For those of you who've read any of Dan Brown's novels especially Da Vinci Code or Digital Fortress you might be wondering what all the strange codes/symbols inside & on the book's cover mean. Well - no I wont spoil it for you. Try to figure it out here And only use Google for research (no searching for the solution!)

 

[Update]: Just figured out the 'GUID' like codes in the back of Digital Fortress & Deception Point - its just as Ian, TJ and myself thought. The code numbers are chapter numbers which gives to a letter from the first word of its opening sentence. Then arrange these letters into a Cesarian grid. And read down the grid.

 

 

 

 

For a long time now I've been wishing for a realistic solution to Internet access whilst driving or at least when parked somewhere. Mobile phones are too expensive and small. Ever tried blogging more than a single sentence on a phone!

However, this site has again spark my interest with their carbot. This guy's even got a handy install guide for wiring it into you car. Hopefully the current demand for more WiFi hotspots will eventually include most major towns in the UK. Else I guess we have to wait for WiMax in 2006/7.

 

Following on from the Windows 2000 Security guides, here's the equivlent for Windows 2003 Servers. I have used the settings suggested in this guide on my employers network since Windows 2003 release with great success - some of the users might think too much success as the group policies are alway the first thing to be blamed when strange stuff occurs on the network. By hey, we still running!

Windows_Server_2003_Security_Guide.exe (2.32 MB)

How do they collect the fine?

 

I loath SQL. Here's another example of why:

This wont execute from Query Analyzer

INSERT INTO [dbo].[TB_PROPERTY]([KEY],[STRING_VAL],[SYSOWNED],[msrepl_tran_version])
VALUES ('KEY_NAME', 'IF EXISTS (SELECT * FROM sysobjects
        WHERE id = OBJECT_ID(''%STORED_PROCEDURE_NAME%'') AND OBJECTPROPERTY(id, ''IsProcedure'') = 1)
    DROP PROCEDURE [dbo].[%STORED_PROCEDURE_NAME%]
GO', 1, '2A3AD395-E4A4-4875-BF77-BF64F00A0A52' )
GO

It seems that QA detects the GO statement inside the quoted string and refuses to continue. A 'GO' string that begins on a new line is always interpreted as a keyword even if inside a string! Doh!

 

Various workarounds for hosting these two ASP.NET apps in the same web site have been suggested before - this new one looks worth a try.

Is your Sharepoint server broken? Does it return HTTP 500 errors? Chances are that you've been upgraded by Windows Update to service pack 1. Here's the fix.

Bit Erosion. This could finally explain why some of our customers systems stop working after we've left them in a perfectly working condition. That or they've just muppets.

Since the release of service pack 2 I've been up to my neck in problems with people's laptop. The worst problem was that all our company anti-virus software was disabled making us less secure - I've managed to fix that recently. However the next problem is on one of our build machines (why we used XP I dont know), whenever SP2 installs itself (via Windows Update) we lose all the network adapters! I have just found a link to a suggested fix for resetting the IP stack, so thats the next thing to try. Wish me luck!

Basically run this command line:

netsh int ip reset logfile.txt

TJ's just started blogging as well.

Weekly Report for between 18/10/2004 and 24/10/2004

I know you’re counting the hours until November 11th, 2004, so I want to help you use your time more effectively. That way, when that glorious day arrives, you’ll have everything in place to jump right in and commence the carnage.

As promised, I've written a small .NET application to randomly download one of my wallpapers and display them on your desktop.

Hook an unprotected virgin PC to the Internet and it's infected by a worm in just 20 minutes.

Weekly Report between 11/10/2004 and 17/10/2004

Kelly wanted a template for Lucie's birthday invites, so here it is!

I've passed the 10,000 image mark in my gallery.

Just installed desktop google and its indexing my machine now. I'll let you know how things go.

I've added a side panel to my web site, showing the current track playing on my radio stream.

After installing Windows XP service pack 2 onto our network, I soon realised that the Symantec Anti-Virus server was being prevented from updating virus definitions. Here's the solution.

What with Christmas approaching, I thought I'd give some family members a hint!

I thought I'd give broadcasting a try. Listen in here

As a firewall administrator your main concern is controlling what external users can access on your corporate network and what users on the corporate network can access on the Internet and other networks within the corporate network. You spend a lot of time configuring firewall policy so that users have access only to the protocols you want them to use, connect only to the servers you want them to connect to, download only the content corporate security policy approves, and access resources only at a specified time of day.

Microsoft is continuing to investigate a reported vulnerability in Microsoft ASP.NET. Reports have indicated that an attacker could send specially crafted requests to a Web server running ASP.NET applications and bypass forms based authentication or Windows authorization configurations, and potentially view secured content without providing the proper credentials.

Weekly Report for between 04/10/2004 and 10/10/2004

Weekly Report for between 27/09/2004 and 03/10/2004

Monthly Report for between 01/09/2004 and 30/09/2004

Weekly Report between 20/09/2004 and 26/09/2004

Great trip. Great hotel. Superb weather.

just watched sunset. now watching becks & owen on tv

Another day by the pool. Temp near 30s. Food good, wine better

Download: clip(5).3gp