Yearly Archives: 2004

MBSA and MS04-025

Posted on by
Reply

When MBSA 1.2.1 tells you this about MS04-025, it’s probably safe to ignore.

A required registry key does not exist. It is necessary in order for this patch to be considered installed. [SOFTWAREMicrosoftInternet ExplorerActiveX Compatibility{3B7C8860-D78F-101B-B9B5-04021C009402}Compatibility Flags]

Check the file versions listed in the bulletin, but it’s probably wrong.

Oh, and this guy deserves a nice pat on the back for wonderful instructions on how to patch an Office 2003 administrative install share. Amazingly enough, patching the install share and then calling setup.exe REINSTALL=ALL /qb /L*v c:o2k3re.log actually works as advertised.

(And it looks like my stylesheet still needs some adjustments)

MS04-028 patches

Posted on by

I’m working on the last set of patches from Microsoft for the labs, and they are beginning to annoy me.

The one for IE6sp1 works just as advertised, with the standard unattended commandline:IE6.0sp1-KB833989-x86-ENU.exe /q:a /r:n.

The one for the DotNet Framework 1.1, isn’t quite so straight-forward. The command line options work as advertised. (I’m using NDP1.1sp1-KB867460-X86.exe /Q /L:c:dotnetsp1.txt). But after installing, the version numbers don’t match up with the version checking method listed in KB318785. %WINDOWS%System32URTTempmscoree.dll does NOT get updated, while the version in %WINDOWS%System32 does.

Arrgh. Now on to the Office 2003 patching, from an Admin install share. This should be fun. At least there are reccommended practices from Microsoft on this stuff.

Parents House

Posted on by

My parents are having a pre-fab house built, here’s a picture of the foundation.
Foundation thumb
The rectangle on the far side will be the front porch, the square to the right is the garage. The notch out of the garage is the utility room and crawlspace access.

No more Jaguar

Posted on by

Jaguar is leaving Formula One, and taking Cosworth with them. Ford is putting both operations up for sale, with a “number of potential buyers expressing interest“. Hopefully someone will buy them, fields with less than 20 cars would be even easier for Scuderia Ferrari to dominate. And if they don’t come back, there will be a wider gap between the haves and the backmarkers that are the have-not privateers. Though, without Cosworth engines, Minardi and Jordan are going to have a tough time getting around the track.

And I will definitely miss hearing “jag-eww-arr” from David and Steve on Speed.

ntfsresize

Posted on by
Reply

I wanted to keep the Windows 2000 install that came on my new laptop and install Windows XP, but Dell only created one large NTFS partition. After doing a little searching around, I found ntfsresize, part of the Linux NTFS Project.
After downloading and burning the SystemRescueCD, I popped it in the drive, booted off it and typed run_qtparted hit enter and happily pointed and clicked my way through resizing the existing NTFS partition to free up some space for XP. And maybe even Gentoo

New Laptop

Posted on by
Reply

My aging and well traveled Dell Latitude C800 is up for replacement, so we ordered 3 identical Dell Latitude D800s. Fully decked out, with the kickass video card and the giant monitor (1920×1200 baby), dual batteries, DVD+R burner, etc.

They were ordered with Windows 2000 preinstalled (for the tech support) and a Windows XP license, but I’m considering wiping mine and installing Windows XP and gentoo. I’ve only got a few things installed so far, so not a big deal either way.

Standards be damned

Posted on by

Just because something isn’t part of the standard, that doesn’t mean you don’t have to support it. Especially when all your competitors DO support it. Unless of course you are the 900 lb gorilla that is Intel Corp, then you can do whatever you want.

I might just be a tad bitter right now.

Update (9/15/2004): I guess I needed some sleep or something. After some clear thinking, I reset my SMC access point to factory defaults. Slowly turning features back on, I found the one that was making the Intel wireless card angry.