May 30, 2009

Windows 7: Local Security Policy

With Windows 7, you can use security policies to create rules which prevent users from running executables and installers. But where can you find the local security policy editor?
Here (Control Panel->System and Security-> Administrative Tools):


With opening the tree at Application Control Policies-> Applocker you get an impression, what you can do...
And action:

Choose Automatically Generate Rules...






Now we have 5 rules. Fine. Excellent. But what can you do with these rules?
For example do a right mouse click on the internet explorer rule.


If you want, you can change this rule from Allow to Deny ;-)

May 26, 2009

Review at amazon: Oracle SOA Suite Developer's Guide

Some days ago i read this book:



I am very interested in this topic, because i am quite familar with Oracle's SOA Suite and of course there are many books out there about Oracle's BPEL/SOA products (SOA using BPEL and BPMN, SOA Approach to Integration, BPEL for Web Service, ...) but a real developer's guide was missing.
On the web pages from packtpub they say:
  • A hands-on guide to using and applying the Oracle SOA Suite in the delivery of real-world SOA applications.
  • Detailed coverage of the Oracle Service Bus, BPEL Process Manager, Web Service Manager, Rules, Human Workflow, and Business Activity Monitoring.
  • Master the best way to combine / use each of these different components in the implementation of a SOA solution.
  • Illustrates key techniques and best practices using a working example of an online auction site (oBay).
In my opinion the book is a good start for beginners. The book covers all components of the SOA Suite, but not very detailed. If you are an expert, you should read the Oracle documentation or books which are already published:
If this was too short, take a look at my review at amazon.de (It is written in german, sorry...)

May 21, 2009

Batch processing: modify images with mogrify

Did you ever think about resizing many images or cutting an area out of many images?
Yes you can open every single image with gimp and click through all the menus (image -> scale image -> new values -> ok). For selecting an area you can use your mouse and just do crtl-c (copy), crtl-shft-v (paste into new) and then crtl-shft-s (save as).
But there is a small command, which can do all this work for you:


mogrify (from ImageMagick)



With this tool you can resize your image just with this command:
mogrify -resize 640x480 *.jpg
or using a percentage:
mogrify -resize 50% *.jpg
Or cutting an area out of image serie:
mogrify -extract 370x295+124+102 *.jpg
There are much more options you can use...

May 17, 2009

Windows 7: System Tools cont'd (Easy Transfer)

After so many visitor reading the posting about the new system tools of Windows 7, here some screenshots about Windows Easy Transfer:

You can start this via menu and the first question is, how you want to to the transfer:



I chose An external hard disk or USB flash drive. Next question was if this computer is the target or source of the transfer. I selected this host as source (This is my old computer).







Ok, next step is to decide where to store this Easy Transfer File...





Huuh... 89.8MB on a new installed computer. Impressive. I think next time, i should not choose such a large password ;-)





So after this steps you are done and ready to import this Easy Transfer File on to another computer...

May 16, 2009

Linux.com

Last week linux.com started its new website (news on zdnet) after the URL linux.com was bought from The Linux Foundation. Here a screenhot of the new layout:



You can find linux-news related to hardware, software, embedded/mobile, business opensource or enterprise. Some of these news are pretty short (like this one,), but perhaps this will change in the future or it is enough for you ;-). I think the real benefit of linux.com is, that this page should evolve to the central news page for all linux distributions.
I hope, this posting made you curious and you are going to visit linux.com yourself...

May 12, 2009

Windows 7: New System Tools on board?

Is the next Microsoft operating system shipped with some new system tools?
Here a screenshot from Windows 7 with all system tools:



Disk Cleanup, Disk Defragmenter are old friends...
Internet Explorer is a system tool?!?
For Control panel see this posting. Here see some screenshots of the other tools:

Resource Monitor


Task Scheduler


System Information


Windows Easy Transfer i will show on another posting ;-)


If you are interested in Screenshots of a Windows 7 Installation click here.

May 11, 2009

Windows 7: Changing Network Parameters (like enabling DHCP)

There were many statements about Windows 7 and usability. So i tried to find a way to switch from DHCP to fixed ip-addresses.
First guess was on clicking on the network interface symbol in the task bar in the right corner... But from there i only got to screenshot 3 and i did not recognize, that this was the right panel. So here my way starting with the control panel:





Ok, network related topics should be unter the Network and Internet icon:


This windows was a little bit confusing. There are these four entries under Change your networking settings, but this tiny link Local Areal Connection led me to this familiar window:



and here we are:



I don't know, if this is the only way for changing from DHCP to fixed ip-adresses. There should be another way with less clicks...

May 10, 2009

Virtualbox: Installing Windows 7 (Part 2)

In this posing are just the missing screenshots of part 1 of the Windows 7 installation.























May 9, 2009

Virtualbox: Installing Windows 7 (Part 1)

Last week i installed Windows 7 inside Virtualbox successfully, but a Virtualbox client machine contains no special hardware and really old chipsets, so there was no real challenge.
Here are the screenshots, just to give you an impression...






















Ok, enough screenshots for this posting, i will continue after the reboot on the next posting...