Ubuntu 12.04 vs Linux Mint and Fedora
Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (long-term support) was just released, which brings us again to the question of what Linux distribution we should be using. The three top Linux distros are (and have been for a...
View ArticleVariants of Ubuntu 12.04
There are a number of distributions based on Ubuntu 12.04 with the major difference being the default desktop environment, but also the default applications that come installed. Not everyone likes...
View ArticleDisable an OCS User using VBscript
One of our readers just asked us how to to disable a user's OCS access using a VBscript. No problem, here's how. I haven't done much with VBscript lately, let me blow the dust off my VBscript...
View ArticleLinux Mint 13 Maya vs Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin
Linux Mint 13 "Maya" is out! I'm running it under VMware Player and it appears to be rock solid. Mint 13 is based on Ubuntu 12.04 "Precise Pangolin", which is the most recent release of the...
View ArticleWindows 8 Consumer Preview
I just installed the Windows 8 Consumer Preview. Wow, what a difference from Windows 7. The first thing you notice is that the initial screen is a graphic image with a clock on it (like a smart...
View ArticleFedora 17 - Ubuntu 12.04 - Mint 13
In the past month, the three most popular Linux distros all came out with new versions, including Fedora 17 "beefy miracle", Ubuntu 12.04 "Precise Pangolin", and Linux Mint 13 "Maya". There's a...
View ArticleTransfer Your Contacts from Android to iPhone
Howto transfer your contacts from an Android phone to an iPhone: I just got a new iPhone, and my old Android phone had all my contacts stored on it. Searching online, everyone says to sync your...
View ArticleLinux Virtualization without a Hypervisor
Want to run half a dozen copies of Linux on your laptop, but you don't have 8 GB or RAM? You can, and you don't need Virtual Box, VMware Player, XEN, or KVM. Those technologies are great, especially...
View Article3PAR Storage Provisioning
Understanding how storage is provisioned on a 3PAR P10000 storage array goes a long way to explain why 3PAR performance is so good and so predictable, and why storage management on the 3PAR is so...
View ArticleCisco UCS - The Next Step in Blade Architecture
I've been working with blade servers for almost ten years, when I first started working on the HP P-class blades. Back then, virtualization was in its infancy, and the typical rack-mount server was...
View ArticleMy Big Data Infrastructure Problem
Moving big data to and from that shiny new data warehouse solution is taking too long! That's what we've discovered as we start ramping up our use of the solution. We've got 150TB of space on this...
View ArticleHome Lab: CentOS 6.3 as a firewall and Router
Here's how I setup CentOS 6.3 as a firewall/router in my home lab. I've got a standalone server running VMware ESXi with a few VMs on it. I wanted to setup a protected subnet behind a firewall, so...
View ArticleHow to Fix a Slow iPhone
Ever since Apple released the latest IOS version, my iPhone started running slow. Apps ran slow and web pages were slow to load. Turns out there's an easy way to fix it. Simply backup and restore...
View ArticleThroughput Calculator
Here's a throughput and transfer time calculator. So many times, someone tells me that say, it took them 32 hours to transfer a 3TB file, or they ask me how long it will take to copy a 2TB file over...
View ArticleTransfer Time Calculator
Here's a calculator to determine how long a large file transfer will take. This will no doubt be handy if you're planning to migrate data over the WAN, migrate servers from one data center to...
View ArticleHow to Watch and Record HDTV on Your PC - Part 1
I recently got myself set up to watch and record high-definition TV (HDTV) using Windows Media Center on a nettop PC connected to a Silicon Dust HDhomerun digital cable card TV tuner. Up til now, I'd...
View ArticleConverting Python Objects to JSON
Converting a Python object to JSON allows the object's data to be stored or transmitted as text, so that it can be, for example, sent over an http session, and then converted back into an object....
View Article[SOLVED] Gnome-Shell Just Broke on Ubuntu 12.10
[SOLVED - see below] Yesterday, after applying the latest updates for Ubuntu 12.10 x86, upon a subsequent reboot, Gnome-shell suddenly stopped working. After entering my password, I was greeted by a...
View ArticleConfiguration Auditing – Who Changed What, Where and When
As an Active Directory expert, I've often been called upon to do some forensics to determine when the last time some disgruntled employee logged on using their account, how many bad logon attempts...
View ArticleTCP/IP Subnet Calculator
Here's a free, handy utility that you can use to calculate the properties of an IP subnet. Given an IP Address and a subnet mask, we can calculate the network address, the first and last addresses in...
View ArticleBest Practices - Disabling Users in Active Directory
Tools for disabling and de-provisioning users and groups in Active Directory When a user goes on extended leave (e.g. maternity leave, military deployment), it's a good idea to disable their user...
View ArticleUbuntu - Boot Disk for BIOS Update
So your PC/Laptop manufacturer provides you with a BIOS update that requires you to boot from a DOS floppy disk to perform the BIOS update. Uh, it's 2013. If I'm not mistaken, the last operating...
View ArticleTools: Active Directory Automation and Rules Enforcement
Many Active Directory administrators are often faced with daunting tasks on a daily basis, like generating reports, importing and exporting users from one platform to another, enforcing security...
View ArticleUbuntu Quick Start
Want to run Ubuntu quick and easy, without an extra PC? You can run it in a virtual machine on your Windows PC. You can get really good free virtualization software that not only lets you run Ubuntu...
View ArticlePowerCLI: Search and Destroy Old VMware SnapShots
We all know it's bad to leave snapshots lying around in VMware. Snapshots grow over time and can cause disk space and performance issues. Sometimes it's easy to forget that you created them. So you...
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