« Posts tagged Short

Low on Server Disk Space? Have Symantec Endpoint? There’s Your Problem

April 29, 2010 / posted in "It's a Feature", Servers, Short, Troubleshooting / 1 Comment

This morning, I received an email from a charity I do some consulting for saying that they were getting a Low Disk Space warning on their primary terminal server. After remoting in, I confirmed that on the 120GB primary partition, there was less than 100MB free. Odd, considering that the server only has about 40GB worth of user files on it.

A quick check (done by selecting likely folders in the root of the drive and opening the properties window) confirmed that C:ProgramData was using an extra 40GB space that it shouldn’t. Further digging revealed that C:ProgramDataSymantecSymantec Endpoint ProtectionXfer contained somewhere in the neighbourhood of 48,000 file, each ~20KB in size.

Solution? Delete and recreate the Xfer folder, then run Live Update again. Low disk space problem solved, but would someone at Symantec care to explain just what the hell happened?

Update: Found a temporary fix here: http://www.symantec.com/connect/forums/symatec-ep-making-alot-files-under-xfer-folder

Apparently, the issues results from EndPoint rescanning files in quarantine every time new definitions arrive. If you have a lot of files in quarantine, your disk space will disappear that much faster. Go figure. Apparently they’ve fixed some instances of this, but not others, as it was supposed to have been solved in MR4, but is still present in MR4 and MR5.

Short Review: Google’s Nexus One (Rogers/AT&T Version)

April 9, 2010 / posted in Android, iPhone, Short / 2 Comments

Now that I’ve had a few weeks to play around with my Nexus One, here are a few observations I’ve made:

  • I can’t live without the CyanogenMod ROM. Android 2.1 is nice, but the tweaks available in CM 5.x are too numerous to mention and offer many features that go well beyond what the N1 can do out-of-box. If you have an N1 (the TMO version, or the Rogers/AT&T one), get CyanogenMod. You’ll never go back.
  • The screen is, by far, the best I’ve seen on smart phone – it trumps my old iPhone 3G at every turn. Some people argue that the screen has a purple hue to it, but to them I ask, have you heard of Colour Temperature?
  • The last three phones I’ve had (an iPhone 3G, an HTC Dream, and an HTC Magic) have all had noticeable lag on the main screens and when load applications. The N1, both with the stock ROM (that I had left on for all of around an hour) and CyanogenMod simply scream. There’s nothing slow about this phone.
  • For all of those who say that the signal quality on the N1 is crap, please actually get one before forming an opinion. I’ve seen an increase in signal strength/quality on the N1 over the other HTC phones I’ve had, and over the iPhone 3G. Additionally, I’ve been able able to clock download speeds greater than 3Mbit/s on Rogers’ HSDPA network. Not too bad at all.
  • The camera is amazing – the fast auto-focus, bright flash, and fine-grain controls are simply amazing, and at 5 mega pixels, the picture quality is simply staggering for a smart phone.
  • My only real complaint about the N1 is battery life, but then again, I’m always complaining about that (the exception being my MSI Wind U123 with it’s 9 cell battery that gives me 8 hours of use). Under heavy usage, I have to charge the phone nightly. For that reason, I bought an extra battery with the phone, however as I have a power inverter for the car that features a USB port, I didn’t really need to get the spare.

That’s really about it for now. Overall, the N1 is an excellent phone, and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it anyone.

Short: Kensington 0, Me 1

March 22, 2010 / posted in Hack, Hardware, Short / No Comments

A Kingston Desktop Lock

Kensington makes a decent desktop lock. However, they’re nothing that ten minutes and a pair of wire snips can’t take care of – it’s a very effective way of unlocking a case when the key has been lost for years….

As a side note, the magnets in old hard drives make for a perfect method of removing small metal shards from ones flesh. Just sayin’.

Short: Google’s Nexus One Now Available in Canada!

March 17, 2010 / posted in Android, Google, Short / No Comments

Yes, you read it right. I’m surprised there hasn’t been more news about this, but the Nexus One is now for sale in Canada, and it works on Rogers, Telus, and presumably Bell. Mine is already on order, and I’ll report back when it gets in with an unboxing and information post.

So far, it looks like the only difference between this Nexus One and the TMO one offered previously is the radio. As such, most cooked ROMs should work with it (as long as they include a library that allows access to the slightly different radio) – so hopefully, we won’t have another Magic 32A/32B issue on our hands.

More to come soon!

Update: According to Twitter user @AngioNicholai, the AT&T Nexus One runs CyanogenMod 5.x without issue!

Update #2: Additional confirmation by @PaulOBrien.

Update #3: First-hand confirmation! Cyanogen’s 5.0.4.1 works beautifully on my new Nexus!

Short: The Art of Computer Naming

March 13, 2010 / posted in Makes Sense, Servers, Short / 3 Comments

When it comes to naming conventions, everyone will give you a different answer. Some people will say the names should be based on location, like “LIVINGROOM”, “BEDROOM”, “SHOWER”, etc…. Others will say they should be named based on what they do, as in “WEBSERV1″, “PRINTSERV3″, “PRONSTOR99″, etc…. A lot of people tend to name their machines after asset tags, or the people who use them.

Myself? I like to name machines after comic book characters. My current lineup is: “CALVIN”, “HOBBES”, “SATCHEL”, “BUCKY”, “OPUS”, “BILL-THE-CAT”, and this server, “STEVE-DALLAS”.

What can I say?

Short Non-Tech Rant: Tim Hortons

March 8, 2010 / posted in Non-Tech, Rants, Short / 4 Comments

Wow. I’ve got quite a long history with Tim Hortons, but for some reason I keep going back (probably because of Roll Up The Rim). This morning at the drive-through was about par for the course.

Her: Welcome to Tim Hortons, how can I help you?

Me: Hi. Can I please get an extra-large tea, with two milk and two sugar?

Her: <several seconds of silence> Ummm, so you want a decaf tea?

Me: Actually, I just want a regular tea.

Her: Okay. Do you want anything in it?

Me: Yes. Two milk, and two sugar.

Her: <several seconds more of silence>. So two cream, and one sweetener?

Me (trying not to sound frustrated): No. Two milk. <pause> And two sugar.

Her: Oh! Okay!

I’m surprised that I didn’t end up with a Double-Double instead, as has been known to happen before.

Short Rant: WSUS

February 9, 2010 / posted in "It's a Feature", Microsoft, Rants, Short, Software / No Comments

I’m running WSUS 3.0 SP2, and it really helps to not only track the update status of my machines, but also because we’re only on a DSL connection, and the update caching is a lifesaver. My main complaint with WSUS, though, is the update filtering.

In WSUS, you can tell it what products you want to get updates for, what classification (driver, critical update, service pack, etc…), and even whether to auto-approve them or not, but for some unknown reason, WSUS doesn’t let you specify the damn architecture that you want.

Our organization doesn’t have any Intanium hardware – why doesn’t WSUS let me specifically block that architecture? I only want x86 and x86_64 updates. Is that so hard? Instead, my auto-approve rules happily let those updates download, and then sit and take up space until I run the cleanup wizard.

Come on, Microsoft. Think this one through, please? Maybe introduce it in the 4.0 update?

Because I Can: Trackmania Nations ESWC

February 8, 2010 / posted in Gaming, Short / No Comments
Progress!

Progress!

Not horribly news worthy, however I finally got all the damn gold medals on the original Track Mania Nations. Next up, the Forever update (the last five tracks are a pain in the ass!).

Short: Quantum Linux

February 7, 2010 / posted in Linux, Short / No Comments

Due to a failed kernel upgrade earlier today, I decided to wipe my MSI Wind and start over with the LXDE spin of Fedora 12. After the install, I went through installing my favourite packages, and notice the following while yum processed the dependencies for VLC:

schroedinger   i686   1.0.8-3.fc12   updates   208k

Closer inspection revealed the package to be a codec, but that only led to further questions. Does this package transport video, and then only determine whether it is encoded/decoded when your media player first tries to render it? Does the process involve acid, or radioactive material? Does it work with Boxee?

This has been your annual dose of quantum humour. I now return you to your Superbowl Sunday. Thank you.

Short: Another From the Search Results

September 17, 2009 / posted in Apple, iPhone, Short / No Comments

To the person who found my blog using the search term ‘iphone exchange “missing emails”‘, it’s an easy answer:

When the iPhone’s Mail.app is setup to use Exchange, it has an initial limit to the number of messages it will grab from the server — the default is the 50 most recent messages. This can be increased to 200.

The key word here is recent – by default, the first 50 recent messages you load will be displayed. Want to see anything other than that? Sorry, you gotta use Outlook Web Access. That’s just how it was designed.

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