Geekspeak

How to Fix Time Drift for Off-Prem Domain PCs

Posted by iamsupergeek on

The world is becoming more adjusted to what a modern workplace is due to many factors, including the COVID-19 pandemic response.  One of the many new problems that has come up for my organization is the issue of “Time Drift” for devices not on premises.  Some users are reporting a few minutes to a few hours difference to reality mainly causing meeting reminders to appear extremely late.  This caused me to delve into the realm of Time Servers and how/when devices communicate with them.  The following post provides background information on the issue and how to address it with a creative solution.

Geekspeak

Cortana or Windows Search Blank? Try This!

Posted by iamsupergeek on

A few months ago, my techs were getting tickets from users stating that their Windows Search wasn’t working anymore. No results would populate the Search Box when users typed.

There are a multitude of sites/blogs that give instructions on how to fix this, and almost all of them essentially said, “If the above steps didn’t work, reinstall Windows!” This isn’t always convenient, or even an option

What I found works like a charm and usually takes just a few minutes to perform.

Miscellaneous

Eat the Green Gummi Bears First

Posted by iamsupergeek on
NEW YORK, NY – MARCH 28: A general view of gummy bears at the Alli Simpson Signature Nail Series Launch Event at Dylan’s Candy Bar on March 28, 2013 in New York, New York. (Photo by Ben Hider/Getty Images)

A few years ago when I still had my Costco membership, I would pick up these 5lb bags of gummi bears.  I let my membership lapse because I realized that I only went to Costco to get candy.  My girlfriend and I would snack away mindlessly on plentiful handfuls of small, delicious, fruit-flavored bears and then I noticed that she was picking out specific colors and putting others back into the bag.  I said, “Hey!  Eat what you grab, there’s no picking!”

“But I don’t like the green ones.”

“I’m not a big fan of them either, but it isn’t fair for you to only get the good ones.”

“Fine, I’ll throw the green ones out.”

“No!  There’s no need to throw bears out, eat the green ones first.”

“What?  Why?”

TableTalk/Azuran

Adventures in Azuran – Part 2

Posted by iamsupergeek on

The month of Nevermoon has arrived.  At the end of the month, Azuran inhabitants hold an event called All Dark Eve where people dress up in costume and have parties celebrating the time when all three moons leave the sky.  This is similar in many ways to the month of October and the celebration of Halloween.

The Diamond Skull of Mithras, a 1000 year old artifact, is coming to the museum in Moon’s Crossing to be placed on display for a short time.  Rumor has it that an Elf thief named Kartoth is also coming to town to try and steal it.  Our group has been tasked with securing the skull while on display.

Miscellaneous

Happy Thanksgiving!

Posted by iamsupergeek on

Happy Thanksging to everyone!

What would this day be without the (in)famous Turducken?!

Mmmm! Turducken! (credit: Food Network)

“What the hell is a ‘Turducken’?” You may ask? Well, according to thefreedictionary.com, it is defined as:

a boned turkey stuffed with a boned duck that is stuffed with a small boned chicken, sometimes also containing a breadcrumb or sausagemeat stuffing

For your enjoyment, here’s a link to Paula Deen’s Turducken recipe from the Food Network website.

https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/turducken-recipe-1944770

Enjoy! And remember your sweatpants!

Sightlines

Foo Fighters – 2018 Concrete and Gold Tour

Posted by iamsupergeek on

The Foo Fighters ended the 2018 US leg of their Concrete and Gold tour last Thursday night at the Xcel Energy Center in Saint Paul, MN.  Doors opened at 6:00 PM, Gang of Youths started things off at 7:30 PM, and the Foo took the stage around 8:45 PM.  They love to put on a party and play long sets.  This was no different, they played 22 songs and finished around midnight!

Geekspeak

Self-Deleting Scheduled Task via PowerShell

Posted by iamsupergeek on

Starting with PowerShell v4, there has been cmdlets available to create scheduled tasks instead of using the schtasks.exe program, or the wizard.

My organization is using PowerShell v5.1 and there is a lingering bug from the Windows Vista days relating to setting an “EndBoundary” in order to have a scheduled task expire.  An expiration date/time is needed for the scheduled task to delete itself.  But, if you try to set this using the cmdlets, you get an error message.

This post is a culmination of tidbits I found on several other blog/forum posts, and a metric crap-ton of my own trial and error.  All because I wanted a scheduled task to delete itself once it was done.  That doesn’t seem like much, does it?  Yeah, I didn’t think so either, but it was.  My pain is your gain.

TableTalk/Azuran

Adventures in Azuran – Part 1

Posted by iamsupergeek on

Two common questions that arise immediately when a new RPG campaign starts are:

  • “Do the characters know each other already?”
  • “If not, how do these strangers agree to go off on adventures together?”

Last Friday night, we had our first campaign session in the world of Azruan, and these questions came up.  This is the recap of how those questions were answered.

Sightlines

METALLICA!

Posted by iamsupergeek on

Metallica played at the Target Center last night!  This is normally where I add a comment about the opening band(s)… but there wasn’t an opening band… there was an opening comedian.  You read that correctly, Metallica didn’t have an open band act, they had Jim Breuer open for them.

Don’t get me wrong, Jim is a funny guy – which is a good thing as a comedian.  I mean, if a comedian isn’t funny, I guess they’re still considered a comedian, but they’re most likely VERY underemployed.  I first heard of Jim from the MTV Icon Metallica show in 2003 where he impersonates the members of the band (video quality is crappy).  In the video, you can see them laughing at him, loving his material.  Since then, he has become friends with the band, was the MC at Metallica’s 30th anniversary show in 2011 at the Fillmore Theater in San Francisco, has interviewed them several times, and now the opening act for this leg of the WorldWired tour.