Libre Office Presenter Console is missing.

I was getting a presentation ready for tomorrow and having a heck of a time trying to figure out why I could not see my notes while I was practising.  I found that my default install of Libre Office 3.5.4.2 on my 12.04 Ubuntu laptop did not have the Presenter Console Extension installed, so first I went to the Libre Office Extensions page, where I thought I would find the extension I needed.  Several searches there produced nothing but curses that would make a sailor blush.  After a bit more Googling, I found this link to a blog called aufgebauscht and tried the following:

apt-get install libreoffice-presenter-console

I closed Impress and opened my presentation again and saw a great Presenter Console.  Too bad they don't have it available on their pretty extensions page.

All I can say is vielen dank to aufgebauscht.

Ubuntu Unity

I just finished laughing at Microsoft's Windows Server 8 beta and now it's Ubuntu Unity's turn.  Ubuntu Unity is poised to do the same thing that KDE 4.0 did: send me running into the arms of another desktop.

I've tried Unity off and on as my primary desktop for about a year now, but have not been able to make it stick.  I invariably end up running Gnome 3 on Ubuntu or Mint with Cinnamon.  I have tried Unity on virtual machines to see if it is somehow better there, but XFCE is still my favorite desktop for VMs and Unity may actually be worse on a VM.

At this point I don't know if it's the unfamiliarity or that Unity feels too basic to be really useful.  When I play with Unity now, I try to see it as a task user might, only needing access to some default applications and not wanting to modify the desktop.  And with this in mind, Unity does seem to fit the need.

I don't use tablets and am not evaluating Unity on tablets because they're not used the same way as desktops and laptops.  I use desktops and laptops because I need the horsepower, versatility and upgradability that tablets just don't have.  (On a side note, it looks like Apple has decided their new MacBook Pro's should be used as tablets and not laptops with a more IOS-like Mac OS X and more appliance like hardware, which is horrible for the end user.)  So without having tried Unity on a tablet I can only guess that Unity would do well.

The Unity doc is the first thing that bothers me, since I'm not able to move, resize or configure it, but can only turn on auto hide.  This makes me pine for the days of KDE 3.x and the ultra configurable desktop.  I've seen some reviews of an application called Confity, which provides some configuration options, but there isn't any support for 12.04 yet.

 Next is the contextual menu at the top left of the desktop.  Depending on what window is on top or selected, the menus at the top change.  This could be ok, but it needs to be more obvious as I've had several small windows open on a desktop, but by the time I've moved my mouse from the bottom right to top left, the over-sensitive touchpad on the laptop has selected a different window so when I select the menu item, it's for the wrong window.  I like having separate menus for each window.

The system settings are bare bones and seem to be closer to Mac OS X system settings than any Linux desktop I'm used to.

Windows Server 8

First, I preface this by saying, I was a Unix Admin in a previous life and have only been working with Windows servers since about 2005.

I took a look at the Windows Server 8 (and Windows 8) betas today and all I can say is this:

Thank you thank you thank you Microsoft.  I've been hoping for this moment for ten years and it has finally come.  Not only has Microsoft handed more server marketshare to Linux on a silver platter, but they have gone that extra mile and ensured a larger marketshare for Linux on the desktop as well (Windows 8 desktop is even more horrid).

If Microsoft does not significantly change the desktop on the Server 8 beta before release, I see them losing many admins who do not have My 'Lil Ponies wallpaper and Playskool toys piled up in their closet.  When I first logged in, I honestly thought my co-worker was having a laugh at my expense and that it was all a joke.  But it appears not to be a joke, and even better, it appears that Microsoft thinks server administration is akin to using a smart phone.

The Server Manager dashboard has big bright red and orange blocks and bright circles.  At the top left is a location menu, in the top right are menus for "manage", "Tools", "View" and "help" and at the bottom left (or bottom right if the bottom left doesn't work) the start menu.  But there are no buttons or any physical indication that there is a start button anywhere.  You have to stumble across it while mousing over the bottom corners, then other menus pop up.  The reason I say if it doesn't work is because when I mouse down to the bottom left corner some sort of Start button appears, but in my RDP session I can't actually click on it.  My co-worker did tell me that I can get to the start menu by going to the bottom right corner, which did work.  I do understand that this is a beta.  Along the left side of the screen are icons for Dashboard, Local Server, All Servers and File and Storage Services.

One thing I noticed right away is that there is no flow or uniformity in style or ergonomics even on just this one page.  I see a drop down menu on the left that makes the left side menu completely redundant, and then a set of drop down menus and a slider menu on the right.  So three very different types of interface on one page.

The Start menu, once you find it, is just cute as a button, with the smart phone "tiles" and apparently the only tools a sysadmin will ever need, that being Control Panel, Computer, Task Manager, Windows Powershell, and Server Manager, although I have to guess that there is a way to configure this.

At this point I found out how unintuitive this desktop really was as I tried to log out and run away.  My co-worker finally took pity on me and let me know that I had to go to the bottom right corner, then to start, then to my logo at the top right and select sign out.

Most of the server menu items take you to the familiar w2k8 windows and menus, so there is also that disjointed feel to it as well, with the tiles and blocks on one side and the windows and icons on the other (all just several clicks from each other).  So as you navigate through to your destination, you will inevitably ping back and forth between tiles and windows enough that neither ever become comfortable.

At one point, I found where the "all programs" was, but for the life of me I can't find it again.

Realistically, when you get rid of the tiles and the Playskool stuff, it's pretty much the same OS that we have worked with in w2k8.

Just a lot less intuitive and a lot more klunky.

The next killer app.

I have been an observer of human interaction on the Internet for quite some time, but even after all these years I find that people can still manage to make me wish for iron fisted control of the world wide web.

When we drive to and from work every day, we all have that basic assumption that just about everyone else on the road has had some sort of rudimentary training behind the wheel.  When we go out hunting, we also have some basic assumption that a majority of the other hunters out there have had at least some training on how to handle a weapon.

This, however, does not carry over to the Internet.  And everyone pays the price.  Now before I go on here I have to say that I'm for a free and open global Internet, with people able to discuss, whistleblow, argue, report, document, create and disseminate virtually unfettered.  That said, I seem to find at every turn a troll or malicious twit who is determined to substantially lower the IQ of any forum, email list or online discussion they touch.  Since discourse on the Internet does not give the tangible feedback that face to face discussion provides, these young nitwits meet little resistance as they grow into older nitwits.

And that is where this killer app comes to play.  I call it the "Boot to the Head" app.  The Boot to the Head app provides that immediate physical feedback that is lacking on the Internet today.  Let's say you are having a productive and mature discussion on a PC hardware vendor forum and Kalidor interrupts with pseudo attorney speak saying you are all stupid if you don't believe him and that he really could have been a lawyer if he wanted to but he likes it in his mom's basement, and besides 30 years old is not too old to be living at home.  With the Boot to the Head app, one or more of the mature participants could provide instantaneous negative reenforcement to this person and in doing so, ensure that he will at the very least think twice before interrupting the adults in the room again.

The Boot to the Head app will be available for Linux, Mac OS X, Windows, Apple iOS and Android and will sell for $9.95 (Paypal, Webmoney, Yandex)

Flash Zero-Day Used In Targeted Email Attacks - Dark Reading

Flash Zero-Day Used In Targeted Email Attacks - Dark Reading

"A dangerous zero-day Flash attack revealed yesterday by Adobe patched along with other flaws in the application is the dreaded and relatively rare universal cross-site scripting (XSS) threat. The vulnerability was spotted being exploited in the wild in targeted, email-based attacks."

Sophos Rolls Out Virtual Web Appliances - Dark Reading

Sophos Rolls Out Virtual Web Appliances - Dark Reading

"IT security and data protection company Sophos today announced the availability of Sophos Virtual Web Appliances providing complete web protection, a streamlined management experience and broad deployment flexibility in virtual environments. Available for download via the VMware Virtual Appliance Marketplace, the new Virtual Web Appliances can be set up in minutes, easily bringing the company’s award-winning hardware security capabilities to businesses of any size."

Catbird, VMware Team On Cloud Sec App - Dark Reading

Catbird, VMware Team On Cloud Sec App - Dark Reading

"Catbird...announced that VMware vShieldTM App controls are now available for Catbird vSecurity through an embedded OEM partnership with VMware. The integration gives Catbird vSecurity customers the ability to immediately deploy VMware vShield App as an integrated component of Catbird’s broad security and compliance solution for virtualized infrastructure."

Looking for Cisco Webex alternatives for my business.

Keeps getting better and better.  On with Cisco Webex tech support trying to figure out what happened to my account, when they say, "hey, it looks like billing has canceled your account."  So they conference someone from billing into the conversation.  Billing says, "yes we canceled your account for non-payment of $7."  I then brought up the fact that I had already paid for the current month and had not received any notice that my account was in dire straights or anything about a $7, then tech support, not billing, said, "yes, we have been hearing this from other corporate customers as well and we are very sorry, but your account has been canceled.  Your only option is to create a new account with a new name and a new email address."

So on to new and hopefully better solutions for my business.

WebEx is becoming more trouble than it's worth.

I have been using WebEx in one capacity or another for quite some time and about two years ago, I subscribed for my own business use.

I have to say that as a passive user (attending meetings and presentations), WebEx is a very good tool and is convenient.  That said, for the past two years I've had issue after issue, not with the WebEx service itself, but with the account.  I can say that I've never had this much trouble with an account before.  I use the service a few times a month, and more often than not, when I go to use the service it is not available for one reason or another.  Just an example is this most recent "issue".  I just made a monthly payment a couple weeks ago, but when I tried to use the service this morning, my website and my account are gone (not wrong password or wrong username).  No trace of my account.  No email or any notification saying anything about my account since receiving my payment.

So, once again I try to get someone from support to offer anything more than a form letter telling me to reset my password.

And now I am finally looking seriously at other options for my business.

A grand misunderstanding of copyright.

http://www.ciolek.com/PAPERS/trade-routes-enc2005.html
What happens when authors don't understand copyright law?  It seems that they post articles online and then say, "Note: due to copyright restrictions this page may not be linked from other online pages."

Fortunately for the rest of the world, this is not actually correct.

Comcast tech support and Customer Security Assurance

I found that the Comcast IP I have is in a pool that Comcast submitted to Spamhaus (and to others I'm sure) to put on a PBL.  In this case, it is PBL191769.  This after I had spoken to Comcast support and had been assured multiple times that I could serve my home business email from my residential account.  The Comcast support person went as far as to say "lot's of home businesses do it".  Kinda sounds like a green light, doesn't it?


Since finding out that my outgoing email is being dropped as spam, I've spoken to Comcast support, who didn't know what a Policy Block List was and then disconnected my chat session when I asked, very nicely, to please escalate this to the next level support.  After opening a new session and speaking to yet another support tech who did not know what a PBL was and kept asking me to test my Comcast.net address, I finally got through to a second level support tech.  I had very high hopes for this person.  They were able to understand that I was not talking about my comcast.net email, but about my business email (which I had been repeating ad nauseum).  They understood what Spamhaus was and that Comcast needed to do something.  I left the chat session thinking that I had resolved the issue.  I then see an email from Comcast with a link to have my IP taken off of THEIR block list.  Hoping beyond all hope, I filled out their form only to have them throw it back, saying that they are not blocking my IP.  And they are absolutely right.  They are not blocking my IP.  They have given my IP to Spamhaus so they can block it, and Spamhaus cannot remove the IP, only Comcast can remove it.


So I am stuck with a residential account that doesn't work, until I can get a business account that Comcast said I don't need.

General Electric Unveils Efficient Data Center #in

From Greentech Enterprise: "General Electric unveiled its shiny new $48 million data center that serves its Appliance Park headquarters in Louisville, Kentucky."  It's LEED Platinum Certified and according to GE, is 34% more efficient than the typical data center.  The PUE is 1.63, which is very good, but not the 1.07 of Facebook's Oregon data center (the average PUE of current data centers is from 2 to 3).

VMware Zimbra Enterprise Messaging Embraces NetApp NFS #in

Zimbra released a Whitepaper showing the results of testing Zimbra with NetApp NFS and vSphere.

Oracle VM more about politics than technology, experts say #li

Tech Target has a rather scathing (but spot on) report on Oracle and their VM program. Not quite an eye-opener, but stated very well.

Oracle VM more about politics than technology, experts say

Cisco ASA 5505 reset button

Just tangled with a cantankerous ASA5505 and found out the hard way that the reset button is not actually a reset button.  What it is I have no idea.  Maybe it's there as a placebo to make you think you're doing something constructive.  I also found that you don't restore an ASA to default like you do other Cisco routers (you do not use the config-register no, no, no bad idea).

Anyway, after poking the placebo several times to no affect, I decided to go ahead and reset to default via the config-register, which of course blanked the ASA.  When it booted into ROMMON, I immediately ran to the Sadikhov forums where I found that wiping out the OS on an ASA is not uncommon, and ended up re-imaging with:
rommon #0> PORT=Ethernet0/1     **or whatever port you are plugged into**
rommon #1> ADDRESS=192.168.1.1
rommon #2> SERVER=192.168.1.10     **IP of the tftp server**
rommon #3> GATEWAY=192.168.1.10
rommon #4> IMAGE=asa831-k8.bin
rommon #5> tftp

I then hopped back in and promptly mucked up the config again.  This time, I reset the ASA the correct way as stated here:

1. After you open your connection, press enter a couple times, and you should get a prompt like: ‘ciscoasa>’, or ‘nameofyourdevice>’
2. type ‘ena’ to go to enable mode. Enter the password, or just press enter if there is no password set.
3. type ‘config t’
4. type ‘config factory-default’
5. hit spacebar when the ‘more’ thing happens. You want to get back to the prompt that looks like: ‘ciscoasa(config)#’
6. type ‘reload save-config noconfirm’
7. make sure that the outside line is plugged into port zero, and your pc is plugged into any of the ports 1-7.
8. The Cisco ASA has been reset to factory settings. DHCP is enabled on the cisco device, and it’s internal IP address is now 192.168.1.1!
9. If you had an enable password set, you may need to enter that in the password box when you try to connect using the ASDM. Otherwise the default username and password is to leave both blank.

Anyway.  It's nice to know that Cisco now has as many different ways to do things as they have models of routers.