Folks may remember the support gap when Microsoft dropped support for Windows NT4 Workstation, but still supported NT4 Server.

The difference between NT4 Workstation and Server was minimal, a couple of files and registry keys was all the difference was.

Because Microsoft still supported NT4 Server, we thought,

Ah Ha!  We just use the NT4 Server fixes.

No, trying that, would result in this:

Oh, you could still obtain NT4 Workstation patches.  IF you had an Extended Support Contract AND paid per patch.  We had a small number of customers who did.

Most did not.

And some are so pig-ignorant that even a photo doesn’t help.

Had to write up training material for a SMS 2003 support session I was presenting.  You can see the amount of material I had to review in the photo.

And the pointy-haired female manager still wondered why it would take a while to review.

A service call came though, with an end-user rant,

Obviously you’re changed something with your latest software update.  I can’t use Office Live even though I have Internet Explorer 6.

Our on-site support passed it along with “What gives, doesn’t work with Firefox either.”

Now I have better things to do than intentionally break things.  And in this case, the customer and the on-site support team, see, but don’t understand.  The error message reads in part … on Windows XP, Windows Server 2003 …

That’s right, the customer was using Windows 2000.

My reply to our support staff, “Read the error message.”
The solution for the customer?  We have Citrix servers which run Windows Server 2003, which is a supported platform.

It’s a funny thing.  Hunter’s probably one of the best writers that we’ll ever get, but I didn’t care about that.  The Rolling Stones are probably the best best rock & roll singers left, but they’re total fucking jerks in my world.  I met them at Altamont.  I didn’t like them before they came out, I didn’t like what they did when they came out, and I didn’t like what they said about us afterwards.  I don’t think that people realize that just because you’re really good at something, it doesn’t make you a good person.

Sonny Barger, talking about Hunter S. Thompson, in Gonzo.

I devised a method to prevent Spyware (and Webshots) from loading, using the Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit Shim Application Database (sdbinst.db)

It worked well:
 
     most people didn’t ring IT Security.

Why block Webshots?  There were two reasons:

1. it would cause Windows to crash and/or  Blue Screen
2. bandwidth.  it gobbled bandwidth.

1. is obvious, but for 2., here were the figures I wrote up in 2004:
The average Webshots image is 120k. Times this by x known users (lets say 500). Equals 60000k (58 megabytes).
Every day.  On a weekly basis, 300MB.
Back then, 300MB for a particular customer, was a BIG ISSUE.

Some of the other applications we blocked:
Bittorrent, Bonzi Buddy, Cashback, CloneDVD, Conscorr, Ethereal, Gator, GoZilla, Hot Tarts Dialler, Kazaa, MyWebSearch, nMap, Trillian, VirtuaGirl & Webshots.

A good, and at times, very funny video on dog friendly dog training, by Ian Dunbar.

The above video was from the TED Entertainment Gathering 2007 conference.

One company I was at, had an on-site server team from Compaq.

This was in the days before HP merged with Compaq, and stuffed both companies.

Even though it was an on-site team, you can see that there’s no Compaq server guys to be found.

It was POETS day.

I’m careful with how I communicate with customers.  Not for them, terms like ProcMon, least user privilege, DLL Hell and PEBKAC.  Though for some of our support people, it’s an issue as well.

Before we ship a customised Microsoft Windows installation to our customers, we test.

And test.

And test some more.

The picture, though a little old, shows a failed build test.  It’s a Compaq Deskpro EN PC with the Windows NT4 Workstation Blue Screen Of Death.

The cause of this particular build failure?

Computer Associates’ Unicenter Remote Control product, and it’s bizarre method of video driver use.  Things have changed, but the CA URC product is still crap.

Being cheap bastards conscious of the support costs of maintaining device-specific printer drivers, HP has come up with the HP Universal Print Driver (UPD).

Works great on Microsoft Windows based print servers.

Absolute rubbish with Novell iPrint.

When you install a Windows based UPD, the UPD says to the printer

What features do you have?

With iPrint, the UPD software tries to speak to something called IPD, and NOT the printer.  Because the UPD isn’t speaking to the printer, it fails to determine what features your printer has.  In the worse case, your printer won’t print.

HP have known about this issue since at least July, and we’re not seen a fix yet.

Shame really.  The CP6015 would have been a nice printer.

Ref(s):
iPrint – Vista – HP UPD – Supported- – NOVELL FORUMS (July 2008)
Novell Support TID 7001400- iPrint and HP Universal Printer Drivers (Sept 2008)