Blacklist blacklist blacklist: the forbidden word

I just got chapter 6 of Exchange 2013 Inside Out: Clients, Connectivity, and Unified Messaging back from Microsoft Press. Like most other major publishers, Microsoft Press has a strict process to try to catch potentially offensive, libelous, slanderous, or sensitive terms before they appear in print. In this particular chapter, the editors requested many changes because of the odd vocabulary associated with message hygiene. For example, it’s OK to say “spam” to mean “an unwanted commercial e-mail message,” but it’s not OK to say “ham” to mean “a legitimate or desired commercial e-mail message” because in some book markets, ham is either unheard of or regarded as offensive.

However, they also busted me for using “blacklist,” as in “real-time blacklist.” This is the accepted term of art for a DNS-based system that allows an e-mail server to look up IP addresses of senders in real time to decide if they appear on a list of known or suspected spammers. Apparently “blacklist” is an offensive word in some contexts, although I’m having a hard time figuring out where or why.

Imagine my surprise when I fired up my Xbox tonight and saw this:

Now, to be clear, I get it– Microsoft Press is not the same as IEB, Microsoft’s behemoth of a business unit. I’m sure they have different rules or something. And my editor, bless her heart, is only enforcing the rules forced on her by some clique of zampolits…but seriously?! Xbox LIVE has tens of millions of worldwide customers who are seeing this forbidden word. On the other hand,  my book, if I am very lucky, may sell as many as 25,000 copies (that would make it a runaway hit by computer book standards), and yet I can’t use a well-known and commonly accepted term in context.

Sheesh…

Exchange OWA IM integration and Lync trusted application pools

I am a bit ashamed to say that I wasted most of a day on this, but I’m posting this in the hopes that I can help someone else avoid the same mistake I made.

I just spent about five hours troubleshooting why I couldn’t get Exchange 2013 Outlook Web App to display IM and presence data from a Lync 2013 standard edition server. I had carefully followed the integration steps in the documentation, including the part that says this:

If you have installed the Microsoft Exchange Unified Messaging Call Router service and the Microsoft Exchange Unified Messaging service on the same computer then there is no need to create a trusted application pool for Outlook Web App. (This assumes that the server in question is hosting a SipName UM dial plan.

So, having read that, I didn’t set up a trusted application pool or trusted application… and IM didn’t work.

I fussed with certificates. I read a ton of documentation. I swore. I drank too much diet Coke. I ran OCSLogger and found errors about an unknown peer. “AHA!” I thought. “There must be an error in the docs and you really do need to create a trusted application pool.”

So I created the pool and the trusted app. Two quick lines of PowerShell, a quick login to OWA, and voila:

As much as I would like to claim that it was a documentation error, this was pure fail on my part: the problem was that my Exchange 2013 server doesn’t host a SIP dial plan, so Lync doesn’t automatically add it to the Lync known servers table. It will have a SIP dial plan when I get to the next section of this chapter, but that’s a post for another day.

So, in summary: yes, you do need to create a trusted application pool and application for your Exchange servers even if they are multi-role unless they are hosting a SIP dial plan. 

Now, time for another diet Coke…

Go or no-go revisited

Thomas P. Turner is a flight instructor and businessman who publishes an exceptionally useful weekly aviation newsletter called Flying Lessons. Recently he’s been focusing on trying to help pilots understand what’s truly risky about flying, and to provide some standards to help improve proficiency in those situations. As part of that process, in this week’s newsletter he linked to a matrix of go/no-go rules that I really like: the Categorical Outlook Flying™ matrix. The basic point of this matrix is to provide a simple, clear set of guidelines to help pilots of all experience and skill levels make good decisions.I don’t want to reproduce the entire matrix, but here’s a snippet:

If the outloook is…		…and you’re flying…		over		during…	then suggest:
	VFR	VFR		flat land		day	GO
				flat land		night	GO
				unfamiliar area		day	GO
				unfamiliar area		night	GO
				mountains or water		day	GO
				mountains or water		night	NO-GO
		IFR		flat land		day	GO
				flat land		night	GO
				unfamiliar area		day	GO
				unfamiliar area		night	GO
				mountains or water		day	GO
				mountains or water		night	GO

This doesn’t seem that instructive– after all, all but one of the suggestions are “go”. However, the real beauty of this approach is that it breaks down the go/no-go decision into multiple factors, including weather, time of day, terrain, and flight rules. These factors correspond pretty well with some of the major risk factors associated with flight. Night VFR over mountains is more risky than day VFR over mountains– not because of the airplane, which doesn’t know it’s dark, but because of the difficulty of finding a safe place to land if there’s a problem.

The full set of matrices is well worth looking at. I like this approach and plan to incorporate it into my own personal minimums; the matrix above is already pretty much how I plan, but the “marginal VFR” matrix, which I haven’t shown here, is where things start to get a bit more interesting…

Palo Alto-Petaluma and back

Tuesday afternoon I was working and decided to check out LiveATC.net, a web site that plays air traffic control audio for a huge range of airports worldwide. Soon enough I had fired up the Palo Alto tower, which led to looking out the window, which led to me reserving an airplane for a quick flight to Petaluma. Why there? It was just over 50nm away from Palo Alto, meaning that I could log the flight as cross-country time towards my instrument rating.

I got to the airport, preflighted the airplane, and enjoyed a smooth takeoff; departure had me do a right 45° departure and head towards the Oakland airport. I got on the radio with NORCAL Approach, who routed me over the runway 29 numbers at Oakland International and then cleared me further to the north. The sun was lowering in the western sky, which gave me a few pretty nice photo opportunities:

Approaching KOAK rwy 29 from the south; the numbers are just out of frame on the lower right

the city of San Francisco; that’s the Bay Bridge in the foreground

the Golden Gate Bridge, with bonus freighter

Both bridges, plus shafts of light through the city fog (you might need to see the full-size version to see them)

 

The Petaluma airport was easy to see, and I had a good landing on runway 29. Sadly, the diner there closes at 3pm, and I got there about 7:30pm. So, my key learning for this flight: verify the status of your proposed dinner destination before takeoff. I got out, stretched my legs, and fired the plane back up to return to Palo Alto; the night view was absolutely stunning, but I didn’t take any pictures.. maybe next time. Since it was dark, I went ahead and shot 3 landings to update my night currency; my last landing was a power-off, short-field squeaker that would have pleased even my  picky CFI.

An evening well spent…

MEC 2014: Austin, 31 March-2 April 2014

This is pretty darn exciting: Microsoft has announced the official date and time of the Microsoft Exchange Conference (MEC) in 2014. It will be held in Austin, home of at least one of the original MECs (the first one, maybe? I wasn’t there so I’m not sure) from 31 March to 2 April 2014. 

I am sure that nothing bad will come of Microsoft’s decision to include April Fool’s Day as part of the conference. Nope, not at all.

On a personal note, I am excited that the conference will be in Austin. It’s one of my favorite cities, and I’ll be making side trips to see family (Hi, Lee Anne!) and friends while there. I also believe that we should have an Exchange-themed visit to the Salt Lick BBQ. Stay tuned for details!

A beautiful meditation on flying

I grew up reading Flying magazine. There always seemed to be copies around the house, along with books written by stalwart columnists such as Gordon Baxter (“File IFR even if you’re just going to the men’s room.”) and Dick Collins. I learned a great deal (mostly about what not to do) from reading the “I Learned About Flying From That” series, and I’ve happily enjoyed the magazine as it’s evolved to its present form, with a few minor nits that I’ll talk about another time.

Dick Collins is still writing. A couple of years ago, Sporty’s relaunched “Air Facts,” a magazine once run by Dick’s father, Leighton Collins. It’s now a web site and not a print magazine, but I still read and enjoy it. Earlier this week, Dick wrote a beautiful piece on a lifelong romance. No, not him and his airplane… him, his airplane, and his wife Ann, who sounds like a marvelous woman.

Read it.

Thursday trivia #92

• Interesting essay from Tyler Cowan in which he claims that alcohol consumption “is at least as dangerous and undesirable” as gun ownership. Apparently I am an elite because I can handle both.. but then you would expect me to say that, wouldn’t you?
• R.I.P., Mr. Ebert. I thoroughly enjoyed your work lo these many years. You will be missed.
• These images make me really miss the old NASA. And this auction of space-related items makes me wish I had some completely disposable cash stuffed under my mattress.
• Want insomnia? Read this article on insider threats in pathogen research. You’re welcome.
• If you read the insider threats paper, you may need some help to restore your faith in humanity. Since you can’t relax with a beer or a glass of wine (that’s as bad as owning guns, y’know), check out this non-profit that uses Coca-Cola’s worldwide distribution network to deliver lifesaving medicine.
• Looks like Ray Lane is taking the first bullet for the Autonomy acquisition train wreck at H-P. I wonder who will be next?
• Stay classy, Mr. President.