matthew.kurowski.org

I really appreciate that Microsoft has made it easier to track and plan one’s certification with their Certification Planner site. Currently, I use a program I wrote that tracks all the requirements for each certification or body of knowledge in which I’m interested in attaining the credential or knowledge and experience. Periodically, I’ll revisit those details and confirm their accuracy or adjust their priority/weights.

Using Microsoft’s applet was simple to use. It lists each possible track one could take to a certification goal in a simple tree structure where folders provide key information such as whether you currently meet all the requirements and if not, the number of objectives remaining and which ones qualify.

Aside from the link I include in this post, one can get to the site from the Microsoft Certification Home Page and then selecting “Certification Planner” from the  “View My…” button list in the left navigation menu.

Microsoft's Certified Professional website.

Once you select the track that you’d like to pursue based on your in-progress certifications, a pop-up will launch with that certification at the top level. What I really like here is that the system knows by the tests you’ve passed or failed what tracks are possible and only lists those tracks. A neat side effect is that it allows for some enlightening discoveries like simple specialties that can be added. For example, one might not know that by substituting one exam for another not only can the same base certification be achieved but that with another one or two exams, a specialist track can be attained as well.

Microsoft's applet showing a single track and its status and criteria.

Look how lazy I was to not have taken a simple test on a product which I am very familiar! The shame! ;->

There are a few improvements I’d like Microsoft to make:

1. Allow for selections of test criteria which can then be downloaded (or stored on Sky Drive)
2. Support other browsers and operating systems better.  (I’ve not gotten the applet to work under OSX browsers.)
3. Allow attribute such as font size to carry from the main style sheet.

Overall though, I give Redmond some props for continuing to improve their educational and related training and certification systems.

Many thanks to the Multi-Safari project for working allowing one to use Safari 3 on a system that had been upgraded to Safari 4.

For some reason, Apple chose to not let one uninstall Safari 4 once his system has been upgraded to it. Removing Safari 4 with AppZapper still would not allow me to reinstall Safari 3. Had it not been for Multi-Safari, I’d still be having my issues.

So why did Apple choose such a Microsoft-like approach to the browser? I should be able to uninstall the OS-included browser firstly, and secondly, I should be able to then reinstall the prior version of the same browser.

Someone called me today with an all too common occurence that needed remedy: He entered his password mistakenly in the login name field of a webform. While the easy route would be to clear private data (doing a bulk erase), that’s like killing a cockroach with a bazooka. When you find yourselves in a similar situation, be it a mispelled streetname, login, address or whatever, there is a very simple (and keyboard driven) way to fix this problem.

To remove individual values from saved formed data within Firefox and Entourage (and probably other applications that I seem to not have had the need to test), perform the following, very simple procedure.

1. Put your cursor in the field on the form in which your mistaken entry lies.
2. Hit down arrow key (start typing the incorrect entry) and then hit the down arrow key until the incorrect entry is selected.
3. Press SHIFT + DEL to delete the offending entry.

(Note: This trick doesn’t seem to work in Apple’s Safari browser so if anyone can help document that for me I’d appreciate it.)

There are several major considerations for running virtual domain controllers. While I support and recommend VDC use, some common sense precautions need be taken.

• Ensure the basic virtual networking configuration for the VDC is within Windows Sites definitions and their appropriate subnets.
• Confirm connectivity for full Microsoft DS IP-suite ports to the Virtual Hosts Farms. This means routing and firewalls should be in place and tested. Note that bridgeheads are applicable in more constrained environments but any type of autotopology support is usually preferable – especially with Windows 2003 and 2008.
• If using DCs with Virtualization HA features such as VI3’s, make sure the above is true and safely test.
• Don’t treat VDCs like regular Windows servers – they aren’t. You can risk serious issues if you think you can just fall back on a snapshot or a prior image file. MSDS like DNS uses a serial number of sorts (the USN). You don’t want to cause issues in one of the most important systems in your environment.
• Exercise care when restoring with backup software whether Microsoft certified or not. Use the principle of doing the least required. Restoring a DC from even a trusted backup application still should be treated with gravity.

Microsoft themselves further recommends the following to prevent the domain’s Update Sequence Numbers (USN) being rolled back from causing issues (from Technet).

• Do not take or use a snapshot of a domain controller virtual machine.
• Do not copy the domain controller VHD file.
• Do not export the virtual machine that is running a domain controller.
• Do not restore a domain controller or attempt to roll back the contents of an Active Directory database by any other means than a supported backup solution, such as Windows Server Backup.

Now, really, all the above applies to _physical_ DCs as well (or for that matter, P2Ving, V2Ping, P2Ping, or V2Ving), but the point is that with the proliferation of Virtualization that it is much too easy to shoot yourself in the foot.

For more information, please see my Microsoft Systems Resource page.

Thanks to Alex (a commenter at skwpspace) for this little tidbit for effectively disabling spindump on OSX.

sudo -i
cd /usr/sbin/
mv spindump spindump-backup
ln -s /usr/bin/true /usr/sbin/spindump

Long ago, shortly after the release of the Belkin Vision N1 v1 (the latter half of 2007, if I recall correctly), I made a very conscious decision to move to a platform assuming it would be supported fully by OpenWRT, Tomato or DD-WRT in short order. My main reason there was well considered but lay mostly with the fact that it was based on the Atheros (AR7141) chipset and a fair amount of RAM (18/8), had a guest network, had 1GbE/gigabit ethernet, tested well with various people, and that it had a really cool LCD that my wife and 6 year old could understand as well as be fun to program from one of the aforementioned replacement firmwares.

I also assumed that, at the worst, I could float one of the maintainers in the respective source projects an N1 so that someone could work on it. Well, when I had the money budgeted, Belkin changed to the “Version 2″ of the N1 Vision. To add insult to injury, Belkin also stopped QA’ing firmware for the V1.

Now we are a heavy gaming family (chess, World of Warcraft, and whole slew of other puzzle, logic, strategy, and other games be they computer, paper, card, or board based). World of Warcraft is one of the ways in which our family and friends schedules time together. We are wickedly coordinated as one could expect.

I had been running N1 firmware 1.00.11 somewhat happily since February of 2008 – until Comcast upgraded my area to DOCSIS 3.0 (update) around the start of October. Not knowing this was happening (SHAME ON YOU COMCAST!) or had happened, once I started experiencing issues, I wasted exorbitant amounts of time troubleshooting home Internet connectivity. During the process at most times, I would attach my generic troubleshooting machine (a vanilla XP system that I could re-image each time) so that Comcast would not be able to blame my setup. All my problems ended up being the result of that Comcast upgade and my cable modem.

(As an aside, I did experience VPN issues using my Cisco client with my work with the running firmware but had a simple workaround – broadband modem card .)

So once the Comcast team ended up stepping up (thanks guys) and seemingly fixing my issues, I decided it time I upgrade my Vision N1 to address the VPN Client issues and purportedly address some range performance issues. Before I commenced with the upgrade, I double checked the aforementioned Open Source projects to see if there had been a release supporting the router. Since there wasn’t I decided to go with Belkin’s 1.00.15 firmware. Here’s where life goes downhill rapidly.

After upgrading to Belkin’s N1 Vision 1.00.15 firmware, life in World of Warcraft and Internet in general became miserable. So, bouncing around periodically between boards looking for updates at Tomato and DD-WRT in particular, I decided to go with a safe standby router that only supported 802.11g when I needed to have a solid experience, and revert to Belkin for daily use (due to the coverage and performance typical). As you can imagine, that was a minor pain.

I chose to give up and buy a new wireless card supporting 802.11n (a WMP300N) and to go back to running Linux as a Wireless Router on PC hardware. Until that system is put in, I decided to take a crack at seeing where Vision support lies with DD-WRT and possibly jump to a WRT310N running DD-WRT while working it… By total cooincidence I find the following, summarized from Belkin’s website:

N1 Vision

Part # F5D8232uk4

F5D8232 version 1 – Pre-Release Firmware Update

This is a pre-release firmware update for the version 1 of the N1 Vision Router F5D8232. The firmware has not yet completed Belkin QA testing; it is posted here because it fixes a number of problems that have been reported with the router. The main changes are:

• General improvements in performance and stability
• Fix for a problem where the router would drop some connections on 2-hour intervals
• Updated driver for the Wireless Network card

Two issues I have with this:

1. Why doesn’t Belkin inform the user that there is an option for upgrading your firmware, pre-release warnings assumed?
2. Why wouldn’t Belkin QA and RELEASE THIS VERSION considering the issues it addresses!?

Raise your hand if you like:

1. Performance.
2. Stability.
3. Not being disconnected EVERY TWO HOURS (many a time having to reboot the router as the only remedy).

Seriously, Belkin – I don’t care if SerComm did develop the Vision N1 for you. SHAME ON YOU for letting people who put faith in your product or name to properly understand the gravity of the issue. I would bet many would be buyers or existing users have lost faith in your ability to SERVE CUSTOMER NEEDS.