Michael King - Websites

Find stale computer accounts in active directory

nospam@example.com (Michael King) — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 11:14:13 -0700

So it's inevitable that if you run Active Directory long enough, you will have "stale" accounts. Stale accounts are accounts that no-one is using anymore, be it because the user is no-longer employed, it was a shared account that no-one uses anymore, or people just forgot the account is there. Yes, Yes, you should have good practices in place to prevent this kind of account stagnation, but it happens.

The easiest way to find accounts is to use DSQuery:



dsquery user domainroot -name * -inactive 18

which will display the distinguished names of all users in only the current domain who have been inactive for 120 days (17+ weeks rounded to 18 weeks) or more.

But what about computer accounts?

dsquery computer -inactive 8 -limit 0

Searches for computers that have been inactive (stale) for the number of weeks that you specify (in this case 8 weeks) and displays all entries (Default is 100)

But what if you want pretty output ?

Joeware has a nice little utility that does all of the hard part for you, and can display in a DHTML table that is easily sortable

http://www.joeware.net/freetools/tools/oldcmp/index.htm

Multi User Picasa

nospam@example.com (Michael King) — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 00:26:03 -0700

Just setup a new family computer, and I wanted to setup a different user account for both me and Rachel.

One of the programs both of us use is Picasa, and of course we want to share the same photos (and reflect edits back to each other.

This guy has some nifty tips on how to do that:

http://www.paraesthesia.com/archive/2008/01/04/multi-user-picasa.aspx

ASDM error: Unconnected sockets no implemented.

nospam@example.com (Michael King) — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 16:40:00 -0700

I was installing ASDM on a new machine at work, and was greeted with the following Error:

ASDM is unable to continue loading. Click OK to exit from ASDM.
Unconnected sockets not implemented.

Thankfully, this gentleman had already had this particular grief, and had found the resolution:

http://the-network-guy.blogspot.com/2008/10/asdm-error-unconnected-sockets-not.html

Short answer, uninstall Java6 Update 10, and roll back to Java6 Update 7.

iCarbon

nospam@example.com (Michael King) — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 20:32:32 -0700

One of the nice things about having a scanner and a printer is that you should be able to photocopy something. Unfortunately, if you have a generic scanner (Like I do) you don't get the nice software that does that automatically.

I've been "using" Photocoper v3.03 for a few years, "using" being a relative term as it didn't work for me. It did a few times, then it just stopped. I've had to compensate by just using Photoshop, or Picasa2 to fake it.

I just found this software, iCarbon today, and it works great!

http://www.idev.ch/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=76&Itemid=54

Thanks to Steve Bass for pointing it out
http://blogs.pcworld.com/tipsandtweaks/archives/001635.html

Team Oshkosh sent to graveyard

nospam@example.com (Michael King) — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 08:58:18 -0700

Well, after a small miscalculation, Team Oshkosh is out of the running. Apparently buildings aren't supposed to get out of your way.

Wired News has a good write-up.

Oh well. As I said before I liked Team Oshkosh the best. I have one other reason for likeing them I didn't mention before. They're big. Every other team was running around in small SUV's and small cars. This is the same vehicle they ran thru the desert challenge. (I know Stanford used the same vehicle).

It wasn't purpose built for the race at hand, which means it's more flexible in the long run.

I was at least hoping for a finish, since they didn't win the desert challenge either, but did finish.

Darpa's Urban Challenge

nospam@example.com (Michael King) — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 08:48:02 -0700

Darpa ran it's Urban Challenge over the weekend. Since I was in London, I was unable to follow it.

I'm happy to say that Team Oshkosh (formally Team Terramax) was competing in the finals. I've always thought that this team had a much more directly usable vehicle than other teams.

Most of the immediate applications for autonomous vehicle are military, and starting with a military truck is a great idea.

But probably the second immediate application would be construction. Construction sites are pretty dangerous. It will be a long time till machines catch up to humans in this area, since not only is construction dangerous, but it's very delicate.

This doesn't mean it won't be useful in the short term in sites like blasting operations, and operations above the Arctic Circle. (Ice road truckers anyone?)

Google IMAP!

nospam@example.com (Michael King) — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 21:07:05 -0700

In the Offical Google Gmail Blog. Google announced IMAP support for Gmail.

This is great! I'm thinking about getting a Smartphone, but have been turned off by the limitation that you have to pretty much use exchange to get good intergration.

With IMAP support, changes made in the web-interface are reflected on the mobile device, and vice-versa.

I guess I have to get on trying out new Cell phones.