Exchange Installation Hell

I tried to install Exchange 2003 on a secondary server, and it prompted me for a "user name, domain, and password" for some exchange 5.5 administration account. I thought this was very odd as I had never installed Exchange 5.5 on this network.

Well, the fix was fairly simple, but finding it was a pain in the ass. Adapting the solution given at this page, I was able to fix it by doing this:

1. Open ADSI Edit and expand the "Configuration" node in the left pane.
2. Expand the Configuration Container -> CN=Configuration -> CN=Services -> CN=Microsoft Exchange -> CN=Organization -> CN=Administrative Groups
3. Right click the administrative group in which the affected Exchange 2003 server is a member, and then click Properties.
4. In the Select property to view list, select each of the following attributes:
- msExchLegacyAccount: [I set this to Administrator]
- msExchLegacyDomain: [I set this to the Windows NT domain name I was on]
- msExchLegacyPW: [I set this to the Administrator password]
- msExchEncryptedPassword [I left this unset]
5. Change the value of the msExchAdminGroupMode attribute from 2 to 0 (zero), which indicates a Native Administrative Group. [not sure if this was even necessary]

Then I logged off and on, reran setup, and it worked! I may have had to enter the Administrator password on that screen. I don't remember.

SSLSniff on Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala

I had a tough time compiling this program, but it turns out, all I needed to do was change one line in the Makefile:

sslsniff_LDFLAGS = -lssl -lboost_filesystem -lpthread -lboost_thread -llog4cpp

to

sslsniff_LDFLAGS = -lssl -lboost_filesystem-mt -lpthread -lboost_thread-mt -llog4cpp

This is because the program 'requires' libboost 1.35 and Karmic only allows you to use 1.34 or 1.38. I installed 1.38 by typing 'apt-get install libboost1.38-dev'.

Salaried

Exempt status. I get paid a certain amount of money each year, and no matter how much I work, I get paid the same.

By exempt, I mean that I am exempt from being paid overtime. Normally this is just so that if, for example, a server goes out while I'm gone and there is an emergency, my employer won't have to worry about paying me while I bring it back up.

The trouble is, employers these days, especially in the IT industry, are using exempt status to avoid having to pay their employees for overtime. I don't mind working the extra hours- if I get paid for it. But what reason is there to work the extra hours and not get paid, when I can just get a second job that pays me for working more?

I was just told by my co-workers today that, in spite of me being told that I would regularly have to work 50 hours per week, I would probably be working closer to 70 hours per week. I am effectively going to be paid about half what an hourly worker would be paid in my position. And who wants to work 70 hours a week? Not me.

New Job + Apartment

I start a new job tomorrow as a level 2 network engineer. I'll be providing phone and email support to various companies who have server troubles.

I've spent the weekend moving into a new apartment that is 10 minutes away from work. It's very nice- I even have my own washer and dryer! I had to take a bath yesterday though because it didn't come with a shower curtain. Bathtubs are not designed for people who are 6 feet tall!

My neighbor has a really fast internet connection- 10Mbps down, 3Mbps up. And now, so do I. :)

New Domain

I got a new domain name for my personal web site. To get it indexed on Google and help improve its PageRank, I am positing a link to it here. :)

Bad RAM

I had a Dell Vostro 1720 with bad RAM. It gave me a message when I turned it on that said "resource conflict- allocation error 0x02." Then when Windows XP tried to start it would either bluescreen or say that the file C:\Windows\System32\Config\SYSTEM was corrupted and that I would need to run the repair program on my Windows XP CD.

Fortunately, I was able to run the Dell diagnostics program and it told me that my RAM was bad. But the behavior was peculiar and unexpected- I thought it had a bad hard drive!

Fans

I went to a customer whose computer was "shutting itself off every day at 2:45pm." At first, I thought it was the backup power generator, but they said the monitor and other components stayed on.

After a while, I figured out the solution that should have been obvious: the fan was bad.