Stuck in a Server Closet

One Wrong Move Can Kill A WebEx

2014-03-13T12:45:00.000-05:00

I was excited, I was es-static, I couldn't wait for the Web Ex. I was going to see the new Cisco product line offerings which I think could really be helpful here with my job.

Then at noon I suddenly realized I missed it.

I was perplexed, I had accepted the meeting invite from Cisco, it was on my calendar. How could I have been so busy to notice something popping up and interrupting my work?

Then I found it. The invite sent out from Cisco had NO reminder set. So when it came time for the 11AM meeting, nothing popped up on my computer or my phone. Nothing yelling at me to "join now!", just silence.

You can easily kill your sales pitch by doing everything right and one thing wrong.

Measure twice and cut once. You don't want to miss out on a million dollars because you rushed your invite.

Crucial Data for IT Tickets

2014-03-11T12:25:00.000-05:00

When you start designing a from scratch Ticketing system for your IT Department things a be a bit overwhelming. There are many programs out there that do the same thing but seem too busy, complex or just too expensive to implement.

Over the past year I have been working with contractors to deploy an in house ticketing system for our IT requests. For us third party options were too complex for a extremely small help desk to utilize, and ones that were free (i.e. Spiceworks) were too busy with unnecessary information for us. We went about creating the ticketing system however had little idea of what data we needed to capture in the system once it went live to users.

We started with the basics:

Issue
Due(Priority)
User
Category
Response Method

We found that users don't chose category's like we do so we hid that field for them and left the others. Due responses always defaulted to the slowest time (for us it was "within a week"), and the user field auto populated with the user who was logged into the web page. This could be changed but most users just wanted their name in there.

From their your case my differ, but its a good start to gathering data from your users via a ticketing system instead of phone calls and stop by's.

Mac Profiling Services - Are They Worth It?

2014-03-10T10:46:00.000-05:00

For the better part of my IT career I have been around Windows environments (for better or worse, your call). With Microsoft being so enterprise centered Active Directory has always been a staple in most environments large enough to need some control, and for the most part it works very well.

The comes the first Apple devices on your network, and control becomes a four letter word. Going through this experience over the past year has been challenging but I think I have finally figured out a few things that if you know before going in will help the transition that much easier. I'll keep these brief and to the point, hoping they help you out.

1. A Mac Server with Profile Management is no Group Policy for AD. It's clunky, messy, and a pain to setup

2. Control will be limited so be prepared have to limit your options.

3. Some preferences don't have all the controls that are on the client machine. So if you can only check a box and the users machine shows a check box and a timer option, you'll need to manually set the timer option before pushing out the profile. (Fail on Apple's part)

4. You will loose some hair in the process. I had to wipe our server twice and get a contract IT company to deal with Apple over the phone to setup the Trust Profile because I couldn't waste any more time on the darn thing.

Just be prepared, take your time, and test it out long before you deploy your first Apple machine and you might just make it through without going bald. It is worth it, if for nothing else than setting one option: screen timeout / password prompt. Security is worth every penny these days, and a basic feature like screen timeouts are an easy way to start.

Nexus 4 and Android 4.4 Bluetooth Issues

2014-03-07T14:25:00.000-06:00

Usually I am pretty quick when it comes to updates. I like having the latest (just short of beta testing) and don't get bothered by the small stuff when it doesn't work. With Android it happens more often than not and even with having a Nexus device you can feel the priority level from Google with so many devices that have those lingering problems.

After updating to Kit Kat (4.4) I came across one of the few times that I actually regretted updating a device, and I haven't been the only one. Many people have even created a Google group surrounding one glaring issue in 4.4 (Link HERE) pertaining to Bluetooth and its reliability. I for one use it in my car daily, from streaming Pandora or making calls to family on the way home it's an easy and safe(ish) way to accomplish my tasks. Once I had upgraded to Kit Kat though it was another ball game entirely. From my phone crashing weekly, to being unable to turn on or off my Wifi or Bluetooth, to finally having my Bluetooth cut out every 30 seconds or so during phone calls drove me mad.

Like most people I went to Google and instead of doing a technical support call for help I searched for my issues instead. It lead me to the group (linked above) and after reading 8 pages (then) of user responses I came to two conclusions.

1. Google doesn't see the issue as high priority enough to fix out of cycle from another main release.
2. The only sure fire way to remove the problem was to flash back to 4.3.

I read up one some pretty helpful posts on flashing an older rom onto my Nexus and took a night to work through it. Though the page linked for instructions was lacking in some ways I was able to trail and error through commands and files from my Windows machine and flash the phone back successfully. After setting up my phone from scratch (I have it back up but never use it) I tested it out in the car the next day. All the issues I had were solved and found myself back in the land of peace and tranquility. I do miss some features of Kit Kat but none of which are more important to me than a working Bluetooth connection. Big thanks for everyone who posted and the mounds of solutions tried. Google never chimed in once, but like normal the Internet is there to save the day.

Meeting Industry Security Standards for Information Technology

2014-03-07T10:52:00.004-06:00

Just remember that meeting industry standards for security in your IT Department is much like how the Titanic met shipping standards for life boats back in 1912.

Test Your IT Monitoring Tools Regularly

2014-03-06T21:27:00.000-06:00

Most IT Departments have active monitoring tools to make sure you are notified in the event that something goes wrong, right, or is starting to look sketchy (much like a bad NHL trade). These systems are put in place with the mindset of a set it and forget it mentality because hey, its supposed to alert us right? Well if you haven't heard it before I am saying it now. No. Is that a complete sentence? Probably not, but it gets my point across. Monitoring systems and devices are only as good as their trustworthiness and much like your gradual trusting of friendships must grow by testing the tools on a regular basis.

I will use our power monitoring/temperature monitoring device in our server closet as an example. In the event of a power failure, or A/C unit failure one of two things will happen. In the first scenario, the unit alerts us by calling my cell phone to notify me that power has been lost and the unit is running on backup power (this unit is a cellular one). In scenario two the device calls my cell and alerts me to a high temperature reading, possibly caused by a malfunction in the A/C unit. If I never test the unit by pulling the power plug then I have no faith the unit will successfully call me in the event of a power outage, and if its not regularly tested then I have no faith the battery is still holding a charge inside the unit and will stay alive long enough to make the call needed through our vendor.

Testing these units regularly should be on your IT calendar and should be as often as you or a colleague can test it. (For us, quarterly should be our testing cycle).

Having faith in these systems to work correctly when needed can help an Administrator sleep at night knowing a trustful partner is always watching and thankfully never needs sleep.

Intel WiDi Stops Lync 2013 from Recognizing Audio Devices

2014-03-05T21:10:00.001-06:00

We have used Lync 2013 for a while the company I work for and overall with little issues (amazingly). However the other day I attempted to join a conference call and utilize my built in webcam/mic but found that Lync couldn't see any audio device at all. This was strange considering it was showing up in the computer management console, and in recording devices. I could even use the microphone and record with windows built in recorder so that was odd too.

I attempted first a repair of Lync 2013, but no dice. Then I re-installed my Dell audio drivers, but no luck there either. A bit of Google searching lead me to just a few articles stating that Intel's WiDi application caused some problems with audio devices. Sure enough one of the posts in particular was on Lync specifically so I decided to give it a shot and uninstall. After a quick reboot Lync was perfect again and I was without one more useless program (to me at least). Dell (from whom we buy our laptops) has components in most of their laptops which include this application, however I have never used it. Uninstalling it did not show any unknown devices in computer management or prompt for driver installation every time the machine booted up so I'll be making sure to uninstall this from all new deployments of laptops within the company.

I never could figure out the "why"behind the failure for the applications to not play nice, but what's fixed is fixed.

An Outlook Signature Deployment and How it Changed My Way of Thinking

2014-02-10T10:24:00.000-06:00

Over the course of the past few years our company has wanted to get everyone on a standardized signature to include company information, links and a professional picture of the employee to help give us a personal feel to clients. The idea was great, however deploying signatures to 40 or so employees seemed daunting at the time I had come on board, as well as making the signature its self which was based loosely on the original we had.

I have learned a lot in those past few years about the company, people, technology, and design hoping to make the process easier as some point.

It never happened however. Instead I struggled with the project, with issues surrounding the signature design and even worse compatibility among other programs.

The project changed, died off, came back and changed again. I was fed up, I was tired and most of all I was uninterested. I couldn't make parts of it work well. Images were blown up, Gmail just saw code and I was exhausted with the project altogether.

At the end of 2013 my supervisor had brought the project back up and decided on deploying it before our annual company meeting. I groaned but went along. He suggested we use a third party this time due to my busy schedule, hoping to make things smoother and finish quicker. I'll be the first to admit that utilizing an outside vendor to do "my" job seemed against my own nature, and I am 100% sure I resisted more than I should have. It took a bit for me to warm up to the idea but got them going on it anyway.

The vendor came in, and I showed him what we had and our issues with my ideas and let him get to work. He came back with a signature that looked similar but different and I was actually very pleased on how it turned out. I got my supervisor involved and he stated that he liked it more as well. After some refinements the vendor left to work on it more at a later time and to make it auto populate from excel based data so I could create them easily. Testing of the signature came and went and this time, no garbled code in Gmail, and nothing weird in different versions of Outlook. It became a big win to get even this far and my interested increased ever so slightly back into the project.

I ended up deploying the signatures myself (though it may have worked with a vendor) citing my users busy schedules and the cost of the vendor on site. We've achieved 100% deployment for the users who were with us and had professional photos taken, and all the while I was able to turn my attention to other projects while still having more than plenty to do. In the end my offload of this project to a vendor saved me a lot of time, and got the "leech" of a project out of my head while still being able to show progress week by week on it. Looking back it seemed silly to sit on my mess and not clean it up while all the while I could have utilized someone else to clean up the mess and come back with a steak dinner so to speak. Sitting on messes doesn't help anyone in the long run, the meal never gets made and you smell like rotten eggs. Sometimes, you just need to delegate.

Unable to install Symantec 12.1.4xxx on Windows 8.1 VM

2014-02-03T16:57:00.000-06:00

I had a bit of trouble today trying to install Symantec Endpoint Protection 12.1.4xxx on a Windows 8.1 Pro 64-bit virtual machine. The installer would fail and give cryptic advice through the windows event viewer console which was almost worthless. I followed the random number given to me (1603) to a few articles on Symantec's website but all referenced an issue that was supposed to have been fixed in 12.1.3xxx.

Sad to say I must have found a loophole.

I did check into a few things but was not able to find a work around. (Disabled Windows Defender, looked for a bad KB update)

I opened a case with Symantec and will report back my findings.

EDIT 2/4/14:

We were able to resolve this after running the clean wipe utility from Symantec. After that the installation completed successfully!

New Bumper Sticker Idea

2014-01-15T20:32:00.001-06:00

While laying in bed reading the doom and gloom of April's XP-mageddom I wanted to type out a warning to friends and family about running the ancient OS.

I came up with a saying that even impressed me after saying it

"For the love of IT, dump XP"

Didn't even realize is kinda rhymes. Now to just find some place to make the bumper sticker I'll never use. I've got a dislike of those things unless they are in your cubicle somewhere.

Monoprice Cables and Dell Switches - A Strange Affair

2014-01-11T15:12:00.000-06:00

I spent most of my day today trying to replace cabling in our closet to tidy up the place. After purchasing 2 pass through patch panels to route cables from the back of the rack to the front in a neat manner I came across issues with some ports not working and coming online with my Dell switches.

All ports in the pass through jacks tested fine, cables tested fine and the switches worked after testing as well.

After 2 hours of fooling around and trying this and that I found my culprit.

The cables I ordered from Monoprice (in this case 3ft and 1ft yellow Cat6 cables) seem to have their pins clamped a bit higher than other cables I have ordered (especially in this case since I ordered blue 3ft cables in the same order and their pins are placed lower in the RJ-45 ends) and cause a loss of connectivity with my Dell switches.

I am assuming at this point that Dell switches have their "spring" pins set just a tad bit lower than normal as my Fluke tester worked just fine with said yellow cables. Looking under a microscope to compare the blue 3ft to yellow 3ft and 1ft cables I was able to confirm that in fact the pins were in fact higher on them.

What a mess, I will have to return the whole order and reorder new ones (and this time maybe from Cables 2 Go). Be on the lookout for the strangest issues, they can creep up anywhere.

Installing .NET Framework 3.5 (3.0, 2.0) on Windows Server 2012 R2

2014-01-09T08:57:00.000-06:00

.NET 3.5 and previous verions do not come standard on Windows Server 2012 R2 and tripped me up the first time I needed to install it for a software installation. Its easy enough to get through but I thought this would be a great quick write up in case anyone ran into issues or were curious of the process. You will need your 2012 R2 installation disk for this process.

Step one is opening the server manager

Next click on Add roles and features

Click Next

Make sure Role Based or Feature Based installation is selected and click Next

Make sure Select a server from the server pool is checked and your server is highlighted and click next (may be different for more complex installations)

Click Next

Select .Net Framework 3.5 Features and click Next

On the Confirmation page select Specify an alternate source path

On the Source Path window that pops up note the part that talks about where these source files would be found. We will need to pull them from the 2012 R2 installation media. Place it into your computer (or mount it to the server if in a virtual environment). We will go to the noted path and copy the address into the field next to the word Path:.

Open Windows Explorer and navigate to "This PC", right click on the media drive and select Open

Open the Sources folder

Open the "sxs" folder

Move your cursor to the address bar and highlight the entire path, for me it is D:\sources\sxs

Copy this to your clipboard

Paste the path into the Path: box in the Source Path window and click OK

Click Install and you are finished! If you have any issues just post up and I will try to help.

AutoCAD 2014 / 2013 / 2012 / 2011 Setting Default Save Format By Registry

2013-12-31T14:02:00.000-06:00

We have come into an issue recently that new deployments of AutoCAD LT needed to be set to save as the 2007 format by default.

Unfortunately I was unable to find much information pertaining to ACAD LT for this issue, but was able to use a blog post on changing the old AutoCAD settings and used that as a spring board for solving my issue.

AutoCAD Post can be found HERE

Our versions of LT range from 2010 to 2014 and so far I have only nailed down the 2014 LT path, but will work on the others and post them as well.

I focused on mapping the following formats and their respective hexadecimal codes in the registry:

2013 DWG = 0000003c
2010 DWG = 00000030
2007 DWG = 00000024
2004 DWG = 00000018
2000 DWG = 0000000c

For ACAD LT 2014 the path is located here:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Autodesk\AutoCAD LT\R20\ACADLT-D001:409\Profiles\<<Unnamed Profile>>\General

If importing into the registry here is the line for the save attribute

"DefaultFormatForSave"=dword:00000024

This one is set for 2007.

Let me know if you have any questions and ill try to help out.

------------------------------------------------

EDIT : Adding ACAD LT 2013 Path

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Autodesk\AutoCAD LT\R18\ACADLT-B001:409\Profiles\<<Unnamed Profile>>\General

------------------------------------------------

EDIT : Adding ACAD LT 2012 Path

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Autodesk\AutoCAD LT\R17\ACADLT-A001:409\Profiles\<<Unnamed Profile>>\General

------------------------------------------------

EDIT : Adding ACAD LT 2011 Path

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Autodesk\AutoCAD LT\R16\ACADLT-9001:409\Profiles\<<Unnamed Profile>>\General

Another Macros Script for saving tons of emails into a standardize format

2013-11-02T22:18:00.000-05:00

I honestly was passed down some of the code in this script so I am not sure who to give the original credit too!

I modified it to include both emails and meeting requests and error out if neither is acceptable. Added another cleanse group, saved the file in the following format (Project# SenderName DateTimeReceived Subject.msg)

If the senders name was not available (which is the case in some situations) it pulls the last 11 characters and creates a string to save it to when referenced.

Default save folder is C:\

If anyone can find the original poster please leave a comment below!

Enjoy!

Sub MASS_SAVE()
Dim Mitem
Dim prompt As String
Dim name As String
Dim Nname As String
Dim Exp As Outlook.Explorer
Dim sln As Outlook.Selection
Dim saveSubject As String
Dim senderName As String
Dim senderCheck As String
Dim msg As Object
Dim timeSent As String

Set Exp = Application.ActiveExplorer
Set sln = Exp.Selection

If sln.count = 0 Then
MsgBox "No objects selected."
Else
myPath = BrowseForFolder("C:\")
Set Mitem = Outlook.ActiveExplorer.Selection.Item(1)

Nname = InputBox("Please enter in the Project #")

For Each Mitem In sln

If TypeName(Mitem) = "ReportItem" Or TypeName(Mitem) = "MailItem" Or TypeName(Mitem) = "MeetingItem" Then

saveSubject = Mitem.Subject

If Nname = "" Then
name = Mitem.Subject
Else
name = Nname
End If

' Cleanse illegal characters from subject... :/|*?<>" etc or sharepoint wont have it!
name = Replace(name, "<", "(")
name = Replace(name, ">", ")")
name = Replace(name, "&", "n")
name = Replace(name, "%", "pct")
name = Replace(name, """", "'")
name = Replace(name, "´", "'")
name = Replace(name, "`", "'")
name = Replace(name, "{", "(")
name = Replace(name, "[", "(")
name = Replace(name, "]", ")")
name = Replace(name, "}", ")")
name = Replace(name, " ", "_")
name = Replace(name, " ", "_")
name = Replace(name, " ", "_")
name = Replace(name, "..", "_")
name = Replace(name, ".", "_")
name = Replace(name, "__", "_")
name = Replace(name, ": ", "_")
name = Replace(name, ":", "_")
name = Replace(name, "/", "_")
name = Replace(name, "\", "_")
name = Replace(name, "*", "_")
name = Replace(name, "?", "_")
name = Replace(name, """", "_")
name = Replace(name, "__", "_")
name = Replace(name, "|", "_")

saveSubject = Replace(saveSubject, "<", "(")
saveSubject = Replace(saveSubject, ">", ")")
saveSubject = Replace(saveSubject, "&", "n")
saveSubject = Replace(saveSubject, "%", "pct")
saveSubject = Replace(saveSubject, """", "'")
saveSubject = Replace(saveSubject, "´", "'")
saveSubject = Replace(saveSubject, "`", "'")
saveSubject = Replace(saveSubject, "{", "(")
saveSubject = Replace(saveSubject, "[", "(")
saveSubject = Replace(saveSubject, "]", ")")
saveSubject = Replace(saveSubject, "}", ")")
saveSubject = Replace(saveSubject, " ", "_")
saveSubject = Replace(saveSubject, " ", "_")
saveSubject = Replace(saveSubject, " ", "_")
saveSubject = Replace(saveSubject, "..", "_")
saveSubject = Replace(saveSubject, ".", "_")
saveSubject = Replace(saveSubject, "__", "_")
saveSubject = Replace(saveSubject, ": ", "_")
saveSubject = Replace(saveSubject, ":", "_")
saveSubject = Replace(saveSubject, "/", "_")
saveSubject = Replace(saveSubject, "\", "_")
saveSubject = Replace(saveSubject, "*", "_")
saveSubject = Replace(saveSubject, "?", "_")
saveSubject = Replace(saveSubject, """", "_")
saveSubject = Replace(saveSubject, "__", "_")
saveSubject = Replace(saveSubject, "|", "_")

If TypeName(Mitem) = "MailItem" Then

senderCheck = "/O=EXCHANGE"

senderName = Mitem.sender

timeSent = Mitem.ReceivedTime

If Left$(senderName, 11) = senderCheck Then

senderName = Right$(Mitem.sender, 11)

Else

senderName = Mitem.sender

End If

ElseIf TypeName(Mitem) = "MeetingItem" Then

senderCheck = "/O=EXCHANGE"

senderName = Mitem.senderName

timeSent = Mitem.ReceivedTime

If Left$(senderName, 11) = senderCheck Then

senderName = Right$(Mitem.sender, 11)

Else

senderName = Mitem.senderName

End If

ElseIf TypeName(Mitem) = "ReportItem" Then

senderName = "Read Receipt"

timeSent = Mitem.CreationTime

Else

MsgBox "Unknown mail type....ERROR"

'senderName = ""

'MsgBox senderName, vbCritical, "Sender Name"

'variable111 = Mitem.CreationTime

'MsgBox variable111, vbApplicationModal, "Creation Time"

End If

If myPath = False Then

MsgBox "No directory chosen !", vbExclamation

Else

Mitem.SaveAs myPath & "\" & "Project#" & name & " " & Left$(senderName, 20) & " " & Format(timeSent, "MM-DD-YY HHMM") & " " & Left$(saveSubject, 40) & ".msg", olMSG

End If

Else

MsgBox "A message was not saved because it does not match an EMail format."

End If

Next Mitem

End If

MsgBox "Export Complete!", vbOKOnly, "Export Status"

End Sub

Function BrowseForFolder(Optional OpenAt As Variant) As Variant
'Function To Browse for a user selected folder.
'If the "OpenAt" path is provided, open the browser at that directory
'NOTE: If invalid, it will open at the Desktop level
Dim ShellApp As Object
'Create a file browser window at the default folder
Set ShellApp = CreateObject("Shell.Application"). _
BrowseForFolder(0, "Please choose a folder", 0, OpenAt)
'Set the folder to that selected. (On error in case cancelled)
On Error Resume Next
BrowseForFolder = ShellApp.self.Path
On Error GoTo 0
'Destroy the Shell Application
Set ShellApp = Nothing
'Check for invalid or non-entries and send to the Invalid error
'handler if found
'Valid selections can begin L: (where L is a letter) or
'\\ (as in \\servername\sharename. All others are invalid
Select Case Mid(BrowseForFolder, 2, 1)
Case Is = ":"
If Left(BrowseForFolder, 1) = ":" Then GoTo Invalid
Case Is = "\"
If Not Left(BrowseForFolder, 1) = "\" Then GoTo Invalid
Case Else
GoTo Invalid
End Select
Exit Function
Invalid:
'If it was determined that the selection was invalid, set to False
BrowseForFolder = False
End Function

Outlook macros for travel time and notifying someone you are out of the office automatically

2013-10-21T14:16:00.000-05:00

Lately we have had some questions from employees wanting to automatically add travel time to their calendars. After some research and links from them I came across a script written here that was modified at the bottom of the page for adding in 2 separate times as well as working for meetings and appointments. I modified a few things on it to make sure there was no buffer time as well and then decided to add in one more thing.

Our office uses a global calendar mailbox called Out that they can send a meeting request to stating they will be out of the office so that our Admin team knows easily and from one calendar who is here and who is not. The downside is users forget, so I made a script to automatically send a request to that mailbox (or whatever mailbox you wish) as soon as someone saves an appointment or meeting with the Out Of Office status.

Enjoy!

Dim WithEvents olkCalendar As Outlook.Items

Private Sub Application_Quit()
Set olkCalendar = Nothing

End Sub

Private Sub Application_Startup()
Set olkCalendar = Session.GetDefaultFolder(olFolderCalendar).Items

Const OLK_TRAVEL_SCRIPT_NAME = "Schedule Travel Time"
Const OLK_INVITE_SCRIPT_NAME = "Notify FAST Team"
End Sub

Private Sub olkCalendar_ItemAdd(ByVal Item As Object)
If Item.BusyStatus = OlBusyStatus.olOutOfOffice Then
If MsgBox("Do you need to schedule travel time for this meeting?", vbQuestion + vbYesNo, OLK_TRAVEL_SCRIPT_NAME) = vbYes Then
CreateTravelAppointmentEntry Item 'setup TO travel time
CreateTravelAppointmentEntry Item, False 'setup FROM travel time
End If
If MsgBox("Do you need to nofity the FAST Team of your absense?", vbQuestion + vbYesNo, OLK_INVITE_SCRIPT_NAME) = vbYes Then
CreateFastAppointmentEntry Item 'Notify FAST Team
End If
End If
End Sub

Private Sub CreateTravelAppointmentEntry(ByVal Item As Object, Optional ByVal isTo As Boolean = True)
Dim olkTravel As Outlook.AppointmentItem
Dim intMinutes As Integer

intMinutes = InputBox("How many minutes " & IIf(isTo, "to", "from") & "?", OLK_TRAVEL_SCRIPT_NAME, 15)
If intMinutes > 0 Then
Set olkTravel = Application.CreateItem(olAppointmentItem)
With olkTravel
'Edit the subject as desired'
.Subject = "Travel " & IIf(isTo, "to", "from") & " Meeting: " & Item.Subject

If isTo Then
.Start = DateAdd("n", intMinutes * -1, Item.Start)
Else
.Start = DateAdd("n", 0, Item.End)
End If

.End = DateAdd("n", intMinutes, .Start)
.Categories = Item.Categories
.BusyStatus = olBusy
.Save
End With
End If

Set olkTravel = Nothing
End Sub

Private Sub CreateFastAppointmentEntry(ByVal Item As Object, Optional ByVal isTo As Boolean = True)

Dim olkInvite As Outlook.AppointmentItem
Dim intMeetingLength As Integer

Set olkInvite = Application.CreateItem(olAppointmentItem)
With olkInvite
.MeetingStatus = olMeeting
.Subject = "Out of Office"
.Start = Item.Start
.End = Item.End
.Categories = Item.Categories
.BusyStatus = olBusy
'Edit below line with your email address to send to'
.RequiredAttendees = "out@epicsysinc.com"
.Send
End With

Set olkInvite = Nothing

End Sub

Questions You Should Answer in a Project Proposal

2013-09-30T10:51:00.000-05:00

Over the past year I have had to create more and more project proposals instead of just going crazy and buying things as I want to (Probably a good idea). As I have become hopefully better with each passing proposal I wanted to share a list of questions I try to answer in a project proposal helping me to better sell the project to management. I don't use them all, and each project results in the use of different questions and answers but this is a good place to start, maybe you will find your own questions as well when you create your own proposal.

Who will benefit from the project
Why are we doing this
What is our end goal
When could it be done
What are the steps of the project
What is the cost
What is the potential savings
What is wrong with the current system
Who will we purchase from
Why will we purchase from said vendors/people
Who will install this
Who is the project leader
What will it look like when its finished
What are the tasks of the project, and the timeline they will be finished in
What is the long term cost of the project
What is the goal of the project (Much like the question Why are we doing this)
How long will the end result last
Does it scale up easily

Office 365 Lync 2013 - Unable to Upload a Profile Image

2013-09-27T10:43:00.000-05:00

I encountered this issue few weeks back and found it to be very perplexing, especially since the upgrade to O365 2013. Users who tried to change their profile picture in Lync 2013 or Exchange Online were greeted with a message that told them they did not have permissions to do so, even global admins got the error. After joining a community forum as well as starting a service request through the support portal I was able to get a resolution to the issue.

Turns out the upgrade has a few bugs (who knew) and that Microsoft has a hotfix they can apply if your service is showing a permission issue like mine. Ill include the link to the forum below so you can add to it and get your issue resolved as well.

Microsoft did get this resolved and fairly quick too. Good luck!

Community Link

UPS Shorts Out and Kills Nortel Phone System PSU

2013-09-25T10:00:00.000-05:00

I had the strangest bit of luck a week ago regarding our 4 APC units (Smart UPS 1500 for reference) that supply backup power to our server closet. I walked in that morning for an unrelated event and see a bright red light shining at me telling me that a one of the UPS's (#4 in particular) needed a battery change. I figured sure, I will replace it tonight at 9pm and move on with my simple life.

That evening a simple battery change resulted in the same issue again when I fired back up the UPS unit, a glowing red change battery light. At this point our telephone and internet had been down for long enough that I decided to replace the UPS entirely so I could get those items back up again. Not thinking about anything else I replace the UPS, plug in the power cables for a 2nd time and let everything take it time to come back up. The good news was that due to redundancy in our ISCSI network backbone and dual PSU's in our servers and SAN storage no data was lost, damaged or stopped working internally during this time.

30 minutes later however, the telephone system had still failed to come up and multiple telephones gave off a creepy Silent Hill like static warning me of coming danger. I decided then something had happened and gave our phone vendor a call, he was not optimistic and prepared for a long night with me at work. In the end (1am at this point) we were able to keep our programming by replacing the 300$ power supply and get her back up and running, but we were still perplexed as to how 1 system behind a UPS, attached to a surge protector went bad out of 12 items plugged into the unit.

Here it is a week later and the "Bad" UPS has functioned fine during tests with both its original battery and the one I tried to replace it with. I surely won't place this into production, but I would love to know what happened last week and any way I could prevent it from happening again.

1. Make sure the UPS is unplugged and all items are also unplugged before removing the battery

2. Replace the battery and power on the unit before plugging in any items to the back

3. After 15 minute run time plug in items one at a time so as to not create a large power draw if items are booting up.

Hopefully changing my steps a bit will help me, and you if this happens in your IT world.

Adding Facebook Like Button to Blogger Blog

2013-09-23T17:50:00.000-05:00

Ill try to make this a quick and helpful write-up. By default Blogger will let you easily add in a Google+ widget to your site, but no easy way to add in one for Facebook. There are a few add-ons out there but this covers just adding a Facebook "Like" button, skipping the extra flair (I've never used Digg anyway).

1. First head over to Facebook HERE

2. Configure the Like button to your personal preference

3. Click Grab Code

4. Copy the Javascript SDK and head over to your Blogger Admin portal

5. Find Templates and click on it

6. Click on EDIT HTML

Right after the line that says

<body expr:class='"loading" + data:blog.mobileClass'>

Enter in the SDK code

7. Now go grab the DIV code from the Facebook page

8. In the HTML find the spot you want it to appear at (mine is just under the Google + button on the side)

(The google plus one widget should be available to jump to if you have it implemented)

9. Add your code right before the end the widgets code

End of widget code : </b:includable>

</b:widget>

10. Click Save

Should you have a dream job?

2013-09-20T14:57:00.000-05:00

I have pondered this a lot lately and have decided that yes, you should.

Making progress toward something is human nature, accomplishments as just as important as your goals for without them you would never have an accomplishment. I believe having a Dream Job set, no matter how unrealistic it is, it helps your state of mind on a day to day basis.

Don't get me wrong though, I do love my job. This place is amazing to work at, and tough as nails to really push me to do my best. A dream job though is always something to hope for, to keep on your mind. For me, I pick working as a Network Systems Admin for Ducati in Italy. Will it ever happen? Probably not, but just like being a kid and saying "when I grow up" it lets me dream and focus more on the work it would take to get there. Maybe it's about time I learned some Italian?

An Outlook Quirk

2013-09-18T14:49:00.000-05:00

I discovered a slight bug recently when designing a new signature for our company that I would never had caught in a million years of troubleshooting and is testament to how hard it is to make a perfect application/design.

After setting up tables, images, fighting outlooks lack of support for certain layouts in versions previous to 2013 I thought I had done it all. I checked, printed, sent and printed some more and everything was in great shape. Then I roll out to my first beta group, and man did something so strange happen.

Our CEO has multiple monitors and as such small print can definitely be hard to see way out in the corners, so he has increased the OS rendering 125%. I've seen people do this before, but I have never seen it effect Outlook like it has now. He runs 2013, and every time he sends an email out with the new signature 2 of the 4 images increase in size by 25%. We have compared them to the others, and can not find anything different. It's amazing but so frustrating at the same time. I have yet to find a solution to this issue other than changing the screen back to 100%, but there has to be something that's different....right?

Well after a few hours of prodding I was able to figure it out. The issue seems to only happen when the image has Inline Word Wrapping turned on. Setting it to Top/Bottom seems to fix the image blowup for good.

Laziness of Computer Repair Shops

2013-09-16T17:30:00.000-05:00

After years of hard work and honestly I get the pleasure of looking over friends and family's computer to make sure they are in tip top shape when the owners believe otherwise.

This week I was approached by a friend and handed a machine that was a friend of a friends etc. They stated that the user took the machine to a repair shop and was told it was a mainboard issue, the user didn't want to spend the money and had asked around to see if anyone could take a second look. I responded to my friend with a "Sure ill be glad to" and was off to my work bench.

I worked on the toshiba laptop for 5 maybe 10 minutes doing basic testing and was able to conclude in that amount of time that the mainboard was fine, in fact the only fault part on the laptop was the hard drive. Bad hard drives can definitely cause a no POST situation and sure enough this was one of those times.

Then after my excitement of finding the issue started to wain I realized that the company that looked over this the first time was either lying or missed a basic part of computer troubleshooting. I really do not see how any company could stay in business after such a poor performance. Honesty and common sense should be a standard of any company, and small businesses are not omitted to that.

Rule of thumb, always get a second opinion from someone you can trust. Hopefully in the future that will be more businesses and less individuals.

Windows 8.0 Review

2013-09-13T10:00:00.000-05:00

After using Windows 8.0 for 2 months (this would be my second try at using this OS) I have come to somewhat of a conclusion about the state of the OS and its potential as well as drawbacks. My wife has also acquired a Windows 8.0 laptop (Dell brand) and her discussions and opinions on it have made me rethink many things as I have to face the coming of deploying it to users once Windows 7 becomes extinct.

I will focus on 5 items to make this post short, sweet and hopefully information.

1. Start Button - A lot can be said of this. I installed Classic Shell day 1 of trying this system out again and there hasn't been 1 time when I have said to myself, yes I would love to have a hot corner back to get to my programs. In fact I use it much like I did in windows 7 and before. The missing start menu is still an issue of frustration for my wife (whom will get Classic Start installed as soon as I get the chance). Why this was missing and waiting to 8.1 I will never know, and by then neither of us will care.

2. Start Screen - No, just no. The whole thing is confusing and I am in the IT field. For my wife it's even worse. There are times I can't even help her, I end up opening some random application and then constantly switching to it via another hot corner. It's a mess. Since Classic Start I have only ventured into the Start Screen when I get curious about an app, in fact I haven't really used any apps since then. When the computer is setup I could be able to pick Laptop or Tablet experience and have it optimized for my use.

3. Speed - Windows 8.0 is fast, there is no denying that. My wifes new Dell is not a power machine by any means but the speed at which Windows 8 runs vs Windows 7 is blinding. I love how a restart can take less than a minute. Startup time is even less. Keep this, at all costs.

4. Apps - Poor selection and the fact that on a laptop if I want netflix I can just bring up a web browser to do it negates any reason for the app store in the first place let alone the App like start screen. Are my apps taking up processing power and ram? Probably. Is it a lot? Probably not. But if I never get into it, id like that extra 5% please, especially on a budget machine.

5. Program compatibility - Great! In fact I have only come across 1 program that wouldn't run in Windows 8 due to a missing driver. Being able to run to old programs without the need for a virtual machine is a great thing.

Would I deploy it to my users? - Sure, If I had to. You could bet yourself that I would install Classic Shell and disable most Windows 8 features though. And my users are on their own signing up for a Live ID to purchase things if they really want into the App Store.

Blog design changes

2013-09-10T15:52:00.002-05:00

After quite some time not updating this blog I come back to find that Google has messed it up big time. Really sorry for anyone who visited during this time. I have fixed a few issues and will really work on making this site more professional and easier to navigate.

- Justin

iPhone 5C and 5S Release Feedback

2013-09-10T14:27:00.000-05:00

After watching the keynote today i've decided that Apple makes cool things, but doesn't know how to price the "Cheap" model as such....450$ for the iPhone 4S? Really? iPhone 5c starting at 550$? 650$ for the iphone 5s? If a market is in the early stages of moving to no contract, and the rest of the world is no contract....wouldn't it make more sense to build a cheaper phone thats actually cheap?

Compared side by side the Nexus 4 = iPhone 4s, when I bought my Nexus 4 it was 100$ less, now its 200$ as they finish off their supply before the Nexus 5 comes out. 2 completely different marketing strategies (contract vs non) and I somehow think that if you release 2 phones you could easily cover both markets no?

On the plus side, I do like the fingerprint reader concept and a 64bit phone OS makes me happy and could cause some change at Google for better performance..

P.S. - This comment was more about marketing/pricing than an android vs apple fight. In comparison much of the android market has the same problem, the good thing there is some of it doesn't...and the some that doesn't is still more than apples limited selection of 0 cheap phones.

In fact, i'm just generally pissed about how much cell phone makers screw everyone over on price.

There, I said it. This market needs to change, and that can only happen when people stop paying out the bum for contract phones and expensive no contract phones.

Money talks people, find a cheap smartphone and wait out the storm.