Create Active Directory Topology Diagrams Automagically

I just got a new boss at work the day before yesterday, and like a lot of small companies there is a serious lack of documentation. We have had a lot of turnover in the IT department, and things are constantly changing. I have only been at my job for just under a year, and I am already on my third boss. With each new manager or director comes a new way of running a network, so you can imagine the hodge-podge of systems on the network. Like many of the new bosses coming in, I had my own ideas on how things should be run, but ultimately it is up to the person sitting in the manager seat right? Therefore not much has changed... Until now.

One of the first things my boss has asked me to do is to create a map of our network topology so he can get an idea of how things are setup in the various domains we manage. That got me thinking of ways to automate the process, and lucky for me I found a nice little tool that does the trick. The tool is called the Microsoft Active Directory Topology Diagrammer, or ADDT for short.

What this tool does is, using either Visio 2003, 2007 or 2010, it scours Active Directory and spits out a fairly detailed topology of your domain, sites, trusts, Exchange, etc. All in a pretty, easy to understand Visio diagram.

Here is an Overview from Microsoft:

With the Active Directory Topology Diagrammer tool, you can read your Active Directory structure through Microsoft ActiveX® Data Objects (ADO). The Active Directory Topology Diagrammer tool automates Microft Office Visio to draw a diagram of the Active Directory Domain topology, your Active Directory Site topology, your OU structure or your current Exchange 200X Server Organization. With the Active Directory Topology Diagrammer tool, you can also draw partial Information from your Active Directory, like only one Domain or one site. The objects are linked together, and arranged in a reasonable layout that you can later interactively work with the objects in Microsoft Office Visio.

Pretty cool right? Know of any other free tools that can easily, and automatically create detailed network maps of your environment? Let us know your favorite tools in the comments!

Technorati Tags: automated, network, ad, active cirectory, topology, visio, plugin, tool, generator

Read more »

Prank on The New Boss

Last week my was my IT Manager’s last day, and upper management had already found a candidate to replace him with a Director. We are getting ready to do a data center move, so the new Director wanted to start right away to get in on the project.

All of us IT guys had a meeting on Tuesday to discuss projects, and the new Director. During the meeting my counterpart, James, said, “We have to do some sort of prank on the new Director!” So we all thought about it for a little bit, and finally decided we should build him an old junkie computer running Windows 98! The other guys were too afraid they would get in trouble with the new Director, so none of the help desk or desktop guys wanted to set up the Windows 98 box, so I decided I would do it. What was the worst thing that could happen?

I began looking on my MSDN for Windows 98, but no luck there so I had to seek the media elsewhere. I wasn’t able to find Windows 98, but I did find Windows 98 SE (Second Edition). I thought that was better because I do work for a Microsoft Gold Partner, so we have to stay cutting edge!

The oldest computer we had lying around the office wasn’t THAT old per se, but it was certainly nothing special. It was an older Dell Latitude D510. Windows 98 SE installed easily, with only a few drivers missing. No big deal, the laptop didn’t have to work, it was just a joke anyway.

Yesterday the Director started, and spent most of the day in orientation. When he finally went to his desk, one of the Help Desk guys took him in there. I missed the whole thing, but the Help Desk guy said that the director didn’t find it very funny. Not funny? WTF?

Well, I spoke with my Director’s boss later that day (He was in on the joke by the way) and he said that the Help Desk guy ruined the joke. When he led the Director to his desk he told him, “Here is your computer… Only kidding! Ha ha ha!” before even letting the director power it on…. Um, yeah! I wouldn’t find the joke funny either if someone ruined it!

Anyway, the joke is a good idea. I don’t want to see it go to waste, so please feel free to do this joke on a boss, or co-worker on their first day. Let me know how they react in the comments!

Technorati Tags: it,tech,computer,pranks,jokes

Read more »

Episode 25 – The Final Episode

Yes, I’m afraid you read that correctly. This will be the final video episode of Bauer-Power. Now, don’t get your panties in a bunch, because I will still be making videos, I just want to separate them from the blog.

My reasoning for this is I have several years of content on Bauer-Power that I feel would be good to use in the videos. I really don’t want to duplicate stuff I have already talked about on the blogs and the videos, and then re-post them on the blog. I feel that if I branch out with a different brand for the videos, I am more free to do whatever I want, and to reach back and use previous content.

Also, when I first started doing the videos, they were sort of an experiment. I had been watching a lot of Podcasts on the Internet and felt that I could do it too. It took a lot of trial and error, but I think i finally have the hang of it. We started out editing everything in Windows Movie Maker, and have since moved to better editing software, and better equipment. All of which make creating these videos easier!

Here is the final episode, complete with our original (EXTRA LONG) action opening sequence!

Come and watch videos at our new home at TechChop.com! Thanks for sticking with us for the last 25 episodes!

Technorati Tags: last,episode

Read more »

Acer Aspire M5100 With Windows 7 64 Bit. BSOD FTW!

Sweet baby Jesus do I hate Acer! I hate Acer because of their lousy customer service, and crappy warranty support. My experience comes from being an Acer Aspire M5100 owner.

That being said, besides that one bad experience, this computer has lasted a while, so I guess it isn’t that bad hardware wise, just customer service wise. Up until recently things were trucking along nicely with it.

A weekend or two ago though my heat sink got clogged up after all this time. Instead of cleaning it out I decided to upgrade it, and get rid of the stock one, so I purchased a new heat sink. While I was at it, I also upgraded the RAM to 8GB, Since I now had 8GB or RAM, I needed a 64 bit operating system. Since Windows 7 32 bit ran fine, I figured Windows 7 64 bit would too. Not so much.

Everything worked fine except the embedded ATI graphics card. After installing Windows 7, I would get intermittent Blue Screens of Death, and they were caused by the ATI video driver. If I rebooted there would be a 75% chance that I would get a STOP: 0x00000116 error caused by atikmdag.sys.

I decided that perhaps the Windows Driver that automatically installed with Windows 7 64 bit was the cause, so I went to Acer’s site to download their Vista 64 bit driver (They didn’t have one for Windows 7) and I got the same thing. I decided to go to the ATI site, and lo and behold, they had a notice saying that that particular integrated video card was not supported under Windows 7 64 bit. Crap! They did say that you could try the Vista Driver, but they wouldn’t support it… Damn, already tried that.

The only logical option? Go tell the wife that you “unfortunately” have to go by a better graphics card! That is exactly what I did!

I headed over to Fry’s and purchased a Zotac GeFroce 9500GT DDR2 for about $60. Sure, not top of the line, but it is a vast improvement over the onboard card. Here are the specs for you hardware junkies from the Zotac website:

So far, it has been a vast improvement over the onboard card, and I have noticed a performance increase when video and picture editing. I wasn’t sure about it when I bought it because I had never heard of Zotac, but the reviews on Amazon were pretty good, so what the heck right? No more blue screens, and improved performance. Win/win if you ask me.

Do you own a Zotac video card? Like it? Dislike it? Do you use if for gaming? Video or picture editing? Do you prefer a different brand?  Let me know your opinion in the comments.

Technorati Tags: acer,aspire,m5100,bsod,blue screen,stop error,ati,video card,zotac,geforce 9500t,ddr2,review

Read more »

Law & Order: Dead on the Money Download

So I sometimes get requests to find games, software, movies, TV shows, etc… that people can’t find to download online. I am sometimes even told, “It doesn’t exist”, “It’s no where to be found.” and that just makes me want to find it anyway. Now sometimes things simply aren’t out there anywhere, like a free Bastard Secretary font, but I can usually find an alternative or a way to get what you want without too much work.

So I got this request to find this Law & Order game from 2002 and sure enough, no torrent for it, but a few pages deep in Google on a non-English page. I found a list of MegaUpload links for the game. I have had the game downloaded and verified that it works. I also decided to add a short little description from Amazon about the game. Also if you like the game or the company that developed it then I suggest that you do go out and buy it eventually as long as it’s from a location where the company will actually get the money to support them. Or very least give the game a good review somewhere.

Product Description

Law & Order: Dead on the Money is an exciting 3-D game based on an original, complex murder case created by a Law & Order TV writer. You'll step into the dramatic world of criminal investigation when you're called to a crime scene in Manhattan's Central Park. You and your partner, Detective Lennie Briscoe (actual voice of Jerry Orbach), will work to uncover the identity of the victim, gather evidence, track down witnesses, and identify viable suspects. Once you've got enough evidence to make an arrest, your supervisor, Lieutenant Anita Van Buren (actual voice of S. Epatha Merkerson), will sign off on your warrant. Once you have the killer in custody, the focus shifts to the criminal courts. You'll work with Assistant District Attorney Serena Southerlyn (actual voice of Elisabeth Rohm) to build a compelling case that will convince the jury to return a guilty verdict and convict the defendant.

Format: rar/iso

Language: English

File Size: about 1gb

File List

CD 1 part 1

CD 1 part 2

CD 1 part 3

CD 1 part 4

CD 1 part 5

CD 1 part 6

CD 1 part 7

CD 2 part 1

CD 2 part 2

CD 2 part 3

CD 2 part 4

CD 2 part 5

CD 2 part 6

CD 2 part 7

CD 2 part 8

CD 2 part 9

Disclaimer stuff: We are not responsible for these uploads, maintaining these links or if this uber jacks your computer and basically anything bad or good that could ever come from you using these links. I think that should just about cover our ass for a disclaimer.

By FreedomChicken

Technorati Tags: law & order,dead on the money,torrent,download,crack

 

Read more »

Episode 24 - Aiptek Hi-Speed, Tascam ST1 and Sony Vegas Pro

I know, I know. I usually don't release episodes more than once a month. Well, at least that is how I've been running things since the beginning of this year. If you recall when I first started making videos, I would release them whenever I had time to make them. I originally wanted to wait until the end of the month to release this one, but I was rather disappointed with episode 23, and I finally got the hang of blue screen thanks to the help of Sony Vegas Pro!

Also, I decided to pursue another project which I plan to reveal sometime next week, so stay tuned. This new project will affect my tech videos greatly, and I don't want to wait too much longer before I release my project to the world! I am really excited about it, and I hope you all are too!

Enough about that, and back to this episode. I decided to re-invest some of my advertising revenue back into my videos by purchasing a new video camera, a new microphone and acquiring new video editing software! The camera is an Aiptek Hi-Speed 720P HD Camera, the mic is a Tascam ST1, and as I mentioned before, the software is Sony Vegas Pro! Take a look!

As you can see, with the exception of Sony Vegas Pro, these relatively cheap products actually do quite a bit as far as improving the quality of the show! Sony Vegas adds a lot too, but it really isn't very cheap. It is however, one of the easiest to use video editing programs i have ever used!

Stop by next week, and you will see what I am talking about as far as my new project. I know waiting sucks, but it's not yet ready for prime time. When I do let you all in on my secret, I hope you will all love it as much as i am excited about doing it!

As always, if you have any questions about this episode, hit me up in the comments!

Technorati Tags: aiptek, hi-speed, 720p, hd, camera, tascam, st1, sony, vegas, pro, 9, review

Read more »

NEW Bauer-Puntu Linux Commercial

Last night my wife was rather tired from staying up all night the day before with my son who is apparently getting some new teeth, so she went to bed early. I figured, why not go have some fun in the garage and make a quick video. Then I thought it would be good to sort of update my old Bauer-Puntu Linux commercial!

The original one I did using Microsoft Movie Maker, and it is a rather simple video. I think it is still ok, but I specifically mention version 8.10 of Bauer-Puntu, so I figured in the new one I would try to keep it generic so it stays relevant.

The original did fairly well on Youtube with a little over 10,000 views. Sure, it’s not a million, but I aim small when doing short cheesy videos. If you have never seen the original, here it is:

 

 

Now, here is my new one!

 

 

What do you think? Better? Worse? I can take it! Let me know in the comments!

Technorati Tags: bauer-puntu,linux,commercial

Read more »