Configuring Citrix to open a specific Access database

We deployed Citrix Presentation Server 4.5 in a five-server farm at one of our clients. They use it for Office 2003 and ERP program application serving. I’ve worked with Citrix in the past, and my impression is it’s a great product that takes a while to learn. It takes longer to get really good at it. The Citrix community seems like a secret club where they are nice to their big resellers and the others are just an afterthought. We are not a Citrix Partner, nor do we play one on TV, nor are we auditioning for any roles.

My last interaction with Citrix was a support call to get pass-through authentication to work. I had to call because their support site is lame. I was 90% there, but was missing the last 10%. The support engineer was rude and had this smug “I-can’t-believe-you-don’t know-this” attitude. Excuse me sir, but we’re paying you $400. Would it kill you to be nice? Windows 2008 TS Remote App provides almost all of the functionality of Citrix with a fraction of the hassle.

So another request came up: can we publish an application that has Access open a specific database? My colleague worked on a couple different ways but they didn’t work. I suggested we publish MS Access as a separate app with a switch to open a specific DB. Using this article we set the command line of the app to read:

“C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office12\MSACCESS.EXE” “\\contoso.com\DFS\Files\Sales\SalesStats.MDB”

Worked like a charm. Day saved, cocktail hour earned.

The Wonders of CSS

I am interested in CSS so I can improve my blog appearance. My niece’s boyfriend told me about this site which explains just how far CSS goes in changing a page’s look. Way cool! If anybody knows how to do CSS, I would be interested in retaining you.

Jackson the art critic

Last night was mom’s night off and my night with the kids. We went to John Hawk’s for dinner, walked across the river on the Wisconsin Avenue Bridge, and headed to the lake for a walk. I took the kids on one of my (renowned?) tours through downtown. We saw City Hall, the Marcus Center, Watt’s (where mom likes to go for tea) the Pfister (where we stayed on our wedding night) and headed east on Wisconsin Avenue towards the lake. I showed them The Calatrava (what locals call the new wing of the Milwaukee Art Museum) and Jackson saw the orange di Suvero sculpture that Milwaukeeans love to hate. “What’s that big ugly orange thing, dad?” I explained it was a sculpture. They should move it; it’s ugly!” “Jackson, everybody thinks it’s ugly.” The girls concurred with his opinion. Apparently even kids have common sense.

We had a great time at the lake, the kids found a playground. I don’t think we go down there often enough. Here’s a photo of the kids at the park; click to see the full photo.

Game Recap, Part 2

The game narrative was so long and involved that I didn’t get a chance to do a recap. Here goes:

What I liked: Like my lovely wife said, the faces of the kids on the bench. We acted like a team, and I hope that continues. I liked our patience at the plate. Once we got over our jitters, there were a lot of heads-up plays. I enjoyed very little complaining about position assignments. I loved not having to keep score. Hearing the kids sing “Happy birthday (cha-cha-cha)” to Tre’Vaughn was cool. Watching Jackson shake of nerves to throw strikes was another personal highlight. (Sorry, I’m not just a coach, but also a proud dad.) Our pitching looked good in general. Nathan’s play to tag the runner at the plate was heads-up. Caleb’s consolation of Nathan was awesome. It was fun trying to steal an out by a fake throw to second.

What I would change: I moved everybody around too much. Next time, I think I will move people less in one game. I didn’t like the way we threw the ball around, but oh well. I felt rushed before the game, and need to organize pre-game drills better. I need to remember the score sheets and roster. I didn’t care for the post game protest RE: time limit, but that’s behind us. It would have been nice to be on the hook for ice cream, but the season is young.

Feel free to leave a comment on the game highs/lows as well.

For the record, I talked to Jeff Fuller at the Waukesha YMCA and the game result will stand. A clarification will go out regarding the rules on time limits.

Our next game is Thursday at home. See you there!

I never thought I would see the day…

We had our first U9 baseball league game tonight. It was at Hawthorne Elementary School in Waukesha, the site of some wild rides last year. I could write for hours on this, so I’ll try to give you the story as quickly as I can.

Our uniforms are not in yet, so I made the executive decision to have them wear the oversized ones on a temp basis. So kids had to change into socks and jerseys. Everything was rushed. I posted the batting order and game lineup. We did OK in the first, scoring one run. The bottom half of the first we looked like the Bad News Bears in the field. I didn’t think they could play that bad. Throwing the ball around, not covering bases, it was painful to watch. I have to chalk it up to first game jitters. 8 runs in, 8-1, them.

The second and third innings were better, although we couldn’t hit their flamethrowing pitcher. I would tell kids to get in the back of the batter’s box and they would not listen. We made a few more mental mistakes in the field. At the end of three it was 11-3, them. I was hoping to find offense with a their second pitcher, but no dice. At the end of four, it was 12-3.

We scored one in the top of the fifth. So now we’re down 8 with one at bat; might as well give someone else a chance to pitch. So I pulled the accomplished Kellen for the greener and promising Henry. Henry settled down and did OK for his first time. He snared a line drive and almost turned a double play, five runs scored. 17-4, Blazers. (I told the boys ice cream was on me if we got a DP in a game.) No worries, we hit our end of the inning, and they won’t need to. They might even call the game for the two-hour limit.

The fifth ended and the umpire said “10 seconds left, let’s start the last inning. Apparently the practice is to start another inning even with seconds left before 8:00. Did we want to hit? I was on the fence. The Red Wings were on, and I was spent. Coach Smith said “might as well let them hit.” Both teams agreed to begin the next inning.

Here’s the top of the sixth: Henry-walk, Trey-walk, Logan-hit by pitch, Jackson-walk, one run in. Nathan struck out swinging, one out. Tre’Vaughn walked, two runs in. Sam walked, three runs in. Kellen walked, four runs in. Caleb walked, five runs in. Riley singled for six runs in. Henry walked, seven in, then Trey for eight. Logan struck out swinging for the second out. Jackson doubled to right, cleared the bases, and got to third with aggressive running. Eleven runs were in at this point, and I started paying attention to the score again. We were only down by two. Nathan walked and stole second. Tre’Vaughn walked to load the bases. Sam walked to bring in another run. Kellen singled, Nathan scored, and Tre’Vaughn scored with aggressive baserunning. We’re up by one! The inning ended at some point, although my scorebook doesn’t say. Mr. Witty lost track, but I can’t blame him. He did a great job scoring, and I would have missed more.

We have a one run lead, and I, with poor pitcher management, have pigeonholed myself into doing the last thing I want to: put Jackson in to close the game.

Jackson can pitch, there’s no doubt about it. However, he inherited the nervous neurotic gene from me. What happens if Jackson blows the game? Will his 9-year-old psyche ever recover? He was mentally tight in his last game and looked like Nuke LaLoosh. Coach Smith had the same reservations, but Jackson was our only option. Dusk was gone, and it was getting dark. Nicole couldn’t even watch.

Jackson misses a liner, runner on first. Somehow he got to third. (The scorebook is once again missing the details.) No outs and a runner on third. A Major League Manager would pull in the infield to get the runner at the plate. But these are 9-year olds, and the bases are 60 feet apart. No realistic chance to get a tag at home. Maybe Jackson can strike out the side or get a pop-up. The next batter dribbles a ball three feet in front of the plate. The runner is going from third. Nathan astutely fields the ball and tags the runner. One out, no runs score. C’mon, too good to be true. I don’t remember how, but somehow we get runners on second and third. Jackson is going to full counts with the hitters, but just missing. Time for a visit to the mound.

I am his coach and his dad, so I know him pretty well. I look him in the eyes.

“Jackson, are you nervous?”

“A little.”

“A little or a lot?”

“I’m nervous dad.”

“Are you afraid to blow the game?”

“Yeah.”

“Listen Jackson, I could care less if we win this game. We’re lucky to be here. Got it?”

“Yes.”

“I know you can pitch; you’re trying to aim the ball and lob it in there. Just go through your motion, and trust it.” I felt like Obi-Wan telling Luke to use the force. “Are we good?”

“We’re good.”

“Go get ‘em.”

Jackson was different after that. He struck out the next two swinging, and we won the game.

Then another drama started. The coaches for the other team began to say that the last inning didn’t count for time limit. It was too dark, we started one minute late, anything they could come up with. A long and legalistic discussion ensues, and the best I can tell, they are wrong. The thing is, they never objected to playing the last inning, but now that they lost, they wanted it thrown out.

Never mind that. I feel like Steve Martin in Parenthood. All is right with the world.

Here’s the score:

	1	2	3	4	5	6	Final
Red Knights	1	0	2	0	5	14	18
Blazers West #2	8	3	0	1	5	0	17

 

 

Second Game Prep

Tonight is game #2 (or Game #1 in league play). Here is what I did differently:

• Created batting order for posting in dugout. No more questions on that from players.
• Created a game outline also to be posted in dugout. This idea came from fellow coach Dax Schaefer. I did the outline in Excel, allowing me to track the each player’s innings in the battery, infield, and outfield. I’ll post it later, but warning: it will blow your mind.

Time to go and change from Allen Strelow, IT Consultant to…. SuperCoach!

XP Remote Shutdown

I have a client that uses RDP to hit two workstations. Google “XP remote shutdown” and you get many links to crappy third-party utilities. This article highlights a built-in MS function.

I made it!!!

Well, I made it through my first game last night. I was extremely unorganized and shaking before the game. I have a newfound respect for coaches and managers everywhere. It took me about three hours to calm down after the game. For the record, it was us 15, them ~6 (I didn’t do a good job keeping score of their halves of the innings.)

What I liked: Our bats were hot, and our kids showed good plate discipline. Everybody either got a hit or made contact. Our pitchers were promising, and kept the ball in the infield for the most part. The kids were having fun, and it looked like the parents were too. We made few mental mistakes. Our assistant coaches did great, even when I was yelling conflicting instructions. Coach Smith was all over the pitch counts. The brothers Trey laid down some nasty bunts, and we ran the bases well. The other team made a great put-out to get one of us at the plate. We were cohesive and together.

What I hated: Brookfield Traffic – another post altogether.

What needs work: Bench order (mostly a function of an unorganized coach), standing in back of the batter’s box, not swinging at high pitches, and anticipation on defense. We also need to position the outfielders better. Of course most of these are not things we worked on or taught, so I expect those to be an issue. I’d rather have sound mechanics and coach the finer points. I’d love to have somebody keep score for me. Did I mention that before?

Lamentation: The end of an era…

The last of the Strelow children is currently leaving their preschool room right now. Today is the last class of the year, which means we’re done with preschool. This is one of those times where pausing and reflecting on how we got here is bittersweet. It first hit me like a ton of bricks at the Christmas program. I saw Clara singing and realized it wasn’t that long ago that Jackson didn’t sing (but air guitared) through his first program in 2002. Where did six years go? The National Weather Service predicts a 100% chance of precipitation under my eyes tomorrow.

When the kids were small, we had to carry them, change diapers, buckle them in, get them food, and all of those other things. Those times seemed so exhausting, and we longed for the “easier” days ahead. Well note to parents of little ones out there: they are easier, but also harder. Now we deal with tweeners, schedules, wardrobe meltdowns, and homework. I wouldn’t trade the days of yore for now, but they were fun.

Thanks to all of the teachers and staff at Curiosity Corner Nursery School for taking such great care of our family. We’ll miss you! If any of you are looking for a great preschool in the Milwaukee area, I highly recommend looking them up.

KnowledgeLake Error: Product Activator is Missing

 

So I go to enter the product keys on my KnowledgeLake Imaging installation on MOSS 2007 enterprise, and I get this error:

 

The KnowledgeLake KB had nothing on it, so I enlisted the great help from KL support. He had me check the following directory for ProductActivator.exe.

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

Missing, but found in:

C:\Program Files(x86)\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\LAYOUTS

It’s so simple and I have to admit a mea culpa here. I installed the 32-bit version and not the 64-bit version. Here’s the fix: since Imaging is the only product installed on this box, I could simply remove it via add/remove programs. You may have to copy C:\Program Files(x86)\KnowledgeLake to C:\Program Files KnowledgeLake so the uninstall completes. I didn’t have to, because I installed KL in E:\Program Files\KnowledgeLake.

I will update this post if something else went haywire on this.

First game jitters

It’s 4:00 and my first game as coach of my son’s U9 team is approaching fast. My heart is racing, I am warm, there are butterflies in my stomach. What if nobody shows because I gave them the wrong day, time or place? What will the lineup look like? Who plays where? How will we fix the looming Social Security Crisis?

Well, all I can do is take a deep breath, pray, and show up. It can’t be that bad, can it? More to follow.

Should I rename my blog? If so, what to?

OK, I’m staring at my blog and thinking there has to be a better title than Allen Strelow’s Weblog. I’m a creative guy, is that the best I can do? So then I think: what should I call this blog? It’s not like it focuses on only technology, or only political issues, or only family or Christian Issues. Like my mental patterns, it’s all over the board. So if you think you have an idea, please comment. I’ll wait for the two people who read this to chime in, and then I will go from there.

Robocopy

Every time I say or see the word Robocopy, I think of the 1980s flick RoboCop. I never saw RoboCop, nor do I ever want to. Some of my friends liked it; when they were watching shoot-em-ups, I was watching old James Dean and Hitchcock movies. But I digress.

Robocopy is standard on Vista and Windows 2008, but you can get it by downloading the Windows 2003 Resource Kit Tools. There is also a GUI interface to help you shape the commands. I’ve had two problems when XCOPY didn’t work because of insufficient memory. Another command line primer is here. There are so many options here, so make sure you know what they do before you go wild and shoot yourself in the foot.

Where does beer come from?

Well, as my brewmaster friend would explain, water, malt, hops, and yeast. The Reinheitsgebot laid down the standard a long time ago. Today our focus is on malt. Chris mentioned Briess in Chilton and how he used their stuff. Sure enough, the JS had an article about the malt. Enough said.

Our son, the OneNote user

OK, so we had this project for Jackson’s science class. Find an animal, research and get info from three different sources, and write the facts along with a picture to make the back of a cereal box. Interesting way to spin a research project, but I could do without the cereal box. The project took us four hours, but there is a story…

Once I found out we could do it on the computer, I opened my laptop and turned Jackson loose on the EBSCO Database system through the MPL. We picked the golden eagle (no self-respecting Marquette student/alum lets their son report on badgers). I taught Jackson how to use OneNote to compile information. I gave him his own notebook section on my laptop and he copied and pasted the relevant info into OneNote. Then he highlighted the entries in yellow and red. Finally, using Publisher, we laid out the cereal box. He was even using keyboard shortcuts like [Windows + tab] and [Ctrl+C/V]. Like father, like son. It was amazing to watch him stare intently at the computer and get the same facial expressions as his dad. Well, I learned quite a bit, including…

• Golden eagles are kleptoparasites. It took Jackson a few tries to learn kleptoparasiticism.
• Golden eagles are prevalent in Denali National Park. Here’s the factsheet.

Here’s the cereal box in PDF.

Symantec Endpoint Protection kills DHCP on SBS 2003

Symantec launched my blogging career by being so idiosyncratic, so I should not be surprised with this one.

Last month we installed SBS 2003 and setup a DHCP scope. So far so good. We installed Symantec Backup Exec, Endpoint Protection, and the usual suspects. In the middle of our conversion, we had issues with DHCP not working. Having done a slew of SBS migrations, I was stumped. In the end to save time, I chalked it up to an anomaly and assigned static IPs to the six clients. Well the exact same issue repeated itself last week at another SBS migration. My partner in crime, Matt Sims, figured it out.

It turns out that SEP (Symantec Endpoint Protection) is to blame. For those of you who don’t know, SEP installs AV, network protection, and application protection in one “neat” little package. Why a Windows Server should have a firewall is a beyond me, but reasonable people may differ. The default firewall policy in SEP blocks DHCP. (I would love to meet the geniuses that hatched this idea.) Right now I have only found official Symantec documentation that notes this is SBS only. Keep in mind that SBS is like Windows Server for Dummies.

Their fix is to modify the firewall policy to allow for DHCP. We disabled the firewall on both server and client sides, because we saw no need for them. The choice is yours.

Heaven is my Home

I’m not sure if this is a watershed moment on this blog or not. I’m about to get personal.

The last seven days have been trying on me. I found out I have to start exercising to bring down my blood pressure or go on meds. I’m 37 for crying out loud. I also found out some other personal news, and while I will not go into details here, I’m in for a trying, difficult, and rocky road in the next 3-5 years. Now this may make for a good book one day, but it’s a lot to absorb and process.

My life got a lot more stressful yesterday when I rear ended another car. This is my first accident in thirteen years, and while nobody was hurt, it certainly doesn’t make my life any easier. I was too busy with getting to practice, etc., to let it all sink in. Well reality hit when I got the loaner as my car is un-drivable until they fix it in two weeks. (It would not be good for a hood to suddenly come off while driving.)

So I was down in the dumps today. One might call it a pity party, or you could say it’s a normal reaction. That’s not what matters.

My outlook changed when I was driving to a client in my Toyota Corolla rental (I miss my car already). I encountered a rather large funeral procession. Here it is, the middle of a sunny spring day, and another person had left this earth. It reminded me of my mortality, and the fact that this life is only a spec compared to eternity. An old hymn popped into my head – “I’m But a Stranger Here.” The line that resonated was:

“I’m but a stranger here, Heaven is my Home.”

Very comforting indeed.

Tailgating the “right” way…

Jackson has been to a slew of Brewers games so far in his life. He knows the stadium, understands the game, and loves to be there. However, until Saturday, he had never tailgated at a game. (What kind of derelict father am I?) Well, we remedied that, as Chris, Anthony, Jackson and I went to the game and tailgated. Chris had never tailgated before either (soccer games don’t count – sorry). Here are the keys to goo tailgating at Miller Park or your favorite ballpark.

• Fresh brats: Precooked will not do here. If you must, boil them ahead, and warm them on the grill. I’m a Usinger’s man myself.
• Good bakery buns: I prefer Miller’s; my dad prefers Sciortino’s. You need a big roll to hold the brat and fixin’s.
• Grill: I am a charcoal grill snob, even going to the lengths of using lump charcoal. But when it comes to tailgating, I use a small portable gas grill. It makes more sense.
• Beer: No Budweiser allowed at Miller Park! We tailgated with three growlers of Chris’s beer from the Riverside Brewery in West Bend. (It helps to be friends with a brewmaster.) I will usually do Pabst in bottles otherwise. Why Pabst? I like it. It’s a classic Milwaukee beer, and I once saw a locker room photo of Gorman, Gumby, and Robin with bottles of Pabst. I’ll bet they were returnables. (If anybody knows where I can find Pabst in Miller Park on tap, please leave a comment. I have been known to walk down a few sections to get my beer of choice.)
• Sauerkraut: I prefer the sweeter Bavarian style, but that is a user preference.
• Secret Stadium Sauce:
  This staple from SportService is available at groceries in Milwaukee or even Miller Park. It is a must. The best way to describe it is a mix between ketchup and BBQ sauce. Chris said he missed mustard, but this is my blog and I hate mustard.
• Small disposable baking pans: This is to hold the kraut and sauce.
• Utensils: An expendable bread knife, tongs, a pocket knife, spoons, etc. We forgot tongs, and traded beer for tong use.

Here’s the key: cook or heat the brats on the grill. Pour the kraut into a baking dish, and heat on the grill as well. Do the same with the Secret Stadium Sauce, but add a touch of beer to the pan to cut it slightly. Cut the roll 85% (not 84%) through. Dip the brat in the sauce, coating it evenly, and place in the bun. Add the kraut. Enjoy with a beer, and Go Brewers!

If for some reason you are late and cannot tailgate, you will find select stands that prepare precooked brats in the stadium in a similar manner. I am a snob with this, as I have been known to find one that dips the brat and adds the kraut for me. It is not the same if you add the sauce and kraut yourself.

Below is a photo of our grill setup so you can see what I mean.

Bull Durham is 20 years old

I know I will date myself here, but I saw Bull Durham with my friend Mike at the Ruby Isle Theater for $1.50 (price approximate). I have the DVD, and I do call Jackson “meat” under my breath when he pitches to me.  One of the kids on our team even has a Bulls cap.  Here’s an article written for the 20^th Anniversary of this baseball classic. 

Pimp My PC, Part 2

About a month ago I posted a piece about some kickin’ neon fans for PCs. Turns out someone found my blog by searching “how to pimp my pc.” So I googled it and I found pimpmypc.us. Here’s a gallery of their work.

Or you can take your computer to Extreme PC Garage. I haven’t figured out if these guys are for real.