum of 11% better battery life for Windows 7 compared to Vista — and we’re still only talking about pre-Beta Windows 7 software, mind you. Nice. 

Nice, indeed

The script contains three files:

• BackupExpress.sql – Does the bulk of the work, backing up every database on the instance other than tempdb.
• BackupExpress.cmd – The batch file that executes the script. Must pass in the instance name.
• ScheduleBackups.cmd – Schedules the job by using AT. Must pass in the instance name to schedule like ScheduleBackups.cmd .\SQLExpress.

To do this, make sure you have the Task Scheduler service started. Uncompress all three of the files into the root of your C drive and run the schedule file from the command prompt.

I tried to keep the solution simple since most people that have SQL Express on their workstation may not be technical. So with that said, there is very little configuration or options. The backup solution keeps 7 days of history and constantly overwrites the previous week’s backup.

Grab the scripts from the full blog post.

Don’t forget to add the Instance name of your SQL Express Server when you run ScheduleBackups.cmd from the command line, like so:

ScheduleBackups.cmd MYSQLSERVER\SQLEXPRESS

OpenProj is a free, open source desktop alternative to Microsoft Project. The OpenProj solution is ideal for desktop project management and is available on Linux, Unix, Mac or Windows. OpenProj is a complete desktop replacement of Microsoft Project and even opens existing native Project files. OpenProj shares the most advanced scheduling engine in the industry with Project-ON-Demand. The OpenProj solution has Gantt Charts, Network Diagrams (PERT Charts), WBS and RBS charts, Earned Value costing and more. You can get more detailed information on OpenProj or download now!

Sounds promising. If it really is a viable alternative, it’ll save us a good £350ish per volume licence! Now, to find a few willing Project Managers to try it out…

The results:

7zip 4.60 Beta, compression benchmark, using only one CPU thread for fairness:

Pentium M 1.86Ghz: 1183MIPS

Core 2 Duo 1.33Ghz: 1340MIPS

So the Core 2 Duo wins. Which just goes to show you how far CPUs have come over the years. Most impressive, is the fact that the 1.33Ghz consumes nearly one-third of the power!

The exact specs are below:

Intel Pentium M 750, 1.86 GHz, 27 Watts (Source)

Core 2 Duo ULV U7700, 1.33Ghz, 10 Watts (Source)

PDF White Paper

Press Coverage:

cNet

Everything USB

GoodCleanTech

Desinformado

Just one example of a Monitor with DisplayLink technology embedded is the Samsung SM226UX UbiSync 22

If you’re using Outlook 2007 and you have a mysterious “Panning hand” cursor that won’t let you select text in an email, and want to turn it off, but can’t find the option, here’s how:

1. Click the Customize Quick Access Toolbar pull down:
    
2. Choose “More Commands…”
3. In the next window, click the drop down box and choose “Commands not in the Ribbon”
    
4. Scroll down until you find “Panning Hand” and then click “Add >>”
5. Click OK.
6. The Hand will now appear in the toolbar.
    
7. Click the Hand to disable Panning Hand
8. You can now select/copy/highlight text

Did it work? Leave a comment!

You can get the latest OS for your BB from the crackberry forums. Just click on your BlackBerry model range and within that forum, stickied at the top will be downloads for the various models. The forums include upgrade instructions – very handy for newbs like me! As an example, here’s a link for the latest BB OS for the Curve 8310.

As an aside, when testing the procedure, I set myself up on a BB. Bad move, and now I know why people call them CrackBerries – they’ve insanely addictive! I promptly deleted myself once testing was over to preserve my sanity

Run this from a command-line:

convert drive_letter: /fs:ntfs