Scott Nixon

These two pictures illustrate exactly why it’s important to educate yourself about your tools. We buy a 24” light tent for about $60 so that we can photograph my wife’s food. Last night I’m wondering why all the photos are yellow but I ignore it because we’ve determined that we need more light anyways.

After a trip to Home Depot and the JUST BULBS I come home and my photos still look like crap, see left side of photo. After a few disappointed minutes reviewing my test photos I realize that I’m probably definitely using the camera incorrectly. I broke out my copy of Magic Lanterns Guides: Nikon D40 and watched the second half of chapters covering Image Quality Settings, Metering & Exposure, Focusing Modes, and White Balance Made Easy. Immediately my results were improved and you can see the result on the right below. My main issue appeared to be an issue with White Balance.

It still needs work, but wow what an improvement. I kind of feel silly about it.

I absolutely love trying new software and hardware, when I can afford it. I’ve been dying to try Google Wave for months but they’ve so severy limited the invites that few people are using it. My wife and I are rabid consumers of Google products from Google Analytics, Docs, Adwords, and Apps for your domain. Finally get my Google Wave account on October 31st and send invites eagerly to wife and friends. Five days later I stare at my empty contact list in disgust.

So i wait…

Anyone who has ever moved a large number of files knows that the such a simple operation isn’t also, well, simple. The algorithm that is used to estimate file transfer duration must have been created by one of Microsoft’s summer interns. The time remaining just has never made much sense.

Enter Windows 7 file transfers. Time estimates seems to be a little better but the biggest improvement is the addition of the progress bar on the Taskbar. Woot!

So to critique Microsoft, why haven’t they built in more functionality for file transfers? Windows is installed and used by a billion people, so I get that not everyone will need to pause, resume, add and remove files to an active transfer. At the very least, the functionality should be available for a standard clean Windows Server install.  It should be in the operating system, on the client, make it so you would need to enable in the Control Panel.

So for now we will have to use TeraCopy at home and buy it at work. It really does “whip the llamas a$$!”

Are you still using static IPs when you configure software or devices? Do you enter the hostname when configuring applications? Shame on you!

Systems Administrators can use DNS to design logical and simple naming conventions. Most organizations will name servers by location, function and include meta data about the system such as serial numbers and operating system. An example would be NY2K3WEB01. Looks great, logical description, easy to remember, and also provides information about the system.

Our fictional, NY2K3WEB01 is our web server running the help desk software.  We are implementing the new help desk software which is web based. Rather and sending users to http://ny2k3web01/ we create a CNAME DNS of helpdesk so they all users can easily remember and access the Help Desk web site.

helpdesk IN CNAME ny2k3web01.example.com

This is a fairly typical setup for web servers so why not do this for e-mail, LDAP, anti-virus, switches, mail relays, and network applications. When you configure that new network application create an Alias (CNAME) record of salescrm and then configured the application so all clients connect to the server with either the alias or the FQDN. This will make it so much easier for your IT staff to remember.

salescrm IN CNAME ny2k8app04.internal.example.com

So why would you do this? A brainy IT guy might say, “Once you configured it’s done so this is a waste of time.” If your server dies and it has to be moved to a different box then all the clients will need to be re-configured. Brainy guys says, “I would just use the same server name or IP address.” Sure you can but it’s bad form.

Rather than wasting precise time trying to clean the server out of Active Directory, DNS, Anti-Virus, and Patch Management, you could be restoring the server. Yes, I am being contrarian to the status quo in most IT shops because I’ve seen it work and save time.

If you are a concerned parent or IT Manager interested in blocking and/or monitoring what Internet sites are being visited, OpenDNS might be for you. DNS is the service that allows your web browser and computer to access websites.

OpenDNS is totally free but supported with advertising on OpenDNS’s rebranded search results.  Begin by registering for an account on OpenDNS’s website and follow the simple setup instructions to be done in a few steps. All home networks use a dynamic IP address that changes often which would require setup again, however OpenDNS has solved this problem with a small application that only needs to run on one computer (Windows or Mac). IT Managers can filter on several static IP address or a network range.

Once you have configured your computer or router it’s time to customize your account. Content filtering is the main feature of this service. OpenDNS catalogs thousands of websites into several dozen categories from Adult Themes, Drugs, P2P File Sharing, Social Networking, and Weapons. You can select from the pre-configured categories, customize, and/or manually add domains to fit your needs.

For organizations you might want to also ad a custom logo to the rebranded OpenDNS search. They also allow you to keep statistics and logs for the traffic. The advanced should probably left as default and only modified by experts. However if you use a corporate VPN from you may need to explicitly allow the domain or IP address.

Once you have configured your home router to use OpenDNS and set your preferences on OpenDNS’s website all computers in your network will now be protected. For example, if a neighbor connects to your home Internet which is configured with OpenDNS, his access will be restricted and placed under the exact same limitations as all other computers on the network.

All computers that use OpenDNS are also protected from known Phishing and Malware websites. (Please note that this protection is only limited to websites that are known to OpenDNS and does not replace the need for user vigilance and other security measures such as firewalls and anti-virus). OpenDNS also touts that their DNS service is faster than most Internet Service Providers. Therefore, OpenDNS is a useful tool for everyone regardless of whether or not you need web content filtering.
Expert Insight:
I have personal used OpenDNS as an unregistered user for that last three and a half years. I also implemented OpenDNS to filter content in a large organization after many failed attempts of trying to block sites at the firewall level. With hundreds of clever users and open proxies available, it became a huge hassle to manage and I installed OpenDNS and it worked effortlessly. OpenDNS is an excellent tool and I highly recommend using it.

Several years ago when I attended training the instructed swore up and down that Microsoft would make a 32bit production version of Exchange 2007, I politely disagreed. I still smile inside not because she was wrong, but because Microsoft is getting better about ending support for old technologies.

1. OWA: Full feature support for Firefox and Safari. I made a very public gripe about this in Remond Magazine a few years ago.
2. Mail Federation between trusted companies, Shared free/busy calendars so its easier to schedule meetings with partners.
3. Exchange 2010 is only supported on Windows Server 2008. Hooray for moving forward, Microsoft.
4. Simplified High Availability: Fat trimmed and it now involves DAGs (Database Availability Groups). Essentially multiple servers.
5. Archiving and Retention: Personal Archives that appear in the users mailbox with the ability to drag and drop PSTs into this archive!

Microsoft has also made many solid improvements in the storage engine, disk IO, and Client Access API. No gripes yet and I seriously doubt I’ll have any.