kingswood

RIPREP is great. Especially when you integrate driver folders and have one image that contains drivers for your hardware. Cool. But you can get away with Ghost on top of RIS which is actually pretty good too- giving you the flexibility of SYSPREP and the delight of being able to use PXE and grab your image from an RIS server. Even so, I'd like a copy of your scripts if you don't mind. I might be doing this over the summer so all help appreciated... Paul

Sounds like it went well. Know everything? If only! lol! At my interview one of the questions asked was about MS Office. I have to say my MS Office skills are...lacking. Still are. I just told them that if they wanted someone who was an Office person they shouldn't hire me! Alas I still got the job. :-P Paul

Good advice. How did it all go?

Does sound like a GPO setting somewhere- perhaps the default domain controller policy if you are placing your member servers in that OU, or even a top level policy at some point. Run an RSOP on your server to see which are applying. What I try and do is make a "Member Server" top level OU that I can create and link GPOs to apply to, and then have a "Print Server" OU underneath (or whatever else); that way you can control the GPOs that apply to your member servers without tinkering with the default domain or domain controller policies (could be bad). As I said, open up the command line and type: gpresult.exe See what it says about which are being applied. Sorry for the broken nature of the post...just got up :-) Paul

..Still using Ubuntu. Very nice it is too.

Don't laugh. Apparently some people from Edugeek are after free Expert's Exchange accounts. They like badges. Makes them feel better about themselves. But thanks for the badge E1uSiV3. Appreciated. I've got some brownie and beever's badges around if anyone wants some ;-) Paul

Yeah- you can't *right now* dual boot with a Windows OS, because XP (even though it kind of supports EFI) isn't supported (apparently there is some kind of TPM in there or whatever). Vista *will* be able to dual boot in principle, but that doesn't mean it is going to happen. Windows "on the Mac" is a loaded statement. You can do this through Virtual PC. It's not bad. But it *is* expensive and comes (if you want) with a copy of Office for Mac (far better than the Windows version until Office 12 anyway). I have VPC on my iMac G5 and it's a pain. So I run a real Windows machine instead :-) Tony is right about the Pro Apps not being cross-compiled with universal binaries until March. However, the cost to upgrade is going to be so low as to make it totally worth the effort and wait. I don't think professional Mac users will be that bothered if the products perform natively and as fast as we have been promised by Apple and developers... Gaming: Tony is right. Buy a console is my advice. I got an XBox 360 last week and it's fantastic. You have a PS2- use it. The Mac will play Halo (and better than my Windows machine), but it isn't a gaming machine. It *is* a digital hub for a lifestyle where creativity is central. That's not a corny statement (well, maybe it is) but that's how I see it and use it. XCode and Applescript: both fantastic development tools. The latter is very easy to learn and work with (especially with Automator) but the former requires a lot more knowledge. Objective C, C, Java etc. You will have to install the development tools separately (well, I've always had to). Remember to install X11 as an option if you want to run things like GIMP and Unix software that doesn't run "natively" too (Open Office 2 etc). Speed comparison: that's a Windows users' answer to everything, as if it proves all. It doesn't. But I will say my iMac G5 can do anything the average Windows machine can do and just as well. I won't claim any more or less... Paul

On a related topic I have been playing with Apple's iWeb (part of the new iLife '06 suite) and am loving it. It's not as functional as other blogging platforms or web design tools. but it is very easy and allows for easy RSS integration and update notification. I seem to remember the Visual Basic 2005 Express Edition coming with an add-on pack that takes you through the process of writing an RSS application that you can add to etc. Might be worth checking that out on the MS site? http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/vb/features/xml/default.aspx HTH (even a little) Paul

http://www.scriptinganswers.com/ One of the best sites I know of. Don Jones also writes the 2003 Resource Kit Guide, "Windows Automation Toolkit" which is VERY handy, and a surprisingly interesting read! Paul

Please God no...I would never come here again. And I would never hear the last of it. I already get rammed with the Expert'sd Exchange badge system every time I hear about that. For goodness sake, keep some sanity people! Paul :-)

Hi Spuff. Yes- if you look at the type of switch you have and check with the manufacturer's web site you might be able to download some management tools for free that will do what you want (if you have managed switches). If not you will obviously have to go for a software solution- have you got any Linux boxes on your LAN? Or even a Knoppix or other live CD- if so you could use this: http://etherape.sourceforge.net/ Geoff will know more- I haven't used this yet but have it ready on my Ubuntu box at home to test. HTH Paul

If you read the thread most of us applied that patch or intended to a full week ago! It's probably not worth installing now since most if not all networks will be installing Microsoft's patch- also released a short time ago (no doubt in retaliation to the unofficial patch and media coverage of the exploit). I'm still browsing at home with Ubuntu and OS X. With the exploit expanding I think this is something that will definitely haunt MS for a time. Paul

Yeah. This whole thing stinks. Paul

Gecko: How would you get to that configuration option if the machine isn't booting into Windows ;-) The F8 option is the best one. You need to look at the error and then search the MS KB for a fix. But I'm thinking a piece of hardware pre-kernel load has bombed out; Geoff might be right about it being memory. Just re-image it and see. Paul

Courses...extra studying...about 20 hours at a rough guess per week (probably more my Wife would tell you) extra work after hours. Telephone calls, emails, reading..you all know the deal. Richard is right though- schools don't seem to be appreciative of this in their IT staff. All they want is that holy grail of all IT- 100% uptime! Paul

I'm intrigued to hear that SIMS.Net might be gaining similar functionality- because of course that would simplify things greatly in terms of actually getting the thing out and into the hands of people who need to use it. I'll investigate that. Thanks Tony- if I can I will give you a ring or you can email me the information if I haven't gotten back to you if you don't mind? I will be calling the developers tomorrow in any case and will see what they say. They *didn't* mention the part where you warned them about disruption. They only saw the part where it installs and works... Upper management have a thing lately about 100% uptime for SIMS and Slueth. The latter I can do. The former is a lot harder to give when all I know about SIMS I have had to learn myself from using it! Paul

Do any of you use this product? If so, how do you install it on all of your systems- MSI through GPSI, stand-alone, or some other way? I ask because there is no *obvious* MSI option on the disk and the school would like to get this out to all admin systems (150 of them). Stand alone installs don't look too appealing at this point! Thanks, Paul

Agreed Pete. Tested on one machine- no problems. Going to push it out tomorrow too.

You're right Geoff: this has really made me take stock. I have been using Mac OS and Ubuntu to surf from at home since hearing of this and until I have applied the *temporary* fix I won't be surfing with Windows. But really, this is just another straw that keeps snapping that old camel's back! Aren't there something like 80 variants of the exploit out there already? Disgusting. Paul :-(

I have downloaded the "unofficial" (but got out a heck of a lot quicker than M$) patch. Haven't tested it yet, but will do. SANS released it as an MSI- which is very handy indeed. And you can uninstall the patch *when* MS release a fix- which will be (they say) January 10th. Bump. I'm getting fed up with their excuses really. Me.Close Paul :-)

I agree beeswax- there is a vast difference between being taught "ICT" and being actually told how to do things in Office! All I see in ICT is the passing on of information based on Office- how to format documents, how to manipulate data in Excel; perhaps how to record a macro or two. There's some basic "what is a LAN" type of thing, but it is really basic. There is also a difference between "word processing" and Office! Office has a word processor, but you could as easily teach the principles of word processing without using a WYSIWYG word processor. A simple document mark-up language would be a good first step, followed by OO or Office. I think there has been a lot of business pressure on schools to teach the skills they need using the tools business uses- and of course most businesses use MS Office for document production and other things. It's wrong, but that (at the moment) is the situation. There is a fantastic current of open source software making inroads into schools so that we find ourselves with a lot more choice than perhaps has been the case. My experience with Linux hasn't been as good as most here, but my experience with open source software has been excellent (and I'm talking applications here such as open office). I would have no problem offering the school the alternatives as far as applications are concerned, but when talking servers I still believe (at the moment) that it would have to be Mac OS X or Windows 2003. Let's remember, that because software is proprietary does not mean it is necessarily "bad". Or even because software has to be paid for! Microsoft and Apple both make proprietary software, and I don't see either moving their own offering further into an open field without extreme pressure and good business timing to do so. And that won't happen just now. I too am encouraged by Apple's willingness to push further into OSS- but would caution on the excitement that this would mean their offering OSS versions of their applications. I just don't think that will happen any time soon. Good discussion! Paul

Love it! Great idea. Well done Kevin!!! Paul :-)

Don't be a smart art ;-) Paul

Yes. Touch pad and pen. Nasty combination indeed. Heck- pen and mouse mat toughened for school use didn't work well together, and synaptic pads aren't built much sturdier. Makes me shiver. Paul

Thanks Geoff (and Chris for the reminder about timing on servers!). I installed SAMBA on the laptop last night (Synaptic is great), and have some experience with that component so not that worried about it. PAM sounds fun though- and I'm looking at documentation about WINBIND now. Sounds like it could work quite well though if I can get the authentication working. Reason I'm looking at this option as opposed to thin clients right now is lack of funds for upgrading the server (or what will be the server). It has only 1GB of RAM and would need to be server for at least 30 machines...is that cutting it fine? Other than that I am *still* psyched about Ubuntu. I love apt-get-- been looking at some articles on using it and it seems to streamline the whole install process. Only "glitch" I had was when I chmod the RealPlayer10GOLD.bin file and then sudo installed it: the process failed because I didn't have the libc++ files installed. Searched for them in Syanptic, installed, re-ran the command...voila! RealPlayer works. Even got CSS installed and can watch DVDs *that I already bought*. Having fun really. For once. Paul :-)