call %LOGONSERVER%\netlogon\adinfo.vbs

You need to set your users to be able to update the Computer Objects Properties, you can do this, for example on the whole domain as below, or parts thereof. Obviously, you don’t want to be doing this on terminal servers or similar, it’s up to you how you choose to run it. Also, be aware, that if you have a large AD, especially if DC’s are separated by slow WANs this may cause a replication headache – but if you are administrating an AD of that size I am sure you can work something out.

From AD Users and Computers MMC (ADUC)
Properties of your Domain
=> Security Tab => “Advanced”
Add “Authenticated Users” to “Descendant Computer objects”
Permissions: “Write all properties”

VBS I use is:

 

'-----------------------------------------------------------------------
' When used as login script it will populate the Computer Description
' in Active Directory with UserName, Computer Model & Time

Thanks to Hendrik Wiese for original.

I have also, on some sites, made slight modifications, so it can track logoffs as well, which is useful for determining OOHours maintenance, etc.

the FOR statement MUST be on a single line to work.

The first one is a bit rubbish, it determines your session ID and if Zero tells you. However, if you have multiple identical usernames logged on this may not be of use, so see second code


@echo off
for /F "tokens=3 skip=1 delims= " %%a in ('query user %username%') Do if %%a==0 echo Session Zero In Use By %username% & goto finish
echo Session ID is NOT Zero!!
:finish

This should be more useful:

This actually looks at all sessions and when it finds the one for you (designated by the is greater than sign on query user output) it further checks to see if that is session Zero if it is it tells you, if it isn’t it tells you. Hopefully.


@echo off
for /F "tokens=1,3 skip=1 delims= " %%a in ('query user') do if /i %%a==^>%username% if %%b==0 echo "YOU ARE Using Session ZERO" & Goto finish
echo "You ARE NOT Using Session Zero"
:finish

A picture of the explanation is below.  The /i in the “do if” says ignore case, so administrator & Administrator are the same.

The first token specified (token 1) is stored in the variable specified (%%A),  the following tokens specified (in this case, token 3) is stored in variable %%B.  Further tokens would be in %%C, %%D ….

Delims= Specifies the deliminator to use to seperate the tokens, the default is space(s)

See here for more info: http://ss64.com/nt/for_f.html

I have spent all evening trying to get FFMPEG working on a Centos Server VPS, when it turned out it was there all along. (YUM: nothing to do. Fuck you YUM, I told you to do something, just do it!: YUM: nothing to do.  YUM should have said; “it’s already here, mate – and up to date – perhaps your application is looking in the wrong place? eh – thought of that? (you fucker))

The solution to the above is add usr/bin to the paths of open_basedir in vhost.conf – security begone…  or at least be aware, I suppose.

Anyways, I then get to the nitty gritty of the evening and start looking at some domain issues, some AD issues to be precise on a 2003 domain hosted on a clutch of 2008 R2 servers.  Now I love 2008 R2 – I do, mostly. It’s mostly better.

Issues with inter site replication, I get this fantastical informative eventID:

During the past 4.02 hours there have been 1 connections to this Domain Controller from client machines whose IP addresses don’t map to any of the existing sites in the enterprise. Those clients, therefore, have undefined sites and may connect to any Domain Controller including those that are in far distant locations from the clients. A client’s site is determined by the mapping of its subnet to one of the existing sites. To move the above clients to one of the sites, please consider creating subnet object(s) covering the above IP addresses with mapping to one of the existing sites.  The names and IP addresses of the clients in question have been logged on this computer in the following log file ‘%SystemRoot%\debug\netlogon.log’ and, potentially, in the log file ‘%SystemRoot%\debug\netlogon.bak’ created if the former log becomes full. The log(s) may contain additional unrelated debugging information. To filter out the needed information, please search for lines which contain text ‘NO_CLIENT_SITE:’. The first word after this string is the client name and the second word is the client IP address. The maximum size of the log(s) is controlled by the following registry DWORD value ‘HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Netlogon\Parameters\LogFileMaxSize’; the default is 20000000 bytes.  The current maximum size is 20000000 bytes.  To set a different maximum size, create the above registry value and set the desired maximum size in bytes.

Pretty much what all EventID should be like. Almost Perfect. Good warning, good explanation. A link to the log file, or, indeed the details OF the log file would be better, but I did say almost.

%SystemRoot%\debug\netlogon.log or bak doesn’t exist.

Unless you have previously enabled debug logging.  So what this warning is actually saying is; “As the Event Service I will write hundreds of utterly pointless snipets to your hard drive and when something potentially important is happening, I’ll simply pontificate.”

Remind you of anyone? Anyone in power, perhaps ?

Ever useful MS gave me this advice:

The Net Logon Service maintains an activity log on the server in the directory, %systemroot%\debug\netlogon.log.  By default, the log is empty.

No shit.

And then:

However, if one has a need to troubleshoot net logon activity, such as why user accounts keep locking out for no apparent reason, a debug value may be set in the registry of the domain controllers, to begin capturing net logon authentication data.  We will use the debug log to track the intruder.

Eh ? Really ? The Intruder has already been and gone!  Event ID 5807 mentioned he had been to visit.

OK – So how do I turn it on for future use ?

This DOC is quite good: http://download.microsoft.com/download/a/8/7/a87526d3-b794-4d93-865a-07c9c2b076e4/TrackNetLogDebug.doc

Mr Fix it might help too, who knows. : http://support.microsoft.com/kb/109626

Something happended, MS told me about it such a way to piss me off even more.  I have no previous knowledge of this debug info being in any best practice guide – though looking at the logs, it seems better than the lame windows security Event Logs; far easier to parse and maintain in your own… idiom, anyway.

No reason.

Edna, Evil (Mrs)

Recently, in a picture depicting robots (where’s Wall-E?), Evil Edna can be seen, clearly out of place.  Let’s try and clarify this:

What is Evil Edna ?

View Poll Stats Here

I regularly send phishing emails and similar to Messagelabs Support to be added to their database and I also quite regularly send virus files to Trend for addition into their signatures – if they havn’t been spotted by Trend’s AV software.

Let’s face it, 99% of these things are simple to spot, and generally, nowadays, rely on social engineering (or thick users) for their payloads to be activated.

I do think, however, that a swift turn around to acknowledge and block these sites and emails is important, as so many emails are sent out and it only takes one user within a company to potentially ruin everything for everybody.

This is the email:

It’s not very advanced, for sure!  Still, I thought I’d have a look at it and see if it is actually dangerous – it did after all, get through a several layers of perimeter security before making it into the inboxes.

Initially, to my shame, I thought the website was simply a virus downloader, since the first thing is does is try and get you to download and install Rapport:

So, I downloaded the file and tested it with the excellent virustotal.com results came back negative, so it seemed like the download really was coming from trusteer.com…  However I thought I best submit it to Trend, just to be sure - after all the less of this type of thing that lands in my customer in-boxes, the better life I will have.

I sent them this simple email:

This was downloaded by a client from here:
http://katzmusic.ch/fileadmin/data/alliance-leicester/Customer-login.html
(phishing email)

I cannot believe it is NOT a virus

Attached was the zipped up exe file as per their virus submission procedures.

Whilst I waited for a reply, I thought that I would checkout the site in more detail:

This is the main page:

Entering random stuff (as is the way) let’s you through to the data collecting page:

This site is pretending to be Alliance & Leicester, it is asking for all the information required to use your debit cards.

Conveniently, after you enter your details, you are landed back at the real Alliance & Leicester website.

So, this is a blatent and obvious fraud site.  Without a doubt this site is attempting to steal.  Agreed ?

—–Original Message—–
From: Trend Micro EMEA Anti-Threats Support Team [mailto:trendlabs@av-emea.com]
Sent: 08 July 2011 15:01
To: z
Subject: Re: [EMEA_TL#2011070803000171] Virus

Dear z,

The latest tests indicate that this website contains no malicious software and
shows no signs of fraud.

Please retain the subject heading of this email as it will serve as the incident
ID reference for this incident.

Best Regards,
_______________________________________

Al
Anti-Threats Support Engineer
TREND MICRO EMEA
“Securing Your Journey to the Cloud”
_______________________________________

 

Apparently not.  I was a little aghast.  I would usually expect a ‘thank you’, ‘confirmed’ blah blah ‘next signature’ blah blah etc…  So I replied.

Are you serious ?

A site pretending to be a bank, asking for your debitcard details is showing “no signs of fraud” ?

Now, by now this site is obviously very well known. and blocked from access by Sonicwall, Google Chrome & Symantec to name but three. Oh, it’s also blocked by :

Imagine that, so at least if the links make it through their hosted email solution, the desktop AV will stop the users being daft! Yay! Victory!

Today I get another two emails from Trend:

This is an update.

 We are currently investigating your matter.

 We will update you within a separate email upon further development. This might consist of letting you know about the available deliverables that solve your concern or requesting further details for deeper investigation.

 Thanks for your support.

Please retain the subject heading of this email as it will serve as the incident ID reference for this incident.

 

Best Regards,

And then later in the day:

Good day!

 We have re analyze the site you provided:

 The latest tests indicate that this site contains malicious software or could defraud visitors

 Fraudulent sites that mimic legitimate sites to gather sensitive information, such as user names and passwords

It took over 3 days (and a some awful grammar), but thanks to the quick acting experts at Trend, we now surf in a safer web.

Not a great turnaround in my opinion.

Anybody have a preferred AV provider they want to pimp ?

As they were being led away to the vets to be put down humanely, a man on the internet adopted two kittens with ‘Fainting Goat Syndome’.  He posted a video of them on the internet, I added a sound-over.  It all got a bit heated and after his first Kitten dies of it’s affliction, he had Youtube pull my video.  Shortly afterwards the second Kitten died, as did this short-lived phenomenon.

Whilst not quite dormant, the project has been very slow.  I have my solution and I have a working mock-up.

It works and it’s lovely  .Well… It works(ish) and it’s lovely( ish).  But sadly hasn’t changed form for several months – again due to cabling issues…. (more later)

My rough n ready ride through vintage HMD land cost money, it was very enjoyable and I learned a lot.  However, it was getting me nowhere – the industry, what’s left of it,  just doesn’t give a rats arse; they are after all, still in business.

A post by cr0sh here: made me realise this; the nail is knocked on the head:

“I would concentrate your skills on homebrewing your equipment; without documentation on these HMDs, you’re likely to end up with a pile of plastic if you continue down the experimental path you’re on”

So, with this advice, I looked at the basics:

How to create the images

How to make stereo happen

How to have it on your face

Without messing about anymore on what was done, I concentrated on what I could do.  I know I really needed 1.2-2” display panels.  This just wasn’t gonna happen, not in a decent resolution, or without serious arse ache. So, to make HD images, as small and as affordable as possible I purchased a couple of displays from Vitrolight

small AND big

By head mounted display standards these things are massive.  But they are HD (720p) and, to my surprise, are actually really good, although not a super spec, the actual images are sharp as and colour reproduction and ghosting is superb, in my humble opinion.  For the price.

Although my initial maths were a little off, more later, the concept is good and provable. Magnification is via a set of swimming goggles with a set of decent 2 Lens Convex Achromat Lenses attached.I’d say FOV is about 80 degrees.  Clarity is soup herb.  If you can take the croutons.

Stereo is via a stereo mirror; essentially two 45 degree mirrors.  simples.  I considered a more complex 4 mirror version, however added complexity in the optical path is a PITA and also, it’ll just end up with a smaller image, harder to magnify.  Big images, easy optics. that’s what I want.

I have helmets.  On the face is EASY.
As Tone pointed out, it’s just like this – but bigger!

So, why nothing solid ?  Why no videos, no build manuals no raving ?

Well… cables. I need to extend some cables, the LVDS cable between the LCD panel and the driver board… again.  I’m just not clever enough, I’m too bumbling.

Do you think you can help me with this ?

A very big thank you to everybody who helped me try and sort out the controller board on the back of the Proview, especially those over at  electro-tech-online.com – alas, it seems to be no more.

I managed to make it make noises, nice charging type noises – a bit like the old camera flashes.  But, not a bean from the displays – eventually it just stopped and now pretty much every wire is grounded.

Oh well.  This is only a minor setback, thought I, as at least I have a couple of 1.3” VGA displays now, so that I can retro fit the V4 into a V8 and concentrate the pico project with the easier-to-muck-about-with Proview shells.

However, as with everything else to do with HMD’s it’s not as easy as that.  Nobody knows anything. Nobody is willing to try and know anything, and quite frankly it’s like pulling teeth just talking to people about this stuff.

I have two serviceable 1.3” LCD displays, with working backlights all ready to plug into the V4 shell; all I need is the controller board.  There are hundreds and hundreds of controller boards knocking about, so I thought it would be a cinch to find a controller board to mate with these panels – they can’t, after all, be completely proprietary – surely there are a very limited number of ways to drive a TFT display from the late 90’s!

The displays are marked as T13VM400 with a marking under that as 2CR0078.  Additionally, etched onto the ribbon is the code HCD 200.  HCD 200 seems to be etched onto quite a few small Sony displays of the time, as used in projectors.  The only reference to T13VM400 I can find is here: (translated Page).  The ribbon is a 45 pin jobbie.

So, they appear to be Epson Seiko T13VM400 units. Nice one, simple, let’s find a controller board.

As always, neither Kaiser no Rockwell Collins can help.  Nor can Epson. In fact Epson said I should try Sony, as they now own that part of the business, but I am having difficulty getting a contact at Sony.  I have emailed in the region of 20 companies related to either controller board supply, or HMD’s – with nothing but negatives so far.

Other clues as to how to drive these panels come in the form of the chips on the Proview; they are XILINX XC3142A … These you can see on the bottom of the back board, covered by white stickers, they are 100 pin.

As always, it seems, I am lost.  Almost as lost as all the documentation on every bloody aspect of everything to do with HMD’s. Is 12 years really such a long time ?  I still have old programming magazines telling me how to make a ‘bird’ fly across the screen of my ZX81.  Why don’t massive companies like Kaiser, Rockwell, Sony, Epson, Seiko, Vista and so on have documentation pertaining to products which they mass produced and sold throughout the globe ? It beggars belief.

Once again, anyone ?

Before I start boring you about these funky PV30 headsets, I’d just like to say I havn’t given up on the pico powered HMD – as you’ll see this is yet another possible route to fulfilling the pico HMD goal.

My current pico stumbling block is the cable extension, as described here.  I have asked for help from a great many companies, forums and individuals; but so far without success.

These units were first brought to my attention on MTBS3D forum via this post here. I did a mammoth amount of research on them, I literally performed several web searches.

There are quite a few of these units becoming available; primarily from liquidised and old medical stock, the easiest thing is to look on http://www.dotmed.com – at the time of writing there were 3 or 4 still knocking about.

The HMD’s were designed by Kaiser Electro Optics for Vista Technology Systems and branded as Stereosite, in the late 90′s.

Their forerunners were the white CardioView units you have doubtless seen.  In fact, the CardioView units still appear on the Rockwell Collins site. Rockwell Collins having bought out Kaiser sometime in the early naughties.

Here is a picture I borrowed from the old web cache of www.keo.com, I present it here using some creative licensing fair licence commons use thing that means they won’t perform a cavity search for breach of copywrite. I hope.

Although initially dismissing them as a bum-deal, I had a change of heart after realising that the VR4 headset wasn’t the ideal candidate for a pico retrofit; this is due to the way eyepieces are designed.  I decided that if I were to be able to pick one up cheap enough, at the very least I would have some fun.

Sure enough, after a little haggling, I was able to reduce an asking price of $1900 to $300 – for two units and went halves with PalmerTech from the MTBS3D forums.

Whilst waiting for it to arrive, I spotted another one being touted as a ‘headlamp’ for sale for $600 (I think) – which I managed to bag for a mere 50 bucks.  For that money I couldn’t resist.

Shortly after Christmas, they arrived, like buses.

Very handsome they are too.  The headband is extremely comfortable, and the units are very well balanced.

OK, lets see what we have.

Rippiong off one of the rubber eye relief pads exposes the lower two screws to open up the eyepice enclosure:

There we have it, cheap plastic lenses which look onto a simple 45 degree mirror, above which is the LCD. The black knob is the inter pupil distance adjustment.

Compact LCD driver board with a scary amount of wires going into it, too many wires and enough electronics for it to be an RGB controller PCB. Could it be that actual video signal boards are off the head set ?  Yikes!

Phew!  At the rear of the headset is a lovely shaped bespoke video controller board.  A nice amount of wires.  Left and right you can see the ribbon connectors heading off to the eyepiece LCD’s.  The entire board looks to be two discreet controllers, even audio and mic are mirrored.

A close up of the wires:

The rear of the board doesn’t give anything away as to it’s origin, or crucially, the pin-outs. Grrr.

OK, so we have about the right amount of wires going into the thing. A great looking board, which strikes me as being a video controller, meaning it will hopefully accept a nice simple VGA connection as per the specs.

The cable connector is obviously bespoke and nothing of the pin-outs can be gleaned from it.

Damn!  I am realising this is going to be hard. Again. Double Damn!

I ripped off the end and created a basic breakout board.  The soldering went completely awry. The cable arrangement is absolutely mad!

I was happy to see nice thick Red Green and Blue cables and some nice thick Black and Silver Cables – shouting out to me RGB + Sync!  Alas, this was not to be.  The thick cables have baby cables inside, along side the core.  A couple of the bastards have two baby cables inside of them!

I have managed to identify a fleeting amount of the cables, but have only spent a fleeting amount of time … so far.

Somewhere in this mess is, I think, RGB, V sync, H Sync X 2 – 10 cables. There will also be left and right audio.  And, crucially…. Power.  What power, though?  3v, 5v or 12v ? or a combination.  If I power up the wrong cable, I will likely pop something.

Look here:

As well as emailing about half a dozen resellers of KEO products I have also emailed Rockwell Collins themselves at least a dozen times (going back about 2 months) to see if they have any technical PDF’s or similar.  Sadly they cannot identify the product to give me any help.  Despite have photos of it on their website, this units model number and serial number and many of the photos above!

I did however, manage to talk to a chap from their current Optronics division in Carlsbad, who was very friendly and helpful.  However, he said that these units are no longer ‘repairable’ and they do not have any maintenance documentation.  Which is a bit of a blow.

If anybody know a trick or two to help me in identifying these pins… please do let me know

I only have 1 or 2 avenues left before I start a hit n hope approach… but, if nothing else it’ll be fun.

*edit*

Here is a close-up of the ribbon connector, here you can make out the white cable, which connects to the left side of the ribbon connector on the PCB and the black cable which connects to the opposite end.  Notice how each of those two wires seems to encompass a bunch of ribbon connectors.

And here is the exposed side of the board, into which the ribbon connects – this is a big picture – 2400×2224, weighing in at 1.6MB

Here is a higher resolution picture of the back of the board:

Easier to put on that you would think, as they kind of… self configure, so because clearance is minimal, at first you think they may come off, as you can’t make them fit snuggly, but crawl around slowly and they get nicely aligned quicker than you might think.

Taking them off is a cinch, just pull off and much as you can and roll forward (or backward) a foot or two.

I shredded my nearside one later on in the day, due to curbing my wheel in a little drift. A snow drift, that is!  Limped home ok with just one, though.

I have enough respect for these little wonders of technology now to ensure I never leave home without them.

Weisssocks Snow Socks on an Octavia vRS

I have a video here, this road was blocked off at the far end, as it is a very steep residential road, and people can get into difficulties turning down it.  As you can see, I cruised up with no issues.

Have Socks, will travel