Sektormedia: Aaron's Brain

Epic Ride the Whip Video

Cali HDR Photos

Modano's Standing Ovation in Big D

Mike Modano is the face of hockey in not only Dallas but the entire state of Texas. the BEST American born player ever and up there with the best in the world. Sure will miss him. Thanks Mo.

Laser Etched iPad

Laser Etched iPad
Originally uploaded by Sektormedia.

Picked up an iPad today and decided that it needed to be personalized ASAP. Luckily I own a laser. How CONVENIENT!!! Thought long and hard and decided to go with this. I had a number of good ideas but liked the overall look of this one. Still plenty of other ideas for other folks.

SXSW 2010 Slideshow

Gary V at SXSW 2010

Attended Gary Vaynerchuck's SXSW presentation and and usual he crushed it. I'll leave the panel dissection to other folks but I did capture the audio
of Kosha Dill and Flex busting out a GaryVee rhyme. Full video of the panel is here on Soup, it is phenomenal.

Learning about life through smoked eel

I loved this video that Tony did about the eel guy. It should teach you WAY more than just how this guy smokes eel. But, it doesn't hurt that I LOVE eel.

"It is the privilege of the execution as opposed to delving into the nonsense of completion. It is very Zen, building something that you know you can never get done. It's the journey not the result."

A local's obsession with smoked eel - Travel Channel.

ALA At Artomatic

ALA-At-Artomatic
Originally uploaded by Sektormedia.

Here's out postcard for our installation at Artomatic in DC. Woo Hoo!!

Why ThinPrint lost my business from bad customer service

We've been using ThinPrint for a number of years to resolve any terminal services printing issues. It works great and I wanted to give them more money. Unfortunately they apparently hate money as much as they despise their customers. So guess what ThinPrint, good day. I said good day!!!!!

I got my renewal and as we do not use POs or have an account with them I chose to renew via their credit card link, unfortunately we have corporate mastercards and they do not take those. I emailed them and asked how I could renew since they didn't take the only card I had available. They said, no problem, just call our US office and one of our folks there will help you. Unfortunately this is where the customer service nightmare begins, the US office refuses to beleive that this could be possible. They say they don't do anything with the customers, apparently they've seen office space too much and Germany is Milton. She said I should just email my credit card information unsecured to someone in Germany and let them deal with it. Hooray I said, that sounds like a great plan, except where it's not. Germany told me to call you I say, and they tell me that Germany is wrong and I should just do what she says. I get more and more frustrated and try to explain internet security and customer satisfaction but those are apparently not her jobs. Well, Thinprint, guess what? My job is to pay you money and I've decided to not do that either. And in addition my new job is to tell everyone how horrible your customer service is and I will be doing that job.
thanks but no thanks folks, I'll just do without.

Why Wells Fargo Hates their Customers and Money

They apparently do NOT want money anymore as they've driven me to the brink with their stupid $10 charges. All mind you for items that takes no time so should not even cost a loyal customer $.01. But yet it does. Well, I'm just taking my money elsewhere. I've been a long term customer and allowed them to keep and use a fair amount of money but I'll be giving it to someone else now, I'm a customer not a punching bag. When will "old guard" business' wise up and take a cue from companies like Zappos that it's all about the customer. It's called Win-Win, why don't they get it?! sigh. Here's my ugly letter to them.

I am very annoyed in this current economic climate that Wells Fargo feels the need to charge me $10 to overdraft money from one WF account to another WF account. This happens automatically and costs you NO money but yet you continue to charge me. Transferring money myself is free so why is it not based on a trigger? That is just bad business. Also bad business is charging me another $10 for "excess use" on my savings account. My wife and I saved up enough to remodel our house and don't want to keep it in savings and you charge me $10 to use my own money? Since you don't like me withdrawing or using my own money how about I just move my mortgage, my savings, my credit card, and my checking account to another bank if this is how you feel that a longterm and loyal customer is to be treated. Good luck getting a bailout because you will need one once all of your customers leave you because you have insane and predatory business practices that are both poor customer service and bad business. Business can be win-win, you can make money and make me a happy and loyal customer at the same time. Those two ideas ARE NOT mutually exclusive.

Want to search inside PDF on your MOSS Installation?!

It's easy and free. Just follow these steps...

Adobe PDF iFilter 9 for instructions x32 or 64-bit platforms

Download x64 http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=4025

1. Install Adobe PDF iFilter 9 for 64-bit platforms.

2. Verify that PDF has been added to the registry.

a. Run Regedit by browsing to c:\Windows\system32\regedt32.exe and double-clicking it.

b. Within left-side tree, browse to: \\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office Server\12.0\Search\Applications\{site GUID}\Gather\Portal_Content\Extensions\ExtensionList

c. If PDF extension is present, skip to Step 3 . If PDF extension is not present, continue with Step d.

d. Right click on right-side Extension List pane and choose New > String Value

e. Add a name to the new Registry Key (e.g. “38”)

f. Double click the new Registry Key. For “Value data”, enter “pdf”

Note: This can also be achieved via SharePoint Server Search Administration page by adding ‘pdf’ to list of File Types in Search Administration->File Types. This would automatically add an entry for ‘pdf’ filetype as mentioned above in step 1

3. Verify that PDF has the correct settings in a second registry location.

a. While still in Regedit, within the left-side tree, browse to: \\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office Server\12.0\Search\Setup\Filters\.pdf

b. Verify the following values. If values are not as shown, edit them.

i. <REG_SZ> Default = <value not set>

ii. <REG_SZ> Extension = pdf

iii. <REG_DWORD> FileTypeBucket = 1

iv. <REG_SZ> MimeTypes = application/pdf

4. Verify that PDF has the correct settings in a third registry location.

a. While still in RegEdit, within the left-side tree, browse to: \\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office Server\12.0\Search\Setup\ContentIndexCommon\Filters\Extension\.pdf

b. Verify the following values. If values are not as shown, edit them.

i. <REG_MULTI_SZ> Default = {E8978DA6-047F-4E3D-9C78-CDBE46041603}

Adobe forgot this too:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared Tools\Web Server                          

Extensions\12.0\Search\Setup\ContentIndexCommon\Filters\Extension\.pdf

Default --> {E8978DA6-047F-4E3D-9C78-CDBE46041603} only have to change the sid

5. Verify that pdf.gif is present at the following location:

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\IMAGES

**my installation never installed the pdf.gif icon, I used mine from ifilter 6 installation

6. Add an entry in docicon.xml for the pdf icon:

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\12\TEMPLATE\XML

<Mapping Key="pdf" Value=".gif"/> -adobe forgot to add the “/” took me two days to figure it out!!

Note: Step 4 & 5 are done in order to have the pdf icon in SharePoint while it displays the search results.

7. Restart all SharePoint services as well as IIS.

a. Launch the DOS Shell (Start > All Programs > Accessories > Command Prompt).

b. Type the following at the prompt: “net stop osearch”. Wait for success message.

c. Type the following at the prompt: “net start osearch”. Wait for success message.

d. Type the following at the prompt: “iisreset”. Wait for success message.

When Exchange Gives you Crap, Make some Crapinade

So exchange somehow got the circular logging switch flipped to off which doesn't do us any good since DPM doesn't truncate it. So we ended up with a giant crap being taken upon us. I was able to clear out the old logs to another folder and fix it up after a few hours and a lot of pain. But it also threw a bunch of other stuff out of whack. Including all of the OWA and supported IIS sites. Short of finally blowing it away I finally got it all in order. Below are some sites that greatly helped...

Exchange ActiveSync and Outlook Mobile Access errors occur when SSL or forms-based authentication is required for Exchange Server 2003

 

Error messages when you try to synchronize a Windows Mobile 5.0-based mobile device to Exchange Server 2003 on a Windows SBS 2003-based computer

How to configure RPC over HTTP in Exchange Server 2003

How can I configure RPC over HTTP/S on Exchange 2003 (single server scenario)?

 

Broken Spoke Like You've Never Seen it Before

Broken Spoke
Originally uploaded by Stuck in Customs.

Local Austinite Trey Ratcliff, aka Stuck in Customs, took this photo. His work is amazing and this is just another great example. If you don't follow his stuff you should. In addition to Flickr his website is www.stuckincustoms.com and he is @treyratcliff on Twitter

Inbox Zero Merit Badge

 

Awesome new nerd merit badge, Inbox Zero!! Sweet.

I'm going to go work on earning it right now.

10 Easy Steps To Advanced Photography Skills

10 Easy Steps To Advanced Photography Skills | How-To | Smashing Magazine.

By Trey Ratcliff [ed note: and Austinite!] (aka Stuck in Customs), one of the most famous and renowned HDR photographers on Flickr. In his article Trey describes some professional insights and useful photography tips that he collected over the years of his career.