VM /ETC

Posts Tagged ‘vmetc’

I’ll be covering Microsoft Teched North America 2011 from the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, GA next week. Look for a combination of live posts and session summaries. As in the past, I am going to try to use Coveritlive.com as much as possible.

Join me live NOW (for a parctice session) by logging in below with your Twitter, Facebook or OpenID account!

05.19.11 – moved CiL Ticker after page break
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The average virtualization admin, engineer, manager, and general IT person probably goes to half a dozen events a year where they receive a name badge. I’m just guessing, but at least 2/3 of those event badges are now in the form of a necklace/lanyard. Just guessing again, but I’d be willing to bet that 99% of all the lanyards get thrown away shortly after. That same average IT person probably attends 1 or 2 big events or conferences a year where they are lucky enough to receive a backpack, computer bag, or other schwag with zippers. Unfortunately, the pull tabs on the zippers more than likely will break off leaving an awkward and often painful to pull open/closed zipper head. I’ve stopped using several otherwise very functional bags just for this reason. But, while planning for a recent vacation, an idea so simple struck me that I was amazed I hadn’t thought of it already.

I did not want to take my full computer bag on the vacation. It’s an oversized bag designed for an entire file cabinet and a night’s change of clothes. One of my old backpacks was perfect for my notebook, iPad, magazines, and the various accessories my wife and I would need on the plane and while sightseeing. When I went to grab a backpack in my basement I noticed the nail of badges hanging above them.

For some reason, I can not bring myself to throw away my event badges. I can’t tell you why. I just knew I would do something with them one day. But now I have a new purpose for them, and I am quickly reducing the bulk hanging on that nail. Besides, you never would have seen a headline like “North Georgia Man Saves Family From Burning House With A Linked Lanyard Ladder”, now would you?

So if you are like me you already have what you need to repair your luggage, backpacks, and various other pull zippers around the house. Here’s my quick how to and list of tools needed:

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You might have noticed that I haven’t been updating VM /ETC as often. In fact, my blogging has been non existent except for the occasional VIRTUMANIA posts, which I am also struggling to find time for anymore. I’m not making excuses, but the combination of the new position at Veeam, a flurry of new product releases, and my boys reaching the age where homework is no longer just coloring between the lines or cutting the dashed outline has made personal time a premium for me. It is what it is, but I recently heard a story that, in a stretched analogy kind of way, I think sums up my situation.

My channel rep for the Southeast territory used to be in the Navy. We had recently finished a day of meetings and presentations and were enjoying the MLB playoffs at a local bar near our hotel when he told me the following story. I am paraphrasing, but it went like this:

One of my rep’s shipmates had the night shift on the aircraft carrier’s flight deck. From what I understand, there are fork lift –like vehicles that are used to load and unload the weapons and cargo on the aircraft and jets. During some down time, this one seaman fell asleep sitting at the wheel of one of these vehicles. When he did, his body slumped forward on the controls causing the vehicle to roll overboard. Although the fork lift was caught in the safety net that apparently encircles the entire deck, the guy was catapulted over the net and into the water below. Since this happened mid ship, he was immediately sucked under the battleship towards the massive propellers.

Unbelievably, the guy survived unharmed! He later explained that before he knew what happened

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Earlier this week VMETC.com fell victim to a WordPress hack that redirected readers to a malware infested site. Best estimate is that early Thursday morning (9/17) the site was compromised by an attacker that was able to add several lines of code to the beginning of every PHP file in my public_html directory. With several other WordPress sites hosted in the same directory, there were thousands of files that needed to be cleaned up. All site RSS feeds were rendered unavailable as a result.

The hacker left a “silence is golden” message in a few of the files. There are 18,900 hits on Google for this WordPress attack.

Lucky for me, the social community not only notified me of the issue (thanks Ken Fury, @kculw, @ericsiebert and @jasonboche), but came to the rescue as well.

@SirStan (Stan Brinkeroff), A Twitter follower (that I follow as well), offered some assistance if needed and I jumped at the chance.  Stan figured out the exploit, identified the rogue code, deciphered it’s evil, implemented a temporary work around for Friday night, and then found, tweaked,  and t-shooted the script to bulk remove the offending lines in each file. Stan is definitely a PHP master and a ‘nix wizard. For saving this site Stan is now an Ugly Green Hero as well!

Stan lost 3+ hrs of his weekend to help me. I hope the VMETC and VIRTUMANIA t-shirts I am sending him are an adequate payment (let me know if not, Stan).

VMETC.com and VIRTUMANIA.net are back in business. Please let me know if anything is still messed up.

Do me a huge favor, tweet @sirstan and tell him thanks and great job! I can’t say it enough by myself.

I finally got all the photos from VMWorld 2010 off of my camera and phone and uploaded to Google Picasa. Enjoy some pics from the various parties, the Keynotes, a Giant’s game, and a trolley ride to Pier 39! Follow the link to the Picasa web album if you want a larger image or want to leave a comment on a photo.

The Twitter game
Back once again.
A little challenge
For VMWorld 2010.

Started last year.
Some thought strange
At VMworld 2009
And Partner Exchange.

Here’s the rules.
Hope you play.
Use three words
Whatever you say.

Hashtags are allowed.
Apostrophes are free.
Always use tag #vmworld3word.
above = 3.

Count symbols, numbers,
as word substitutes.
punctuation doesn’t count.
emoticons I’ll excuse

RTs are encouraged
to link conversations.
Here’s an example
“RT @twittername(s): to link conversations #othertag #vmworld3word>” note various exceptions

Slang is permitted
if commonly used.
There’s lotsa grey
gotta carefully choose.

The contest begins
On WUPaaS Sunday.
Join, you must
Yoda would say

Tweet when inspired.
Not every time.
Make it fun
without the rhymes

I was told
around the Moscone
screens will display.
Honest, no bologna.

If they do
Look for mine.
Tweet your own.
try to outshine!

This little ditty
shows game intent.
Clear as mud?
Leave a comment!

If you’ve visited this site before you probably already noticed the VM /ETC swag, but now you can show your support of the VIRTUMANIA podcast too. Check out the VIRTUMANIA store on Cafepress.com for some t-shirts, coffee mugs, and a few other items that will help declare to the world you are a true VIRTUMANIAC!

Click on the shirts to go straight to that product, or use the link above to see the entire store.

On behalf of Infosmack Productions, @3parfarley, @rickvanover, @knieriemen, and myself, thanks for listening to VIRTUMANIA!!