Review: Poly EagleEye Mini USB camera

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I’m a little late to get my mitts on an EagleEye Mini USB camera, but circumstances recently gave me cause to take a closer look.

If you’ve not encountered it before, the Mini is a compact 1920×1080 HD USB camera, initially designed to slot into the top USB port on your VVX501 or 601, but nowadays also supported on a Trio with Visual+, and even on a PC or Mac.

Features

Poly’s website reports its features thus:

  • High-definition 1080p60 capture with true color hue saturation and brightness for the most accurate color rendition and life-like images
  • 4x electronic zoom and a 74-degree field of view
  • Simulcast video stream
  • Installs in seconds – no drivers needed

It’s officially a supported peripheral for Skype for Business video calls on a computer or video conferencing device.
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New-ObfuscatedFile.ps1

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I have the occasional need to send log files to Microsoft and other vendors from customers who have strict IT security requirements. These customers usually require all files be de-identified before they leave the premises, removing all host names and IP addresses.

This can be quite a tedious process, so I’ve created a small script file that edits a provided text file and:

  • uses a “find/replace” CSV file to replace all instances of sensitive text with replacement values.
  • obfuscates any unchanged IP addresses, replacing them with dummy text in the format “aa.bb.cc.nn”, where the “nn” is the same number where-ever that IP address is encountered in the document. (e.g. the third IP address that’s found in the file will be renamed “aa.bb.cc.3”).

At a minimum, you only need to provide an -InputFile. With only this, the script will replace all IP addresses with dummy values, then save a copy of the file with a “-new” suffix.

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Azure – Resource Provider Not Registered

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I’ve been following one of Tom Morgan’s excellent tutorials on creating Bots for Microsoft Teams, and I hit an unexpected hurdle very early on in the process – but as it turns out, the fix was a simple one.

Resource provider 'Microsoft.BotService' not registered for the subscription

Fair enough, I say. Let’s register.

I navigated to All Services then searched for and selected Subscriptions, then selected my Subscription and Resource Providers. There were a lot there, so I filtered for microsoft.bot, only to be greeted by the news that I *was* already registered:

Seeing as I was already here and there was an option to Unregister, I went down that path. Refresh, wait a bit, Register and BOOM, I was back on the air.

The moral of the story? Even in the cloud, turning something off and back on again remains a viable fix.

Revision History

9th August 2019: This is the initial publication.
 

– G.

SfB 2015 Server Update – July 2019

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It says August 1 on my calendar, but this update is badged July 31st on the download site, so July it is.

Known Issue: “call hold,” “transfer,” and “resume” options for the Polycom VVX series may fail. (See below for more details.)
Fixed: See SfB 2015 CU10 HF1

Our last CU (May’s CU9 / 6.0.9319.548) has now been rendered obsolete by CU10 – 6.0.9319.559. It updated 7 components on my Standard Edition Front-End server.

What’s Fixed?

This cumulative update includes a defense in depth fix and enables Location-Based Routing to support the Skype for Business mobile clients. It also fixes the following issues:

  • Kb 4510852 UCWA client is disconnected because w3wp.exe crashes when using clarity connect in Skype for Business Server 2015
  • Kb 4510851 SCOM SQL alerts are created every hour on SQL Secondary Replica server if “Always On” for Monitoring Server is set in Skype for Business Server 2015
  • Kb 4510850 Skype for Business on Mac user’s latest photo can’t be seen until signing in to a Windows client in Skype for Business Server 2015
  • Kb 4511313 “Too many outstanding requests for a single user” error occurs on Front-End servers in Skype for Business Server 2015
  • Kb 4510847 Rate My Call on UCWA clients still shows after installing the January 2019 Cumulative Update for Skype for Business Server 2015
  • Kb 4510846  “InstallDatabaseInternalFailure: An internal error has occurred…” error when installing new databases in Skype for Business Server 2015
  • Kb 4507230 Support LBR and branch site voice resiliency conflicting requirements in Skype for Business Server 2015
  • Kb 4459114 The installed local XDS database version isn’t matched with the expected version in Skype for Business Server 2015
  • Kb 4507232 Resuming a PSTN call that was put on hold results in one-way audio in Skype for Business Server 2015
  • Kb 4510845 UCWA Event ID 20002, 20003, and 20033 occurs after you install the July 2018 cumulative update for Skype for Business Server 2015
  • Kb 4510844 Can’t find the response group agent that’s synced from an existing distribution list in Skype for Business Server 2015
  • Kb 4510843 Forwarding a missed call from Shared Line Appearance fails in Skype for Business Server 2015
  • Kb 4507228 No notifications from UCMA conference subscriptions after a network disconnection in Skype for Business Server 2015
  • Kb 4510842 Form-based authentication still works after you disable external basic authentication in Skype for Business Server 2015
  • Kb 4510841 Skype for Business 2015 Mediation Server doesn’t respect the codec prioritization for outgoing PSTN calls
  • Kb 4510840 Error ID 28042 and UCMA sign-in fails in Skype for Business Server 2015
  • Kb 4510839Skype for Business still rings if a PSTN call is ended before it’s answered by an online user in Skype for Business Server 2015
  • Kb 4510855 Can’t edit interactive RGS workflows via the web interface in Skype for Business Server 2015
  • Kb 4507233 Enterprise users can’t request control of an anonymous user’s shared screen in Skype for Business Server 2015
  • Kb 4510856 User can’t create Skype meeting for a delegator via Skype for Business on Mac if they’re homed in different pools in Skype for Business Server 2015
  • Kb 4512879 UCWA client can’t make a P2P call or join a conference when EnableExternalAccessCheck is True and EnableOutsideAccess is False in Skype for Business Server 2015
  • Kb 4503584 “The Audio/Video Conferencing Server has failed to create a conference” error (ID 32005) occurs on Audio/Video Conferencing Server in Skype for Business Server 2015

What’s New?

Nothing noted.

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Yes, I’m gay. Why even mention it?

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Occasionally someone will be brave enough to ask why I give my sexuality top billing in my Twitter profile and bios:
 

It probably seems a little out of place given that if you search the word “gay” on my blog you’ll find the only hit – singular – is on my “about” page (until now that is).

That I’m gay isn’t relevant to what I do for a crust – no questions about that.

It’s purely a visibility thing.

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DHMG2019 – the Disco Death Star – Pt.2

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This is part 2 of a 2-part series covering how we built the “Disco Death Star”:

Part 1 – The Build – construction and assembly
Part 2 – Control, programming & examples – (this post)

The controller

Here’s the final version of the control PCB. It’s a bit of a dog’s breakfast, but it’s what you get when your proof of concept morphs through prototype stage to become the finished product.

At the left is the Teensy 3.6 that’s running the show, and on the right is the “Octo Level Shifter FeatherWing“. The level shifter is there purely to convert the Teensy’s 3.3V IO pins to the 5V required by the LED strips. I SHOULD have used a “Teensy 3.2 OctoWS2811 Adaptor“, but I didn’t know at the time it existed – and of course that explains why there wasn’t a Teensy version in the store and was forced to compromise on this Feather version. (D’oh!)

To the right of the Level Shifter are 8 header pins – those are the data feeds to the ball.

As it was initially built, that’s all there was. When you applied power the ball ran the chases in a random order, each for a semi-random period of time (in between two bounds I’d hard-coded).

Let’s add some DMX

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DHMG2019 – the Disco Death Star – Pt.1

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If you’re new to the “DHMG” – our annual housewarming party – and its attendant excuse for some crazy home-brew tech, there’s some back-story and an index of the things we’ve done here.


 
This is part 1 of a 2-part series covering 2019’s “Disco Death Star”:

Part 1 – The Build – construction and assembly – this post
Part 2 – Control, programming & examples
Continue reading ‘DHMG2019 – the Disco Death Star – Pt.1’ »

Test-CsDatabase shortcuts

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I don’t know about you, but I’m not getting any younger, and my eyes often glaze over when faced with a table of numbers to compare for differences.

This is often the case when I issue one of my fave p$ shortcuts to test my SfB server’s databases:

Test-csDatabase -LocalService | ft *name,*edver*

Do this on every server in a large pool – or every server in a vast environment – and you might start to experience the same optical distress.

Here’s a variation on the above that ONLY reveals the Databases that fail to match:

Test-CsDatabase -LocalService | where-object {$_.InstalledVersion -notMatch $_.ExpectedVersion} | Select *Name,*edVersion

Replace “-LocalService” with “-ConfiguredDatabases -SqlServerFqdn”, etc, for an Enterprise Edition pool and for Monitoring or Chat databases. (Cmdlet reference).
 
– G.

SfBS 2019 MACP – Modern Admin Control Panel

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One of the significant enhancements delivered in today’s Skype for Business Server 2019 CU1 is the new “Modern Administration Control Panel” or MACP.

This is a new HTML5-based admin interface, which shares a particular visual familiarity with the SfB Online and Microsoft Teams Admin Centres – and does so without requiring Silverlight.

Thankfully it still co-exists with its long-established Silverlight equivalent the CSCP, so you can choose between them.
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SfBS 2019 SEFAUtil in PowerShell

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Added to Skype for Business Server 2019 from CU1 is “SEFAUtil” functionality in native PowerShell. No longer do you need to install a clunky “Trusted Application”.

SEFA-WhatNow?

Such innocence. You don’t know the world of pain you’ve missed!

“Secondary Extension Feature Activation Utility” – to give it its full name – has historically shipped in the Lync and Skype for Business “Resource Kit” (“ResKit”) download pack. When correctly integrated into the topology it gives support staff the ability to query, set and cancel all manner of call-forwarding and team/delegation settings from the comfort of their cube, without needing to visit the user or reset their AD password in order to do it remotely (after signing in as that user). It’s a godsend when someone goes on leave unexpectedly or has a catastrophic PC failure with an urgent incoming call pending, and as equally helpful when configuring the settings for executives and other ‘sensitive’ users.
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