Category: Computers & Networking

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Make a Sony E-Reader Picture Frame

The technology world is continuously changing. Today’s awesome technology is tomorrows trash, its just a simple fact of life. I truly believe we should do what we can to reduce, reuse and recycle our old tech.  Today while rummaging through the archive of stuff I came across an old Sony PRS-600.

The Sony PRS-600 was released in 2009 and by all standards ready for the trash heap. Before sending this device off to its finial resting place I decided to make a cute black and white picture frame.

Step 1 – Prepare the PRS-600

Using an old  2GB SD card, I loaded up around 300 of my favorite photos, inserted it into the unit. On the settings menu I configured the PRS-600 to never shut off, and run a perpetual slide show with a 60 second delay between images. Continue reading “Make a Sony E-Reader Picture Frame”

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Add extra SATA power to the Optiplex 9020

The Optiplex 9020 is quite a number of years old now, and many are beginning to come out of mainstream service. As with many of my projects, I like to re-purpose older hardware for new tasks.

In this case I want to add an SSD drive along with a standard spinning disk. I will be using a smaller 400gb SSD for the boot drive, and a larger 2tb HDD for my storage. The only problem is the Optiplex 9020 only has one SATA power connector in the small form factor.

Adding SATA power to Optiplex 9020

Before we begin I want to define the pin out of the SATA connector so you understand what’s going on. Also understand you can get the same result with a $7 splitter from amazon

SATA connectors are made up of 4 colorshttp://www.playtool.com/pages/psuconnectors/sataindex.jpg Continue reading “Add extra SATA power to the Optiplex 9020”

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Elf On The Shelf Photo Contest

It’s that time of year again when all the Elves are endlessly sitting on shelves. This year my office is having a contest for best Elf on the shelf photo.

Since I work in IT, I figured my photo entry must be IT related.

Destroying Laptops Is Fun!

I found an old HP i3 laptop that was broken sitting around the house and decided to have some fun. In my head I pictured the Elf going through the screen (in one side and out the other) looking as happy as can be!

The first step was to remove any useful components still inside the laptop. I was able to recycle the hard drive, memory and processor. I also removed the mother board,  DVD writer and battery and properly disposed of them.

Cutting the hole.

Dremel

First I dew an outline of the hole on the display using a sharpie, then using my Dremel MM45-06 Oscillating tool  I cut the hole all the way through the laptop. WARNING! Laptop screens contain glass, use work gloves and eye protection while cutting.

 

Stage The Elf.

 

I tried the Elf in a few positions to test how we would look.

Continue reading “Elf On The Shelf Photo Contest”

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8″ (200mm) Silicon Wafer With Amazing Chip Patterns

Have you ever wondered what your life would be like if we never invented the micro chip? Micro chips and to that extent the micro processor should be hailed as one of the greatest inventions of all time. Most of our modern life would not be possible if we were not able to fit billions of  transistors in the space of a postage stamp silicon wafer. Just think about that statement for a moment! Your mobile phone would be the size of a car, your home computer the size of a room in your house. Constantly swapping out burnt vacuum tubes.

Micro chips to the rescue.

A Silicon Wafer Is Born:

Ever wondered how these chips are made? I never gave it a thought myself until I stumbled across these Silicon Wafers. For some reason or another these wafers were deemed defective so they were unable to continue the journey into computers, phones and other electronics. Some of the wafers were destined to become DRAM’s (memory) some designed to be micro processors, while others custom circuits for a specific job. Continue reading “8″ (200mm) Silicon Wafer With Amazing Chip Patterns”

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Detecting an Unsupported Browser with Apache Mod_Rewrite

I am a man who wears many hats at my day job, and one of my favorite hats is maintainer of our new Intranet site. I built the site on a WordPress foundation figuring any functionality I need could be added via plugin down the road. Recently ran into an issue with users accessing the site via an unsupported browser.

In the office I have designated the domain XXXX.LOCAL for anything that needs to resolve internally. Currently we purchase a piece of browser based software from a company that only supports IE in compatibility mode. This forces us to set XXXX.LOCAL to compatibility mode in all IE browsers. My WordPress intranet site does not like compatibility mode one bit. Since all my users have Edge, Firefox and some have Chrome as their available browsers the thought entered my mind to force them to use one of them.

HOW TO DESIGNATE iNTERNET EXPLORER AS AN UNSUPPORTED BROWSER

Continue reading “Detecting an Unsupported Browser with Apache Mod_Rewrite”

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Virus Email Reminder – Word Macros Are Bad!

I had a couple of users in the office this week attempt to enable word macros on a document they received in email. I try to give my users as much information as I can to avoid viruses and malware, but each week the hackers come up with additional methods to attempt unauthorized network access.

Exploit Vector:

This time around the hack was email based and the email came from a known  source.  The attacker has already gained control of the senders workstation and had sent the message as a reply to an earlier thread. Continue reading “Virus Email Reminder – Word Macros Are Bad!”

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Exchange 2016- EVENT ID 9646 – MoMT exceeded the maximum of 32 objects of type Session

Here is another issue I encountered during my Exchange 2016 migration. A hand full of users have been getting knocked out of public folders with an Event ID 9646 and they have exceed the max of 32 session objects. What the hell does that mean? Why only a few users?

Investigating Event 9646

The Monday after I migrated public folders to Microsoft’s new “Modern Public Folders” a hand full of users began calling me they were unable to access them. Their specific error was:

“Cannot expand the folder. Your server administrator has limited the number of items you can open simultaneously. Try closing messages you have opened or removing attachments and images from unsent messages you are composing.”

Continue reading “Exchange 2016- EVENT ID 9646 – MoMT exceeded the maximum of 32 objects of type Session”

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Exchange 2016 – EVENT ID 15021- Blank ECP / OWA & Error connecting to Outlook

If you have been following my blog, I recently migrated my Exchange 2010 server to a new 2016 server. There have been a few hiccups along the way however for the most part  the experience has been good and user disruption minimal, until I encountered Event ID 15021.

ExchangeLast night during a maintenance window I applied my Microsoft updates and rebooted the server. Shortly after reboot I attempted to open Outlook and it failed with a server unavailable error. OWA and ECP both showed BLANK white screens. I began to panic a little because this is probably the IT guys worst nightmare! Working in the industry for over 20 years I put my panic aside and began my standard troubleshooting procedure.

STEP 1 – Event logs are your friend

Continue reading “Exchange 2016 – EVENT ID 15021- Blank ECP / OWA & Error connecting to Outlook”

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My Experience Migrating to Exchange 2016

If you have ever taken the time to read my blog you would probably know by now that I am the IT director for a mid sized accounting firm in NJ. One project on my docket this year is to migrate from Exchange 2010 to Exchange 2016. This post is just going to be a basic log of what I encountered during my install. If you take the time to read this maybe you can find a useful tip to aid in your migration woes.

Having a small shop and wearing a lot of hats here in the office tends to create a slew of challenges. Most of the time I have a ton of projects brewing so focusing on one can be difficult at times. My migration to a new Exchange 2016 server will be gradual taking about 2 to 3 weeks to complete. During the initial setup I like to let certain steps “stew” overnight to make sure there are no disruptions. I also like to be sure I have a contingency plan to undo any unforeseen issues.

Is your directory active enough?

Continue reading “My Experience Migrating to Exchange 2016”

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iOS 11 – Cannot Send Mail. The message was rejected by the server.

I am knee deep in  an upgrade from Exchange 2010 to Exchange 2016 in the office. There have been many challenges that I will be addressing in another post, however I thought this one regarding iOS 11 to be important enough to write about it today.

Cannot Send Mail. The message was rejected by the server.

I have one user on the network that is receiving this message when they attempt to forward or reply to their mail on my exchange server. When composing a new message the mail is delivered as expected. The fact that this is a new server and the user was migrated just days before led me to believe the issue was on my end.

Failed Fixes:

  • Restart IIS with an IISRESET command
  • Remove the email profile from the iPhone and recreate it
  • Restart the entire exchange server
  • Review the log files for any clues.

None of the above was able to fix her issue. Further more, my own iPhone was on iOS 11 and at least a dozen other users had upgraded and their devices were working properly.

I was about to give up when I stumbled across this article today from Apple Continue reading “iOS 11 – Cannot Send Mail. The message was rejected by the server.”

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