Avian Waves Blog

SCVMM: Mounting Shared ISOs From The Library on the Library Host

Tue, 06 Jul 2010 21:23:23 GMT

There's a lot of documentation out there on how to mount ISOs in Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager for Hyper-V hosts. It basically involves setting up permissions on the library shares so that the Hyper-V host machines can consume the share, then setting up constrained delegation in Active Directory. Here's a link: http://blogs.technet.com/b/dutchpts/archive/2009/02/09/hyper-v-and-scvmm-2008-mounting-iso-s-from-a-network-share.aspx?wa=wsignin1.0

And here's the error…

Error (12700)
VMM cannot complete the Hyper-V operation on the HVSERVER1.domain.com server because of the error: 'NewServerHost' failed to add device 'Microsoft Virtual CD/DVD Disk'. (Virtual machine ID 119730D6-8939-4CB9-8456-7941F6925279)

'XSIntWeb1-V': The Machine Account 'XSINC\HVSERVER1$' does not have read access to file share '\\HVSERVER1.domain.com\ISOs\en_windows_server_2008_r2_standard_enterprise_datacenter_web_x64_dvd_x15-50365.iso'. Please add this computer account to the security group of file share. Error: 'General access denied error' (0x80070005). (Virtual machine ID 119230D6-7929-4EB9-9456-6946F6925279)
(Unknown error (0x8001))

Recommended Action
Resolve the issue in Hyper-V and then try the operation again.

If you follow those steps exactly and still have issues, then there might be one more gotcha. Are you trying to connect to a VMM library that is hosted on the same server as both the VMM server and the Hyper-V host's parent partition? (Yes, this is a supported configuration.)

If so, you need to add the NT AUTHORITY\Network Service user account to the share and NTFS permissions. The reason is that the CIFS (SMB) file share is local to the computer needing access. As such, instead of the user appearing as the Hyper-V parent server machine name (such as HVSERVER1$), it will appear as the local account that the Hyper-V server is running as, which is typically the built-in Network Service account.

What makes this a 'gotcha' is that the error message explicitly states the machine account as the culprit. I only figured this out through the power of Process Monitor by SysInternals, which clearly showed the ACCESS DENIED is occurring when Network Service hits the share.

Mystery of the Failing Meeting Appointment Updates on Exchange 2003

Wed, 02 Jun 2010 20:23:00 GMT

A very brief tech mystery today!

We have not upgraded to Exchange 2010 yet at work and are still on Exchange 2003 (yes, 2003). That upgrade is scheduled for a little later this year, but until then, I have to continue to support 2003.

I ran into a strange mail flow issue today that ends up being the result of a combination of Exchange 2003 and Outlook 2007 or newer. One of my users was trying to send an update to a meeting request, but recipients outside of our domain (external SMTP recipients) were getting stuck in the queue. The additional information in the queue just said "Unable to open the message for delivery." That clued me in that it wasn't an external SMTP rejection of the message (invalid email address or whatever). So I did some googling.

It turns out there's actually a known issue for Outlook 2007 or Outlook 2010 (or newer) clients sending meeting updates via Exchange 2003. It must not happen all the time, because we've had Outlook 2007 deployed for years and never saw this issue before. In fact, it didn't start happening until a user on Outlook 2010 sent a meeting update. Maybe it's just coincidence – I'm not really sure.

Anyway, here's the KB with all the details. The article isn't clear, but to double check if you have this error by enabling diagnostic logging, you need to set MSExchangeTransport\Exchange Store Driver to Maximum. Once you do that, go back to the queue, select the outbound server the stuck message is sitting in, right click and select "Force Connection." Then you can look in the event viewer for the specific error to confirm this is your issue.

Don't forget to set the registry entry after applying the hotfix!

If You Don't Like To Multitask on Your Phones, Then Don't

Tue, 20 Apr 2010 22:38:00 GMT

As has been mentioned in plenty of blogs before, Windows Phone 7 will not support a the traditional experience of multitasking applications. With the exception of certain bare Windows CE devices, multitasking in PDAs and Phones has never really been like the desktop experience and that's okay. I don't expect it to act the same. Basically, the normal multitasking paradigm on these devices is that the app is sent to the background and another app comes to the foreground. It works really well in Windows Phone Classic (aka Windows Mobile) and Android. The Apple iPhone takes a different approach. Each app must save its state and exit when it is 'sent to the background' except the approved built-in Apple apps. Windows Phone 7 copies this approach, because apparently emulating Apple is the way to win a market (this has worked wonders for Zune, apparently).

To be fair, the WP7 approach is a bit more flexible. First, apps aren't necessarily closed when put in the background, but they are paused. Second, apps can request permission from Microsoft to be allowed to continue to operate in the background if they need to. That actually could be a decent model, as not all apps need to continue to run in the background, but this all hinges on Microsoft allowing you to run in the background if you need to. That's not a good place to be when you are trying to get investors to believe in your new cutting edge piece of software for this new device. By a single Microsoft employee's whim alone, your entire app could be neutered. Great.

I multitask like a crazy fool on my wonderful HTC Touch Pro 2. I usually have about five or six things open. I also write a lot of software. This may come as a shock to some, but in your standard Windows app, if you receive no input, your app does nothing – literally nothing! This is because Windows apps are message-based. Your app will block while waiting for a message (0% CPU). Okay? It won't do anything. Nothing! If you are in the background, you receive no input. So unless you have a timer or another unblocked thread, your app is effectively paused. Plus, even if it has a timer or thread, unless you are using it to refresh a UI element, it's probably doing something you think is important. Finally, if your phone goes to sleep on Windows Mobile, unless you specifically execute a set of functions to keep the device's idle timer awake, your app, along with the entire device, will sleep, timers and all. So the "battery life" excuse is just that: an excuse! So what's the point of pausing? The only "good" purpose is to offer some sort of control over misbehaving applications. That's a fine gesture. But, as a power user, how about giving me the control to whitelist apps that I want to be in the background? Oh, I can't because Charlie Kindel knows what's best for us. (Queue the halos and angelic chorus.)

So anyway, I've been reading the WP7 apologist posts on various Microsoft forums. There are a hell of a lot of people who are okay with WP7 not offering a true multitasking experience. That's fine. Not everybody computes the same. Some people run all their desktop apps in full screen, can't stand a second monitor, and hide their task bar. It feels like trying to compute with two broken wrists to me, but hey, I won't begrudge them. They had their own choice to use their computer that way. What is pissing me off are the number of people who claim This Way Is The One True Way and those of us that want to multitask, really don't need it and won't miss it! Oh hell to the no! I will definitely miss it. You want to know how? Because I'm not completely stupid and I know my computing habits.

As if being forced to have the ugly blue-box "metro" theme be the only home screen available on WP7 wasn't torture enough!

So, to Mr. Kindel and Kindel brown-nosers: If you don't want to multitask on your phone, that's fine. I mean, really, more power to you! But can I, and other power users like me, please have this option that would require almost no effort on MS's part to implement? After all, CE has multitasking built-in. It takes more effort to stop it from multitasking than to keep it in. I'm okay with a supposed shorter battery life (snicker). I just want my control back. Windows CE is a really cool embedded operating system. Let's not neuter it with silly Apple-like rules, okay?

A Real Future for Windows Phone Classic?

Wed, 07 Apr 2010 22:11:00 GMT

I was searching the Google for information on Windows Phone 7 regarding database support. There will be no database support. Interestingly, I found discussion with somebody venting about this (and the other, many, lacking features of Windows Phone 7) and saw an interesting reply from a Microsoft employee. Quoted in full (sic and all that apply)…

I'm part of the team that supports all Mobile and Phone technologies. Our team still remains obligated to continue supporting 6.5 and the corresponding Enterprise Business market.

Clearly the target market for Windows Phone 7 is the consumer and its entire architecture has been designed from scratch by the best architects at Microsoft, who left other divisions within the company and converged to brainstorm the specific needs of the consumer, as contrasted with businesses (although there definitely is overlap).

Note that Marketplace for Windows 7 is set up in a way that any app posted there can be downloaded by anybody; it isnt intended for the needs of the Business who wish to deploy an app on the phone that only they are privileged to access.

The needs of the Enterprise Business customers will not go away and their needs must be, and will be, addressed differently.

For the moment, the limelight is on the Windows Phone 7 Series, but you will see Enterprise progress and Microsoft's continued support for phones used in business.

Best Regards,
Mark
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mark Chamberlain Sr. Escalation Engineer | Microsoft Developer Support | Windows Phone 7

First, regarding the "best architects" wank wank stuff. You could have fooled me! Metro UI was interesting for about a day. Now it's just ugly to me. But I'll give it another shake once it's out of beta. It's not fair to bash on it too hard while it's still in beta. On the other hand, Mobile Shell 3 and SenseUI are still interesting and I've used both for a while now!

So, according to Mr. Chamberlain, the enterprise customers needs must and will be address differently? Differently? As in, not using the draconian Windows Phone 7 model? Do I dare hope for life of Windows Phone 6.5 beyond 6.5.3? Do I dare hope for Windows Phone 6.5 to be renamed Windows Phone Enterprise Edition with a new wicked CE7 kernel and updated Compact Framework 4.0 (with Silverlight)? Do I dare hope for Visual Studio 2010 (and beyond) support?

Do I dare hope for life on the mobile operating system that could easily be modernized and that I've enjoyed using and programming for over the last ten years?

A side note: T-Mobile can't keep the HD2 in stock! All that on an "outdated" OS. I could have told you that putting a decent CPU in a HTC SenseUI (aka TouchFlo 3D) powered device would do that. But nobody listens to me… :-)

McCain Won't Cooperate Anymore

Wed, 24 Mar 2010 00:43:45 GMT

John McCain said on a radio interview that the GOP won't cooperate for the rest of the year. I know, I know. Eleventy billion people are going to say this in unison, but I just can't NOT post this!

All together now... Since when has the GOP cooperated with the Democratic majority in the past two years?

Windows Phone 7 Series - Not Too Excited About It

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 01:44:32 GMT

I have always been a huge fan of Windows Mobile. It is (was?) literally a computer in my pocket. A barrage of less-than-spectacular devices combined with long periods between (small) updates left the platform behind its newer competitors -- the iPhone and Android. Now, I won't get into a deep discussion of what happened in the past, but let's just say that thanks to the efforts of HTC, Windows Mobile/Phone stayed fairly competitive, all things considered.

Now Microsoft has introduced Windows Phone 7 Series. They want to get back into the game big time. What initially looked so freaking awesome has turned out to be Microsoft's version of the iPhone -- a heavily locked down device with a supposed "focus on consumers." Apparently a focus on consumers means telling consumers how they are supposed to enjoy their devices and maybe cutting them a break and giving them some third party apps that absolutely cannot run in the background. That's the straw that broke the camel's back for me. As a developer and power user, I can't buy a Windows Phone 7 Series device if I can't tweak the hell out of it like I can my current device, a HTC Touch Pro 2, running Windows Phone 6.5.

So, what few Windows Mobile fanboys still exist out there, read the following article and cry at the end of an era. And also plan your next Android purchase. God, I hate Java. But what can I do? Microsoft has left me with no choice.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2361377,00.asp

So supposedly in the future multitasking will be available when they figure out how not to impact the user experience (wtf? never heard of a priority queue? mutltitasking is not rocket science). If and when they do, I might be back on board. Until then, with no unmanaged code, no memory cards, no multitasking, and a load of other "nos" where Microsoft forces us to use our devices their way and not ours, I'm not buying a Windows Phone 7 Series device. Very sad considering how cool it looks. I mean Silverlight UI and XNA games? Hell to the yea! But it's no longer a minicomputer. It's just a Zune with a phone. I'm not interested.

So, I hope their commitment to the 6.5 platform is not lip service, because I'm relying on that while I watch to see what happens with Windows Phone 7 Series. I'm hoping that by "7.1" it will still look smooth as silk, like it does now, but will be back to being a mini-computer, like its in-spirit predecessors.

Eureka Seven: Good Night, Sleep Tight, Young Lovers

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 03:11:41 GMT

Eureka Seven: Good Night, Sleep Tight, Young Lovers is a fast-paced action-packed love story. It has a very different plot from the original Eureka Seven series, so don't expect a sequel!

That said, the plot does parallel the series in several ways. The basic premise of aliens attacking the Earth and humans fighting back remains. Where the series portrayed the aliens as basically misunderstood and unintentionally damaging, the movie portrays them as more generically malicious, even though they did shoehorn some more 'innocent misguided intentions' stuff later in the plot.

Eureka has changed a lot. She's more of a fusion of Eureka and Anenome in the series, including frequently yelling "idiot" at Renton. That took a lot of getting used to for me. Interestingly, Novak and Anenome basically replaced Norb and Sakuya's roles in the story. It will raise a few eyebrows at first, but it worked.

For the first 45 minutes, I was a bit disappointed. Character development seemed forced (probably due to trying to fit a series worth of plot into a two hour movie). However, it won me over at the point when Holland was explaining the Gekko crews' motives to Renton. This was one of my favorite moments because it actually gave a nod to the series! I'm not going to give it away, but it was really cool how they did it. After that, the story seemed much less rushed. It was still confusing at times, but a few characters were also confused by what was happening. So I figure confusion was intentional.

Trapar waves were completely unexplained in the film. So there is no clue what it is or how it works in this universe, but vehicles do use it for lifting, so it's there. Eureka has a sensitivity to light, but that is also never explained. You'll find "unexplained" being a bit of a recurring theme. lol.

And the ending, ahh the ending! It was truly unique to the movie and it worked! Just like the series, it showed love, sacrifice, maturity, and made up for the more confusing parts.

I love the original series. It is actually not just my favorite Anime, but my favorite story in any form. I love it! On a scale of zero to five, I give it 5/5 easy! However, I can't rate the movie that high. Don't get me wrong, it was a great story. I would give it a solid 4/5 star rating. If you liked the series, you will like the movie, even if just to get a little more of a Eureka and Renton fix. If you are not familiar with the series, you will still like it, but be prepared for a confusing ride.

And now some random notes:

They actually give a reason for the "seven" this time!
Very few references to the electronica scene this time (disappointing).
Moon Doggie can apparently be in a KLF the Gekko at the same time! Plot holes resulting from reused animation cells can be funny. ;-)
Baby archetypes can say one word and they tend to say it in an incredibly annoying voice.
The final version of Nirvash in the movie kicks even more butt than in the series.
The literal translation of the Japanese subtitle is "Pocket Full of Rainbows." I'm not really sure why they changed it to "Good Night, Sleep Tight, Young Lovers" as there were ample references to rainbows throughout the series. Sometimes subtitles are changed because something is lost in translation. Here, I don't know.

Anyway, I really hope Bones returns some day to the original series' universe. I still long for more!! :-)

Installing Microsoft Dynamics CRM With Exchange in Another Forest

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 19:31:49 GMT

There is basically no information on Teh Googlez (or Teh Bing!) on this error, so I hope this helps somebody out there.

I was trying to install Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 in our beta environment, which is in its own forest. Every time I installed it, no matter what settings or tricks I tried, I would get the following error:

For the search engines and those who can't read text in pictures, it says…

Action Microsoft.Crm.Setup.Server.AddIncomingServerToPrivUserGroup Action failed. There is no such object on the server.

If you click Retry, it won't work. If you click Ignore, you get a few more errors and then the installation fails at the end. If you click Abort, you save yourself some time and it just quits right there. At this point you may have to manually undo parts of the CRM installation. Start with running the uninstaller, of course. Then check to make sure the CRM databases are deleted off your SQL server and the Active Directory objects got deleted as well.

At this point, I looked at the logs to see if I could gleam what happened. Unfortunately, the logs did not provide any more help as they just repeating what was in the error box above. Here's a snip.

18:07:17| Error| Install exception.System.Exception: Action Microsoft.Crm.Setup.Server.AddIncomingServerToPrivUserGroupAction failed. ---> System.DirectoryServices.DirectoryServicesCOMException (0x80072030): There is no such object on the server.

   at System.DirectoryServices.DirectoryEntry.CommitChanges()
   at Microsoft.Crm.Setup.Server.Utility.ADUtility.AddAccountToGroup(String accountName, DirectoryEntry groupEntry)
   at Microsoft.Crm.Setup.Server.AddIncomingServerToPrivUserGroupAction.Do(IDictionary parameters)
   at Microsoft.Crm.Setup.Common.Action.ExecuteAction(Action action, IDictionary parameters, Boolean undo)
   --- End of inner exception stack trace ---
   at Microsoft.Crm.Setup.Common.Action.ExecuteAction(Action action, IDictionary parameters, Boolean undo)
   at Microsoft.Crm.Setup.Common.Installer.Install(IDictionary stateSaver)
   at Microsoft.Crm.Setup.Common.ComposedInstaller.InternalInstall(IDictionary stateSaver)
   at Microsoft.Crm.Setup.Common.ComposedInstaller.Install(IDictionary stateSaver)
   at Microsoft.Crm.Setup.Server.ServerSetup.Install(IDictionary data)
   at Microsoft.Crm.Setup.Server.ServerSetup.Run()
18:07:17|   Info| Microsoft Dynamics CRM Server install Failed.
18:07:17|   Info| Microsoft Dynamics CRM Server Setup did not complete successfully.

Action Microsoft.Crm.Setup.Server.AddIncomingServerToPrivUserGroupAction failed.
There is no such object on the server.

15:40:56|   Info| === Setup bootstrap logging started 1/27/2010 3:40:56 PM ===
15:40:56|   Info| Bootstrap version: 4.0.7333.3.
15:40:56|   Info| User: Administrator.
15:40:56|   Info| Managed Setup exited with code -2.
15:40:56|   Info| === Setup bootstrap logging ended 1/27/2010 3:40:56 PM ===

It turns out that the problem is the fact that my Exchange server is in another forest. This is mentioned essentially nowhere that I can find, but a call to Microsoft Support pinned the issue down. The two domains in the two forests have a two-way trust, but the installer is still not happy.

So what do you do?

Well, it's not that bad. First, run the installer, but do not put in a mail server when it asks. Ignore the email server warning and proceed anyway. The installation will succeed this time. Huzzah! Now, we need to add in the Exchange server manually. Go to the CRM OU you created in Active Directory, open the properties of the PrivUsergGroup and manually drop in the Exchange server computer object (from whatever domain you want) to the list of members. Done!

Some extra notes…

Make sure you are installing as a local forest domain admin. If you install using an admin from another forest, you may get this error:

Similar to the previous error, this occurs because the installer can't seem to cross forest boundaries when populating the PrivUserGroup group. For the search engines and those who can't read text in pictures, it says…

Action Microsoft.Crm.Setup.Server.AddCurrentUserToPrivUserGroup Action failed. There is no such object on the server.

The solution is to use a local forest domain admin (one contained in the same forest as the CRM installation) for running the CRM installer.

Conclusion

Yet another modern sloppy Microsoft installer with an overly verbose log that tells you abso-fricking-lutely nothing useful about the installation error! Ever since about SQL Server 2005, the installers for MS products have become less and less reliable – even on virgin servers! The worst I've encountered so far is TFS 2005 (server side, that is – client side is a breeze). SQL 2008 is a very close second. Hopefully Microsoft will start making better installers soon. (Or, at they very least, not requiring end users to burn a support case on an installer issue.)

Gators Pwn Cincinnati

Sat, 02 Jan 2010 05:20:00 GMT

So is Cincinnati really overrated or is the SEC just that damn good? The Gators destroyed the Bearcats tonight in the Sugar Bowl. I'm a Gator fan so I'm happy! I did not understand the BCS rating the Gators #5 after losing to Alabama in the SEC championship. And tonight I was vindicated. The Gators should have been the #3 team in the polls. Just because you are undefeated does not mean you are that good.

Not that it matters much because the net result would have been the same (Sugar Bowl invitation). It's just another example of how the Bowl system is broken and we need a playoff system in I-A college football! If we had a playoff system, I bet you anything it would have been an Alabama / Florida rematch.

And finally, I have to give a big thumbs down to the Fox game commentators. There was about a total of 12 minutes where they actually called the game. The rest of the time they spent talking about football inside drama and politics. They spent about an entire quarter talking about whether or not Tim Tebow will be any good in the NFL (my prediction: he will become a dominant QB after a few years when he finally gets a chance). It was the worst called bowl game I've ever watched!

But no matter. The Gators won 51-24.

AT&T Sucks

Sat, 02 Jan 2010 01:12:00 GMT

AT&T sure hates the fact that their 3G coverage sucks and Verizon is pointing it out. The latest ad (been out for a while, actually) says that only AT&T allows you to talk and download at the same time. Big deal if you can't get 3G service!

I hate AT&T. I have to have them for local phone service because I use DSL and their monopoly makes them the only game in town -- and a very expensive option at that. Cable is better for internet, but Time Warner is even lower on the scale of "good companies" in my book. Better of the two evils -- so AT&T wins. Thankfully, my actual DSL provider is a local company (Portbridge) and they are very good. It's still AT&T's loop and I have to have local phone service, but at least AT&T is getting the least money possible from me. I hate monopolies.

I thought deregulation was supposed to fix all this?

Of course not! Deregulation never helps the consumer. Well I've derailed from my original point. So, in conclusion, fuck AT&T and fuck Time Warner!

And Happy New Year! :-)

President War Hawk

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 22:55:00 GMT

As usual, The Rude Pundit is right. President Obama never promised to not escalate the war/occupation in Afghanistan. I knew this voting for him. And yes, Rude is also right that I made that little platform negotiation in my head (I'll trade war for health care, etc.). However, one point I think Rude is a bit wrong on is on how Obama's liberal plans are panning out. Aside from Gitmo, I think he's done a good job advocating liberally. It's not that he's just waffling on liberal issues because he doesn't believe strongly in them. He's doing it because he has absolutely no choice.

The fact is, despite an overwhelming majority of Democrats, we do not have a liberal -- let alone socialist (I LOL every time I hear a winger say that) congress. We have a center-right congress. For every Al Franken, Bernie Sanders, and Brad Miller, we have nearly as many Blue Dogs, Republicans, and Conservadems. That's not even including the truly "moderate" Democrats (conservative Democrats are not moderate, by definition). That makes it very difficult for a progressive agenda. But if there is one thing the majority of congress agrees on, it's killing foreigners! Especially if they have brown skin or happen to be of the Islamic faith. Show me any federal politician (except a very small handful) and I'll show you a war hawk! So when Obama proposes his Afghan strategy, expect much rejoicing at our country's ability to wag its gigantic military penis at everybody else. Oh, sure, Republicans will whine about how they don't like it. But it won't be because they are anti-war. Hell to the no! It will be because it's not hawkish enough!

So, I don't see any reason to blame Obama about this American Empire Building Adventure or, by contrast, the watered down nature of his liberal promises. He's just delivering what he can within the best of his abilities and a stubborn congress. And that just happens to favor the righties more than us lefties. Although, I do think he should take a stronger stand on Gitmo. But that's just my opinion.

So what can you do to stem the hawkishness if you are anti-war, like myself? Well, one way is to invoke the other great fear that the conservative (Democrat and Republican) hawkers have: taxes. You probably thought I was going to say deficit and/or debt. Nope. Oh, sure, they say they are all against rising deficit and debt. But that's a complete load of campaign trail sales pitch BS. The Clenis (aka Uberliberal Circa Nineteen Hundred and Ninety Two – according to hawks) left us a freaking budget surplus! Fiscal Conservative Reagan? No. Fiscal Conservative Bush The Smarter? No. Fiscal Conservative W? No. Now, it's easy to just blame W for the squandering of the surplus. But remember, he wasn't the enabler. He needed congress to do it, and boy howdy, did they ever! And who was at the center of it all? The "tax and spend" liberals? No. The "fiscal conservative" (heavy irony quotes) war hawks were. So, anyway, yea, you can't fight them by complaining about how it adds to the deficit. They just do not care.

But the hawks can hear when you mention a tax! Have you seen the outrage of Rep. David Obey's proposition that our wonderful adventures in Afghanistan actually be paid for like healthcare? The hypocritical outrage is absolutely laughable.

So that's why I absolutely, 100%, support a special tax on wars. In fact, there should be constitutional amendment requiring that all foreign military adventures (whether or not they are officially declared "war" by congress) be paid for by a special progressively increasing income tax (structured similar to the standard federal income tax, but without any exemptions or limitations to those not in poverty). It's time the rest of us feel a teensy tiny pinch while military families and families in the areas we are attacking are literally torn apart. Wars should simply not be allowed to be funded by deficit dollars. Budget neutral! End of story. How on earth could a real fiscal conservative disagree with that?

But that will never happen because the majority of our current congressional representatives care more about getting reelected than following their stated principals, let alone doing good for simple the sake of doing good. Remember that when you are voting for your representative and senators. I am not a pessimist. We can change this. Obama's campaign (not Obama himself) proved this. All politics are local, etc.

So do something, already! Write your reps.

Post-Obama Speech Update (8:41PM): I don't want to deeply analyze what he said or get all pundity here, so I'll leave that to the professionals. I do, though, want to comment on Obama's timeline. He said in 18 months after the January "Afghanistan Surge" we will begin bringing troops home. Now, I don't want to imply that he said everybody will be home in June, 2011 -- that's not the case. But I was honestly shocked that in a mere three Friedman Units, he thinks we can get this under control and to some degree successful and secure enough to where even moderate war hawks can be happy with drawing down forces. I'm still anti-war, but I would be extremely pleasantly surprised if that ends up being the case. I'm a bit skeptical this timeline will not be extended, though. That said, I am much more confident than any time anybody from the previous administration, or Little Tommy Friedman himself, proclaimed all will be well in just six more months. Whether or not you agree with Obama's approach, at the very least, the adults are back in charge. President Chimpy certainly left a lot to be desired in that respect.

Quickly Dimming an Arbitrary Bitmap in Compact Framework for VB.Net

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 22:45:00 GMT

I had a need to directly manipulate the bytes in a bitmap for my VB.Net app for Windows Phone. I found quite a few articles with The Google on how to do this in C#, using the unsafe keyword. That's a perfectly fine way of doing it for C# users. However, VB.Net does not have anything like the unsafe keyword, so there is no way to run unsafe (unmanaged) code blocks. Philosophically, this might be a "good" thing to Managed Code purists. I'm actually neutral on the issue. Still, just because you can't do arbitrary pointer and memory manipulation in VB.Net does not mean you can't do this very simple thing (dimming the color brightness of each byte of a bitmap). It's pretty easy and I can't believe nobody out there has posted how to do it this way VB.Net or C#. I came up with this code for the Compact Framework for Windows Phone specifically, but it will also work in the big Framework for big Windows. It will work in both VB.Net and C# just fine.

The key to this method is using the Marshal.Copy method. This copies a block of memory from an IntPtr to various types of arrays and then back again. Whereas the unsafe method directly manipulates the bytes in the bitmap, this code block copies the unmanaged bytes to an array, manipulates them, then copies them back to the unmanaged buffer. Using the 'unsafe' method is likely a hair faster, but in real world performance metrics, even on Windows Phone you would be hard pressed to see any noticeable difference between the two. Copying blocks of memory is a very fast operation.

This code adjusts the brightness of a bitmap, dimming it by half (a bit shift of >>1 for each color component of each pixel). Windows Phone natively uses 16bit bitmaps ('565' format, as in RRRRRGGGGGGBBBBB). The below code block can be adjusted to work with 24 and 32 bit bitmaps as needed. It's actually easier to use 24 and 32 bit bitmaps as you just manipulate the brightness of individual Byte primitives without needing to break apart the Int16 (short) using bit masks, as below. However, the act of converting the 16 bit bitmap to a 32 bit bitmap on Windows Phone seems to cause a significant a performance hit! So don't do that on Windows Phone. Stay with the 16-bit bitmap and use bit masks, as I did below. For big Windows, you will want to use 32 bit bitmaps, not 16 bit bitmaps.

Private Sub DimBitmapByHalf(ByRef bmp As Bitmap)
Dim bmd As Imaging.BitmapData = bmp.LockBits(New Rectangle(0, 0, bmp.Width, bmp.Height), Imaging.ImageLockMode.ReadWrite, Imaging.PixelFormat.Format16bppRgb565)
Try
    Dim bufLen As Integer = (bmd.Stride * bmd.Height) / 2 ' Because bmd.Stride and bmd.Height are in units of 8-bit bytes
    Dim buf(bufLen - 1) As Short
    Dim r As Short
    Dim g As Short
    Dim b As Short

    System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.Copy(bmd.Scan0, buf, 0, bufLen)
    For i = 0 To bufLen - 1
      '                              RRRRR GGGGGG BBBBB
      r = (buf(i) >> 1) And &H7800 ' 01111 000000 00000
      g = (buf(i) >> 1) And &H3E0 ' 00000 011111 00000
      b = (buf(i) >> 1) And &HF    ' 00000 000000 01111
      buf(i) = r Or g Or b
    Next
    System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.Copy(buf, 0, bmd.Scan0, bufLen)
Finally
    bmp.UnlockBits(bmd)
End Try
End Sub

Water on the Moon! But...

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 02:30:14 GMT

I love science! NASA has confirmed that the projectile launched into the moon's surface that offered a less than Hollywood spectacular boom uncovered 24 gallons of water. That is so awesome! Water on the moon has many benefits. First, astronauts can drink it. They can also breath the oxygen, once the water molecule is broken apart. Finally, the hydrogen can be used for rocket fuel. Since all these essential resources do not need to be taken to the hypothetical future moon base, a ton of money can be saved!

But with every bit of good news, seems to come a lot of bad, these days. NASA's Ares rocket system (part of the Constellation program) is apparently over budget and the Obama administration is trying to figure out what to do about this. This is sad. After health care and jobs, science is a top priority in my book. And highly visible, highly inspirational science like the space program should be a huge priority.

Please write the president and tell them how important the space program is to human kind. Some good talking points would include the number of jobs created by the Ares program and potential future moon missions, the inspiration to the next generation of kids to get interested in science, and the importance of the USA becoming the space leader again.

The money needed is a drop in the bucket compared to the perpetual needless wars we are involved in. Only three billion more dollars is needed each year. Compare that to the nearly one trillion dollars spent so far on killing people in the middle east.

If we don't lead the world on space exploration, it appears China will be glad to fill that role.

My DNS Provider Was Hacked

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:46:21 GMT

If you tried to visit the Avian Waves website in the last 24 hours, you may have noticed that a spam page (with an embedded virus download) came up instead. My site, itself, was not hacked. No, it was much worse. The DNS provider at Enom (the company the registrar I use, Arbor Domains, is a reseller for) was hacked. A very large number of sites had their DNS redirected.

Time to switch to GoDaddy. They are cheaper anyway. Enom has proven they cannot be trusted with security. Sorry, Arbor. It's been a great ten plus year run. But your DNS and registration tools haven't been updated since the early 2000s. Plus, I need DNS service I can trust to not be hacked. And if it is hacked, it needs to be fixed ASAP.

How Come Nobody Told Me The Prisoner Was Being Reimagined?!

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 22:26:13 GMT

Wow! This is shaping up to be a good season for teevee science fiction! First, we get a remade V (which didn't disappoint, although the first episode wasn't as strong as the original, IMHO), now I see that The Prisoner (an absolutely iconic science fiction series from the 60s) is being remade for AMC. Go AMC! Go teevee!

More Energy Lobby Sock Puppets!

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 01:48:49 GMT

For several years now, BP has subjected us to the endless "common sense" of its scripted sock puppets on the teevee machine. Now the Natural Gas lobby has started the same type of ad campaign. Did you know we have over 100 years of Natural Gas?! ZOMG BURN IT ALL UP NOW BABY! SCREW THE ENVIRONMENT!

For crying out loud. Give me Solar, damn it. Screw your fossil fuels.

V

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 23:50:00 GMT

I am a big fan of the original mini-series, V, that aired in 1983. I was pretty young back then, so my recollection of the series is primarily through re-runs on Syfy years ago before the channel had a stupid name. The mini-series was gripping and original. The WWII analogies were strong and well written, and the character reactions of the story were very plausible. In addition, the main protagonist was a cameraman. Give it up for the geeks! The story ended with a victorious battle, but the war was very far from over. There were lots of open ended questions and cliff hangers.

The next year, a sequel mini-series was made, V: The Final Battle. It completely sucked1. They either ignored or quickly wrapped up the very dramatically laid loose ends from the previous year in very unsatisfactory ways. The story devolved from a WWII analogy into more of a religious analogy, with the hybrid human-visitor having magical Christ-like powers that neither parent possessed (seriously, wtf?). And they had Michael Ironside. (Has your favorite show jumped the shark? If Michael Ironside was just added to the cast then the answer is yes!) And to top it all off, the humans beat the visitors with the most lame War of the Worlds deus ex machina2 rip-off ending ever – complete with like fifteen minutes of stock footage cheering and rejoicing! After that, NBC started a series sequel to V. The visitors quickly developed an immunity to the poison dust, lost their warbled distorted voices (no explanation given), regained rule over the planet with little resistance, and the series continued to suck and disappoint like only a series that jumps the shark before it even begins can!

Anyway, so there's a new V series starting tomorrow. I'm very excited about it. The whole premise of V is very rich and exciting. It's unique in that the aliens don't just nuke cities a la Independence Day, but instead use politics, torture, mind control, and media manipulation to gain control of Earth. I think the WWII parallels also create a very eerie sense of "omg, dude, this could totally really actually happen" since in human history it did actually happen (sans aliens) in Germany.

The one thing that concerns me about the new V series is that the synopsis sounds more like the reimagined Battlestar Galactica than the old V. There is plenty of room for the writers to come up with great storylines, don't get me wrong, I just hope that it does the original honor with a lot of manipulation and very little nuking. Battlestar already thoroughly explored the human condition (IN SPACE) with regard to modern problems (terrorism, modern warfare, torture, etc.). I want a strong manipulative invasion story, where humans are pitted against humans and the visitors are pulling the strings. Here's hoping it doesn't suck! (Reviews are good so far, so I'm excited!)

1. The Final Battle was apparently made without much input from original "V" mythos creator, Kenneth Johnson. Mr. Johnson eventually published a book in 2008 which contained (I would presume) his preferred ending to the V story, ignoring the entire Final Battle and subsequent series storylines completely. I need to read this.

2. I should point out that War of the Worlds is not lame, despite the lameness of the similar ripped-off ending used in V: The Final Battle.

My Letter to Senator Hagan Regarding the American Health Security Act of 2009

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 01:29:16 GMT

Senator Hagan - I am writing this letter to urge you to support Senator Bernie Sanders' American Health Security Act of 2009, which is a Single Payer health care bill. I have no delusions of this bill's ability to pass the Senate - it surely will not.

The reason to vote in favor of it is to measure the support in the Senate of a single payer style health care bill. This is something that likely will not be able to pass for decades, but what Sen. Sanders is doing is important because it gives us a baseline to see how many votes we have now, and how many we need to work for in the future.

I am currently 32 years old. I hope to see a single payer system implemented in the USA before I die. This is a fantastic first step.

Please show the rest of the country that North Carolinians are progressive Southerners -- not knee-jerk-reaction head-in-the-sand conservatives.

Please support the American Health Security Act of 2009.

Mystery of the Server 2008 + IIS7 + OLE = "MDAC Not Installed" Error

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 18:56:54 GMT

Talk about barking up the wrong tree!

I just solved a very peculiar error regarding migrating old ASP.Net OLEDB Excel/Access file access code to a new 64-bit Windows Server 2008 under IIS7. The first steps for migrating this application were obvious. The application pool needs to run under 32-bit compatibility mode, the pipeline needs to be classic, etc. But when we got to the Excel export functionality, all hell broke loose. No matter what we did, we would get the following exception.

Exception of type 'System.Web.HttpUnhandledException' was thrown. [System.Web.HttpUnhandledException]
The .Net Framework Data Providers require Microsoft Data Access Components(MDAC). Please install Microsoft Data Access Components(MDAC) version 2.6 or later. [System.InvalidOperationException]
Retrieving the COM class factory for component with CLSID {2206CDB2-19C1-11D1-89E0-00C04FD7A829} failed due to the following error: 800703fa. [System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException]

The error was a red herring. The problem is not that MDAC is not installed – it is far more obscure. WDAC (MDAC's successor) is included in Windows Server 2008 and has plenty of backward compatibility built into it. That part of the equation is perfectly fine. In fact, if you run console/forms apps, you probably will never see this problem. It is only when you are running ASP.Net code and use a custom identity for the Application Pool (possibly some other situations too) that this error occurs.

By doing a ProcMon trace, I was able to pin down the problem. If you follow all the steps that w3wp.exe performs, you will see one really weird line.

Okay, the unknown result code is weird enough, but ProcMon couldn't even tell me which registry key it couldn't find! Examining the stack trace confirmed that this was the only request logged that had ole32.dll loaded, plus it showed ole32.dll throwing an error, so it really appeared to be related to my problem.

Thankfully, the Great Gazoogle did not let me down. It turns out that 0xC0000425 indicates that an application was attempting to access a registry hive after it was unloaded. What the heck?

This is a good time to explain how the registry works at a very high (and simple) level. Each registry hive is a self-contained database in an independent file in the file system. A good example is NTUSER.DAT located in your user profile folder. That's your very own HKCU. Not all of the registry is always loaded all the time. This is what allows Windows to move your profile around, or copy your profile (registry included) without having to do individual registry read/writes (much slower).

If HKLM or HKCR were unloaded while Windows was running, your computer would probably just freeze up completely, so those were not good candidates for this problem. It had to be a user hive. Since it was the application pool identity that got this error, it had to be that user's profile. But how can its own registry get unloaded in the middle of execution?

I found the answer at a Sun support forum, of all places. It turns out that in previous versions of Windows, you could download a program called UPHClean that would help unload user profiles when they were no longer needed (supposedly) to avoid the annoying user profile deadlocks that would sometimes occur, causing you to have to use a temporary profile, instead of your own user profile. If you haven't experienced this error before, you are lucky! It is rare, but when it occurs, it is very annoying. It's apparently more common on Terminal Servers than other servers, from what I've seen.

Well, in Server 2008, the functionality of the UPHClean service has been rolled into the User Profile service, which always runs. So Server 2008, on the whole, more aggressively shuts down dangling registry handles when a user logs off. The aforementioned support forum participant recommended shutting off the UPHClean functionality entirely. I'm not a big advocate of fixing shovel-sized problems with a back ho, so I decided to dig a little more.

To see if this really was the cause of my woes, I searched for Event ID 1530 in the event log to see a user's HKCU was ever forcefully unloaded. Yes, there have been occurrences, yes the process involved was w3wp.exe, and yes the SID corresponds to the application pool identity. I'm getting closer to a solution!

Windows detected your registry file is still in use by other applications or services. The file will be unloaded now. The applications or services that hold your registry file may not function properly afterwards.

DETAIL -
2 user registry handles leaked from \Registry\User\S-1-5-21-1129910693-4165624395-2147873099-2135_Classes:
Process 6632 (\Device\HarddiskVolume1\Windows\SysWOW64\inetsrv\w3wp.exe) has opened key \REGISTRY\USER\S-1-5-21-1129910693-4165624395-2147873099-2135_CLASSES\Wow6432Node
Process 10144 (\Device\HarddiskVolume1\Windows\SysWOW64\inetsrv\w3wp.exe) has opened key \REGISTRY\USER\S-1-5-21-1129910693-4165624395-2147873099-2135_CLASSES\Wow6432Node

So why was this happening? Clearly my application has not exited. Why does the User Profile Service think it can arbitrarily close that registry hive while my application pool is still doing work? I'm guessing that UPHClean detects the open handles and when enumerating loaded profiles, sees that the user's profile is not loaded, so decides that those open handles must be dangling and should be forcefully closed.

The solution to preventing this problem turns out to be a very simple configuration setting in IIS7's Application Pool Advanced Settings. To fix this problem, all you need to do is enable profile loading in IIS. What this does is tell IIS to completely load the user profile for the entirety of the execution of the application. The default approach is the IIS6 approach, where the profile is not loaded when the user is impersonated by the IIS service. In IIS6, this was okay because on Server 2003 UPHCLean was an optional download and not installed by default. If it's not installed, it can't unload the hive, obviously. :-) I would imagine if you did install it on 2003, you would have a similar problem in a similar situation.

So, in conclusion, no profile loading means premature registry unloading, which means no OLE, no MDAC, and, therefore, no Excel/Access.

Mystery solved.

Fixing Slow .Net Compact Framework Windows Mobile Compilation Times

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 03:08:47 GMT

A colleague of mine found a great article with a tip to significantly speed up the compilation time of large .Net Compact Framework projects. I was just living it with, thinking there was nothing I could do. I'm so glad he found that article! It is helping speed up development of my mobile hobby projects significantly. The slowness is due to a verification step that ensures that your application complies with its target. Obviously during debugging, this step does not need to be executed every single time you build! The article suggests creating a new environment variables, but I think a better approach is to use the $(ConfigurationName) variable. When I compile for release, I want this check. For debug, I don't. So go read the article! Then, if you like, take my suggestion and change the condition to...

Condition="'$(ConfigurationName)' != 'Debug'"

Sunday Night Football

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 00:29:00 GMT

I didn't think anything could be more annoying than the Monday Night Football theme song. Then NBC created a carbon copy (but worse) semi-country, semi-rock song sung by somebody sort of famous, but highly annoying for Sunday night. Because, yes, it is entirely MNF's song that makes it successful in prime time and not an exciting football game itself!

Teevee executives are retarded.

(Yes, I know NBC's SNF is not exactly new, but this has been something I've been meaning to complain about since they took over in 2006. lol.)

Mystery of the 1395 Error During .Net Framework 3.5 SP1 Installation

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 23:16:10 GMT

I have had a heck of a time lately with the SP1 for the 3.5 framework. Where I work and at home, the installation has failed on a total of FIVE computer! Five! Each time was a little different. The Google was able to give me a solution for most (usually silly dependencies failing, such as SP1 for Visual Studio), but one, in particular, was a little more devious, on a 64-bit 2008 server.

I kept getting 1395, which is a pretty generic error. By digging through a lot of logs, I saw the error was occurring during the installation of the Visual C 9.0 Redistributable, so I downloaded it to install it manually. I immediately got an error when it was trying to install an assembly.

Error 1935.An error occurred during the installation of assembly 'microosft.vc90.atl'

Included in the message was also HRESULT: 0x80070005, which indicates "access is denied."

I ran Procmon and found there is a folder where access was denied for SYSTEM. The folder where access is denied is in winsxs (C:\Windows\winsxs\InstallTemp) and the default permissions indicated that read only access is probbaly normal for SYSTEM, as it had full control for TrustedInstaller. So I'm guessing that it may actually be a bug in the VC90 installer, but either way, I added Full Control to SYSTEM and the problem cleared.

Does the Petroleum Lobby Think America is Retarded?

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 23:31:53 GMT

My teevee just told me that climate reform will cause gas prices to raise above $4/gal (no evidence was provided, of course). This commercial was paid for by some petroleum lobby, as indicated in the very fine print.

That's odd. I seem to remember huge gas price increases happening without any climate legislation pending not too long ago. And if I remember correctly, the prices went down sharply as soon as people started getting smarter about wasteful gas spending, which was a necessity due to the declining economy. All of that had nothing to do with reducing carbon emissions.

Why are lobbies not required to do an oral endorsement, like politicians? They should. "We're America's petroleum lobby and we paid for this message." Not everybody reads the fine print, like I do.

You know, if you think about it, they are basically threatening America with extortion. Force us to clean up, we raise your prices. Well to that I say, I call your bluff, and here's a middle finger you can sit on.

Let's Blow Up The Moon!

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 22:39:00 GMT

This morning, NASA crashed a probe into the moon in order to stir up debris to figure out what that part of the moon is made of. The best (or worse, based on your perspective) case scenario of the impact was for the probe to be slightly less powerful than the usual meteors that crash into the moon dozens of times per year. The result was not the giant plume of debris the scientists had expected or hoped for, but it still yielded a lot of useful information.

So, this afternoon, a coworker of mine absolutely went batshit crazy on this issue. "What right do we have to crash a rocket into the moon?" he cried. "What if there was some underground gas that was flammable and it caused some sort of explosion?!"

Wow. Just, wow. This is a perfect example of why the USA needs massive science education reform. I argued with him for a little while, but he just kept throwing logical fallacies at me. In particular, he seemed to favor arguments from personal incredulity. When I confronted him with the fact that the moon gets battered worse than that regularly nearly every week, he actually exclaimed, "but that's nature! This wasn't!"

If there was some sort of explosive gas trapped under the moon that could actually cause harm to the moon or the earth by an impact that small, our little planet would have been wiped out billions of years ago! On second thought -- I didn't ask -- but maybe he doesn't believe the earth is that old.

I had no idea this was a controversial issue with anybody in the entire world. I can't believe I have to say this, but the moon was in absolutely no danger and neither were we, as occupants of the moon's closest celestial neighbor. I really geek out at stuff like this. I love science! I love reading about new discoveries, particularly in astronomy and physics! It really burns me up that there are people so ignorant about science that they just want to stop it whenever they don't understand something. I probably shouldn't tell him about the overblown hype of potential microscopic black holes that might be created at CERN's LHC.

So anyway, I want to end this blog post on a light hearted note, so here's a visit back to the world's greatest skit show, where they dealt head on with the controversial issue of blowing up the moon!

Avian Waves is Back Up!

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 21:42:00 GMT

Apparently the hardware that my web server's VPS lives on completely died. I mean died so bad that VPSLand didn't have any way to restore it! Luckily I take nightly backups of everything important, so the website is back with no loss of content. Unfortunately, SQL Server 2008 Express's installer has a serious amount of bugs that took me about 6 hours of debugging to figure out. The entire site is driven off SQL 2008, so I had no way to get the site back without it. It seems something that was in VPSLand's standard deployment image made SQL 2008's installer unhappy. It took a lot of registry deletions to get it to work. More about that later (if I remember).

Anyway. The site is finally back up! Hooray!

The Greatest Paragraph I Have Read This Year

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 23:59:00 GMT

And possibly a lot longer than that. Glenn Greenwald does his usual thrashing of the Washington DC political media (aka The Villagers / Beltway Media), but provides possibly the greatest single paragraph summary of the way of thinking that is so dominant in the beltway.

As HTML Mencken insightfully noted in what is one of the best blog posts ever written, our political mores demand vehement repudiation of petty acts of incivility (not all, but most) while tolerating and even approving of extremely consequential acts of indecency as long as they're advocated with superficial civility. Those who use curse words to oppose torture, wars and lawbreaking are evil and unSerious (The Angry Left); those who politely and soberly advocate morally repugnant, indecent policies are respected and Serious. As long as one adheres to Beltway decorum, one can advocate the most amoral and even murderous policies without any repercussions whatsoever; it is only disruptive and impolite behavior that generates intense upset. Beltway culture hates "incivility" (public use of bad words) but embraces full-scale substantive indecency (torture, lawbreaking, unjustified wars, ownership of government by corporations, etc.).

I missed the original Sadly, No post, as it was posted well before I discovered that blog, and I appreciate the way Glenn takes what was ostensibly just a satirical look at the beltway media of the time and finds the deeper truth, exposing in a way that, I hope, everybody can learn from.

Thanks, Glenn.

Rationing

Sat, 05 Sep 2009 01:07:33 GMT

I'm trying to understand the "rationing" argument for health care reform. This is the argument that there simply is not enough doctors/nurses/hospitals/etc. such that if we let any more people get health care, that all care will have to be rationed. There's absolutely no evidence for this, of course, but that's never stopped the tinfoil hat crowd before.

So here's my question. Isn't not giving health care to the 40 some odd million uninsured in and of itself a form of rationing? Basically, if you are against health care reform because of this fear, you are saying that you are good enough for health care, but the currently uninsured are not and care is being rationed in your favor.

Why is America so damn selfish?

Frobama

Tue, 25 Aug 2009 02:09:11 GMT

Am I the only one that thinks the Chia Obama is, at the very least, unclassy and, at the very worst, blatantly racist?

http://www.chiaobama.com/

Palm Pre Commercial

Thu, 23 Jul 2009 03:08:50 GMT

Palm Pre Commercial: "A revolutionary OS that can run multiple live applications at once!"

Really? That's the best WebOS/Palm Pre has to offer? Of course not. I think it's actually pretty nice and I'm a diehard Windows Mobile guy. But apparently the iPhone has set the bar so low for multitasking (as in, it doesn't) that actual multitasking is considered "revolutionary" on a mobile device. This despite the fact that Windows CE has done it forever, BlackBerry OS has done it forever, and even the old PalmOS did it in later versions.

Ahh, but well, that's because everybody is (mistakenly) competing against iPhone, even business phones. I blogged about this before. At first, I thought it was just the tech reporters, but now even Palm is gearing their advertising that way. I don't get it. RIM owns the business world, market against them, not Apple!

But what do I know? I'm just a tech guy. I'm sure the marketing pros know what they are doing.

Or maybe not.

Get Well, MCA

Tue, 21 Jul 2009 12:26:00 GMT

In case you haven't heard, MCA of the Beastie Boys has cancer. I'm wishing him well.

Modding My Smart: Stereo System, Part 2

Sun, 19 Jul 2009 05:40:00 GMT

Yesterday I posted about swapping out the factory head unit in my Smart Car with an aftermarket unit. Today I am going to cover changing out the door speakers.

The Smart Car is really unlike any other car on the road in its design. To my surprise, to get to the door speaker you have to take off the outside of the door, not the inside. Evilution has great documentation on how to do it. The "premium" sound system also has tweeters in the dash, but I'm leaving those disconnected. It's not worth the effort to replace them. Interestingly, the Smart uses the standard head unit rear channel to power the dash tweeters and the front channel to power the door speakers. If you leave all the wires connected, you can use the fader on your head unit to change the balance between the door and dashboard -- pretty neat.

The factory speakers are terribly cheap looking (no great surprise there). When choosing a new speaker to put in my Smart, I had to make sure the mounting depth was very shallow since there isn't a lot of room. I've always been a huge fan of Orion, so I went to their website first. Orion's XTR 652 coaxial door speakers are surprisingly shallow. In fact, the Orion speaker is actually a few millimeters shorter than the factory speaker!

The inside of the Smart door is basically a single molded piece of plastic. This makes mounting new speakers very difficult unless it has the same screw pattern as the original. Since the original's screw pattern is unique to the Smart, this makes it incredibly unlikely. Orion's door speakers have what they call a universal mount, but sadly there is no screw pattern to match the Smart. Thankfully, the Smart's 6.5 inch speakers are actually 6.5 inches. This isn't always the case on some factory systems! The diameter of the Orion was exactly the same as the factory speaker. This is great because the Smart's plastic speaker mount has an edge that protrudes and presses on the edge of the speaker, just past the surround, but just before the metal case. If the Orion speaker was any bigger, this edge would press on the surround and affect the sound quality and life of the speaker.

Since I wasn't able to use the factory screw holes, I needed to make new ones. The problem is that there is nothing to screw into with the Smart. If I used a long screw and went into the door plastic, it would punch through the other side and you'd see the screw inside the car. That's no good. :-)

My solution was to epoxy little wooden blocks at points where the Orion universal mount had screw points. Where the arm rest is located just above the speaker, I lined the universal mount with the existing screw hole and rethreaded it with a wider screw. So I ended up using one factory screw hole, and three new screw points into the wood blocks that are epoxied on the inside. This worked great, but be careful about one thing: you really need to score the plastic really well before applying the epoxy to it. At first I just used some low grit sandpaper, but that did not do the job. The blocks fell off with only a little bit of force. The second time I used the sharp end of a screw and went to town scoring some nice deep grooves. The epoxy stuck really well after giving it something to grab onto. After that, I just needed to drive some wood screws through the universal mount's screw hole and the job was done.

Surprisingly, the Smart has some pretty good speaker wire connecting the door speakers. Eyeballing, it looked to be around 14 AWG -- not bad! Since I didn't want to fish new wire, I simply snipped the ends off the factory wire and soldered it to the Orion speakers. When I install the amplifier, I'll snip and solder the speaker wire behind the radio and connect a longer cable to the amp. It's not the ideal way to run speaker wire, but I've done this before as a shortcut and it works well. Also, I don't care what anybody says, I cannot tell the difference between Monster Cable and cheap cable when it comes to speaker wire. RCA cables, yes -- absolutely. But speaker wire, no.

Anyway, I put the doors back on and fired up the stereo. Still using the head unit's amp, it sounded amazing! I can't wait to get the amp hooked up now. These XTRs are really great speakers!

I love Orion!

Enjoy the pictures. The next installment of this series will cover hooking up the sub and amplifier.

This is what the door looks like when you take off the outside panel. You can also see that I have cut a "plus" pattern to gain access to the speaker behind the weather shield. It's a shame there isn't a better way to gain access without taking the door apart, but duct tape will fix all!

This is a nice side view of the smart with the door panel removed.

The factory speaker is on the right, the XTR 652 on the left. You can see that the XTR is not quite as deep as the factory, leaving plenty of room for the window to roll down. Also take a note of the magnet size difference!

There are my new screw points! The factory grill will conceal my secret weapons. :-)

The Orion XTR 652s, side by side! You can see the "universal mounting bracket" that lacks Smart screw holes (no great surprise).

The speaker, partially mounted (I forgot to take a picture after I tightened all the screws, so this is the last picture you get).

Modding My Smart: Stereo System, Part 1

Sat, 18 Jul 2009 04:10:04 GMT

This will be the first in a series of posts about modifications I make to my Smart Car. The first big mod I'm making is installing a new car stereo. The Passion Cabriolet comes with what Smart calls the "premium sound system," but let's be honest: factory installed car stereo systems always suck.

If you are a Smart owner and want to work on your car, you should get to know the website Evilution really well. This site has information on how to do basically anything in your Smart with regards to assembly/disassembly. This is good because Smart/Mercedes is very protective of the official service manual.

I replaced the head unit yesterday which was incredibly easy. I must say that the Smart is, by a long shot, the easiest car I have ever worked on. Nearly all the screws are the same type (torx 20 or 25) and none of them so far are torqued so tight that you can't unscrew them with a manual screwdriver. Nice!

My head unit of choice is the Sony Xplod MEX-BT2700. I bought it mainly for the price as it is by a long-shot the cheapest bluetooth car stereo solution out there right now. It does have some glaringly stupid limitations, like not automatically reconnecting A2DP to existing partnerships when the radio turns on (it does, however, automatically reconnect the bluetooth hands-free phone profile). So each time you start the car, you have to press a button to reconnect your bluetooth audio device to the radio.. Despite that, it's a great unit for the price and the built-in microphone works really well for hands-free bluetooth goodness. Here's a couple pictures.

You can see RCA cables coming dangling in the passenger foot area. Those will eventually find their way to the amp!

The car kit for the Smart looks really nice and creates a very professional "factory" look even when replacing the double din factory radio with a single din aftermarket like above.

My next post will cover replacing the factory door speakers with Orion XTR652 coaxial speakers.

I Got My Smart!

Thu, 16 Jul 2009 14:38:00 GMT

I got my Smart on Tuesday. So far, I'm loving every second of driving it! It's such a fun car. This weekend, in goes the stereo. I'll post pictures when it's done.

Look at her smile for the camera!

Private Health Insurance, Defined

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 16:21:53 GMT

Atrios defines private health insurance perfectly.

"Health insurers are middle men who make money by not providing payment for services they're supposed to pay for. They're skimmers who provide no useful service."

That is the best definition ever.

Not Billy Mays Too!

Sun, 28 Jun 2009 19:26:21 GMT

First Ed McMahon, then Farrah Fawcett, then Michael Jackson, and now Billy Mays has died. Okay maybe it's weird that I'm a fan of a teevee direct marketing pitchman, but I really liked the guy. I didn't find his "Hi! Billy Mays here" commercials annoying at all, and I use several of his products and think they work exactly as advertised. Plus, after watching his show Pitchmen on the Discovery Channel, I really grew to like the guy as a person. He just seemed like a nice down-to-earth guy who really believed in the products he sold (unlike the shamwow guy, who I find very annoying). This is a sad day for direct marketing. Their biggest star, who was still far from his peak, has passed on.

Rest in peace, Mr. Mays. I will certainly miss you.

Rest in Peace, Michael Jackson

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 13:47:39 GMT

The title says it all. No matter what you think about his (admittedly bizarre) personal life, he was an absolute entertainment phenomenon. There will never be another entertainer like him. Thriller will always be one of my most prized albums in my collection of vinyl.

With this and the death of Ed McMahon and Farrah Fawcett, this has turned out to be a hell of a depressing week. It can't end soon enough.

SQL 2008 Reporting Services + an IIS Subfolder Named "Reports" = WTF?

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 19:37:31 GMT

I ran into a situation today where on our new beta server, we have a custom web application with a subfolder named "Reports." It always worked fine on my other servers, but on this server no files in that folder could be accessed from the site. What's more, we'd receive a prompt for user credentials, despite the fact that the only authentication mechanism enabled on the entire site was anonymous.

It turns out it's SQL 2008 Reporting Service's fault. In SQL 2005 and older, you would see a subfolder called "Reports" and "ReportServer" under the Default Website. With SQL 2008, it seems SQL does it a little different. You use its own configuration manager to assign what IP addresses and subfolders respond to Reporting server. These paths then do NOT show up under IIS. Since the default is all IP addresses, there was a name collision with our custom web application.

It's an easy fix. Go into the Reporting Services configuration and make sure the two folders only respond to IPs not associated with your custom web application.

Still, not seeing the folders in the Default Website really threw me off. Also, I'm not sure I like how SQL can just override all other site's folder in this manner. Oh well. I'm sure there's a good reason for it that I just can't see right now. :-)

Iran

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 03:26:04 GMT

I think it's great that the people of Iran are beginning what appears to be the start of a revolution against their oppressive theocratic government. That said, I am always equally disappointed in the American politicians exploiting this situation, where innocent people are dying, using it as a chance to grandstand. Every American politician that calls for American intervention in the uprising has blood on their hands right now. The mullahs want westerners to call for Iranian revolution. It adds credence to their myth that westerners are meddling. They want any excuse possible to put this thing down.

I also find it very ironic that the same politicians calling for western assistance for the revolutionaries were, not a month ago, supportive of bombing the crap out of Iran. I'm looking at you, Senator bomb-bomb-bomb McCain.

All that said, if the Iranians ask for help. I hope they get help...

But we should never forget that this is not just a series of interesting twitter feeds. There are real consequences and real lives -- innocent lives -- at stake.

Good luck, Iran.

Update (June 23, 2009): Excellent op-ed here on this subject; h/t ginandtacos.com

Excessive Fines

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 21:40:00 GMT

A woman steals something from someone. Actually, she stole 24 things. And they were from a company, not a person. Actually, they are illegal music downloads and she didn't really steal from the copyright holder as much as she obtained copyrighted material from a third party without the copyright holder's permission. It's still theft. And you won't hear me argue otherwise because I do believe copyright infringement is a serious crime.

So did she perform an illegal act? Yes, absolutely. Should she be forced to pay a civil penalty beyond simply the market value of the product she stole? Yes, sure. That's part of the punishment for committing a crime and its also a deterrent for others thinking about committing the same crime. Should she have to pay a penalty that is 80,000 times the market value of the product? pfffbbbtbttttttt! WTF?! HELL NO!

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/06/18/minnesota.music.download.fine/

This is ridiculous. These types of excessive fines do nothing to add value to copyrighted material like music, books, and videos. If anything, it just makes copyright holders look like petty bullies, diminishing the value of the works that they are protecting. As a copyright holder of my own music, I am sympathetic to the concerns of copyright holders regarding illegal downloading of music. I was a big defender of shutting down Napster (the original highly illegal one). I also have no sympathy for The Pirate Bay. But this case… This case is just absolutely ridiculous. It is beyond excessive. IANAL, but to me this case seems to be an Eighth Amendment violation.

The punishment needs to fit the crime. Make her pay the court fees, the market value of the music, plus a $250 civil penalty and call it a day.

Excellent Rant

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 21:49:15 GMT

I don't mean to just turn this into a blog of short blurbs and links, but I've found a lot of excellent posts lately that I want to share. Here's another one.