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There’s some buzz around “Cuil”. Oh, it has the biggest index of pages!

Oh, they want to beat Google!

Oh, they have some super wise intelligent technology so the results are better!

Wait a minute. Has anyone ever been able to actually FIND something using Cuil? I mean, at first I didn’t even want to try it because the name sounded stupid, but I forced myself to try it in case it was good. I mean, the homepage is pretty clean, which is nice.

So, at one point today I wanted some details about a group policy setting versus how it affects Internet Explorer precisely. So I “Cuiled” this:

Group policy prevent save username Internet explorer

And got THIS:

No results were found for: Group policy prevent save username Internet explorer

If you’ve checked your spelling, you could try using fewer or different keywords to broaden your search.

Still no luck? Send us your feedback: noresults@cuil.com

Ok, so you didn’t find anything, and you want me to go through the trouble of SENDING YOU AN EMAIL? Are you nuts? I want to find stuff, not email you ! What are you going to do, email me the results back?

I tried a few other searches, and I either got no results, or got a ton of results which were mostly spam.

I don’t doubt that they have some “Cuil” technology over there, but it isn’t nearly ready for prime-time. Re-launch in a year and we’ll see.

Did anybody get good results using it? Seriously?

I wrote this a while ago for my wiki. I don’t use the wiki anymore as I don’t have nearly enough info and time to post good in depth technical articles. I find that the blog is a good place for shorter “tips” like this. Note that this was written before Group Policy Preference Extensions were distributed by MS, and that until everyone uses Preference extensions, this is still useful!

Force regional settings and keyboard language

From BinaryFactory

Contents

• 1 Purpose of this article
• 2 Why do this?
• 3 Solution
• 4 How to do it
  • 4.1 What is setlocale
  • 4.2 Extract setlocale.exe
    • 4.2.1 Make a script
    • 4.2.2 Apply the script

Purpose of this article

Centrally manage the keyboard language settings and/or the regional settings of your client computers or terminal servers/Citrix servers.

Why do this?

It seems Microsoft does not think that forcing a default Regional Setting or keyboard language policy is useful. However, many applications rely on the local date or number format, and using different settings on different client computers can cause a lot of problems. For Keyboard settings, it might be very useful to force a default for a group of users who have a locked down access to terminal server. You would think there is a way to do with with Group Policies, but as of Windows 2003 R2, there isn’t.

Solution

Use setlocale

How to do it

First, download this: setlocale

What is setlocale

Setlocale is a great command line application that does exactly what we need. I have uploaded it to this web site. However, I don’t know the license terms for it. The zip file I found contains a readme with no information about the author or the license. If you are the original author and want me to take it offline or link to your web site, please let me know. I tried to find the original author with no luck, but whoever you are: Thanks a lot.

Extract setlocale.exe

Extract setlocale.exe to a share that is readable by everyone. The location of your login scripts is usually a good spot.

Make a script

In the share where you usually put your login scripts, create a new one. Or if you already have a script applied to the users concerned by this, edit it. \\path\to\setlocale.exe 12345678 12345678

The first number represents the regional language you want to use, and the second one, the keyboard. For a complete list, refer to the readme in the zip file of setlocale.

Apply the script

Apply the script to the concerned users, group or O.U. Assigning login scripts is beyond the scope of this article.

Well, I’ve finally received my “Charter Member” welcome kit from Microsoft.

I was expecting a new card with a note on it or something, but it is just a typical certificate, with the note Charter at the top. Plus it doesn’t even appear on the transcript. Kind of lame.

Oh well, I guess I can put it on my resume.. like anyone would put MCTS certifications on their resume.

Why did I get FIVE certifications by getting my MCITP: Enterprise Admin? Are people craving instant gratification so much that Microsoft had to make you feel like you accomplished something every time you spent 130$ and 2 hours to pass an exam?

That MCITP itself is already easier than it should be, the individual certifications are a joke. Putting “TS: Windows Server 2008 Applications Infrastructure, Configuring” on my resume feels as stupid as writing “MCP” on it. OK, so I know how to install IIS and Sharepoint Services, and I know what a “Terminal Server” is. Now what ?

Well, if I was like some people I know I could put this in my signature!

/rant

It was released yesterday ! I’m getting ok on the small keyboard…

Why isn’t it listed under new apps in app store? (in Canada at least )

Oh well… First mobile post.. In front of my laptop

Here’s what might happen if you try to get your data completely blocked so you don’t get charged “a-la-carte” @ ¢5/Kb by mistake. The following have used around 3 hours of my life, excluding the time on hold for the first call to order it:

1 – Order iPhone, ask to block data. You’ll be told the block will be active in 2hours, and that in the meantime, you will still get billed. No problem, iPhone won’t be here til Monday..

2 – Monday morning, try iPhone. Wtf Internet works? Call customer service…wait on hold. Be told that you probably had Wifi on. (There is no open Wifi near my house and I hadn’t entered any keys yet.) Customer service “resets the block”. CSR asks to turn off phone and back on to try again. I do it. It still works.

3 – Call back. Explain situation. CSR tells me “I see no data usage on your account so you must be on wifi”. Explain that wifi is disabled on iPhone. CSR tells me that “You’re lucky then, you’re getting Free Internet!” – obviously she was sure I was stupid and on Wifi, I can’t really blame her for that, I’m sure a lot of users aren’t exactly tech friendly. There’s nothing more she can do. Hang up

4 – Call retentions, explain the whole thing. I’m told that the store made a mistake: you are not allowed to own an iPhone without this plan. You need to sign up for it right away or I will cancel your contract and you will have to send it back. WHAT?

First, it was not a “store” – it was Fido directly. Second, I paid 50$ extra for the iPhone BECAUSE I didn’t have a plan over 30$ and/or the 6gig data plan. Guy refuses to leave my stuff alone. He enables 6gig plan on my account. Hang up.

5 – Call CSR. Explain previous call with reference number. CSR says “Oh, he must’ve been confused, the policies change so often”. Well he was extremely aggressive, and I bet they get paid commission on selling data plans, how weird. CSR cancels my data plan, waives the cancellation fees. CSR contacts tech support. Tech support tells him that the wrong “block” was on my account from the beginning. They say that within 2 hours it should be completely blocked.

6 – After waiting 2 hours…let’s test. Yes, I still have 3g god dammit!

7 – Called CSR. Found someone with a brain this time (previous CSR was nice as well, unlike the 2nd one in the morning aka Ms. Free Internet and Mr. “Send me your money or your iPhone). He tries to contact tech support but it’s taking too long. Says he will call me back. He calls me back maybe an hour later, saying that they put another block on my iPhone and that if it still works now, they’ll see what else they can do. I test while on the phone, 3g works. He says I might have to reset the phone, so I have to hang up. He tells me to call back if it still works. I shut the phone off…turn it on… 3g still works.

8 – Called back to leave a message for previous CSR to call me back. He should call me back today.

Update!

9 – Obviously they didn’t call me back! I called back late, finally got someone on the line. As soon as I asked for a possible rebate or some kind very subtly, he went to tech support for 20minutes, and they found an issue in the switch’s configuration. It got instantly disabled (Edge, 3g) !
Great, so now I have an ipod touch with phone capability. I’ll probably sign up for the data eventually, as soon as they have plans smaller than 6gig for 30$.