Windows 2003 and Symantec Endpoint Protection 11.0 can leave you with galloping knob rot

Not only this, but it can also cause problems with accessing shares and clients getting an IP lease from your DHCP server, on your Windows 2003 server.

In true Symantec style the documentation for the workaround is reportedly sketchy and the available fix doesn't entirely sort the problem, at this stage.

Thanks to the SBS blog, and Mike Lieser, for bringing this to my attention.

Back in the day

Gizmodo put up an article about how the web, in 1996, sucked. The sad thing is that I can remember looking at a number of these websites on my trusty 28.8K dial up modem, and shortly afterwards at school.

Ah, those were the days!

Goodbye IBM?

Thanks to Chris and Dave, whom I've worked with for almost 4 years, I've sung the praises of IBM's server kit. It was well built, full of features, well supported, not too expensive (although they are more expensive), and they have the "prestige". In the last 1 or so years things in IBM have changed, from my point of view. They don't seem to care as much in the very rare occasions when we need to get parts replaced, the replacements come back faulty and calls get closed in clearing with poor quality and unsatisfactory answers in a few instances. Previously Dave ended up at some sort of manager and we actually got the issue sorted, but kicking up that much fuss shouldn't be warranted.

So, the news that IBM is due to be handing off at least part of it's x86 server tech to Lenovo doesn't fill me with hope. Prior to the Lenovo desktop and laptop take over we put in many IBM desktops and laptops in for customers. Once the switch over occured we saw the speed in responses for hardware faults change drastically overnight, and not for the better in my opinion. No longer was it cost effective to actually use them. It's because of this that worries me. When you get a server and build it with a RAID array, and the customer can't stretch the budget to an additional hotspare, you can occasionally see multiple hard drive failures in a very short time. Granted this is a very sweeping statement, so feel free to shoot me. Even so, it's a possibility. If we have to wait more than a few days to get a replacement, I'd be itchy all over. The last thing you want to have to do is a restore. And we all know how fun they can be, no matter how well planned and practised you are.

Whilst we'll all have to wait and see what they come out with at the end of this, I honestly can't see any value added features from IBM for resellers or the SME any more.

The question then becomes, where do you go? Dell? HP? Fujistu Siemens? I can forsee problems with each, sadly.

Ego boosting "ftw"

We got a fancy new set of scales from the Avon lady this evening, and we decided to unbox the buggers and play. They're digital after all.

Apparently I am 146.5lbs, comprising of 9.1% fat, 68.6% water, 73.1% muscle and 1.77% bone. Whilst I'm sure these aren't 100% accurate (or anywhere near that), it basically means I'm a fucking adonis according to the book. Ladies, form a queue!

iCalendar server, for the lazy

I've been raving on about coding a caldav module for Apache for sodding yonks, but not actually finished it yet. This evening this was a problem as I'd made a cock up thanks to the fact that the work MBP and my desktop weren't anywhere near similiar, in terms of personal calendaring. I don't like web-based calendars, purely because they suck balls, and when I need to look at it I'm not near a (cheap) web connection

On this basis I decided to suck it up and setup an Apache HTTPD vhost with mod_dav_fs. What this does it allow you to write to the underlying file system. Since ics files are completely self-contained, this should Just Work™.

  1. Ensure that mod_dav and mod_dav_fs are loaded by your Apache HTTPD installation.
  2. Setup the DNS, virtualhost, etc. as you would for a normal website. For example:<VirtualHost *:80> DocumentRoot /path/to/docroot ServerName hostname.tld </VirtualHost>
  3. Add DAVLockDB /path/to/lockfile to this hosts', stanza and ensure that this file is writeable by the webserver.
  4. Also add the following: <Location /> Dav On AuthType Basic AuthName "Password Required" AuthUserFile /path/to/.htpasswd Require valid-user </Location>
  5. Add your users to the .htpasswd file in the previous step. If you want to be adventurous look into mod_authn_db instead.
  6. Ensure that your chosen directory is writeable by the webserver, and restart it.

Personally I'd suggest SSL'ing the website, and ensuring that you have a decent username and password. Whilst not perfect, it should be suitable. In your iCal client you simply need to include the username and password in the URL of the remote calendar (in the standard http://username:password@hostname.tld format), and you should be well away!

My only fear is that this detains me from actually finishing the caldav module.