Monthly Archives: February 2007
Issues with new top
Well its been 4 days now since I had my top replaced. I think I have a few issues with the new top and a’m going to have to take my car back to the auto shop to fix. The top is hard to latch, it is so tight that the top won’t sit on the ledge of frame close enough to latch properly. Its just about impossible if the window is already zipped. I have to unzip the window, then latch the top, then re-zip the window. I also have some rippling going on in the rear drivers side of the top, which looks bad, so I”m going to try to have them re-adjust the top so it latches properly, and fix the rippling.
Neat site for hand drawn comics
This is a cool site, it has little drawings that can be pretty funny. Some of them may contain some language. Check it out Drawing Site
Very good video comparison of Star Wars and Star Trek
I love this! This is a greag YouTube video comparison of Star Wars and Star Trek. This guy says exactly what I’ve thought on this subject for a long time. And its well told.
When NT4 servers can't find the PDC and all else fails
Recently I ran into a major problem with my Active Directory and NT4 setup. I maintain a network made up of 2 NT4 BDCs and about 10 Active Directory Domain Controllers. The domain is in 2003 interim mode and we also run Exchange 5.5 on 4 other NT4 member servers. Last week we renamed a few domain controllers and assigned new IP addresses (on the 2003 side). As a precaution I kept the old IP address on one of the major domain controllers until I could get time to manually modify all the legacy servers lmhosts files. We also shutdown the domain controller that was used to get us to Active Directory, basically I took a dell desktop that would run NT, and made it a BDC. Then I promoted it to a PDC and upgraded the OS to Server 2003 and installed Active Directory. Well its time to de-commission that box and we shut it down last week as well. On Monday, I created a new user account and immediately got reports of strange problems, the user was getting prompted for logon credentials in Outlook and could not stay online.
I looked around and couldn’t find anything wrong and wasn’t too concerned at this point. Later I realized that my NT4 BDCs were not able to find a PDC any longer. I assumed it was because we shutdown the upgraded domain controller and so we powered it back on hoping it would help. This did not fix the problem so I began working on the issue by online research and posting questions in newsgroups. Finally I found a guy on Experts-exchange that was very helpful and worked with me on EE for hours before we figured out the issue. By troubleshooting and much testing we found that NetBIOS lookups to the PDC emulator (running 2003) were failing. From 2003 we could map drives, browse to NT4 without a problem, only from NT4 to 2003 was there an issue. Lastly we found that its bad to have a multi-homed domain controller, especially the one we were using for the PDC Emulator. I removed the second (old) IP address from the server and everything started to work just fine. I could get into the user manager in NT4 and updates started to be processed without a problem.
So it turns out the main cause of the issue was not the renames, or IP change, or even shutting down an old DC. It was simply that we had more than 1 IP Address on our PDC Emulator server. Removing that fixed the issue. I think we can now power down the upgraded DC again and proceed further with the migration. Too bad it took so long to figure this out, but at least it is working normally now.
Random chat with another Miata owner
On my way to work this morning, I happened to stop at a red light next to another Miata. This one was a newer model, red in color with black top and interrior. The lady in the car got my attention and proceeded to chat about her Miata and how she had one just like mine. She asked if I was in the club and I said no. I do have a Miata club sticker on my windshield, but its from the previous owner. Although at some point I’d like to get to be part of the club around here and go to some of the meets. Miata owners are so nice! Its really got its own culture! Miata is an old German word which means “reward”. 🙂
Making fun of Miata's
There are lots of people that if they hear you own a Miata, will instantly make fun of you . These are people who are not educated “automotive” people, but usually people who have never driven a Miata. Typical things that get made fun of is the size of the car, the size of the driver compared to the car, etc. Also people thing because its so small and has a 4 cylendar engine that its weak and a “Girly” car. All I can say in response of this balogna is that you gotta drive it before you make fun of it. Let me take around a few onramps at 70MPh in near 75 degree turns. You’ll see how the Miata handles the corners with no slippage and hugs the road like the little roadster she is. Don’t let the convertible top fool you either, a soft top is fantastic, and extremely relaxing, put it down during your drive home from work, and it makes all your worries disappear. Basically, at least ride shotgun with someone who can really drive the car as it was meant to be driven, and you’ll be asking for the keys soon enough. Appearances can be deceiving, be careful when making fun of a poor little Miata, you may find they are not as “girly” as you think!
Miatas are used in autocrossing heavily, and lots of people are using their Miatas in drifting. These are not a “girly” car, and its the BEST Selling sports car EVER according to many studies and reports.
I got her back!
I picked up my poor little car on Saturday after a very traumatic separation for the two of us during a top installation. I dropped her off on Thursday and didn’t pick her up until Saturday at 4. It was a long separation but we both survived. My Miata now has a brand new custom top and it looks good. I do have a few minor complaints:
1. I now have a zippered top, meaning the top won’t go down unless you unzip the rear window. Not that big a deal.
2. They didn’t cleanup, I need to vaccuum out the rear shelf because of some fabric shedding and dust.
3. This morning I noticed some rippling in the rear drivers side of the top near the frame. I am going to call and see if they can re-adjust this section to get rid of the ripples.
Otherwise, I’m very happy with the work, it looks good and now I don’t have to be embarrassed about my duct tape patch job anymore. Next on the radar, is getting some kind of fix for the worn leather seats. I got a quote for $425 from them to fix the seats, but I can get a used set cheaper or for now I might just get a good pair of seat covers. Lastly, I’d like to get a touchup paint job to fix some fading on some parts of the car.
I miss my Miata
My sister-in-law was kind enough to loan me her vehicle while mine is being worked on. So today, I drove to work in a Ford Fusion. Its not a bad car all, it handled good, had a nice balance of power and comfort. The ride was very nice, but I felt like I was driving a boat compared to my Miata. I’m hoping I’ll get a call today saying its done before 5, so I can go get my car and see how it looks with a brand new top!
Its TOP Time!
Today is the day! I’m dropping off my poor little car to an automative shop at lunch time to have the top replaced. I sure do hope they do a good job and this doesn’t turn out to be a disaster. I am also going to ask if they can do anything (for an affordable price) to fix a few imperfections in my leather seats. Hopefully by Friday night, I’ll have my baby back as good as new (maybe better).
Joe’s blog about technology, life, etc! 