Category Baltimization

Do you have a ticket for what is the biggest political event in a century, or even more?

If you do, you’d receive something looking like this from the Democratic Party.

If you saw my previous post on what the “You got it” or “You’ve been wait-listed” emails look like, you are likely in this very position of either having this ticket, or planning on going ticket-less down for the festivities! (Unless you plan on partying with Biz Markie!)

So, here we are, a day away – Ticket or no ticket in hand.  How do you plan to prepare for this?

By now, if you haven’t read the FAQ on how to handle yourself on the grounds, it’s a good time to get that FAQ all read up!

The raw logistics:

• They will start letting people into the Ticketed event at 8:30PM
• The only entrance (ticket or non) is on Congress Parkway at Michigan Avenue
• Take Public Transit – No Street Parking, and Parking lots will be considerably full
• Don’t bring bags, chairs, strollers, alcohol, – Try to keep it to a small purse
• Nothing has been said about Cameras, Camcorders, Phones – So that sounds safe
• This will be a standing room event only – wear sensible shoes!
• If violence breaks out, remain calm and let the many Security folks do their jobs
• ~1400 Police will be on duty for this event
• Get out there and VOTE! before coming. I voted last week. :)
• Bring valid Identification – No need to get a hassle there. (I got my new ID today)

So, hopefully this little Tutorial/FAQ helps to provide you the right information for this once in a lifetime event in our worlds history.

Feel free to say Hello if you see me out there in the crowd. :) I have a number of friends who will also be there, and if I can do as planned – I should be wearing a suit of sorts. :)

Take care, and don’t hesitate to yell out “Christopher!” in the crowd if you’re looking for me. :)

-Christopher

What does it take to attend an Election Night Party? I think it involves visiting a Website!

Jesse Jackson Jr will be hosting this event here for Election Night ’08

Where will you find yourself?

I received this little letter in the email today.

I know that there were severely limited quantities of these tickets available.  And by the looks of it, I strongly have the potential to be one of those there at the event itself!

Oh, the wonders of being a Technological Independent!

christopher —
Thank you for signing up to receive a ticket for the Election Night event at Hutchinson Field in Grant Park, Chicago.
Your ticket will be emailed to you on Monday, November 3rd, between 6:00 – 7:00 p.m.
Each ticket is personalized for the ticket holder and is non-transferable.
You must print your ticket and bring it with you to the event. Each ticket is valid for you and one guest.
Thanks,
The Democratic Party
P.S. — Ticket holders should walk towards Grant Park on Congress Parkway, then walk south on Columbus Drive to the site.
For security reasons, do not bring bags. Photo ID is required. Please limit personal items. No signs, banners, chairs, or strollers allowed.

Now all I need to do, is get myself a non-expired ID (State Police took mine for “speeding”) and I’ll be gangbusters for the event on Tuesday!  As it is, I’ll already be downtown that day!

On a separate note, I feel it’s a bit insane that Police will take your ID for activities as “bond”, leaving you effectively with no ability to get into government buildings, or even if you’re beaten/left for dead, a piece of paper is hardly any form of “Identification“

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No, I’m actually not talking about the crazy SNL skit and follow-up with Mark Walhberg!

No, I’m talking about Exchange and its IO going through the roof when you use Entourage for the Mac in a typical Exchange environment.

Microsoft has a KB329067 Article which relates to this issue with some ‘guidance’ on how to correct it, but exactly how far you take it is another matter.

Information about performance issues that occur when you use POP3, IMAP, or WebDAV clients, such as Entourage, after you move mailboxes in Exchange Server 2003 or in Exchange 2000 Server

Basically, what you’ll get from this article is this:

1. Start Registry Editor.

2. Locate and then click the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSExchangeWEB\DAV

Note By default, the DAV key is not in the registry. You will have to create it yourself.

3. On the Edit menu, click Add Value, and then add the following registry value:

Value name: MaximumResponseSizeInBytes
Data type: REG_DWORD
Radix: Decimal
Value data: value

For example, if you decide to increase this value to 500 megabytes (MB), use the following calculation:

1024 * 1024 * 500 = 524288000 (Decimal) = 1F400000 (Hexadecimal)

Enter the results of this calculation in the Value data field. In this example, you would enter 524288000 (Decimal) or1F400000 (Hexadecimal). Remember that the configurable range for this registry key is 1 MB to 1 gigabyte (GB). Better results occur if customers set it to a value of 500 MB or a higher value, such as 800 MB.
NoteWe recommend that you set the value back to the default value or to a lower value after the content conversion issue subsides in your organization. The default value of this registry key is 128 MB. We also recommend that you set correct messages limits and mailbox size limits on your Exchange server to prevent performance issues.

4. Exit Registry Editor.

I can only read this particular KB article so much before I say “Hmm, but what actually works?”

Here is a solution which is tried, true, and used and tends to work most of the time.

Modify this Key to this value:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSExchangeWEB\DAV

Value name: MaximumResponseSizeInBytes

Decimal: 838860800

What this does is set it to 800MB, as opposed to the ‘referenced’ 500MB example.

In a majority of all circumstances this will take considerable strain off of both your Exchange server as well as your underlying storage.   The end result is, Marky Mark and the Entourage Bunch won’t cause Exchange to Spike and cause severe latency issues for your users.

I think that calls for a definite win situation!

Kind of like how Andy wins in this situation…!

In light of a recent post by Kate where she analyzes and comments on her Google Analytics, I’ll do the same (this also applies to my respective WordPress Stats :))

So, lo and behold the following – Top keywords people find this blog under!

• 70-432, 70-656, 70-652, 71-432 – Apparently, a lot of people are searching for a lot of MS Certification exams.  And to that point, a majority of the keywords tend to be active based upon specific Cert numbers
• pciven_8086&dev_4227 – Oh, that old chestnut!  You’d be surprised how often that comes up! :)
• ontap 7.3, data ontap 7.3 – Apparently, I’m one of the best sources for material on NetApp’s Data ONTAP 7.3, and I’ve not even touched the surface of the types of things you can do, in general let alone in blog posts.  I have a whole backlog of material I’ve yet to touch, so it’s surprising the following I have as it stands, I fear for the future! :)
• osql shrink database – This one in particular is huge.   How often are you looking to shrink a database using osql, and you don’t remember how? I wrote it for me, and to share the wealth, luckily it looks like the wealth is being shared!
• mcts hyper-v – And other Hyper-V topics.   Seems my Hyper-V rig was good enough to stir up conversation and hits around Hyper-V.  If I were to leverage this more, this could be an even more compelling story, though I feel like almost all of Virtualization is ‘yesterdays news’,  lets find the next new tomorrow item, Virtualization is like 4 tires on a car – Ofcourse you have it, now lets make it go faster!
• defconnectopts – Yea, you sexy little expression you! Damn do I get hit up on this quite often! Get your mad defconnectopts on!
• christopher kusek – Wow, people searching for me, and finding my blog! Who woulda thunk it! :)
• enablerpctunnel, rpc over http outlook 2007 – This and variations of this are quite possibly my most hit articles ever.  I wrote this a few years ago, and it’s still references (quite regularly) to this day, to help people get Outlook 2007, Vista, RPC over HTTP.. etc all working together – So go to town! I wish more people commented on it for the volume who get helped :)
• msde shrink database – This one, similar to the osql one is an especially important one.  “No-one uses MSDE anymore.” Yes, you are correct, except for when they do. :) So, I’m glad this particular item has been able to help out so many as well!

So, while this may not be quite as cool as Kate’s post, it is nonetheless a fairly accurate representation of the type of major hits people come across my blog under :)

Certainly, if you think there is certain material I ought to be covering (in any of these areas or more) don’t hesitate to let me know :) I have content in the backlog meaning to get its way out there, it’s just a matter of time to compose and deliver it! :)