Spiceworks 4.6 just released
Spiceworks, my favorite tool for managing IT networks, has released a new version. Spiceworks scans your entire network and audits the devices in you infrastructure. Not only does Spiceworks create a comprehensive IT inventory, but it also monitors the health of vital systems. It can alert you when certain conditions are met, errors are found, systems run out of hard disk space, printer ink is low, and much more.
Another cool feature is to have Spiceworks scan multiple sites, and report back to a central collector. This is great for me, as the company I work for, is an outsourced IT Helpdesk for several medium sized businesses. We’ve deployed Spiceworks at all of our clients with more than 10 PCs. This allows our business to be proactive in our approach to IT instead of reactive.
Don’t even get me started on how good Spiceworks has been for License Management.
Spiceworks 4.6 brings a host of new features include:
- View and Kill Processes Remotely
- Ability to discover virtualized servers on VMware (vSphere & ESX/ESXi), showing all the virtual machine data and configuration details
- Better Helpdesk ticket management
- Network mapping improvements
- See network alerts and notifications in your Spiceworks Toolbar
- And more…
If you have never tried Spiceworks, you should. It is free, and after you use it, you will be converted. Oh yeah, did I mention it’s FREE (As in BEER)? I used to work for a software company that developed one of the premier Enterprise IT Discovery platforms, and believe me, Spiceworks can do a lot more than even some multimillion dollar Enterprise platforms. That was always the “dirty little secret”. Anyways, check it out, you’ll love it.
I’ve been pushing my representative Nydia Velazquez (D-NY 12th District) to support H.R. 1207: Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2009 for several weeks now. I’ve made phone calls, tonight I wrote a letter. That letter is below:
Dear Rep. Velazquez,
I won’t bore you with a form letter. I am writing today to ask you co-sponsor HR 1207 to allow the G.A.O. to audit the Federal Reserve.
As a member of the financial services committee you are in a unique position to help further President Obama’s promise of transparency and vote in this bi-partisan issue. This bill has over 200 sponsors from both sides of the isle, and is now being considered by your committee for further action.
There is no logical reason why the Federal Reserve shouldn’t be audited by Congress. Your efforts in supporting this important legislation would go a long way in proving to your constituents that you not only hold the Federal Reserve to the same standard as you do your constituents, but it would also show that you believe in transparency. Anything less than support for this resolution suggests that you are in favor of secrecy and a lack of accountability to the people who pay the bills. We pay the tab; we have a right to know where our money is going.
If you are not going to support HR 1207, I would appreciate a letter from your office with the reasoning behind your decision, so that I may further understand all sides of this issue. At this point I see no logical reason why this shouldn’t be supported by all members of congress.
Thank you for your time and consideration in this very important matter. We have a historical opportunity to change this country for the better, and I hope we can make it happen.
-Concerned constituent in NYC
I encourage everyone to contact their members of congress and ask that hey support H.R. 1207. There are currently over 200 cosponsors as of today (June 9, 2009), both Democrats and Republicans.
With a little over a week left before this campaign season ends there is still little to no coverage for any of the third party candidates. As usual, one of the exceptions to the rule comes from the wonderful people over at CSPAN. In particular, their program Washington Journal has highlighted three of the candidates over the past week. Chuck Baldwin (Constitution), Cynthia Mckinney (Green), and Bob Barr (Libertarian) all received 30 minutes of airtime which consisted of an interview and a Q&A session with callers from across the nation.
I’m not very comforted when people in power with access to sensitive information make declarative statments about imminent dangers posed to me. I’m especially worried when a guarantee is made to me in regards to these dangers by someone who has a proven track record, for whatever reason, to have his pulse on “the real threat” which may come in “the belly of a plane.” Now, good ol’ Joe the Politician is making even more difinitive statements in regards to what our future has in store for us.
The odd couple of Republican Congressman Ron Paul and independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader joined forces yesterday with the Green Party’s Cynthia McKinney and Chuck Baldwin (Constitution) to spread a unified message and agreement of four key principles. Simply put, they all agreed to uphold an anti-war, pro-privacy, anti-debt, anti-Fed stance. Despite each candidate’s differing views on a number of issues, these four positions unite them all in an attempt to bring forth what they collectively agree are some of the most pressing issues of our time. In addition to the four principles they came with additional messages.
This week the counter-convention to the Republican National Convention, for the Ron Paul Revolution, was held, the Rally for the Republic. CSPAN-2 was kind enough to air the entire eventC on Tuesday, 9/2/2008. Former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura gave an amazing speech at the rally. If you missed the TV coverage, I’ve included the speech below. You must watch it. Please share the video with your friends and family and please leave comments with your thoughts below, I am very interested in what you think.
Last week I attended the “computer security” conference HOPE (Hackers on Planet Earth), held every two years in NYC. The title of this year’s event was “The Last Hope”, but it may not be the last. Unfortunately I had to work Friday and was not able to get to the convention until about 4pm, luckily it was being held only 2 avenues away from my workplace. I had never attended HOPE in the past, although I have gone to Las Vegas for DEFCON several times in the past 10 years. HOPE is organized by the crew over at 2600: The Hacker Quarterly.
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