VideoLAN VLC

VideoLAN VLC is a great cross platform media player ideal for networks. CODECs for most formats are included with the player so it can be easily deployed without needing extra installers.

As it is self contained it is very easy to repackage as an MSI for deployment or it can run straight off the network without installation (although it is a bit slow to load this way).

VLC runs on Windows, Mac and Linux so it can provide a uniform interface across platforms.

The latest version, 0.8.6d fixes some security problems and improves playback on Mac.

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EZ GPO

EZ GPO is small utility that allows central power policy management through Group Policies. Saving energy, money and the environment.
Ideal for school computer labs and staff rooms, as well as business.

EZ GPO can be deployed by MSI across the network through either AD or Zenworks. You then add the supplied ADM to a group policy and set the idle times for switching monitor off, and putting computer into sleep, hibernate or standby modes.

One other option of EX GPO that makes it very attractive for laptops, is it can allow limited user accounts to change power settings on Windows 2K / XP. As most users will have experienced, Windows stores power settings in HKLM, so a standard user can not specify times for power saving. This can be very annoying if used during presentations, etc.
EZ GPO has an option that fixes this allowing the changing of the power policy.

Finally one other use for EZ GPO, against what was originally intended. If you have a PC that is locked down, but needs to be on continuously (such as a kiosk or display PC) you can use EZ GPO to prevent visible power saving options from starting. i.e No standby mode, or monitor savings. I would however recommend spinning down HDDs .

Links:

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Moodle and Gallery 2.1.2

The Gallery module for Moodle is a very useful addon that allows you to upload images and view them in an easy accessible format.

You can upload a directory structure in a zip file and have it recreate that structure as albums on the server. It can auto-generate thumbnails and supports commenting and ratings.

The two most common problems with this module are users don’t read the README text file specifying that it only supports Gallery 2.1.2 (I missed this first time as well) and that the latest module available from Moodle.org has a bug that causes an endless redirection loop.

I have written a fix for the view.php file in the Gallery mod directory that fixes this problem.

The problem causes a continuous redirection and Firefox reports:

  • Redirection limit for this URL exceeded.
  • Firefox has detected that the server is redirecting the request for this address in a way that will never complete.

Useful Links:

Douglas Dixon has also been working on a module update to support Gallery2 2.2.3 but it is still in development.
http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=82108

Posted in Moodle | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

AD Explorer

An LDAP browser for Active Directory. Makes it easy to see all attributes of objects and assists in configuring web applications that authenticate using LDAP.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/Networking/AdExplorer.mspx

You can connect to your AD server without knowing any LDAP paths, just use your standard login.

Can also take snapshots to allow you to see what effect changes have on AD.

Another Great tool from Sysinternals

Posted in Active Directory, Utilities | Tagged , , | 2 Comments