Author: Dr. Bill

Dr. Bill is a Word of Faith Minister, Non-Profit Technology Specialist, Webmaster, and Technical Director of WOFR.org and SpeakFaith.TV. Before he retired from corporate life in 2017, he was also a technologist in the corporate arena for over 35 years. He is a Board Certified Traditional Naturopath. He is the Founder and President of Word of Faith Ministries, Incorporated, a non-profit Christian Ministry and is the creator and maintainer of an Internet Streaming TV and Roku Channel, SpeakFaith.TV. He volunteers, as Technical Director for WOFR.org – Word of Faith Radio, a non-profit Christian Radio Network. He is a graduate of Life Christian University, with a Bachelors, Masters, and Ph.D. in Theology and was a charter member (chartered in 1979) of the International Convention of Faith Ministries (ICFM). Dr. Bill is a certified as a Certified Natural Health Professional, and holds a doctorate in Natural Health in the field of Naturopathy. He is also certified as a Certified Traditional Naturopath, certified by the American Naturopathic Certification Board (ANCB). He is certified as a Master Herbalist, and became a Professional Member of the American Association of Nutritional Consultants, and of the Coalition for Natural Health. Dr. Bill earned certifications in the corporate world as a CIW Certified Master System Administrator. This was a major certification achievement that involves these intermediate certifications: CIW Web Professional Foundations Associate, CIW Server Administration Professional, CIW Security Professional, and the CIW Inter-networking Professional certification. He was also certified as a Certified Citrix Administrator (CCA), and a VMware Certified Professional (VCP), as well as an EC-Council Certified Security Analyst and a CIW Certified Security Analyst. He also earned the Imprivata Certified Engineer certification in both Single Sign-On and Authentication Management.

9000 PCs in a Swiss School Will Switch From Windows to Ubuntu Linux

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Yep… the good guys are on the march! I particularly like the school director’s comment (see below the link.)

Linux: 9000 PCs in Swiss schools will switch to Ubuntu only

“Beginning from next term, all computers at schools in the Swiss canton of Geneva will be switched to Ubuntu Linux only. Geneva newspaper Tribune de Geneve reports today that from September 2008 all computers at schools that currently are dual-boot MS Windows and Linux will have MS Windows removed and become FOSS (Free Open Source Software) only. Besides lower costs for the administration, students will also profit from the use of Ubuntu, as they then will be able to use the same applications at home without additional cost. Manuel Grandjean, director for the schools (Ecoles-Médias) IT services pointed out that the use of FOSS ‘…encourages participation and the democratization of knowledge and provides product independent competences…’. He also sees the use of FOSS as a ‘reinforcement of equal opportunities’ for students.”

16 Updates Are In The Pipeline for April’s “Patch Tuesday”

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Well, it is time to “secure up” your Microsoft operating systems again… so, prepare to patch and reboot!

16 updates on tap for April Patch Tuesday

“An advance notification regarding Microsoft’s Patch Tuesday promises eight security updates to Windows, Office, and IE vulnerabilities and eight more non-security related updates for Windows Update and Windows Server Update Services. Five of the patches are rated as ‘Critical,’ the highest level of severity given to updates, and most of those patches affect Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. The remaining three updates are classified as ‘Important.’ These updates may require a restart. There will also be eight high priority but non-security related updates on Windows Update and Windows Server Update Service.”

Geek Software of the Week: Jetico Personal Firewall!

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Jetico Personal FirewallOK, so this week I had to rebuild a Windows Me system for a customer. (I know… I know… bear with me!) It was a 500 mHz system with 192 meg of memory. (Ouch!) They were connecting it directly to the Internet with a cable modem, and NO router/firewall between them and the evil, cruel world! (OK, it was BAD!) So, I needed a firewall that would run on Windows 98 variants, and keep the PC safe (well, safer!) So, here’s what I used:

Jetico Personal Firewall

“Jetico Personal Firewall v.1 is the most powerful and flexible personal firewall for legacy Microsoft operating systems: Windows 98, Me, NT 4.0. Jetico Personal Firewall is designed to give the user full control over the networking subsystem. The key principles are rule based stateful filtering, open configuration, detailed logging and live statistics. Open configuration means: no hidden rules or dependencies. User can inspect and modify every bit of Jetico Personal Firewall configuration. In conjunction with rule based filters it gives the user unprecedented control over network related events. Fine grained logging and statistics simplify both network events and firewall configuration analysis. The unique live statistics display which firewall rules are applied in the real-time. All these things combined together makes more that powerful firewall – the ultimate tool to protect and monitor your system. And last, but not least: Jetico Personal Firewall v.1 is FREE! Supported operating systems: Windows 98/Me/NT/2000/XP”

Windows XP Will Be Unavailable After June 30th!

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So, it is what it is… no more purchasing Windows XP after June 30, 2008. Only Vista after that. Can you say, “Microsoft is doomed?” I knew you could! Well… unless you have a super cheap PC!

Windows XP’s final day still June 30, but low-cost PCs get two more years

“Confirming the rumors that devices such as Asus’ Eee PC are prolonging the life of XP, Microsoft today announced that the previously-established June 30, 2008 cutoff date for OEM and retail Windows XP sales was final, except for the new class of what the company has termed ULCPCs: Ultra Low-Cost PCs. The nebulously-named class of computers including UMPCs, MIDs, Origami devices, subnotebooks and even desktops that offer lower power have received the official Ultra Low Cost PC (ULCPC) moniker from Microsoft. Companies making these devices have also received an extended 2-year period (or until Windows 7 comes out, whichever is latest) in which their machines can come equipped with Windows XP, but only the Home edition of the operating system. Microsoft has said that the extension reflects the company’s commitment to deliver ‘the right version of Windows for new device categories as they emerge.’ The company said today, ‘[We] recognize that there is a growing class of hardware-constrained, lower cost PCs that would benefit from a different Windows based solution. While Windows Vista provides an easier and more secure user experience, Windows XP Home provides an effective solution on these devices from a performance and cost perspective.'”

Veeam Introduces Backup and Replication in One at VMworld Europe 2008

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It looks like a great product. I use Veeam FastSCP (free, excellent utility for VMware.) Veeam FastSCP was a Geek Software of the Week, check out this link:

Veeam FastSCP

Here’s the video introduction of Veeam’s new Backup Product (with a neat magic trick!)

It is a virtual machine (guest system) backup both at the image level and at the file level within the guest system. It also integrates with VCP. Very nice!

“A groundbreaking disaster recovery solution for VMware Infrastructure 3 that combines backup and replication in one product.

Veeam Backup is the first solution that combines backup and replication in a single product for fast recovery of your VMware ESX Servers. Backup is easy – recovery can be hard. But with Veeam Backup, fast recovery is easier than you ever thought possible.

Features and Benefits

Backup and Replication in one – Now, with Veeam Backup, organizations can benefit from a unified solution for both backup and replication to protect mission-critical virtual machines from both hardware and software failure.

Fast file-level recovery – Veeam Backup’s fast file-level recovery feature allows ESX administrators to restore individual files in minutes without extracting the full VM image to a local drive. An administrator can extract individual files to the latest state or to a specific point in time.

Data de-duplication – Veeam Backup allows you to minimize storage costs for virtual machine backups. Veeam’s data de-duplication and compression are especially valuable when backing up multiple virtual machines created from a single template or VMs with gigs of free space on their logical drives.

Replication rollback – A replica produced with Veeam Backup can be restored to a particular point in time. This protects your infrastructure against both hardware and software corruptions.

Integration with VCB – Veeam Backup is the only backup solution that enables you to run incremental backup and replication jobs through VMware Consolidated Backup (VCB). Using its proprietary “VCB on-the-fly” technology, Veeam Backup doesn’t require extra space on the VCB proxy for VM images, allowing for faster backups. Veeam Backup operates either with or without VCB, letting the user choose whether to use VCB or not for either standard backup or replication backup.

Integration with Veeam FastSCP – To date, Veeam’s FastSCP freeware has been downloaded more than 28,000 times, and Veeam Backup shares a common interface with FastSCP, allowing users to manage backup, replication and file copying from a single screen.”

Veeam Backup

Microsoft Comes Clean! Promises Rebates on Vista and Windows!

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After years of sticking it to the world with a cruddy operating system, the new management at Microsoft has decided that a token rebate of $25.00 per registered user of either Windows XP or Windows Vista would help compensate computer users for the hassles caused by Windows. “We felt that it was the least that we could do,” said Mark Buerocrite, VP of Public Relations in Redmond.

Oh, and a very warm place under the earth has reported snow for the first time as well… APRIL FOOLS!

This Weekend’s Podcast Has Issues…

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Yep… I lost my audio somewhat during recording the podcast… so you get to here me humming along halfway through the Jonathan Coulton song “The Presidents.” It was like my virtual “mixer” lost the channel that played the songs, bits, etc. and you then only heard my mic recording (even when I had it “off”) … actually, my wife, Belinda, thought it was hilarious! Anyway, no sooner had I posted it to the net… within about two minutes… I got an email from Henry Ratliff, one of my Internet buddy’s and a faithful listener, who said, “Hey, Doc, ya got a problem!”

So, I recorded a mini-podcast to get the full Jonathan Coulton song… it is available here:

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Also… for the rest of the original podcast… the audio is wonky. Don’t ya love it!?

The “I Got No Geek Software of the Week Edition” of Dr. Bill Podcast #129

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Dr. Bill Podcast – 129 – (03/29/08)
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Geek Culture from Jonathan Coulton… Code Monkey and The Presidents, Satellite Radio merger, the demise of the ORDB, OpenOffice 2.4, Miro fund-raiser and Google and “Lights Out Day!”

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