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ZENworks Configuration Management – imaging, PXE and DHCP

by | Nov 7, 2007 | evilzenscientist, Uncategorized

ZENworks imaging can use the Preboot eXecution Environment – PXE – to start it’s imaging engine.

When the imaging server components (TFTP server, Imaging engine, Proxy DHCP) are running on the same server as the DHCP server there are certain configuration changes that need to be made.

Read the ZCM10 documentation for more.

Three steps to happiness – I’ll document this for Windows; SLES is broadly similar.

– set the Proxy DHCP to run correctly
– set Proxy DHCP to start automatically
– add DHCP option tag 60 to the DHCP scope

(more…)

Demos, disks, partitions and cleaning up

by | Nov 7, 2007 | evilzenscientist, Uncategorized

I’m building demos and lab machines for the Sales Kick off in Orlando next week.

I had a load of laptops that needed cleaning up before reinstallation. I even had a disk from my old production laptop that still had PGP whole disk encryption bootguard on it.

Trinity Rescue Disk helped out again. Delete the partitions; re-write the master boot record. Invaluable.

Fedex 2 day delivery

by | Nov 5, 2007 | evilzenscientist, Uncategorized

I hate it when Fedex leave my parcel at the sorting depot for a day; just to meet and not beat the 2 business day delivery.

SNAG-0739

The parcel //could// have been delivered today – 5th November – but that would be next business day.

As a customer I’d be //really// happy if I got things early.

Hugin – making panoramic pictures

by | Nov 2, 2007 | evilzenscientist, Uncategorized

I’ve been using Hugin for a few years now – following a recommendation from Nat.

The best things about Hugin:

  • Hugin does a stunning job of stitching and blending pictures
  • Hugin is Open Source – so it’s free
  • Hugin is cross platform

So here’s my 5 minute how-to:

Get Hugin – download from http://hugin.sourceforge.net/download/

Install it.

Get autopano-sift to do the point management from http://user.cs.tu-berlin.de/~nowozin/autopano-sift/

Install it.

Get enblend to do the excellent blending of photos once they are stitched together from http://sourceforge.net/projects/enblend

Install it.

You now need to tell Hugin to use autopano-sift and enblend.

File –> Preferences –> Autopano

Specify the location of Autopano-sift

SNAG-0736

File –> Preferences –> Enblend

Specify the location of enblend

SNAG-0737

That’s it.

Add your pictures; do the magic – and you have some great panoramic pictures.

I’ve found that experimenting is key; you can get great results with some patience.

There’s also a manual for Hugin here http://sourceforge.net/forum/forum.php?forum_id=707719

New DVD player

by | Nov 2, 2007 | evilzenscientist, Uncategorized

I’ve been looking for a good quality, upscaling, multi-region DVD player for ages.

Alan tipped me off about Oppo – and I’ve just bought a DV981HD player.

Should be here Monday.

Apparently it’s $1000 worth of player for $225. Alan swears by his.

A sad month

by | Nov 1, 2007 | evilzenscientist, Uncategorized

Novell has let go a lot of colleagues and good friends in the last month.

ZENworks Engineering and QA lost a lot of good people; their roles are being filled in Bangalore, India.

Also several UK friends were let go this week; and also people across the US.

Novell Global Sales Conference – Orlando

by | Oct 30, 2007 | evilzenscientist, Uncategorized

Woo. Off to sunny Orlando in a few weeks for the annual sales conference. I missed last year; I was on paternity leave.

I’m running three days of ‘Endpoint management training’ for the global pre-sales and technical teams.

I’m juggling the agenda right now – should include:

– Advanced ZCM scenarios; scale, deployment, labs etc
– ZENworks Endpoint Security Management
– ZENworks Patch Management Services update
– Vista deployment and migration lab
– roundtable, roadmap, updates etc