March 2004 - Posts

• Securing Active Directory White Paper

  Microsoft has released a new white paper titled, “Best Practice Guide for Securing Active Directory Installations.” Posted Mar 24 2004, 12:43 PM by ChuckOp with no comments Filed under: Microsoft, Directory Services

• Spam will be eliminated in 18 months

  I predict that spam, at least spam as we now it now, will be eliminated by September, 2005, probably sooner. With 83% of the mail sent to Hotmail.com addresses, the epidemic is great enough to bring out the big artillery to combat it.  The various state (like in Washington) and Federal laws are good intentions, but without the ability to identify the spammer, is useless. If however, you can identify the spammer, then the threat of real legal action can make a difference.  There are a couple of plans in the works to identify spammers, including one from Microsoft.  Given the size of the problem, I expect that the usual debates over which technology is better will give way to rapid adoption. Posted Mar 23 2004, 05:58 PM by ChuckOp with 1 comment(s) Filed under: Microsoft, Rants, Email

• Sick of inconsistant security standards

  Arrrgh!  It’s week 8 here in San Jose.  Flying out this morning from SeaTac, I was asked to remove my sneakers.  Only about half the time at SeaTac am I asked to do this.  Never am I asked at SJC.  When I mentioned that I didn’t have to do it last week, the lady said “Oh, it’s required.  We always ask.”  As if I’d slap my forehead and say “Oh of course, I’d forgotten I was humiliated in a degrading manner last time I was here, silly me.”  Oh, on each trip, I wear the same Nike white tennis sneakers. So, here’s my procedure when approaching the security screeners. Put away boarding pass, but keep it handy, I’ll need to present it again. Unclip cell phone, turn off and slip into carrying case. Take off my Breitling watch, as its bulk tends to set off the machine.  Slip into jacket pocket and zip close. Take loose change, slip in other jacket pocket and zip shut. At the security table, I put my jacket in it’s own tray Take laptop out of briefcase, sent briefcase down the line Put laptop in tray, but don’t sent it until I’m reasonable sure I can meet it on the other side Dash through gateway Pick up laptop tray before it gets rattled by the rollers. In the past, laptops would be cushioned.  Even after 9/11, you could put your laptop on top of your folded jacket in a tray.  No longer.  Now, all the jolts of the tray moving through the machine are being transmitted directly to the laptop case.  Having lost damaged two laptop hard drives while traveling; I know how fragile they can be. I had seat 7C today on the 6:25am flight.  I noticed that coach flight attendant, a 30ish guy came forward and actively blocked the aisle at the First Class galley while the First Class flight attendant severed coffee to the pilots.  The few seconds the cockpit door was open, the guy leaned against the galley wall to the right of the aisle.  He put his arm out and gripped the partition between row 1 and exit door on the left side of the aisle.  The whole time he was looking into the cabin, which was good, since the other flight attendant had her back to the cabin while serving the coffee. When the cockpit door was closed, he started to walk back up the aisle.  I motioned to him and asked if he had done that on purpose.  He said it was an Alaska Airlines policy. Very interesting. Posted Mar 22 2004, 06:03 PM by ChuckOp with 2 comment(s) Filed under: Aviation, Rants

• HR3920 - Congressman wants to overturn Supreme Court

  Oh, this is good.  Representative Ron Lewis (R-KY) has introduced a bill in Congress last week that aims to overthrow Supreme Court decisions concerning the constitutionality of acts of Congress. As Slate Magazine put it, this is a “dumb proposal.”  I disagree entirely with HR 3920, but it doesn’t have any hope of becoming law – because it’s unconstitutional.  At least when Robert Bork, of Saturday Night Massacre fame, suggested something similar, he knew it would have to be an amendment to the Constitution. Posted Mar 17 2004, 10:21 PM by ChuckOp with 2 comment(s) Filed under: Politics

• CSUN 2004

  The CSUN Conference on Disabilities, kicks off today at the LAX Marriot for its 19th year.  This is the yearly event that people working on enabling technology attend.  It’s a great place to share what you’ve been doing with not only your peers, but those who will benefit directly.  From 1990 through 1994 I attended this conference as a representative of Henter-Joyce (now Freedom Scientific) as developer of the JAWS screen reader.  Starting in 1995 through 1999, I represented Microsoft as a Program Manager for various projects, including accessibility to Windows, and Internet Explorer, and Active Accessibility. Closing The Gap, held in Minneapolis each October has a similar focus. Although I haven’t directly been involved in accessibility for sometime; I follow it closely and with admiration.  Lately I’ve been reading Sara Ford’s blog.  She’s presenting for the first time at CSUN on the accessibility improvements coming in Whidbey, the next release of Visual Studio.  I’ve enjoyed reading about her concerns presenting and I’m reminded of my own pre-presentation jitters.  Particularly in 1995, when Greg Lowney, Luanne LaLonde, Peter Wong and myself were announcing the formation of the accessibility team. I’m amazed at how far technology has come to make technology accessible, and yet at the same time, it’s amazing how much more needs to be done.  I’ve been criticized for being so unabashedly “pro Microsoft”, but it’s probably because I saw close up a big organization simply doing the right thing. Apple has recently reemerged in this area and is announcing the “Spoken Interface” slated for the next release of the Mac OS X.  Probably because of its extensive use in educational markets, Apple was doing accessibility long before anyone else.  As the company as a whole withered in the mid-90’s, Gary Moulton, the brains behind Apple’s early accessibility efforts, came over to Microsoft to continue the fight.  Gary is one of those fellows who quietly changes the world through sheer competence.  He rarely gets behind a podium, but his passion for accessibility is unrelenting.  In recent years, Gary’s developed key partnerships that draw attention to the fact that accessibility isn’t just about severe disabilities, but the multitude of conditions that can be helped via accessible technology.  Gary was one of the major contributors to Microsoft’s book on the subject. There are many people working on accessibility, at Microsoft and many other companies.  There are dozens of very smart people at educational institutions around the world putting in research and effort into making computers more accessible to all.  They are all doing it because it’s the right thing to do.  A major stumbling block is that the developers of software and web content aren’t aware of the problems and solutions.  People tend to “code in their own image.”  Most web designers feel like “if I can read/use/understand it, anyone can.” Older computer uses often are not familiar with features to help with diminishing vision, hearing and mobility – because they may not consider themselves “disabled.”  An important reason to not segregate content or features to hard to find areas. So, in celebration of CSUN, try one of the following: ·         Do you write web sites?  If so, check out the Accessibility Checker in FrontPage 2003 (also available for past versions), and the improvements coming in ASP.NET.  The W3C’s Web Accessibility Initiative has a lot of information as well. ·         Do you write software?  Then check out Microsoft’s portal for developers. ·         Having trouble reading the screen?  Using the mouse?  Do you experience information overload?  There are features built into Windows to help out, and in most cases, these features can improve productivity dramatically for everyone. “A computer on every desk and in every home, usable by everyone!” Posted Mar 17 2004, 03:41 PM by ChuckOp with no comments Filed under: Microsoft, Accessibility

• Gil Kirkpatrick of NetPro

  Had a nice lunch today with Gil Kirkpatrick, CTO of NetPro.  He's the brains behind a number of products that help enterprises manage Active Directory and other directory services.  They've just released ChangeAuditor that tracks changes to Active Directory and a variety of other network configuration parameters.  Pretty neat stuff. Gil's also a sailplane pilot and it's always good to get his perspective on flying.  I'm used to flying behind a 250hp fan attached to the airframe, going from point A to point B.  Gil's brand of flying is more about finding the right conditions just to keep you up in the sky - and then staying in them.  While I'm here in sunny California, I'm going to try to get my gilder rating. We also talked about writing computer books.  Gil wrote the excellent “Active Directory Programming” title published by SAMS.  Looking at the Amazon listing, my book is listed as also being bought by the same readers.  <smile> NetPro is also producing the Directory Experts Conference this month in Washington DC and again in April in Amsterdam. Posted Mar 12 2004, 05:57 PM by ChuckOp with no comments Filed under: Aviation, Personal, Directory Services

• Multiple Active Directory Forests White Paper

  Microsoft has just released an updated whitepaper on pros and cons of creating multiple Active Directory forests in the Enterprise. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=b717bfcd-6c1c-4af6-8b2c-b604e60067ba   Posted Mar 12 2004, 04:54 PM by ChuckOp with no comments Filed under: Microsoft, Directory Services

• First eBay auction - Microsoft Wireless IntelliMouse

  I'm selling my first item on eBay this week, a Microsoft Wireless IntelliMouse with a tiltwheel. I bought this item on impluse, and gave it a decent try, but I'm just not meant to move mice with my right hand.  This particular mouse is shaped that actual pain is caused when using your left hand.  My mousing woes are another story. I first tried offering the mouse to my co-workers, but no one replied back.  So, I figured I'd try eBay.  I've bought a couple of things there over the past few years, but generally I'm wary of the sellers. At first, I restricted the auction to US shipping, but I got three e-mails from folks asking if I'd consider shipping it to them in their country.  I said yes and earlier today revised the listing to allow international shipping. Bidding has been light - three bids so far with a half day to go.  I paid $49 + tax for the item, but listed the minimum bid at $20.  Well, it's at $26.50 right now.  It'll be interesting if it bids up in the final minutes. If this goes well, I'll do some more.  I have various pieces of hardware that I should liquidate - a HP DeskJet printer that's in great shape, a rarely used Cannon portable printer, and many other useful and not so useful things. Posted Mar 03 2004, 09:51 PM by ChuckOp with 1 comment(s) Filed under: Personal

• Commuting to Cisco

  As I've alluded to in other posts, I'm now working at Cisco Systems doing consulting on their Active Directory infrastructure. I'm commuting from Seattle on a weekly basis, which is interesting.  I fly down on Monday morning and leave Friday evenings.  Alaska Airlines has a 6:25am flight from Seattle to San Jose.  That means waking up at 4am.  The flight is listed at just under hours, but so far, it’s never taken more than a hour and a half.  I’m out of the San Jose airport by 8:40am.  From there it’s the #10 bus to the Metro light rail station on First Street.   I take the train going north and transfer to another train going East.  My building at Cisco is #12 and there is a light rail station about 100 feet from the entrance.  This week I was into the office by 9am. On Friday's, Alaska used to have near hourly flights leaving to Seattle, but now has one at 3:15 and the next one is at 6:55pm.  Anthea picks me up shortly after 9pm and we're home by 10pm.  The flights haven't been too bad so far, but it's crowded on the Friday evening flights. I’ve been experimenting with different hotels.  This is week #4 and I’m in my fourth different hotel.  The closest one on the map is the Homestead Village in Milpitas.  It’s about a mile and half walk, which I don’t mind if I’m in shorts and a t-shirt.  But with jeans, a polo and lugging my computer bag, it’s not optimal.  However, the #33 bus goes by the hotel every half hour, and then right by building 12 a few minutes later, so that works out well. The Homestead Village is okay, and has high-speed internet access via wired and wireless connections.  It’s $10 a day though via the ARESCOM folks.  It works okay, but you have to re-login each power cycle.  The wireless feature is very nice. The disadvantage of this particular hotel is that there is no food nearby.  There is a bunch of fast food a half-mile away, but you have to get there via an overpass over the 237 interstate.  There is a Borders store there as well, which is nice.  The #33 bus goes by this area too. This week, I’m in the Comfort Suites on First Street.  This is a recently renovated hotel, and is small, but nicely appointed.  There is a Denny’s next door.  It’s about 5 miles south of Cisco, but there is a light rail station about 250 yards away.  There are a number of cheaper hotels in this area too, probably without the high speed internet, but I get that for free from work ;) I’ll write more about Cisco soon.  Having spent much of my working career at Microsoft in various roles, I’m adjusting to the cultural difference here.  So far, the experience is going very well. Posted Mar 03 2004, 05:03 PM by ChuckOp with no comments Filed under: Personal

• Source code leak fears apply to Linux too

  I'm a little sick about how the industry press is reporting on the source code leak.  The first reports were rip with speculation that competitors with Microsoft's applications would finally have a inside look and be able to compete fairly. That kind of thinking is just plain silly.  It seems sinister, that some how the Windows developers can add things that help the Microsoft applications, but not document or make those additions publically available.  Trust me, there is no MakeExcelRecalcFaster() API in Win32, documented or otherwise. The other fear that the trade press is presenting is that having the source code out in the wild will result in more security risks.  Here's one comment from a Ziff-Davis writer: “Now thousands of virus writers can scan the code for flaws and weaknesses instead of relying on trial and error.” Okay, I can understand that.  However, I've yet to see this point brought up when discussing open source software, specifically Linux.  I've often thought that one of the downsides to open source is that it is completely transparent and lacks coding standards. Of course, the “trail and error“ that virus writers do really isn't present.  It's speculated that most rogue developers start out by reverse-engineering the patches Microsoft puts out and discovers the flaws present.  Then they take advantage of the vunerability on unpatched machines. Posted Mar 02 2004, 12:33 PM by ChuckOp with 8 comment(s) Filed under: Microsoft, Rants