May 2008

Last night we upped the RAM count to 6GB (from 2GB).  I'm pretty sure that was completely unnecessary, but it is still sweet.  There are some weird things you notice when you get that much RAM: the pagefile is reported by Task Manager to be over 12GB, and the hibernate file takes up over 6GB.  Hopefully it doesn't actually think it's going to be using that hiberfile anytime soon--it would be tough to check my e-mail.  :)

It's also now running a Radeon HD 3850 512MB graphics card, but the purpose of that is to test how good of an output we can get on a TV through component outputs, and it will soon be replaced with a lower end Radeon HD 3450 that is passively cooled.  Then our poor little server will have yet another job: HTPC.

The idea is to create a new site with no real documents to look at, that is purely for re-directing one URL.  It took me a few tries to get this working, so I thought I would document the steps.  In the example we'll be redirecting a.axvius.com to https://b.axvius.com

1. Create a new site in IIS7.  Pick a name, point the Physical Path to the folder you just created, and a.axvius.com in the Host name box.
2. Double-click on HTTP Redirect (in the lower half of the pane when you have the site you just created selected).  Check the first box, and put https://b.axvius.com in the box.  Check the box that reads "Redirect all requests to exact destination."  Change the drop-down to permanent.  Click apply.
3. Notice that it created a web.config file in the folder you created.
4. May need to restart the site.
5. Create a folder for the site.
6. Give the Network Service and IUSR users read access to the folder.  Note that your mileage may vary; I have historically had a difficult time with IIS file permissions.

Not too difficult really.  I tried to do it without a folder first, and was thwarted by file permissions after that.

I have about 4000 messages in my Deleted Items folder in Outlook 2007 (connected to Exchange 2007).  Unfortunately two unread message snuck in there, and it is quite hard to find them.  And it is annoying to see the (2) next to the folder.  I could right-click on the folder and mark them as all read, but I want to see if maybe they are important.

Trying to sort by read status is proving to be difficult.  First I tried using the existing columns, but none of them provide read status.  Then I added a read status column, but someone decided it would be funny to not let users sort by that column.

I'm currently waiting to see whether my latest scheme will work.  I created a new folder, Unread, and am moving all the messages into that folder.  Then they should show up in the Unread Messages virtual folder that Outlook provides, I'll be able to read them, I can move everything back, and I can get on with my life.  It is taking quite a while to move them though.

Sometimes things happen to me that are so stupid I feel compelled to share them so others can get, at the most, a good laugh, or at the least, a headshake.

You may recall the post I wrote last night, about my devious attempts to find out which two messages in my Deleted Items were unread.  I went to bed feeling pretty smart, knowing that by morning my computer would be done moving things and I would be able to see what I wanted to see.

I did not feel so smart after I woke up.  I looked at my computer and there was a new message ready to be composed, with 4000 messages attached as files.  I sleepily muttered some obscenities, clicked Close, and clicked No, Don't Save the Draft.

All was well until I got to work at 11:00 and needed to see an old message from my boss.  The Deleted Items folder was empty!

So I spent the next 5 minutes restoring my messages from the "permanently" deleted messages archive via Outlook Web Access, 50 messages at a time.  Apparently it decided I wanted to move all my messages into a new message, and moved them there permanently.  Of course then I didn't save the draft, so they were gone.

On the up side, it showed the two unread messages right at the top of the OWA display of the 4000 messages.  So I actually did work out a valid way of finding those unread messages.

And no, they were not important messages.