Bank of America Fail!

How it rips you off Royal

Posted by Michichael on Thursday April 16, 2009 7:09 pm

Well here's something a little off topic. I don't know if many of you are familiar with the idea that banks charge the biggest item first in pending transactions. They do this as a "courtesy" then charge you a NSF fee for everything they moved in front of that payment to profit from it. Meaning that jamba juice you bought on Monday? 35$ NSF fee for it on Friday because it took so long to clear and Geico decides to request your payment early (both PENDING transactions).

Well, if BoA tries pulling an overdraft card on you for PENDING transactions... I've got this little tidbit straight from the source:

 

 

Adobe Patch Day!

How to extract the MSI file from Reader 9.1

Posted by Michichael on Wednesday March 11, 2009 4:07 pm

Well, since Adobe finally decided to patch the holes in their software, it was once again high time to deploy the .msi file to our network and move on to other issues. I skipped on over to the adobe distribution center, which contain the .msi files. But if you're reading this, odds are that you discovered what I discovered: they're gone. there are no MSI files there. Ok... what? How the heck am I supposed to deploy this via GPO when it's in .exe format?

Well fear not. After some digging, I found an old tech note that shows you how to extract the MSI file. For simplicities sake, as I know a lot of folks first visit this site for my 8.1.2 patch to allow uninstall/upgrade, I'll put the instructions here. Firstly, download the Adobe Reader 9.1 installer from http://get.adobe.com/reader/. Save that to a convienent to get to spot, such as your desktop or C: drive. To extract the msi file and data cabinet, head on over to the good ol' fashion command prompt. I assume you know how to get there if you're reading this. Get to your file path through liberal applications of the 'cd' command, and execute the following comand:

AdbeRdr910_en_US_Std.exe -nos_ne

This will extract the MSI and .CAB file to you profile's Local  Settings. You can get to the folder easily by typing this at the RUN prompt:

%userprofile%\Local Settings\Application Data\AdobeReader 9.1

The setup.exe and .ini files are completely pointless, just drag the .cab and .msi files to your administrative deployments share, add it to your group policy, and you're set to go! Keep in mind this is the full package so you can either remove the old one, or use this package to upgrade the other - if you leave the old one there and automatically assign this one, it will default to upgrading the old Adobe 9.0 installation. Also, if you've had troubles uninstalling Reader 8.1.2 after patching it, check the Miscellaneous section for info on how to fix that via deployment.

Happy patching!

As an update, I've discovered that it seems to want to install Adobe AIR and Acrobat.com shortucts to your systems, as seperate programs. You can remove these programs by running PsTool's psexec against all of your computers as an administrator with the following commands:

MsiExec.exe /X{A2BCA9F1-566C-4805-97D1-7FDC93386723} /quiet
MsiExec.exe /X{287ECFA4-719A-2143-A09B-D6A12DE54E40} /quiet

Enjoy!

Hmmm....

Posted by Michichael on Sunday January 25, 2009 12:04 pm

Ya know, it occurs to me that I haven't posted anything new on the main page in a while. That needs to change, so here I am! Now what to talk about... I'm sure everyone was overjoyed by the end of Bush's regime, and the fast acting of Obama to roll back and start running damage control. I approve wholeheartedly of this. Unfortunately, I'm seeing a lot of things that don't make me exactly comfortable, along with a few other things that people raised hell about that I don't get. First off, Rick Warren.

Ok, LGBT folks out there... I know this jackass is against treating you equally. But the inaugural address isn't about you. GET OVER IT. Obama puts a lot of value into his faith, and as such in swearing to uphold our Constitution on the Bible, it's a PERSONAL symbol of his commitment. It's not designed to offend your oversensitive asses. Use more lube if you're that easily butt hurt over it. I don't like Rick Warren, but the Inauguration is as much a ceremony and rite of passage for Obama as it is a symbol of hope for the rest of the world. Take it for what it's worth.

On the note of Obama, he's made some designations and appointments that I do NOT approve of. First off, hiring the RIAA's top lawyer to a top post? What the hell man? The denizens of the internet turned out in record breaking force to support you, and you gave lip service back, claiming copyright reform, patent reform, and an end to the stifling of American innovation by corporate greed. Mr. President, it may be too early to see the results of these appointments, but if this guy's path of corporate sympathy continues, I am very, very disappointed. I think the internet had something radically different in mind when they heard "copyright reform."

On the other side of things, the Republicans are raising hell about the stimulus plan. Same old god damned government as far as Congress is concerned. First off, this financial crisis, and I may not be a financial maverick, isn't going to get better by throwing money at the banks. Let's examine what happened the LAST time we tried that, eh? We bailed Bank of America out because it was taking huge losses from it's Countrywide division, and couldn't loan money. Instead of freeing up credit to the market again, BoA went out and bought Merrill Lynch. Oh look! Let's go out and buy MORE bad assets! RETARDS! Predictably, another bailout is needed. Also, the auto industry? Dude - SCREW THEM.

First off, the "Big Three" in Detroit made shitty cars at higher prices and lower fuel efficiency. The foreign imports are cheaper, higher quality, and have better mileage. Gee, I wonder why they're feeling the squeeze. It's not because of the credit crunch, It's because, audible gasp, they don't know how to make a good product. So now, instead of reforming their business plan, cutting costs, laying some folks off and getting leaner and more competitive, they simply lobbied for a bailout. Our tax dollars at work! Why compete when you only need to throw a few million at Congress?

Seriously, all this talk about "Too big to fail" is really getting old, really fast. I've noticed that the economy is a lot like a forest. Every so often, a forest fire (recession) crops up. Now, silly us, we go in and stop said fire from damaging anything we value too much. We're going against the natural order of things. This allows a lot of dead mass to build up - poorly led companies, bad loans, all that fun stuff is no different than dead branches, leaves, and compost. So instead of letting the fire burn away all the rubbish, which I agree would be devastating, a lot of people would be out of a job, and we'd be plunged into a hard depression, we are shoring things up and stopping the fire from burning away the junk.

Here's what should have happened, in my opinion. First off, if we let these folks fail, a lot of assets are going to hit the market DIRT CHEAP. In the case of the auto industry, machinists, factories, equipment, and all that fun stuff will be available at pennies on the dollar, enabling other start ups to spring to life. It'll take a few months, maybe two years at most, but the end result would be a far leaner, greener, and meaner manufacturing consortium that is more easily able to compete with the foreign imports. Next up, on the bank side of things, if we let them fail a number of assets would go to sale dirt cheap, driving the price of real estate into the ground. Bad thing, I know, but here's the important bit: Land is the one thing they're not making anything more of. It will ALWAYS go back up in value. Just a matter of time. So all of these assets go to market, competitors sprout up via the lovely American entrepreneurial way, and after 2 years we're healthier than we've ever been. Those two years would be difficult, but instead of throwing over a trillion dollars at big business, the government could have initiated "New Deal" type projects. Those machinists that got laid off? Hire a healthy company in the area on government contracts to manufacture new fleets of fuel efficient heavy trucks for national redistribution to the states. Administration and all the associated costs of such a project would put a lot of people back into a job during the depression.

Other unskilled labor can be put to work paving roads, expanding the national infrastructure of utilities, or otherwise revamping the 45+ year old, rotting infrastructure we currently have. Investments into nuclear, wind, water, and solar energy would create hundreds of thousands of jobs across the country. There's literally thousands of projects that lack funding that, once funded, would create jobs to counter the downward slide of the economy. When those projects are completed, years down the road, the economy would be in a better shape because those entrepreneurs were off getting businesses started and growing, and if you supplement small business grants with more money, one could successfully transition those public service workers back into non government sectors, and end up with a thriving economy. I'm not saying there would not be some hard times, but a short period of hard times is better than a prolonged downward spiral as we continue trying to shore up failed projects. Over a trillion dollars would do a lot more good going directly to the good of all people instead of the CEO's of big companies.

And "Too big to fail" needs to not happen again. Companies now see this and think 'hmm, as long as we get to THAT many employees, the government will never let us fail!' This is a horrible precedent. One can only hope that the country can pull out of the spiral we're in.