Remember the Old Days

Thought to add the following photos in remembrance of AirLanka which was Sri Lankas national carrier before being renamed to SriLankan.

Open a Port in Windows Firewall

If you tried to open a port in Windows Firewall which comes with Windows Server 2008 R2 you will find that Microsoft had given Windows Firewall a new look and feel.

At first you may feel that you are lost with the new interface, so thought to show how to open a port.

I will be creating an inbound rule opening the port 1443, which normally SQL Server is using for communications (Yes this machine is having SQL Server installed).

Go to Start -> Control Panel -> Windows Firewall.

Click Advance Settings from the left pane to bring up the Windows Firewall main screen.

Click on Inbound Rules and then right click on the same. If you only right click on this you will only see the options Refresh and Help. First click on it and then right click, now click on New Rule ….

This will bring the New Inbound Rule Wizard.

Select Port since we are going to open a port, if you need to open an application you can select the Program radio button, to create a rule based on an existing rule use Predefined radio button, use Custom to create a custom rule. Press Next to proceed.

Make sure TCP is selected and type in 1433 in the Specific local ports textbox then press Next.

Select the Allow Connection action and press next.Select all the available profiles, since I need this rule applicable to all the profiles. Otherwise you can select only the ones you need. Then click Next.

Give a name for the rule and click Finish.

This will add your rule to the firewall.

Installing SharePoint 2007 on Windows Server 2008 R2

At the beginning when you try to install Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007 on Windows Server 2008 R2 it will hesitate a little. So I thought to put the steps in.

Step 1 - Download the correct Setup.

You will not be able to use your normal SharePoint Setup to install MOSS on Windows 2008 R2, if you try you will see the following message appearing continuously.

Download the required version from the following Microsoft URLs.

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 with SP2 (x86)
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=EF93E453-75F1-45DF-8C6F-4565E8549C2A&displaylang=en

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 with SP2 (x64)
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=9FB41E51-CB03-4B47-B89A-396786492CBA&displaylang=en

Step 2 – Install MOSS using the setup.

Installation will not have any hiccups if you downloaded the correct version.

Step 3 – Configure MOSS.

When trying to configure MOSS and if your SQL Server is running in another machine which has Windows Server 2008 R2 then you will sometimes get an error saying the SQL Server is not present.

Mainly the reason for this would be that, in your SQL Server machine the Windows Firewall is turned on. Easiest step is to turn it off, but if you are worried about your security then read the other article I have on enabling a port in Windows Server 2008 R2.

After correcting the SQL related issue then you will be able to complete the MOSS configuration wizard successfully.

If you get into any more issues contact me, I will try to help you out as I can.

VixML

Now you can create iPhone and iPod content without being a Objective C developer by using VixML engine.
With this you will be able to create world class iPhone content which use iPhone features with minimal coding.
The best thing is you don't need a MAC, since there is a version which works in Windows.

Read more at,
http://vixml.com/
http://vixml.viximo.com/wiki/tiki-index.php?page=What is VixML?

Airbus A380 - Singapore to Melbourne

Following are some nice views I captured of the Airbus A380 I flew from Singapore Changi airport to Melbourne Tullamarine airport.

Amazing Planes

If you are interested in planes like me you may enjoy the video series at YouTube on mega structures.
Following will be on Airbus A380 which is the worlds biggest aircraft.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Wr7moZuGOw&feature=related

This one is on the Boeing 747 which was an engineering marvel on 1970.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKb5ZghQSK0

Improving SharePoint Look and Feel

If you are thinking whether we can improve the look and feel of the SharePoint site a perfect example is the Glu Mobile site. If you visit them at http://www.glu.com you will hardly believe that it is done by SharePoint. But the truth is it is SharePoint.
If you would like to know how they did it read the following 3 articles discussing on its design and development.
http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2007/06/14/moss-has-got-game-glu-mobile-s-website-www-glu-com-how-we-did-it-part-1-of-3.aspx
http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2007/06/14/moss-has-got-game-glu-mobile-s-website-www-glu-com-how-we-did-it-part-2-of-3.aspx
http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2007/06/14/moss-has-got-game-glu-mobile-s-website-www-glu-com-how-we-did-it-part-3-of-3.aspx

SharePoint Mobile Development

If you need to create a mobile view for a SharePoint site you will soon realise that the default mobile site created by SharePoint will not take you anywhere.
With its plain look and limited features you will not be able to do anything with the default view, so to give some thing valuable to your customer you need to do some development on the default mobile site.
To get more information on getting this done visit Microsoft.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms464268.aspx

Enabling Mobile View in a SharePoint Site

Microsoft SharePoint Server has a facility to render the site content into mobile devices as well.
In default this feature will be turned off. To enable mobile access execute the following command.

STSADM.EXE -o activatefeature -name mobilityredirect -url http://ms-sharepoint-site01/m

This will create a site under the given URL without any fancy items. It will be a plain site with only basic HTML. Whenever a mobile browser tries to access the site it will be redirected to the new mobile site.
You will be able to access the mobile sites using the URL.
http://ms-sharepoint-site01/_layouts/mobile/default.aspx
or
http://ms-sharepoint-site01/m

iPhone / iPod Worm

There is a worm spreading on iPhones/iPods which are using the default password "alpine" for SSH.
SSH is a software which allows you to connect to your device and make changes to the file system. SSH is required by some software.
This worm is created by an Australian hacker and it will search for iPhones or iPod touches in reach of the affected iPhone or touch (It will search on available networks such as mobile, wireless, etc). If it finds a device which has the default password of SSH, set to alpine it will get installed into the device, change the home screen background image and will do the same again using that device.

• Good thing is it will not cause any harm to your device but will just change the background of the home page.
• Bad thing is the source code of the worm is out and many other varieties of worms might appear soon. Some might be dangerous.

As a security measure change your SSH password today. You will be able to change your password using the Mobile Terminal package. Mobile Terminal can be found in Cydia under Sections. If you need help follow the link.
http://cydia.saurik.com/password.html

Backup a SharePoint Site

There are two methods to take a backup of a SharePoint site.

1.) Using SharePoint Central Administration

To take a site backup follow the steps below.

a. Go to the SharePoint Central Administration site by clicking,

Start -> All Programs -> Administrative Tools -> SharePoint Central Administration

b. Click on Operations.

c. Click on Perform a backup under Backup and Restore.

d. Select the site or the farm to backup the entire SharePoint farm.

e. Click on the Continue to Backup Options button on the top of the list.

f. Select the type and the location of the backup and click Ok.

2.) Using the STSADM tool.

Even though Microsoft had provided a UI method to backup a SharePoint site the best way to get it done is by the STSADM tool. If you are unfamiliar with STSADM refer the following post http://arjunachith.blogspot.com/2009/11/stsadm.html.

You will be able to use the following command to get a backup of a site using STSADM.

STSADM.EXE -o backup -url http://MySharePoint:10000/ -filename E:\Folder_Name\SiteBackup.bkp -overwrite

o - Mentions that the backup is an operation.

url - URL for the site collection that you need to backup.

filename - Path to the backup file, even a network path such as \\Machine_Name\Folder_Name\File_Name.ext can be provided.

overwrite - Will overwrite an existing back file if found in the backup location.

Instead of giving the path in the filename you can use the directory parameter to mention the location as well it is shown below.

STSADM.EXE -o backup -url http://MySharePoint:10000/ -directory E:\Folder_Name -filename SiteBackup.bkp -overwrite

directory - Location for the backup, even a network path such as \\Machine_Name\Folder_Name can be provided.

filename -The name of the backup file.

The status will be shown in the command prompt.

If you would like to know the full set of available parameters for the backup operation visit the Microsoft at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc263441.aspx.

Google prOgramming language - GO

Google had released a new programming language named GO.
Their one goal behind this is to increase the developer productivity and efficiency by giving them a faster compiler.
As Google says this is even capable to be used in developing system software and it is powerful than C but not than C++.
Read more on this at http://mashable.com/2009/11/10/go-google-language/.
Get Going at http://golang.org/.