Omnipass + Windows Vista + Windows Update = Problems?

I recently came into contact with a brand new Lenovo laptop (3000 N100 model) loaded with Windows Vista Business on it. The laptop came preloaded with the Omnipass Fingerprint Security application. This application is written by Softex Incorporated.

I ran into an issue with the application after I performed a normal Windows Update. After the installation of a number of updates, the machine restarted as per normal after applying the updates.

Unfortunately, the user is now presented with duplicated user listings at the Welcome screen. This means that, for example, if you have three users, each user will be displayed twice on the welcome screen. This does not affect usability. On entering Windows Vista, it is confirmed that there are NOT any duplicate accounts within account management.

After performing an uninstall of Omnipass, the problem is resolved. A re-installation of Omnipass should allow the application to function normally.

However, Ronnie Vernon (Microsoft MVP) (link) advises that downloading and running the following application from Softex will resolve the fault without requiring a re-installation:

http://www.softexinc.com/download/UninstMSPwdProv.exe

I have mirrored the download at the following locations:

[Mirror 1] - Hosted on NZTechie.Com
[Mirror 2] - Hosted on Windows SkyDrive
[Mirror 3] - Hosted on MediaFire

If you decide to create a system restore point, then un-install the application, be aware that fingerprints stored and associated with accounts will not be restored when you roll back. You need to use the inbuilt capability of Omnipass to back up the profiles, or re-enroll all your users after a rollback.


In the comments section I have listed all of the Windows Updates that were installed prior to the problem occurring.

I have also located a Discussion Thread regarding the same fault at:

Duplicate icons on Welcome Screen
http://forums.techarena.in/showthread.php?t=813976

The main Softex Incorporated website is available at:

Softex Incorporated
http://www.softexinc.com

I have also located the following post which is written by a Microsoft MVP which carries a significant weight with me:

User account appears twice. cannot delete it
http://groups......osoft.public.windows.vista.ad....

More email blunders and a Creative License

In the spirit of recent emails which have been sent in error to me, I include the following email which I received from Sky City Cinemas. It appears they have an important announcement. Unfortunately, the email is devoid of any content other then a standard signature. See the screenshot taken below:

In other news, I have been doing some investigation into the creative commons licensing system. I have now publicised in this blog my authorisation for others to make copies of my work, subject to the restrictions of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 New Zealand License.

Link to License: Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 New Zealand License

How to make it easier for your blog readers to submit posts to Social Bookmarking sites

After some intensive testing on this Blog today, I have now added a Bookmark option at the bottom of all posts on each of my three blogs.

The button is provided by addthis.com and allows people who use social bookmarking sites such as Digg, Del.icio.us, and Reddit to easily submit a post to the respective services.

I have never been a user of Social Bookmarking services, however I can definitely see a value in making use of them. The ability to share bookmarks with others, and vote on the quality of articles is great. According to some reading I did earlier today, search engines such as Google and Live! Search will give these sites a lot of weighting when delivering search results.

Time will tell whether of not this facility will boost any traffic to my blogs. I have submitted about a dozen blog posts which I consider some people may be interested in. I also submitted a couple of my YouTube videos as well for experimentation.

When you submit a video to Digg, it appears to take a snapshot from the video for inclusion in the Digg. However, it does not correctly pick thumbnails when I use the nz.youtube.com/blahblah prefix. It works when I use www.youtube.com/blahblah. An oversight on Digg's part.

Link to Addthis: http://www.addthis.com

Google Analytics for Gallery 2

This evening I took the simple steps of adding Google Analytics tracking to my new online photo gallery. I found a simple and straight-forward tutorial on Bharat Mediratta's Gallery site at the following URL:

Google Analytics for Gallery

The process is quite simple in that all that is required is to make a new directory within Gallery, copy an existing configuration file (theme.tpl) into it, and insert the HTML code into the theme.tpl file and save it.

Gallery automatically picks up the the new directory created and uses the tpl within it. The author of the tutorial advises that this process will also survive updates and upgrades to Gallery2.

Two Mistakes for TubeMogul

I received 60 copies of my weekly TubeMogul report today, followed closely by the following apology email:

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Tubemogul email bug
Date: Mon, 24 Dec 2007 11:14:37 -0800
From: John Hughes
To: 'John Hughes'
CC: REMOVED

You probably noticed that we filled your email box this morning with copies of your weekly report. Please accept our most humble apologies for that. Rest assured that the issue as been corrected and you can continue your weekly subscription with no danger of us hitting you with more than one copy at a time. One of our engineers is getting coal in their stocking this year!

Warmest wishes,

John Hughes
Co-Founder, TubeMogul.com
---------------------------------------------

John did not hide the recipients list (I have removed it here), so a large number of email addresses were publically displayed to the masses.

My Photo Gallery is Reborn!

After the recent problems with my photo gallery due to Startlogic disabling allow_url_fopen functionality, I decided to bite the bullet and have installed Gallery version 2.2. This version does not suffer the same limitations as version 1.5 which I had installed.

Installation was a breeze, with some fantastic instructions provided for full installation. After installation, I successfully imported all of my version 1.5 photo albums into 2.2. This worked well, however it did fail at one stage, which I resolved by individually uploading each album separately.

The main interface looks a lot cleaner. The only initial thing that bothered me was not being able to work out how to upload pictures in bulk! By default, the installation only provided uploading via web browser. This was quickly remedied after I located the plugins facility. A few moments of one-click installation, and the Java Applet I was so fond of in the past was back. I was also pleasantly surprised by the fact that there are now more options for uploading, ranging from WebDAV, Windows XP Publishing etc available.

One good new option was the fact if there are no publicly available albums, a user is prompted to log in with credentials. Previous versions of Gallery presented users with a page with no albums on it, confusing many of them.

I also like the fact that albums now display the total number of photos within them, even when they are within a nested sub-album! Everything is looking good so far!

My Online Photo Gallery is mangled

Important Security Notice about PHP Scripts

If your site employs PHP scripts, please note that we have disabled the allow_url_fopen functionality in php.ini files at a platform level for security reasons. More information about the security issues associated with allow_url_fopen is available on the PHP Security Consortium Web site.

If you experience PHP issues as a result, and your account is hosted on our new platform, you can enable allow_url_fopen for your php.ini file by using our php.ini editor. If your account has not yet been moved to the new platform, you will need to update your code. Learn more >>

http://www.startlogic.com/info/systemnotice.bml?id=5808

Some sort of Prank or something

Looks like someone has been using my email address in email support sessions with Linksys.

As someone used my email address, I got an automatic transcript of two chats. Mindless humour.

CHAT 1

Hi, my name is Ernie C. (27271). How may I help you?
Anonymous: Yo
Ernie C. (27271): It's good to have you. What seems to be the problem?
Anonymous: You gotta help me alrite? I'm in deep trouble now
Ernie C. (27271): What's your concern Sir/Maam?
Anonymous: I just screwed up my router and it isn't working now
Anonymous: I'm freaking out now
Anonymous: Are you gonna save me?
Anonymous: Hello? Are you slacking at work?
Ernie C. (27271): Please confirm if WRVS4400N is the model of your router.
Anonymous: Why yes of course, how smart
Ernie C. (27271): What's the problem with your router?
Ernie C. (27271): What happened to your router?
Anonymous: I don't know, the router just dropped on my cat and it isn't moving now
Ernie C. (27271): Really?
Anonymous: Uh huh
Ernie C. (27271): The computer that your using right now, where's it connected to?
Anonymous: To the phone cable
Anonymous: My cat isn't responding now
Ernie C. (27271): Is there a computer connected to the router?
Anonymous: I don't know, I didn't bother much as I was saving my cat
Ernie C. (27271): Is the router powered on?
Anonymous: Your heartless corporation just killed my cat and you care more about a router than a living creature?
Ernie C. (27271): Sir/Ma'am, you just have called 911 if your intention is to save your cat.
Anonymous: But it was your router dropped on my cat
Ernie C. (27271): How can the router dropped your cat? Does the router move?
Anonymous: Well it kinda fell.
Anonymous: Off a 2 foot stool.
Ernie C. (27271): How can a router kill a cat within a 2 Ft high stool?
Anonymous: It dropped right on my cat's head and she suffered internal head injuries.
Ernie C. (27271): Sir, if you don't mind, we have some other clients who need serious assistance from us. If you continue to be uncooperative then sorry to say but I will terminate this session.
Anonymous: Well, can you at least reimburse me for a cat?
Ernie C. (27271): disconnected

CHAT 2

Hi, my name is Anna Marie C. (25057). How may I help you?
Anonymous: Yes
Anna Marie C. (25057): Hi!
Anonymous: Well, you see
Anonymous: I dropped my router on my cat.
Anonymous: And it hasn't moved yet.
Anna Marie C. (25057): Really?
Anonymous: That was 2 hours ago.
Anna Marie C. (25057): Okay.
Anonymous: You guys owe me a cat.
Anna Marie C. (25057): We can't give you a cat.
Anonymous: But your heartless corperation just killed my cat.
Anonymous: Hello?
Anna Marie C. (25057): Do you have any other Linksys device that you need some assistance with?
Anonymous: You care more about a router than a living creature?
Anna Marie C. (25057): Thank you for giving us an opportunity to serve you through Live Chat Support. Feel free to contact us if you require further Technical assistance. Thank you for choosing Linksys and have a great day!
Anonymous: YOU OWE ME A CAT.
Anonymous: GET BACK HERE
Anna Marie C. (25057): Thank you for giving us an opportunity to serve you through Live Chat Support. Feel free to contact us if you require further Technical assistance. Thank you for choosing Linksys and have a great day!
Anonymous: Don't you dare ignore me.
Anonymous: I had suffered a great lost!
Anonymous: You souless bastards.
Anonymous: It died infront of my 5 year old girl
Anonymous: It was her birthday present
Anonymous: She just got out of cancer treatment.
Anonymous: And you killed it.
Anna Marie C. (25057): Sorry for the inconvenience, if you don't have any Technical Assistance, please feel free to log-in again.
Anonymous: Now I have nothing.
Anonymous: My cat died and my router isn't working
Anna Marie C. (25057): I'm so sorry Sir, if you do not have any other concern about Linksys devices I'll be force to disconnect from this live chat session first.
Anonymous: Well, can you reimburse me a cat?
Anna Marie C. (25057): No, I'll disconnect now.
Anonymous: Can I please have a new kitten?
Anonymous: A cat is fine too.
Anna Marie C. (25057): If you have time, you may also visit our Knowledge Base at http://www.linksys.com/support.
Once again, my name is Anna with Badge ID 25057, thank you so much for choosing Linksys and God bless!

If you have any other concern, please do feel free to contact us again, we are open 24/7.
Advance Merry Christmas, Anonymous!

Anna Marie C. (25057): disconnected

Comparison of YouTube and MSN Soapbox Video

When I embed a video on YouTube, and then the same video on MSN, you will notice that MSN Soapbox produces a higher-quality video then that provided by YouTube.


Embedded on YouTube

Embedded on MSN Soapbox

RSS Feed on my Homepage

Yesterday, I installed a script on my main at Nztechie.com to automatically display the last 14 posts from my Blog on my homepage.

This complements the Google Video Bar which is currently showing my last four video posts to YouTube. What would be really good would be if I could generate thumbnails for recent additions to my photo gallery as well.

You may also find that I have embedded the Google Video Bar on this Blog as well.

Google Video Bar

A few months back, I found a wizard on Google which allowed you to embed a videoroll of YouTube videos onto your website or Blog.

The key feature which grabbed my attention was the fact that you could just limit the shown videos to your own YouTube Channel. The embedding option that Blogger provides doesn't let you control this.

After months of searching, I have found the wizard again at:
http://www.google.com/uds/solutions/wizards/videobar.html

I'm now looking at embedding the "Video Bar" (as it is called) in my website, and/or on my blog.

Google Analytics Statistics

On a regular basis, I will Google myself to determine my own site rankings when my name is searched for. I believe that Google Analytics over-calculates the number of visitors to my site in Google search. I believe that a pre-fetching feature within Firefox in conjunction with Google is causing this.

Firefox and Google have a feature whereby it will actively pre-fetch and cache your first few search results into your browser. What this means is that your browser will actually load up the page before you even click the link. This results in a faster connection but can also put statistics out.

Internet Explorer does not have this facility. The pre-fetching capability in Firefox can also be switched off as required.

Google Search Implementation

Today, I implemented Google Custom Search on all pages at NZTechie.com. It appears to function well. I have also removed the links on each page pointing home.

I also signed-up with an account on blip.tv as an alternative to using Youtube. It does have a number of features that Youtube does not.

ZoneAlarm Professional

Today, I downloaded the latest version of Zonealarm Pro when it was offered to me as an update. When reading through the release material, I was excited to learn that there was an option to control the priority of an Anti-spyware scan.

I looked in the options for it, but it appears to be absent. I'm guessing that this option is only available to those using the complete Zonealarm Security Suite. I am just using Zonealarm Pro. NOD32 handles my anti virus just fine.

My product update service is due to expire in 36 days!

RELATED PRODUCTS

Trialing Mozilla Firefox 3 Beta 1

Today I downloaded the Mozilla Firefox 3 Beta 1 from the Mozilla. After installing it, I ran in to some difficulty in connecting to the Vdeck of Startlogic, and configuring my custom search engine within Google. Problems have been reported by other trialing the new browser.

There is also some information in the release notes which clearly specifies some incompatibilities with some of the major web-based email services (namely Windows Live! and Yahoo!). It also has problems with presenting the authentication screen for my online Photo Gallery. Should the problem continue to exist in the final release, I will need to re-write some of my site.

Welcome to Disjointed Thoughts

Being the author of the already successfully http://blog.nztechie.com blog, I have now determined a need for a second blog. While my main blog is a logical, time-based history of events as the unfold, Disjointed Thoughts is simply a collection of my thoughts and options. It will also contain items I will reference from my blog, but I don't want to clutter it with. Look forward to some new fantastic content on the way!

This site is for free-writing, a stream of consciousness. Here is your portal to the mind of Hayden!

[Update: I have confirmed that once you create a Gmail account, you do have access to creating a security question in your Google account.]