En-Lightn' Me

Tech EXPLOSION!

2010-11-10T20:16:00.003-07:00

en-lightn' has always been my passions in life. These are photography, music, and tech'n out! Now I have went über geek! I have launched www.nexdev0l.com This is going to be a site that can be used by iOS developers to promote and support apps without having to register a domain and maintain a website.

What's with the name?

When Apple bought NeXT that was the start of the revolution. I am planning to do that myself. I was thinking something along the lines of Next Development Revolution and it became NEXDEV0L. The zero in there is for two reasons, the first is obvious. Domain Registration. The second is it was easy to make a neat little graphic for the site with the zero.

Go check out www.NEXDEV0L.com !

The Ultimate PenTesting System

2010-10-26T18:25:00.002-06:00

If you are like me you just love to make things do what they are not supposed to, and go places where you just shouldn't be. This is one of the reasons why I made it my mission over the past two weeks to create the ultimate PenTesting System. So here is what it is and how to do it your self.

Hardware - I went down to the basement and found the newest laptop that was just sitting around collecting dust. In my case it is a Dell Latitude D830. This was my last laptop before it was replaced with my MacBook Pro. This sweet little thing has got 4GB of RAM, and Intel Wireless 3945, a lacking 80GB HDD, and some Centrino processor. Good enough to run Backtrack 4, Windows XP, Fedora 13 (security spin), Windows XP (again - you will see why later).

The Process ... with all my mistakes removed - just log in as root

1. Start with building a fresh system using the entire disk. My preference here was to load BackTrack 4 ( http://www.backtrack-linux.org/ ) because you will want very precise control over your Wireless and Wired ports for sniffing, flooding, and well you know all the other great stuff that BT4 does.

2. Now that you have BT4 loaded on your system create a user

useradd -d /home/VMAdmin vmadmin

passwd vmadmin

enter the new password for this user

3. OK so now you have a BT4 system with 2 users ... whoopee right? Here is where it gets fun. Go out and download VMWare Server 2.0.2 from http://www.vmware.com/products/server/ and make sure you download the TAR not the RPM! You will have to register with VMWare to get the download but the rest is free.

4. Follow the steps HERE! There are so many bad tutorials out there but this one actually works. I could just copy his/her work but I like to give credit where it is deserved, it is just a little incomplete for my needs.

4.a. While you are installing VMWare Server pay attention to the questions the installer askes. When it asks you for a user give the username vmadmin. This is why we created the user. I don't really think that it is a great idea to run VMWare as root, now do you?

4.b. Also when you are answering questions move the VMWare server directory to /home/vmadmin this is just so that you can keep everything nicely organized.

5. Now you have VMWare installed and running! Yeah but I had problems still at this point. If you are on a laptop the keyboard is not mapped correctly!!! Freakn' sucks real hard too. So open up /etc/vmware/config by entering

vi /etc/vmware/config

Copy all of the information indented below to the end of the file and then use :wq to write and quite vi.

xkeymap.keycode.111 = 0x148 # Up xkeymap.keycode.116 = 0x150 # Down xkeymap.keycode.113 = 0x14b # Left xkeymap.keycode.114 = 0x14d # Right xkeymap.keycode.118 = 0x152 # Insert xkeymap.keycode.119 = 0x153 # Delete xkeymap.keycode.110 = 0x147 # Home xkeymap.keycode.115 = 0x14f # End

6. Enter a shell and enter

service vmware restart

7. Open Firefox and go to http://localhost:8222

8. What's this? It's BROKEN! No you just have to tell "no script" to back off. Down at the bottom right hand corner of Firefox click on Options and select Options again. Another window opens. Add localhost to the Whitelist and click OK.

9. Now log in to VMWare using your vmadmin account. Away you go!

10. Just a tip. Create a Folder under /home/vmadmin/virtual\ machines\ called ISO and copy all the ISOs you want to boot off of there.

GO CRAZY, and don't get caught doing anything bad now.

iPad and MS Exchange

2010-09-20T12:58:00.002-06:00

Well you learn something new every day. There is a neat little feature with the iPad that prevents access to MS Exchange. If you set up your account and it verifies but you see no mail in your inbox, although you do see all your folders in Exchange. Chances are that you do not have a passcode set on your iPad. To set a passcode open your settings and then on the general tab you will see "passcode lock". Set a passcode on your iPad and then you should be able to see all your mail in Exchange based on your mail settings.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Apple's ping

2010-09-02T10:19:00.002-06:00

This is a great addition to the iTunes store but there needs to be a metal category and the artists have to participate.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Still a work in progress

2010-07-05T10:30:00.004-06:00

Well I have finally had some time to myself and I have put more work into my custom guitar. I don't have all that much to say about it so I guess that a picture is worth a thousand words.

My Custom Warmoth SG - Day 2-4

2010-06-10T21:26:00.007-06:00

Well it has been a crazy few days. I have been trying to get the SG to start looking like a guitar and tonight the wiring finally got finished! Really I don't have all that much to say other than thank you to Kevin who did all the soldering for me! I could not have put this thing together without you!

Also with the build of this guitar I have finally caved and started using you tube. Yeah I know I am only 5-10 years behind. Doesn't really matter though, the only thing that I can't stop thinking about is that I am putting all my time into building a guitar and no time playing. So I am going to take a break for a while and get back to playing. Don't worry though I will be posting again when this thing gets going again.

YOUTUBE VIDEO!!!

My Custom Warmoth SG - Day 1

2010-06-01T19:26:00.007-06:00

Well the parts finally made it here and got through customs. Really the GST bill wasn't that bad but I have already found 2 issues with the parts. The first is obvious, the "vintage tint" on the neck isn't a tint at all, it's freakn' Yellow! I say whatever, it is a miraculous wizard shape and the Nitro Satin finish feels so fast. So the colour doesn't bother me that much ... I just hope that it fades.

Then I started to make sure everything was going to fit and my stupidity struck again! I specked the output jack hole too small. It could have been worse though and I could have made it too big! Either way I have to get myself a round file and get that hole opened up a little bit more.

So I started what I could tonight. I put in the copper shielding in the two pickup routes. Yeah I know I don't really need this on an active humbucker setup like you would with single coils but I am thinking that every little bit helps and I want this guitar to sing like and angel and howl like a daemon in Hell!

En-Lightn Content Update

2010-05-02T16:08:00.001-06:00

Yep that's right I have finally update www.en-lightn.com with new content. And what content is that you ask? Well I am finally "officially" offering services to the community of Okotoks and surrounding area! Maybe this is the first step to quitting my day job :P

Guitar Surgery

2010-04-24T16:56:00.007-06:00

Well I demand to be different, even though sometimes it doesn't work out for me. This is one of those times that it really worked out and it brought a few friends closer together. I decided a while back that I wanted to take my Epiphone SG and make it my own. So the shopping list started.

EMG 61A

EMG 85

and new white hardware

First came the EMG pickups ... the real heart surgery here. Well if you know me I suck with tools so I had to enlist the services of a friend to do the soldering. 3 - 4 hours later I had one really mean sounding axe ... but it still kind of looked like everyone else's. So I bought all white hardware and a blank white pickguard. Now I already said that I suck with tools so I had to ask another friend to cut out one really KICK ASS pick guard for me. Another 3 hours later, 2 hours more putting it back together and doing a quick setup I now have my personalized SG. I hope you enjoy the pictures.

The Descent Into Insanity - Tales of a Stock Photographer

2010-03-09T22:21:00.006-07:00

I was recently reading the iStock forums today and my current emotional state is best described as "little child syndrome" (kickers). To see your hard work get simply disregarded into the never ending digital trash pile of stock photography. To put it simply ... it hurts.

I am currently going through the "little child syndrome" right now. No, I am not a shrink but I did take (but didn't pass) one psychology class in college. You spend hours thinking of a concept, then setting up your studio (which your wife doesn't like taking up the entire basement), taking the shots, hours of editing, and then you have to put even more time into it key wording and uploading. Then you wait, and wait, and if you are not exclusive you wait some more. Then the bomb hits your inbox like diarrhoea after a night of drinking, and the bloody thing was thrown in that freakn' trash pile! Not even a chance to resubmit, no chance what soever. WTF! It hurts, it really does. You think that you have an absolute winner, and then some (seemingly heartless) inspector shuts you right down.

Oh the pain! Yeah you get over it, and after more and more rejections you get over it quicker. So why am I complaining? Well people have a way of finding my random bitching through Google and hopefully some newbie stock photographer finds this. If you did, and you got a rejection ... don't worry you'll get more :P No I am just joking. That is exactly the way you take it or you will make a complete ass out of yourself.

There is something however to learn from a rejection ... you have to make all that time spent worth something right? Read the generic, pre-caned pieces of horse sh... there I go again. Uhm, yeah this is why this blog post has the title it does. Read the rejection letter, and then go back to your photo. Find ever single defect, lens flair, dust spot, flat fu... (whooosaaa) Back to the story at hand here, find the defects, and the most important part. Write them down, and write them down as you see them. Then add this ever growing list to your post processing procedure.

I have now stepped away from this for a few minutes and I realize as we all do, why you must leave emotions out of your "rejection process". Rejections should not be looked at as a personal attack, but a learning process. Think about the inspectors as I did while having a smoke and a shot of whiskey. Did you think of them? OK, so now that you have done that imagine that these people (mostly stock photographers themselves) see everything from the next mind blowing "vetta" cover shot, to an application including the person's kids and dog that are out of focus and the background has so many distractions that you don't even notice the subject. Yes, now you get it. These people are troopers! Even though at the same time they are soul crushers!

I have now went back and checked out my rejections and I see it (and have pulled other photos out of the inspection queue). My mind was so concentrated on the concept that I was trying to convey that I totally over saturated and cranked the blacks up way too high. Now for the humbling part. The inspector was right. Yeah I said it, don't get hung up on it. I personally loved my photo so much because I babied it, caressed it, and turning it into what I thought was the next big thing. I just didn't think about the elements that make a photo great. Not only is it a concept or story clearly conveyed to the viewer, but it is also about technical perfection which I pushed too far and corrupted the image.

So where or where does the newbie or veteran go from "little child syndrome"? That is the beauty of stock photography ... it is completely your choice. Don't you love it? You finally have control over something that the inspectors don't! HA! You can either learn from this experience and try to push your acceptance rating higher, or say **** it and quit. It is really that simple. Don't go bitching about it, don't cry over it, but learn ... and ask for other photographer's opinions as Kickers did. Then let it sink in, write it down, implement, and grow. Don't forget the reason why you started battling in the world of stock photography. Now if you started to make money ... RUN, RUN NOW! You will spend more in equipment than you will make. Participate in the world of stock photography for the love, the passion, and the pride. This is the only way that dreamers like myself will ever be able to quit their day job and live the dream of being a full time photographer. To do what we love, enjoy, and put our souls into for a living ... and not live in a cardboard box doing it!

Exchange 2007 Block Size

2010-03-04T21:39:00.002-07:00

Well it has been a while now since I first setup the Exchange 2007 solution for my employer. This week I found myself needing to create two new drives on the SAN for a new datastore and another for log storage. After creating the disks for the system I remembered that one of the two disks should be formatted with a different block size. But which one ... how do I find out?

Well thanks to my quick thinking when I was in class I scribbled this information in my text while listening. The disk that you store your database on should be formatted with 8192 bytes per cluster. I don't really understand how the normal person finds this out but this is what I was told in my Exchange '07 training. Now how do you find out what your bytes per cluster are on your partition?

Well if you have a week or two you can use chkdisk but I don't recomend it. It is just an absolute waste of time! Try this out.

C:\>fsutil fsinfo ntfsinfo "C:\Mount Points\MBX02.12"

[some other information]

Bytes Per Cluster : 8192

[some more information]

C:\>fsutil fsinfo ntfsinfo "C:\Mount Points\LOG02.12"

[some other information]

Bytes Per Cluster : 4096

[some more information]

And there you go, fast and quick way to find out what your block size is on an NTFS partition. To format the partition with a different block size just use the options in the Disk Management area in Server Manager. Well there you go, this post is more for my records because I know I will forget how to do this again in a few months :P

I know that I have said it before ...

2010-03-04T21:36:00.002-07:00

Yes that's right. I am going exclusive with www.istock.com so that I can get some much needed perks. I made close to nothing on the other stock sites and now I am closing them all. It is really amazing though that some places will not let you 'delete' your account.

Well I have to wait another 40 some days for one termination and I need another 100 downloads on iStock and then the perks will come!

Apple Always Amazes Me!

2010-03-04T21:32:00.002-07:00

I couldn't believe that for the first time today I finally needed to get a screenshot of my desktop. Can you believe how cool this is on a Mac when you are an old school windows user? To get a screenshot on a Mac you just use the key combination command + shift + 4 and your cursor turns into a photoshop looking tool. Click and drag around the section that you wish to get a shot of and the image is taken and placed on your desktop. HELL YA!

No more "print screen", then open paintbrush, then paste, then crop, and finally saving the file. This is just another lesson that Microsoft should learn.

Ai - Adobe Illustrator

2010-02-10T21:00:00.004-07:00

I am always amazed when I jump into a new program in the Adobe suite! Illustrator is freakn' crazy! Although when you first get in the application it is very intimidating but that is fixed very quickly with a few (free) online tutorials. I found this one and I was able to go through it quite quickly and produce a fairly nice replica.

The image above is my replica made by going through the tutorial. The image below is the original. Click on the images and see what happens???

Aperture 3

2010-02-09T12:52:00.003-07:00

When I found out that Aperture 3 was announced today I was absolutely POed. I just bought my MacBook and a copy of Aperture 2. Now I am expected to pay $100 to upgrade AHHH!

Well this is just another reason why people should switch to Apple. Microsoft would never give out a free upgrade but I just got one today from Apple. I called up the (easy to find) contact number for sales support. I explained my situation and told them that this was quite unfair. Apple keeps all upgrades/releases very quiet so I had no idea that 3.0 was coming out. After only 5-10 min on hold the lady came back and told me that I was getting my upgrade for free!

Thank you Apple! Now all I hope is that Aperture 3 is as good as everyone is saying, and hopefully there is a decent noise reduction filter included. If you don't have a Mac yet, just buy one. I can't believe I have went this long with crappy hardware and even worse software when Apple was there all along.

Stock Photos and ...

2010-02-08T20:56:00.003-07:00

I have found myself going back to the world of Stock photography. This time I am approaching it a little different. I have found that my two hobbies in life are both stock "illegible". Yep, I have just finished my application with iStock for audio. I really hope I only have to do the application once, but I do remember it took me two or three times to understand the strict quality demands.

Not only have I branched out into audio but I have also started building my application for vector illustrations and logo design. Now if this doesn't keep me busy I don't know what will. Well wish me luck!

En-Lightn' Work Found on the Net!

2010-02-05T08:13:00.002-07:00

It makes my day that much better when I find my stock photos being used on the internet. Especially when the author still gives me credit for the image (which isn't required by the royalty free license).

You can find my image (taken in Nanton, Alberta) along with the article at MyVenturePad !

Reflections in Photography - 3

2010-02-02T20:44:00.004-07:00

Ok this will be the last post on reflections in photography for a while. The above picture is a really fast "floating" cell phone. Yeah I could have spent another 10 min and cleaned up the white on the right hand side ... so what. Either way How do you get this type of image? EASY!

Yes it is another cheap quick setup. String was taped to the phone and to the ceiling and to a light stand. There is a single strobe on the phone with a reflector bouncing light to give the right side some highlights. There is also another strobe on the white background to try and over saturate (even though it didn't in the very top photo) the background. Now one thing that you may not notice is the white board on the table. This is a pretty key piece of equipment. The LCD screen of the phone has the white reflection in it. Without this reflection the phone does not look nearly as nice. So take the shot with the reflection and then through it into photoshop and clone out the strings that are suspending the phone in the air and you are done.

Reflections in Photography - 2

2010-02-02T19:28:00.002-07:00

I started my day off the same as I usually start a weekday and that brought me straight to my laptop. I took a look at the post I made yesterday and I kept thinking that the picture of the HDD and that I could do such a better job.

After I took the picture I had to rotate the image 180 degrees. So that put the HDD at a really messed up angle and made for a bad photo. So I thought and thought about it even more. The plate on the HDD acts as a mirror and turns the skull and cross bones backwards. Then it came to me.

When you are doing these types of "reflection" images you should put the "reflected" image upside down then take the photo. It turns out so much better. But you will not see it here :) I am submitting these to my stock photo sites.

Reflections in Photography

2010-02-01T20:12:00.005-07:00

I have been thinking today that I really need to get back to my stock photography and try to make a little coin! So I came up with a concept that I wanted to portray in a photo. The concept came from my day job ... a computer virus. I have seen other people try to portray this in a photo but I wanted to put my own spin on it.

So how do you get this type of photo? Well it is actually very easy. The first thing that I did was crack open an old hard drive. Go figure that was the hardest part of the photo, well if you don't have the right tools. After that take a vector program and do a quick skull and bones then print it out as big as you can. Don't worry about quality you can fix it up in photoshop later. Use some light glue and paste it to a piece of cardboard. Setup your lights and jerry rig stuff up so that you like it. Position the cardboard so that you can see the reflection of the skull through the camera lens and shoot away. Pull the image into photoshop (or in this case Aperture) and fix the image up so that it looks good. Here is what my setup looked like. Don't laugh too hard it worked just fine.

The chair is their because I had to stand on it to get a good enough view of the reflection. So that meant I needed a really high shutter speed. I was able to get it fairly sharp at 1/200 sec. You probably can't see it in the picture but I have a piece of tape (I couldn't find any string) going from my ceiling to the piece of cardboard to keep it in the right position. I even surprise myself sometimes with the cheap rigs I put together :P

Quick Recordings

2010-01-25T22:11:00.003-07:00

Well I believe that I am now addicted to my MacBook and GarageBand. I have quickly recorded 2 acoustic songs tonight. They were done with my Talman (Ibanez) TCY10E that I got for Christmas this year. Again please remember that these were done in one take, and in some cases I copied and duplicated some tracks. I hope that you enjoy them!

My take on "The Rose March" - Smashing Pumpkins

My take on "The Girl" - City in Colour

I am currently putting together an original untitled 'modern' Blues piece using GarageBand loops and my own recordings. This one I am actually putting some effort into so it may not be online for a few weeks.

The New Big Mac!

2010-01-22T11:33:00.002-07:00

Well it has been a while now with the new MacBook Pro and I have to say I wish I would have moved over a long time ago! It is the perfect comprimise between the power of a linux shell and a easy to use/navigate GUI.

So after building a new iTunes library, iPhoto library, and Aperture libraries, I turned my attention to Garageband. WOW! it was so easy to get my guitar setup and plugged into my MacBook. Recording was just as easy. The abilitly to quickly start using the program and the power of advanced features make this a great program. I am starting to wonder what I did in the past without a Mac!

Now for the embarising part. My very first recording is posted for you all to listen to

here -> please don't judge me :P

403 - Access Forbidden

2010-01-22T11:22:00.002-07:00

For any of you out there that run Apache servers you know that (on a linux box) permissions on files is a big deal. So when you see that dreaded 403 error you start off with a

chown -R apache:apache /var/www/html/*

then

chmod -R 755 /var/www/html/*

So what do you do if that doesn't resolve the issue? Well I ran into this exact problem today. I even pulled down the server! (service httpd restart) Then I thought it was time to do some troubleshooting. Where do you start? Well no a days I usually go right to SELinux.

echo 0 >/selinux/enforce

then try again. Son of a gun, would you know it the 403 went away! So I made sure it was SELinux by turning it back on.

echo 1 >/selinux/enforce

Sure enough the 403 was back. So how do you fix it? Try this out

restorecon

If that works on the 403 error then [man restorecon] to find out more on how to go recursively through all your web files.

The Mac Era

2010-01-19T20:27:00.002-07:00

The day has finally come. I got my MacBook today and I am still importing around 100,000 images into iPhoto and Aperture. I have to say thought that I am pretty amazed with how this new toy of mine is working. The "intelligent" track pad makes moving around in the OS very quick. However I am having a bit of a hard time with the new keyboard shortcuts. This is just a quick little post but I am wondering why I didn't take the leap to Mac before?

If you don't have a Mac and you are (Just figured out the "END" shortcut [command + ->]) a photographer thinking of taking the plunge check out these videos on Aperture. http://www.apple.com/aperture/tutorials/

Evolution of En-Lightn with iTunes

2010-01-14T21:51:00.002-07:00

I have until just recently been against Apple/Mac. I was thinking tonight what made me follow down this path that is leading away from my beloved Micro$oft? It was back in July 2009 that I was pushed into using iTunes. You see I live in Okotoks and that day Chicken Foot was launching their first CD. I could have just drove to Calgary and bought it but I absolutely hate going to the city. So it was off to iTunes for the very first time to buy an album.

From that point my path led me away from M$ Media Player and all my music went into iTunes. Then ideas of a Macbook started flowing through my head. I took the dive and ordered the laptop. Now my iTunes library has music, movies, and yes even TV shows.

So why the heck am I posting this useless rambling. An announcement of OLD NEWS! For people that use iTunes and Macs you are going to laugh at me but I can't get over how great the Genius App is in iTunes! Pick a song that you would like to base your playlist off of and then click the Genius button. And just like that you got one really great playlist. I freakn' love it! Not only that but recently the Genius in the iTunes store told me about Burn Halo! All I have to say is ...

iTunes you are the "apple" of my eye

En-Lightn' Gen 3

2010-01-11T18:18:00.005-07:00

As time goes by and as technology improves I have to keep up with the trends without breaking the bank. The opportunity came up to get a Macbook Pro today and I just couldn't pass it up. The only issue that I have being a photographer going from a PC to a Mac is the cost of Photoshop. Who wants to spend almost $900 on a copy of software?

Well Aperture is the way I will have to go ... that is if I want to use the Mac for photos. Macs come with a brillient LED display that there is no reason that I would use my PC for photos. Well that is if I only have one copy of Photoshop I guess.

I am very excited to see what iPhoto, Aperture, and Mac OS can do. Stay tuned to read more. I think that I should see the new laptop late this week or early next week. From what I can see at http://www.apple.com/ca/aperture/ I am in for a treat. The downside is that I can already see that the clone brush is not as advanced at PS4 and there is no way to create a custom brush with my signature. At least I think ...

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UPDATE
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After some more poking around on this crazy thing that we call the internet I have found out more about these Apple creatures. VMWare which I only know for ESX and Workstation, has this really neat program for Mac. VMWare Fusion - now not only can you convert your XP/Vista/Win7 box into a VM image for free and run it on your Mac but you can launch individual programs in Mac from your PC image. I believe that this software will be a must get for me.

Burn Halo

2010-01-11T18:11:00.002-07:00

Well iTunes you did it again! I opened the mail today when I got home from work and there was $75 in iTunes cards that I got with my credit card "points". So right after dinner I boot up the good ole lappy and jump online to get the music I have been wanting for a good long time.

After some Marilyn Manson, Cavo, Shinedown, and a few others I still had money left on my account. Now if anyone reading this actually knows me they know that I can't save money. I had to spend it all. So I went to the main "music" section of iTunes and I saw a frame that said "Recommended for You". Why not I thought. So I opened the section up and started previewing the albums that iTunes recommended for me.

THANK YOU iTunes! I don't know how long it would be until I hear these guys on the radio. They freakn' ROCK! All I have to say is that they remind me of an epic "big" sounding rock band. You can hear some of their tunes on their site at http://www.myspace.com/burnhalo

Studio Upgrade

2010-01-10T11:38:00.001-07:00

Well the holiday season has come and gone, and I have to say the studio got a huge upgrade from the season. Barn doors, gels, snoots, grids, reflectors, and a new background. WOW I can't wait to put this stuff to work.

Okotoks Community Calendar COVER!

2010-01-10T11:36:00.000-07:00

Nick Schroedl of En-Lightn' was published on the cover of the Okotoks Community Calendar for 2010! Check it out.

A Great Gift

2009-12-06T09:49:00.002-07:00

It is that time when everyone is thinking of what to buy their loved ones this holiday season. I thought that I would share one thing that I have been doing for four years now.

Collect all your best digital photos from the year and go to http://www.mpix.com/Product.aspx/assembledalbums and download their software. Spend the time and create a photo book. The fist time that I did this I brought my wife to tears on Christmas morning. Now it is expected that I make an album to display that year of our life together.

One pointer with a photo book like this. I have heard from many people that it is not only the photos that make this gift truly special. Insert funny comments throughout the book and don't be scared to have fun with it.

The Trews - Acoustic - Friends & Total Strangers

2009-12-06T09:46:00.003-07:00

Recorded live in Toronto this year this album is their absolute best! I am not a huge Trues fan but the music on this disk has a perfect sound. The acoustic (Gibson Hummingbird) has the most beautiful sound. I just can't get over the feeling that I get while listening to this. If you see it, pick it up. Hell go out of your way to get this disk, it is just that good.

Stretching for Beginners

2009-11-23T22:43:00.002-07:00

As I make my way to more advanced music from Joe Satriani I find that my little girl like hands just can't stretch. Then I remembered playing Blackbird by the Beatles. This is a super fun song to play, it is easy enough for beginners and it helps stretch your hand. You can find a great tab for Blackbird here -> http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/tabs/b/beatles/blackbird_ver5_tab.htm

Now as I am typing this I also remember reading an interview with John 5 . His left hand is actually an inch larger than his right ... just from practicing. Now we all know that if you have a full time job you just can't put that much time into practicing but it proves the point. You can read the article here -> http://www.squierguitars.com/news/index.php?display_article=132

Christmas Season in Full Swing

2009-11-15T10:11:00.003-07:00

It is only November 15, and I am so glad to say that all the Christmas shopping is done! I have been down in my make shift studio more and more getting some of the better shots I have ever done.

I have updated http://www.en-lightn.com/portfolio.php with some of the shots from portrait sessions. It is really surprising what you can do in a dungeon studio. I have also updated one of my photo collections on facebook. So far the overall response to my latest work has been positive. Although I do find that I am really developing my own style in my studio. Granted my work is not for everyone but why compromise artistic vision to make money?

Sour BlackBerries

2009-10-28T12:28:00.002-06:00

Again the BlackBerry Enterprise Server ( 4.1.6.22 )has left a sour taste in my mouth. A brand spankn' new Citrix Xen App server farm was just built. I have to say it's even pretty nice, but I am not really a Citrix guy. The new farm was built with OpenOffice 3.1.0 and MS Office 2007 (I think). You see in these times of financial unstability the company that I work for elected to stop paying Micro$oft Office when most of our users don't need it. So we just use AD permissions on the MS apps so that most can not access these applications through Citrix.

Well here is the kick in the ass! Any word document (DOC) sent to the BES fails. You get this really nice error that says the attachment type is not supported. AHHH! OpenOffice 3.0 DOC files worked just fine, and we go to the newest version of OpenOffice and it goes South! The only thing you can find on Sun's website is this -> http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=103545 Yeah that's nice, blame it on BlackBerry. At least they blame it on someone though. Look through www.blackberry.com and see if you can find anything on OpenOffice DOC files. I am just taking there position as "we support Microsoft Office, not OpenOffice. So we don't care.".

The only thing that we can do is wait for the next release of OpenOffice or rebuild a Citrix farm. But wait! We do have some users out there that like to play around a bit and one found a work around. At least I am told. I don't have a BB so I can't try it out. So if you found my blog searching for a fix try this.

* When you try to open the OpenOffice 3.1 DOC on a blackberry you get an option to view or edit
* If you select view the error "File type not supported"
* Select Edit with ... and you will be able to open it, or so I am told

So why the hell do I keep bitching about BlackBerry you ask? I just like to give the world more reasons to stay the hell away from them. With Exchange 2007 and Windows Mobile phones (throw in SharePoint) and you have got one really great solution. RIM can shove it where the sun don't shine!

The Outlook is ...

2009-10-26T18:01:00.002-06:00

Well yet once again my never ending Exchange migration has brought me frustration beyond belief! I get a call from a user who tells me that they can't send emails. All I am thinking is why not? Are you clicking on "send"? Then I pull myself back and remember that I am just in a bad mood.

I shadow the user's Citrix session and he shows my what he means. There it is a fresh email ... looks fine to me. Then he starts typing. I can see the cursor going across the screen and all I can think is the font is white. It was too. But here comes the kick in the but. I couldn't remove the stationary that was the HTML email was calling, because we just upgraded the user to Outlook 2007.

I start with Google, who doesn't? I searched for so many bloody things and couldn't find a got dam thing! So what else do you do when you are in this spot? That's right just jump straight to regedit. Of course our users can not run regedit so I do a run as ... CRAP! Now I can't easily get to the user's HKEY_CURRENT_USER key! AHHHH so off to Active Directory to pull out the user's SID.

Yeah OK long story short here. If you upgrade Outlook to 2007 and don't have stationary installed just use regedit and go to

HKEY_USERS\SID\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Common\Mail Settings\

Once you are there find the Key that says NewStationery and delete it. Restart Outlook and away you go.

Great BIG Offer

2009-10-15T19:45:00.001-06:00

Get your Holiday (Christmas) Cards done before it is too late! This year I am offering a family portrait session, and customized Holiday Card printing for a VERY LOW price. As always with any of my services, if you don't like the photo, you don't pay a cent (before prints are ordered).

Photos can be done in what I like to call the "K-Mart look" or as Dramatic and Crazy as we want to take it! I encourage everyone to chat with me before hand so that we can create a special and unique setting for the photo. Think about everything from Santa Hats for the family, matching tacky wool sweaters, to a romantic portrait of a new couple. Don't let anything hold you back. If you think of an idea, let me know and I will try to make your vision appear on a Holiday Card for you.

Sitting Fee - $20
Home Visit - $10
Photoshop Work - FREE
Customer Review and Approval - Online
Cost per Card - $0.75 (Cheaper than Wal-Mart!)
Delivery of Final Product - FREE

Book your session now by sending an E-mail to nick[at]en-lightn.com with your desired session date, number of people in the photo, and approximate number of cards you are looking at purchasing. Photos can be taken between now and November 16th so that your cards can be delivered to you in time to have them sent out by the holiday season.

This is the first step of many to building En-Lightn' into a business in Okotoks, and I am looking forward to working with the people I know and their families!

Windows 7 - Activate the hard way

2009-10-14T17:43:00.001-06:00

Windows 7, it is supposed to be so nice and easy to use. Yeah right, it's still a Micro$oft product. I am one of the "lucky" people that got Windows 7 Enterprise at work through volume licensing. I have been running it for almost a month now and my XP Pro box was quicker. I am also missing my old AD tools and the old Exchange 03 tools, it will take some time to get used to the new feel. But today I had a very odd surprise. I was told that I had to activate my windows. "Sure, this is a legal copy of Windows. Why not?" Well I waited the 5 minutes windows standard time and it blew up!

Windows told me that I don't have a KMS system on our network. Yeah, tell me something I don't know. Well I found out that this is a recommended thing to have around in a Volume Licensing network. But I am lazy and we only have one box that needs it, and it is a bloody dev. box for cry'n out loud! Of course Google came to the rescue (their search engine is so much better than their Postini service). MSDN had this neat little trick out there for us poor shmucks.

Open an elevated privileged Command prompt and enter the following

cscript c:\Windows\System32\slmgr.vbs /ckms
cscript c:\Windows\System32\slmgr.vbs /ipk (I included the dashes and it worked)
cscript c:\Windows\System32\slmgr.vbs /ato

Windows is now activated. Yeah, thanks that was so easy. I guess sarcasm doesn't really come across in blog posts.

The Magical Disappearing Postini

2009-10-13T18:23:00.003-06:00

I can't believe the amount of trouble that Postini could cause an administrator that doesn't even use the service. You, along with the rest of the world have probably already heard that Google's Postini went ... well tits up today. Last I heard it was over 11 hours of downtime! Not only did every mail admin that used the service get yelled at by users but it was also a pain for the administrators that had users trying to reach Postini users. The page http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/AppSecurity/thread?tid=43203b3c6982650f&hl=en was sent to me by McAfee so that I could try and understand what was actually going on.

Then I though, wouldn't it be a good idea to Google "postini outage", and found out that it isn't that great of an idea. Not even 8 hours into the downtime hackers and spammers went absolutely crazy on the Internet using the Postini outage as a way to lure people into Malware and phishing attacks. NOW COME ON! Even a hacker or a spammer has to have some consideration for a stressed out mail admin. They are just trying to get their mail systems back online and now there is spam and malware to battle with as well.

All I have to say is thank the Gods that I have all the SPAM systems in house and really didn't have an issue with this today ... well other than spending hours trying to figure out WTF was actually going on.

Bugs ... even in winter

2009-10-08T07:36:00.001-06:00

Well here I thought that en-lightn.com was bug free. Oops, not quite there yet. The mailing list has an issue with the automatic reply for verification. Please don't let this deter you from signing up. Everything will be done automatically until I get things fixed.

Facebook Group

2009-10-07T07:15:00.000-06:00

All right now for a little shameless promotion. We have a nice little FaceBook group going for photographers in the Okotoks and High River area, called "Okotoks and High River dSLR". Now you don't have to be in the area to join this group so don't be shy.

The group has been slow and not really active for the last few months but I am on a mission to try and change that. I created the group a while back to help myself and others perfect the art of photography. However it has turned out to be kind of a dud so far. Help me change it!

Great Guitar Site - for everyone

2009-10-07T07:10:00.000-06:00

I really like to pimp free services, especially when they should be costing money. One of these really great services is JustinGuitar.com. This site is full of great tab, tips, and a ton more.

There is an insane amount of YouTube videos ranging from very easy to pretty bloody hard. Everything on the site is free but notice the link there to donate to the site. One of my favorite resources is Yesterday - The Beatles. This tab is done very nicely and there are YouTube videos to go along with it as well.

BES, BlackBerry Enterprise Server or Bloated and Evil System

2009-10-07T07:05:00.001-06:00

Moving from Exchange 2003 to Exchange 2007 isn't really that big of a deal. You just have to make sure that you have a good plan in place and test, test, and test some more. However I did run into something that just blew me away!

When moving a mailbox between databases on a single Exchange 2007 server the user called and said that email was not being delivered to their handheld. To begin with I thought that this was just a permissions problem with the AD account BESAdmin. I tried this that and everything else. I even deleted the BES account and recreated it. Still nothing would work.

So for the search engines to pick this up and help others the errors in Event Viewer were as follows (after the BES account was deleted and recreated)

OpenRootFolder - Mailbox::m_pMDB->OpenEntry (0x80004005) failed
MAPIMailbox::Construct - Open Root Folder failed
DeleteAllDeviceSearches (0x00000000) failed
User 'username' not started
1 user(s) failed to initialize

What I did find out is that this is by design. Yep RIM actually made thier server screw up by design. When you move a mailbox a BES looks to an AD string to find where the mailbox actually is. When you move a mailbox within a server this string does not change. So how do you fix it???

It's windows, reboot the server. Isn't that the answer to everything? Well you could just restart the BES services, that would work too.

In the beginning ...

2009-10-07T07:00:00.002-06:00

If you made it here you probably already know that Spammers have caused this revolution from a Guestbook to a Blog. I think that I should start by pimping the free service from Google that I am using. http://blogger.com I have seen other sites use this service and I already had a Google account so I thought that it would be the perfect next step from my Guestbook.

Now a little about what I am planning to do here. Not only will I be blogging about photography, but I will also be throwing in tid bits on technology, and guitar playing. These are my main interests in life so I thought that I would share my experiences and tips with everyone.

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