And the winners are…

Sorry I’m late with this, I am setting up a new Microsoft Exchange 2007 environment for some clients, and my mind has been completely wrapped around that. Enough jibba jabba though. I am sure you want to know who won their Google Voice Invites.

In order to pick the winners, I plugged everyone’s name into an Excel spreadsheet and then using a random number generator, I picked the names corresponding to their number in the spreadsheet. The more entries, the better chance of winning.

The three winners are:

• @cscheidecker
• @mdwittenberg
• @DonnaLex

Thank you all for participating! Please DM me by 12/4/09 at midnight with your email address so I can send you the Google Voice invites!

Technorati Tags: google,voice,contest,winners

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My Top 10 Geeky Christmas Wish List

Shopping for the geek in your life can sometimes be difficult. I mean, how many video games can you get a guy right? I for one already have the entire James bond collection, so what else can I possibly want? What kind of geeky goodness could someone get me? Where can they get it? I am sure my family isn't the only ones dealing with that.

I figured other geeks have family members looking to get something for the geek in their lives too, but not be in tuned enough with their inner geek enough to know where to get the geeky deals. I figured I would compile a list of awesome geeky products from some of Bauer-Power's sponsors to help my family, and others out their get something truly epic for their geeks!

1. Green Laser Pointer II - This pointer is significantly brighter (about 50 times) than a red laser pointer and because of its unusual color it is much more noticeable. I mean come on, a 532 nm green laser wavelength is obviously superior to a laughable 650 nm red laser wavelength. And unlike a red laser, the green beam itself can be seen in mid-air in dark conditions, not just the laser beam dot.


2. Star Wars Cook Books - Why just sit at home eating boring food, when you can follow the instructions in this recipe book and make that same food but with super-outer-galactic names? Anyone who tells you not to play with your food is a dummy - playing is what makes food fun. Especially when you can make a Jedi Juice Bar and then fly it into your mouth-hangar.


3. Tauntaun Sleeping Bag - In the sub-zero wasteland of the planet Hoth, only the strong survive... and of course those lucky Jedi protected by the thick skin of a Tauntaun.


4. 26" Widescreen HD TV - With a 26-inch widescreen LCD display, 1366 x 768 resolution and an 800:1 contrast ratio, you can enjoy watching high definition movies or TV shows, play video games, view digital photos and much more with crystal-clear images!


5. 1TB SATA Hard Drive - Equipped with an enormous 1 Terabyte storage capacity, this hard drive will give you the space to store thousands of hours of digital video, music, photos, and more! Constructed for quick data access, the 7K1000.B features a 7200 RPM spindle speed and a 16 MB buffer. With a blazing 1406 Mbits/s Media transfer rate along with a 300 MB/s Data Transfer rate, this hard drive has it all! The SATA/300 interface makes connecting it to your system easy!


6. Palm Accessories - Ever since I got my Palm Pre, I need more accessories! If your geek has a Palm device, chances are they need some accessories too!


7. i-Pod Accessories - The number one geek toy on the market needs accessories. If your geek has an i-Pod, chances are good they need accessories as well.


8. Bluetooth Headsets - Geeks love anything Bluetooth. Just make sure they only wear their headsets while driving!


9. Spy Watch - I have always been a big James Bond fan! One of the reasons is because of all the cool gadgets. Some of the best gadgets have been watches... Now they are affordable!
   


10. Canon Vixia HF200 - Maybe your geek doesn't want to record his own video podcast monthly, but I do! I also want the ability to plug a microphone directly into the HD video camera, and I don't want to spend $1000.00 either!
    

What kind of geek stuff do you have on your list? Spy watch perhaps? Maybe the latest Halo game? I want to know what you want in your stocking at Christmas! Hit me up in the comments!

NOTE: All links are sponsored links via Commission Junction.

Technorati Tags: top, 10, ten, geek, gifts, christmas, holiday

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Deleted A Public Folder in Exchange 2007… Now What?

You ever have a moment when you feel like your world is crashing down all around you, and there may be no possible way of coming back or surviving? Well I felt like that the other night. You see I was decommissioning an Exchange 2007 server, and I messed up on a step where you are supposed to transfer all Public Folder replicas to another Exchange 2007 server. I thought I did it correctly, but I obviously didn’t because when I uninstalled Exchange from that server ALL PUBLIC FOLDERS WERE GONE! WTF!!

I frantically tried to recover using Backup Exec 12.5, but I kept having different problems with that. The restore would say successful, yet still no public folders. I was obviously not doing that right either, but that is for another article.

I did however have a backup copy of the Public Folders EDB file, so I started scouring the net looking for a good EDB to PST program. All I could find were really expensive ones like Ontrack PowerControls and Kernel for Exchange Server. Frankly those were last resort options because of the cost.

I did find a tool from Microsoft called PFDAVADMIN. This tool saved my bacon. It works for Exchange 2000, 2003, and 2007. IT DOES NOT RUN ON WINDOWS 7 WORTH A DAMN! It also requires .NET Framework 1.1 so DO NOT RUN IT FROM EXCHANGE!

What I did was create a VM in Virtual box running Windows XP Pro. I installed .NET Framework 1.1, then ran PFDAVADMIN using my domain admin credentials.

Once connected I right clicked on Public Folders and selected “Show Deleted Subfolders”

When I did that, all of the subfolders that I accidentally deleted showed up in red. I right clicked on each one and selected RECOVER. After I did that, all public folders were restored!

Have you gone through the same thing? What tool(s) did you use to recover? Are you going through this now? Hit me up in the comments.

Technorati Tags: how to,recover,exchange 2007,public folders,deleted,free

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A Public Service Announcement For Blue Tooth Wearers

You have all seen them. Perhaps you are one of them. People who go around wearing your bluetooth headset all the time. Walking down the street, inside buildings, at the gym etc. You know, every place other than the place you are suppose to wear one… IN YOUR CAR!

The fact of the matter is you are not friggin’ Maverick from Top Gun! You don’t need to have your headset on all the time. The idea is to free your hands when driving, that is it. If you didn’t realize it already, you look like a damned fool! To better illustrate this, my buddy Sundance and I filmed this PSA for Episode 14 of Bauer-Power. We hope we can help you not look like a douche bag.

Happy Thanksgiving! Now take off your stupid Bluetooth headset!

Technorati Tags: the more you know,bluetooth,blue tooth,psa,public service announcement

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How to Change The Recovery Model On All Databases at Once in SQL 2005 Management Studio

In Microsoft SQL there are three ways to set your recovery model. Each method has their own pluses and minus. Each of them have their own reason for using them.

The three recovery models are Full, Bulk-Logged and Simple. The first one, Full, is set by default in SQL 2005. According to SQL-Recovery.com, Full recovery model is:

This is your best guarantee for full data recovery. The SQL Server fully logs all operations, so every row inserted through a bulk copy program (bcp) or BULK INSERT operation is written in its entirety to the transaction log. When data files are lost because of media failure the transaction log can be backed up.

Bulk Logged:

This model allows for recovery in case of media failure and gives you the best performance using the least log space for certain bulk operations, including BULK INSERT, bcp, CREATE INDEX, WRITETEXT, and UPDATETEXT.

Simple:

It allows for the fastest bulk operations and the simplest backup-and-restore strategy. Under this model, SQL Server truncates the transaction log at regular intervals, removing committed transactions. Only full database backups and differential backups are allowed.

Changing the recovery model is as simple as right clicking on the database in SQL 2005 management Studio, Clicking on Properties, Clicking on Options, and selecting your recovery model from the drop down menu. This can be tedious though if you have multiple databases. Some web servers have 50 plus databases. Do you want to manually change each one? I didn’t think so!

Below is a simple T-SQL script you can run to change all of your databases to the the recovery model of choice!

USE master

GO

-- Declare a variable to store the value [database name] returned by FETCH.

DECLARE @dbname sysname, @cmd varchar(1000)

-- Declare a cursor to iterate through the list of databases

DECLARE db_recovery_cursor CURSOR FOR

SELECT name from sysdatabases

-- Open the cursor

OPEN db_recovery_cursor

-- Perform the first fetch and store the value in a variable.

FETCH NEXT FROM db_recovery_cursor INTO @dbname

-- loop through cursor until no more records fetched

WHILE @@FETCH_STATUS = 0

BEGIN

IF (SELECT DATABASEPROPERTYEX(@dbname,'RECOVERY')) <> '<RECOVERYMODEL>' and @dbName <> 'tempdb' BEGIN

-- create the alter database command for each database

SET @cmd = 'ALTER DATABASE "' + @dbname + '" SET RECOVERY <RECOVERYMODEL>'

-- alter each dataabase setting the recovery model to <RECOVERYMODEL>

EXEC(@cmd)

PRINT @dbname

end

FETCH NEXT FROM db_recovery_cursor INTO @dbname

END

-- close the cursor and deallocate memory used by cursor

CLOSE db_recovery_cursor

DEALLOCATE db_recovery_cursor

NOTE: Replace <RECOVERYMODEL> with your model of choice (I.E. SIMPLE, BULK-LOGGED, FULL)

What recovery model do you use on your servers in your environment? Why? Hit us up in the comments!

Technorati Tags: sql 2005,how to,change,recovery model,multiple databases,script

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Bauer-Power Episode 14

Hello out there to everyone on the big WWW! It is that time again after three months or so for another episode of the highly acclaimed, IPTV show Bauer-Power!

In this episode, Paul talks about Ubuntu 9.10, as well as some controversies with Karmic Koala, plus the release of Bauer-Puntu 9.10. Sundance talks about beta software that sucks including Twitter and Facebook plug-ins for Xbox, Google's Chrome OS, and Office 2010. Along with our ramblings, we have also created a public service announcement for those who wear blue tooth headsets all the time, and have put together a random montage of bikini's, time travel, fast cars, egg nog, and Thanksgiving. Enjoy!

This will probably be the last episode in this format. I spoke to my co-host Sundance about it, and he agrees that our shows are way too long for internet attention spans. We will go with a one how-to topic/one funny bit segment format per month now. Our goal is to get every new show down to 10 minutes or less so we can broaden our reach as far as video hosting sites go. Right now our videos are way too long for Youtube, and that is probably the best site to be.

You can add our show to your iPod/iPhone by subscribing to the show’s RSS feed here: http://bauer-power.blip.tv/rss

Please visit the links to our sponsors!

• Blockbuster
• GoDaddy
• Amazon

As always, we welcome your feedback, so please hit us up in the comments!

Technorati Tags: linux,ubuntu,psa,bluetooth,bauer-power,xbox,twitter,facebook,chrome

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Free Antivirus From Microsoft

I am always down for free antivirus. Want to know why? Because when I used to do home computer repair back in the day, one of the number one problems I was dealing with was viruses at home. Users would get a new computer with a trial antivirus, then when the trial lapsed they were left vulnerable.

Being average users, they just didn’t know any better. They didn’t realize that if the Antivirus wasn’t updating, they weren’t being protected. Free antivirus keeps them protected without the need to worry about renewing licensing every few years.

I have written in the past about Avast, AVG, Comodo, and most recently Panda Cloud. Well Microsoft has gotten into the game recently too with Microsoft Security Essentials. Here are some key features from their site:

• Comprehensive malware protection
• Simple, free download
• Automatic updates
• Easy to use

All the above are probably the best arguments ever to switch my mom over. If she doesn’t have to think about “the wizard behind the curtain” the easier my life is.

This is free for home use only like most free antivirus products. If you are a business user, Microsoft offers Microsoft Frontline. Of course, you probably already have antivirus for your company, and since you have to pay for this you probably will want to keep what you have.

Have you tried Microsoft Security Essentials? Like it? Dislike it? Does it have a good detection rate? I want to hear about your experience in the comments.

Technorati Tags: microsoft,security essentials,free antivirus,download

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Want To Test Out Google’s Chrome OS?

The second biggest news in the Linux world right now is the release of Google’s Chrome OS yesterday. I say second biggest, because Bauer-Puntu 9.10 released yesterday as well!

I know a lot of you are looking to test out Chrome OS, so I decided to host the files on Bauer-Power’s FTP server as well. If you are having problems downloading the VMWare VMDK image of it, or the VirtualBOX VDI image of it from GDGT.com, I created alternate mirrors here:

Google Chrome VMDK Download

Google Chrome VDI Download

I haven’t played with it yet myself, so I will not be doing a review just yet, however my buddy Sundance is playing with it, and he said he may talk about it in Episode 14 of Bauer-Power, so stay tuned!

Technorati Tags: google,chrome,os,download,alternate,mirror,ftp

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Who's ready for some Bauer-Puntu 9.10?

I know, I’m a big fat hypocrite. I said there would be no more Bauer-Puntu, and yet here we are… Awkward….

Anyway, a few weeks ago I said I would be making an Open-Suse distro using Suse Studio. Well after playing with it a little, I decided I wouldn’t do that. Suse Studio really limits the amount of customization you can do. That and no matter what you do, you just can't get rid of all the damned Suse logos! I mean, what's the point of making your own distro if you can't remove all of the logos right?

Anyhoo, so I started playing around with the new version of Ubuntu and immediately started changing the look and feel of it, and then I started thinking to myself, "Why not just make a new distro?" and the rest as they say is history.

So what's up with this version? Well I went a completely different direction with this one. In the last few version I attempted to make a security/hacking CD with lots of cool auditing and cracking tools. Lets face it though, the number one hacking CD is BackTrack and I just can't compete. You know what they say, if you can't beat them, tuck tail and cry to your momma... Okay, maybe not, but you get the idea.

No, in this version I decided to tailor it more toward social media and social networking. If you like Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, Youtube, Digg, Stumble, RSS, blogging and everything else the big WWW has to offer, then this is the distro for you!

Some of the new features of the new version are the same as Ubuntu 9.10 which are:

• New chat client – Empathy
• Upstart for faster boot
• New Software Center
• Gnome 2.28
• Ubuntu One
• Ext4 by default
• Grub 2 by default
• And a few others. See the release notes for more info

Along with that what I added was:

• Flock as the default web browser
• Adobe Air and Twhirl
• Penguin TV
• Install GParted
  
• Removed the Shit Brown!

Why Flock? Well Flock is the premiere social media/networking web browser. My buddy Sundance blogged about Flock in the past, so if you want to know some really cool features of Flock and how it can help you get your Digg/Twitter/Youtube Etc on, then just read that article.

I also installed the Stumbleupon toolbar into Flock, so you can waste your days away surfing every far corner of the Internet, discovering things you never thought you would ever see, and perhaps some things you wish you could un-see.

Once again I have created a Live DVD and a Live USB image for portable social time wasting (Hey students and teens! I am talking to you!). You can download them here:

Bauer-Puntu 9.10 USB

Bauer-Puntu 9.10 ISO

For the writing the USB image on Windows, I recommend using the Roadkil's Disk Image utility available here: (Roadkil's Disk Image Portable)

For writing the USB image in Ubuntu I recommend using the USB-ImageWriter program. See here for instructions: (IMG to USB)

Netbook user? Me too! To change Bauer-Puntu into Netbook Remix mode (BPNR) run the following in the terminal:

>sudo apt-get install ubuntu-netbook-remix

Once that is finished, reboot and you will now have BPNR!

Like previous versions, you can install Bauer-Puntu to your hard drive using either the Live DVD or the USB image, or you can just carry them around for mobile social goodness!

For you picture peeps, here are some screen shots:

Xsplash

Login Screen

Desktop

Flock w/ RSS Reader

Installer

I decided to try to keep this version simple. Since social media/networking is primarily web based, that made things easy with Flock, and a few clients like Twhirl and Penguin TV.

Also, I had a LOT of complaints about file hosting and download times last time, so this time I set up a dedicated FTP server. Hopefully downloads won’t be as painful this time around.

Let me know how you like it! Download it, use it, abuse it then hit me up in the comments!

Technorati Tags: bauer-puntu,9.10

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Customizing Ubuntu 9.10

If you have just downloaded Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala, you probably just figured out that once again the folks at Ubuntu have made this version a little bit harder to customize. When I say customize I mean change the boot splash and login screen.

Why is that? It is because they have replaced uSplash with Xsplash and GDM with X11. So what does one have to do to pimp out this version of Ubuntu? I’ll tell you.

To customize the login screen, you can’t simply download a GDM theme from Gnome-Look.org anymore. Now you have to change the look and feel the same way you do with your desktop, by changing the wallpaper and the metacity theme. To do that open a terminal and run the following:

# gksudo -u gdm dbus-launch gnome-appearance-properties

That will bring up the options to change the wallpaper, colors and settings for the login screen.

To change Xsplash, this is actually a little easier. Go to Gnome-Look.org and do a search for ‘Xsplash’ and you will find a few boot splash screens. Go ahead and download the one of your choice. (I like the new Bauer-Puntu Xsplash screen personally ;-P) Once you download your theme, extract the contents, and copy the pictures inside to /usr/share/images/xsplash.

Reboot, and you are good to go.

Speaking of pimping out your Linux. I know I mentioned doing away with Bauer-Puntu, and going with a Suse based distro. Well, I changed my mind on that. Suse studio kind of sucks. No, I will make a Bauer-Puntu 9.10, but I am going a different direction with it this time. Stay tuned for the next few days for the official announcement.

Technorati Tags: ubuntu,9.10,karmic koala,koala,how-to,change,gdm,login,xsplash

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Getting Wireless To Work on Dell Mini 9 Using Ubuntu 9.10

I am kind of getting grumpy with the latest Ubuntu release. In previous versions of Ubuntu I had no driver issues out of the box. Just install and away we go. Last version, Jaunty Jackelope, I had a problem with the Wireless driver on my Dell Latitude D610 which I blogged about. This weekend I decided to upgrade my Dell Inspiron Mini 9 to Karmic Koala (Ubuntu 9.10) netbook remix and I had a similar issue.

So here is the low-down. I installed Ubuntu 9.10, and bam, wireless did not work. At first I plugged my Mini into an ethernet jack and install all updates, then I went to System >  Hardware Drivers and checked for new drivers. I first tried to install the Broadcom BCM driver, but that did nothing. Then I tried to install the Broadcom STA driver, and I couldn’t test it. Want to know why? Because after installing updates, then installing the Broadcom drivers I got a Kernel panic error and Ubuntu would not boot!

I finally got it working though, so if you are having the same issue here is the right order to install stuff to get Wireless working on your Dell Mini 9 in Ubuntu 9.10:

• Install Ubuntu 9.10
• Plug in an ethernet cable with internet access to your Dell Mini 9
• From the terminal run: sudo apt-get update
• Reboot
• Go to System> Hardware Drivers and search for new drivers
• Install the Broadcom STA Wireless Driver
• Reboot
• From the terminal run: sudo apt-get upgrade
• Install available updates.
• Reboot

I’m not sure why installing the driver first works, but it does. If you install the driver after the updates it is Kernel panic city!

Have you had any driver problems in the new Ubuntu? Let us know in the comments.

Technorati Tags: how to,wireless,dell mini,inspiron,9,ubuntu,9.10,karmic koala,drivers,install

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Best Podcast App for The Palm Pre

I have been dealing with a lot of change in my life recently. I started a new job at the end of August, I got a new phone, I moved into a new house at the end of September, and I traded in my TiVo for an AT&T U-verse DVR. With that last change, I also thought I had to give up something, my subscriptions to my favorite IPTV shows!

On my TiVo I could get all of the coolest Revision3 shows easily, and right on my TV. I would just browse through my list of recorded shows and there they were, all convenient and everything. Of course my U-verse DVR doesn’t have an option to download video podcasts, so I had to look for better alternatives.

I could watch them on my laptop, but that isn’t always convenient. Usually I am doing work on my laptop while my wife watches TV, and my IPTV watching will interrupt her. So I decided I should put it on my phone. At first I tried Dr. Podder from the Home Brew channel, but that didn’t work quite right for me. Not sure what was up with it. I could play audio podcasts fine, but videos would error out.

I finally discovered an app that worked perfectly! It is called MediaFly. With MediaFly I can login to their website, search for all of my favorite shows like:

• Hak5
• Film Riot
• Digg Reel
• Diggnation
• Scam School
• Tekzilla

If you don’t see your favorite IPTV show, you can also import the show’s RSS feed. For example, if you want to watch our Bauer-Power videos on your iPhone or Palm Pre, you can simply add our RSS feed url which is:

http://bauer-power.blip.tv/rss

Once you add your favorite shows online, they will simply sync up with your device! No fiddling with cell phone buttons, and clunky cut and paste!

iPhone? Did I say iPhone? Yes I did! MediaFly is not just for us Palm Pre users. You can add MediaFly to the following devices:

• Palm Pre
• Roku Digital Player
• Blackberry
• Android
• iPhone
• iPods
• Sansa
• Creative Zen
• Logitech Squeezebox
• Chumby
• Popcorn Hour
• Zune

If you prefer to watch your video podcasts on your computer, you can also download their MediaFly SyncClient free of charge! Oh wait, everything on MediaFly is free, so why wouldn’t the software?

Do you have a different Podcast app you prefer? What is it? Is it free? I want to know about it, so hit us up in the comments!

Technorati Tags: iptv,podcast,video,palm,pre,iphone,app,free

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Panda Released a Free Cloud Antivirus

My coworker showed me something interesting today. Before I break it down to you, let me give you a little background of Antivirus. The way it is now, you have Antivirus software, and so do many other people on the internet. If one of them gets infected, a sample of the infection goes back to the Antivirus company’s lab where they reverse engineer it, see what makes it tick, then they release an update for everyone else to remove the infection. Sometimes this process can take a month or two to get out.

Well to remedy the problem, Panda Labs is releasing a free Cloud Antivirus. First of all, why free? Because the more people that have this Antivirus, the better. Why is that? Because Panda has essentially done away with the lab portion of it, and made us the users, the virtual lab. If one of us gets infected, all other users get notified and protected in a matter of minutes rather than waiting for an update from a software company lab. Here is a video from Panda that explains it way better than I can:

So what do you think? The idea sounds like a good one to me. I think I will run it on my laptop for a while to test it out. Will any of you try it? Are you trying it now? How well do you like it? Hit us up in the comments!

Technorati Tags: panda,cloud,antivirus,download,free

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I was wrong! HD-8TZ DOES have image stabilization!

Last night I was messing around with my new Speed HD-8TZ again, when I noticed something really awesome! It actually DOES have image stabilization. When I first did my review last week I remarked that it didn’t have this feature, so I just want to go on record as saying that I realized that was a mistake.

Learning a new toy is always an ongoing process, so I am sure I will learn way more about this pleasantly surprising little HD camera as time goes on. Anyway, if you want to see an example of how the image stability works on this, check out this quick little test video I made last night. I look horrible because it was really late, and I did it spur of the moment minutes before getting ready to turn in.

So what I noticed is the image stabilization works okay, but it isn’t a dramatic decrease in bounciness. If you really want a smooth shot, you certainly will need a tripod, but I find that the image stabilization does do a good enough job at not giving me motion sickness when I watch.

Do you have the Speed HD-8 or the HD-8TZ? Got any tips or tricks you want to share? Hit me up in the comments.

Technorati Tags: speed,hd-8tz,image,motion,stability,stabilization,test,review

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ExchangeOAB Folder is Empty!

Hey guys, El Di Pablo back at ya with another Microsoft Exchange 2007 gotcha! So just when I thought everything was working perfectly with Exchange, my partner in crime was working on some Microsoft OCS stuff, and he noticed some errors in the event log on one of our Exchange servers.

WTF! I just got everything running in perfect harmony with the universe, and all the planets were aligned. Out of no where we start getting OALGen errors like a mutha! Here are some of the errors we were seeing:

Event ID: 9328

OALGen encountered file error 80070005 (internal ID 5050221) while generating the offline address list for address list '\Global Address List'. Make sure there is enough disk space available.
- Default OAB

Event ID: 9373

OALGen detected that the file '\\SERVER\ExchangeOAB\e52e0abd-8188-477e-8340-ef04a15dd47f\3ef5ce35-2ff4-440e-b523-f1f24a759788-data-1.lzx' is corrupted or missing. This indicates data tampering or disk problems. Restore files in this folder from the recent backup or clean up folder content and force a full OAB generation.
- Default OAB

Event ID: 9328

OALGen encountered file error ffffffff (internal ID 505026d) while generating the offline address list for address list '\Global Address List'. Make sure there is enough disk space available.
- Default OAB

Event ID: 9371

OALGen encountered an error while generating the differential downloads of address list '\Global Address List'. The offline address list has not been updated so clients will not be able to download the current set of changes. Check other logged events to find the cause of this error.

I thought no problem, maybe there is a problem with the current Offline Address Book, so I created a new one. When I went to update it, I got the subdirectory with the GUID, but the folder was EMPTY! Again I say… WTF?!?!

I finally got this fixed, and since it was kind of hard to find the solution, I’ll share with you what I did.

On both Exchange 2007 servers I went into \Exchange Server\ and renamed the ExchangeOAB directory to ExchangeOAB_OLD, then I created a new share with the following permissions:

Share Permissions:

• Administrators – Owner
• System – Owner
• Exchange Servers – Reader

NTFS Permissions:

• Administrators – Full Control
• System – Full Control
• Exchange Servers – Read

After that I restarted the Microsoft Exchange System Attendant service, and then updated the OAB again. Bam! Fixed! If that doesn’t fix it for you, then your problem is probably a little more advanced, and is most likely related to improper Active Directory container permissions.

Before you do the following, make sure you have good System State backups of your domain controllers! I accept no responsibility if you hose up your Active Directory environment because you accidentally deleted the wrong thing!

Go into ADSI Edit on your Global Catalog server, and connect to the Configuration Naming Context, and do the following:

• Browse to CN=Services>CN=Microsoft Exchange>CN=Company>CN=Address Lists Container
• Delete the “All Address Lists” and “Offline Address Lists” containers
• Force replication to the other Domain Controllers
• On your Exchange server, pop in the Exchange Install Disk
• Open The Command Prompt as Administrator
• Run Setup /prepareSchema
• Run Setup /prepareAD
• Run Setup /prepareDomain
• Wait about 15 minutes, then reboot your Global Catalog servers one at a time, waiting for each one to come back up before bouncing the next one.
• After all GC servers are rebooted, reboot your Exchange Servers

If that doesn’t fix your issue, then it is time to tuck tail and call Microsoft because your environment has issues! If you have to call Microsoft, I would love to hear what your fix was in the comments :-)

If one of these tips does fix your issue, I want to know as well. Let your voice be heard below!

Technorati Tags: exchange 2007,windows server 2008,OALGen,OAB,Offline Address Book,Errors,Not generating,Empty Directory,Fix,How-to

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Speed HD-8TZ Review

My new company is a Microsoft partner, and with that we were asked to be a part of the Office 2010 review. Pretty cool right? I am sure many of you techno-thusiasts are on that program too. Well with that, good old Microsoft asked us to take a small HD camera and video our users using Office 2010 for some kind of Microsoft marketing campaign!

They told my company they would reimburse us for a camera up to $200 and suggested the Flip-Mino HD camera. Well, I know that camera sucks so I looked for an alternative. I found this “el-cheapo” Speed HD-8TZ camera on Amazon for $195, just a little cheaper than the Flip-Mino, and with better resolution.

My boss came to me knowing I like to make videos for Bauer-Power and asked if I wanted to take the lead on this project. In return I get to keep the camera. What? Free camera? Hells yeah!

My expectation wasn’t very high because the camera was a virtual no-name (Who has heard of Speed electronics anyway) and it was a low-cost camera. It turns out this thing is actually pretty good! Here is some video I shot with it:

For you technical types, here are the specs:

• 12.0 MegaPixel (Max) / 5M Sensor
• 20X Zoom
• 3" TFT LCD
• Resolution: QVGA(30fps), WVGA(60fps), HD 720P(60fps), HD 1080P(30fps)
• HDMI Output
• Support SDHC Card up to 16GB
• White Balance: Auto / Sunny / Cloudy / Tungsten / Fluorescent

Definitely not a bad camera. Much better quality than my Kodak ZI6 I think, and certainly better resolution. I also like that it records fairly well in the dark, which is more than I can say with my ZI6, or my previous HD camera. One thing I don’t like, but is standard in cheap HD cameras, is lack of image stability making a tripod a must!

Do you have a HD-8TZ? Like it? Dislike it? Ever hear of Speed electronics? Hit me up in the comments!

Technorati Tags: speed,hd-8tz,review

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Who Wants a Google Voice Invite?

I got my Google Voice a couple of months ago, and I love it! I get my own personal “vanity” number, I can set up calling rules. It will ring to any phone I want it to (i.e. Work, Home, Cell etc), and I can send texts from my computer. I even read somewhere that you can now use one of your current numbers (i.e. your home number) as your Google voice number!

I just logged on last week, and found out that I have three invitations that I can give out. So you know what came to mind? CONTEST! That’s right, I will hold another Twitter contest! So how do you enter? Simple, you have to do both to get an entry into the contest:

• Follow Me On Twitter
• Retweet about this contest!

MAKE SURE YOU CLICK THE RETWEET LINK ABOVE TO GET CREDIT FOR TWEETING!

If you want an additional entry in the contest, subscribe to my RSS feed, take a screen shot of Bauer-Power in your RSS reader, post the picture online somewhere and post the link in the comments. This will DOUBLE your chances of winning!

I will enter all my Twitter followers that have retweeted about the contest into an Excel spread sheet (Those of you subscribing to RSS will get an additional entry), then I will use a random number generator to pick the winners! Once the winners have been picked, I will announce it via Twitter!

I will be choosing THREE winners this time, so don’t be shy! If you need a Google voice invite, enter! If your friends need a Google Voice invite, tell them about this contest!

The winners will be announced via Twitter on Monday, November 30th at 2:00PM Pacific time!

Contest for U.S. Residents Only

Oh yeah, please don't lock down your Twitter profiles. If I can't see your retweet, you will not get an entry into the contest!

Technorati Tags: google,voice,invite,contest,twitter

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Did You Know You Can Create Disk Images With Windows 7?

While at work the other day, one of my company's principals came to me saying his computer was acting up. My boss and I went to investigate and we found that his hard drive was making some, what us professionals say, funky noises. You know, the sound a hard drive starts to make shortly before it finally kicks the proverbial bucket?

We knew we had to act quickly, so we grabbed a hard drive from a similar laptop, then using trust PING, we tried to create a quick image of his failing hard drive to put on the new drive. Well, as I found out later, PING didn’t quite mix well with Windows 7 for some reason. The image was successful, but after restarting, the laptop wouldn’t boot up. CRAP!

I remembered there being a feature built into Windows 7 that let you create a disk image. So I decided to boot up his laptop, then I went into the control panel and selected Backup and Restore, and there it was, an option to Create a system image!

I selected that option, and followed the Wizard to backup the system image to an external USB hard drive I had. To restore it is just as easy! You boot up using a Windows 7 DVD and select the option to Repair your computer.

On the next screen, you select the option to Restore your computer using a system image you created earlier and follow the wizard!

It is that simple people! I have been a big fan of system images for a long time. For home use I have used Ghost 9, Ghost 12, PING, DriveImage XML, you name it. Now, I don’t need to any more! I can get my computer the way I want it, and create my base image using the tools built into Windows! Not to mention, it saved the principal’s computer right?

A couple of things I want to note is that if the image was created using the 32 bit version of Windows 7, you have to use the 32 bit install disk to restore. Likewise for 64 bit. Also, when creating the image, Windows gives you the option of creating a restore disk so you don't have to carry around a Windows 7 install disk. Options, options, options. I like that!

Have you tried the Windows 7 system image yet? Like it? Dislike it? Problems? Success stories? Hit us up in the comments!

Technorati Tags: windows 7,ghost,built-in,system image,disk image

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