MattLog.net

How to block theage.com.au annoying flyins

Theage.com.au has recently started advertising similar articles on all online content with these really annoying fly-in ads. If your a regular reader of theage.com.au you would have noticed them by now.

There’s also no easy way to block this or a setting to disable it. Here is the way I block them.

1. Inf Firefox, install AdBlock Plus from http://adblockplus.org/en/installation. AdBlock Plus by default blocks all advertising on all websites when turned on. Technically these fly-ins aren’t ad’s so ABP doesn’t block them by default. You need to add a custom “Element Hiding Rule”

2. Open the ABP Preferences and select Add Filter

3. In the filter, type the following theage.com.au##DIV.cN-flyIn

4. Press OK and refresh theage.com.au page you were viewing. You will now see the fly-in has been disabled

Tags: ABP, block css element

Auto Deploy Multiple vmware Virtual Machines

Haven’t posted for a while… here goes.

Here is my PowerShell script to deploy multiple vmware virtual machines using a template and a custom specification file. You can use this script to create an unlimited number of VM’s, all with unique computer names and static IP addresses.

The following attributes need to be configured for your individual environment.

$server_address = Change this to your vCenter Server address
$username = Change this to the user with permission to create new VM’s using the desired template
$password = The user’s password
$destination_host = Change this to any host in your vmware cluster
$template_name = Change this to the required template
$customization = Change this to the required customization file
$location = Use this to deploy the VM to a specific folder
-SubnetMask = Change this to the netmask for you new servers
-DefaultGateway = Change this to the default gateway for your VM’s
-Dns = Add your DNS servers in order separated with a comma (,)

$array = This is the list of the servers you wish to create. The values here are the NETBIOS names for the servers, so chose them wisely. Remember to wrap each server name in quotation marks (“) and separate each server with a comma (,)
$iparray = This is the list of IP’s you want to allocate the VM’s. Each IP is assigned to a machine in the $array

Save the following to a text file and rename it to .PS1

# Virtual Center Details
$server_address = "vCenterServer"
$username = "Administrator"
$password = "password"

# Vm Details
$destination_host = "AnyVMHost.network.LOCAL"
$template_name = "Template1"
$datastore_name = "DataStore1"
$customization = "Customization1"
$location = "vCenter folder location"

# Name the VMs in this array
$array = "Server1", "Server1"
$iparray = "10.1.1.10", "10.1.1.11"
$a= 0

Connect-VIServer -Server $server_address -Protocol https
-User $username -Password $password
foreach ($vm in $array)
{
Get-OSCustomizationSpec $customization | Get-OSCustomizationNicMapping |
Set-OSCustomizationNicMapping -IpMode UseStaticIP -IpAddress $IParray[$a]
-SubnetMask 255.255.255.0 -DefaultGateway 10.1.1.1 -Dns 10.1.1.2,10.1.1.3
$vm=New-VM -Name $vm -Location $location -Template $template_name
-Host $destination_host -Datastore $datastore_name -OSCustomizationSpec
$customization -Confirm:$false $a = $a + 1
}

Or just download the file from http://mattlog.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/AutoDeployVMwareVirtualMachineTemplate.txt (NOTE: you need to rename the file to .PS1)

You need to download the vmware vSphere PowerCLI application and install it on the machine you would like to build the VM’s from. You can download the PowerCLI extension from www.vmware.com/go/powercli (you need a free vmware accou nt to download)

Run the PS1 file created earlier from the PowerCLI command line and the script will cycle through your array and create the virtual machines.

Enjoy.

Digg Advertising Scientology

Strange to see Google put a Scientology ad on the Digg.com site… Doubt there’d be many click-throughs.

Office WebApp Installation PreReqCheck Fails on FilterPack 2

The Office Web Apps installation may fail with an error that suggests Microsoft FilterPack 2.0 – even if you’ve installed the FilterPack with SharePoint 2010.

You will find in the setup logs:

Either FilterPack 2.0 is not installed or it is not the correct version (minimum requirement – 14.0.4709.1000)

Seems that the SharePoint 2010 installation installs an older build of the FilterPack 2.0. You need to install the 14.0.4709 version by downloading the file from Softpedia (I can’t find this build on the MS site)

http://www.softpedia.com/progDownload/Office-Filter-Packs-Download-144582.html

Tags: Office Web Apps, Sharepoint 2010

Computerworld.com.au Article – 2010: The year to move away from 2003

SAGE-AU member Matt Shadbolt says its time to move to Microsoft Server 2008
28 April, 2010 16:34

http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/344669/2010_year_move_away_from_2003/

Tags: computerworld.com.au, Exchange 2010, Windows Server 2008 R2

Enable Windows 7 Taskbar Preview Firefox 3.6

There’s a quick and easy way to enable Windows 7′s Taskbar Preview of individual Firefox tabs built into the 3.6 version.

Open Firefox and type into the address bar:

about:config

Agree to the warning. (note: about:config has lots of settings & changing some of them may cause Firefox to break)

In the Filter input box type browser.task. You should receive three options:

browser.taskbar.previews.cachetime
browser.taskbar.previews.enable
browser.taskbar.previews.max

Change the .enable to TRUE and press enter. You should now have tab preview enabled on the Firefox taskbar icon.

Enjoy

Hyper-V ‘Unspecified error’(0×80004005)

If you receive the following Hyper-V error when starting one of your VM’s on Server 2008 R1, follow the link to the hotfix below.

‘VMSERVER’ could not initialize machine remoting system. Error: ‘Unspecified error’(0×80004005). (Virtual machine XXXX-XXXXX-XXXXXX-XXXXX)

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;967902&sd=rss&spid=12925

This hotfix is suggested for all users, not only those affected by the error.

Tags: (0x80004005), Hyper-V

RIP: ignored v2 update from bad source

If you receive the following message when configuring two cisco routers to share routes via RIP v2:

RIP: ignored v2 update from bad source 192.168.1.1

Run the no validate-update-source on your rip configuration and the updates will start to work.

router rip
no validate-update-source

Google Wave Invites

Hi All,

I’ve just been given 10 new Google Wave invitations – add a comment below with your email address and I’ll hook you up.

Cheers,
Mat.

VMWare STOP: 0x0000005D

This error occurs if you have configured the VM’s General Options to be a 32-bit Operating System and booting from a 64-bit Windows Server disk.

Tags: STOP: 0x0000005D, VMWare