dhcollier.com

Hello Blogger!

2011-07-20T18:29:00.000-06:00

Well after an off again on again 2 week long hassle I've finally moved my blog over here to Blogger.

No more Drupal updates every week, just nice and easy blog platform.

All the Gremlins should be properly starved and locked away from the water, but if you find any problems leave a comment below!

Google Pictures (Picasa) and Google+

2011-07-08T15:35:00.005-06:00

Great news for those of us who have been playing with Google+ recently - it appears that the Picasa Web Storage has gotten a huge bump as a result of Google+ membership!

I always liked Picasa (soon to be re-branded to just Google Pictures) but was never keen on the 1gb limit without dropping annual cash, now it appears us Google+ users get nearly unlmited space:

If you've signed up for Google+
Free storage limits
Photos up to 2048 x 2048 pixels and videos up to 15 minutes won't count towards your free storage.

Automatic resizing
All photos uploaded in Google+ will be automatically resized to 2048 pixels (on their longest edge) and won't count towards your free storage quota.

All photos uploaded to Picasa Web Albums over the free size limit will count towards your 1 GB of free storage. When you reach your storage limit, any new photos you upload to Picasa Web larger than the free size limit will be automatically resized to 2048 pixels (on their longest edge).

source: http://picasa.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=1224181

Facebook Places - Here we go again...

2010-08-19T15:57:00.001-06:00

Seems yet again Facebook has released a new privacy invading feature Facebook Places. Though I do have to give some credit, for the first time they actually limited it to Friends Only, and did disable one part of it by default, here is how to disable/hide the new Facebook Places features completely to maintain your privacy.

1. Login to your Facebook account

2. At the top right select Account -> Privacy Settings

While better that Everyone, "Places" is still enabled for Friends

3. Select Customize settings near the bottom

4. Scroll down till you see Places I check in - change accordingly (lock down to only me or say certain trusted friends - read: not the 500 people you added for Mafia Wars) - you'll also want to leave Include me in "People Here Now" after I check in unchecked.

Only Me is the safest, you decide who you want to share with

5. Further down you will see Friends can check me in to Places - by default it's set to Select one this sounds a bit too vague to me, given Zuckerburg's history with protecting my privacy, I'll go ahead and change this to disabled.

I don't think so...

There you go, all done, and hopefully safe until the next sneaky, notice-less Facebook update or release.

Ignoring the Java version during Citrix Installs/Patches

2010-07-13T12:02:00.000-06:00

I frequently get asked How can I install the latest Citrix Hotfix rollup (or Citrix itself) while keeping a specific version of Java on my server. For those of us with that server that for some crazy application reason can not move to Java 1.6 but you still need to install the latest Hotfix rollup that requires 1.6uXX you can get past this with a really quick fix.

msiexec /update PSE450w2k3x64R06.msp CTX_USE_EXISTING_JRE=YES

The CTX_USE_EXISTING_JRE=Yes will ignore the install stopping Java check that forces you to use a certain version (that seems to always change).

The only thing to note is that on 4.5/5.0 you will likely lose the ability to use the XenApp Advanced Configuration tool (formally the CMC) on this server, so you'll want to make sure you have at least one server that is updated to the latest Java required for the latest HFR patch (like your dedicated Data Collector I know we all have right?) - otherwise you won't have access to the handful of items still in the older Java based CMC tool.

Sometimes disabling the Java check is needed, and by adding this switch you can remove the Java requirement for any Citrix patch, hotfix, hotfix rollup or even the Citrix install itself with only a small loss of functionality to the CMC tool

Disabling Facebook Connect on Non-Facebook Websites

2010-05-20T21:13:00.001-06:00

** Updated 7/19 - improved code after re-reading the ABPlus guide thanks to a user comment from Mr. Palant - also added Chrome code from reader tips**

Important, if you find a site where this does not work please include the URL in a comment below - as sites get tricky the code may need to be adapted or new blocks created

For reasons I won't get into in this post I'm very discouraged by the recent Facebook Connect changes that have, without my approval, spread my Facebook persona across various websites that personally I don't want integrated with Facebook. Some examples are the Gawker Media Sites, techcrunch or money.cnn.com - I've recently started seeing little things like this all over sites:

As seen from money.cnn.com

Here is how to disable Facebook Connect completely

Because of a lack of opt-out available, I've been forced to use an Ad Blocker to disable this functionality completely. I've tested this for a while and after a number of tweaks I finally found a solution that does not break any on Facebook functionality while stopping Facebook Connect.

1. Get Firefox - also reported to work with Chrome and Opera (see below) (if you still use IE sorry, can't help you there).

2. Install AdBlock Plus for Firefox - here. Click the Install Adblock Plus 1.2 link (1.2 may change). This will present you with a Yellow Security bar near the URL bar at the top of your screen:

click Allow

You will then be prompted to install the add-on after a short countdown

click Install Now

After Install you will be asked to restart Firefox for the install to complete

click Restart Firefox

Once Complete and Firefox restarts you will have a new ABP icon in next to the search box as well as a new AdBlock menu item under Tools > AdBlock Plus Preferences - access the preferences via the button or menu item

3. Add the following "Facebook Block" Filter Click the Add filter... button - in the text field that appears copy and paste the following line:

||facebook.*$domain=~facebook.com|~127.0.0.1

I've received some emails asking for an explanation of the block code - so here it is ||facebook.* is to block anything from Facebook's domains. $domain=~facebook.com|~127.0.0.1 is an exclusion to the block that states if you are actually on facebook.com don't block the content. The 127.0.0.1 exclusion is your local computer - this is because the Facebook plugin used by the Java picture uploader actually loads from your local computer, this makes sure the uploader continues to work.

4. Click Apply - OK

That's it - you now have blocked Facebook Connect (no more like or share buttons and no more auto-logged into website X using your Facebook cached credentials) - you can test it by visiting any article on money.cnn.com (not the main page but an article) and you should see zero Facebook integration. If you come across any pages that this didn't work - let me me know in a comment below so I can "expand" the guide to make sure that site is blocked too.

Chrome Instructions:
Per user tips (not tested myself) the same can be done for Chrome Browsers using the Ad Block Plus plugin for that browser with only a small change to the code:

*.facebook.*$domain=~facebook.com|~127.0.0.1

(missing the pipe charaters ||)

Opera Instructions:
Again per user tips (not tested myself) - Opera has built in blocks without the need for Ad Block Plus.
Settings > Preferences > Advanced > Content > Blocked Content then select add and put *.facebook.*$domain=~facebook.com|~127.0.0.1 into the field

Citrix Reciever for Blackberry

2010-05-05T17:04:00.001-06:00

Article invalid now that the BB receiver has been released...

~~The day has finally come - Citrix has released the technology preview of the official Citrix Receiver for the Blackberry - Get it Here.~~

Adding it on your blackberry can be a bit of a pain, but I'll cover a quick and dirty for getting the receiver setup and working from your Blackberry - just like all the other receivers this one requires a working Web Interface to function - and likely some BES work to assure it's working (check the end of the article for a detailed link)

~~Getting the receiver installed~~

~~Browse to the following URL on your Blackberry (or email the URL to the device)~~

Touch: http://www.citrix.com/site/resources/dynamic/additional/demos/touch/citrixreceiver.jad Non-Touch: http://www.citrix.com/site/resources/dynamic/additional/demos/nontouch/citrixreceiver.jad You will get the following screen, click Download.

~~Run the Citrix Receiver~~

~~This can vary by your Blackberry - on a Storm2 it was found under Downloads - you can move this anywhere you desire.~~

~~Set Application Permissions~~

~~At first load you will likely be prompted to set the application permissions, accept the defaults then click the Setup my existing account button.~~

~~Setup the connection to your Web Interface~~

Address will be the server name of your Web Interface (such as citrix.company.corp or https://securecitrix.company.corp) - http:// is not needed, only servername unless you are using SSL at which point you need the https:// (and make sure the SSL cert works on your Blackberry devices which I don't cover here) Username is your domain user name (without the domain) Password should be self exploratory Domain is your domain Description is pre-filled-in based of your Address, but you can put whatever makes you happy here.

~~You will now see your Citrix connection in the list~~

~~Click the entry~~

~~You will now see your list of published apps~~

~~Launch any app and start testing!~~

~~The BlackBerry Citrix Receiver is still in Tech Preview state, but if you need more help or details on configuring your BES server for Citrix or troubleshooting you can start here.~~

XenServer: The host is still booting

2010-04-08T21:36:00.000-06:00

Had a strange issue with some 5.5u2 servers in a pool yesterday I thought I might share, after rebooting 2 of the pool slave boxes both came up (after a very long boot) unmanageable - in both cases issuing most xe commands at the console returned "The host is still booting" as an error message. After some frustrating head banging of the keyboard the issue was tracked down to a problem with the server not being able to resolve the host name of the pool master.

Though this situation may be isolated to environments that match ours, the issue was quite frustrating, and very easy to fix once the problem was found. In our situation all servers are in a subdomain - for this article's sake let us say servers.dhcollier.corp - all XenServers were connected to the network, and in all cases had working DNS - but Xen was attempting to reach servername not servername.servers.dhcollier.corp (where the DNS entries are sitting).

To resolve the "still booting" issue on these disconnected XenServer Pool slaves they were moved to pool master temporarily (at this time they were disconnected from the pool and thought they were alone), the DNS suffix was added to the search order, and the master role returned to the true master server by doing the the following:

xe pool-emergency-transition-to-master
xe pif-param-set uuid=[management nics UUID] other-config:domain=servers.dhcollier.corp
xe pool-emergency-reset-master master-address:[name real pool master]

Right away (and after the subsequent reboots) they contacted the pool masters without issue.

You can also specify multiple search domains by separating the entries with a comma, such as:

xe pif-param-set uuid=[management nics UUID] other-config:domain=servers.dhcollier.corp,lab.dhcollier.corp,dhcollier.corp

See CTX118840 for more info on this setting.

Installing Citrix Provisioning Server 5.1 sp2 [part 3]

2010-04-02T21:13:00.003-06:00

In Part 1 I covered the Install of Provisioning Server. In Part 2, the ins and outs of capturing a XenApp server into a Provisioning Server vDISK. In this 3rd and final part we will cover streaming our newly captured image to PVS hosts as well as how to maintain our images though revisions for instant upgrades.

Assumptions for this to work

You've followed part 1 and 2 of this guide

assumptions for this to work

A location to stream the PVS client, this can be XenServer, VMware, Hyper-V, or a physical server

Preparing the Host

For Physical Servers - simply set the server for network boot and get the NIC1 MAC Address (most servers only PXE boot to the first NIC - labeled 0 or 1) and move to the next section, for Xen Guests continue on (VMhosts/Hyper-V should be similar)
Add a new Xen Guest

Server > New VM

Citrix XenApp

Next >

Name the Host

Next >

Set DVD

Empty

ISO Image

xs-tools.iso

Next >

Home Server

Automatically select a home server with available resources

Next >

CPU/Memory

Next >

Storage

Next >

Network

Next >

Final Screen

Start VM automatically

Finish

Set Network Boot

VM > Properties

Startup Options

Network

Delete the Xen Disk

Storage

Delete

Yes

Note the Servers MAC

Network

Add the new Server as a PVS Host

Create the Device

Action > Create Device

Apply the collection template to this device

Select the newly created device, click Action > Properties

vDisk

vDisks for this Device

Add

Create the Machine's account in AD

Action > Active Directory > Create Machine Account

[your domain]

Create Account

Power up the server

Maintaining a Server with versions and classes

Everything we have done so far as setup the PVS environment to support Automatic updating of images. This included Enabling automatic updates on the vDisk as well as setting Class identification on vDisks and target devices. In this secion we will cover how to make sure this works seamlessly with our target devices

Copy the Provisioning Server vDISK

XenApp [ver] - [Server Role] (Rev[next # up])

XenApp 5 - Office 2007 (Rev2)

Add new vDisk Revision to PVS console

Sites > [Your Site Name] > vDisk Pool

Action > Add Existing vDisks

Search

Add

Close

Select the new vDisk, select Action > Properties

Edit file properties

XenApp 5 - Office 2007

Mode

Access Mode

Private Image (single device, R/W access)

Enable automatic updates for this vDisk Apply vDISK updates as soon as they are detected by the server

Replace the vDisk on the Master Server

Action > Properties

General

vDisk

vDisks

Update Server

XenAppPrep /PVS

Increment the vDisk

Action > Properties

Edit file properties

Mode

Access Mode

Standard Image

Enable automatic updates for this vDisk Apply vDISK updates as soon as they are detected by the server

Identification

Check for Updates

Sites > [Your Site Name] > Servers

Check for Updates > Automatic

Yes

That's it, you now have a fully functioning Citrix Provisioning Server installation and you know all the ins and outs of capturing images, deploying streamed images, and updating images, Enjoy!

Installing Citrix Provisioning Server 5.1 sp2 [part 2]

2010-04-01T21:57:00.002-06:00

Continuing from Installing Citrix Provisioning Server 5.1 sp2 [part 1] this article covers capturing an image into provisioning server.

Assumptions for this to work

You've followed part 1 of this guide (and all of it's assumptions for this to work)

A Citrix XenApp Server you wish to image

PVS Server Preparation Work

On your Provisioning Server open the Provisioning Services Console

Select Sites > [Your Site Name] > vDisk Pool

Select Action > Create vDisk

XenApp [ver] - [Server Role] (Rev#)

XenApp 5 - Office 2007 (Rev1)

Create vDisk

Select the new vDisk, select Action > Properties

Edit file properties

XenApp 5 - Office 2007

Under Device Collections select Action > Create Device Collection

XenApp 5 - Office 2007

With this new Collection selected click Action > Create Device

ipconfig /all

Apply the collection template to this device

Select the newly created device, click Action > Properties

Hard Disk

vDisks for this Device

Add

Preparation of the Master Server

Set the Server to Network Boot

Properties > Startup Options

Set DisableTaskOffload Registry setting **XenServer PVS hosts only**

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters]
"DisableTaskOffload"=dword:00000001

Pre-install XenServer Tools **XenServer/VMware PVS hosts only**

/opt/xensource/packages/iso

xs-tools-5.5.0.iso

Install XenConvert 2.1

here

Install Citrix PVS Tools on the server

Target Device Install > Target Device Installation

Install the XenApp Prep Tool

here

Enable Automount

command prompt

DISKPART [ENTER]
Automount enable [ENTER]
EXIT [ENTER]

Capturing the Image

Run XenAppPrep

command prompt

CD C:\Program Files\Citrix\XenAppPrep [ENTER]
XenAppPrep /PVS [ENTER]

*DO NOT REBOOT*

Launch XenConvert

This Machine (servername)

Provisioning Services vDisk

Next >

Setup Conversion Disks

Autofit

Next >

Final Conversion Screen

Convert

Yes

Finish

Restore XenAppPrep Settings

command prompt

CD C:\Program Files\Citrix\XenAppPrep [ENTER]
XenAppPrep /RESET [ENTER]

Set the vDisk to Standard Mode

CitrixProv > Sites > [Your Site Name] > vDisk Pool

Action > Properties

Edit file properties

Mode

Access Mode

Standard Image

Enable automatic updates for this vDisk
Apply vDISK updates as soon as they are detected by the server

Options

Active Directory machine account password management

Part 3 covers Streaming your captured image and maintaining the image using versions and classes.

Installing Citrix Provisioning Server 5.1 sp2 [part 1]

2010-03-29T23:57:00.002-06:00

Citrix Provisioning Server is a great way to ease Administrative support of Citrix XenApp Environments. When properly installed and deployed using Physical or Virtual Servers (or a mix) you can easily and quickly spin up new servers to expand an existing farm with little effort. This article will cover getting your Provisioning Server off the ground and ready to stream server images to your platform of choice.

Assumptions for this to work

A functioning AD environment already in-place

A location for your vDISK store (file server/cluster or iSCSI/SAN attached storage or worst case a really big local Drive)

A working Citrix License Server (including purchased or evaluation Provisioning Server Licenses for your company) this should also give you access to the Provisioning Server 5.1 SP2 install media via MyCitrix - you should have this downloaded and ready

Prerequisite work:

DHCP

Open DHCP Admin tool

Under DHCP > (server name) > IPv4 > Scope [(server subnet)] (name) - right click Scope Options and left Click Configure Options

Scroll down to 066 Boot Server Host Name - check this option and put the server name or IP of the new Provisioning server here (if using host name make sure it can be resolved across the environment)

Check 067 Bootfile Name - in the string input ARDBP32.BIN - click OK

Optionally you can configure DHCP Reservations (Static DHCP) for each server's MAC address if you want to further lock-down DHCP on a server segment - this usually is good in environments where the idea of DHCP on a server segment doesn't sit well with the Security team.

Active Directory

Service Account and PVS Admin Group

Domain Member: Disable machine account password changes

Enabled

Computer Configuration > Windows Settings > Security Settings > Local Policies > Security Options

MS SQL

Store Creation

Citrix Licensing

Installing Provisioning Server

Insert the Provisioning Server 5.1 sp2 install media (or run autorun.exe from the extracted media on your HD or Fileshare)

Server Installation > Install Server

Next > on the welcome screen

Accept the license agreement, Next >

Enter your information on the User/Org Screen Next >

Default install location should be fine, Next >

Leave Complete Install selected, Next >

Click Install

After install is complete click Finish

Configuration Wizard

As soon as the install completes the Configuration Wizard begins.

Click Next > on the welcome screen

On the DHCP screen select the option that matches your environment and click Next >

On the PXE Services Screen, select the option that matches your environment - when in doubt select The Service that runs on this computer and Microsoft DHCP (unless DHCP is remote), click Next >

On the Farm Configuration Screen select Create farm and click Next >

On the Database screen enter the information appropriate to your environment (SQL server name, instance, and port) click Next >

On the New Farm screen fill in the information for your environment, the Database name, farm name, site name and initial collection name. Select Use Active Directory Groups for security and select the group created above in Prerequisites as the Farm Administrator group click Next >

Input the License server name and port for your Citrix License server

On the Service Account screen select Specified user account and input the information for the service account created above. Check Configure database for the account and click Next >

On the Stream Services Screen, leave all options default (you can unselect any extra NICs that are unused), click Next >

Check Use the Provisioning Server TFTP service, leave the path to the BIN file alone and click Next >

Highlight the IP in the Stream Server Boot List, as this is the only server at this time, select Edit, uncheck use BOOTP/DHCP for Subnet mask and gateway and they should fill in, click OK, click Next >

Confirm all your settings on the next screen, make sure Automatically Start Services is checked, click Finish

Make sure everything is Green Check Marks and click Done

Create the Store

Create Store...

Default Store

Servers

Install is now complete. Part 2 covers capturing a image for use by PVS Stream Clients

Firefox and NTLM

2010-03-19T07:49:00.002-06:00

If you are like me and love making Firefox your default browser but still find yourself moving back to IE for sites like SharePoint, or even a pass-through authentication Citrix Web Interface portal adding NTLM authentication to Firefox is much easier than you may think.

Simple steps as follows:

1) Type about:config in your URL box
You will get a nice little "warning" on newer versions of Firefox

2) After going past the warning you will see a very large list of settings, in the filter box type NTLM this will limit your selection to a few items.

3) On the entry network.automatic-ntlm-auth.trusted-uris double click it to add your domains or servers (separate by commas) - hit OK and restart Firefox and it now your favorite NTLM sites will work just like they do in IE

XenServer 5.5u2 and Ghost IPs

2010-03-12T19:28:00.000-07:00

Came across a weird issue with Citrix XenServer 5.5 update 2 this week that I figured I'd share. While the circumstances that bring this bug to life may be rare, it can cause a number of problems so I figured I'd post some details and how I fixed it.

In our situation we were testing a number of Network related changes using some Fiber over Ethernet cards (10-40gb network anyone?). Sadly I apparently can not mention the name right now no matter how sweet they are because we are only doing a proof of concept with the company.

During this testing we were moving back and forth between the embedded NICs (Dell Server Broadcom NICs) and virtual NICs from these virtual fiber NICs as the management interface (with NICs being removed, re-added frequently). At one point of troubleshooting I ran a standard Linux ifconfig -a and I noticed that a number of NICs had stale IP addresses assigned, even though these NICs were removed from as the primary management interface and xe pif-param-list uuid=(eth0's UUID) showed the interface had no IP assigned.

Strange behavior indeed, checking the 2 other servers we were testing on they had the same issue, a lot of stale data, even after a reboot of one host. It seems the Xen software was not passing down it's IP address removals (or cleaning up after itself) using the xsconsole, the only way to fix the issue was to clear the IP manually using the following command:

xe pif-reconfigure-ip mode=none uuid=(UUID of ghost IP nic)

The issue appears to only occur when you selected a new management NIC using xsconsole, setting it via the shell always cleared the old IP and set the new IP (likely because the steps include the above mode=none command), so going forward if I change the primary management interface I now use the command shell vs xsconsole:

xe host-management-disable

xe pif-reconfigure-ip mode=none uuid=(old_mgmt_nic_uuid)

xe pif-reconfigure-ip mode=static IP=(server_IP) netmask=(netmask) gateway=(gw_IP) uuid=(new_mgmt_nic_uuid)

xe host-management-reconfigure pif-uuid=(new_mgmt_nic_uuid)

XenApp 6

2010-03-10T06:34:00.001-07:00

More reason why I gave up on Citrix Certification after 3.0, here comes the next Version of XenApp... 6.0 will be released March 24, 2010.

The first downside I see is that XenApp 6.0 is for Windows 2008 R2 only, that will exclude most of the clients I've worked with from seeing XenApp 6 any time soon (it's hard enough getting acceptance to move to 2008 from 2003).

Here is a breakdown of the new features:

Enterprise-class scalability

Built for Windows Server 2008 R2: Increase scalability of your XenApp farm with up to 15% more users per server and take advantage of the enhancements and optimizations made to the newest Microsoft operating system.
Simple, fast product installation: Install XenApp in half the time with role-based setup wizards and simplified server deployment.
AppCenter: Simplify application management with a single, more intuitive console to perform management tasks.
Seamless integration with Microsoft management tools: Streamline application management using familiar Active Directory group policies and automate management workflows using PowerShell.

Big pluses here are faster installs and the automated management using PowerShell (I knew focusing some attention on Exchange 2007 would pay off).

High definition user experience

HDX RealTime collaboration: Enable real-time audio and video collaboration using Microsoft Office Communicator and VoIP softphones.
HDX RealTime audio: Ensure CD quality audio while using 90% less bandwidth.
HDX Plug-n-Play for Windows portable USB devices: Ensure a seamless user experience with expanded USB support for POS interfaces, webcams, microphones, scanners, digital cameras and more.

In environments like hospitals where moves are being made to more digital audio and video applications there are going to be some huge motivations to move with these changes especially seeing as most companies are deploying some form of corporate Instant messaging (again seems to work fine in XA5 - but maybe it will be better in XA6).

Self-service apps

Self-service app storefront: Deliver self-service access to the applications users need with Citrix Dazzle, the first self-service storefront for enterprise applications.
App-V integration: Manage and deliver both Citrix and Microsoft virtual applications on demand from a single point with Microsoft App-V.

I like the tie is with App-V - I'm still on the fence about the "App Storefront" idea, I think it has a very niche market and I have trouble seeing Citrix's vision here besides the jumping on the "AppStore" bandwagon, time will tell.

Any device, anywhere

Citrix Receiver for Windows, Mac & Linux: Deliver applications on demand to Windows, Mac and Linux desktops using a single, auto-updating client.
Expanded plug-in support for Citrix Receiver: Ensure high performance access to more applications and services than ever before with new Receiver plug-ins for WAN acceleration, Single sign-on, and EasyCall voice communications.
Citrix Receiver for iPhone and Android: Give users ultimate mobility with access to corporate applications from the palm of your hand with popular smartphones, including iPhone, Windows Mobile, and now Android.

Nothing too special here, a proper configuration of 4.5/5.0 has auto-updating clients, also I expect the Citrix iPhone and Android receivers will work with any version of Citrix Farm.

Check out the official announcement here: http://www.citrix.com/xenapp6

Citrix Guru

2010-03-07T20:47:00.000-07:00

I finally reached the level of Citrix Guru on Experts Exchange... Something I'm quite proud of, just thought I'd toot my own horn for a moment...

Recording Industry Fees killed the Satillite Star

2010-02-25T10:46:00.000-07:00

So I went to renew my XM Radio subscription today and decided to finally upgrade to the lifetime subscription and just be done with the annual renewals... Until I saw this:

U.S. Music Royalty Fee: Huh?

After doing a little research I found out about this dirty little fee from XM's Terms and Conditions

http://www.xmradio.com/pdf/xm_tc_100109.pdf

Section 8. Fees has this little nugget:

U.S. Music Royalty Fee: As of July 29, 2009, new and renewing Subscription Packages which include music channels will be charged a U.S. Music Royalty Fee. For further details on how this fee is calculated see FAQs.

Which links to a site dedicated to this sneaky little "Fee" that apparently only applies to Satellite Radios:

http://www.xmradio.com/about/musicroyalty.xmc

1. Why does SIRIUS XM pay music royalties?

a. Music royalty rights were established by Congress and are the product of the Copyright Act. Unlike terrestrial radio, both SIRIUS and XM are required to pay copyright music royalties to recording artists, musicians and recording companies who hold copyrights in sound recordings (the actual recording of a work). These royalties have risen dramatically as a result of a decision of the Copyright Royalty Board. Like terrestrial radio, SIRIUS and XM must also pay music publishers who hold copyrights in musical compositions (or the lyrics and music) through their collective organizations, ASCAP, BMI and SESAC. These fees have also risen since March 2007. Finally, SIRIUS and XM must also pay certain copyright owners to facilitate the recording of content on portable devices.

Thanks but no thanks - yet again the music industry finds a way to stifle artists and music - I can think of at least 10-15 artists that I have found simply from listening to XM radio's more obscure channels, I would likely have never have heard from these artists on regular radio. Sadly I'm afraid I won't be buying your songs or albums anymore because the Recording Industry has made it so I can't easily listen to your music. I guess I'll take my extra $400 I would have bought a lifetime XM subscription for and instead buy Honda's iPOD adapter for the car and listen to the artists I already have on my iPOD from now on.

Goodbye Sirius/XM, I'm sorry that you get hurt by this ridiculous piece of legislation and I'm sorry that the Recording Industry has put the noose around your companies neck which will likely end in your eventual closure once enough of us subscribers decide to leave.

Star Trek Online - Character customization

2010-01-27T21:17:00.000-07:00

In my last post I shared some of my impressions of Star Trek Online's open beta, now that Beta has officially ended (with the last rounds of improvements really taking the game up a notch in terms of performance and stability) I have some time to share some details on the massive level of customization. In this case Character creation.

When you first login you are presented with your create a new character option, the three class choices are Engineer (DPS), Tactical (Tank), and Science (Healer/Support).

Choose Your Career

Each Class provides a quick little synopsis of your role in Starfleet then it's off to the standard Race/Sex Screen.

Choose Your Species and Gender

Like most MMOs the Sex has nothing to do with character Male and Female are equal, pre-defined Species come with set traits and optional selection of others, while the alien race gives you the complete ability to create any old race your heart desires, it's like a character generator on speed - if you can imagine an alien, odds are you can make it here.

Traits are up next, this is where you can really improve your character's behavior to suit you.

Choose Your Traits

Want to be a doctor, go for Creative for the Bonus healing, want to be a Star Ship Cowboy, go for Accurate for better aim. The start of your unique career in Starfleet begins with a good choice of traits.

Then the real customization takes over, The first Choices are your head.

Customize Your Head (Basic Settings)

You are first presented with a Basic screen where you can choose 10 different pre-configured heads for your simple choosing - clicking the Advanced button will give you the sky's the limit in custom options, fore head size, cheek depth, eye shape, the options are as varied as the universe itself - when done you move on to the Body which is equally as crazy with options.

Customize Your Body (Advanced)

This shows the Advanced settings available to you, Hands Bulk, Stomach Size, Fingers Length, what ever your little heart desires you can do it. Next up is Uniform.

Customize Your Uniform

Here you can choose between a number of different StarFleet Uniforms - in Open Beta the only "familiar" uniform was the TNG Movie Uniforms, when the game drops live there will be a number of uniforms here from different pre-orders or retailers special offers (and I'm sure a few from the Cryptic Store for purchase).

If you spent oh an hour on getting your Avatar just right, now is the best time to make use of Cryptic's handy Save button at the bottom, this keeps every little detail down to brow saved should you need to recreate this persona again for some reason.

The Final Screen lets you name your Character, your Starting Ship, and even provide a Bio for us uber geeks (sadly the SUPER UBER GEEKS - cough me - had to cut a few pages off my Bio to get it to fit!).

Choose Your Names and Biography

With the Basic and Advanced Options you can spend as much time or as little time as you want in the Character Building - in most cases you can be playing in less than 5 minutes if you want. The best part, is that all of this (at least in Beta) was fully changeable later - for a small bit of Energy Creds (the currency of STO) - so if you aren't happy with your uniform, change it later. Either way you will find the detailed customizations are just the beginning of fun in STO.

First Impressions - Star Trek Online [Open Beta]

2010-01-13T21:03:00.000-07:00

Since the pre-launch of WoW there has been only a few MMOs that have peaked my interest as strongly as WoW did all those many years ago, Star Trek Online is one of these games.

My first impressions of ST:O prove a bit hard to quantify, while this is an Open Beta the level of problems has stifled my experiences greatly, so it's not a fair assessment. I hear from a number of closed beta testers that the universe was, at least in closed beta, very stable prior to open beta launch. Sadly all sense of stability has been sold off by the Ferengi.

Stardate 63498.1 Open Beta begins, and with a rush most of us with access already had our clients pre-loaded and accounts enabled just waiting to be beamed up into the universe.

When you first begin ST:O you face the new character generator - this bad boy takes customization to levels I have never seen, not only can a person customize EVERY aspect of their persona in game, Cryptic has even gone so far as to let you create your very own race within the universe. That's correct, your very own species within the Federation. As this is Open Beta and thus limited on time I stick with human male, and Roger Arulian Orici, Human Science Officer begins his Starfleet career.

Roger Arulian Orici: Sol System Starbase

Now it's important to note that ST:O has two fully functional and very different halves of game play, there is the Ground system where you control a persona in the flesh and walk around similar to other MMOs like WoW. the other side of the coin is Space system which is similar to EVE Online where you control your ship around the galaxy.

To start the game you are beamed to a Starbase in crisis, it seems the Borg have returned to cause some static. The tutorial is sound (though REAL slow right now while they are getting things worked out), the ground area in the tutorial is very linear. This helps the MMO beginners time to get used to the controls and movement. After learning how to interact with those around you it is straight to combat training on real life Borg - at the end you are beamed up to your ship.

U.S.S. Prometheus - NCC-92850: in high orbit around Earth

After some corresponding tutorial like missions in space (movement and interaction, the combat) you are sent right back to another mission on a planet - just when I was starting to have fun blowing up Borg Cubes.

After that you are sent back to Earth to begin the real game. Your first trip to the Sol System starbase gives you an idea of the potential of the ST:O ground system, you have the freedom to roam here vs the very defined "go this way because all the other bulkheads are sealed" system that the tutorial presents. After learning some of the advanced stuff like taking on bridge officers, upgrading your ship, skills and leveling, etc. you leave the Starbase with a few missions, Lieutenant rank, and a battle field commission as Captain of your ship for good.

I personally have had the most fun in space (sort of regretting going science officer now instead of Engineering or Tactical) - the ground combat to me a) lacks the freedom that space does and b) has much more lag. But it's still real early to tell if this will grow on me as much of the universe in my case is still very unexplored. In my very limited explorations after leaving SOL Starbase the game has some great potential, and I'm sure the Cryptic developers are working hard to resolve the bugs and slowness that is keeping most people from exploring.

Keep Hailing frequencies open as I'll post more about some of the more interesting features of the game (like customization) in days to come.

Easy Way to create a bootable Windows 7 DVD

2009-10-22T11:26:00.000-06:00

10/28 Update: Seems Microsoft finally made the iso files available for easier creation of a boot DVD - here are the links:

x64 Pro
x32 Pro
x64 Home Premium
x32 Home Premium

So if you are like me and took advantage of the sweet deal on the Student $29 Windows 7 Pre-Order or you downloaded a copy from one of the digital stores selling Windows 7 you might notice that the download is not in a format that you can easily burn a bootable DVD (sorry won't fit on a CD).

The official way to get a DVD from your download copy involves grabbing a 1.7 GB download of the Windows Automation Installation Kit (WAIK for Windows 7), and you are welcome to waste your bandwidth getting this download, but in the end you need just one file - one 128k file called oscdimg.exe.

Let's get a bootable DVD the easy way shall we?

Prerequisites:

1) Your Windows 7 download install files

2) OSCDIMG.EXE

3) ISO burning software - assuming you already make CD/DVDs then this should already be on your system.

Prep Work:
1) After you download Windows 7 (I sent mine to my C:\Win7) you end up with 3 files:

setup1.box
setup2.box
Win7-P-Retail-en-us-x64.exe

Note: this is for Pro x64 - your exe may have different name depending on the version you downloaded

Running the exe file will get you an ExpandedSetup folder in the same location as these files (as well as starting the setup, just close the setup window for now).

2) unzip OSCDIMG.exe file to C:\Win7
*if you went the WAIK route, oscdimg should be in your path after install*

Make the ISO:
1) Open an Elevated Command Prompt (right click the Command Prompt icon (Start - All Programs - Accessories) - Left Click Run As Administrator)

2) CD to c:\Win7

C:\Windows\system32>CD C:\Win7

3) Create the ISO

C:\win7>oscdimg.exe -u2 -bc:\win7\expandedSetup\boot\etfsboot.com -h c:\win7\exp
andedSetup c:\win7\7.iso

you will see something like this:

OSCDIMG 2.54 CD-ROM and DVD-ROM Premastering Utility
Copyright (C) Microsoft, 1993-2007. All rights reserved.
Licensed only for producing Microsoft authorized content.

Scanning source tree (500 files in 46 directories)
Scanning source tree complete (874 files in 200 directories)

Computing directory information complete

Image file is 3242131456 bytes

Writing 874 files in 200 directories to c:\win7\7.iso

100% complete

Final image file is 3244328960 bytes

Done.

4) burn the iso with your favorite ISO burning software (slower speed the better). You should now have a fully bootable Windows 7 Install CD.

Deploying XenApp Client with switches

2009-09-22T11:37:00.001-06:00

I have always been fond of using the /a switch on Citrix Client installers to create a custom Admin package, the key downside to this has always been removal of the Citrix signature on the msi after doing this (for obvious security reasons). So for my current deployment of the 11.0 client in the enterprise I've moved to MSI installer properties to accomplish the same install without the headaches of a custom MSI package.

There is a few ways to accomplish this deployment"

1) you can just pass the install switches via a command line prompt such as:

MSIEXEC /I XenAppHosted.msi /L*v "%SYSTEMROOT%\XA5ClientInstall.log" /qb- ADDLOCAL=ICA_Client,PN_AGENT,WEB_CLIENT,SSON ENABLE_SSON=Yes SERVER_LOCATION=http://citrix

2) you can get fancy and create an install cmd file such as XenAppInst.cmd

@ECHO OFF

SET CTXInstall=\\(my dfs root)\software\citrix
SET OPTIONS=

:: XA Plugin Config
SET OPTIONS=%OPTIONS% /L*v "%SYSTEMROOT%\XA5ClientInstall.log" /qb-
SET OPTIONS=%OPTIONS% ADDLOCAL=ICA_Client,PN_AGENT,WEB_CLIENT,SSON
SET OPTIONS=%OPTIONS% ENABLE_SSON=Yes
SET OPTIONS=%OPTIONS% SERVER_LOCATION=http://citrix

:: Install XA Plugin
ECHO Installing XenApp Client
START /WAIT MSIEXEC /I %CTXInstall%\Client\XenAppHosted.msi %OPTIONS%

Both of these examples above install the ICA Client, Web Client and XenApp Plugin (PNAgent for us old schoolers) with SSON in the default location pointing the XenApp Plugin to the server http://citrix

Here is a list of all the available options should you want to go a bit more custom in your deployment:

ADDLOCAL
Installs one or more specified features. Separate multiple values with commas. Do not use spaces. Names are case sensitive.

Valid values	ICA_Client - plug-in engine components (always installs and is required to set other values) PN_AGENT - installs XenApp plug-in PN - installs Program Neighborhood (not installed by default) WEB_CLIENT - installs XenApp Web Plug-in SSON - installs files for pass-through authentication
Default value	Blank
Installation type	XenApp Hosted Plug-in

CLIENT_UPGRADE
Upgrades the client to the most recent version.

Valid values	Yes No
Default value	Yes
Installation type	XenApp Hosted Plug-in

DEFAULT_NDSCONTEXT
Sets a default context for NDS. Separate multiple contexts with commas, and enclose the entire value in quotation marks.

Examples of correct parameters	DEFAULT_NDSCONTEXT=Context1 DEFAULT_NDSCONTEXT="Context1,Context2"
Example of incorrect parameters	DEFAULT_NDSCONTEXT=Context1,Context2
Installation type	XenApp Hosted Plug-in

ENABLE_DYNAMIC_CLIENT_NAME
Enables or disables the ability to use the computer name as the client device name and recognize changes to the client name.

Valid values	Yes No
Default value	Yes
Installation type	XenApp Hosted Plug-in

ENABLE_SSON
Enables or disables pass-through authentication.

Valid values	Yes No
Default value	Yes
Installation type	XenApp Hosted Plug-in

INSTALL_DIR
Installation directory where the plug-in software is installed.

Default value	C:\Program Files\Citrix\ICA Client
Installation type	XenApp Hosted Plug-in

PROGRAM_FOLDER_NAME
Specifies the name of the Programs folder on the Start menu (Start Menu Program Folder Name) containing the shortcut to the XenApp plug-in or Program Neighborhood.

This function is not supported during plug-in upgrades.

Valid values	User defined
Default value	Citrix\MetaFrame Access Clients
Installation type	XenApp Hosted Plug-in

SERVER_LOCATION
Specifies the URL of the server running the Web Interface. This server hosts the configuration file for the XenApp plug-in. You must enter the server address if you want to use the XenApp plug-in as the passthrough client. The server address can use HTTP or HTTPS.

Valid values	User defined
Default value	localhost
Installation type	XenApp Hosted Plug-in

In my examples above the /L*v and /qb- switches are standard MSI switches that control logging (/L*v "path to log") and the /qb- is Basic UI with no modal dialog boxes unattended switch - more details on MSI specific switches can be found here KB227091

Citrix Reference: Setup Properties for Pass-through Client

Publishing Citrix Reports - clean workaround

2009-07-23T14:45:00.000-06:00

One of my chief complaints about publishing Citrix Reports using the Report Center is the lack of options when it comes to the publish folder.

By default you have the choice of Overwrite or Archive, in an archive situation (which is very common in the case of the Configuration log report) when you set in the subfolder field it ends up getting appended with an _# after the first run. This makes finding old reports near impossible (is CL_178 2/12/2009?).

I found a quick and easy workaround using a scheduled PowerShell command to solve the problem.

In my setup I have a daily Configuration Logging Specification setup to publish as follows:

This specification has a scheduled job that runs the report every night at 12:05am.

At 12:10am I have a scheduled task on the webserver (setup via the Scheduled Tasks tool) that runs this command:

rni 'D:\Inetpub\reports\ConfLogDaily\CLD' ('{0:yyyyMMdd}' -f (Get-Date).AddDays(-1))

This command renames the CLD folder to a Folder that shows up as YYYYMMDD (with the previous day as the day).

One very important note when working on Powershell Scripts that you may end up running via a cmd prompt (or scheduled task) using powershell.exe:
Double Quotes (") is your sworn enemy, though working in the Powershell command prompt Single Quote (') and Double Quotes are almost always interchangable, the Double quote causes havoc with running it via a scheduled task/regular command prompt (see below). Just something to keep in mind.

Now when I browse to the http://webserver/reports/ConfLogDaily folder instead of seeing:
CLD
CLD_1
CLD_2
*and so on*

I see:
20090101
20090102
20090103
*and so on*

One small note that when you set up your scheduled task you actually set the task up with the command line to PowerShell.exe like so:

x64
C:\WINDOWS\SysWOW64\windowspowershell\v1.0\powershell.exe rni 'D:\Inetpub\reports\ConfLogDaily\CLD' ('{0:yyyyMMdd}' -f (Get-Date).AddDays(-1))

x32

C:\WINDOWS\System32\windowspowershell\v1.0\powershell.exe rni 'D:\Inetpub\reports\ConfLogDaily\CLD' ('{0:yyyyMMdd}' -f (Get-Date).AddDays(-1))

Dexter ... curse you OnDemand!

2009-07-07T17:07:00.000-06:00

So in my attempts to avoid all things surrounding this Michael Jackson insanity tornado recently I've all but avoided live TV - after catching up on everything hiding on my DVR I was forced to take a look in the Video OnDemand section, which I fairly admit I really don't use as much as I should.

Besides the occasional movie I noticed I just missed the start time by 10 minutes or maybe some kids cartoons to pacify the monkeys need for SpongeBob during the one hour SpongeBob can't be found somewhere on the 20 versions of Nickelodeon, I don't use the VOD features of my expensive cable TV package. That changed this weekend in my attempts to avoid another MJ special attack on my sanity.

I found myself noticing that Showtime had Dexter seasons 1-3 available in anticipation of the show's return for the 4th season this fall. And all I can say is you had me at first slice!

While I admit I have no usual desire to watch slasher flicks - Horror just doesn't do it for me - I can't stop watching this show. The character just grabbed me and I can't get enough, watching Michael C Hall play a man void of emotion fake his way though the motions of being normal like the rest of us you think would bore the living snot out of me, but oddly not only does he have me believing every moment I find myself relating to him in a creepy sort of way.

No need to call the cops, I'll explain. Dexter is an extreme example of every one of us; how many times do we fake some emotion in our lives to be normal? While his darkness is defiantly something deeper and darker than anything I can imagine, there is something more to this character that I can't help but relate to. After finishing season 1 last night I found myself rooting for Dexter, hoping he doesn't get caught, hoping he kills that next scum bag who with the help of his slimy lawyer slipped right though the cracks of a broken justice system.

*cough* after being unable to stop the last 3 episodes no matter how hard I tried, staying up WAY past the time I should have been long asleep, I watched Dexter slash his way though Miami's most disgusting criminal element (not to spoil, but the Therapist - "I can't kill him yet...I need another session!" - wow that was genius - we'll just leave it at that).

If you are looking for a gripping character story that deviates completely from the norm then I suggest anyone who has access to Showtime OnDemand should check out a few episodes while they are offering the show's first 3 seasons as part of your subscription (or heck go get one for the month if you don't or pick them episodes up on DVD). I think after 3 episodes of the show you won't be able to stop!

I can't even start Season 2 tonight because I need to sleep thanks to Dexter grip on me the past 2 nights. How did I ever miss this show? I guess I really should check out some of these other shows I've missed, maybe squeeze a bit more out of my ungodly cable bill!

The Age of Nickel and Diming to Death

2009-07-03T21:52:00.000-06:00

Decided to take the family to Six Flags Over Texas tomorrow in Arlington - When buying our tickets I came across this nugget of pure price fixing. We've all heard about convenience fees before, but this one takes the cake: $5 in shipping to my printer! You heard me right, I had to pay Six Flags $5 for the privilege of using my very own paper and my very own toner to visit their park... Pure Insanity!

Print and Go: Oh My...

[Exchange 2007] Integrity Check

2009-06-17T14:04:00.000-06:00

So came across an issue recently where our Exchange 2007 Mailbox server was kicking back this error every so often:

Event Type: Error
Event Source: MSExchangeIS Mailbox Store
Event Category: Background Cleanup
Event ID: 1097
Date: 6/10/2009
Time: 4:31:02 PM
User: N/A
Computer: SERVERNAME001
Description:
Error 0x8004010f occurred while cleaning up background folder {folder id} on database "{database name}".

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

Data:
--snipped--

As it turns out this can point to a database integrity issue. One or two of these eventlog entries can be ignored, but if they start occuring 2+ times a week or maybe even 4+ times in one month it would serve you well to do an Integrity check to resolve the issue.

This process can take anywhere from 5 minutes to several hours depending on the size of your database and you must take the database down to complete the check (time to check that change calendar before going forward).

1) Take your database offline (note: this is the confirm free version of the command - use with extreme caution - you can omit the -confirm:$false if you would prefer the default would you like to do what you are about to do? protections)

Dismount-Database -identity "{databasename}" -Confirm:$false

2) Issue an Integrity check of the Database (make sure the disk that hosts your database has a good amount of free space - 20% of the file being checked)

ESEUtil /G {full path to database edb file}

The /T paramater can be used to point the temp edb to a seperate drive or even server using an UNC path i.e.:
/T\\server02\temp\temp_db.edb

ESEUtil /G M:\mailboxes\users1.edb

Let the check run till finished.

3) Mount the Database again.

Mount-Database -identity "{databasename}" -Confirm:$false

Enjoy.

The Anti-Video Game President's latest attack

2009-06-16T12:10:00.000-06:00

It's no surprise that Obama hates (and hates) video games; well at least in public, seems it's OK for his little ones to get a WII - must be 'cause the Wii = Healthy and not a real video game system. So tally that up: XBOX, PS3, and PC gamers you are uncool Fatties, You Wii users are cool, hip and out-a-sight like Mac users in a coffee shop.

The second step that we can all agree on is to invest more in preventive care so that we can avoid illness and disease in the first place. That starts with each of us taking more responsibility for our health and the health of our children. It means quitting smoking, going in for that mammogram or colon cancer screening. It means going for a run or hitting the gym, and raising our children to step away from the video games and spend more time playing outside.

/rant on

I'm thinking that McDonald's should SO get on this right away! A marketing campaign to announce their new Triple, no wait make that Quadruple Quarter Pounder with Cheese.

Commercial could play out like this, Hot Skinny teenager weighing 125 or less running down a street.
Passes a basketball court (very urban) bunch of street ballers (also all weighing 125-150) giving high fives saying "good game" start in on their Quad Quarter Pounders.
Runner runs past a gaming center, stops, looks in the window - sees a group of 300lb fat bastards playing Halo, can't even get up to give high fives.
Runner shakes his head, runs into a McDonald's orders a Quad Quarter Pounder - smiles and as he moves to sit down as the snippy announcer cuts in.
"1 whole of pound luscious juicy beef, smothered with cheese, because you know you don't game like they do"
Cue the signature "Da Da Da Da Da - I'm lovin' it!" theme song and out!

They could even play both sides, tout their new gamer salads (with the twice the fat of a quarter pounder hidden in the new line of dressing called Gamer Fuel Dressing) - ads to run during SciFi shows and on G4
/rant off

Source: Nytimes & Full text of speech - WSJ.com

Firefox scrolling issues with EMBED video

2009-06-12T16:38:00.001-06:00

7.18.2011 Update: This issue still exists in Firefox 5

So I decided to go looking for a fix to a problem I've had with Firefox for a while now... Sadly it turns out to be a flaw in the way Firefox handles the embed code (at least up to 3.0.11 and earlier).

The workaround requires every single website to update the way they embed video from sources like YouTube (yeah right). Or we have to wait for a formal fix to the issue - Sadly as this still unaccepted bug request from 1/22/2009 shows it doesn't look like it will be fixed anytime soon.

In the mean time this is how to workaround it, simply add the following tag to any YouTube embed code (and I assume any other embed video from similar sites).
wmode="transparent"

Example (which works in IE, but not Firefox - this is YouTube Default):

Example (which works in both browsers):

dhcollier.com

Hello Blogger!

Google Pictures (Picasa) and Google+

Facebook Places - Here we go again...

Ignoring the Java version during Citrix Installs/Patches

Disabling Facebook Connect on Non-Facebook Websites

Citrix Reciever for Blackberry

XenServer: The host is still booting

Installing Citrix Provisioning Server 5.1 sp2 [part 3]

Assumptions for this to work

Preparing the Host

Add the new Server as a PVS Host

Maintaining a Server with versions and classes

Installing Citrix Provisioning Server 5.1 sp2 [part 2]

Assumptions for this to work

PVS Server Preparation Work

Preparation of the Master Server

Capturing the Image

Installing Citrix Provisioning Server 5.1 sp2 [part 1]

Assumptions for this to work

Prerequisite work:

Installing Provisioning Server

Configuration Wizard

Firefox and NTLM

XenServer 5.5u2 and Ghost IPs

XenApp 6

Citrix Guru

Recording Industry Fees killed the Satillite Star

Star Trek Online - Character customization

First Impressions - Star Trek Online [Open Beta]

Easy Way to create a bootable Windows 7 DVD

Deploying XenApp Client with switches

DEFAULT_NDSCONTEXTSets a default context for NDS. Separate multiple contexts with commas, and enclose the entire value in quotation marks.

Publishing Citrix Reports - clean workaround

Dexter ... curse you OnDemand!

The Age of Nickel and Diming to Death

[Exchange 2007] Integrity Check

The Anti-Video Game President's latest attack

Firefox scrolling issues with EMBED video

DEFAULT_NDSCONTEXT
Sets a default context for NDS. Separate multiple contexts with commas, and enclose the entire value in quotation marks.