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Champions for Kids: Keep Them Warm!

February 1, 2012 by DanielHeth

2012-02

Did You Know?

• In the cold winter months, children with inadequate warm clothing are more likely to become sick and miss school. The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (ECLS-K) found that children who missed more than 10% of the school year in kindergarten had lower reading scores in first grade compared to children who only missed 3% of the school year.
• Students who are cold during class have a harder time concentrating and focusing on the material that they are supposed to be learning.
• It takes at least twice the official federal poverty level for families to provide the basic necessities that their young children need to thrive. Nationally, 10 million children under the age of 6 live in families earning twice the federal poverty level or less.

Ways YOU Can Help!

GATHER your family, friends, and co-workers to participate in an Energizer Positive Energy Party by collecting winter clothes for children to keep them warm!

LEARN about the clothing needs of children in your community by inviting a teacher, social worker, or homeless shelter volunteer to talk with your family, friends, and co-workers.

GIVE the clothing items that you’ve collected to the community advocate, and bring positive energy and warmth into children’s lives!

Send us your Report and Photos at champion@championsforkids.org so that we can celebrate your participation! How many people became Champions for Kids? How many children received the clothing items and positive energy? Join our team of Champions for Kids and receive your personalized certificate of victory!

I Am One of Millions, Join Me!
#Champions2020

Posted in Charity | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Adding LDAP Authentication to the TEM (BigFix) Console

January 20, 2012 by DanielHeth

The latest version (8.2.x) of Tivoli Endpoint Manager comes with it the ability to authenticate console users with your LDAP directory.  Here is a simplified step-by-step guide for setting that up.

Open your console and use one of your Master Operator accounts.  Find the LDAP Directories branch in the left side tree and right click it.  Choose to Add LDAP Directory from that list…

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Enter any “Name” you’d like and specify your LDAP authentication server as well as if it is a global catalog server.  In my tiny network, I only have the one DC.

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Click the Test button to validate the connectivity…

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My network is very tiny, however I would encourage you if alternate DC servers are available to specify them in the Backup Server X spaces provided.

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Adding the link to the DC is one step… next you’ll probably want to create a special AD group which Console users will belong.  Remember that within TEM, we have Console Operators and Master Operators.  Each user/group has a specified set of computers they are responsible for and this can be extended into AD.  Simply create a AD user group for how your organization is divided and based on their required level of console access.

In my case I created two AD groups:  BigFix_Admin and BigFix_Console.  Then added my user account to the Admin group.

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Our next/last step is to specify the level of access each of these new AD groups have within the TEM infrastructure.

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You can name this new Role anything you’d like, however I like to match the AD group name up with this Role name to make it easy to understand.

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My Admin group has near unlimited privileges… thus I’ll chose yes to the following options:  Master Operator, Custom Content, and Show Other Operators’ Actions.

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Next we’ll need to assign the computers that this group will have control over… in my case I’ll be specifying “all computers”

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Using this dialog I can specify individual computers as well as systems based on Retrieved Properties or Group Membership.

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I will not be adding TEM users to this group as it was setup specifically for my LDAP Admin group… so I’ll skip the “Operators” tab.

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Instead I’ll be focusing on the LDAP Groups tab… and Assigning LDAP Group to this TEM Group I’m currently defining…

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Search for the group to be added to this TEM group, and Assign it.

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Lastly I’ll glaze over the Sites tab since I currently only have 1 site in this new infrastructure, however I can specify specific site permissions just like I can for TEM users.

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Don’t forget when you are done to Save Changes…

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Since this is a fresh installation, the setting which requires entering your authentication password to authorize this new action has been disabled by default.  In a different article I will explain this very cool security feature, how it works and how to force the password requirement just like in previous versions.   For now, let’s log in with my Domain credentials to test things out!

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Let’s re-launch the console but this time using my Domain credentials…

Be sure to include your Domain within the User name field…  In my case it’s “MoranIT\Daniel”

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Success!!  The authentication was accepted and I’m logging into the console!

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Something very important to notice here is that my operator site and account was automatically generated upon login.  This means that if too many new users login it could cause network traffic on your network since a subscription action is deployed to the authorized computers list.

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Enjoy your new LDAP authenticated user access… let me know if you have any questions or comments in the section below.  I respond to all my comments, so please engage…

Posted in BigFix, Configuration, Technology | Tagged , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Installing Tivoli Endpoint Manager (BigFix) Console 8.2.1093

January 20, 2012 by DanielHeth

My latest installation of the TEM v8.2.1093 server comes with it the installation of the Console.  This new console is extremely cool and has features like LDAP authentication, HTTP communications channel, and more.  Here is the basic step-by-step installation procedure to get the client installed on your workstation.

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If you have any questions, let me know!

Posted in BigFix, Installation, Technology | Tagged , , , | Leave a Comment »

Installing Tivoli Endpoint Manager (BigFix) Client v8.2.1093

January 19, 2012 by DanielHeth

The installation procedures between the various versions of the Client are extremely similar.  So the following screenshots will look a lot like the previous version I documented.

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If you have any questions, let me know!

Posted in BigFix, Installation, Technology | Tagged , , , | Leave a Comment »

Installing Tivoli Endpoint Manager (BigFix) v8.2.1093

January 19, 2012 by DanielHeth

imageInstalling this newest version of TEM is relative straight forward and easy to do.  Drawing from my previous articles, a SQL server Installation (and SP1), and the Installing of Pre-requisites, I give you the full installation of v8.2.1093.  I also have downloaded the latest v8.2.1093 version from the TEM website.

I have already attached my new virtual server to my internal Windows Domain so authentication is easily accomplished within my existing network.

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I’m going to remove WebReports from this particular installation, favoring to install it onto a different server for simplicity.

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I will be using a remote database to a different installed instance of SQL server as noted at the top of this article.

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I plan on integrating this newest version of TEM with my Domain.  Thus a generic admin account is exactly what I need here.

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Everything looking good according to the TEM Server Diagnostics tool.  The only error it showed was the resolution of the DNS name used for my new infrastructure.  Now I’ll add a quick little entry in my DNS server for this domain name.

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There we go… that’s better…

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If you have any questions, please them below…

Posted in BigFix, Installation, Technology | Tagged , , , | Leave a Comment »

Submitted My Windows 8 App for their Contest

January 4, 2012 by DanielHeth

This afternoon I have finally completed my Metro style Windows 8 application.  I’m still entering data into the database, but the app itself is completed.  When the app is launched it pulls that data and displays it to the users.

Here are a few screen shots of my application:

My application is based on the House of Representatives.  It allows you to quickly discover your congress person and provides you with contact information including Twitter, Facebook and other links they’ve shared on their websites.

The contest started here:  https://buildwindowscontest.com/

If I win, I will be included in the first round of apps added to the new Microsoft App store… very exciting!

Wish me luck!

Posted in Bing Maps, C#, Microsoft, Programming, Technology, Windows 8 | Tagged , , , , , , | 6 Comments »

2011 Year in Review

January 2, 2012 by DanielHeth

This has been a very wonderful year for my wife and I.  2011 was a year of prosperity… 2012 will be the year of financial freedom!

To Come in 2012

  • Write my first Book
  • Write a blog post each week, 51 and counting, blog turns semi-pro
  • More networking with peers
  • Pay off 2 credit cards, 2 vehicles, and 2nd mortgage
  • NOT spend 15k on food :-)
  • A few other experiments that I have in the works…

Posted in Random Stuff | Leave a Comment »

Champions for Kids: Fuel Their Passion!

January 1, 2012 by DanielHeth

2012-01

Did You Know?

• 1 in 4 children in the United States is food insecure.
• Too often, these same school age children are not eating the recommended amount of fruits, vegetables, whole grains and low-fat dairy products.
• Today, more than one in every three children in our nation is overweight or obese. One third of all children born in 2000 or later will face chronic obesity-related health problems like diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, cancer, and asthma.

Ways YOU Can Help!

GATHER Gather your family, friends or co-workers and make a team decision to
improve your health and the health of children in your community. Pick ONE food item you will give up each day to improve your health and add ONE Simple fitness activity! Save $1.00 per day by giving something up! Whatever it is, the key is to make the decision and do it — for 30 days!

LEARN about children in your community! Gathering is only one step. Invite a
teacher or a social worker to gather with your team to learn about the nutrition needs children have in your community.

GIVE That $30 you saved, can now be shared with others. Provide the teacher or non-profit representative a basket filled with $30.00 gift cards (per person) to help children have the resources they need to live healthy lives. Send us your Report and Photos to champion@championsforkids.org! It’s that easy. Choose the challenge, gather your team and then tell us how you did! Join our team of Champions for Kids and receive your personalized certificate of victory!

I Am One of Millions, Join Me!
#Champions2020

Posted in Charity | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Add .NET Framework v4 to your IIS7 Web Server

December 21, 2011 by DanielHeth

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Lately I’ve decided to build a .NET v4 website…. thus I needed to add the IIS capabilities… after an exhaustive search, I found what I needed thanks to Brad over at StackOverflow:

 

  1. Open your command prompt (Windows + R) and type cmd and press ENTER
    You may need to start this as an administrator if you have UAC enabled.
    To do so, locate the exe (usually you can start typing with Start Menu open), right click and select "Run as Administrator"
  2. Type cd C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\ and press ENTER.
  3. Type aspnet_regiis.exe -ir and press ENTER again.
    • at this point you will see it begin working on installing .NET’s framework in to IIS for you
  4. Close the DOS prompt, re-open your start menu and right click Computer and select Manage
  5. Expand the left-hand side (Services and Applications) and select Internet Information Services
    • You’ll now have a new applet within the content window exclusively for IIS.
  6. Expand out your computer and locate the Application Pools node, and select it. (You should now see ASP.NET v4.0 listed)
  7. Expand out your Sites node and locate the site you want to modify (select it)
  8. To the right you’ll notice Basic Settings… just below the Edit Site text. Click this, and a new window should appear
  9. Select the .NET 4 AppPool using the Select…
  10. button and click ok.
  11. Restart the site, and you should be good-to-go.

(You can repeat steps 7-on for every site you want to apply .NET 4 on as well).

Posted in Technology, Microsoft, Installation, Windows 2008r2, .NET Framework | Tagged , , | Leave a Comment »

Congressional District Polygons

December 21, 2011 by DanielHeth

Here I am again working on my House of Congress/Windows 8/Metro app contest when I’m wanting to show the individual districts each Congress person represents.  Using a Bing search I found myself back at the Census website.  This time looking at the congressional boundary files:  http://www.census.gov/geo/www/cob/cd110.html

I don’t know anything about the e00 or shp files, so I’ll be working with the available ascii files.

Each state’s zip file contains two dat files.  One dat contains the Long/Lat coordinates for various map-polygons which represent districts that are defined in the other dat file.  What I wanted was a way to tie together the dat files with the Districts table I’d already defined at the start of my development.

I need this information to be in the most covenant format for my application, therefore, I’ll be importing the information for each state into my SQL database.  I created a new table defined as follows:image

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Like many of my tables, I’ve setup an Id which auto increments and is the primary key for each row.  Next we have the linked DistrictID, the PolygonID identified within the dat file as well as the Latitude and Longitude values.

First thing was to download each individual ascii file, unblock (windows 7 “feature”), extract and rename each file… only took 20min.

Then using my import program, I follow the following sudo code to get into my database:

foreach DAT file



    read in dat and def files



    extract state name //will use this later to get district reference





    open database



    find state





    foreach dat file line



        parse Long/Lat and cur Polygon # if available



        if cur Polygon # found, then



            foreach def file line



                if cur polygon # then



                    district id = line



        if have district id and current polygon



            insert new coordinates into database




In the end we have a database called Boundaries that looks something like this:


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If you have any questions or would like to see the source code for my importer mention it in the comments section below.

									


				
Posted in Bing Maps, C#, Code, Microsoft, Programming, SQL 2008r2, Technology, Windows 8 | Tagged , , , , , ,  | Leave a Comment »

							

				
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