Over the next hour I start digging through the piles of toys and junk.  There are two racks of bins to put stuff in which haven’t been moved in years.  There is much stuff behind them as there is in them.  I move them away from the wall and start tossing stuff out.

Bag two!

Bag three!  Now I am on  a roll!

I have worked my way down and have hit a toy box.  Damn these kids have a lot of shit.  Just too much stuff.  I bet they don’t even know half of what is here.  Shit half of this stuff is bits an pieced to games and other toys. There is no way these games can be played again, the needed pieces are all over the place.  Knowing which pieces go to which non-played-games, they start going in the trash.  This stuff causes more stress than it’s worth.  If I screw up and throw out the absolutely-most-important-game-ever, well we can deal with it then.  Like they say, it is much easier to ask for forgiveness than ask for permission.

Bag four! Progress has been made, two hours have gone by and I am wearing down.  This is an excellent start and there is an absolute noticeable difference.  Tomorrow is another day, and more shit will go.  And oh yes, this is just the beginning.  My goal for this year is to get the garage organized so I can work out there and get things done.  There has has been a pile of “Garage Sale” stuff in my workbench area for two years.  I have had it and it has to go.  If my wonderful wife doesn’t do something with the pile she just has to sell, it is all going to Purple Hearts, or other charitable organization.

You may have no idea how nice it feels to reduce and purge the crap out of your life, until you just dig in and toss out.  The stuff is just not needed, stop hording.

By Getting a solid start in March, this will be a great Purging Year, just like some of my previous ones.  My reward the return of a garage I can work in, and organize (Need to find a refrigerator though).  I have owned a vice for 6 years and haven’t mounted on the work bench.  Instead I use make-shift clamps, stupid.

By the way, I have an old 1U and 2U server going to the recycler, I you need them let me know before they are gone.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Remote Desktop (Vs. Client Connection Manager)

Windows XP < SP3

/console

Windows XP SP3

/admin

Window Vista [< sp1]

/Console

Windows Vista (Business) [sp1]

/admin

Windows 7

/admin

Windows Server 2003 (incl. R2) [sp2]

/console

Windows Server 2008

/admin

Note RDC 6.1 (6.0.6001) supports Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) 6.1

http://blogs.msdn.com/rds/archive/2007/12/17/changes-to-remote-administration-in-windows-server-2008.aspx

Connects to the console session of a server

Connects you to the session for administering a server.

Why the heck don’t they just put a check box on the login form?

As I dig deeper into IT security and am exposed to more and more about security I can’t help to think about things from a security point of view.  It is getting to the point where the security point of view to something is my first point of view.

As usual this time of year, I am involved in a lot of different audits and reviews.  While going through a clients requirements for their vendors I started to think about mobile phone.  Not any in particular, but all of them in general and how much the space has changed over the last five years.

What I am really curious about is why nobody seems to be leading the enterprise space for mobile phone and devices.  Sure it seems iPhone is taking over and are a huge presence in corporate environments; though from a security point of view its all a scary proposition.

What is missing is the ability force policy and lock-down mobile phones and devices.  I can’t set policies to say, all phones must have a password, and that password must be at least six digits long.  Sure these parameters can be set from the phone, but not being able to centrally control this stuff is a big fail.

Now Windows phone 6.5 was a big piece of crap, I know this, but what it had that most others do not is the ability to set policy on the phone from active directory.  Exactly what you need to do in an enterprise.  If you are running a Blackberry server you have some good controls around the phone, though I know fortune 500 companies who are dumping their BES servers for Blackberry Express Servers because it’s just too much money to maintain the BES server for an ever-dying space.

I guess I understand why Microsoft jumped after the consumer phone space, wanting to jump on iPhone bandwagon, but they left a huge space untapped.  I saw a tweet today that only 6% of Chinese have cell phone, and what a space to get into.  I guess there is a lot of potential there, but personally I find it easier to make money closer to home, and here in the States we need enterprise class phone.  Top functioning iPhone, Windows Phone 7 class phones with a solid ability to set policies on them and restricting users from overwriting those policies.

I am not sure who will be first but I can’t wait.  Whomever it is, they will produce billions in revenue, billions.

Perhaps what needs to be done is not rely on the phone development companies but third parties to develop controls for mobile phones, so a whole gamut of phones can be locked down by central policy.  The company would need to build apps for the different phone types and be able to lock those apps down so they cannot be uninstalled by users, or if they are the needs to auto-wiped at the same time.

It’s not horrible that phone development companies are concentrating on the user experience, there are a lot of really great phones being produced.  Someone needs to move on the security space around these phones as the continue to infiltrate deeper and deeper into corporate America.

A Software Application Idea

I work in a Windows world, so this idea is from a Windows Server view. Build an application which installs in active directory which allows you to register users phones with their user accounts.  On the phones an application is installed which is used to force the policy on the phone.  I wonder if there would be issues controller password, and other security aspects of a phone.  Meaning, will the manufactures allow you access to those parts of the phone with their SDKs.

Load the application on the phone, register the phone with AD and allow the system to lock down the phones based on the policies you have set.  As long as the application is found on the phone (plus verification through certificates) the phone may be used and send/receive email, etc.

If the application is removed from the phone, the phone is auto-whipped.  This application can also provide encryption services for the phone.  PGP verify emails on your phone anyone?

This can’t be an original idea, but I do like it.  It is a great way to allow the phone development companies to concentrate on UX and someone else enterprise security.  Hardware support for this would be useful too.

Tell me what you think of this idea, or if it already exists, point it out to me, I would love to check it out.

3/11/2012 Update:

So my new employer is using a company for this exact purpose, http://www.good.com.  Good technology which interacts with the companies Exchange server instead of the phone.  It allows the removal of service without having to wipe everything on the phone when an employees leaves.  To me not a great solution, but a solution nonetheless.

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For more information about SOPA and PIPA please use google or these links:

• http://blog.dreamhost.com/2011/11/22/dont-drop-the-soap-drop-sopa/
• http://americancensorship.org/
• http://fightforthefuture.org
• http://fightforthefuture.org/pipa

I really like the writeup in the Dreamhost blog.  If these bills go through it will be the end of the Internet as we have known it. And not for the better.

And of course this blog too will be shutdown on the 18th.  Sorry to my one follower, but it all for the better.

Here’s an excerpt:

A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 3,900 times in 2011. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 3 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

I kept the bone and part of the ham which was not sliced by Cook’s machines.  I put it in a plastic bag right away after carving up the shank to ensure I had it for the soup.  There was a good chunk of meat and skin, oh the flavor that brings.

On soup making day I gathered the following fresh materials:

1    Lbs split peas
1    cup chopped onion
1    cup chopped carrot
1    cup chopped celery
4    cloves garlic, minced
2    Tbsp unsalted butter
4    cups of chicken stock (Used Swanson in a box)
4    cups of cold tap water
1    can Swanson vegetable broth (almost 2 cups)
2    tsp dry Thyme
2    tsp cumin
3    dry bay leaves (Loral leaves)
1    large white (baking potato)
2    red potatoes

Kosher salt
fresh ground pepper

In a 8 quart stock pot I began by melting the two table spoons of butter.  Once melted I threw in the onions, carrots and celery.  I topped them with a heavy pinch of kosher salt and a few turns of the pepper mill.  I turned down the heat to medium low, as I am just sweating the vegetables, I don’t want them to brown.

While the vegetables were doing their thing, I minced up the garlic, turned back and stirred the vegetables, and continued to mince the garlic.  Nothing like multitasking.    Once the vegetables started to soften and the onions were more translucent I through in the garlic and stirred it in.  I let that cook for a minute or so.

The pound of split peas need to be inspected for rocks and other debris (what a strange word spelling).  Once clear of crap, rinse well using a strainer.

The vegetables are looking good, so I throw in the peas and stir them in.  I remove the big chunk of ham off of the bone (the part which wasn’t sliced by Cook’s).  There is still ham on the bone, which is right next to the bone.  This meat will appear stringier.  Leave this ham on, it needs to cook in the soup.  Place the bone in the pot.

I poor the four cups of  chicken broth in along with the four cups of cold tap water.  The bone is still sticking out of the broth a bit, so I throw in a can of vegetable broth.  That looks better.  A little stir and everything is covered up.

Time for spices.  Damn, only pieces of bay leaf left.  I find six of the larger pieces (so they are easier to pick out later) and throw them in.  I am assuming it’s about three whole leafs.  Thyme, need some thyme, where the heck is it.  Can’t remember when I cooked something with Thyme.  Oh there it is, way back in the cupboard (another strange spelling for a word).  Hmmm, this stuff looks a little old.  I dump about two teaspoons in my palm and rub my hands together hoping I can get a little something out of this old stuff.  The smell is stronger, I think that will work.  Hey look, cumin, I like cumin, lets dump some in.  I dump about one-half table spoon of cumin in the pot.

Ah, now that looks like some good soup.  I turn up the heat and stir it a bit more.  Time to get this sucker up to a boil.  Once boiling, I stir again, turn the heat all the way down and put on the cover.

The soup needs to simmer like this for one hour.  There really isn’t a reason to sir it, though it can’t hurt to do it two or three time during the hour.

The hour is up, so I pull the bone out and remove all the meat from it I can.  I don’t too crazy, as I have a good chuck of meat that I saved earlier.  Once de-meated, I throw the bone back in, just in case there is any flavor it may have left to give up for us.

I cut up the meat I removed from the bone and then grab, the still cold, meat that was kept earlier (the part not cut by Cook’s spiraling equipment).  I cut this meat up into cubes, about three-eights in size.  I remove some of the larger chunks of fat, but keep some.  I also keep the skin on many of the pieces.  All good flavor.

Once the meat is cut-up, I peal and cut the potatoes into one-half inch pieces.  I just throw all thi sin the same bowl waiting to go into the pot.

It’s  been about a half hour since I took the meat off the bone.  I go fishing for it again and remove any soup stuff which may be sticking to it.  The bone goes in the trash and all the cut up meat and potatoes goes into the pot.  While stirring this in the soup seemed to have cooked down a lot.  So I throw in another two cups of water.  After doing that, one probably would have been enough, but too late now.  Still looks great, nonetheless.

I turn up the heat to get the soup back up to a boil.  There are a lot of heavy items in the soup now, all of the cooked peas and those potatoes.  If I am not careful, I could easily burn this stuff sitting on the bottom.  So it is a good idea to keep an eye on things and sir that stuff up off the bottom every once in a while.  Once the soup is getting back to a boil (just a few bubbles, I see the stuff moving) I turn the flame back down to low and stir that stuff up off the bottom.  I cover up the pot and let the potatoes cook and the ham get hot.

After about another half hour, it was done.  I took the cover off, gave it a good stir and let it sit for a while.  That soup looked tired from all that cooking.

twenty minutes later I poured a bowl, fell in love and decided to write it all down.  Boy I hope I can do this again as well.

Disclaimer: If you follow these measurements like the gospel your soup will probably suck.  There is as much gut-feeling as there are measurements into making a good soup.  Don’t keep doctoring it, and just let it do it’s thing.

By the way, I got the recipe idea for this soup from four other recipes.  I just took the pieces I wanted and used them.  Soup rules are so simple

A thank you to @jasonclevine who sent me message on twitter on how to do this.

All you need to do is wrap your code with

[sourcecode language="xxxx"]

[/sourcecode]

There are a bunch of different languages supported and other options which can be defined.  You can find all the details here: http://en.support.wordpress.com/code/posting-source-code/

I have a span tag which I am using for a button.  This button calls a JavaScript function to test blog posting settings.  I am using a span because it was easy enough to style.

CSS:

#VerifyBlogClick {
/*#696969*/
color:#575757;
border:1px solid gray;
background-color:#eee;
padding:2px 5px 2px 5px;
margin:0 0 0 13px;
border-radius: 2px;
}
#VerifyBlogClick:hover {
color:Black;
background-color:#bbb;
cursor:pointer;
}
.verifierRunning {
padding-right:30px;
background-image:url(ajaxloaderBlue.gif);
background-repeat:no-repeat;
background-position:right;
}

HTML:

<span id="VerifyBlogClick" onclick="javascript:verifyBlog_click()" title="Tries to send an unpublished test post to your blog">Verify Blog</span>

JavaScript:

$('#VerifyBlogClick').addClass('verifierRunning');

// ... stuff

$('#VerifyBlogClick').removeClass('verifierRunning');

Basically what I have here is a span styled like a button.  When the button is clicked I add the class .verifierRunning to the span tag using jquery. This class changes border-right to 20px and defines a background image (a loading image).

The problem that I am running into is that any properties defined in the id selector are not overridden by the class.  It seems that id’s always have a higher precedence than a class.  I can’t believe that there isn’t a way around this, though I have not been able to find anything on the web which will work.

My work-around this is to change VerifyBlogClick to a class.  I don’t mind doing this, I would just like to find out a way to do this the other way.

As the night got later (I think it’s 03:00 about now) I decided to figure out how others are returning json object from ASP.NET MVC.  It isn’t as simple as it should be, but not too difficult.  The biggest issue, as with much in MVC land is the huge lack of documentation.  So looking up something like JsonResult, yields a pretty useless help page.  So more time had to go into discovering on how to actually use this cool new result type.

It turns out you can set up and action with a return type of JsonResult (it’s usually ActionResult) and have that action return a json object.  I am not even going to pretend I can do this from other objects like json.net (from James Newton-King).  I am using this to return a model as json which populates my form with on-demand instructions.  This library rocks, but I digress.

The basic structure I used is a dictionary object

public JsonResult MyAction()
{
  Dictionary<string, string> dict = new Dictionary<string, string>();
  dict.Add("keya", "valuea");
  dict.Add("keyb", "valueb");
  return Json(dict);
}

That’s pretty much it in a nutshell.  Json() is a new web helper in MVC3.  You can find it at System.Web.Helpers.

I saw one example where you can build an object on the fly, but I couldn’t get it to work.  It basically looks like this:

//....
return Json(new {keya = valuea, keyb = valueb};

The dictionary generic works for now.  If you know of a better way, please let me know.