Category: Technical

One of the most frustrating things that can happen in a centralized network environment such as Active Directory is the deletion of one’s user account. I have never given much thought or had any sort of plan in place for the situation of an accidental account deletion, but on Sunday evening, such an event occurred.

For a few months Chris and I had been toying with the idea of using Exchange to replace IMail as our primary local email server. I toyed with the idea, Chris toyed with Exchange on a virtual domain controller (as a Domain Admin, he’s allowed). Sunday evening it was decided that if we ever did use Exchange we would have to start over anyway, so he proceeded with removal. To remove Exchange Server requires the removal of the mailboxes associated with it. Somehow in the process of removing mailboxes, Chris managed to remove my entire Active Directory account. I was unaware of the removal at first, but a few minutes after it occurred, my laptop asked me to re-authenticate myself to the domain. I was about to do it when Chris advised me that it might not be such a good idea. I was obviously quite pissed when I found out what happened.

Upon discovering that my account was deleted I immediately did something equally as stupid, I created a new account with the same name, complicating everything. First of all, I forgot that Active Directory keeps a trashcan of discarded objects for at a minimum of 12 hours before objects are permanently removed. Everything went downhill from there. I assumed that it would be much easier to just simply create a new account than it was to try to reanimate the tombstoned object. I believed this based on the fact that throughout the network all of my rights are based on the fact that I am a member of Domain Admins and Administrators, not my individual rights to objects. I was only half right. My rights to other users’ files and to the machines themselves are derived from my membership in the groups. My access to my files was through my user account itself. That wasn’t too bad to fix, I just had to take ownership of the files and then assign myself permissions to the objects (time consuming, but not hard). As for my user profiles, those for the most part are contained in the files each machine maintains about me and only 2 computers really care that I exist, my laptop and my primary server. I use my desktop so little that I wouldn’t notice if I was loaded on a default profile. On the server I did the usual steps, logged in to my new account and then used an adminsitrator account to copy the old profile over the new one. This worked great on the server, but on my laptop (where it matters), this little trick didn’t go over so well. I managed to somehow end up in a user environment that was non-functional, I didn’t have permissions to use explorer (means no control panel, no My Computer, no anything). After repeated attempts to correct the flaw I found that no matter what I did, the account still wasn’t functional, which meant that Windows had managed to corrupt its understanding of me somewhere on that name vs. security ID border. After too many hours of fighting with it, I took the plunge and reinstalled Windows.

The moral of the story is simple, if you find yourself deleted from Active Directory, it is much easier to go dumpster diving in LDAP than to recreate yourself in the image of your previous self.

Maybe there is something wrong with me, I can’t manage to get my apps organized into a sensible way. Anyone want to offer some suggestions? I’ve tried dragging my apps around and I just can’t get them into a sensible arrangement and I hate the iOS folder grouping stuff.

The previous blog entry was composed and published from the iPod itself, and thus, is a very minimal entry.

The first thing I noticed about the iPod was that Apple doesn’t seem to want users to get to their products. It took Chris and I several minutes to get the device out of its plastic shell. Second, perhaps the most annoying aspect of the device, is it must connect to iTunes. I didn’t love being asked for my billing information upon first connecting the device, but I went with it.

After getting everything going I started looking for apps. I tried to recall every app that I had seen that I had thought was interesting over time. I remembered a few. I’m trying new things and working towards determining what my functional level with this device is going to be. I have already deleted one app from my device, AIM. I have decided to replace it with Meebo, which seems to be a lot less annoying and a bit more useful.

Currently installed applications include:

• Blackboard Mobile Learn – an app for accessing the Blackboard server at Fayetteville. Will greatly improve my connectivity with my courses this fall.
• Twitter – duh, an app to interact with Twitter. Post things, read posts, reply.
• Flickr – not very useful for me as I don’t upload on the go, but in general is pretty sweet for reviewing my photostream
• MyRadar – National Weather Service radar images, nice for checking out what clouds are doing
• Kindle – Amazon Kindle reader
• Meebo – Multi-network instant message client, since Purple doesn’t travel yet.
• BlogWriter – a minimalistic blogging tool. Only does one account, but I think its pretty neat for simple stuff.
• Bookmarks – delicious bookmark app. Doesn’t work with Safari at all, but isn’t too bad, as it keeps all of my links with me.
• Google – Google search, Google Apps
• Nikon Learn and Explore – Photo glossary as well as general info for most Nikon cameras. Nice substitute for some of the manuals.
• SiriusXM – listen to web-based XM streams on the go
• UPS – Track packages, schedule pickup
• BodyFitness – workout guide and personal exercise journal
• Battery – the iOS battery meter sucks, so have to use this.

The only thing about the device that makes me feel limited is the design of the touch system. It only seems to respond to human touch, so a normal stylus will not work, I am going to have to obtain a special stylus for such things. There are some things that seem missing, such as an IR port, but otherwise, I’m pretty happy with the device.