Aaron Tiensivu's Blog

You'll want to grab it here. You can think of IE Protected Mode a lot like a chroot.

Go here to vote so that the X-Box 360 wins. Right now it is getting around 86% of the votes, so I suspect it is going to win either way.

There will only be 1000 units sold at that price, so I suspect there is no way I'll be able to get one since all the internet tubes will be clogged, to use a senator's phrase.

Some newer applications are starting to use .NET compact on the Smartphone and Windows Mobile platforms. You will want to grab Service Pack 1 here.

If your office uses Live Communications Server 2003/2005, and you have a Windows Mobile Device or Smartphone, you can download the mobile client here.

If you think this entry relates to me getting the Motorola Q recently, you'd be correct.

I finally have a Motorola Q and can use Exchange Push fulltime!

I am running an older build of Vista at home (post-RC1, pre-RC2), but I wanted to sync the PC with the new SmartPhone. If you want ActiveSync support for Vista, you'll want to grab WMDC Beta 3 here.

I've always loved to hate ActiveSync but so far WMDC seems to work out of the box as intended.

You better get your MCSE 2003 quickly if you want to get in on the certification upgrade program.

You can get a lot of information about the Vista, Office, and Exchange certifications from the new websites. You will also want to visit the MCP site if you already have a MCP id for more information there too.

To see a summary of all 3 certification tracks, go here. Note: As of 11-17-06, the link seems to be down.

The most interesting tidbits about the certification track seem to be, at least in my eyes:

*Three developer Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS) and three IT professional MCTS certifications for the 2007 Microsoft Office system.*

*For Windows Vista: one MCTS and two Microsoft Certified IT Professional (MCITP) certifications--for consumer and enterprise support; plus a one-exam upgrade path for Microsoft Certified Desktop Support Technicians (MCDSTs).*

*As reported in August, a one-exam MCTS and a two-exam MCITP certification are in development for Microsoft Exchange Server 2007.*

99% of this information was taken from here.

Right now it is just a test release but I suspect the KB article number will stay the same. You'll want to get this installed on your Exchange environment before the 2007 DST changes go into effect.

You can download and check out the KB article here.

This is a fascinating thread on one of my favorite sites for laptop users. There is always a lot of useful information and download links on that message forum.

One of the more interesting aspects of this particular thread, is the "internet detective" work that has gone into tracking what the most recent XP SP2 kernel is available in hotfix form. Typically with most software packages, if the build number is higher, it will include the fixes from the earlier builds.

I know people who were having strange blue screen crashes with their Thinkpad T 60 laptops, which have dual core CPUs. With the newer kernel installed, the crashes went away.

The list of known XP SP2 kernel builds available from that message thread:

KB 896256 - Kernel 5.1.2600.2765 (29-Sep-2005)
KB 909095 - Kernel 5.1.2600.2774 (12-Oct-2005)
KB 914882 - Kernel 5.1.2600.2853 (21-Feb-2006)
KB 910623 - Kernel 5.1.2600.2868 (16-Mar-2006)
KB 889816 - Kernel 5.1.2600.2885 (12-Apr-2006)

Right now I am running the 2885 kernel on my Thinkpad and it has been running like a champ for a few days. No blue screens, and much better 'interactive' performance.

There is an AMD specific security problem with VMWare ESX 3.0. You will want to patch your systems if you are using Opterons, with patch ESX-2533126 from here.

According to a post here, PowerShell 1.0 comes out today.

Update: It really did come out today! Check out a good post about it here.

Update 2: Here is the direct link for Windows 2003 and Windows XP for English.

There are a few products coming to market soon and there are probably ones out there already that I don't know about, but one of the more interesting 360 degree solutions are Microsoft Roundtable and BeHere.

The concept is cool and I hope it catches on. You get a 360 degree view of the conference room and most existing video conference solutions seem to be very one dimensional. I think this will help to get people to actually use video conferencing more rather than expensive face to face meetings. I've heard some horror stories about places spending millions on conferencing systems that people hate using, and in turn, ends up being a wasted investment.

A good demo of the Roundtable I found online is a video of it in use, here.

Through a strange series of fortunate events, I received a new work laptop and a new workplace. So far, I am very impressed with the new Thinkpad T60. I know a lot has been written about how Lenovo hasn't kept the same build quality that IBM Thinkpads were known for. So far, as far as I can tell, the build quality is excellent. Frankly, I'm blown away by this laptop.

My old laptop had 2GB of RAM running XP SP2 and the new IBM has 2GB of RAM with a bunch of very cool built-in features, including Bluetooth 2.0, Sierra Wireless 1xEVDO, Intel 3945ABG 802.11 wireless, DVD burner, and a biometric fingerprint reader. The docking station/port-replicator connector is very sturdy, unlike the HP and Dell laptops I've had in the past. I have one of my older than dirt IBM Thinkpad 600E laptops sitting next to the new laptop and to steal an old evil cigarette advertising slogan, "You've come a long way, baby!"

Anyway, back to the real reason behind this entry. I always avoided the dreaded "Insufficient System Resources Exist to Complete the API" hibernate shutdown problem on my old HP laptop but the new laptop seems to have this issue. Thankfully, it is an easy fix with a download from Microsoft's site from here.

Get your EVDO handsets out and see which towers are active. I'd love to know exactly where the coverage is. Please reply with signal strength and location.

Here is a snippet of the press release:

Coverage

In west Michigan, Verizon Wireless' BroadbandAccess and V CAST service coverage spans approximately 572 square miles and includes Grand Rapids, downtown Holland and many surrounding communities, including: Ada, Allendale, Cascade, Comstock Park, Coopersville, Cutlerville, East Grand Rapids, Grandville, Hudsonville, Jenison, Kentwood, Lamont, Walker and Wyoming. It also covers routes between these communities along Interstates 96, 196 and 296, U.S. Highway 31, and Michigan roads 37 and 40.

"The Grand Rapids-Holland area is a vital market with dynamic, tech-savvy businesses and consumers," Haller said. "The launch of our broadband network here provides our customers with access to the very latest wireless technology."

The multi-million dollar expansion entailed installing high-tech wireless hardware and software in wireless transmission sites throughout the region. It is part of an ongoing network investment by Verizon Wireless that has totaled $30 billion nationally over the past six years. The company has invested $728 million in the past six years in its Michigan network.

Verizon Wireless was the first national wireless provider to commercially launch a high-speed wireless broadband network in the United States. Grand Rapids and downtown Holland are the latest metropolitan markets to be added to Verizon Wireless' EV-DO network coverage area, now available to more than half the nation's population. Verizon Wireless' broadband network was introduced in Michigan in metropolitan Detroit in July 2005.

I'm seeing this a lot with Symantec Anti-Virus Corporate Edition v10.1 and it isn't limited to just one site. It tends to happen when users log off a Windows 2003 SP1 server and for some reason, RTVSCAN.EXE will not release those registry keys. UPHClean kicks in at that point, which typically makes it a non-issue outside of event log spamming.

I had this error happen to me a long time ago and thought it was a fluke but apparently it is more common than I thought. It looks rather specific to HID devices using USB and BT.

KB 924941