Vol. 23, #24 - June 18, 2018 - Issue #1186
Free Tool for Monitoring Exchange Server Status & Performance
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This week's newsletter catches up on what's been happening in the data privacy world. We also have a new Factoid to challenge you, some cool Tips, and a new section featuring the latest hot article on our TechGenix website. Enjoy!
Sometimes ignoring the privacy of communications in the office can actually bring you some benefit. Alice and Dilbert explain how:
http://www.wservernews.com/go/f49vrm0i/
Starting with this issue of WServerNews we're going to feature a recent article published on our TechGenix website that we feel it's important for our newsletter readers know about. Be sure to read it and express your own thoughts in the comment section at the bottom of the article.
And to stay on top of other great content we publish as well as special offers and announcements, be sure to subscribe to our Weekly IT Update and Spotlight Articles newsletters which you can do here:
http://www.wservernews.com/go/127a26hs/
Small business IT support: Ways to keep recurring revenue flowing in
Many shops specializing in small business IT support have been hit hard by cloud computing, but some have adapted and prospered. What's the secret to success in this challenging environment?
http://www.wservernews.com/go/vtsdfah2/
Editor's comment on why I chose to feature this article: Had I known the things Craig says here about running a successful small business before I launched my own business I'd probably be a millionaire by now!
WServerNews goes out each week to more than 500,000 subscribers worldwide! That's a lot of expertise to tap into. Do you need help with some issue or need advice on something IT-related? Got a question you'd like us to toss out to our readers to try and answer? Email us at wsn@mtit.com
Last week in Issue #1185 China, Australia, Germany your Editor riffed off in a rant about dishwashers and toasters and how and why they seem to be mostly junk nowadays. This sparked a few reader comments such as this one by Chris who works for a US distributor of office equipment:
My father had a similar experience back I the 90's. Since he eats toast every morning, it is important for the unit to work. When old reliable gave up the ghost, he went and bought the top-of-the-line unit. Needless to say it did not last more than a year. So he went and bought the least expensive model they carried. This one lasted over 15 years. Moral of the story – but the cheapest unit they offer. A toaster is just a toaster no matter how many buttons it has.
Amen. We decided to junk our expensive Maytag dishwasher and buy an Amana that's half the price, has simpler and more robust controls, and gets the dishes just as clean. We decided on this after reading numerous reviews of individuals who had bought the Amana dishwasher we purchased. For example this one from the Loews Canada website:
Purchased this lower end model after my high tech KitchenAid dishwasher died after less than 4 years of infrequent use...failed within two months after purchase followed by at least 4 service calls for various computer parts to be replaced. The Amana is a bare bones basic model, but I want a machine which washes dishes--not one that answers the phone and prepares dinner. In other words, the less computerized and the more mechanical features = less headaches and hopefully, longevity. Note: I purchased the SS --it looks nice but it is very noisy but dishes wash and dry well...much better than the KitchenAid which I paid almost 3x more for the NAME.
And tonight we're headed to SuperStore to buy the cheapest toaster we can find to replace our expensive recently bought Cuisinart toaster which after toasting bread twice still doesn't make it dark enough to suit our tastes--argh.
Jim who works on the PCB Design team for an ISO 9001:2015 Certified company also had some thoughts about toasters and even sent us a photo of the perfect one:
Hi, I am not an IT guy but I have worked with computers for many years, both Unix and Windows, doing PCB layout. I am not sure how I got on your email distribution but I enjoy the newsletter when I have some spare time and have found some useful computer information there.
On the subject of toasters: I have a Toastmaster that was in my family when I was growing up in the 1950's. I believe my parents got it as a wedding gift in 1942, so that makes it 76 years old ! That's a lot of toast but it still works great, and as the saying goes, they don't make them like they used to. As long as the heating wires are still good, I can open it up every few years and do a little cleaning and oil the tick-tock clock mechanism. For darkness control there is a knob to adjust how fast the clock ticks. No circuit boards, sensors, microprocessors, or LED's involved.
This pic isn't my machine but this is what it looks like:
Do a web search for "1939 Toastmaster with Cartouche" and it should take you to the page with this picture and some description.
I want one because it doesn't have the wider "bagel-friendly" slots that all modern toasters seem to have and which position the heating elements farther away from the toast.
And finally here are some thoughts on washing machines from Bruce who works in IT services for a US state agency:
That's why, when we need one after our 30 year old washing machine and dryer wear out, we're going with Speed Queen:
http://www.wservernews.com/go/tuakbc8v/
For a viewpoint by someone who knows more than me:
http://www.wservernews.com/go/qg1jxl3r/
And now on to the main topic of this week's newsletter…
Reuters reports that the German Supreme Court has ruled that users have the right to filter out ads from web pages they visit:
http://www.wservernews.com/go/60f9z8eg/
The New York Times reports that security researchers have found a way to send secret audio instructions undetectable to the human ear to Apple's Siri, Amazon's Alexa and Google's Assistant:
http://www.wservernews.com/go/0cbvcfa0/
The Guardian reports that Google is being sued for 'clandestine tracking' of 4.4m UK iPhone users' browsing data:
http://www.wservernews.com/go/0imm0cgn/
Meanwhile Caleb Chen's blog Privacy News Online reports that Apple could have years of your internet browsing history and won't necessarily give it to you:
http://www.wservernews.com/go/zve0vuaj/
CNET has reported that Yahoo and AOL have once again given themselves the right to read your email:
http://www.wservernews.com/go/pe92168h/
I can't remember the last time I used my Yahoo email account as I've found other better sources for obtaining "throwaway" email accounts. For example:
Guerrilla Mail
http://www.wservernews.com/go/k6hxblpq/
EmailOnDeck
http://www.wservernews.com/go/27yoa0qf/
Mailinator
http://www.wservernews.com/go/9b4d0y9r/
Which one do you use?
TeamBlind surveyed over 2,600 tech workers and found that 31 percent of them planned to delete their Facebook accounts:
http://www.wservernews.com/go/iea1pjfw/
Are you one of them? If so read this article from The Telegraph:
http://www.wservernews.com/go/w05rnxdn/
Here's some more advice on how to properly erase yourself from Facebook:
http://www.wservernews.com/go/nepncxen/
Got feedback about anything in this issue of WServerNews? Email us at wsn@mtit.com
Microsoft Tech Academy
Tech Academy unifies Microsoft's learning and readiness platforms for IT Professionals and Developers into a single place. Use our curated Learning Pathways to kick-start or advance your Microsoft cloud expertise with always-up-to-date content or search across thousands of learning materials.
http://www.wservernews.com/go/663svuy2/
Last week's factoid and question was this:
Stanley Kubrick's science fiction film 2001: A Space Odyssey was released 50 years ago in 1968. How many of our readers remember seeing that movie as a kid? How did it affect you? And has there ever been a better film made about astronauts and outer space?
This one generated lots of comments from our readers. Here's a short selection from what we received:
Ah - one of the best space movies ever made. This was the movie that made the moon landing conspiracy nuts think that the moon landing was faked simply because of how well it was filmed and matched with what we knew of space travel at the time. The fact that it came out a year before the moon landing was treated as further "proof"! I was only 4 when this came out so never saw it when it was originally released, but I did see it when the VHS tape version was released. I was fortunate that the release in Western Australia included a screening of the movie on the big screen so go to experience it in the way it was meant to be seen. I have heard that Astronauts consider this and "Gravity" as the definitive space movies, with both making use of inertia and weightlessness to express the foreign nature of space to human life. I just treat the last part of the movie as Kubrick's drug trip salute to the 60s. --Wayne from Perth, Australia
Yes, I saw it when it first came out. The opening music completely blew me away. I love classical music, but had never hear Also Sprach Zarathustra before. So I went out and bought the (vinyl) album. And found that the only part of the whole composition was the first 30 seconds seen in the film. I probably still have it somewhere here, played exactly once. And nobody to this day understands the ending. --Dennis from Washington State, USA
I saw the movie when I was 8, but I had already read the book book by then so I ended up explaining some of the movie to my older brothers and my uncle. The Kubrick's cinematography and use of music set a high standard in my mind as to what a movie should be, but I think I wouldn't have had such a high regard for it if I hadn't already read the book so I could better understand what he was trying to portray. --Jim
We've also received some more responses to our previous week's factoid about who buys vinyl records nowadays:
Probably it is simply the somewhat smoother sound. Digitized Music is often quiet harsh on the upper frequencies and if you have still a certain hearing ability it "scratches" your ears. Especially if the Music is made with electronics the snares and drums even the guitar riffs are so sharp it hurts. Can't explain it better but it basically depends on your ability to hear the upper frequencies. If you can hear the water after a summer rain drain away into the micropores of the soil you might be with me. --Joachim from Frankfurt, Germany
I don't buy much vinyl these days, but follow several vinyl record Twitter aliases that tweet about vinyl record stores around the world. So the move "back" to vinyl appears to be a trend. For me, it's mostly nostalgic, as there's a wide swath of the population that remembers the record-buying experience. Going to the record store, flipping through albums, putting the headphones on to listen to the latest release by the hot artist. Naturally, the days of making a music purchase via this kind of experience are (mostly) lost on the iTunes and Spotify generations. The way I see it, even though we try to turn everything into a more productive, convenient experience, we're also living in a time when many people have the option of spending their discretionary time on diversions, and the enjoyable music-buying experience of yesteryear qualifies as a good one. --Kris
Now let's move on to this week's factoid:
Fact: Two new studies have found that editing cell genomes with CRISPR may increase the risk of cancer.
Source: http://www.wservernews.com/go/h1tdc4b7/
Question: Every few years (or months now) it seems there's some medical discovery that is going to revolutionize our health, extend our longevity, cure some deadly disease, or destroy all life on the planet. Until recently CRISPR seemed to be a magic elixir that has even started to emerge as a key plot line in movies, see Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's latest movie Rampage for example:
http://www.wservernews.com/go/pdfpn7ge/
Name one other revolutionary medical discovery you can remember that promised the sky but which eventually delivered little or nothing.
Email your answer to us at wsn@mtit.com
Until next week,
Mitch Tulloch
GOT ADMIN TOOLS or other software/hardware you'd like to recommend? Email us at wsn@mtit.com
MailStore Server is an email archiving solution, catering to the needs of SMBs. It is easy to install and supports most email systems. A free trial is available for download on the vendor's website.
http://www.wservernews.com/go/885hrddm/
Back up your IBM AIX and Oracle Solaris workloads with new Veeam Agents for IBM AIX and Oracle Solaris. Beta now available.
http://www.wservernews.com/go/wdyt0dwa/
Get-LoggedOnUser gathers information of logged on users on remote systems:
http://www.wservernews.com/go/britycz6/
WebStorm lets you run and debug JavaScript unit tests using Karma, Mocha, and other tools:
http://www.wservernews.com/go/gd0j21d9/
NTttcp can be used to profile and measure Windows networking performance:
http://www.wservernews.com/go/cll1lf3y/
This week's tips can all be found in the following post on the Ask Premier Field Engineering (PFE) Platforms blog:
10 Tips and Tricks from the Field
http://www.wservernews.com/go/qxpd2j7o/
This tip by Jacob Lavender & Graeme Bray can save you time when you add a new computer object to a group in AD.
Got a problem but don't remember if anything has changed in your Group Policy environment. This PowerShell command devised by Tim Muessig lets you view the 10 most recently updated GPOs.
Did you know you can perform network captures from the command line two different ways on Windows? Elizabeth Greene explains how.
Microsoft Inspire in Las Vegas, Nevada on July 15-19
http://www.wservernews.com/go/w1b2n1ak/
Microsoft Ignite 2018 on September 24-28, 2018 in Orlando, Florida USA
http://www.wservernews.com/go/js7uh2jc/
PLANNING A CONFERENCE OR OTHER EVENT you'd like to tell our 100,000 subscribers about? Contact info@techgenix.com
Wireless file transfers: Exploring the options in Windows 10
With the plethora of devices we all use these days, moving files back and forth is sometimes essential. Here are some built-in ways to do wireless file transfers with Windows.
http://www.wservernews.com/go/5n6m3tub/
Microsoft announces new Azure AI Platform innovations
For developers who use Microsoft's Azure AI Platform, there are several updates you should be aware of. Here's a rundown on some new features you will want to use.
http://www.wservernews.com/go/pv7pxzgm/
Internet privacy: Protecting your anonymity on the web in 2018
By default, Internet privacy is almost nonexistent — your activity is watched and logged by your provider. But there are some ways to ensure your anonymity.
http://www.wservernews.com/go/bx7h040c/
Answered! The most commonly asked questions about the DevOps process
DevOps is one of those buzzwords that everyone talks about but few understand. With than in mind, we've answered questions you probably have about the DevOps process.
http://www.wservernews.com/go/b35jwdmb/
Are web passwords about to go extinct?
Web passwords have not aged well, yet they are still the standard for most people to access the Internet or log on to web applications. Is this 50-year-old technology finally about to go extinct?
http://www.wservernews.com/go/yw7lefab/
Get GeoLocation with PowerShell and set NTP Server in a GPO
A Geek's World
http://www.wservernews.com/go/td8ym293/
Clean up Group Policy Now! - How and Why
Lee Stevens
http://www.wservernews.com/go/ka90oer7/
Clustering FileServer Data Deduplication on Windows 2016 Step by Step
Robert Smit MVP Blog
http://www.wservernews.com/go/z3a4kg1n/
Check if Service is running and start it when it is not running
Branko Vucinec
http://www.wservernews.com/go/7mwb9mwt/
Server Core: Navigating an old but new world
Lee Stevens: Technical Blogs
http://www.wservernews.com/go/oklzg3rw/
Support for Node.js in AWS Lambda slowly, but surely, evolves
Developers who need the latest version of Node.js for a serverless platform might turn to Lambda rivals to meet that need. But AWS' slow pace of support has quickened – somewhat.
http://www.wservernews.com/go/rfc8db87/
Readying your IT shop for RPA software
IT's role in an RPA implementation varies depending on the scope of the project and the company's enterprise architecture. Here's how Fannie Mae, Duke Energy and Abbyy handle RPA.
http://www.wservernews.com/go/tdmv8b5i/
Brush up on microservices architecture best practices
Addressing the performance issues of microservice architecture can be quite challenging. Yet, using the right tools or practices at the right time and place will give you a boost.
http://www.wservernews.com/go/ujpuvj23/
Adoption of continuous testing in DevOps and Agile cultures
The best way to engender continuous testing in DevOps shops? Take the lead. Here's how testers can create change and align disparate goals for organizations.
http://www.wservernews.com/go/tg111tzo/
GOT FUN VIDEOS or other fun links to suggest you'd like to recommend? Email us at wsn@mtit.com
David Jones' Fake Perpetual Motion Machine
The unsolved secret of David Jones' perpetual motion machine - the turning wheel has no power but never stops, defying the law of physics
http://www.wservernews.com/go/65es6mmg/
Michael Carbonaro Magic - The Most Compact Survival Backpack
It is truly amazing to see all the things that can fit in this extremely compact survival bag from Switzerland
http://www.wservernews.com/go/x2hs0r11/
Amazing Coin Magic by Tatu - The World's Greatest Cabaret
Here is one of the most impressive magic act by Finnish Magician Tatu performed at the French television show 'The World's Greatest Cabaret.'
http://www.wservernews.com/go/dduii407/
People Are Awesome - Amazing Skills
Everything from flexible contortionists to yoga ball tricks to underwater rubik's cube - these people have got talent!
http://www.wservernews.com/go/7sodlc8u/
Have any other readers found similar content they'd like to recommend for our Fave Links section? Email us at wsn@mtit.com
Free Tool for Monitoring Exchange Server Status & Performance
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Mitch Tulloch is Senior Editor of WServerNews and is a widely recognized expert on Windows administration, deployment and virtualization. Mitch was lead author of the bestselling Windows 7 Resource Kit and has been author or series editor for almost fifty books mostly published by Microsoft Press. Mitch is also a ten-time recipient of Microsoft's Most Valuable Professional (MVP) award for his outstanding contributions in support of the global IT pro community. Mitch owns and runs an information technology content development business based in Winnipeg, Canada. For more information see www.mtit.com.
Ingrid Tulloch is Associate Editor of WServerNews and was co-author of the Microsoft Encyclopedia of Networking from Microsoft Press. Ingrid is also manages research and marketing for our content development business and has co-developed university-level courses in Information Security Management for a Masters of Business Administration program.
