http://www.mandatorycurfew.com/Default.cfm?Page=Journal Derek Lidbom's Journal en-us Copyright 2008, Derek Lidbom drlidbom@mindspring.com (Derek Lidbom) drlidbom@mindspring.com (Derek Lidbom) Tue, 08 Jul 2008 22:35:13 EST Sun, 02 Mar 2008 00:00:00 EST The blood sweat and tears of Derek Lidbom http://www.mandatorycurfew.com/Styles/Head/images/Headers/Header03501.jpg http://www.mandatorycurfew.com http://www.mandatorycurfew.com/Default.cfm?Page=Journal&Permalink=Yes&JournalID=714&Comments=4 The "Matt Harding" videos. For some reason (my guess would be the cool story he has and the sense of world community it offers), I really enjoy watching the third video. (4 comments) dlidbom@mindspring.com http://www.mandatorycurfew.com/Default.cfm?Page=Journal&Permalink=Yes&JournalID=714 Fri, 04 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST http://www.mandatorycurfew.com/Default.cfm?Page=Journal&Permalink=Yes&JournalID=713&Comments=1 Read the article (1 comment) dlidbom@mindspring.com http://www.mandatorycurfew.com/Default.cfm?Page=Journal&Permalink=Yes&JournalID=713 Thu, 03 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST http://www.mandatorycurfew.com/Default.cfm?Page=Journal&Permalink=Yes&JournalID=712&Comments=0 I'm hanging out in the USAirways Club in the LaGuardia airport. It is much better than sitting outside...more quiet, better views of the aircraft, tvs you can control, free snacks and drinks. Not a bad place to get a few hours work done before a late flight. (0 comments) dlidbom@mindspring.com http://www.mandatorycurfew.com/Default.cfm?Page=Journal&Permalink=Yes&JournalID=712 Fri, 27 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST http://www.mandatorycurfew.com/Default.cfm?Page=Journal&Permalink=Yes&JournalID=711&Comments=3 Decisions, decisions. (3 comments) dlidbom@mindspring.com http://www.mandatorycurfew.com/Default.cfm?Page=Journal&Permalink=Yes&JournalID=711 Mon, 23 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST http://www.mandatorycurfew.com/Default.cfm?Page=Journal&Permalink=Yes&JournalID=708&Comments=3 GEEK ALERT: I learned a lot about Windows Time Service and related items last night. For all the domain controllers and computers to talk nicely to each other on a Windows network (and other networks relying on Kerberos/most modern authentication mechanisms), the system times need to be relatively close to each other. Not to mention if your mobile devices (say Blackberries) are more than two minutes or so off of your workstations you will have all sorts of users who are irritated because they looked at their workstation and thought they were late, only to get to the meeting and see on their mobile device they weren't late at all. The general idea of time synchronization on a Windows network (assuming 2003 Server) is that there is one server for the domain (the one that holds the PDC Emulator role) that is authoritative for time synchronization. That system's clock is to be set with a hardware device, the system BIOS clock or by using NTP to talk to a reliable time source over IP. All of the other servers get their time using "domhier" which is the domain hierarchy Microsoft has created that hopefully efficiently synchronizes time (talk to the closest server, make sure there is a small variance in what you expected, etc.). Then client workstations synchronize their time with available domain controllers. This is over-simplified, of course (there are all kinds of neat algorithms and such Windows uses to try to make this process efficient). In the issue I was working on last night, the PDC Emulator role had been moved from one server to another to another. Microsoft has knowledge base articles (http://technet2.microsoft.com/windowsserver/en/library/4a63190b-c594-4d43-9195-e54e4cb89d251033.mspx?mfr=true, Link ID 91969 and others) that explain what to do on the old PDC Emulator so that it does not think it is the authoritative time server for the domain anymore. I completed these steps (along with the steps required on the new PDC Emulator) and confirmed every domain controller in the domain except the PDC emulator was set to point to domhier. I configured the PDC emulator (domain controller on a virtual machine) to point to a reliable NTP server online. Happy I had built a Microsoft-approved Windows time configuration, I waited for the time synchronization to happen, then I forced it with a command line (w32tm /resync /rediscover). The PDC emulator's time would synchronize with the NTP server and then the time would change back within a minute. I re-verified everything three times. Everything is right, but the whole domain is getting the wrong time (relative to atomic time) because the PDC won't keep the correct time with the NTP server. I was pulling my hair out. I found out how to turn on debugging in the Windows Time Service (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/816043). After turning it on, there was not much help in the logs. They would just show the time changing backward about 4 minutes after every time synchronization. It just didn't make sense. Until I had a revelation... Here's the reason for this article...because after hours of work and searching online, no one seems to have documented this... Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 was changing the time on the guest operating system (Windows Server 2003) running the PDC Emulator WITHOUT LOGGING ANYTHING ON THE GUEST. There you have it. I haven't dug enough to see if it logged anything in Virtual Server or not, but it would have been really really nice if it had let me know somehow on the guest OS that it was changing the time. I setup the Virtual server to sync it's time with the NTP server and all is well. (3 comments) dlidbom@mindspring.com http://www.mandatorycurfew.com/Default.cfm?Page=Journal&Permalink=Yes&JournalID=708 Sat, 21 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST http://www.mandatorycurfew.com/Default.cfm?Page=Journal&Permalink=Yes&JournalID=707&Comments=3 Why didn't we have forks/knives/spoons like this when I was a kid? (3 comments) dlidbom@mindspring.com http://www.mandatorycurfew.com/Default.cfm?Page=Journal&Permalink=Yes&JournalID=707 Mon, 16 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST http://www.mandatorycurfew.com/Default.cfm?Page=Journal&Permalink=Yes&JournalID=706&Comments=4 Never really heard of contact juggling before. (4 comments) dlidbom@mindspring.com http://www.mandatorycurfew.com/Default.cfm?Page=Journal&Permalink=Yes&JournalID=706 Sat, 14 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST http://www.mandatorycurfew.com/Default.cfm?Page=Journal&Permalink=Yes&JournalID=705&Comments=5 Why I was looking for a typewriter is another story...but I found the "you might also want to consider" item on the left humorous. (5 comments) dlidbom@mindspring.com http://www.mandatorycurfew.com/Default.cfm?Page=Journal&Permalink=Yes&JournalID=705 Thu, 12 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST http://www.mandatorycurfew.com/Default.cfm?Page=Journal&Permalink=Yes&JournalID=704&Comments=4 Four coworkers (of formerly perceived high intelligence levels and general level-headedness) just entered my office and tried to re-create the "popping popcorn with your cell phones" experience. I'm still shaking my head that they thought it had enough credence for them to try it. I will leave their names out until they decide to defend themselves. All decided to abort the experiment when I began to try to capture it on video. Search youtube for popcorn cell phone if you're unfamiliar with this. (4 comments) dlidbom@mindspring.com http://www.mandatorycurfew.com/Default.cfm?Page=Journal&Permalink=Yes&JournalID=704 Thu, 12 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST http://www.mandatorycurfew.com/Default.cfm?Page=Journal&Permalink=Yes&JournalID=703&Comments=11 Jordan Jennings built me an awesome Super Mario Brothers 2 theme several years ago when we were both working at Symetri. I decided this evening to bring it back out, although it took a lot more code-massaging than I would have liked because of the architectural changes to my site in the past 7 years or so. Who of you has been visiting my site long enough to remember when I had this theme up previously? (11 comments) dlidbom@mindspring.com http://www.mandatorycurfew.com/Default.cfm?Page=Journal&Permalink=Yes&JournalID=703 Tue, 10 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST http://www.mandatorycurfew.com/Default.cfm?Page=Journal&Permalink=Yes&JournalID=702&Comments=4 In all my wifi troubleshooting, I ran across a message that I've never seen before. As usual for a mac, it has very little information that would help a technical user. I found it interesting. My guess is it has something to do with the "Michael algorithm" used in WPA...here's a paragraph from Wikipedia: "The Michael algorithm was the strongest that Wi-Fi Alliance designers could come up with that would still work with most older network cards. Due to inevitable weaknesses of Michael, TKIP will shut down the network for one minute if two frames are discovered that fail the Michael check after passing all other integrity checks that would have caught noisy frames. It will then require generation of new keys and reauthentication when the network restarts , forcing the attacker to start over." Anyone else ever seen this? (4 comments) dlidbom@mindspring.com http://www.mandatorycurfew.com/Default.cfm?Page=Journal&Permalink=Yes&JournalID=702 Sun, 08 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST http://www.mandatorycurfew.com/Default.cfm?Page=Journal&Permalink=Yes&JournalID=701&Comments=18 I'm hesitant to call this fixed yet, but I've had a little bit of progress working through an airport problem I've been having. Rather than re-iterate, I'll link to the apple thread where people are chronicling their problems: discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa This has been infuriating (and an open issue for at least 6 months). I have swapped out routers, changed every configuration I could think of, etc. Finally, I forced my router into 802.11g only mode (instead of b/g or n) and it has been working for a few minutes at least. (18 comments) dlidbom@mindspring.com http://www.mandatorycurfew.com/Default.cfm?Page=Journal&Permalink=Yes&JournalID=701 Tue, 03 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST http://www.mandatorycurfew.com/Default.cfm?Page=Journal&Permalink=Yes&JournalID=700&Comments=3 My hands are tired. I took down 8 leeland cyprus trees this weekend. it felt good to be outside and in the yard working, but my body is just plain worn out. That's what sitting behind a keyboard all day will do to you (atrophy your muscles). Check out Sarah's pictures by clicking below: sarahlidbom.blogspot.com/2008/05/lawn-destruction.html (3 comments) dlidbom@mindspring.com http://www.mandatorycurfew.com/Default.cfm?Page=Journal&Permalink=Yes&JournalID=700 Mon, 26 May 2008 00:00:00 EST http://www.mandatorycurfew.com/Default.cfm?Page=Journal&Permalink=Yes&JournalID=699&Comments=2 I passed my fourth GIAC certification exam last Friday. Now I've got four more letters to put after my name (GCFW...GIAC certified firewall analyst). Excellent. (2 comments) dlidbom@mindspring.com http://www.mandatorycurfew.com/Default.cfm?Page=Journal&Permalink=Yes&JournalID=699 Sat, 24 May 2008 00:00:00 EST http://www.mandatorycurfew.com/Default.cfm?Page=Journal&Permalink=Yes&JournalID=698&Comments=1 To all you moms out there, but especially to my mom and Isaac's mom. (1 comment) dlidbom@mindspring.com http://www.mandatorycurfew.com/Default.cfm?Page=Journal&Permalink=Yes&JournalID=698 Sun, 11 May 2008 00:00:00 EST http://www.mandatorycurfew.com/Default.cfm?Page=Journal&Permalink=Yes&JournalID=697&Comments=6 funny stuff... (6 comments) dlidbom@mindspring.com http://www.mandatorycurfew.com/Default.cfm?Page=Journal&Permalink=Yes&JournalID=697 Thu, 01 May 2008 00:00:00 EST http://www.mandatorycurfew.com/Default.cfm?Page=Journal&Permalink=Yes&JournalID=694&Comments=12 Spin the Black Circle (12 comments) dlidbom@mindspring.com http://www.mandatorycurfew.com/Default.cfm?Page=Journal&Permalink=Yes&JournalID=694 Mon, 31 Mar 2008 00:00:00 EST http://www.mandatorycurfew.com/Default.cfm?Page=Journal&Permalink=Yes&JournalID=693&Comments=4 I like the snake game...it's pretty cool that this guy wrote a flash version in less than 1k. 500 is the highest I can muster right now... Play here (4 comments) dlidbom@mindspring.com http://www.mandatorycurfew.com/Default.cfm?Page=Journal&Permalink=Yes&JournalID=693 Sat, 08 Mar 2008 00:00:00 EST http://www.mandatorycurfew.com/Default.cfm?Page=Journal&Permalink=Yes&JournalID=692&Comments=0 I remember ps -aux from my BSDi Unix days, but I wanted to expirement a little with it in terminal on OS X. I found a good version of it for OS X that gives me most of the useful information I need: ps -axO user,pid,%cpu,%mem,vsz,rss,tt,state,start,time,command So...how to alias in OS X... aliases usually live in your .bashrc file in the form of: alias psa="ps -axO user,pid,%cpu,%mem,vsz,rss,tt,state,start,time,command" That would alias the command string above to a command psa But, evidently when you open a bash shell in OS X it doesn't load .bashrc by default. So, you need to add "source ~/.bashrc" to your .bash_login (which also doesn't exist by default) Clear? (0 comments) dlidbom@mindspring.com http://www.mandatorycurfew.com/Default.cfm?Page=Journal&Permalink=Yes&JournalID=692 Tue, 04 Mar 2008 00:00:00 EST http://www.mandatorycurfew.com/Default.cfm?Page=Journal&Permalink=Yes&JournalID=691&Comments=4 It's been so long since I've worked out in the shop. This weekend I got back into it and started work again on the "bathroom pantry" that I've had going for probably 9 months. I got discouraged when I messed up almost an entire sheet of plywood by following the measurements for the dado joints in the drawing. They were wrong. So were the measurements for the large shelves and who knows what else (I'll let you know when I get done). But, I'm back on track. Need to build the top, upper shelves and doors. Then Sarah gets to paint it! (4 comments) dlidbom@mindspring.com http://www.mandatorycurfew.com/Default.cfm?Page=Journal&Permalink=Yes&JournalID=691 Sun, 02 Mar 2008 00:00:00 EST