Friday, July 28, 2006

R2 recalled :(

Yes, it's true, R2 is recalled today

cnet reports it.

But in the end, it is infact the best thing for our customers.

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

... To Answer a Diva's Questions

I thought I'd take a moment out of my evening to answer Susan's Questions. She was kind enough to ask, so I will answer.

1. Has the Mrs. parked her domain yet?

That would be a no. Where the Internet is concerned, she lives vicariously through me. :) I'm the wild Internet man. :)

2. so.. what mean thing did your co-workers do to your office?

About that office decoration thing... You see, about 2 months before I left, an office mate (by the name of Marc) moved into my office. Then about 3 weeks before I left, the glorious server (known as Catfood) moved into my office. Options were limited, but creativity was high.

... The decorations continued, let me explain the specifics.

Exhibit 1

As you can see, everything "Canadian" was removed from my office (including my Canadian flag), and replaced with U.S.A flags and pictures. The "prison" door was placed over my window (Side note: this door was used on my manager's office when he got married, I can't really say who built it, but if you want the blueprints, let me konw). You can also see that my really sweet LCD is missing, which you get a better view of in the next Exhibit.








Exhibit 2

As you can see, the widescreen LCD is replaced by an overly deep 21" CRT monitor, and my Windows Vista Beta 2 desktop was attached to a super high (*cough*) quality 12" CRT, with courtesy prison bars on it.

Onward and Upward ...
Exhibit 3


You can clearly see the Windows Vista logon screen here, spanning a solid 12" monitor. Ok, maybe it's not clear, but it's working!

Finally, Exhibit 4
What office fun would be complete without...

... the replaced picture of the new wife with the stick drawing (quite a good replica of the actual picture I might add).

As you can see, the office decorations didn't imped on my co-worker Marc, nor did they prevent the function of our proud Catfood server. For those Canadian's out there, I did get my flag back in time for Canada Day.

Susan, you asked, hopefully this answers.

Sunday, July 09, 2006

How to point your Windows Media Center to SBS R2 Update Services


So you are one of the first to hop onto the Windows Small Business Server 2003 R2 band-wagon, but you have a Media Center PC and still have to manually reboot and manage it.

Well, wait no longer! There are some simple steps to follow on your Media Center PC to have it manually sign-up for automatic updates and reboots.

On your Media Center PC, follow these steps:

  1. Click Start, then Run and type in gpedit.msc and press enter, or click ok

  2. Expand Local Computer Policy, Computer Configuration, Administrative Templates, Windows Components, and click on Windows Update.

  3. Make the following updates to the right hand pannel:
    • Allow Automatic Updates Immediate Installation - ENABLED

    • Allow non-administrators to receive update notifications - ENABLED

    • Automatic Updates detection frequency - 1 Hour

    • Configure Automatic Updates - 2-Notify for downloads and install

    • Delay Restart for Scheduled Installations - 5 minutes

    • No auto-restart for scheduled Automatic Updates - DISABLED

    • Re-prompt for restart with scheduled installations - 10 Minutes

    • Reschedule Automatic Updates scheduled installations - Enabled (Wait 1 minute)

    • Specify intranet Microsoft update service location - http://SERVERNAME:8530

  4. close gpedit.msc

  5. Click Start and then Run and type in cmd and press enter or hit OK

  6. From the command prompt, type in gpupdate /force

That's all there is to it! Next time you look at the Update Services snap-in on the server, you'll notice your Media center PC is listed, and now managed by SBS R2 Update Services!

One less thing to worry about.

I took a month off, now I'm back..

Hey Folks,

It's been over a month since my last post, and I can't appologize. :) Yes, the rumours are true, I got hitched while I was out, then spent a glorious two weeks in Maui, Hawaii!


My wedding day was great (as you can see), and Maui is definately a great place to visit. As it turns out, the cost of living in Hotels at Hawaii is even higher than the Seattle Area!! So now I return.

R2 shipped just after I left, and I hope you've all upgraded. I upgraded my home networking to R2 prior to leaving, and manually pointed my Media Center PC to SBS R2 for it's upgrades. It all works flawlessly! All the critical security upgrades were applied and all the machines rebooted, while I was sitting on a beach somewhere (now that's what I call being a great IT person! :o) ). I simply got the text messages that my server was rebooting. How easy is that?

Well, I'm back now, finally caught up on email and ready to roll.