Flaming Flower

Flaming Flower
Originally uploaded by Badz Manaois

I was trying to upload this photo to my Flickr account when I decided to play around with the filters that come with my GIMP installation. Under the Filters menu, I chose Render --> Nature --> Flame. I tweaked the default settings for this filter and came up with this surreal result. The rendering itself close to 10 minutes; this should be relatively faster on a more powerful computer. The photo somewhat retained its original vivid colors and the soft bokeh. I'm still trying to figure out how to do post processing of my shots; I'll try some infrared stuff later.

Rebooting a computer (VBS)

The script shown in this post pops up a message to the current logged-in user informing him that a reboot is required.




The user has the option to proceed with the reboot or he can choose to click the "No" button and abort the reboot. Clicking "Yes" will invoke the ShutMeDown procedure which uses the .Reboot method to reboot the computer. Clicking "No" will display the following pop-up:



Not clicking on either the "Yes" or "No" after 60 seconds will abort the script from continuing.



For what possible situations can this script be used? Follow the discussing from the following thread in The Official Scripting Guys Forum on Technet:

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/ITCG/thread/65e8699f-fca4-4e08-a181-8b621acbf963

Enumerating Members of a Group (including Nested Groups)

Here's another simple and straightforward script that queries and enumerates the members of an active directory group. If there are nested groups within the groups being queried, these will also be subsequently checked and their members listed.

This is the main body of the script. I have, for this example, three sites where two groups are being queried (one group, for example, is EU-ServerAdmins-G). There is a call in the main body to the EnumGroups function where three parameters are passed - strSite, strDN and strGroupName).



The EnumGroups function queries the strDN parameter where its members are checked. In the Select-Case loop, the object class is further checked; if the object is a group by itself, the function executes again with this group as part of the parameters passed (hence, nested groups will also be queried).



The output of this script is written onto a file (groups.csv). An example output file would look like this:

Stopping and Restarting Multiple Services using VBS

Here's a script that will stop and then restart multiple services using VB script. It stores the services under an array (in this example, I was working on the BITS, Browser, and wuauserv services). Do note that the Win32_Service.Name property should be used and not the Win32_Service.DisplayName; if you want to make use of the more user-friendly or readable .DisplayName property, you have to modify the query for the variable colListOfServices. This script can also be enhanced to accept arguments from the CLI or read off an input file for a list of services to stop.



This script was created for the following thread from the Microsoft Technet's The Official Scripting Guys Forum:

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/ITCG/thread/3db5d54d-1d7f-46c5-9129-2130a7bdfaa8/

Aiza Seguerra @ Singapore Mosaic Music Festival 2009

The 5th annual Mosaic Music Festival in Singapore kicked off last week and will end tomorrow (22 March). This event features a hotchpotch of bands, artists and musicians of different musical genre from across the world. The Esplanade has played host to this modern day Woodstock (sans the booze and drugs) where the musicians play both indoors and outdoors.

I, together with my wife and kids, had the opportunity to watch Aiza Seguerra perform tonight at the festival outside of the Esplanade. The total performer that she is, she was able to captivate the predominantly Filipino crowd with her OPM-laden set. She was a real gem to watch, a dervish with her six-string. Despite the heavy rain before the show and the slight drizzle when it started, the crowd overflowed even to the stairs leading to the Esplanade itself. She closed her set (her first of the night, I wasn't able to watch the last set though) with a tribute to the King of Pinoy Rap, Francis M, who passed away recently. Her rendetion of FrancisM's Kaleidoscope World literally brought the house down.

Here are some of the pictures I had taken including one showing my kids during the meet-and-greet session with Aiza.

Stage with the Singapore Integrated Resort as the backdrop:

Aiza weaves her magic onstage:

Aiza with Amberdawn and Raidon:

Macro Madness - Part 1

Okay, a lot of things has kept me busy the past days; I just might blog about some of these activities when time permits. But I did find some time to fiddle with my camera for a few shots. I've always been fascinated with macros, and I did try my hand on shooting some which I would like to share in this post.

Macro Angel (shot taken from my room):



Lilies (Singapore Botanical Gardens):





Photography has been therapeutic for me; it keeps me relaxed and focused. One need not have the best of the camera bodies nor the finest piece of glass. Even an entry-level P&S can capture vivid pictures. So for those looking for some relaxing and fun activity, try photography. =)