I am currently out of the office due to furlough; A sequestration driven, mandatory, unpaid, non-punative vacation, and will return on July 30th.
Hope you enjoy it as well.
Wednesday, July 31, 2013
an entertaining Out of Office reply...
I had sent a friend an email and got his Out of Office reply and it was too funny not to share.
Hope you enjoy it as well.
Hope you enjoy it as well.
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
IA quote of the day!
A good friend sent this quote to me today and while humorous, it does sum up the issues faced with Information Security & Information Assurance.
"On one hand, the safety of information and information systems must be protected, while the administration and procedures for doing so must be kept reasonable so that information assurance does not evolve into an unsupportable self-licking ice cream cone of manpower and systems requirements."
I do not know who to attribute this to, but they hit the nail on the head.
GJB!
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
CrashOnAuditFail – Windows Server 2003
A little background. My coworker and I maintain a business critical intranet web server for about 220 users in our company, as well as other jobs and responsibilities from time to time. We are also the help desk for the app and most problems in general.
We had just finished eating our lunch when the phones light up with what at first seemed to be a typical network issue. We have a few trusted users that seem to have a bit more insight than others so we went down stairs to their locations and checked the normal connectivity issues that are the most likely culprits. This time was different, we (the admins) could still log in, but users got a 404 Error. After checking several different work stations, we went back to the server. We checked the System log and there wasn’t much info to be found. Just that the server had unexpectedly restarted.
That wasn’t much help so we looked in the Security log and found this error.
The very limited info provided here proved to be just enough.
It seems that when you have auditing turned on and have set the Security Log to ‘Do Not Overwrite events’ and the log fills up, it will cause the sever to restart.
That in itself isn’t that surprising, it’s the fact that when it restarts because the Security log is full, it only allows administrators to log in. I understand why this happens, after all if it can’t perform auditing on the users' activities, why should it let them access the server.
We all know that Google knows everything, right? The secret is asking the right question. This is where a more verbose log error would have come in handy. We eventually found the answer here. The answer was provided by Backlund.
The key to this is that when the server restarted it made a registry change and didn’t let us know via a message of some sort.
So open up Regedit and navigate to the following key.
We had just finished eating our lunch when the phones light up with what at first seemed to be a typical network issue. We have a few trusted users that seem to have a bit more insight than others so we went down stairs to their locations and checked the normal connectivity issues that are the most likely culprits. This time was different, we (the admins) could still log in, but users got a 404 Error. After checking several different work stations, we went back to the server. We checked the System log and there wasn’t much info to be found. Just that the server had unexpectedly restarted.
That wasn’t much help so we looked in the Security log and found this error.
The very limited info provided here proved to be just enough.
It seems that when you have auditing turned on and have set the Security Log to ‘Do Not Overwrite events’ and the log fills up, it will cause the sever to restart.
That in itself isn’t that surprising, it’s the fact that when it restarts because the Security log is full, it only allows administrators to log in. I understand why this happens, after all if it can’t perform auditing on the users' activities, why should it let them access the server.
We all know that Google knows everything, right? The secret is asking the right question. This is where a more verbose log error would have come in handy. We eventually found the answer here. The answer was provided by Backlund.
The key to this is that when the server restarted it made a registry change and didn’t let us know via a message of some sort.
So open up Regedit and navigate to the following key.
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa
in the CrashOnAuditFail key the value is 2.
Change the value to either 1 or 0 and restart the machine.Everything should return to normal. We hope that this can help someone, I wish that I had known about this before this bit of excitement. While we knew that this wasn’t a résumé updating event, it was still stressful.
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Amazon Connected Home Solutions - Streaming Music
Amazon has thought this out for us. They have made several videos that address some of the more common alternatives to help you achieve whole house music. On this page you will find several videos just related to streaming music.
In most cases you will need a network of some type, be it hard wired or wireless. Amazon has thought this out as well with their video series Networking 101. Once your network is up and running, they have broken whole home music into three options.
Whole-home systems transmit audio from a central location (such as your computer) to a plethora of amplified possibilities: a home theater stereo, powered speakers, an HDTV, and more. The audio that is being served up through your home can either be the digital audio files stored on your computer's hard drive or audio streamed from an Internet radio station.
> Shop whole-home systems
Wi-Fi radios stream content from Internet radio stations, which requires an Internet connection. As the name suggests, a Wi-Fi radio can wirelessly connect to the Internet (the source) over your home's wireless network router (the transmitter), and it acts as the direct receiver. It doesn't require connection to your computer, only to your network router.
While Wi-Fi radios don't require a connection to your computer, some offer the capability of streaming stored digital audio files (such as MP3s) from your computer's hard drive. Also, some Wi-Fi radios offer a wired Ethernet option as a feature.
> Shop Wi-Fi radio's
Apple iPod-centric solutions provide an easy way for you to stream music from your iPod or iPhone to wireless speakers or receivers throughout your home. Many iPod streaming products can operate independently of a home network, so if that's an option you're interested in, be sure and read more on product detail pages.
> Shop IPod Streaming solutions
The Apple Airport Express is a compact wireless base station that acts as a receiver to audio transmitted over Wi-Fi from a computer music source running the Apple iTunes software. The Airport Express connects to an amplified speaker via an integrated 3.5mm audio jack output.
Music sharing is just one function of the Airport Express, which can also be used as a standalone Wi-Fi router (great using while traveling), extending the range of your main Wi-Fi router, or providing access to a printer (via its USB port) to a wireless network.
> Learn more about the Apple Airport Express
In most cases you will need a network of some type, be it hard wired or wireless. Amazon has thought this out as well with their video series Networking 101. Once your network is up and running, they have broken whole home music into three options.
Option One - Whole-Home Systems
Whole-home systems transmit audio from a central location (such as your computer) to a plethora of amplified possibilities: a home theater stereo, powered speakers, an HDTV, and more. The audio that is being served up through your home can either be the digital audio files stored on your computer's hard drive or audio streamed from an Internet radio station.
> Shop whole-home systems
Option Two - Wi-Fi Radios
Wi-Fi radios stream content from Internet radio stations, which requires an Internet connection. As the name suggests, a Wi-Fi radio can wirelessly connect to the Internet (the source) over your home's wireless network router (the transmitter), and it acts as the direct receiver. It doesn't require connection to your computer, only to your network router.
While Wi-Fi radios don't require a connection to your computer, some offer the capability of streaming stored digital audio files (such as MP3s) from your computer's hard drive. Also, some Wi-Fi radios offer a wired Ethernet option as a feature.
> Shop Wi-Fi radio's
Option Three - iPod Streaming Solutions
Apple iPod-centric solutions provide an easy way for you to stream music from your iPod or iPhone to wireless speakers or receivers throughout your home. Many iPod streaming products can operate independently of a home network, so if that's an option you're interested in, be sure and read more on product detail pages.
> Shop IPod Streaming solutions
Apple Airport Express
The Apple Airport Express is a compact wireless base station that acts as a receiver to audio transmitted over Wi-Fi from a computer music source running the Apple iTunes software. The Airport Express connects to an amplified speaker via an integrated 3.5mm audio jack output.
Music sharing is just one function of the Airport Express, which can also be used as a standalone Wi-Fi router (great using while traveling), extending the range of your main Wi-Fi router, or providing access to a printer (via its USB port) to a wireless network.
> Learn more about the Apple Airport Express
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Android 2.2 - Where is the Alarm Clock?
Like many happy owners of a phone running Google's Android operating system, I was quite happy to receive the recent upgrade to Android version 2.2 (Froyo). The new interface is easier to navigate and, once you get used to it, faster, too.
There are a couple of things about the latest release of Android that are puzzling, or at least were initially. My next couple of posts will address a few of these items, along with some of the things I like about the upgraded OS running on my Motorola Droid.
The first thing I noticed (and was puzzled by) was the settings area for the alarm clock seemed to be missing. Where is my alarm clock? I was fumbling with my Droid late at night knowing I desperately needed to find the settings area in order to enable an early wake-up for the next morning (which wasn't very far off). I struggled to wrap my tired brain around why I couldn't see the icon right at the top of the applications area where I had accessed it so many times before. Finally, after some searching, I found the alarm settings are now part of the Clock settings. From your applications area click on the "Clock" icon. You'll see the alarm clock icon located at the bottom left of your screen (it's the same image as before - little clock with bells on top). The interface remains essentially the same once you're into it, only the way in which you access it has changed.
So, that's where your alarm clock settings went. Hope this helps you wake up on time.
There are a couple of things about the latest release of Android that are puzzling, or at least were initially. My next couple of posts will address a few of these items, along with some of the things I like about the upgraded OS running on my Motorola Droid.
The first thing I noticed (and was puzzled by) was the settings area for the alarm clock seemed to be missing. Where is my alarm clock? I was fumbling with my Droid late at night knowing I desperately needed to find the settings area in order to enable an early wake-up for the next morning (which wasn't very far off). I struggled to wrap my tired brain around why I couldn't see the icon right at the top of the applications area where I had accessed it so many times before. Finally, after some searching, I found the alarm settings are now part of the Clock settings. From your applications area click on the "Clock" icon. You'll see the alarm clock icon located at the bottom left of your screen (it's the same image as before - little clock with bells on top). The interface remains essentially the same once you're into it, only the way in which you access it has changed.
So, that's where your alarm clock settings went. Hope this helps you wake up on time.
Friday, August 6, 2010
Cannot start Microsoft Office Outlook. Unable to open the Outlook window. (A solution to a frustrating problem)
As I'm sure you're all aware, every Microsoft error message is helpful, complete, and crystal clear, right? Well, maybe not. My most recent adventure with an error message told me something I already knew, but nothing more. Here's the deal.
I had a short power outage this evening at my house wherein I learned just how overdue I am to replace the battery in my uninterpretable power supply (UPS). My Dell XPS 410 went "lights-out" right in the middle of installing a new application. Outlook 2007 wasn't even open, although I had only closed it seconds earlier (the process may have still be running). Upon restarting the computer and attempting to open Outlook I was faced with the following error:
I had a short power outage this evening at my house wherein I learned just how overdue I am to replace the battery in my uninterpretable power supply (UPS). My Dell XPS 410 went "lights-out" right in the middle of installing a new application. Outlook 2007 wasn't even open, although I had only closed it seconds earlier (the process may have still be running). Upon restarting the computer and attempting to open Outlook I was faced with the following error:
This error message displayed each time I attempted to open Outlook 2007 on my Windows Vista machine.
After a couple of restarts and some basic troubleshooting I was beginning to get frustrated. Google searches didn't seem to help much initially, as most of the results referenced an issue when using Windows XP and attempting to open Outlook in Win95/ME compatibility mode. I'm running a 32 bit version of Windows Vista Ultimate and I most certainly am not running Outlook in in compatibility mode (who would run anything in 95/ME compatibility mode, anyway?).
A bit more searching and pulling together suggestions from a few different forums on the Internet led me to a very simple solution. Open Outlook from the 'Start' or 'Start>Run' dialog box as follows:
Outlook.exe /resetnavpane
Outlook should start up with no errors. I hope this helps someone and prevents the dreaded reinstall of Office (which was, in my mind, the next logical solution to this issue).
Sunday, March 28, 2010
USB CAC reader - OWA from home
CAC Card Reader:
As Jeff mentioned in a previous post, having a USB reader for your DoD Common Access Card (CAC) can be very helpful if you travel or work from home. Even if you're just trying to keep your inbox from filling up while you're on vacation, having one of these handy little devices is essential for accessing your Outlook Web Access (OWA) email while you're away from the office. If you're like me and don't like spending money on anything you don't have to spend it on, keep reading...things just got cheaper. The CAC reader recommended in the previous post has been drastically reduced in price. They're currently going for about $10 LESS than they were just a couple of months ago. (Just under $15 is the current price). Check out the CAC reader and Jeff's post from January. Don't forget, every organization has different rules on the use of OWA and accessing DoD networks from home (or on the road), so check with your local Information Assurance Manager or Network Security section before you do anything.
As Jeff mentioned in a previous post, having a USB reader for your DoD Common Access Card (CAC) can be very helpful if you travel or work from home. Even if you're just trying to keep your inbox from filling up while you're on vacation, having one of these handy little devices is essential for accessing your Outlook Web Access (OWA) email while you're away from the office. If you're like me and don't like spending money on anything you don't have to spend it on, keep reading...things just got cheaper. The CAC reader recommended in the previous post has been drastically reduced in price. They're currently going for about $10 LESS than they were just a couple of months ago. (Just under $15 is the current price). Check out the CAC reader and Jeff's post from January. Don't forget, every organization has different rules on the use of OWA and accessing DoD networks from home (or on the road), so check with your local Information Assurance Manager or Network Security section before you do anything.
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