Do you have old print drivers hanging around?
Use the Print Migrator utility to back up your printer config:
printmig -b "server_name.cab"
And then remove the unused print drivers:
cd /d %systemroot%\system32
cscript prndrvr.vbs -x
Archive for the ‘Computers’ Category
As mentioned in Mark Russinovich’s newest blog entry, here’s a quick introductory video on ZoomIt, the 44KB screen zoom and drawing utility that should be in every IT toolbox (along with everything else from Sysinternals).
Corporate mail should be filtered for viruses and spam at the gateway — that’s just a given. It’s much more efficient to filter incoming email in one spot than to check it at 300 or 25000 desktops. Web browsers should go through a scanning, filtering proxy. Again, it’s much simpler to secure and maintain.
So, what if you have a corporate standard document format and don’t want the cascading issues with users receiving and opening/converting/saving non-standard files? Wouldn’t it make sense to convert the document on the way in?
A rules-based system makes sense.
Consider a resumes@example.com address that receives resume submissions for HR. You do not want HR bugging you about weird documents. I’d set a rule that any attachment (Microsoft Word .doc, Microsoft Works document .wps, RTF, OpenDocument, etc.,) gets automatically converted to PDF — they’re resumes to be read or printed, and should be read-only. Email gets scanned, attachments are analyzed and extracted, attachments are converted and reinserted, a note is added that it was automatically converted and the archive document is at such and such for so long if there are problems, and thank you.
Rules wouldn’t be terribly complicated, either. Off the top of my head:
- All Postscript (*.ps) convert to PDF. Simple.
- Pass all compressed (*.zip, *.gz, *.bz2, etc) unmodified.
- Convert to Open Office XML all (*.doc, *.wps, *.rtf, WordPerfect, and other text formats).
- Same goes for Lotus 1-2-3 docs and kin.
- Image formats convert to PNG. Example, with rule that the Graphics department is exempt.
- And so forth….
I haven’t checked the Microsoft Office license, but I’m pretty sure you’d only need one licensed copy for the gateway, so I’ll check. Image conversion is simple enough, using ImageMagick, NConvert, and others.
Java developers and testers should use FindBugs to find and fix Java bugs. It’s free, and the FindBugs team has concentrated on having a high hit ratio, as developers won’t use lint’ing tools that spew out pedantic non-errors. FindBugs can run standalone or as an Eclipse plug-in. Watch the Google Labs video linked on the front page for a good 45-minute introduction. Continue reading ‘Detect and Fix Java Bugs’ »
Pie charts are worse than useless. Use a simple table or bar graph. Continue reading ‘Don’t Use Pie Charts’ »
I encourage most everyone I talk to to view the online Stanford Energy Lectures given by Amory Lovins, of the Rocky Mountain Institute. There are five lectures of about an hour and a half per, and Amory is an interesting speaker. It’s great knowledge and pertains to efficiency in general, not just electrical.
PowerPoint presentations almost always suck. There’s a reason for that.
A lot of junior Windows admins think that the Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer (MBSA) is sufficient to test the security of IIS websites. Continue reading ‘Website Baseline Security Analysis’ »
Server BIOS time should be set to GMT (Greenwich Mean Time). Doesn’t work with Windows, though, which is why a lot of people don’t bother POSIX systems use GMT, so follow something like OpenBSD’s FAQ on the matter.
I was searching for an old essay today and ran across this, so I’m tagging it for future perusal. Computer reading.
PCMag collection of free software
Noticeably lacking in the Finance list is Microsoft’s Accounting Express.
Here are good sources of free TrueType/OpenType fonts. Continue reading ‘Free Fonts’ »
I spend a good deal of time now working on effective, efficient communication. It is a sin to waste someone’s time. If you have to produce documentation, investigate sparklines (“Intense, Simple, Word-Sized Graphics”). Edward Tufte‘s writing should be required reading for almost any profession I can think of.
Sun: 4137237 patchadd 106300-01 results in rm -rf / as root (That’s bad)
Microsoft: Computer Hangs While Booting with HP 6L Printer out of Paper (paper-powered pc’s ??? FEED ME!!!)
And I can’t find it now, but back around 12 years ago or so, uninstalling Norton Antivirus resulted in deleting all files not in use. That amuses me.
Visual Basic implementation of Double Metaphone. I posted it to Planet Source Code several years back, but I want a local copy…..
Here’s the free (it doesn’t cost money) Windows software I use. Continue reading ‘Recommended Free Windows Workstation Software’ »
Convert ListProc .subscribers file to format suitable for emailing in a LISTSERV //JOB .
Continue reading ‘convert ListProc subscription file to LISTSERV input’ »
OpenBSD 4.1′s spamd(8) now includes default support for trapping SMTP clients using an envelope to: not listed in /etc/mail/spamd.alloweddomains. If you only accept mail for example.com and example.org, put them in spamd.alloweddomains, and mail to: all other domains (relay attempts) are rejected and the host trapped. Clean and effective. Good job, Bob!
Parsing my logs, though, shows a lot of spam attempts using the envelope from: of my domains. Email clients should use other acceptable means of submission/SMTP injection, including connecting with internal servers via VPN, where they’d never hit spamd. If someone were using SMTP-after-POP, for example, they’d presumably get whitelisted and bypass spamd.
This patch against 4.1-STABLE is a quick copy-and-paste job (I’m not a C programmer), but it works for me.
So, if someone tries to send mail via my external spamd firewall, claiming to have an envelope from: of one of my domains, then I’m not going to accept the message and will trap the host. It’s a virtual certainty you’re a spammer — if it’s from an actual user, then s/he needs to use another connectivity method.
After starting working at a company that’s very strict about desktop software, I’m now just storing and listening to my music from my new Sprint Moto Q cell phone. Problems crept up quickly (not including the 6! visits to Sprint stores): large MP3 files skip! That is, a 15-minute song will get 7 minutes or so into it and then skip to the next song. From what I’ve seen on the Sprint forums, this is due to the caching strategy Windows Media Player uses. Also a 1GB mini-SD card doesn’t hold that many MP3′s.
Solution: don’t use Windows Media Player, and don’t use MP3′s. Instead, use CorePlayer to play Ogg Vorbis files. There’s no skipping, they sound better, and you can fit more in the same space. To rip from CD, use the good ol’ standby AudioGrabber, following Tom’s Audio Guide instructions. Converting from MP3 to .ogg won’t do any good, but CorePlayer should handle them better than WMP.
On eMusic, I have a basic account. For $10 a month, I get 30 MP3 downloads (they don’t offer Vorbis, shame on them).� Now, some downloads are worth downloading just because they’re great. The Crash Test Dummies have a few albums available there. And I still contend that The Ghosts That Haunt Me is one of the best albums ever. But after the CTD downloads were done, I concentrated on getting more bang for my buck; that is, I want the longest palatable songs I can find. How far can you stretch 33 cents per song?
Here are some good, long MP3′s from eMusic:
- 56:11 – Ustad Amjad Ali Khan’s “Raag – Ahir Bhairav.” Good sarod and violin. The memorable theme at 32 minutes or so is great.
- 41:58 – Tom Heasley’s “Thonis,” from “On the Sensations of Tone.” Ambient tuba music, if you can believe it. Get “Prelude,” too.
- 21:27 – Robert Henke’s “Studies for Thunder,” from “Signal to Noise.” The other two tracks are great, too.
- 15:17 – Yngwie Malmsteen’s “Trilogy Suite (Includes Red House and Badingere) ” from “Double Live.” I saw Yngwie with Joe Satriani and Steve Vai on the G3 tour a few years back. Yngwie kept tossing his guitar around his body, and one time he came about a foot away from spearing Billy Sheehan with it. Funniest thing I’d seen in a while. Several of his albums are available on eMusic, the best being “Concerto Suite for Electric Guitar and Orchestra in E Flat Minor Op. 1.” Great listening.
- 10:19 – Nina Simone’s “Sinnerman.” Straight-up awesome.
- 25:40, 25:03, 25:37 – Ambient Music Therapy’s “Ultimate Sleep System.” Impressive ambient music. It’s tough to be non-intrusive.