Follow these steps to allow all VMs and the Host to connect to a VPN.

1. In Add/Remove hardware, add a Microsoft loopback adapter.
2. Open the VPN adapter properties and enable Internet Connection Sharing and have it use the recently created Loopback adapter.
3. Now in Virtual Server, create a new “Virtual Network” and set the “Network adapter on the physical computer” as the Loopback adapter
4. Next, for each VM that you need to have connected to your VPN, add a Virtual Network Adapter that is connected to the Virtual Network you just created.
5. On your host, establish the VPN connection.

That’s it. Boot up your VMs and they will be able to use your Host’s VPN connection.

I went ahead and killed the one that was using the least memory.

It reports that the MSN Weather gadget is has some sort of problem. What is strange is that none of the other gadgets I have running show up in this list and once this “second” sidebar is destroyed the other sidebar is still up and running as well as its gadgets.
As soon as I add the MSN Weather gadget again, a new instance of the sidebar pops up.

So if you have two or more instances of the sidebar running make sure it’s not a bad gadget.

I took a look at the services WSDL and realized that his problem is probably due to the fact the WebService was using Nullable Types which were introduced in .Net 2.0. At first that may not seem like an issue.

A Nullable Type for say, int, is used to hold all the possible values of int and a null value. In pre 2.0 days, this was not possible resulting in a multitude of work-arounds. But since 2.0 it is possible to give a variable of type Nullable int a value of null to indicate that the variable has not been instantiated or assigned.

So in this particular case, any use of Nullable Types in the Web Service were being treated as optional parameters.

When using Visual Studio 2003 to add a Web Service Reference or manually executing Wsdl.exe that comes with .Net SDK (1.0 and 1.1), the proxy that is generated is does not take into account Nullable Types because the concept did not exist at the time these tools came out. The generated proxy represents an int? as just int. If this proxy was used to call the Service, it would pass a 0 for that field as a default value rather than null which in turn would cause the WebService to think the client intended to pass a 0.

A quick fix to this problem is to manually edit the proxy after it has been generated and change the type of the fields/properties to string. System.String is capable of holding a range of characters and a null value. The drawback will be that the proxy will not be a 100% strongly typed, but this can be fixed with encapsulation of the filed/property.

Your MOSS environment will need to be on a domain in order to use Microsoft Single-Signon. If it is not on a domain then you will have to provide a custom SSO Provider implementation.

I used the Flight BAPIs that come with the trial version of SAP Netweaver. The service interfaces for these BAPIs are exposed by default.

Your LobSystemInstance need to have the following Properties set:

• <Property Name=”WebServiceAuthenticationMode” Type=”System.String”>Credentials</Property>
• <Property Name=”WebServiceSsoApplicationId” Type=”System.String”>SAPTestSystem</Property>
• <Property Name=”SsoProviderImplementation” Type=”System.String”>Microsoft.SharePoint.Portal.SingleSignon.SpsSsoProvider, Microsoft.SharePoint.Portal.SingleSignon, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c</Property>

Be sure to have WebServiceSsoApplicationId and WebServiceAuthenticationMode since it is Web Services that the BDC will be accessing and not a database. Also, do not use WindowsCredentials as the value of the WebServiceAuthenticationMode. The SAP services are not secured by Windows Credentials.

Now login to your MOSS environment.

1. On the OS, ensure that the “Microsoft Single Sign-on Service” is running under a domain account that has access to create\modify the a database on a DB server. The server does not have to be your MOSS SQL Server.
2. Fire up the MOSS Central Administration site and go to Manage Single Sign-On (Operations > Manage Single Sign-On)
3. Click “Manage server settings”
   1. For the Enterprise Application Definition Administrator Account name, specify the domain group or user, that will manage the Single-Sign on service.
   2. For the Single Sign-on Administrator Account name, specify the domain group or user, that will manage the application definitions and accounts for those definitions. (For testing purposes I kept these two the same)
   3. Specify the name of the SQL Server that the SSO database will reside on. Make sure that the account group or user that you specified above has the appropriate access to the SQL Server.
   4. Keep the name of the database the default, SSO and click Ok.
   5. If everything goes fine then the Single-Signon Service will create the SSO DB on the SQL Server you specified. Any errors that you may receive at this point will be due to the lack of access on the group\user you specified or the Single-Signon Service is not running or not running under the appropriate account.
4. Click, “Manage settings for enterprise application definitions”
   1. Provide a display name for the Application.
   2. The Application Name needs to be the same value as the property “WebServiceSsoApplicationId” in your LobSystemInstance.
   3. I recommend setting the Account Type to Group. It will allow all users that belong to the group to use this SSO application definition.
   4. DO NOT check Windows authentication. This only works if your LobSystemInstance is set to use Windows Credentials.
   5. Leave the Fields as is.
5. Click, “Manage account information for enterprise application definitions”
   1. Select the Application definition that you just created.
   2. For the Group account name, specify the domain group that has access to use this SSO application definition.
   3. Click the “Set” button”
   4. Specify the user name and password, that has permissions to invoke the SAP Web Services.
   5. Click “Done”

That is it. You should be able to import your LOB System into the BDC. Make sure that your Business Data Web Parts are accessible to the domain group that you specified SSO application definition. Also, your BDC will need to include the same group in the BDC permissions set and grant them Execute access.

Here are some pictures from the rally:

Check out the rest here.

Mark Larsen of 1040 AM WWBA interviewed Mitt Romney on the morning of 1/29/2008. The sneers and chuckles from slippery Romney pushed him over the edge and drove him to support the only real candidate — Ron Paul.

Just lost my vote!

So who is going to be Hillary’s running mate should she win the nomination? A friend of mine observed a few months ago, “With Hillary, you get two for the price of one.”

Her husband seems to be in the spotlight a lot these days campaigning for his wife, generating a few headlines here and there. O’l Bill has served two terms as President, and is the first black President, contrary to what most people think about his race.

The question that I want answered is what prevents Hillary from choosing Bill as her running mate? The twenty-second amendment only prevents a person from running more than twice for the office of the President. I’m not constitutional lawyer or a judge, but this does not have any language indicating that the Bill Jefferson Clinton cannot be the next VP:

No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once. But this article shall not apply to any person holding the office of President when this article was proposed by the Congress, and shall not prevent any person who may be holding the office of President, or acting as President, during the term within which this article becomes operative from holding the office of President or acting as President during the remainder of such term.

Sure they cynics will say, it’s just a VP post. VP’s don’t have any real power. I’d like to direct there attention here, here, and here.

Realistically, he won’t be her running mate, right? If she becomes incapacitated, we will have a President who has for the first time since FDR served more than 3 terms. Welcome to the Clinton Dynasty. The Clintonian Era.

Even with Bill locked in a basement 100 feet underground, the Clinton Dynasty will be alive and well with Hillary in charge. A thousand years from know people will read about the short 8 year gap between the “Great Liberal Dynasty” (that destroyed America.)

Maybe she won’t pick him for her running mate. Perhaps another post. Say Secretary of Defense or State. Or Chief of Staff.

You hear about political family dynasties all the time in third world countries. Having two Bushes elected was one thing, because former Bush didn’t get involved in the policies of the current Bush. Never in America huh?

Save yourself. Save your country. Register as a Republican and get out and vote for the only hope for America.

I immigrated to the US when I was a very young child. But just because I was young didn’t mean I wasn’t aware that I was leaving behind my home, family and friends. I was very attached to the things I knew, and as all children I weary of change. My father told me we were leaving for a better place, a place where there were great schools and millions of opportunities to exceed and achieve great things in life. A place that was untouched by plagues of corruption, lies and deceit. A place where your worth as a man was based on your merit and your character, not of blood or money. A place where your hard work was valued more than your race, religion, or creed. A place where you are free.

My father was an architect back home. He was well respected and admired in our social circles. As a man of principal, he taught me at a very early age, that if a man does one thing in his life that is right, just one, then he must not lie. Lies are the great equalizer, and contrary to popular belief that money is the root of all evil, I firmly believe that lies are the root of all evil. You can do great things with money, but lies destroy the very fabric of what it is to be human.

Like most immigrants from “third world” countries we were very poor. The furniture in our first apartment (just mattress, no beds) such as chairs and tables came from a motel that my father’s friend owned. We could not afford a vacuum so my mother used a dust brush / pan to clean the carpet. My father ended up working at a gas station making minimum wage, furthering the stereotype but he did put food on the table. He said a man’s first responsibility to his family was to put food on the table that was bought and paid through an honest living and an honest day’s hard work.

Friends and neighbors tried to convince my father to get government assistance in the form of unemployment checks or food stamps. To this day he tells me, that as long as a man has his hands and breath in his chest he must earn his living. Every time someone would try and convince him to take government assistance he would always tell them that we had enough and there might be those that are not doing as well as we are.

He went from drawing blueprints and managing teams of construction workers to running a cash register and cleaning the bathrooms on the night shift. Getting a second job was out of the question, because if his kids grew up without a father’s presence in their lives what would be the point of the extra cash?

We were here to get a quality education and grow up to achieve great things in life. That is what he told us when we told him we missed grandma. He did what he could to distract our young minds; toys aren’t cheap especially if you break them often. But he did what he could, despite the government skimming off the top.

Fast forward about 15 years, I started working as a computer programmer right out of high school and at 19 moved out to the suburbs with the family and bought a two story house, that my mother who’s never lived in a “house”, refers to as her dream home that she’s been dreaming of since she got married.

Thank God we live in a country where people can live their dreams. Their American Dreams. Thank God, we live in a country of bountiful opportunities where a person’s hard work is valued more than the color of his skin, his origins, and his creed.

Family and friends think I’ve accomplished a lot at a young age. Looking back at my parent’s life, I can confidently say, I have accomplished nothing, save for understanding some of my father’s teachings and by the Grace of God for putting me in a land where I can give my parents something back for all they’ve sacrificed for us.

My father and I support Ron Paul because we believe he can restore America to the beacon of freedom and peace that it has long been known for. We believe in Dr.Paul’s message of dismantling the welfare/warfare state while simultaneously getting rid of the IRS will solve so many of the problems that the Nation faces today. We believe that his message once it has finished resonating across the lands, will give America back to her true self.

It will be restored to the days when men worked hard from dawn till dusk doing whatever they needed to make an honest day’s pay, forsaking handouts, to feed their families. Where a man’s hard work, his blood and sweat, and his honesty is all that is needed to live the dream.

Hopefully everyone has been Hannitized a little bit more since reading my previous post, “This just in: Ron Paul is not a conservative? (Part 1)”

For the second part, let us continue to discuss the financial health of the country. The greatest threat to the greatest military power in the history of the earth is the value of its currency. And the greatest country in the world is about to become broke, should it continue down the path of financial irresponsibility.

The same advice is given to everyone by their parents and grandparents. Live within your means. You’ll dig yourself an early grave by being indebted to someone. Living within one’s means, is to live moderately by not overspending on the luxuries you can do without. It means that if you only make $2000 a month, it doesn’t make much sense to go out and by a car that costs $35,000. But many people do. The will take a 60 month loan and make minimum payments for 5 years by the end of which, if they haven’t completely ruined the car, the will try to trade it in or sell it for about $5000.

Of-course when making $2000 a month means that you’re most likely going to go and get a loan from your local bank in order to purchase a car even the bank knows you can’t afford. But they’ll lend it to you, calculating the risk you have. But if you were making, say $1500 a month or less more likely than not the bank will deny you the loan citing high risk due to income level. But what if the bank ignores the risk? What if the bank decides to give you the money that you want, with full knowledge that you probably won’t be able to pay it back? How great would that be? You could by a new car every year. And a better one than the year before. Hell you could by two of them! You’re smart enough to manage your money, so it should be all right. The bank manager knows you personally and figures you’ll pay it all back. No big deal.

What if the government in its infinite wisdom decided to do the same? What if the government had the capability of just borrowing whatever amount of money they need to support whatever special project they needed to fund?

Unless you’ve been living in a cave, the government does just that. It borrows money all the time. Lots of it. As of right now the national debt is at $9.2 trillion. Is there a limit? Even our personal banks, under the most relaxed liberal rules, will realize that if we had an income of $2000 a month and we had a $200,000 debt, our ability to borrow even a $100 has been eliminated. But the U.S. Congress continually votes to raise the amount of debt the government can have. Last November the debt ceiling was raised to $9.8 trillion.

How can we allow this to happen? Which presidential candidate is talking about the debt of the US? Which candidate is talking about cutting spending? The position taken by almost every Republican candidate on dealing with the national debt is to cut taxes. That’s it? Cutting taxes is our only way? Oh sure they’ll speak of cutting government spending left and right. But they won’t talk about what spending they will cut. Just spending. As if there was a lever that they will pull down and all of a sudden government spending will be reduced. No friends, there isn’t a breath of honesty coming out of them.

On the other hand there is one candidate that openly states that he will cut both taxes and spending, and doesn’t stop there. He tells us exactly what spending he will be cutting. He tells us the departments and programs of the federal government he wants to be rid off, not overnight of course (that’s physically impossible).

And the Hannitizer thinks, Dr. Paul isn’t conservative? If cutting the bloated tyrannical Department of Education which is ruining the education of millions of children, is not conservative. Then I don’t know what is. And please before you start expressing your feeling on how cutting the Dept. of Education means the children won’t learn, I suggest you start by reading this.

More to follow…

So I’m driving home from work and since I’m done listening to the same garbage being put out by the music industry, I started listening to Sean Hannity. He was predictably talking about conservatism. Specifically Regan style conservatism. Modern conservatism.

Sean rightly pointed out that Regan was a true conservative. Regan said, “government that governs the best, governs the least.” And he’s absolutely right.  I firmly believe that. Governments that are interfere with the lives of their citizens aim to destroy them and create subjects. All governments want power. Governments thrive on power. They live for it. Much like a mob. A mob like government is a group of people that thinks it is collectively wields absolute power. And thus craves even more power. A mob robs people of their liberty by destroying that which they may hold most dear to them. The interruption of their very lives. The destruction of their home and property. Government is nothing more than a controlled mob. Left unchecked, it can destroy the lives of its citizens and their property.

And yet of all the Republican candidates running for the highest office in the country, Hannity has the audacity to refer to Ron Paul a a loon. Ron Paul is the only true conservative candidate. So what does Ron Paul believe? What is his position on some of the most important issues facing our country today? And the most important question, how does he differ from Reganesce Conservatism.

First up and dear to every one, taxes. He cut income taxes significantly, to the tune of trimming the top personal tax bracket from 70% to 28%. These cuts in the 80’s are attributed to the economic boom of the 90’s. Understanding the logic here is quite. The citizens of a nation want to build wealth and in order to do so they invest. They invest in stocks, in property, in education, or they shop sometimes for things they don’t need. Who’s to blame them? When a person has an excess amount of wealth, they shop for things they need and thus pumping money into the economy which has a rippling effect and the proof is in the pudding. During Regan’s administration the GDP grew nearly 3.4% a year.

Ron Paul wants to abolish the IRS because they collect taxes before we even get a chance to see the fruits of our labor. The take the money we’ve worked so hard to make and each year as we grow intellectually stronger and get better jobs they take even more. What is our incentive to working hard? What is our incentive to finding a higher paying job? The harder we work, the more they take. It is injustice on a grand scale and we sit back and except it because we are told that there is no other way.

We have to give in. The State takes the money we worked so hard to earn before we receive it, cuts a giant chunk off the top and redistributes it to support projects it deems worthy of supporting. Projects that we may or may not approve off that were designed, created, and supported by a bureaucratic goon working in the halls of the State. Very much like working for the Mob. Whatever you earn they take their cut off the top and support their apparatus, mostly to provide “security” to your life and business.

Of-course Ron Paul’s critics will argue, where do you get the much needed funding to support the “special” projects of the Mob State. Really? Is this really a concern? And what special projects? Like the “bridge to nowhere”:

“Last year a proposed $223 million for a “bridge to nowhere” connecting Alaska’s Gravina Island — population 50 — to the mainland caused a nationwide furor. The allocation was backed by Stevens and fellow Republican Rep. Don Young of Alaska, the powerful chairman of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure…”

Two hundred and twenty three million dollars for a bridge to an island occupied by a hand full of people. $223 million of our tax dollars.Surely that is just a bad example. What about the nice gems in the 2008 appropriations bill:

“Rep. Hobson is ranking member of the House Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations subcommittee.  His place on the powerful Appropriations Committee allowed him to rack up 37 projects worth $35.8 million in the 2008 appropriations bills.”

If I had to list all the crap in the appropriations bill, I would puke.Ron Paul’s goal of getting rid of the IRS will definitely mean the government will not be getting a nice chunk from the treasure of the citizenry. And so the second part of the equation will be to cut spending. Cut spending left and right. The federal government should not be subsidizing the good Senator Steven’s desire to build a bridge.

$29 BILLION in wasted spending is something everyone needs to be concerned with. The population of the US is around 300 million and lets subtract 30 million (give or take a few thousand) illegal immigrants who don’t pay income taxes. You do the math.

Keep tuned into the Hannitizer. More to come…