Wes Jerrell // Blog

Exchange 2010 Autodiscover failure

Fri, 23 Sep 2011 12:00:00 -0700

The Test Exchange Connectivity tool was giving me the following error:

Failed to Obtain autodiscover XML response.

Additional Details

None of the Expected XML Elements were found in the XML Response

The problem was no external Active-sync URL was defined. Add the URL and restart IIS services.

set-ExternalURL https://domain.com/Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync

Permalink | Leave a comment »

Block ads for your entire network (and iPad)

Tue, 23 Aug 2011 22:52:00 -0700

I'm not going to go into an in-depth howto with this, but instead give an overview and point you to the resources needed to complete the project. Given how this works, you're going to need a computer or server that is always on. I use an Ubunutu server to serve media and websites, but this can be accomplished on Windows, FreeBSD, or any other Debian Linux system like Ubuntu.

First, we need to download/install Privoxy. There is a change that needs to be made to the default config. Jump into the config file and edit "listen-address localhost:8118" to reflect your server's IP. For example: listen-address 10.0.1.100:8118. Restart the service to have the changes take affect.

Grab your iPad or other machine you want to block ads on and go to the network settings. Somewhere around there, you will find the configuration for a proxy. Select HTTP proxy. If you can't find it, just Google "set up proxy on {device name/browser name}."

Enter your proxy IP and port (8118 by default) and save. All done! Now you can browse on your iPad, ad-free!

Tip: Privoxy by default replaces image ads with a checkered image. I think it's unsightly, but they've done it for a good reason. To remove (on Ubunutu), edit the user.action file and toward the bottom, right under "{ +set-image-blocker{blank} }," remove the # in front of the /. That uncomments that line and uses the blank image for all ads. Restart service for changes to take affect.

ProTip: AdBlock has some very good block lists for ads, and it's what you're probably already using for your browser. Andrwe has written a great script to parse those block lists and add them to Privoxy. Great stuff. Just download the script from his site, sudo chmod +x ./privoxy-blocklist, and execute. Easy as that.

Permalink | Leave a comment »

Untitled

Tue, 16 Aug 2011 23:28:00 -0700

I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.

-Winston Churchill

Permalink | Leave a comment »

Speed up page loads by blocking social media buttons

Tue, 16 Aug 2011 23:12:00 -0700

I've recently noticed that pages seem to get hung while loading the 1,000,000 social media buttons for every single post on each site. It became very frustrating to me, so I set out to find a way to block the buttons. The solution was easy enough... a block list in AdBlock. If you're not using AdBlock, you should.

Add this block list in AdBlock's preferences: https://monzta.maltekraus.de/adblock_social.txt

All done. Now to share links, I do it the old-fashioned way, copy and paste or bookmarklets. Happy faster surfing!

Permalink | Leave a comment »

Obama on the Debt Ceiling

Thu, 14 Jul 2011 05:36:00 -0700

The fact that we are here today to debate raising America ’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the US Government can not pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government’s reckless fiscal policies. Increasing America ’s debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that ‘the buck stops here.' Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better.

- Senator Barack H. Obama , March 2006

Permalink | Leave a comment »

Sunscreen

Thu, 30 Jun 2011 19:29:00 -0700

An old song, but a truly timeless message.

Permalink | Leave a comment »

Verizon's unlimited data coming to an end

Wed, 22 Jun 2011 20:20:00 -0700

Android Central says it's nabbed an official document laying out the brand new Verizon data plans scheduled to take effect next month, and there's good news for those of you currently using an iPhone on Verizon with an unlimited plan: It looks like you'll be grandfathered in.

We weren't quite sure if that would happen yesterday, but if this document is real, Verizon will be going the way of AT&T and allowing those with unlimited data plans to keep them (presumably as long as they're not changed or added on to any other deals).

Elsewhere on the deals, the smartphone plan will start at 2GB for $30 a month, up to 10GB bandwidth for $80 a month. Mobile hotspot access costs $20 a month extra for 2GB on the hotspot.

Unlimited plans will still be available up to July 7, and those unlimited plans will continue even when you upgrade your phone in the future. So if you want to get in on an unlimited plan before the caps get put in, now's the time to do it. We'll keep ears open for official confirmation on this one, and you can read all the details over here.

[via Engadget]

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/22/edit-verizons-datagate-pl…

via tuaw.com

Get on the train while you can!

Permalink | Leave a comment »

iPhone 4: Black vs White Camera

Thu, 09 Jun 2011 16:48:00 -0700

Have you heard the white iPhone's camera is worse than the black iPhone's camera? Our local Verizon store has been spreading all kinds of nasty rumors, including this one. I had to put it to the test. The exact opposite seems to be true to me. The white iPhone's photo (shown first) was just as good, and actually more color-correct.

White iPhone 4

Black iPhone 4

Permalink | Leave a comment »

Tenn. law bans posting images that "cause emotional distress"

Wed, 08 Jun 2011 19:13:00 -0700

A new Tennessee law makes it a crime to "transmit or display an image" online that is likely to "frighten, intimidate or cause emotional distress" to someone who sees it. Violations can get you almost a year in jail time or up to $2500 in fines.

The Tennessee legislature has been busy updating its laws for the Internet age, and not always for the better. Last week we reported on a bill that updated Tennessee's theft-of-service laws to include "subscription entertainment services" like Netflix.

The ban on distressing images, which was signed by Gov. Bill Haslam last week, is also an update to existing law. Tennessee law already made it a crime to make phone calls, send emails, or otherwise communicate directly with someone in a manner the sender "reasonably should know" would "cause emotional distress" to the recipient. If the communciation lacked a "legitimate purpose," the sender faced jail time.

The new legislation adds images to the list of communications that can trigger criminal liability. But for image postings, the "emotionally distressed" individual need not be the intended recipient. Anyone who sees the image is a potential victim. If a court decides you "should have known" that an image you posted would be upsetting to someone who sees it, you could face months in prison and thousands of dollars in fines.

If you think that sounds unconstitutional, you're not alone. In a blog post, constitutional scholar Eugene Volokh points out just how broad the legislation is. The law doesn't require that the picture be of the "victim," nor would the government need to prove that you intended the image to be distressing. Volokh points out that a wide variety of images, "pictures of Mohammed, or blasphemous jokes about Jesus Christ, or harsh cartoon insults of some political group," could “cause emotional distress to a similarly situated person of reasonable sensibilities,” triggering liability. He calls the bill "pretty clearly unconstitutional."

Another provision of the legislation governs law enforcement access to the contents of communications on social networking sites. The government can get access to "images or communications" posted to a social networking site by offering "specific and articulable facts," suggesting that the information sought is "relevant and material to an ongoing criminal investigation."

This section, too, faces constitutional problems. Julian Sanchez, a privacy scholar at the Cato Institute, tells Ars that "this is a lower standard than the federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act requires" for unread communications. More importantly, because Tennessee is in the Sixth Circuit, it is bound by that court's Warshak decision, which held that the Fourth Amendment requires the government to obtain a full search warrant in order to access e-mail communications. "That case dealt with e-mail," Sanchez said, "but there's no good reason to think a private message on a social network site is any different."

Rep. Charles Curtiss, the lead sponsor of the legislation, did not respond to our request for comment.

Further reading

"Post A Picture That 'Causes Emotional Distress' And You Could Face Jailtime In Tennessee" (techdirt.com)

via feeds.arstechnica.com

Permalink | Leave a comment »

VMware Forum in Atlanta

Thu, 02 Jun 2011 19:13:00 -0700

Not much to look at, but I was given the opportunity to go to my first VMware conference in Atlanta today. I learned a good bit and met some really bright people.

Permalink | Leave a comment »

332-foot truck jump

Sun, 29 May 2011 14:29:00 -0700

This video shows the Hot Wheels sponsored, world-record-setting truck jump by Tanner Foust on May 29, 2011 at the Indy 500.

And an interview with the driver:

Permalink | Leave a comment »

Epic iPad 2, Garage Band session

Wed, 25 May 2011 18:50:00 -0700

Permalink | Leave a comment »

Let the hacking begin. #cr48

Tue, 24 May 2011 19:25:00 -0700

via Tweetbot for iPhone

Permalink | Leave a comment »

Thoughts on Chromebook (CR-48)

Tue, 24 May 2011 14:50:00 -0700

I just recieved my Chromebook in the mail last night and I was super excited. I thought the test flight program had ceased, so I figured I'd probably never really have hands on with the Chrome OS. Now that I've had the device for around 20 hours, I don't feel like I would be missing much.

The concept is great: you spend most of your time in a browser anyway, so that's all Chrome will give you. That might be great for 75% of the world, but for a system administrator, it doesn't do anything I need it to do. While I'm on the topic of "normal people," almost everyone that checked out the CR-48 at work today asked where the rest of it is.

I figured I'd go through day 1 with the Chromebook so you can see the challenges I faced while attempting to use it.

When I showed up at work (at a bank), I went to connect the machine to the network. Oh wait, what's that? Wifi-only? No Ethernet? Well, that sums up the day. I couldn't even use it. More secure enviroments don't allow wifi, so no Internet really kills the Chromebooks usability. I didn't want that to stop me, so I continued to use my desktop, primarily using just the Chrome browser.

There are really two things I have to have in order to survive in my line of work. First is a CLI of sorts. I need to be able to SSH and telnet to devices. Second is a terminal services/VNC/RDC connection. Chromebook provides none of those things. (Even the SSH clients in the Web Store require Java Runtime Environment, which cannot run on the Chromebook.) It's such a let down.

I came home, excited to have another go with the Chromebook, but I need to lauch a site. I can't access my server in any way. The only thing I can think to do with this thing is surf the web and write blog posts about how limiting the Chromebook is. Even that is difficult because of the crummy trackpad. Scrolling is atrocious, the edge of my thumbs click clicking elsewhere on the page, repositioning the cursor, highlighting and deleting text. Oh this is so much fun!

Real quick, a list of must-haves before I feel this device can make it in any kind of professional environment and a short list of pros:

Cons

No VPN
No SSH/Telnet
No VNC/RDC
Crappy trackpad

Pros

Really fast startup/resume
Long battery life
Built in Verizon 3G
Price

With these things in mind, I can't recommend the device to any serious computer user. Even the trackpad would seriously frustrate the casual user. Maybe the new hardware manufacturers will address that issue before it launches in June. At that point, the surfers of the world should be happy, but if you want to do anything besides browse the web, keep looking.

Update: I was able to get the Cr-48 into developer mode which allows the user to access the Linux core. From there I could SSH to my server and such. The only downside is I have to hit CTRL+D and look at a frowny face every time I reboot. :)

Permalink | Leave a comment »

CameraSim - SLR simulator

Sun, 15 May 2011 07:14:00 -0700

This is a pretty neat tool for people that aren't sure they're ready to take the plunge into a more manual (D)SLR world. CameraSim allows you to play with the aperture, shutter speed and focal length and take a picture of a scene. It gives an idea of how the light and speed controls effect the image. Give it a try. CameraSim.

Permalink | Leave a comment »

How to set up AFP filesharing on Ubuntu

Tue, 10 May 2011 17:48:00 -0700

This how-to is a mashup of two different tutorials that I found on the web, but neither was up-to-date or did everything that I wanted. But thanks for to Kremalicious and damontimm for getting me started.

After struggling with using Samba for filesharing on our mac-only network (the final straw was file permissions that just wouldn’t work for everyone), I finally gave up and decided to try using AFP instead. I’d looked at it before, but it didn’t look easy to set up or production ready, but things have changed and I didn’t find it hard at all and it’s now working far better than Samba ever did.

There are two components to natural looking AFP:

AFP (obviously)
Zeroconf

(Zeroconf is the unbranded name for Bonjour, and is necessary to advertise your AFP volume over the network) In the case of Ubuntu these are provided by Netatalk and Avahi respectively, and as neither come by default on Ubuntu we have to install and configure both (but it’s not as hard as it sounds).

via missingreadme.wordpress.com

Permalink | Leave a comment »

Survey: One in Three Workers Wants to Quit Job

Tue, 10 May 2011 15:05:00 -0700

(NEW YORK) -- As the unemployment rate, currently at 8.8 percent, has started to decrease, employers should be cautious that workers don't jump ship for new opportunities.

Over one third of employees, 36 percent, hope to leave their job in the next 12 months, according to a survey by the insurance company MetLife.

The study also showed that 47 employees reported feeling "very strong loyalty" to their employers, down from 59 percent in 2008, when the downturn began.

But employers may not be aware of their employees' decreasing loyalty. Of the employers surveyed, 51 percent said their employees have very strong loyalty to them. Half of employers said the same when the survey was conducted in 2008.

MetLife conducted the interviews during the fourth quarter of 2010, the ninth year it has done such a survey. The company interviewed 1,508 employers and 1,412 full time employees at companies with a minimum of two employees.

via abcnewsradioonline.com

Permalink | Leave a comment »

These quadcopters will take over the world

Mon, 09 May 2011 18:14:00 -0700

The University of Pennsylvania has been working on these quadcopters that work all too well together. This video came shortly after the quadcopters were taught to build structures quickly and very efficiently. Scary stuff.

Permalink | Leave a comment »

How AT&T Recognizes Unauthorized Tethering from Jailbroken iPhones

Mon, 09 May 2011 18:05:00 -0700

In case you didn’t know, AT&T has started cracking down on unauthorized tethering, specifically for jailbroken iPhones on a grandfathered unlimited data plan.

If you’ve gotten AT&T’s “text of death” relating to your tethering usage, you’re probably utilizing free tethering through jailbreak apps like MyWi. Understandably, AT&T doesn’t want its users to have a free broadband connection through tethering hacks, and the carrier has started moving users over to its DataPro plan for $45 a month.

So, how is AT&T targeting unauthorized tethering on its network?

iPhone silent-mode scheduling

Wed, 04 May 2011 16:55:00 -0700

I've been wanting Apple to integrate something like this for so long. It's the one thing I miss about Blackberry (4 years ago).

http://lifehacker.com/#!5798561

Permalink | Leave a comment »