• Something Microsoft does right

    I've never been a Microsoft fan and really haven't had positive things to say about their software. There are lots of people that are as against Macs as I am against Windows. Today, I attended a Microsoft event where Microsoft was showcasing Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 and Exchange 2010. I decided to go as most of the companies I interact with are Microsoft shops and it was about time for me to learn about the "dark side".

    I went to the track on Exchange 2010. As the presenter started talking about Exchange, my view on Microsoft (at least Exchange) really changed. Microsoft has implemented so many things that companies need and made it easy to use (at least it looks that way).

    The presenter was touting how well Outlook Web App worked in Safari and Firefox which is pretty cool. In addition, administration roles are sorely missing from other products I've used so that you can give a junior administrator certain privileges. Also, archiving and discovery is completely integrated. All of this, of course, comes at a price, but it knocks the socks off anything that Apple has put out. If Apple has any chance of competing in the enterprise space, it really needs to examine Exchange. I like the open source underpinnings of OS X server, but slapping together open source apps doesn't make a server solution.

    If I had people to run my servers and a vast budget, I'd definitely consider Exchange :-). Hmmm, maybe my head cold is clouding my judgment.

  • Sad (tech) day at the Gruby house

    We've been using a Mac Mini as a media center for a little while now and haven't used the TiVo in weeks. So, today, I decided to unplug the TiVo. The TiVo has been our friend for over 5 years and has undergone a few surgeries to swap out the hard drive.

    When I unplugged the TiVo, I said to my wife, "notice how quiet it is?". She hadn't noticed the noise as it has been background noise for so long. The hard drive in it and the fan were quite noisy. The difference is absolutely amazing in terms how quiet it is now in our TV room.

    While the TiVo has served us well, it is looking like my Mac Mini with EyeTV is going to fit the bill for our TV watching needs. The solution is not perfect, but it is working well.

    RIP, TiVO.

  • Open Directory and DNS

    As I've written before, Open Directory on Mac OS X doesn't like it when DNS is messed up. It requires forward and reverse DNS to point to the same place. Our Open Directory server was running fine, but today we moved DNS to a different machine.

    I was unable to authenticate using LDAP and saw an error in the LDAP log:

    Miscellaneous failure No principal in keytab matches desired name.
    

    After a little searching, I can across a blog entry mentioning this and talking about DNS. While it wasn't exactly what I had, it made me do a little poking at my system. Turns out that I created 3 A records for the LDAP server which created a reverse DNS entry for the server. The problem is that the forward DNS entry didn't match the reverse DNS entry. I changed 2 of the A records to CNAME records, restarted the LDAP server and the problem went away.

    I wonder if there is another cause for this problem or just the authors of the software didn't bother to put in a useful error message. It's easy to ignore putting in useful error messages when writing code, but when Apple decides to use open source software and slap a GUI on it, they should try to make the error messages more useful. Again, I'm complaining about slapping a GUI on command line applications. If I wasn't persistent and didn't know how to troubleshoot UNIX, I'd never be able to run a Mac OS X server.

  • How (not) to install a dishwasher

    The below steps are what I did to replace our ailing dishwasher. They should NOT be followed by anyone and your dishwasher should be installed by a professional. However, please note that the $100 install charge that Home Depot and Lowes charges may not cover your install if something is not simple.

    1. Shut off water supply to dishwasher.
    2. Shut off circuit breaker to dishwasher.
    3. Figure out how to remove cabinet kick plate. This proved to be challenging because tile was put in after the cabinetry and dishwasher was installed>.
    4. Disconnect water supply from dishwasher.
    5. Carefully open box with power supply.
    6. Unscrew wirenuts and use test meter to verify that power is off.
    7. Attempt to pull dishwasher out.
    8. Realize that dishwasher is too tall because tile was put in after dishwasher was put in.
    9. Try to lower feet by hand, but it doesn't work.
    10. Grab pliers and screw in feet.
    11. Pull out dishwasher.
    12. Disconnect drain line.
    13. Put dishwasher aside.
    14. Notice extra wires in the back with a wirenut only on the hot.
    15. Put wirenut on the neutral (just because).
    16. Push wires back into hole in wall.
    17. Notice that wires seem like they're going to break.
    18. Take off wirenuts and test wires.
    19. See that no current is flowing.
    20. Cut wires below where it looked like it was going to break.
    21. Thank goodness that I was using rubber handled cutters.
    22. Wait for heart to stop racing.
    23. Think about how on this green earth was I going to cap this live wire without shutting off power to the whole house.
    24. Put on leather gloves.
    25. Put test meter on newly exposed wires and see that they are live.
    26. Realize that the reason that the meter initially said there was no current was because the wires were broken.
    27. Shut off circuit breakers and retest wires.
    28. Carefully finish cutting the wires.
    29. Carefully strip the wires and apply wirenuts.
    30. Push wires back in wall.
    31. Turn breaker for that circuit back on.
    32. Call it a day.
    33. Wait for dishwasher to arrive.
    34. See that hole for drain line and supply line wasn't big enough.
    35. Use recipricating saw to make hole bigger.
    36. When saw doesn't finish the job, grab Dremel and work on the hole.
    37. Attach supply line to water line and feed it through the hole.
    38. Feed drain hose through hole (it's attached to the dishwasher).
    39. Put supply line in channel under dishwasher.
    40. Screw right angle connector onto dishwasher for water supply line after putting Teflon tape on it.
    41. Think that the direction the right angle connector ended up could be a problem later.
    42. Push dishwasher into hole.
    43. See that power doesn't come through the channel like it should have.
    44. Attempt to pull dishwasher back out and see it get stuck.
    45. Spend awhile trying to yank the dishwasher out and figuring out what to do.
    46. Grab plastic drywall knife and jam it into the side to try to get dishwasher out.
    47. Pull dishwasher out.
    48. Grab Dremel and make modifications to cabinet.
    49. Attach lead wire to power cable with electrical tape to help feed it.
    50. Push dishwasher back in cabinet.
    51. Yank on wire for power.
    52. See feed wire come off.
    53. Pull dishwasher out.
    54. Tie feed wire to power and re-tape it.
    55. Push dishwasher back in.
    56. Connect water supply line.
    57. Turn on water supply line.
    58. See water leak at supply line side of right angle connector.
    59. Turn off water supply.
    60. Redo Teflon tape and re-attach water supply line.
    61. Turn water back on.
    62. Wait a few minutes.
    63. See water leak on other side of right angle connector.
    64. Shut off water supply.
    65. Unscrew water supply line.
    66. Unscrew right angle connector.
    67. Reapply Teflon tape on right angle connector.
    68. Reattach right angle connector.
    69. Reapply Teflin tape on right angle connector on supply line side.
    70. Reattach water supply line.
    71. Turn on water.
    72. See that water didn't leak.
    73. Connect power supply with wirenuts.
    74. Attach drain hose to airgap.
    75. Attempt to level front feet.
    76. Directions say to use 1/4" ratchet to screw down feet.
    77. See that my socket fits, but the wrench doesn't physically fit no matter what I did.
    78. Look all around for something to lower the feet.
    79. Find Gerber multitool in garage.
    80. As a last ditch effort, use tool to lower feet. The big issue was the tile made it difficult to get access to the feet.
    81. Finish leveling dishwasher.
    82. Secure top brackets of dishwasher.
    83. Attempt to put cabinet kick plate back.
    84. Struggle with it.
    85. Make cutout for dishwasher bigger.
    86. Try to put it back; still didn't work.
    87. Excess grout was causing it not to fit.
    88. Chip out some grout with a screwdriver.
    89. Use Dremel to grind down some grout.
    90. Push kick plate back in and put in a nail (one seems to hold it).
    91. Turn on circuit breaker, cross fingers.
    92. Test dishwasher.
    93. Cleanup. (This took awhile as I made a complete mess out of the kitchen.)
    94. Relax and pat yourself on the back.

    As you can see, this experience was not easy and if I had to do it again, I probably would have just spent the money to have someone else do it (I think I always say that, but come back to thinking that I can do anything around the house).