MIKEDECIDES.COM

Haiti Relief - What About Our Own?

mike@mikedecides.com (Mike) — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 12:46:00 GMT

I'm really happy everyone is so giving to the Haitian people. It is good to see celebrities, politicians, and the good ol'e regular civilians get out there and make sure we're giving a helping hand.

What about our own though? What about those we first dishonored and then promised we'd watch out for them? What about those that have not (be it by their own issues or unforeseen circumstances)? Why can't we rise to those occasions within our own boarders?

Oh by all means, let's protect the boarder! Don't let any "undesirables" in! Give me a break!!

Let's try sending some of that aid here to our OWN people! To those of us in need in our OWN country! Don't know where to begin?

Let's start by taking a very small look here: http://apnews.myway.com/article/20100202/D9DJV4800.html

Drivers - Oh MY!

mike@mikedecides.com (Mike) — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 12:14:00 GMT

Okay, normally I don't do this but this site was such a life saver I have to post.

If you are looking for Sharp or HP drivers, in specific "outdated" drivers, make sure you check out their site! http://www.gfive.net

My case was something simple, and stupid in my opinion, such as a Win XP driver for a MX-2700N. I have searched on and off over the past couple days to no avail for the proper PCL6 driver and it was driving me nuts. Simple, where is the d@*n DRIVER!

Just when I about gave up I found the http://www.gfive.net site and my specific driver.

Now truth be told, I don't know how long I'll keep this posting around but I had to show them SOME kind of thanks for easing my headache!

Global Warming and the IPCC

mike@mikedecides.com (Mike) — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 19:38:00 GMT

So what is it going to take to wake up government agencies?

What is it going to take to wake up the voter's ire?

Time after time for months now the whole Global Warming debate has "heated" up because it has finally been proved the IPCC manipulated data and LIED to everyone.

In the meantime constraints and policies continue to tighten down. Taxpayers worldwide are paying for it and politicians are not listening.

Please don't read this wrong, I am not advocating irresponsibility. Do we need to be more mindful of our environment? Yes, fossile fuels are not a sustainable energy source. Eventually fossile fuels will run out. All the restrictions we have placed on companies (especially here in the US) have affected our economy.

When will we get the message to our government's and tell them to stop enforcing based on a lie. To disband the IPCC, and discredit those responsible for their stupidity.

Weather experts the world over who called "foul" on this years ago deserve apologies. People who lost their career's due to not being in support of "Global Warming" deserve settlements and apologies as in most cases they lost their livelihoods.

At what point to we call for the IPCC's heads to pay for what has transpired the world over? Is everyone really afraid of facing down the LIE?

Global Warming ... what a joke.

Search for "The Sun Also Sets" and perhaps you'll learn a bit something new. Search for tide cycles and perhaps you'll gain some more insight. I'm no expert, but there is much more evidence that points far away from CO2 emissions.

In the end, we need to focus our efforts on using LESS fossil fuels for the CORRECT reasons where applicable. Stop punishing progress because you are afraid of the truth.

My two cents, what are you're thoughts?

State of the Union

mike@mikedecides.com (Mike) — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 01:58:00 GMT

Broke(n).

Motorola USB Remote NDIS Network Device

mike@mikedecides.com (Mike) — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 16:37:00 GMT

Interesting question today.

"Mike, I hooked up my Motorola Q phone to the new laptop IT gave me. They downgraded me from Vista Ultimate to XP Pro SP3 and now it's not connecting."

"Um, ... did you install Microsoft's Active Sync or the device driver software from the Motorola Q CD?" I asked.

"Nope, should I do that now?" he replies.

"Why yes, yes, that would be an excellent idea."

For those of you that have found yourselves here you can find the link here:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/en-us/help/getstarted/getstarted.mspx

The above link leads you to the general information (and Active Sync download) from Microsoft. Please note that I chose this link instead of directly to Active Sync so that if there are updates by the time you read this you will be able to get the latest and greatest and not a older version.

Current Microsoft Active Sync is 4.5 as of the posting of this ... um, ... post.

Another handy tip, if you are searching for a direct download try something like this in your Google search: download active sync site:microsoft.com

That accomplishes two goals. You are telling the engine what you want and the "site:" constraint tells it what site specifically you want it to search.

Questions, comments, just reply to the post.

Merry Christmas (2009)

mike@mikedecides.com (Mike) — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 11:33:00 GMT

We Wish You A Very Merry Christmas to All!

Now, what is your favorite part of Christmas?

Interesting Oracle Question: How Does the Oracle LGWR Write to Online Redo Log Files?

mike@mikedecides.com (Mike) — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 05:16:00 GMT

As the title states I was recently asked the question above.

It's actually a simple answer with much documentation out there.

Here is the simple answer: Redo records are buffered in a circular fashion in the redo log buffer of the SGA and are written to one of the redo log files by the LGWR database background process.

Now here is a more detailed answer:

The LGWR process begins with writing entries to the online log files when at least one of the following conditions are met:

1. The log buffer reaches the log_io_size threshold.
2. A server process perfoming a COMMIT on ROLLBAK posts to the LGWR process.
3. The DBWR process post to the LGWR process before it begins writing.

When the LGWR process writes entries to disk the user processes can then reuse the space in the log buffer for new entries.

Note: If the log buffer is small the user processes will wait until the LGWR flushes the redo information in memory to disc.

However, I suggest for more information start with these links below (especially since I use them for reference as well.):
http://stanford.edu/dept/itss/docs/oracle/10g/server.101/b10739/onlineredo.htm
http://stanford.edu/dept/itss/docs/oracle/10g/server.101/b10739/onlineredo.htm#i1006187
and lets not forget you could logon and look it up in http://support.oracle.com

Comments/Questions?

He shoots ...

mike@mikedecides.com (Mike) — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 12:09:00 GMT

Well, my boy has finally done it! This was Thanksgiving day just before turkey time!

He can sight in nice! Three shots on target from 75 yards. He has his can and water bottle to prove it! 1st shot with a .38 the other two with the rifle sighted in here in the picture.

Tough Love vs. Spanking

mike@mikedecides.com (Mike) — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 20:03:00 GMT

Most people think it improper to spank children these days and I agree. I have tried several other methods to control my kids when they have one of 'those moments.'

One that I found effective is for me to just take the child for a car ride and talk.

Some say it's the vibration from the car, others say it's the time away from any distractions such as TV, Video Games, Computer, IPod, etc.

Either way, my kids usually calm down and stop misbehaving after our car ride together. Eye to eye contact helps a lot too.

I've included a photo below of one of my sessions with my son, in case you would like to use the technique.

Sincerely,
Mike

I hear this works with grandchildren, nieces, and nephews as well.

Symantec Ghost Console 2.5 version 11.5.0.2113

mike@mikedecides.com (Mike) — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 07:40:00 GMT

Well I write this after several frustrating days of attempting to use the Ghost(r) Console to run various different "backup regime" for Dell PowerEdge(r) 2950's and Dell PowerEdge(r) 2900's.

Initially I had trouble with the drivers for the R5400 as well as the Optiplex 760's but working with Symantec I was able to get the appropriate drivers, from them directly, that would work.

Currently after the past 2 days now support was able to recreate my issue. In this I was able to manually load a Broadcom(r) driver for the 5708 NIC, however once the backup completes and the server is rebooted (both the 2950 and the 2900) the server never comes back up.

Here are some thoughts that go through ones head:
1) Q: Perhaps the virtual partition is not releasing?
     A: Nope, after running gdisk 32 /status you see what you expect to see with no ghost partition.
2) Q: Perhaps the gdisk32 command is just not showing the virtual partition
    A: Lets go ahead and try one system with rebooting by using ghreboot.
           Grr! Still not good.

Okay, so now I have two expensive door stops, I have worked with Symantec on some of the NIC issues let's get started on finding a fix to this issue. After several hours on the phone (you can almost hear all three engineers on their side scratching their head) "Hmm, we can recreate the problem, but we can't seem to fix it."

Great, that's neat ... what's next?

Ticket bumped to internal dev group.

How long do you think I'll need to wait before getting a reply. ... ... ... ...

...
...
I'll let you all know what happens. Off to rebuild my servers.
(Side note: Yup tried to cast back the images ... servers and console no longer can see one another. Manual rebuild.)

If I Only Had a Brain

mike@mikedecides.com (Mike) — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 12:35:00 GMT

As many of you know, the YouTube video below is my personal "theme song" from time to time. Yup, I have my own live theme music I hum or whistle when annoyed. Now if only I could find that "Personal Theme T-Shirt" at www.thinkgeek.com again ... lol ... I'd have to upload the song and wear it. Then all I'd have to do is press a button and it would play for you. heh.

Some Life Lessons

mike@mikedecides.com (Mike) — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 13:01:00 GMT

The best kind of friend is the kind you can sit on a porch and swing with, never say a word, and then walk away feeling like it was the best conversation you've ever had.

It's true that we don't know what we've got until we lose it, but it's also true that we don't know what we've been missing until it arrives.

Giving someone all your love is never an assurance that they'll love you back! Don't expect love in return; just wait for it to grow in their heart but if it doesn't, be content it grew in yours. It takes only a minute to get a crush on someone, an hour to like someone, and a day to love someone, but it takes a lifetime to forget someone.

Don't go for looks; they can deceive. Don't go for wealth; even that fades away. Go for someone who makes you smile because it takes only a smile to make a dark day seem bright. Find the one that makes your heart smile.

May you have enough happiness to make you sweet, enough trials to make you strong, enough sorrow to keep you human, enough hope to make you happy.

Always put yourself in others' shoes. If you feel that it hurts you, it probably hurts the other person, too

The happiest of people don't necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the most of everything that comes along their way.

Happiness lies for those who cry, those who hurt, those who have searched, and those who have tried, for only they can appreciate the importance of people who have touched their lives.

When you were born, you were crying and everyone around you was smiling. Live your life so that when you die, you're the one who is smiling and everyone around you is crying.

Final transition from WordPress for "ConflictedMale.com"

mike@mikedecides.com (Mike) — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 12:19:00 GMT

If you are looking for my old blog ConflictedMale.com and you find yourself here please note this is the new home of ConflictedMale.com.

MikeDecides.com is still me, just a new name.

Surprisingly enough the traffic has not moved from ConflictedMale.com to MikeDecides.com in a manner which I hoped. Now we have had to just cut over here.

The links you are looking for should all stilll have stayed the same for the most part. If you are having trouble finding an article from a search engine here please note you can use the Advanced Search function at the top left of the page to search for the article you found in the web search. I hope that all the updates go smoothly and this will not be neccasary. However, I don't want to leave it up to chance.

If you have any questions please feel free to contact me or post to this thread.

mike@mikedecides.com

Internet Explorer Crash

mike@mikedecides.com (Mike) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 17:29:00 GMT

Internet Explorer crashing? Internet Explorer 7 & Internet Explorer 8 not opening? Are you forced to close the Internet Explorer and it generates an error.

Welcome to the latest Rant edition ... or speculative AND hopefully helpful information.

Today I arrived in the office to my development workstations stating that they had installed the latest High Security updates from Microsoft and that they needed a reboot. I checked the WSUS server and noticed many IE7 security patches. So I went ahead and rebooted.

Low and behold ... now IE won't launch. I couldn't for the life of me narrow down the specific application for the first couple hours. Combing through logs was no help, all it was telling me is that there was an app incompatibility. "Gee" says I, "How specific they can be!" followed by other colorful information.

Here is what I found...

Though there is a reference to Roxio's "Drive" add-on for IE it wasn't that. It was the Google Tool bar. My favorite item that I actually tried to keep out of all the other add-ons. After upgrading to IE8 (thinking Micro$oft may have somehow intentionally done this to IE7 as they want us all on IE8) to no avail (this is where it specifically pointed me to the Roxio add-on "issue" when I first ran IE8) I decided to enable component by component of the add-ons. The component that hung, and sadly the only one, was Google's Tool bar. *sniff sniff*

So I removed the tool bar, went to the Tools>Internet Options>Advance tab and then I hit the "Reset" radio button. At this point I am now back on all the dev boxes.

What a pain in the butt! What would be an even bigger pain ... to find what specific patch caused this issue. Now if I could only find the time to stay off a plane long enough to find that .....

I405

mike@mikedecides.com (Mike) — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 19:52:00 GMT

Also fondly know by the locals as the "4 or 5 hours" (travel time).

I have been to this area both north, south, east, west, and in L.A. proper. Never before have I had to endure the traffic as I did on Friday. lol ... the sad part was, what is typically a 20 minute drive from the airport to this client took 2 hours to get to them on the 405 and just over two more hours to travel an additional jaunt up the 405 to the hotel afterward.

Hope you remember, if you have to travel the 405 ... definately plan the 4 to 5 hours needed in the L.A. area.

"Swine Flu" scare

mike@mikedecides.com (Mike) — Fri, 01 May 2009 19:18:00 GMT

Okay, I finally have to weigh in on this topic.

I have been avoiding it but it is becoming too evident the state of fear most all Americans are now in at this time.

Swine Flu.

Yup I said it.

It's time to stop the craziness. Do you know how many to date have been confirmed? As of this writing it is 141 cases with one death and that information is found here. Please note, the one death is a confirmed case from Mexico that crossed the border seeking medical attention so really should not be (and is being attributed in the media already) to the United States total.

Now, in retrospect, do you know the number of confirmed cases (you know those actually who went to the doctor for assistance) from the last year (2007-2008)? Well let's look at that here. Yup, that's right, 39,827 were positive for various influenza strains.

Keep reading.

Did you know last year alone (well the 32 weeks covered in that portion of the study anyhow) the for Disease Control and Prevention collected 1,161 samples and identified that 407 confirmed cases of influenza H1N1 (now fondly known as "Swine Flu") were found in those samples? So if they only collected less than 5% of the total cases for in-depth research, do you wonder exactly how many were H1N1 infections?

Let's talk about the mortality rate. The referenced research data above only discusses data from a pediatric stand point from 33 states and the 83 cases that were confirmed deaths related to influenza. It is even broken down by strain.

Now you may be thinking I'm an insensitive jerk at the moment. Keep reading; I want to get across my point here, let's see if you can bear with me a bit longer.

Influenza A has been know, and if you read the links you now know, as being resistant to one part of two approved FDA treatments. So yes, H1N1 is a rather contagious little bug. However, and this is where I'm getting to my point, it is no different than any other year. If you are properly following personal hygiene, if you decided to get the flu shot making sure you know you are receiving both types of treatment in your shot, that you try to avoid touching your eyes, nose, mouth, and ears unnecessarily, you should make it through this time just fine.

So now I have to ask, why are we panicking? Why do you feel a need for a mask? Why are you afraid of crowds now? What makes this highly publicized, politicized, and over dramatic?

So here is what I wonder, why all the fear?
Why all the "extra precautions" and how it differes from the last 2-3 years?
Now ask yourself who is propagating the fear and for what ends?

Nope, no conspiracy theory here folks, just straight hard facts as reported.

I, myself, am continuing as I always have done. I'll sneeze into my tissue (wow, didn't you learn that as a kid use a tissue), I wash my hands before I eat or after using the bathroom, clean up after myself, and if I'm around someone that "might" be sick (you know that "smell" some sick people have) or someone has sneezed or coughed around me I'll make sure not to miss my daily dose of vitamin C with a glass of orange juice and perhaps some Airborne(r). Wow, isn't all that just common sense?

I guess Horace Greeley was right: "Common sense is very uncommon."

So, once again, I have decided. But, does it matter?

A Call To Arms

mike@mikedecides.com (Mike) — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 17:15:00 GMT

Well I finally found another group I'll give a listen to what they have to say. Heck, I even invite you to go to their site and sign up today. Remember they are limiting access to 250,000 people for the webcast on May 7, 2009 at noon which is a Thursday folks. lol, though noon in what time zone is unclear at the moment, I will update you when I find out exactly.

If you'd like to find out more about what I'm ranting about here follow this link below:
http://w3.newsmax.com/acalltoarms/?s=al&promo_code=7E84-1

Now it's your choice. Do you agree or disagree with how your money is being spent and the future of the taxes you will receive increased or do you not?

I feel that this is worthy of a listen to. Afterward I'll see how I feel about it.

I've decided ...
... but does it matter?

Troubleshooting a RAID 5 failure

mike@mikedecides.com (Mike) — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 01:06:00 GMT

I run into this issue to often.

I always have to reach into the back of my brain and "drain" it, the solution, out, as it were.

So here, let's talk about a few notes. First off, if you have a server invest the extra couple hunderd dollars in iLO or DRAC devices (or what ever they will be called in the future)!! It might not seem important until that 3am call for your engineer. Heck it might just seem like overhead after you have many installed but not used over a long period of time ... until that one day. That one faithful day. Remember ... I told you so ... should you decide it's not worth it to get them. There are not many out there that can find the information buried in their subconcious, nor is documentation, that can be found if you search for it, very clear on the solution. I've experianced vendor's support techs wiping whole servers because they didn't understand the fix.

First let's get to some of the reason you have landed here.

You have a RAID code on a drive saying soemthing to the following effect:

SCSI CDB sent 04 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
or perhaps it is a similar error code in look of:
SCSI CDB sent 03 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

Or a plethora of other codes. For instance you will find the popular SCSI adapter manufacturer Adaptec's Sense Code list here.

What we will discuss further here is how to recover a Dell implimentation with a Sense Code of 04 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 - The drive is not ready and the error is not reportable.

First in this case you probably have lost a RAID 5 container. There may be multiple drives in a failed or degraded state. Degraded I can help you here...more than one in a RAID 5 with 4 drives ... I can not help with these steps.

NOTE: Though I may be able to help you recover your data at this point you need to be aware that a least a portion of the data will end up being corrupt.

Now, if you know how to boot to the RAID utiility we are in shape. If not, try contacting me directly and maybe I can help walk you through your issue. Hey, I am a consultant by trade after all.

Once you have hit CTRL+A (for instance) and are in your configuration.
Select the container configuration utility and
Select the manage container menu.
Now to repair the selected RAID5 set press CTRL+R and follow along on the screen.
Once the repair is completed you will reboot.
Login
Open "My Computer" the "missing" drive should reappear.

PLEASE NOTE AGAIN: You will have corrupt data even if this has succeeded. you will now want to identify what drive caused the initial failure (initially in a failed or degraded state) and the next drive that fail/degraded causing the RAID5 to be in a FAILED state. Replace those drives.

Again, if you need help, I am a consultant and available.

Hope this helps!

Restoring your Dell

mike@mikedecides.com (Mike) — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 00:24:00 GMT

So you can't get that virus off, or that spyware is annoying you, or your PC is all "messed up" (personal favorite to hear from people). Running virus scans and hacking away at your registry with various tools is not helping and let's face it ... you are not really technically inclined anyhow. All you're libal to do is make it worse right?

The below steps, way below, covers for Vista and XP installations btw.

Well, I've actually had to deal with 5 people over the course of 2 days in this same manner. Most had spent days trying to fix issues. One was almost 2000 miles away from me and the others were neighbors, friends, and coworkers. In the case of the relative on the other side of the country, there was in fact a hardware error as well. His case was at least worthy of a deeper look. I was concerned it was either memory or video but without being there I couldn't help him further. Though he says no that he has replaced the components and all the other fun I did in helping has considerable helped his system along.

All this prompted this quick post. Yes, I type fast.

First off, I highly recommend that you download CCleaner. This is a great tool!

Then there is the "I forgot my password" questions. I will do this FOR you if you have proof the system is yours. if not, too bad. I will not give out how to here. Go search the internet and you can learn but I will not be part of you learning.

Please, if you are installing file sharing software KNOW that you WILL at SOME POINT get a VIRUS or MALWARE on your system. Personally I have not an ounce of pity for you and you'll probably hear me *sigh* with "here we go again" running through my head. What is really a trip is all the excuses I hear when I see these on someone's PC/Laptop/Server. lol just stop it, we all know why it's there, no excuses BUT ... you have problems with your system because the way you chose to treat it. You know that right?

How about instalilng/updating your virus sorftware and running a full scan? I'd personally recommend Microsoft's Live Onecare as it is so much more than just a Virus Scan utility. Check it out.

Okay moving along....

This is the final part ... you've tried the above and you're still having trouble, and you know that someone has looked at your system and it isn't hardware. Now we finally get where I was going to in the beginning with the Dell PC Restore by Symantec utility installed on your Dell system.

NOTE: I highly advise you backup all your data someplace at all times! Dell recommends before beginning the procedures below that you backup your data. PLEASE KNOW YOU WILL LOSE DATA IF YOU SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETE THESE STEPS!! !! !! !!

As always the steps I write here are advisory only and you should proceed at your own risk.

First you will reboot your PC/Laptop/Server and when the DELL blue symbol with the black screen appears you will press and hold CTRL and then F11. Releasing both keys at the same time. This will start the Dell PC Restore by Symantec application.
Next, tab to the Restore and press enter.
A warning message will appear stating that all data will be lost, select confirm and press enter.
At this point a progress window will appear telling you about how long it will take to finish. In my experiance this lasts between 5-10 minutes. Dell states 8-10.
When the restore is complete it will tell you that it was successful.
Select Finish and press Enter to restart the computer.
Upon rebooting you will be at a FACTORY DEFAULT restoration.

For more detailed explination (the offical Dell Gospel Word) you can find that here

Dallas City Council Passes Smoking Ban

mike@mikedecides.com (Mike) — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 11:00:00 GMT

BUMP!
Originally posted: 12/10/2008 | 0942 CST
----------------------------------------------------------

Yes you heard right, Dallas city council passed a new ordinance! On April 10^th smokers, you are banned from the establishments you chose to go to in which you enjoy a smoke.

REALLY?!?!?!

Why is it that we can infringe on others rights? Even when I was a non-smoker, yes I smoke now, I didn’t get it.

So if you smoke, you are in a bar/pool hall/entertainment venue, and I don’t like it would I go to that establishment? Nope. Would you?

Let’s try and put this in a different light; forget the smoking part. I have stores, restaurants, venues, etc. that I chose not to go to. Yup, imagine that, places that do a type of business or provide services or just DO something I don’t like. I chose not to go there and spend my hard earned money. Do you go to places that you don’t like the atmosphere, that you don’t agree with their type of business, that you just don’t like something about it? Please, if you answered yes you are an idiot - stop reading now.

Come April 10^th your Dallas City Council elected officials (let’s exclude “council members Vonciel Jones Hill, Steve Salazar, Tennell Atkins, Sheffie Kadane and Mitchell Rasansky opposed the measure”1) have decided, citing health reasons, that they need to ban smoking. Taking it in their own hands to lose revenue from their businesses not only for the city in overall budgetary revenue garnered from those businesses but in effect several businesses will be adversely affected and will close. Businesses that chose the Dallas venue based on type of clientele. Now that clientele will be forced elsewhere. Go ahead, raise the “Sin Tax”. You know, that tax you won’t be seeing much revenue from because they won’t be needing that in your area any longer. Proven fact, the bar industry in Dallas will drastically decline. “Sin Tax” sales will decline. Where do you think that “ecosystem” is made up? Property owners watch your taxes in the coming years. It may take a full year or two but the impact will be felt. Where else do you get revenue for the city from? Sales tax, property tax?

If a city such as Plano can negatively feel the impact of a single bar with large revenue being shuttered how much more do you think the city of Dallas will feel multiple bar closings, venues closing, lower sales in tobacco products, etc? If Martini Park’s closing in Plano has that big an effect as to change a “dry county” policy for the city… I’m just saying.

Guess the next question is, will Dallas residents remember this when the time comes for elections next round?

This message is brought to you for your health and well being; if you are worried about your health and well being please do not frequent establishments where people are smoking. We promise not to come to your health shake establishment and order a soy, extra protein, extra creatine and light up a smoke beside you at the military press. Do us a favor and stop infringing on our rights.

References: 1TXCN.com

DallasNews.com

Tagged: ban, city, council, dallas, election, pass, revenue, sin, smoke, smoking, tax, Taz

--------------------------------------------------------------
UPDATE
April 6, 2009

You know, I've had several people contact me about referencing my post here at this blog and at my old blog (of course I advise them to link here as the old is not a test site primarily). However, it also prompted me to go look for some REALLY OLD news on the subject of tobacco taxes. Here is a write up I found extremely interesting, perhaps you will too.: http://www.forces.org/articles/files/ncp2.htm
If that link becomes broken it is a link to the arcticle by Bruce Bartlett, senior fellow, National Center for Policy Analysis, and dated April 28, 1997. Yup, that's right, over a decade old research. Still being kicked around today.

What are your thoughts? I think Mr. Bartlett sums mine up in an even easier manner. By all means, let us not attach important items such as child programs to such turbulent forms of funding. The more taxes=less smokers but ... eventually where does the needed revenue for those programs then come from? Odd huh, so many federal, state, and local taxes rely on "Sin Tax" but yet isn't the intent of the higher taxes to stop the choice of those selected individuals? lol, we shall live longer, with less funding for the programs intended to help us live longer healthier lives that will undoubtably be impacted and unable to support us. Irony isn't it?

Question, didn't we try prohabition once before; didn't we come here to be free from oppression?

The Session Is Not Authenticated

mike@mikedecides.com (Mike) — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 00:01:00 GMT

For the intent of this post I am speaking about the standalone converter only. For those running ESX and Virtual center there is a way to convert the image using VMotion. I will not be covering this here today.

When attempting to convert a VM you may run into trouble if the unsuspecting party that asked you to convert it did not copy the Guest OS or shut down the Guest OS properly. During the convertion process you will see "the session is not authenticated." and will be unable to continue.

Simply put, exit the standalone converter and open your services (Start>Run and then type in services.msc and press enter.)

Locate following services and stop them in this order:
VMWare vCenter Converter Server
VMWare vCenter Converter Agent

Now start the services in this order:
VMWare vCenter Converter Server
VMWare vCenter Converter Agent

Start the vCenter Converter again and start the convertion process. Viola! All should be well once again.

The House Democrat Budget As Reported on March 22, 2007

mike@mikedecides.com (Mike) — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 12:30:36 GMT

Originally posted March 22, 2007 (BUMP!)

Hmm…any thoughts? Look here.

Hey, stop drooling on yourself!

Do you need a towel?

UPDATE 03/12/2009:
I thought this was interesting especially today 2 years later. Especially when the Republicans are being blamed for the budget because the regualr "Main Street" American doesn't know history let alone their Constitution (who has budget control/spends the money; who only recommends expeditures?). The "WayBack Machine" is a GREAT and wonderful tool!

My Thoughts on the PDC Emulator FSMO Role

mike@mikedecides.com (Mike) — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 03:29:00 GMT

Okay, in this post you are going to find some of my personal thoughts. :/ Ya, a bit scary right? However, this topic has been going on for some time and you will find posts, retractions, clarifications, etc all over the web in regards to this topic.

The PDC Emulator and what does it do? People keep asking the question about there being no actual PDC in the domain any longer in a Windows® domain. That there is no such thing, that the PDC emulator is only important in a mixed mode environment.

Hey, if that above is true, then why do we really care about this FSMO at all (In Native Mode)? Why do we need to worry about its placement, and is there really a PDC/BDC environment in the Windows® architecture today?

I started this topic after having a discussion with a Project Manager (PM) about a client today in front of a group of other technical folks who more or less tried to call me stupid. Even had their own laugh track to start with when they thought I was out of ear shot. Since this they have been educated a bit more. J

First let’s start off with you, the reader, receiving a better understanding of why the PDC emulator role is important. Start off by reading here.

PERSONAL NOTE: If you have Windows® administration, networking, or security questions, Mitch Tulloch is a Microsoft MVP you can look to for the answers.

Okay, my hope is that you read the link before continuing. If not, make sure you go open that link and start reading!

So, Microsoft(r) states that the PDC/BDC relationship no longer exists as we knew it in NT days past. This is true, technically speaking. Understanding however how things really work for the PDC emulator FSMO might help you to realize that, in a fashion, the old "laws" still exist and that there is really a PDC/BDC role model "after a fashion". Let’s take a look at what the PDC Emulator does; start by going here:

In a Windows® 2000/2003 domain, the PDC emulator role has the following functions:

· Password changes performed by other DCs in the domain are replicated preferentially to the PDC emulator.

· Authentication failures that occur at a given DC in a domain because of an incorrect password are forwarded to the PDC emulator before a bad password failure message is reported to the user.

· Account lockout is processed on the PDC emulator.

· Editing or creation of Group Policy Objects (GPO) is always done from the GPO copy found in the PDC Emulator’s SYSVOL share, unless configured not to do so by the administrator.

· The PDC emulator performs all of the functionality that a Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 Server-based PDC or earlier PDC performs for Windows NT 4.0-based or earlier clients.*

*This part of the PDC emulator role becomes unnecessary when all workstations, member servers, and domain controllers that are running Windows NT 4.0 or earlier are all upgraded to Windows 2000/2003. The PDC emulator still performs the other functions as described in a Windows 2000/2003 environment.

At any one time, there can be only one domain controller acting as the PDC emulator master in each domain in the forest.

We also need to remember that the PDC emulator is responsible for (as outlined by Mitch Tulloch found on the first link in this post):

· Root Time

· Remember if this role holder fails you will see the most problems occurring on your network.

· For every N domain in the forest you will have N DCs with the PDC emulator role.

· This role is arguably the most heavily utilized role and should not house the Global Catalog (GC) as this will help load balance in larger environments.

Also of note: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primary_Domain_Controller

So the next time you hear someone ask if there is a such thing as a PDC tell them "technically" no in a Native Mode environment. But, as I tell folks practically speaking, yes. If you get kick back or "guff" about it, remember there is plenty of fire power out there to back you up.

If they don’t believe you, ask them to shut down the server with the PDC Emulator role.

(Thank you to Mitch Tulloch and Daniel Petri’s sites and to Google! This post and my thoughts probably wouldn’t have been coherent without them!) :p

Groundhog Day - Punxsutawney Phil

mike@mikedecides.com (Mike) — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 14:45:00 GMT

That little Rat Bastard, Punxsutawney Phil, has done it to us again!!

We have 6 more weeks of winter coming. Seriously little dude, could you for once just sleep in a bit so you don't see your shadow?

Sheesh!

For the actual news entry go here: http://apnews.myway.com/article/20090202/D963FC3G0.html

IMPORTANT NOTICE: Heartland Payment

mike@mikedecides.com (Mike) — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 15:08:00 GMT

IMPORTANT NOTICE:
We have been notified that a data breach occurred at Heartland Payment, a company that processes credit and debit card transactions nationally for restaurants and small businesses. Please keep in mind that data breaches seldom lead to fraud and rarely identity theft. For your security, please monitor your statements and account activity thoroughly. If you suspect suspicious activity, contact your bank immediately.

---------------------------------

Above is the note I received from my bank today. I felt it was important to share with you, the readers, and hope in some small way it helps you at least be alert for any suspicious activities on your credit/debit cards.

At this moment I'm trying to see if I can get an idea of restaurants that would have been using Heartland Payment as their provider to help further if possible.

I do feel that it was a disservice to mention that data breaches’ "seldom lead to fraud and rarely identity theft" by the bank that services my accounts. I personally take any data breach seriously and would want all of us to protect against fraud and identity theft. The fact that the data security is breached is enough to be concerned. If it wasn't of concern financial institutions wouldn't be asked to report on it. A good place to start is to balance your bank statement and keep receipts until you do. Otherwise you really never know now do you?