http://www.wordplace.com/ap/index.shtml

http://www.qwantz.com/fanart/timetravelling.jpg

http://blogs.msdn.com/michkap/archive/2009/04/08/9537233.aspx

We need more Engineers

And lastly, for anyone that reads the blog just via the RSS feed and never visits the sites, my pictures are now hosted via Windows Live Photos. We’ll see how well that works out in the long run… URL is http://cid-348cb3ddffbdf313.photos.live.com/

Now playing: Emm Gryner — Get Brave

DasBlog 2.3 is out! Upgrading took longer than it should have...probably because I did a bad job of separating the application from my SharePoint migration customizations last year. But that’s been fixed, and upgrading from my custom build of 2.1+ to 2.3 went pretty smoothly.

In case I accidentally delete the files I saved these changes off into (again), here are my customizations:

• ~/web.config (I actually just copied & reused my existing web.config file, but this is the big change*):

  <system.webServer>
    ...
    <security>
      <requestFiltering>
        <hiddenSegments applyToWebDAV="true">
          <add segment="siteConfig" />
        </hiddenSegments>
      </requestFiltering>
    </security>
    ...
  </system.webServer>

• ~/siteConfig/site.config (these are in addition to the regular ones that have to be performed, like site title, notification address, root url, etc.):

  <!-- CUSTOMIZATIONS: -->
    <DisplayTimeZoneIndex>90</DisplayTimeZoneIndex>
    <AdjustDisplayTimeZone>false</AdjustDisplayTimeZone>
    <ContentDir>~/App_Data/content/</ContentDir>
    <LogDir>~/App_Data/logs/</LogDir>
    <BinariesDir>~/attachments/</BinariesDir>
    <ProfilesDir>~/App_Data/profiles/</ProfilesDir>
    <SmtpServer>localhost</SmtpServer>
    <EnableSmtpAuthentication>false</EnableSmtpAuthentication>
    <CommentsRequireApproval>true</CommentsRequireApproval>
  <!-- END OF CUSTOMIZATIONS—>

Other customizations:

• Backup from old installation and restore to new install:
  • ~/siteConfig/blogroll.opml
  • ~/siteConfig/navigatorLinks.xml
  • ~/siteConfig/siteSecurity.config
  • ~/App_Data
  • ~/attachments
• Change ACL on ~/siteConfig to grant NETWORK SERVICE modify access (ACL's on App_Data and attachments should be retained when backed up & restored; if not, grant this access to those directories too)

* I run dasBlog on IIS7, so my web.config file is actually quite a bit different than the one that ships with dasBlog. But those differences (other than the one highlighted above) were created by migrating the existing config file.

Now playing: Emm Gryner – Goddess – 07 Match

One lane bridge on the road to the coast between Carlton, OR & Beaver, OR. It has a couple different names depending on where you’re at on it: Meadow Lake Road, Nestucca River Road, Upper Nestucca River Road, & Blaine Road. It was fun to drive when I took it, but I imagine that would change as soon as some snow got on it. So probably only safe to take it from late spring to early fall. In mid-April 2008 it was passable enough, and there’s a number of campgrounds that were completely empty along the National Forest parts. There are some nice views towards the Carlton side that I wish I had captured pictures of. Maybe for next year!

Cape Kiwanda, as viewed from the south near Pacific City.

Offshore rock at Cape Kiwanda.

Now Playing: Brenda Weiler – Live – 18 Sweet Lullaby

Taken back in March when Emil & his girlfriend were visiting. For some reason I didn’t take pictures of the informational signs, so I don’t actually remember which waterfalls these are pictures of. They’re in the Columbia River Gorge, off the old highway. I’ll have to head back out there sometime & capture what the names are...

Now playing: Stars – Sad Robots (EP) – 05 14 Forever

Lewis and Clark Bridge across the Columbia River between Rainier, OR and Longview, WA. Taken last year while heading to the coast via Astoria.

Fort Clatsop (replica) in the Fort Clatsop National Historical Park. It was prettier when I was there in July (2007), but unfortunately I don’t seem to have any pictures from that!

Astoria Bridge that carries US 101 across the Columbia River at Astoria, OR.

The beach at Nehalem Bay State Park. See, not all days out at the coast during winter are that bad...

...just don’t look in the other direction.

Or maybe it was just luck that there was a clear patch right over the part of the beach I was walking on.

On the dune right next to the beach at Nehalem Bay State Park.

Cannon Beach. The water seemed colder then at Nehalem beach when I was walking around out in it.

Now playing: Lifehouse – Lifehouse – 01 Come Back Down

It was hot Friday and Saturday. Which meant I was busy being lazy and staying cool by sitting in my car (with its AC running). I should have posted this when it was 100+ degrees out, but I didn't, but now it's appropriate again because snow is predicted to fall in the mountains tomorrow!

Yes, the weather has gone crazy this year.

Outside my apartment window, back in February.

Now Playing: Brenda Weiler – Fly Me Back – 09 Fly Me Back

US 26, right after/before the tunnel through the west hills. Looking towards downtown & PSU.

Houses/apartments/condos/whatever built on the side of the west hills.

Now Playing: Po' Girl – Home to You – 09 9 hrs to Go

So...I switched over from SharePoint to dasBlog as the blog engine on the site. This means that the RSS feed URL has changed. The old ones should all still work, courtesy of the magic of 301 redirects, but still, everyone likes to be up-to-date, right?

The new URL for the main site feed is: http://www.ntldr.com/SyndicationService.asmx/GetRss

Now Playing: Lightning Dust – Lightning Dust – 01 Listened On

Downtown Portland, from the Vista Viaduct over Goose Hollow. That's the MAX (public transit train) just starting to go by.

The viaduct (looking east-ish towards downtown). This picture was taken in February instead of January, so that's why the sky isn't as dreary a shade of gray.

Another picture from February of the Viaduct.

Now Playing: Coldplay – Viva la Vida – 07 Viva la Vida

In response to this post, yes, you actually can "run" PowerShell on Windows 2000. No, there is no out of the box way for it to run. No, it's not supported in the slightest. I'm not even sure it's technically legal (haven't read that Windows EULA in a long time). And even when it is running, there are likely to be things that don't work.

That said, here's how to get Windows PowerShell v1.0 to run on Windows 2000.

What you will need

• A computer running Windows XP
• KB926139 for Windows XP
• A hex/binary editor (like Visual Studio (or something simpler))
• .NET Framework 2.0
• .NET Framework 2.0 SDK

Creating the installer (on Windows XP)

1. Install the .NET Framework 2.0 SDK. You'll need a specific tool from it, and it's easier to just install the SDK and grab the tool than it is to try and extract it somehow.
2. Extract KB926139 (run 'WindowsXP-KB926139-v2-x86-ENU.exe /extract').
3. Make a copy of the 'powershell.exe' file that was extracted from KB926139. Now break out your hex editor, a copy of the Portable Executable Format Spec, and modify the header so the Windows 2000 loader will actually run the image. Or just use your hex editor to modify the byte beginning at offset 0x00000132 in 'powershell.exe' so it is 0x00 instead of 0x01 (Windows 2000 is version 05.00, not 05.01).
4. Read the 'update\update.inf' file extracted from KB926139. This plain text file contains the instructions on how to install PowerShell on Windows XP, so all that's needed is for them to be duplicated on Windows 2000 (batch/reg files? windows scripting host? whatever you want!).
5. 'PSCustomSetupUtil.exe /install' doesn't seem to actually work on Windows 2000. So use a combination of 'InstallUtil.exe' from the .NET Framework and 'GacUtil.exe' from the .NET Framework SDK (this tool is the entire reason the .NET Framework SDK is needed).

Installation (on Windows 2000)

1. Install the .NET Framework 2.0
2. Follow the instructions in update.inf from the extracted KB926139 to install.
3. Remember to substitute 'installutil.exe' and 'gacutil.exe' for usages of 'pscustomsetuputil.exe /install'.
4. Replace the official version of powershell.exe with the one containing a modified header.
5. Maybe create a shortcut and define console window appearance settings.

For the lazy: all scripted up

I've gone ahead and deciphered the update.inf file, so if you're feeling lazy, just download this file and follow these instructions. Note that the included scripts assume that Windows is installed in C:\WINNT. If it's elsewhere, you'll have to modify all the scripts & registry files.

1. Unzip the 'install package.zip' file you just downloaded.
2. Get 'gacutil.exe' and 'gacutil.exe.config' from the .NET Framework SDK. Place them in the NETFXSDK subdirectory of the unzipped install package.
3. Get KB926139 and extract it to the KB926139 subdirectory of the unzipped install package.
4. Copy 'powershell.exe' from the KB926139 subdirectory into the bin directory. Modify it as in step 3 of "Creating the installer".
5. Take the whole install package structure, now with the PowerShell binaries/installer tools, to a Windows 2000 system and run the 'System Setup.cmd' batch file.
6. (optional) Run the 'User Setup.js' script to configure the PowerShell window's default settings to match whatever I had on whatever system I was on when I figured all this out (most useful because it enables tab completion, which isn't on by default in 2k, unlike in XP and later).

Now Playing: Basia Bulat – Oh, My Darling – 07 In the Night