Microsoft Security Bulletin Summary for March 2010

Bulletin ID		Bulletin Title and Executive Summary			Maximum Severity Rating and Vulnerability Impact	Restart Requirement	Affected Software
MS10-016		Vulnerability in Windows Movie Maker Could Allow Remote Code Execution (975561) This security update addresses a privately reported vulnerability in Windows Movie Maker and Microsoft Producer 2003. Windows Live Movie Maker, which is available for Windows Vista and Windows 7, is not affected by this vulnerability. The vulnerability could allow remote code execution if an attacker sent a specially crafted Movie Maker or Microsoft Producer project file and convinced the user to open the specially crafted file. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights.			Important Remote Code Execution	May require restart	Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Office
MS10-017		Vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office Excel Could Allow Remote Code Execution (980150) This security update resolves seven privately reported vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office Excel. The vulnerabilities could allow remote code execution if a user opens a specially crafted Excel file. An attacker who successfully exploited any of these vulnerabilities could gain the same user rights as the local user. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights.			Important Remote Code Execution	May require restart	Microsoft Office

Mass Effect 2 Review

I have gone through Mass Effect 2 twice now. Once with a ME1 Male Vanguard (20th) and now with my ME1 Female Adapt (60th). Let me begin by saying that you do not start with any of your abilities, level, or stuff from the first game. The opening sequence will tell you why.. Bioware did a fantastic job on this game and it is huge. Much larger than the first game, at least it feels that way. The combat system, inventory, and even travel is completely different. You can command each member of your squad individually. There is no inventory system, like the previous game. You have to buy or research (or both) to get more abilities for your weapons, armor, and abilities. This means that you need to mine planets, not just scan them.. But, you have to probe areas to extract the needed materials. This is cool, but very time consuming. You can easily spend several hours running around to the different solar systems to mine ore. This brings us to travel. There are still Mass Relays.. However, you actually fly your ship. Say you jump from the local system (our solar system) to somewhere on the edge, there may be 2 or even 3 other systems you can visit outside the jump system’s ring. This means that you will have to make sure that you are carrying fuel (yes, you burn fuel to go from one system to another) and probes. Both of which you can upgrade, with enough ore…

Combat is still point and shoot, but if you are bionic, you will be able to use powers, similar to those in the first game. However, you can use your abilities to arch around corners or walls. This is very handy when you are ducking behind a box and launching powers against someone’s shields.

With all of this said, I only have a couple of criticisms.
1. Max level is 30, which I achieved about half way through the game.
2. The Citadel level is really small. I would have really loved to be able to walk around more the old haunts, even if there was construction going on.
3. Can’t believe that Ash or Liara will not join your team.. I mean.. come on...

Overall, LOVE IT!!! I have played it more than Dragon Age (another Bioware product)

Oh.. Yes, there is romance and some sexual themes, after all it is a Bioware Game! I will now have to try it without importing a character to see what the differences are.

Mass Effect 2 - Review

I just realized that I have not posted a review of Mass Effect 2. I guess it is because I have not stopped playing Mass Effect 2. The graphics and game play is absolutely unbelievable, down to control panels on the ship. The cinematic cut-scenes are “almost” as good as the actual game play. This tells you how well done the actual game play is inside the game. The character development and dialog is great, at times, downright funny. There is a lot of depth to each of the characters in the game, each with a sub-mission to gain loyalty. Most aspects of the original game, Mass Effect, are different. There is no inventory, you now have to mine a planet for resources, and perform research for special abilities. With all of that said, I cannot speak highly enough and have a hard time putting the game down.

Don’t believe me.. Here is a link to a professional review.

It has my vote for GAME OF THE YEAR!

Out of Band Patch - Microsoft Security Bulletin MS10-002 - Critical

Microsoft Security Bulletin MS10-002 - Critical

Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer (978207)

Published: January 21, 2010

Version: 1.0

General Information

Executive Summary

This security update resolves seven privately reported vulnerabilities and one publicly disclosed vulnerability in Internet Explorer. The more severe vulnerabilities could allow remote code execution if a user views a specially crafted Web page using Internet Explorer. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights.

This security update is rated Critical for all supported releases of Internet Explorer: Internet Explorer 5.01, Internet Explorer 6, Internet Explorer 6 Service Pack 1, Internet Explorer 7, and Internet Explorer 8 (except Internet Explorer 6 for supported editions of Windows Server 2003). For Internet Explorer 6 for supported editions of Windows Server 2003 as listed, this update is rated Moderate. For more information, see the subsection, Affected and Non-Affected Software, in this section.

The security update addresses these vulnerabilities by modifying the way that Internet Explorer handles objects in memory, validates input parameters, and filters HTML attributes. For more information about the vulnerabilities, see the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) subsection under the next section, Vulnerability Information.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms10-002.mspx

Mass Effect 2

What do West Wing, Firefly, Star Trek Next Generation, Matrix, and Battlestar Galactica have in common?

Many of the main characters from these shows have a role in the new Mass Effect 2 game from Bioware. Check this link out..

Loss of the Man Cave

This holiday season, we finished my oldest daughter's new room, formerly known as the PIT. This was my office, done in mantastic ode to dead computer crap and stuff that you may need..one day.. It had this brown wood paneling and cork board on "most" of the walls. I took all of that down, remove the glue remnants, and patch the holes. There were many many holes in the wall, wondering.. where they all came from.. I even missed a few.. hundred… but, she will not notice.. I put a coat of primer and then began to paint. It is a light pink (Disney - Fairest of them all) and a darker pink for the trim. My wife painted the bed frame, chest of drawers and headboard in the same colors. Some posers and some of her stuff.. and (poof).. it is now a little girls room. Now, both girls have their own room and I am relegated to the bedroom to play the Xbox and computer on the 36" flatpanel.. I do like having the computer on the big screen, 1920x1400 resolution, with a wireless mouse and keyboard. Guild Wars looks very nice, but Oblivion looks even better.

I did manage to play a lot of Dragon Age and Guild Wars this weekend. I think that I am almost done with my main human campaign in DA. I just have to go up against the ArchDemon, which is a badass dragon. But, with me as a warrior and my damage-dealer, Morrigan, we should do fine. But, time will tell.

Let’s Talk About VMware DPM

I found this on another site, but had to post it.. Ironically, an Engineer and I were just talking about this yesterday.

http://www.thevirtualblackhole.com/virtual-tech/lets-talk-about-vmware-dpm

Today’s topic is going to be about VMware’s Distributed Power Management or otherwise known as VMware DPM. If you have not heard about VMware DPM before, I found an interesting video interview with Anne Holler who works at VMware as a Senior Staff Engineer. I found this interview at Vladan Seget’s ESX Virtualization site here and it is worth checking out. The video is pretty short, only about four minutes in length and gives a pretty good overview of how VMware positions DPM in conjunction with HA and DRS.

In a lot of the environments I have worked in over the years actually had most of the processing power happen at night during the backup process. Actually at one point I had a cluster that was oversubscribed to put it mildly. If you have ever driven a standard transmission then you know about the red line on the tachometer that you should not go over or the engine would blow up. Let’s just say my oversubscribed cluster was riding that line during the day and when the backup schedule kicked off I actually saw CPU% on the individual VMware ESX hosts themselves reach levels of 102%. Just like clockwork ever day when the backup’s kicked off the host would really max out. Pretty cool to watch but I digress. The point is I am not sure I would really think about using VMware DPM in my production environment. Now if I just built a brand new ten node cluster what was designed to cover the growth for x amount of time and I had just gotten started with putting virtual machines on the cluster then sure why not set that up? I would have plenty of resources available that I would feel pretty confident about that but in most places that I have worked or spent any time at there was not really that amount of spare resources and most customers were always trying to cram as much as they can on the clusters.

VMware DPM was actually introduced in Virtual Center 2.5 and VMware ESX 3.x as an “experimental” feature and only had one way of ‘waking’ a server and that was with a magic wake on lan packet. That worked great until you rebooted Virtual Center or restarted the Virtual Center server service for any reason. After the reboot Virtual Center would see the host as down and was not able to bring it back to life. That was one reason why the technology was experimental at the time. Now in vSPhere, VMware DPM actually has three different wake methods it can use to bring the host back up. Along with using wake on lan DPM will also use IPMI wake and ILO wake. One other really cool thing that was added to VMware DPM was the ability to schedule when an ESX host would wake back up. So if you know you were going to have a heavy load at 9am you could schedule the host to wake up at 8am to be pretty for the start of the business day.

So to recap, I am not sure that VMware DPM would be something I would setup and use on a regular basis. I have also worked in certain environments that the Change Control Board would literally lay an egg if they knew that hosts could and would shut down for any reason.

That is my take on this. So what’s your take on VMware DPM and are you using it currently in your environments? I would really like to what you all have to say and think on this? Inquiring minds want to know.

XBox 360 Update tomorrow.

XBOX Update tomorrow! And it looks to be big with some great new "features".

“We’re delivering some truly exciting social entertainment experiences to our members,” said Whitten. “Xbox LIVE’s differentiator has always been our community, and we’ve already seen a tremendous response to these features in our public preview. It’s the community that drives us forward and allows us to pioneer new ways of connecting people through the entertainment they love.”

• Facebook*– Update your status to share what movie, game or entertainment you’re enjoying, connect with friends and view their Facebook stream, status updates and photos on the big screen – all seamlessly integrated and custom-built for Xbox 360. You can even compare your Xbox LIVE and Facebook friends lists to see which of your friends are on LIVE.
• Zune – Zune video on Xbox LIVE offers a full fidelity experience with instant on HD in 1080p and 5.1 channel surround sound. No waiting for downloads or buffering, it’s there at the press of a button. You can also share the experience with up to seven friends through voice chat and Avatar integration on the TV screen – it puts a whole new spin on “movie night.”
• Twitter*– Stay in the know by discovering, posting and replying to Tweets right on your Xbox 360. You can even view friend profiles, trends and conversations, or search to see who’s tweeting about your favorite game.
• Last.fm* – Discover more music and explore endless personalized radio stations with Last.fm on Xbox 360. Skip, “ban” or “love” tracks to create your perfect mix—we’ve even built in “Gamer Stations” with game-related types of music selected specifically for the gaming community(Available in the U.S. and UK)

In addition to these social features, Xbox LIVE will also be debuting “News and More,” a new section of the “Inside Xbox” channel, transforming Xbox LIVE into a full-fledged media portal. With a regularly-updated stream of content from MSNBC, The New Yorker and Dilbert, “News and More” brings the latest in current events, arts and entertainment right to your fingertips.

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/support/systemupdates/default.htm

VMware vCenter CapacityIQ

The new capacity planner for VMWare infrastructure has been released.. Check it out!

VMware vCenter CapacityIQ is a value-add component of the VMware vCenter family of management solutions, providing capacity management capabilities for virtualized datacenter or desktop environments. CapacityIQ integrates seamlessly with VMware vCenter Server, ensuring that your virtualized infrastructure capacity is always predictable and efficiently used.

VMware vCenter CapacityIQ balances business demand with IT supply, without compromising performance, availability and security. With CapacityIQ, your IT infrastructure is guaranteed to have sufficient capacity to meet any business service level agreements.

IT organizations can leverage VMware vCenter CapacityIQ in a number of scenarios, including:

• Cost avoidance and justification. Do more with the same or less! Optimize utilization of existing hardware resources or justify any new business purchases.
• Availability and risk mitigation. Plan for potential business and service disruptions proactively by modeling the impact of an outage, failure or disaster.
• Project planning and decision-making. Model the effect of one-time strategic business changes. Quantify the results of workload consolidations, company acquisitions, additional new headcounts or deployment of multi-tiered applications.

Learn more about VMware vCenter CapacityIQ or visit Partner Central to download partner assets, including a demo and customer presentations.

October Patch Issue

There is a potential issue with a patch in the October Security Updates may break Office Communication Server. The front-end service will not start, and the access-edge service will not start.

Microsoft October Security Update 974571 Breaks Office Communications Server
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/974571

Currently, there is no resolution, besides uninstall the update.

How to enable SNMP on a VMWare ESX Server

Since we all are looking to monitor our ESX servers, a lot of people are asking how to configure SNMP on their ESX servers so that they can be monitored via a third party product. Seems like a pretty logical question, so here's how you do it.

To enable SNMP on ESX Server version 3.5:

1. On your ESX Server, enable SNMP under the security profile.
   
2. Login as root
   
3. Edit the snmpd.conf file (vi /etc/snmp/snmpd.conf) or (nano /etc/snmp/snmpd.conf)
   
4. Use the arrow keys to go down to the section "rocommunity public". Replace "public" with your community string for your environment. Then use "Ctrl+X" to exit out of Nano. You'll be asked if you would like to save. Type in "y" for yes and hit enter. Press enter again when confirming the filename to save as.
   
5. Since SNMP is not started by default, you'll need to type in this command to ensure it will be started after a reboot of the ESX server. The command is:
   chkconfig snmpd on
   
6. We'll need to allow SNMP traffic through the built-in ESX firewall. To do this, type in the following command:
   esxcfg-firewall -e snmpd
   
7. Now we're ready to start the SNMP service. Type in:
   service snmpd start
   

Of course, the exact commands, paths, and etc may vary based upon your particular implementation but you should be able to get there from here.

For more information, visit the VM Ware page on how to configure SNMP on the ESX Server.

Today’s Rant

Today is my day that I am going to a bit of ranting about things that are bothering me…

Let's begin with last weekend, the wife, the kiddies, and I were all at the local farmer's market getting vegetables and stuff. They usually have some local "talent" (yes, I am putting that in quote fingers) there to entertain the people walking around. This week there was a young woman who was playing a guitar and singing (badly), who I really was not really paying enough attention to, up until… It registered what she was singing. It was an old Concrete Blonde song from the 80s. I asked my wife "How could she utterly butcher Concrete Blonde!!!???!!! Wasn't that a crime?"

This morning on the local radio station, 94.7 FM, they were playing a song from a local "artist" (notice the quotes) of a famous Depeche Mode song, Personal Jesus. I actually felt my ears starting to bleed from the drunken monkey karaoke, attempting to sing a perfectly good song. I actually had to change the channel before I started yelling at my radio (which would look bad) or getting into an accident on the freeway. Is that is what is passing for music these days? No, seriously? Please, for the love of good musical taste, burn that CD.

To top it off, people are trying to take out my little red truck. I am driving in a straight line on the freeway, minding my own business… and people are trying to move over on me.. Can't you see me.. Hello.. Driving here… Little Red Truck!!!

Seriously!

RDP (Terminal Services) on a Windows 2000 stopped working after P2V

It seems like every time I P2V a Windows 2000 Server (SP4), Remote desktop (TS) services stops working. I found in the TS Manager states that the port is "down" and there is no way to click enable. I was able to use RDP from my XP box to admin the server before the convert. So, I know that it "did" work. Just to be clear. This is not a TS Server or some special remote box. It is a standard Windows 2000 Server with SP4 running some applications.

I have been bitten by network cards or hidden interfaces during previous migrations. I, now, remove the network card from the P2V process. I then re-add it manually to the image after everything is complete. I put in all of the IPs, etc... after the convert. Currently the image is set to Flexible and is connected / connect at power on. The VM is using "VMWare Accelerated AMD PCNet Adapter" I do not see an option to change from one adapter to another within ESX 3.5 Update 4.

So.. Here is what I have done at this point.
1. I have rebooted the box several times
2. I have uninstalled, rebooted, installed the TS service again
3. There are no events in the event log either on the client or the server
4. In the Terminal Service Manager, it states that the RDP-TCP (65537) is down
5. The Terminal Service Process is started and running in automatic
6. VMWare tools are installed and up-to-date
7. The client gets the "This computer can't connect to the remote computer" error message
8. Clents were able to RDP from their XP boxes to this Windows 2000 SP4 server prior to the P2V
9. I have removed it from the domain and re-added it to the domain
I think that about covers it.

Here is the solution to the issue.
Remote Desktop Protocol Clients Cannot Connect to Terminal Services Server
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/270588

Virtualization Whitpapers

I came across two very interesting whitepapers regarding I/O, performance, and virtualization. I hope that you find the read as interesting as I did.

http://www.virtual-io.com/images/Whitepapers/direct-assignment-tr-0263.pdf

Here is a whitepaper that explains Virtualization Technology and what it all means... Something that your boss(es) always ask for..
http://www.virtual-io.com/images/Whitepapers/iov_scope.pdf

What's going on...

I have been getting a lot of these.. "So, what have you been up to?" or "Have not heard from you in a while..." emails from many of my friends. So, I thought that I would put in a post about what has been going on in my world. Well... I am a year older, work has been keeping me really busy. I have been working at least one late night/early morning (sometimes late morning) once a week, since most of my production impacting work has to be done at night. Kids and wife are doing well, really looking forward for them to go back to school. My oldest is really really looking forward to see all of her friends on Wednesday.

The summer has been good. Lots of birthday parities and small get together. I recently had a former colleague's family over for a BBQ, play on the play structure, and general chat. It was really good and clean fun. The kids enjoyed themselves, until it stated raining. I need to do this more often with people. Just finding the time is hard. The girls either have something or there is something that we have to do. But, it needs to be done.

Playing a bit of Mass Effect on the x360. But, I am missing the whole Dark Age interaction.. Maybe I can convience a few people to play, so I am not alone in my adventures. We will see.

Oh.. did you see the I5s areout.. They look really hot, great performance, at a lower cost than the I7s. I may have to change my plan to one of these and move some more money to the larger hard-drive or more memory.

That is all for now.

Quitting EVE - But enjoyed my time

Well, I have officially quit the online game - eve online. I enjoyed the game, but found that I was spending a hella lot of time online. So much, in fact, that I was starting to get in trouble with the wife for ignoring the kids and her. SO.. I am officially resigning my commission.

I am been spending more time with the XBox, which it loves. (It stopped sending me nasty grams to my email) Playing F.E.A.R. and watching Netflix movies.. FEAR is very dark and a bit creepy, but lots of fun.

Back to the ‘Lodge’

The past weekend, to celebrate my oldest daughter's birthday, we headed back to the Great Wolf Lodge for a night. The girls really enjoy the place and everyone has fun playing in the water. We did not play too much with the inner-tubes this time; spend most of our time on the two slides under the Water Bucket. They have also added an outdoor area that has a small water bucket and various other water features. This is also "THE" place to get food. At around lunch time, they put on a small BBQ that is very reasonable. Standard BBQ affair, hot dogs, hamburgers, and kabobs – But, for $7 you can get a cheeseburger with chips and a drink. Hotdogs were around $5 and I don't recall what the kabobs were. The only criticism that I would have about the new area is seating. I am a white boy - I go from white to extra crispy in about 2 minutes. There were only two tables with umbrellas. I would suggest that umbrellas would be a much needed addition. Good food for the cost.

Scoops – the children's manicure/pedicure spa.

As part of the birthday experience, we treated my oldest to a manicure/pedicure treatment. She was really excited (high anxiety) about this for several weeks prior. So, I wanted to make sure that everything was perfect, being her first 'girly' experience. I called and made a mommy/daughter appointment in Scoops, so mommy would get one also and be setting the example. When we arrived, I confirmed the appointment that it was a mommy / daughter set, time, etc… Mommy took my oldest, while I played with the young one in the water. After about 30 minutes, we finally made it out of the water and made it up to Scoops, where we found mommy. I was curious why mommy was not getting her nails done with the birthday girl. I attempted to inquire why, but was shot down very quickly. After the birthday girl finished and we left Scoops, I was like.. okay.. what happened??!!!??? Mommy informed me that they had messed up the appointment. They had it for the birthday girl, but not her in Scoops. They had her appointment in the adult spa. There was only 2 'stylists' available and they were booked and they were not able to move another stylist over to service the adult. Mommy was going to go and talk with them, but the Birthday Girl was not letting go of the mommy.

She made me calm down, since she knows that I would go ballistic over something like this. The important thing is that the Birthday Girl was happy. She could not stop looking at her fingers and toes all the way home. It was well worth the money to see her this happy. I am just not pleased about after all of the effort that I went through to make sure that both my wife and my oldest daughter to have a great first experience and I get an epic failure.. Can't win for loosing…

Happy SysAdmin Day

July 31, 2009 (Last Friday Of July)

A sysadmin unpacked the server for this website from its box, installed an operating system, patched it for security, made sure the power and air conditioning was working in the server room, monitored it for stability, set up the software, and kept backups in case anything went wrong. All to serve this webpage.

A sysadmin installed the routers, laid the cables, configured the networks, set up the firewalls, and watched and guided the traffic for each hop of the network that runs over copper, fiber optic glass, and even the air itself to bring the Internet to your computer. All to make sure the webpage found its way from the server to your computer.

A sysadmin makes sure your network connection is safe, secure, open, and working. A sysadmin makes sure your computer is working in a healthy way on a healthy network. A sysadmin takes backups to guard against disaster both human and otherwise, holds the gates against security threats and crackers, and keeps the printers going no matter how many copies of the tax code someone from Accounting prints out.

A sysadmin worries about spam, viruses, spyware, but also power outages, fires and floods.

When the email server goes down at 2 AM on a Sunday, your sysadmin is paged, wakes up, and goes to work.

A sysadmin is a professional, who plans, worries, hacks, fixes, pushes, advocates, protects and creates good computer networks, to get you your data, to help you do work -- to bring the potential of computing ever closer to reality.

So if you can read this, thank your sysadmin -- and know he or she is only one of dozens or possibly hundreds whose work brings you the email from your aunt on the West Coast, the instant message from your son at college, the free phone call from the friend in Australia, and this webpage.

Show your appreciation

Friday, July 31, 2009, is the 10th annual System Administrator Appreciation Day. On this special international day, give your System Administrator something that shows that you truly appreciate their hard work and dedication. (All day Friday, 24 hours, your local timezone).

Let's face it, System Administrators get no respect 364 days a year. This is the day that all fellow System Administrators across the globe, will be showered with expensive sports cars and large piles of cash in appreciation of their diligent work. But seriously, we are asking for a nice token gift and some public acknowledgement. It's the least you could do.

Consider all the daunting tasks and long hours (weekends too.) Let's be honest, sometimes we don't know our System Administrators as well as they know us. Remember this is one day to recognize your System Administrator for their workplace contributions and to promote professional excellence. Thank them for all the things they do for you and your business.

Help Spread the word

http://www.sysadminday.com/

EVE Online

The year was 1993 and Wing Commander: Privateer was released by Origin Systems. Here is a game that you flew a ship (in first person) around in space, becoming a merchant, a merc, a pirate, or a military lackey. Throughout the entire game, you were trying to get money to get the better ship and better weapons to protect yourself and serve your greater purpose.

I have been playing a similar game called EVE Online. EVE is very similar in concept to Privateer, Sorry.. No Kilrathi, where you can become the miner, merchant, transport carrier, and/or a mercenary. Instead of you flying the ship, you are more of the commander, giving orders of where you need to go and do. However, it is more of a 3 dimensional 3rd person view. The graphics are stunning and the game play can keep you on the edge of your seat. Especially, when you are up against 4-6 pirates loaded to the teeth, your only hope is to keep them at range and the ability to out run them. Now, this is an online game, like World of Warcraft or Dark Age of Camelot, just in a space genre.

There is a massive user population, I have personally seen anywhere between 26,000 and 39,000, depending on the time and day. The game consists of 4 main races, Amarr, Caldari, Gallente, and Minmatar. Each has their own abilities and failures, such as, sole reliance on power systems or lack of range. In the game, you have to manage your power consumption, shields, hull strength, weapon systems, and the enemy. There are many aspects of the game that I like is, unlike DAOC where you have to train using both money, equipment, constant attention, EVE skill training is queue based. This means, that you set what you want to train and it does it even if you are logged out. The skills are all bases on real time, meaning, if you have a skill that will take an hour, it takes an hour. The trained skills unlock the ability to equip greater weapons, bonus to range and/or shields, or range.

I am currently playing an Amarr female, Qiulinnzu. She is playing both a miner and a mercenary, depending on what I want to do with her. For example, when I mine an asteroid, It takes me about 2 hours to fill my cargo ship. This gives me about 1 million ISK (money in the EVE world). If I do a mission, I can get anywhere from 20K to 700K. However, when I mine, I am not generally being shot at, with the potential of being destroyed. She comes from a race that mainly uses energy, this is both a gift and a curse. The nice thing is that you don’t have ammunition, but, you have to manage your total energy usage. This means that you don’t have to reload, but if your capacitor is dry, you are dead in space. And in a fight, 15 seconds will be deadly! She also has (what I think) incredible range. My other character is a Minmatar, Miriya Loranna, who is just a TANK! She has great firepower and hull strength, but her range sucks. Minmatars are the ones who have to be close to the target, but they inflict massive damage per volley.

There is also a P2P aspect that I have briefly touched on. In low-security space, there is a chance that you will find other races, characters, that are able and willing to turn you into dust. I have not gone up against any real people, just NPCs. The game is lots of fun, but there are times that it is not all shoot, kill, destroy. When mining, there is a lot of hurry up and wait. I find if the computer is on one screen and a movie on the other, it works out very well.

Please come and join in the excitement and if you email me, I may be willing to get you a buddy invite. (14 day free trial – no credit card required)

Virtualizing Server Pitfalls - Part 2

After performing a V2V from a GSX server to an ESX server, the CD-Rom does not appear in ‘my computer’. This makes it difficult to install the VMWare tools required for network and performance tuning. What you have to do is to shutdown the VM, remove the CD from the menu. Power on the VM, log into the server and perform a shutdown. Then re-add the CD from the Edit menu. This way you are guaranteeing that this is a clean install of the CD-Rom drive.