When All Else Fails, Reboot
Some of our client applications use Thawte SSL certificates. We've used them for year without any problems.
Recently Thawte upgraded their root certificate paths to make them deeper.
When we went to install the certificates on ISA server, we started getting error messages in the browser that the certificate chain had issues.
We found the relevant support article at Thawte and made sure all of the intermediate certificate authorities were installed, etc.
Still the problem persisted.
Resetting the publishing rule didn't work either. The certificates were there and everything was configured as per the specifications.
Only one option remained.
Reboot the server.
It used to be […]
If It Wasn’t for Friction…
I was just thinking back to my university days as an engineer and was thinking about motion and friction.
Newton's First Law states: Every body remains in a state of rest or uniform motion (constant velocity) unless it is acted upon by an external unbalanced force.
Don't worry, I won't get much more technical than this, after all it has been a long time for me too…
This Law applies to two things I was recently thinking about:
1. Cars
When a car goes around a corner at speed, the friction of the tires on the road as you turn your steering wheel […]
Crow Conventions and Other Dark Rumours
Yesterday I looked out of the window, south over our yard and neighbour's field just after a thunderstorm had blown through.
There were hundreds and hundreds of crows. I've never seen this many crows in one spot before (in real life anyways).
It took a few minutes to realize that they were not making much noise. Hundreds of silent crows.
After about 15 minutes they started flying off in groups of 20-40 heading north. As you can imagine it took some time before the last group left.
Ominous if you are superstitious. They are obviously up to no good.
Ravens and crows (and magpies) have […]
Mid-Life Crisis?
What exactly causes a mid-life crisis?
A mid-life crisis can apply equally to your personal life and relationships, your business (normally after 5-10 years), your career, your spiritual life, etc.
Why do some people do drastic things and others weather the storm with just a minor blow-up?
You start out as a young adult with wide open possibilities and few obligations. You have the potential to write your own story.
As you go through life (or business) you can acquire obligations. A spouse, pets, kids, loan, a mortgage are some of the obvious ones. You require growing income to pay for all the obligations […]
How Much Is Your Business Really Making?
Profits = Income – expenses
Profit margin is the percentage of profit over income. If you keep the ratio consistent, adding more revenue equals more profit. Relatively simple concept. (For simplicity let's keep income taxes out of the discussion.)
Yet it is interpreted very liberally and differently by small businesses.
The main reason is that most small business owners (practice owners) think of the business as an extension of their own personal accounts.
The formula becomes:
PersonalIncome = Profit = Everything left over is mine
Essentially, they exclude their own income from the business from the expenses and this inflates the profit margin.
I think this is a […]
How to Succeed Like Apple
Earlier this week I wrote a post on “i” dominating multi-platform support.
I just tripped across another well written post that gives great insight as to How to Succeed Like Apple, written by Jason Baptiste.
Shocking Products
I saw a building maintenance guy in the building next door changing lightbulbs.
He had a long metal expanding pole with an attachment on the end for grabbing lightbulbs from high overhead fixtures.
At first I thought, there is a clever contraption.
Upon further reflection I realized that he was sticking a metal pole into light fixtures. Sure, 99.9% of the time the lightbulb doesn't break, but…
I think there is a reason electricians use fiberglass ladders after all.
Multi-Platform Starts With an “i”
I just received an e-mail from a business publication we subscribe to in paper selling their online versions.
"Enjoy … across platforms and devices like iPad, iPhone, PC and Mac".
Umm… three of these platforms and devices are owned by one company. The other represents an entire industry but only got one mention.
Now personally I think it is premature to write off all of the other smart-phone players this early. Similarly the PC is not dead as a platform and there are other electronic book reading devices that are easier on the eyes than the iPad when reading hundreds of books.
But it doesn't really […]
To Boldly Go Where No Man Has Gone Before
Well it started out as a bold enterprise. Start looking for a new car. Visit a few dealerships and see what the cars actually look and feel like, while avoiding deadly contact with the Klingons (err car sales people).
Really missed having phasers and photon torpedoes. Shields would have been useful. Cloaking device, essential. Expendable security officers, check. As it was, unarmed and in hostile territory.
Our current starship is getting a little old. If we don't get it replaced, we may not make it home to our distant planet. The question is:
Buy new or used? Dealer or private? Friend or foe?
Online […]
Empty Nesters
Yup, our kids just left the nest. The pressure is off but we are also sad.
It seems like just a while ago when it all started. The expecting parents were busy and ignoring all their friends. I think it is called nesting. They were building nests like crazy. Five or six that we know about. Yellows, greys and some baby blue highlights from an old tarp.
Then mom laid the eggs. She sat on them to keep them warm during snow storms and cool nights. Two eggs didn't make it. One we found smashed on the ground (all the king's horses and all the kings […]