tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34502752024-03-08T13:51:54.636+00:00GAThrawnA little corner of the Empire on the web.Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17836279023380807989noreply@blogger.comBlogger79125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3450275.post-80048432965194517062019-04-16T23:19:00.003+01:002019-04-17T14:39:47.321+01:00Retrieving Package Source Path/Application Content Locations from SCCMWe've been running with an old file server and a new file server for our SCCM package sources for a while now, with all the new software being put on the new server, and obsolete software being deleted from the old server as it goes out of use. Over time the old server should be used less and less as a package source, until it falls out of use and is decommissioned, but we really need to get a Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17836279023380807989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3450275.post-6876365324738343572019-04-09T18:15:00.000+01:002019-04-09T23:49:10.786+01:00SCCM Detection Rules for Dell BIOS UpdatesI've been doing a bit of work lately on deploying Dell BIOS updates using SCCM. This is using SCCM's Application Model to deploy the updates out to live machines, and also using those to update BIOS firmware during OSD Task Sequences. I've been a through a few versions of SCCM app detection rules for these jobs. The problem is that WMI's SMBIOSBIOSVersion is a text field, so it's returned as and Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17836279023380807989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3450275.post-43540226636692248742017-07-04T01:24:00.000+01:002017-07-04T01:24:34.290+01:00Retrieve LAPS (Microsoft's Local Admin Password Solution) details using VBScriptHistoryWe've been Microsoft's LAPS (Local Admin Password Solution) as a solution to manage the local administrator passwords on the majority of our servers (excepting domain controllers, for obvious reasons) for a while now. The fact that we'd been living with all of our servers having one or two incredibly simplistic passwords that hadn't changed for the best part of a decade, was giving us so Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17836279023380807989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3450275.post-89482277537667910422016-07-11T17:37:00.000+01:002019-04-09T23:42:27.368+01:00Find objects within folders in the SCCM Console hierarchy using PowerShellFrustration
Ever since Microsoft's SCCM got the new-style System Centre console with SCCM 2012, I've been massively frustrated about how difficult it is to find items in the console once you've organised it with folders. Probably not too much of a problem if you're a lone SCCM admin, but as someone who works as part of a larger team who all use SCCM for slightly different reasons it can be a Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17836279023380807989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3450275.post-43921545756716481302013-07-15T21:26:00.005+01:002021-03-24T23:10:22.227+00:00Kindle Weather Display pt4 Putting it all togetherBy this point, if you've followed the previous posts in this series, you should have a server that's downloading weather info from a weather service, and converting that into a Kindle friendly PNG image, and you should have a Kindle that's been jailbroken, has working USB Networking (and SSH access) and has the Kite application launcher installed on it. Congrats, now let's put it all together andJameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17836279023380807989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3450275.post-61911375621520691762013-06-12T23:56:00.002+01:002021-03-24T22:58:50.638+00:00Kindle Weather pt3 Setting up the KindleBack to the first post in this series.
Setting the Kindle Up
I'm doing this with a black Kindle 4 (non-touch) running Kindle v4.1.0, some of the following steps could change if you have a slightly different model (grey Kindle 4's may have older older firmware which give you more jailbreak options, they may also have the built-in SSH server enabled), I believe that most of this should work on a Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17836279023380807989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3450275.post-49223262038314874202013-06-12T00:11:00.000+01:002017-03-18T22:29:01.588+00:00Kindle Weather pt2 Setting up the serverBack to the first post in this series
Setting up the server
Matthew Petroff's original scripts assume that you're using a Linux server, they're made up of a BASH shell script (that won't do anything on a Windows box) and a Python script (that needs an extra install of 3rd party software to get it working on Windows), as well as relying on a couple of small tools that either aren't available to Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17836279023380807989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3450275.post-88721979410742307622013-06-09T17:07:00.000+01:002013-07-15T21:32:36.670+01:00Kindle Weather Display (from Windows)I admit it, I'm interested in the weather. What can I say? I'm an Englishman and a sailor, I need something to talk about, and some way to know whether it's shorts weather, or if I need to take a brolly to work. Add in the fact that I love tinkering with gadgets, and have a mini server box sitting in the corner of my living room that spends large parts of the day doing very little, then I was Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17836279023380807989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3450275.post-46988233390681240462012-03-06T18:19:00.005+00:002012-03-07T00:52:47.060+00:00Mass Effect 3 questionsAs someone who played (and loved) the first two Mass Effect games on the PC (after being badgered to just try them by a good friend), I'm on tenter-hooks waiting for the third installment's release on Friday (after the USians got theirs today).
As I'm moving between platforms these days and having a whale of a time in multi-player on XBox, including in the excellent multi-player section of the Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17836279023380807989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3450275.post-18524792467389900882011-05-11T14:26:00.004+01:002011-05-15T22:12:02.209+01:00Deploying Adobe LiveCycle Launchpad ES2 (9.5) for use by end usersAs in many companies these days, our users don’t have administrative permissions to their PCs or to the various servers and services we give them access to. This means that the standard one-click web page deployment of LiveCycle Launchpad won’t work for our users, and also we have to configure the permissions within LiveCycle to give them the permissions needed. Here’s how we got it working:
JamesBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13870123314526693146noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3450275.post-2684281100388024682011-01-30T18:00:00.004+00:002011-01-30T18:10:13.301+00:00DropboxJust started using Dropbox to sync between my PC, server, Android phone and the web, it really is great. Easiest and simplest syncing solution I've found.
Had been thinking about it for a while, and then it was Gina Trapani (of TWiG fame) releasing her new Todo.txt Touch Android app that finally convinced me, as it uses Dropbox to do the behind the scenes updates.
If you sign up for Dropbox Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3450275.post-31436137341033731122010-04-29T22:02:00.011+01:002010-05-17T00:13:13.350+01:00Mozilla Weave Minimal Server Setup on WindowsSo I've been following Mozilla's Weave project for while, and kept meaning to have a play with it. It's one of their experimental labs projects which recently came out of beta with a 1.0 release. Essentially it's a Firefox add-in that syncs and backs up a whole load of your settings and data back to a central server, including your bookmarks (and I have a lot!), saved passwords, preferences, Unknownnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3450275.post-28057206996798643092008-08-19T19:54:00.005+01:002013-02-15T01:33:06.677+00:00EVE Central Market Upload Utility Trojan Keylogger WarningPlease see the update at the bottom of this article. I no longer suspect EVE Central or it's Market Uploader utility of any wrongdoing here.So a friend of mine found that around a £1000 of money had been siphoned from his bank account recently (all in bank transfers of under £150). After talking to the bank about he found that the attacker had got into his bank account using the web login.The Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3450275.post-9543868576652218692008-03-07T10:07:00.004+00:002008-03-07T10:59:47.045+00:00Open ParliamentDad's organization (OFE) are organizing a petition to convince the European Parliament Government to change their IT systems over to using open standards.
Head over to www.openparliament.eu to sign up and show your support
Citizens and stakeholder groups should not have to use the software of a single company in order to communicate with their elected officials or participate in the legislativeUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3450275.post-86359497617337226142008-03-04T20:31:00.004+00:002010-04-30T00:24:54.021+01:00EveBerryThis post's been sitting in my queue for a while, sorry!
Vlad (of Mozilla and Firefox fame) posted to the EVE-Online fourms a while ago about his new EveBerry tool, that can be downloaded here: EveBerry -- a BlackBerry EVE Character Monitor:.
It's similar to EVEMon and market monitoring apps, but for your Blackberry smartphone (assuming you have one, I do) and is very, very cool and very, very Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3450275.post-79445898777597570372008-03-04T19:22:00.005+00:002008-03-04T19:48:18.152+00:00I CAN HAS BOTZSince my last set of Lol Bots images (featuring Red Dwarf's Kryten, Ghost in the Shell's Tachikoma and Fritz Lang's Maria), the site seemed to go quiet for quite a few months. Luckily over the last few weeks rstevens has grabbed the editorial reins back and posted a slew of new images, including two more of mine.
I started off a little late for Valentine's with Kryten and Camille:
(It really wasUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3450275.post-49233227994793962882007-06-18T19:52:00.000+01:002007-06-18T20:01:03.416+01:00Safari for Windows UpdateAn update to the previous post: Safari for Windows.
I'd like to say that the Safari 3.01 beta update fixed the problems with my curved borders mentioned in the the previous post, but I probably ought to stick my hand up and admit that uploading the updated CSS file that's been sitting on my hard disk for about 2 months is almost certainly what fixed it! So Safari's new border radius properties doUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3450275.post-85907644541017651212007-06-11T20:37:00.000+01:002007-06-18T19:59:34.088+01:00Safari for WindowsSo Apple have just released a beta of the "Safari 3 web browser for Windows!
First impressions are great, all my web sites, and my favourite sites seem to work well, and look beautiful. Text flowing around flowing objects is definitely better than Firefox 2 or IE 7. Text just looks great full stop.
Downsides, its a bit like when Apple first shoved all that brushed chrome theme stuff over Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3450275.post-88805412089051610682007-06-10T20:39:00.001+01:002008-03-04T19:25:29.092+00:00LOL BOTS for teh w1n!I never really got the whole captioned (or macro-d) kittens craze, as exemplified at I CAN HAS CHEEZBURGER, maybe its because I'm just not a cat person (the guinea pigs work for me though).
However LOL BOTS is a concept that I can totally get behind. And have. My three submissions to the site (so far) are below:
I started off by injecting a little bit of class into the proceedings:
(I feel thatUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3450275.post-16544465029372852332007-04-21T12:41:00.000+01:002007-04-21T13:01:01.829+01:00Good luck Nick!My little brother, Nick, is currently racing across Europe in the Scumball 3000 European Car Race Rally. Him and three friends have bought a sub £500 Saab car and are spending 4 days racing across at least 5 countries, waking up each morning not knowing where they're driving to that evening.
Good luck to him, I think he'll need it stuck in the same car for days on end, with 3 smelly mates, with Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3450275.post-26681961925603207242007-02-12T20:19:00.000+00:002007-06-10T21:26:12.008+01:00Youth, Privacy and the Modern WorldOkay, I'm not even 30 yet and things have conspired to make me feel old. I thought I was in touch, a real geek and a full part of the internet generation. It turns out that I may be some of that, but I still have one foot in the old world.
I read somewhere recently where a member of the 'older generation' was talking to a 'youngster' about calendars, and the youngster couldn't understand the Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3450275.post-6938852027736132372006-12-20T21:11:00.000+00:002006-12-20T21:47:52.402+00:00ServiceCenter/Firefox Printing ReduxSome may remember this post from back in July when I was having trouble printing from a web app after upgrading from Firefox 1.0x to Firefox 1.5. Wherein I laid out a way to fix the problem using a custom usercontent.css file, and also logged a bug on the Mozilla Bugzilla system.
Well it looks like its come to an end! Not with today's Firefox 2.0.0.1 update, as you might imagine. But the latest Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3450275.post-1162945558458544412006-11-08T00:12:00.000+00:002006-12-20T21:48:28.961+00:00Tune!Thanks are due to Colin Murray's Black Hole on his Radio 1 show just now.
He's introduced me to definitely the night's greatest song, almost certainly the week's greatest and quite possibly the year's. Well I've had it on repeat for quite a while now and haven't grown sick anyway :)
If you were lucky enough to listen to the show live, or were quick enough to listen to it from the Black Hole's Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3450275.post-1159193374948031102006-09-25T14:48:00.001+01:002011-05-11T14:40:42.042+01:00Active Directory Group Membership QueriesThe problem with being known as the person who can pull a list of group members from AD into a text file in a few seconds, you become a "go-to guy" for other AD queries. Which wouldn’t be such a bad thing, except that there aren't pre-written scripts for them all! I received a request today to ask if I could pull out a list from AD of everyone who was a member of both a departmental group and a Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3450275.post-1153962690600153742006-07-27T01:34:00.000+01:002007-06-10T21:27:11.573+01:00Unisys ServiceCenter Firefox printing fixFor anyone still living in Unisys-land (aren't I glad they're not filling out my wage slip any more ), and for anyone else forced to use their "idiosyncratic" (read shite) web tools here's a little something.
If you've been forced to use the web (ie HTML not Java) version of their (Peregrine-based) ServiceCenter tool, you'll notice that its dog-slow if you're using IE and has a whole myriad of Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0