Automatically Add to iTunes

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Today I discovered “Automatically Add to iTunes”, feature that’s existed for years now apparently. Here’s an article about it from iTunes 9 (seems so long ago).

The iTunes Media folder, along with the Music, TV Shows, and Audiobooks folders, also contains:

an “Automatically Add to iTunes” folder. When iTunes-compatible content is placed in this folder, iTunes analyzes it for compatibility and adds it to your iTunes library. While iTunes is open, files are immediately analyzed and added to your iTunes library when you add files to this folder. If you add files to this folder when iTunes is closed, iTunes analyzes and adds them the next time you open iTunes.

So my home PC is running Windows 7. I just added the Automatically Add to iTunes folder as a favorite in Windows Explorer, it shows up in the left navigation, and I just tried it out. 3 albums and an audiobook just added WITHOUT ANY ISSUE.

Now I’m going to create a Smart Playlist for recently added.

SC.EXE

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This weekend we are doing a conversion for an existing site, migrating their data from their existing EMR into the new platform. One of the tasks I was responsible for was stopping the windows service that runs the lab interface and e-prescribe messaging.

So I created a .bat file with these two lines:

sc stop servicename
sc config servicename start= disabled

I created a scheduled task on the server to run this .bat file at 7:01pm, when the data conversion was expected to begin. The site would be closed by then and the database would have been taken offline as well. And I didn’t have to login and work on a Friday night.

I can’t wait until our new platform is off of Windows 2003 and we move forward to Windows 2008 R2. I’m eager to start using PowerShell.

run commands

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The production Citrix servers are locked down with some The Citrix servers for my production environment are fairly tightly locked down with group policy and I can’t get to the Start Menu and can’t view any of the server’s local drives in Windows Explorer. I can’t pull up the Run dialog. I can’t Search. So I created a shortcut in my home folder for the Command Prompt and launch from there, but you have to know the right run commands. Here are my go to commands:

  • Computer Management: compmgmt.msc
  • Control Panel: control
  • Microsoft Paint: mspaint
  • Notepad: notepad
  • Registry Editor: regedit
  • Task Manager: taskmgr

Here’s a big list: http://mypchell.com/guides/34-guides/69-156-useful-run-commands

How to disable Comcast’s Domain helper

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The most annoying feature of Comcast’s Internet service is their “page not found” replacement that does a search on your barely mistyped web site name. Poking around on their website, I found how to turn this off.

The feature is called Domain helper. You can replace any “page not found” errors with a page that gives you options to go to other pages that you may find more useful.

Login to comcast.com with your Comcast account, go to Users & Settings and the section High-Speed Internet Settings and turn that business off.

Now my Internet at home is a little less annoying.

TSQL OBJECT_DEFINITION

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I recently did a rollout in production of a new version of the EHR split over several deployments. The EHR uses a several shared databases for lookup values of CPT codes or drug names so that an update to those can be done once per server and not risk affecting patient data. Since we have all of our production databases on the same SQL cluster, and the structure of one of these tables was changing, we created a workaround. We created a copy of it, appended the version number to the name, then ran an update script on all databases to recreate all views and stored procedures that reference the shared databases to point to our new one. As they are upgraded to the new version, these views and stored procedures get recreated with the default database name.

Now that everyone is on the new version, querying the database I’ve found that not all these objects we changed got touched in the upgrade. I was using sp_helptext to display database objects to me, but it was limiting because it wasn’t searchable.

SELECT name, create_date, modify_date, type, type_desc
FROM SYS.OBJECTS
WHERE OBJECT_DEFINITION(object_id) LIKE '%ver323%' ORDER BY Name

This returned 153 records. 153 out of 158 were untouched in the upgrade. The column created_date in the query showed the date of the previous upgrade, so I’m deleting from update script the 5 objects that were updated, doing a Find Replace to delete “ver323″ from the script so these get recreated with the default database name. I’ve put this out in QA. I’ll put this in production once I’m convinced it won’t break anything.

DNS, hosts file, and our new Internet Overlords

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We have 8 webservers in production load balanced by an F5. DNS points to the F5, so when i need to troubleshoot a single webserver, it’s easy enough to modify my hosts file and point the hostname to a specific server.

And this week I started getting weird DNS issues with production. I would clear out my hosts file, ping the URL and it would reply from the F5. I would add the hosts file entry and ping again, it would reply from the server. I launch the app, and I’d get put on a random webserver. I must have run “ipconfig /flushdns” a dozen times in the last 24 hours trying to troubleshoot this.

Then, a lightbulb goes off.

I am a part of a pilot group for an new corporate office Internet proxy server. It’s meant to block facebook and youtube and twitter and all the social-networking-link-sharing-time-wasting websites out there. Well, the DNS from the proxy is overriding the DNS on my local machine, even my hosts file. So I emailed the IT Security contact I had and asked for some exclusions related to my production environment.

And for the record, my opinion on Internet proxying and Internet filtering at work is that I don’t mind it. It’s their equipment and connectivity, they can lock it down however they like. Site locations running a T1 for connectivity are told to stay off of YouTube so their 1.54 mb isn’t saturated in a hurry. They put encryption on my laptop and gave me a keycard to enter the building, so they can rightly do whatever they want and I don’t really care as long as I can still work efficiently. The only thing that would be a burden is not being able to reach the Internet on my laptop without first having to login to VPN.

Puppies

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Lauren and I have some new additions to the home in the form of two miniature schnauzer puppies. We got them on Sunday afternoon (just a few days ago), they are AKC registered, and irresistibly adorable. A girl and a boy. Elphaba and Indiana.

Here’s a picture of them catching a nap.

If we go outside, Indy goes a few steps ahead of me and Elphie keeps pace with me. If we are in a new place, Indy will smell every corner of the room and Elphie will lay down right next to me. If we put them in their crate for bedtime, Indy will lay down first and Elphie will wimper for a few minutes in protest. If we sit down on the couch, Indy will curl up on a blanket and Elphie will attempt to create a vacuum seal with my leg.

Last night I was on FaceTime with my folks for about an hour and a half, most of that time just letting them see the puppies play. It’s that hypnotic. They also have the need to poop every 4 hours, which is less endearing, especially when it’s on the dining room rug and they give no indication they are about to poop and you’re not but 10 feet away running at them yelling softly but firmly “NOOOOOOOOOO! NOT ON THE RUG. OUTSIDE. OUTSIDE. OUTSIDE.”. I guess you can’t have one without the other.