Last August, I did a beta exam for Microsoft. I didn’t pay for it, but I didn’t get a score either; the idea was just to test out their new software for doing simulations in the exam (rather than multiple choice questions). As a “thank you”, Microsoft then sent me three vouchers, each one corresponding …
Author archives: John C. Kirk
Exchange 2007 – firewall problems on Windows 2008
In Windows 2003, the local firewall was turned off by default. You could enable it, but you had to be careful about defining all your exceptions; unlike a PC running Windows XP, you presumably want people to be able to connect to your server! Finding a list of all the relevant ports/protocols could be difficult, …
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MazeBot 1
Today, I have mostly been breeding robots… Back in my undergrad days, I learnt about “genetic algorithms”. The basic idea is that rather than designing a computer program yourself, you allow one to evolve: the equivalent of natural section. I’ve taken advantage of the break between Christmas and New Year to experiment with this; I’m …
SSL certificate errors
I’ve just been along to the PruHealth website. Unfortunately, it turns out that their SSL certificate expired last night, so I get a big warning message when I try to access the site. I’ve reported the problem to them, and they should be able to fix it fairly easily, i.e. renew the certificate. However, I’ve …
How to short-circuit a network…
Most modern networks use a star topology: each computer plugs into a separate port on a switch, either directly or via a patch panel, and larger networks will have multiple switches connected together. However, what happens if you plug both ends of a patch cable into the same switch? I’ve encountered this situation a couple …
Downloader-UA.h
There have been a couple of virus warnings in the news today: Half a million infections of latest Trojan (MSN) Fake media file snares PC users (BBC) The basic gist is that there are fake mp3/mpeg files circulating on peer-to-peer filesharing networks. I.e. if you use a program like LimeWire to download a music file …
Open source software
Free software is a funny thing, partly because it tends to spark off “holy wars”, so it can be hard to focus on the practical issues when you’ve got people shouting about their vision of purity. I like this blog post (a parody), which applies those principles to cars: The transmission tax. Most of the …
Password security
Last year I signed up with Facebook, and the “find friends” page asked me to give them the password to my GMail account so that it could log in as me and look at my list of contacts (address book), then see whether any of those people are already registered. I, however, was disinclined to …
Integrated Windows authentication in web browsers
A while back, I was setting up an internal website (on a Windows domain with Active Directory), where I needed to identify each person who connected to it. IIS has an option for “integrated Windows authentication”: the idea is that if you’re already logged into the domain then you don’t have to provide a new …
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70-621
On Monday morning I took the Vista upgrade exam (70-621). I passed it with a healthy margin (pass mark was 700/900 and I scored 820/900), so I’m happy with that, and it gives me two extra certifications: Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (Microsoft Windows Vista: Configuration) Microsoft Certified IT Professional (Enterprise Support Technician)