Automotive Warranty scam

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I've been receiving phone calls from these caller-ID numbers recently, claiming to have important information about my automotive warranty. They clearly are not my car's manufacturer, and similar scams are being reported elsewhere. These types of offers have arrived in postal mail for a while.

Do NOT fall for their sales pitches. They want to pretend to be a company you already deal with, and sell you expensive and questionable extended warranties under false pretenses.

I wanted to put these phone numbers on the net to help anyone searching for them from their caller id:

1-062-233-4418
1-062-226-3618
1-062-291-1712

Be warned.

Copy content types Across Farms (SharePoint)

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Content Types in SharePoint can be very useful, and can be created by manually by users or automatically by various products or procedures. In one case, content types may be created automatically during a migration of content from CMS to SharePoint MOSS 2007 publishing server. Regardless of where they came from, they can be copied from one site to another, even moved across farms.

Under most circumstances, Gary Lapointe's stsadm extensions can be used to help automate the process. He has operations for copying content types between sites in the same farm, for propogating content types and for exporting content types from a site. Strangely there is no import content types, which would have enabled cross-farm content type copying.

To copy content types across farms, you'll need to do the gl-exportcontenttypes and then create a SharePoint feature that adds them to your site collection, site, ... whatever. If you don't want to install Gary Lapointe's stsadm extensions, you'll need to use his source code to write a console application that does the same thing. If you have the console application, you can drop it onto your source server (no install needed) and do the export.

For the export, I used the following flags:
url = http://hostname
contentTypeGroup = "Custom Content Types"
contentTypeName = null
excludeParentFields = false
includeFieldDefinitions = true
includeListBindings = false
listName = null
removeEncodedSpaces = false
featureSafe = true
outputFile = "ctypes.xml"

Once I had my output (ctypes.xml), I had to remove any ... tag pairs. For some reason they were included in some of the field definitions (site columns) associated with the exported content types. I don't know what the ultimate effect of this is, but it didn't matter to me in this case, and it worked without it.

The structure of the ctypes.xml file should look like this (values removed):
<elements xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/">
<field id=" Name="" sourceid=" StaticName="" group=" RowOrdinal="" type=" DisplayName="" readonly=" Sealed="" colname=" PITarget="" piattribute=" /">
[...]
<contenttype id=" Name="" group=" Version="">
<folder targetname=" /">
<fieldrefs>
<fieldref id=" Name="">
<fieldref id=" Name="">
</fieldrefs></contenttype></elements>

Create a 12 hive feature directory:
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\FEATURES\MyCtypes

Copy the ctypes.xml file into the directory.

Add feature.xml with content like this (with a new Id GUID, and change Scope if desired, remember Scope="Site" means SiteCollection):
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<feature id="031D991D-2559-4512-BE86-024E9CA035B3"
Title="My Imported content types"
Description="Content types imported from wherever"
Version="1.0.0.0"
Scope="Site"
ImageUrl="Health.GIF"
Hidden="FALSE"
DefaultResourceFile="core"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/">
<elementmanifests>
<elementmanifest location="ctypes.xml">
</elementmanifests>
</feature>

Install the feature this way:
"C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\BIN\stsadm.exe" -o installfeature -name MyCtypes

(if your xml file doesn't comply to proper schema, this installfeature will fail)

Now go activeate the feature. In this case, go to "Site Collection Features" and click activate for the new feature. This will add the content types to the site collection.

Uninstall this way:
"C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\BIN\stsadm.exe" -o uninstallfeature -name MyCtypes

This uninstall will remove the content types from the site collection. I suspect this will fail if the content types are in use by the site.

Olympics of the Mind - Smarty Pants - 1985

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(Flashback to high school... Reprinted here with attribution but without permission. From this source.)

Marcellus NY Weekly Observer 1985
Press-Observer, April 24, 1985 - Page 24
Two O.M. Teams Bring Home Trophies


Two school buses, a station wagon and a van slipped quietly back into Skaneateles late Saturday, April 20. This caravan was returning from the New York State finals of the Olympics of the Mind competition at SUNY-Buftalo.

Skaneateles pupils who participated in the Buffalo event were all winners of the regional competition March 16 in Auburn. The contests were titled "Big Top," "Ecology Dozer,"
"Compound Fracture," "Music Maestro" and "High Tech-Smarty Pants." Competition is in three divisions according to the grade level of the student.

After checking in at the guest dorms on the Buffalo campus, Friday, April 19,the 60 students and adult coaches were treated to a dinner at Niagara Falls, Canada. Mist and dense fog unfortunately totally obscured their view of the Falls.

Saturday morning the Skaneateles teams began competing against the other regional winners. The first part of the event is called "long term." This allows the competitors to show or use devices and skits to earn points toward victory. The second part of the event is called "spontaneous," where the team members use only brainpower to earn additional points.

The Division Three Skaneateles team for "High Tech-Smarty Pants" won first place for their robot and its skit dealing with an explosion in the chemistry laboratory. Coached by Georgia Peach, with Tammy Dudden assisting, the team of Sharon Graham, Eric Hadley, Maggie Kelly, David Leonard, Aaron Naas, and John Spear earned the privelege of competing in the 1985 World O.M. Finals at the University of Maryland on June 6 and 7.

A third place trophy went to the Divison Two Skaneateles team for "Ecology Dozer." This team of sixth graders, Jim Darrow, Michael Hancock, Jason Highsmith, Jilian Richards, Dietrich Rapalaski and Marcus Frick, built a vehicle powered by a small hydraulic jack. The car and driver had to move four trees from a starting point and place them into buckets along a 25 foot course. Beth and Jorge Batlle coached this team.

This team also won an award for exceptional creativity for the "long term" part of their event. Carol Anne Smith, coordinator for the elementary teams remarked that this was the first time in her memory that this award was presented for the "long term" portion of the event.

Jimmy Allred competing in Division One's "Compound Fracture" event won an award for special achievement in the "spontaneous" part of his team's event.

The Olympics of the Mind competition encourages the development of individual creative skills, team work, diligence and hard work. The predominant spirit of O.M. competitions is fun and humor, and finding new and different ways of doing things.

Frack the BEEP (in BSG podcasts)

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There is a great Battlestar Galactica podcast where the Executive Producer, Ronald D. Moore, discusses each episode and the decisions and circumstances that affected aspects of the show. Very interesting and insightful.

I listen to podcasts as I drive to and from work, and unfortunately I can't listen to this one. His podcasts for each show are constructed from segments, and those segments are separated by something that sounds like an industry standard scene-change extended BEEP. Unfortunately he speaks softly enough that I have to turn up the volume to hear him, and the BEEPs are unexpected and ear-piercing. I'm convinced that he has never listened to his own podcast.

I just posted this to podcast alley for that podcast (http://www.podcastalley.com/podcast_details.php?pod_id=1819):

"Not recommended for listening while driving. Great podcast, but he speaks softly, and the transition beeps are very loud and unexpected. In the car I have to turn it up enough to hear him and I do a massive flinch each time it beeps, and I'm concerned that I'll run off the road. Ronald D. Moore, you need to listen to your own podcast, maybe while you're driving or working out. You'll want the beeps reduced in volume too."

Seagate/Maxtor SeaTools Drive Diagnostic - Problems/Solutions

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I had a hard time testing some new Seagate ST31000340NS drives recently, and here is what I learned.

• Always test new drives ASAP so you can return defective drives within warantee period, and avoid lots of wasted work/installs/reinstalls.
  
• Download the Seagate SeaTools (also works for Maxtor) DOS ISO for drive testing, and burn the CD (I downloaded v2.13B on Jan-7-2009).
• The SeaTools Windows version doesn't generally work in Vista x64 (Known problem). Though a certain hack/fix (from this discussion) might work for you in Vista 64 bit. It worked better for me, but I think my hardware hindered the drive detection.
• Connecting the SATA drive externally via eSATA works great for drive testing (I used a Rosewill eSATA enclosure).
• My A7N8X Deluxe based computer would not boot with the drive attached. After drive detection, the machine hung.
• My P5B Deluxe/WiFi-AP based machine booted from the SeaTools CD no problem.
• The SeaTools software must have a floppy disk in the A drive (possibly writeable) or the long test will not complete. After the test, the floppy disk was completely empty. I put the CD and floppy in, then booted.
  
• I ran the Short Test, the Long Test and the Acoustic Test, taking a digital photo of the results of each.
• I also photographed the drive. The photos are for my inventory and testing results.

If you were wondering my new drives tested as flawless.

-AAron

GoodShop, NewEgg and PackageMapping

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I've just ordered some new computer equipment, and I'm rather excited and anxious about it's arrival! But when will that be? I have the UPS tracking number

Firstly I have to say that I've been buying from NewEgg for many years, and they've always been wonderful. Among other things, I've ordered at least 5 motherboards and over 15 hard drives. I point those out because I have received faulty equipment (odds are with that volume that it will happen), but NewEgg support has always been helpful and courteous. I just spoke with them today about a 1 yr old Samsung hard drive that Samsung refused to warantee, to which NewEgg then offered me a full refund. They have great prices, and great service. And you can help a charity dear to my heart if you shop NewEgg from this link:

GoodShop
No additional costs or registration. The charity will be preselected, just select NewEgg or any other store and shop as normal.



Ok, so I've place my order. When will it get here?!?!?!?!
I've just discovered PackageMapping.com, which uses any tracking number and shows you the path and current location of your package on Google Maps! Very cool. I now have a sense for the geographic proximity of my package and how soon it may arrive!

Computer Backups @ Home

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After trying lots of different backup strategies for my home computers, I’ve finally settled on a backup system that is fault, fire and theft tolerant. With a convenient combination of live recovery and offsite backup, I can easily recover from single hard drive failures, and even a complete system loss.

The trick is that I’m using a RAID 1 mirror approach with an extra drive. In this scenario, I’ve got two drives working as one that tolerates the complete loss of one of the drives, and the system continues to operate without interruption. Each week, I power down the systems and remove one of the drives (which is a perfect copy of the other). I then install a drive that I had kept offsite in a safe deposit box at my bank. During the boot process I tell the machine to rebuild the RAID 1 array and overwrite the newly inserted drive. The RAID rebuild doesn’t take much processing power, and a few hours later the machine is back to full redundancy.

At any one time, I have 2 drives in a machine acting as fault tolerance, and a third drive at the bank acting as standby for a complete and total loss disaster. I’ve experimented with my motherboard built in ICH8R hardware assisted RAID controller, and I know that I can easily rebuild from only the offsite drive.

To make the process better, I put mobile drive racks into my 5.25 bays. The rack accepts direct insertion of SATA drives (no sleds needed). I don’t even have to disassemble anything to make the drive swap. These days 500GB drives are cheap, which makes this scheme very affordable.

KINGWIN KF-1000-BK 3.5" Internal hot swap rack ($25)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817990001


OEM 500GB drives ($60-$70)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010150014%20103530113&bop=And&Order=PRICE


This is arguably not a backup strategy. Considering that I have fault tolerance AND an offsite copy, this simple system satisfies all my needs. The offsite “backup” is about a week old at any one point, but I would suggest that it’s more current, more reliable, more viable and more convenient than most people’s backup strategies. Considering that most people backup by taking hours copying files to an external drive, my backup is basically just pulling the drive out of the machine.

Also consider that my RAID 1 mirror strategy can be used like a Virtual Machine rollback feature. If I wanted to, remove one of the drives, and try arbitrary system changes and software installs. If I didn’t like the result, I could remove the remaining drive, and reinsert the one I had pre-removed. At that point the system would be in pre-experimentation mode. The system would need to rebuild the array, but a small price to pay for having rollback capabilities on a physical machine.

There are some issues/annoyances to this approach. First, when a drive is failing, typical consumer drives make “heroic” attempts to prevent data loss. This means it can take extremely long amounts of time retrying and remapping bad sectors (hard drives are S.M.A.R.T. you know :-) I’ve seen this occur on my systems, and it takes a while to realize why the system is semi-freezing, acting erratic, or possibly not shutting down properly. Once I recognize it, I shut down and run my vendor supplied drive diagnostics to find (and possibly correct) the bad drive. I don’t like any drive problems, but these days the diagnostic software will correct them enough that a warrantee exchange can’t be done. The other annoyance is having to shutdown my systems once a week, and drive to the bank. The systems aren’t down for long and it is a short drive to the bank, but it is slightly annoying. If you wanted to attempt this scheme, you would have to RAID enable your system in some way. Maybe buying a new motherboard, or a PCI card, or external NAS RAID… I can see that being annoying too if you don’t have it already.

With my frequent visits to my safe deposit box in the vault, and bringing my precious data (photo collection, word docs, personal projects, etc…), I feel like it would be cool to have one of those steel secret-agent brief cases handcuffed to my wrist :-)

Note:
I could use an online Internet cloud-based backup solution, but my Honda Civic can transfer 1.5TB of data to/from offsite in about 20 minutes. My cable modem at home can't achieve that type of bandwidth every week :-)