VT News Daily E-mail FAIL
At Virginia Tech all faculty and staff are forced to receive a daily news e-mail. I must admit I rarely read the e-mail, and instead prefer to seek out what's happening. This is mainly due to the machine-like composition of the e-mail. Today, I was happy to see the e-mail got flagged as spam by VT's mail system.
Take that you machine-like e-mail!
Update: Whew, I’m glad I released this message from quarantine because I almost missed the “Six-week support group for women whose partners have Asperger Syndrome.”
How to Configure Windows XP & Vista Auto Login
Since I've had to look this up three times in the past three months, I'm going to document it once and for all.
- Run regedit
- Drill down to this registry key: “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon”
- Set AutoAdminLogon, DefaultUSerName, DefaultPassword and DefaultDomainName accordingly (Note: these are all string values)
AutoAdminLogon - 0, disable auto-login; 1, auto-login using the supplied credentials.
DefaultUserName - Username used to automatically login.
DefaultPassword - Password used to automatically login. Note: Plan text, could easily be view by anyone with administrative privileges.
DefaultDomainName - Domain name used to automatically login.
No Web browser for you!
Microsoft’s antitrust battle with the European Union has reached a new level of insanity. The EU has declared Microsoft’s inclusion of its Internet Explorer Web browser with the operating system is a no-no and crushes competition – CRUSHES! So, Microsoft in all their wisdom said fine, we’ll just ship Windows 7 with no Web browser. That’s right, nothing. Which leads to the question: How the hell are you supposed to get a Web browser if you don’t have a Web browser?
I can see it now: “Mom, just click start and then run. Now type ftp ftp.mozilla.org. OK, now type anonymous for the username and then your email address. Great! OK, now type cd pub… Crap, we better set the transfer mode to binary.”
I’m glad I live in the land of imaginary monopolies, with forced browser usage.
Microsoft SQL Server 2008: Worst Installer Ever!
Today I decided to install Microsoft’s latest Express edition of SQL server, 2008, on my laptop. So far I’ve used every version of SQL Microsoft has ever produced without much of a complaint. Therefore it pains me to complain about the latest and greatest.
My first complaint revolves around the three reboots required to install the software. Call me crazy but this seems excessive. Reboot #1: .Net Framework 3.5 SP1 install. Reboot #2: Some random Windows Hotfix. Reboot #3: Visual Studio 2008 SP1 install. The installer also seems disjointed; at one point there were three separate windows churning along all with a different look-and-feel. Hey Microsoft, why don’t you attempt to develop a cohesive interface?
My final complaint is pretty petty, but I feel the need to complain. During the “rules” check, the installer attempts to find issues that will affect the installation. This is great, but when you click the little red error icon it presents you with helpful information, which undoubtedly includes a URL. However, the URL is not clickable! Who wants to transpose a non-friendly URL from a non-friendly error message into their browser?
Flickr photostream
Twitter Feed
- Lovely: "Too many table names in the query. The maximum allowable is 50."
- Great run through @balboapark with @runwithgreg. Now time for some steak!
- Just ordered an Apple TV. It's the cheapest thing I've ever purchased from Apple. #fb
- Having a personality like a potted cactus is not a good thing.