Old versions of Samba, and Windows Vista / 7 / 8

Posted on April 22, 2014 by Dale

samba-logo-v1-200x154 The customer reported a problem with our Windows 7 desktop.

Unable to delete the top level folder with Windows 7, but it works with Windows XP. It must be something you’ve done to Windows 7.

Ok, well the “must be something you’ve done to Windows 7” was unspoken, but that’s where they going to next.

I admit I didn’t do a whole lot of investigating. In fact all I did a simple Google search “samba vista top level folder”, and the answer is that it was fixed in Samba release 3.0.24. Which was released SEVEN YEARS AGO.

“Why didn’t you do a lot of investigation?”, I hear you ask.

Because I’m aware that the version of Samba that the customer is using, is so old, it doesn’t even support encrypted passwords.

Comedians I missed this year at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.

Posted on April 21, 2014 by Dale

CJ Delling, who I did see These comedians are on my list for next year:

(unless I can catch them next time they perform in Melbourne).

That picture looks odd …

Posted on April 10, 2014 by Dale

Subscribe girl I was looking at the picture on the right, and was thinking, there’s something wrong with it.

But I didn’t know what.

So I did a check on TinEye*, and found several close matches.

This one is the closest, it’s from shutterstock.

By the looks of it, the first image was rotated left, so the display board was level; and it has been cropped.

* yes, I wrote about TinEye 3 years ago. I’m still impressed with the service.

Getting a list of users in an AD Group. using Vbscript.

Posted on April 8, 2014 by Dale

I much prefer using Quest to do this (see this post), but I needed to use Vbscript as I had to output the results into an Excel spreadsheet.

If you look around the internet, you’ll find plenty of examples of how to do that.

But when I ran the following code on my system, it failed:
For Each objUser in objGroup.Members Wscript.Echo "Name: " & objUser.DisplayName Wscript.Echo "Department: " & objUser.department Wscript.Echo "Street address: " & objUser.streetAddress Wscript.Echo "Title: " & objUser.title Wscript.Echo "Description: " & objUser.description Wscript.Echo “Account Disabled?: “ & objUser.AccountDisabled Wscript.Echo Next

After much head scratching, I realised that another AD Group was a member of the current group, AND AD Groups do not have a AccountDisabled attribute.

The solution was to check the class attribute to see if the group member was a “user” or something else.
For Each objUser in objGroup.Members Wscript.Echo "Name: " & objUser.DisplayName Wscript.Echo "Department: " & objUser.department Wscript.Echo "Street address: " & objUser.streetAddress Wscript.Echo "Title: " & objUser.title Wscript.Echo "Description: " & objUser.description If LCase(objUser.class) = “user” Then Wscript.Echo “Account Disabled?: “ & objUser.AccountDisabled Else Wscript.Echo “I am a AD Group. “ End If Wscript.Echo Next

References:
How Can I Return Information For Each Member in a Group? (Hey Scripting Guy! Blog)
User Attributes – Inside Active Directory by Sakari Kouti
Active Directory Explorer by Sysinternals

R4-2 speed derestriction sign

Posted on March 25, 2014 by Dale

When I was growing up, there was a set of these signs on a country road just outside of town. I always took it to mean that you could hoon along at any speed.

What they actually meant was that you could travel at the upmost speed limit for the state (100 kp/h where I was).

At one time, before we got speed limits on the open road, they actually meant you can drive at any speed you wanted, provided it was safe to do so. You don’t get to see these signs much anymore …

Fixing a sticky Lockwood Deadlock.

Posted on March 23, 2014 by Dale

There hasn’t been many blog posts of late, as I’ve moved into a new apartment in South Melbourne, and the processing of moving has taken up a bit of time.

One of the first problems in the new apartment was with the lock. I’d put the key in the lock, turn the key to deadlock the lock, then take the key out.

Except the key wouldn’t come out.

Ah, it’ll need some graphite to fix the sticky lock. Off to the local locksmith to buy some. The local locksmith is called Local Locksmiths.

Naahhhhh, you don’t need graphite, your actual problem is that the screws holding the key barrel are loose.

Lockwood Lock

By jove he was right. Tightened the screws up, and the problem was fixed.

Brendan Bevan’s Badly Behaving Backpack.

Posted on March 22, 2014 by Dale

There’s a collection of posters that the public transport authority in Perth, TransPerth, are using to try and get the message across to the travelling public. The message is how to be considerate of your fellow travellers.

I think it’s going to take more than a couple of clever posters …

Saturday Link Roundup

Posted on March 1, 2014 by Dale

The Spoon Theory by Christine Miserandino
I started to ramble on about pills, and aches and pains, but she kept pursuing, and didn’t seem satisfied with my answers. I was a little surprised as being my roommate in college and friend for years; I thought she already knew the medical definition of Lupus. Then she looked at me with a face every sick person knows well, the face of pure curiosity about something no one healthy can truly understand. She asked what it felt like, not physically, but what it felt like to be me, to be sick.

BenitaPerera.com
Benita developed from childhood, affirmed in the belief that everyone, always has the ability to; self-heal, grow, and always be on a path of constant Spiritual Development. At a very early age, Benita Perera developed a strong and inherent psychic intuition and over her entire lifetime, Benita has continued to develop her gifts, as a psychic healer and intuitive counsellor. Benita now teaches others how to develop spiritually and is sought after throughout Australia and Asia to speak and to inspire.

How to make sure Windows 7 and Windows 8 creates an MBR formatted drive when installing.

Fatal Distraction: Forgetting a Child in the Backseat of a Car Is a Horrifying Mistake. Is It a Crime?
The defendant was an immense man, well over 300 pounds, but in the gravity of his sorrow and shame he seemed larger still. He hunched forward in the sturdy wooden armchair that barely contained him, sobbing softly into tissue after tissue, a leg bouncing nervously under the table. In the first pew of spectators sat his wife, looking stricken, absently twisting her wedding band. The room was a sepulcher. Witnesses spoke softly of events so painful that many lost their composure. When a hospital emergency room nurse described how the defendant had behaved after the police first brought him in, she wept. He was virtually catatonic, she remembered, his eyes shut tight, rocking back and forth, locked away in some unfathomable private torment.

Forgeries, Fakes and Forensics

Posted on February 14, 2014 by Dale

Recently went to a talk by Victoria Police Chief Forensic Scientist, Bryan Found PhD, titled “Forgeries, Fakes and Forensics”.

Bryan Found is a very engaging presenter. Things I found of interest, in no particular order:

You can sign your signature with different parts of your body.
Which is to say the mechanical motions to write your signature can be used by your foot, or your bum.
In one security role I held, the mantra was “burn the paper, and then stir the ashes”.
As burnt paper can be coated to stop it disintegrating, and the burnt writing can then be read.
All photocopiers now print a digital watermark, which can be used to identify the photocopier, and the time and date of printing.
Printer manufacturers will extend this to all printers over time.
Think using a black marker to react lines in your diary will make the original text unreadable? Think again…
The devices used to reassemble shredded paper files are called “graduate trainees”.

wisefaq.com

Stories, and bit rot, from the IT Support Trenches