Installing the winexit screensaver using AD Group Policy

I was asked last week to create an install package that would enforce what my company calls an electronic clean desk policy. I work for a large Business Process Outsourcing company that does quite a bit of data entry – mostly outside the U.S. We have about 20,000 employee doing data entry. Most of the data entry is done from scanned images. Those scanned images can be health claims, insurance claims or credit card applications. We call the images/data PII or Personal Identifiable Information. If the image or data contains a first name, last name and identifying number, then it’s classified as PII.

Our electronic clean desk policy states that PII must be shredded from a workstation after the employee has finished their shift. It also states that the shred should be automatic, if a user fails to do it manually. Our data-entry is done using internet explorer, so the images and data is cached in the user’s profile. This is either in the temp folder or the Temporary Internet Files.

My solution was to create a logoff script that uses SDELETE.EXE from sysinternals.com. The logoff script will shred everything in the temp and Temporary Internet Files when a user logs off. Data Entry Operators are requested to logoff whenever they leave their workstations.

If a user forgets to logoff, then the computer must automatically logoff. The only way I found to do this was to use the Windows Logoff Screensaver that is included in the 2003 Server Resource Kit.

The screen saver has problems. For one thing, there is no good way to distribute it. It just comes as a .scr file. It would be impossible to copy it to every workstation. The other problem is that it has a significant bug. It requires read/write access to a registry key as described in KB Article 15677. I found a way to get around these issues. I created an MSI file that will create the required registry key, and then give all users access to it. The MSI file can be deployed as a package within AD.

I have supplied the installation package which includes the logoff script and install instructions and the screensaver HERE. Before you can deploy this in a domain, you have to edit the MSI file so that it includes your domain name within the MSI. Everything you need to deploy the Windows Exist Screensaver is in the package. It’s a little complicated, but it should only take about an hour to deploy.

The package also includes a group policy administrative template. The template originally came from David Carlin and posted on his blog at http://blog.case.edu/djc6/.

Let me know what you think.

Yahoo Mail bug = Yahoo Customer No Service!

I use my yahoo account soley for newsgroups. It's convenient because many of the groups and user lists I subscribe to are yahoo groups. I've decided to stop using my yahoo account for this after an unfortunate incident with yahoo mail yesterday.

I was going to respond to a post in the eventum users discussion list when I decided I would do it later. Instead of hitting the back button, I accidentally hit the "Send" button to the empty reply. I panicked! I quickly proceeded to hit the "Cancel" button as many times as possible. I hit that cancel button 17 times. I know this because my blank response was posted to the Eventum user discusion list 17 times. Hitting the cancel button in yahoo, after you have hit "send", will actually resend the email. And if you are like me and tend to hit cancel many times, yahoo will graciously send the email that many times for you.

I was really embarrassed. There are probably hundreds of people who belong to that list, each getting 17 emails. I probably produced 5000 emails are more by using the yahoo cancel button.

So I sent an email to yahoo customer support. They have a difficult to find web form that you fill out. Here is what I entered:

Mail-Id: 1138119877-295
> Name: Travis Pierce>
> Yahoo! ID: travispierce70>
> Type of feedback: Problem>
> Problem area: Composing and sending messages>
> Error message: Other... (included below)>
> How often this occurs: Once>
> Type your feedback here:
> I accidentally hit send from the compose email page while composing an email, and wanted to cancel. I then proceeded to hit the "Cancel" button on the compose email page. Every time I hit "cancel" Yahoo sent the email that I wanted to cancel. I ended up sending the email 17 times to a support group with over 300 members. This ended up generating 5100 emails. Remove the cancel button if it in fact does not cancel but re-initiate the sending of the email. This does not make any sense. A cancel button should in fact cancel the sending of the email.


I then got this response from "florence"

Hello Travis,
> Thank you for writing to Yahoo! Mail. We appreciate that you contacted us for assistance, and we would like to help. However, we are unable to understand exactly what the problem is.

1. Please describe all of the actions you took that led up to the problem.
2. Include the exact text of any error messages you receive. It is important that you include the entire error message as this help us to more accurately determine the cause of the problem.
3. Include how often this occurs and any other relevant information.

The more information we have, the better able we will be to investigate this issue.
Thank you again for contacting Yahoo! Customer Care.
Regards, Florence
Yahoo! Customer Care

So they want a better description. OK. I can do that. I'll do better. I'll show them what happened. I recreated the issue by sending myself an email. I screen captured the video and then sent Yahoo the link. Here was my reply:

In order for you to understand, I have created a video clip of the problem that I am reporting. You can view the video at http://web.qx.net/tpierce/Yahoo_Cancel_Button.wmv

I click on the "compose" button.
The compose box comes up.
I fill out my email.
I then hit send.
I immediately hit cancel, prior to the "sent emailscreen" coming up.
For each time I hit cancel, the email is sent 1 times.

In this example, I hit the cancel button nearly 20 times. I subsequently received 20 emails. I can somewhat understand that the cancel button does not work, but for it to send the email each time it is pressed is just down right wrong.

Surely, I thought that yahoo would admit that this was a problem. However, their final reply was the following. My only thoughts are that yahoo must be idiots. Here is "Herbert's" reply.

Hello Travis, Thank you for writing to Yahoo! Mail.

Once you click the "Send" button, your message is fed into our delivery system and cannot be retrieved. Unfortunately, there is no way for us to intervene in this process. Please use the "Cancel" button if you don't want to save/send a message after composing.Even if the message is sent to another Yahoo! Mail account, we cannot delete it for you.

Once a message arrives in your mailbox, it is yours. Likewise, email that arrives in others' mailboxes belongs to them and cannot be removed by us.In the future, if you are not entirely certain that you want to send a message, consider saving it as a draft. Clicking the "Save Draft" buttonwill save the message to your Draft folder without sending it, so that you can return to it later to make a final decision on whether or not tosend it.

Thank you again for contacting Yahoo! Customer Care.Regards,HerbertYahoo! Customer CareVisit our online help pages at:

I know that I don't communicate all that well, but surely someone with half a brain would be able to recreated what I'm doing without digging in the garbage for the form letter. I think this is a significant bug. How do you report a bug to yahoo if this is the response you get? Would Google treat it's users this way? I don't think so.

One other quick note. Google is not in the yahoo spell check. What's up with that?

Mouse Stuck in Laser Printer

A friend of mine sent me these pictures. I guess the mouse decided to settle down for the night in the paper tray of this laser printer. So when the staff came in and printed their first page, the laser printer sucked that poor mouse into the rollers. Ouch!

The miraculous thing about this is that the mouse survived. The staff got the mouse out and set it free outside. I think the moral lesson here is to not sleep in strange places.

Finding Your Center

I had a conversation the other day with my wife about working out. I workout religiously, while my wife goes to Curves once in a blue moon. I told my wife that I like to workout because it makes me feel normal again. After a good workout, I feel alive; I feel really good.

Work is usually stressful and not all that fun; it really drags me down. Working out lifts me up and gives me a better perspective on life. I look forward to working out during the day. It's how I find my center, and that's the best way to describe it.

My wife thought that was just crazy talk. How could anyone like exercising? Well, I do.

My Dad finds his center in the outdoors. He loves fishing and hunting. A week on the Kiabab in Northern Arizona and my Dad is a new man.

I have a really good friend at work that loves backpacking. That's all he talks about, and I'm sure that is how he finds his center.

My conclusion is that everyone has a center. Many people don't know what it is, or don't recognize it. Many people haven't found it yet and that's as good as any reason to try new things. I'm thinking about kayaking, and maybe my friend is right about backpacking.

Surely my wife has a center, but just doesn't recognize what it is.

What is your center? or do you think I'm crazy too?

New Dumbbell Rack

I just got a new dumbell rack off ebay. I think I got a really good deal. The rack was $90.00, and that included shipping. My only complaint is that the guy on ebay took 2 weeks to ship the dang thing.

I bought the dumbbells sometime ago at Dicks Sporting goods. They were on sale for .49 a pound. I purchased a set of 5, 10, 12, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, and 45's. It came out to be about $240.00, because they gave me some more discounts at the counter.

The rack has 4 sides to hold the dumbbells on and a flat top to hold other stuff. It took about 15 mintues to put together. Anyways, this is the new addition to my home gym. I'm really excited about it.

Soda Addiction - Part IV

Today is day 5 with no Dr. Pepper. It’s now considerably easier to get through the day. The headaches are minimal and don’t really interfere with my day to day activities. I have not taken any diet pills for a couple days now. My mood is much better too; I’m less reclusive and more outgoing.

Energy levels are still down a bit. I think that is understandable considering the amount of sugar my body was dependant upon. I assume that this will level out, but I’m not really sure. I think the key here is to remember to eat. Before, I could skip a meal or two because I had calories coming in from Dr. Pepper. Now, the only caloric intake I have is from my meals. I eat much more often. I’m eating at least 6 small meals a day. I have a cache of granola bars and energy bars when I need an extra boost.

I have been a little dehydrated. I noticed that during last night’s cardio, I went through three 20 oz. bottles of water. I usually only go through one.

I still crave Dr. Pepper, but I think the craving is more psychological then physical. I really think the soda was security blanket of sorts. I always had a soda in my hand, and I think that gave my hands and brain something to do.

According to the scale, I will loose about 1.8 lbs this week. That’s good news.

Perfect Home Gym

I bought The Men’s’ Health Hard-body plan – The Ultimate 12-Week Program for Burning Fat and Building Muscle. I haven’t started the workout plan included in the book, but I’ve been reading the book for the last week. The reference section in the back of the book has a section called “How to Create the Ultimate Workout Space – The Perfect Home Gym”. I was really pleased that my home gym nearly meets their approval.


Click here to see a photo of my home gym.

This is what it says:

1. A few full length mirrors on the walls. I have two.
2. Boom Box. I don’t have this, but I listen to my MD player with wireless headphones.
3. Six of your favorite enlivening, make-you-wanna boogie CD’s. I have about a dozen MD disks.
4. Fan. I have an Air Conditioner.
5. Fridge with case of sports drinks. This is not in my gym, but my fridge in my kitchen has this.
   Hook for towels. Yep.
6. Chair for rest breaks. Yep.
7. Padded carpeting on floor, or rubber gym flooring. Yep.
8. No Phones. Yep.
9. Wall Clock with second hand. I have a large nuclear clock with a digital second display.
10. TV and VCR. I have a 17” TV mounted on the wall with a DVD player and a DISH Network receiver. I workout watching MUN2. This is by far the best workout TV you can find.
11. Jump Rope – Yep.
12. Exercise Bike. I have an Iron man 220R.
13. Stairmaster. I don’t have a Stairmaster, but I do have a Keys Fitness Health Trainer Elliptical machine.
14. Concept II rowing machine. I bought this a year ago. Hands down the best cardio workout you will ever, ever, ever get. Well worth the money and highly recommended.
15. Treadmill. This was the first piece of equipment that I bought. It’s now almost 10 years old, but works great.
16. Swiss Ball. Yep. If you use the Swiss Ball right, it will really kick your ass. If you don’t have anything at all, I really believe that this should be the first piece of equipment you buy.
17. Pull-up Bar. I have a vertical knee raise machine that includes a pull-up bar and a punching bag and Dip Bar.
18. Dip Bar. It’s on the vertical knee raise machine
19. Light posters on the wall. I don’t have anything on the wall.
20. Good Lighting. I have good lighting, but I like to keep it dark when I work out. I have tube lighting running around the floor and walls.
21. Whiteboard. Nope. I don’t have this.
22. Air Filter – Yep.
23. Water Cooler – Nope. I always have lots of water in the fridge.
24. Scale. Yep. My scale also measures BFI.
25. Extra workout clothes. Nope.
26. Measuring Tape. Yep.
27. Legal Pad for notes. Yep.
28. Corner Sauna or hot tub. I have a hot tub in the back. I use it almost daily after I work out.
29. Shower. My wife won’t let me use the bathroom connected to the master bedroom. That’s her bathroom. I use the guest bath and it is right next to the room I use for the gym.
30. Towels.

Weight Training Equipment:

1. One Bar. Nope
   
2. One Set of Weights. I don’t use the bar. I have a body-solid home gym that I use for most of my resistance workouts.
   
3. One easy curl bar. Yep.
   
4. Two Collars. Nope.
   
5. Six Pair of Dumbbells. Pairs of 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, and 35. Yep.
   
6. Good Quality Bench. Yep.
   
7. Set of Squat Racks. Nope
   
8. Smith Machine. Nope
   
9. Hyperextension Machine. Nope.
   
10. Incline board. Yep.

I don’t have the heavy weights, but in place of that I have the home gym which enables me to duplicate almost all bar workouts with. It’s not the best, but I’m not a body-builder. I just want to look good and stay in shape. The machine works well for my needs. The dumbbells and easy curl bar meets my needs in regard to free weights.

Mom and Lung Cancer

I’ve been thinking about my Mom today.  My mother had a fast and furious bought with cancer.  She passed away 3 weeks ago today.  She was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer 39 days before she passed.  

If you or a loved one has been diagnosed with Non-Small Cell lung cancer, my heart goes out to you.  The only sign that she had cancer was her voice had changed an octave or two higher than normal.  Her first doctor had told her she had pinched a nerve in her back.  She went in a few days later, and the emergency doctor referred her to an oncologist after he had taken some X-rays.  

My mother chose not to fight the cancer using standard chemo and radiation treatments.  I know that there were family members that thought this was the wrong decision.  My mother sought homeopathic treatments instead.  My mom was always eccentric, and had to do things her way.

My mom made the right decision in this, because it was her decision to make. It is what she wanted.  It made her feel more in control. In the end, all you have is your dignity.

It was important to me to support her in this decision.  I encouraged my brothers and sisters to support her as well.  In her presence everyone was always positive.  

How can you be positive when facing immanent death?  You do this one day at a time.  Today we can help you with your pain.  Today we can get you more comfortable.  Today we can make you laugh.  Today…  That is all you can count on.

Stage 4 lung cancer will kill you. I repeat this to express my point.  Stage 4 lung cancer will kill you.  The average life span of untreated stage 4 lung cancer is about 4 months.  If you treat it, the average life span is 7 months.

If you know someone who is going through this, make sure their today is as good as you can make it.  

    

Soda Addiction - Part III

This is day 4 with no Dr. Pepper. I have to say that it is getting better. The headaches weren’t so bad today; I only took one diet pill. I was not as hungry today, as I have been in the last few days. I think my body is adjusting to the lower caloric intake. I started my cardio workout tonight, but my muscles hurt almost immediately. This usually tells me that I need more energy. I stopped and ate a granola bar, waited 15 minutes, and then started back up again. That gave me the energy I needed and I was able to do the 45 minutes of cardio with no problem. I do notice that I’m drinking a lot more water. I’m going through about six 21oz bottles a day.

Soda Addiction - Part II

It is now Day 3 without Dr. Pepper. Here are some of the side effects experienced and how I have dealt with them.

Headache:

The headaches are caused by the caffeine withdrawals. When the headaches get really bad, I take a single diet pill. I took Zantrex-3, because that’s what I have around the house. Each capsule has about 160mg of caffeine. I take them like aspirin; if the headache gets bad, then I take the pill. The first day I took about 3 capsules; yesterday I took 2. I’ve seen on other posts were people have taken Excedrin, which has a caffeine in it too. The goal is to take fewer and fewer tablets until the headaches are gone. Just don’t get addicted to diet pills or Excedrin.

Moodiness:

This hasn’t been too bad, but it does seem like it’s easier to push my buttons. My wife tells me that I seem distant. I think I’m staying away from interactions that might cause me to get uptight. I am hiding out a little.

Sleep:

I couldn’t get to sleep the first night. I finally got to bed at 5:00 AM. The 2^nd night I slept fine, but it was REALLY hard to get out of bed. I ended up being 45 minutes late to work. This sleep behavior wouldn’t be too unusual for me anyways, but I think it’s compounded by the caffeine withdrawal.

Hunger:

I’m Hungry all the time. I never gained any weight drinking Dr. Pepper, so that means that my body was burning those 800 calories a day as fuel. I have to replace those calories with something. I bought a box of energy bars to eat when I get hungry. I find that I’m eating a bar midmorning and a few hours after lunch. This seems to help out quite a bit. I’m also eating larger meals when I do eat. My body seems to know that it needs more caloric intake.

Loss of Energy:

I do at least 45 minutes of cardio workout every day. I usually do this in the evening before I go to bed. The workouts are going well, and my distance/rate/times are the same as before. However, my body feels weighted down. Again, I think this is due to the fact that I have much less sugar in my bloodstream. I ate a small meal about 30 minutes before yesterday’s workout. That seemed to help out a lot.

Fuzzy Thinking:

On top of the headaches, it seems like my thinking is a little slower. That may not make much sense, but it seem like I’m just not as quick on my feet as usual. In High School, I used to drink a Mt. Dew right before a test. I was told that this would help my test scores, and in fact it did. Caffeine must do something to put your brain in high gear. I’m not sure that there is anything I can do about this. I know that there are natural supplements that claim to do the same thing. I’ll look around and give something a try.

Soda vs. Pop

I was thinking that my previous post shows that I'm not from Kentucky. I was raised in Northern Arizona saying Soda or Soda Pop. My Grandma came from Oklahoma, where she calls everything Coke. Statistics show that most people in Kentucky would just say Coke too, but I couldn't label the post Coke Addiction, now could I?

Soda Addiction

I decided last week to stop drinking Dr. Pepper. I have not had a Dr. Pepper for 24 hours now. It doesn’t sound like much, but it is a real accomplishment. Last week I had cut down to just 2 or 3 cans a day. Prior to that, I was drinking a 6-pack a day. That has been my normal intake of Dr. Pepper for 6 years now. Here are some numbers to consider on my own soda addiction:

Calories:

1 can = 150 calories

6 cans = 900 calories of soda consumed a day

900 calories X 7 days a week = 6300 calories a week

6300 calories X 52 weeks = 327600 calories

One pound of body weight = 3500 calories. If my metabolism wasn’t so off the charts, then I would have gained 93 lbs. this year by drinking this amount of soda.

If I wanted to drop a few pounds by stopping the soda intake; I could loose 1.8 lbs a week.

Quantity:

1 gallon = 128 oz

1 can = 12 oz

((12oz x 6 cans) x 356 days)/128 oz = 200 gallons of soda a year.

I can’t believe I was drinking 200 gallons a year. I’m no Doctor, but I’m really surprised I have not become diabetic.

Soda manufactures are creating enough soda so that every man woman and child can consume 56 gallons of soda each year. I was way over the average.

Goals:

Before I quit, I had to come up with good reasons to quit. Here are my reasons:

1. I currently have 15% body fat (BFI). My goal is to have 8%. This will be impossible to obtain by continuing my soda intake.
2. I want to improve my image. At work, I’m always carrying a can of Dr. Pepper. I don’t want to be the guy that always has a Dr. Pepper in his hand. I think this image is about as attractive as the chain smoker.
3. I want whiter teeth.
4. I want to be in control of my moods. I really think that the caffeine intake has a negative impact on my general mood.

Well, I just thought that I would share this. I will update this throughout the week.