SteveOH

I recently came across this error within an Server 2008 Active Directory Environment where I attempted to add a domain user account to Microsoft SQL Server 2008 x64.

As you may see on the internet, the problem is in fact related to SID, but in my situation it was not the SSID of the user, but of the actual server.  The instance of Server 2008 x64 is running in VMWare Workstation 7 and was created by cloning another VM.  This, of course, makes them identical, such that changing the computer name only results in what ‘appears’ to be disparite systems.  In a workgroup this shouldn’t be an issue, but once Active Directory is introduced, it gets wacky.  AD relies on SID’s, and thus, acts unpredictably when 2 machines / users / groups have the same SID.  This is further exagerated when SQL Server is involved, since it creates and / or stores its own SID for the user.

Here are the steps I followed to solve this issue:

1. Remove the server running SQL Server from the domain.  Reboot.
2. Verify the AD Computer Account has been deleted for the system (on a domain controller).
3. Run newSID.exe (found here) and change the SID of the server running SQL Server to a new random SID.  Reboot.
4. Add server back to the domain and verify the account is created within AD.

Once I did all that, the user added with ease.

Good luck.

Courtesy of Cain’s Brain.

1. Any PERMISSION DENIED has an OVERRIDE function.

2. Complex calculations and loading of huge amounts of data will be accomplished in under three seconds. In the movies, modems transmit data at two gigabytes per second.

3. When the power plant/missile site/whatever overheats, all the control panels will explode, as will the entire building.

4. If you display a file on the screen and someone deletes the file, it also disappears from the screen. There are no ways to copy a backup file — and there are no undelete utilities.

Corollary: Deleting a file instantly removes all copies of said file from disks, memory, frame buffers and caches across all computers in the universe.

5. If a disk has got encrypted files, you are automatically asked for a password when you try to access it.

6. No matter what kind of computer disk it is, it’ll be readable by any system you put it into. All application software is usable by all computer platforms.

7. The more high-tech the equipment, the more buttons it has. However, everyone must have been highly trained, because the buttons aren’t labeled.

8. Most computers, no matter how small, have reality-defying three-dimensional, real-time, photo-realistic animated graphics capability.

9. Laptops, for some strange reason, always seem to have amazing real-time video phone capabilities and the performance of a CRAY.

10. Whenever a character looks at a terminal, the image is so bright that it projects itself onto his/her face.

11. Computers never crash during key, high-intensity activities. Humans operating computers never make mistakes under stress.

12. (From Independence Day) No matter what kind of virus it is, any computer can be infected with it — even an alien spaceship’s computer — simply by running a virus upload program on a laptop.

13. (From Jurassic Park) A custom system with millions of lines of code controlling a multimillion dollar theme park can be operated by a 13 year old who has seen a Unix system before. Seeing an operating system means you know how to run any application on that system, even custom apps.

Note: What OS was it really running?

(1) “These are super computers”.  A CrayOS?

(2) “Quicktime movie, Apple logo, trash can.”  MacOS?

(3) “Reboot. System ready. C:\”  DOS?

(4) “Hey, this is Unix.  I know this”  Unix?

The computers in Jurassic Park were Cray supercomputers running the MacOS as a graphical shell of DOS all layered on top of a Unix base.

14. You cannot stop a destructive program or virus by unplugging the computer. Presumably the virus has it’s own built-in power supply.

15. You cannot stop a destructive program downloading onto your system by unplugging the phone line. You must figure out the mandatory “back door” all evil virus programmers put in.

16. Computers only crash if a virus or a hacker is involved.

17. All text must be at least 72 point.

18. Word processors do not have an insert point.

19. The only way to reboot is to shut off the main power to the building.

20. Passwords can be guessed in three and exactly three tries.  If you cannot guess the password in three tries, you must give up immediately.

21. Any task or program can be executed by simply pressing Enter, no matter which program or window is in the foreground.

22. All scanners, video cameras and digital cameras have a resolution of approximately 500 megapixels.  Any image can be infinitely magnified with no pixelization.

23. Security will not improve over time.  Nonaffialiated personnel can take over a space ship without needing an account or access control.  Corollary: Anyone can override access control lists in the future.

24. All hackers wear black T-shirts or Hawaiian shirts.

25. Incoming messages are displayed letter by letter.  Email over the Internet works like telegraphs.

26. Microsoft Windows doesn’t exist.  Macintosh has a 75% market share.

27. GUI operations, such as image selection and manipulation, can be handled easily and quickly via the keyboard.

28. If a robot’s eyes turn red, it becomes evil.

29. Cell phones and laptops have infinite battery life, until you need to call for help.

30. Latency does not exist.  Voice and data can be sent to Mars in real time.

by C.G. Lynch

January 12, 2009 —

As the economy falls deeper into recession, many people have turned to LinkedIn, the social network for professionals, to job hunt and connect with contacts who might help them land a new gig. But career experts say your LinkedIn job-hunting efforts will all be for naught if you don’t build your profile page properly and ensure that it is search-friendly for potential employers and recruiters.

You can take some simple steps (all free of charge) to ensure that you’ve done everything possible to differentiate your LinkedIn profile from the others, career management experts say. These steps will make it more likely that recruiters and other LinkedIn users will find you serendipitously when they navigate and search the site.

We’ve arranged these tips (roughly) in the order they appear on a LinkedIn profile page. In order to change your profile, log into LinkedIn and go the left menu. Click on the aptly named “Edit my profile” link.

Picture

While you don’t necessarily need to pay a professional photographer, it’s important to upload a picture to your LinkedIn profile, says Jason Alba, CEO of Jibberjobber.com, a career management firm, and author of the book I’m On LinkedIn – Now What?.

“It doesn’t have to be amazing, but a picture just makes your profile a lot more personable,” Alba says. “With the way digital cameras are nowadays, just put on a suit and have your friend take some pictures and crop it in.”

Professional Headline

Like the New York Times has its slogan “all the news that’s fit to print,” your professional tagline should sum you up for the LinkedIn reader, very concisely.

Because the professional tagline occupies the prime real-estate immediately below where your name is, you really want to make this one count, says Kirsten Dixson, a career management consultant who specializes in helping people utilize web applications for their professional endeavors.
“It’s how you position yourself right away in the reader’s mind,” Dixson says. “It should be a shortened version of your personal brand.”

According to Alba of Jibberjobber.com, if you have a job, it’s not necessary for you to use your actual title, especially since that appears in the “current” jobs section of your LinkedIn profile section. If you’re looking for a job, “think of the tagline as your ten second pitch,” he says. “It’s not easy to do [in so small a space], but make sure you get a clear message in there of what you’re about professionally.”

What Are You Working On?

This is like LinkedIn’s version of Twitter, the short messaging service that allows users to leave status messages regarding what they’re doing. Unlike Twitter, all your status messages should be business-like in tone and compelling for readers.

According to Dixson, these messages could ask an intelligent question to your fellow contacts, known as “connections,” on LinkedIn. Or you might offer mention of a specific project you’re working on that exemplifies the kind of work you do or are interested in pursuing.

Dixson says the status update also provides an easy avenue to keep your page fresh. If you update it regularly, it will show that you’re engaged with your LinkedIn page and the people who visit it.

Your Websites

LinkedIn allows you to list three websites on your profile. Most people choose to add their company sites, or blog (if they have one).

When you go to add a site in the edit settings page, you will be given the option to describe the site generically as “My Company” or “My Blog.” But if you look closely, you can click on “Other,” which will allow you to type in something customary. Alba recommends using that feature.

While you could choose to type in your company name, Alba says you might want to use a phrase that’s descriptive and that will draw readers in. In Alba’s case, for instance, he would describe his blog as “career management blog” instead of the generic “My blog.”

Go get your LinkedIn URL

Like any social network or web service of its kind, LinkedIn will create an address for your profile page. Ideally, you want to have your name at the end of the URL. Such as, for example, http://www.linkedin.com/in/cglynch.

You can edit your LinkedIn URL. And do it quickly, especially if you suspect many users share the same name as you. It’s much like free e-mail services: it’s better to be John Smith@[email service] than JohnSmith1431@[e-mail service].

“This is a URL you might leave in your blog or homepage, or maybe in your professional e-mail signature,” Alba says. “If it’s cleaner and recognizable, that will be helpful.”

Summary

The “summary” section is the meat of your LinkedIn profile, and matters a great deal both in terms of human interaction (do people find it interesting?), and also in terms of LinkedIn’s powerful search engine, which will find certain keywords in it relevant, and return you higher in search results when people query terms in your field of work.

“The more keywords you have the more relevant you are in search,” Alba says. “So if you’re in project management, for example, you might want to have PMP (Project Management Professional) in there.”

But Alba says you must remember that humans will be reading your summary, so don’t get so hung up on keywords that the summary becomes unreadable.

“Some people will do SEO (search engine optimization) and make it just a list of keywords,” Alba says. “That’s not very compelling for a human reading your summary.”

One thing you might do, Dixson says, is focus on writing a good concise summary of yourself in the summary field and save the keywords for “specialties,” which appears as a subsection within the summary and can be modified when you click to edit your summary.

Recommendations

Recommendations allow people viewing your profile to get a third-party perspective on you and your work. If you ask someone to write you a recommendation, you will be able to approve it before it gets posted to your profile.

While Alba says it’s nice to have that recommendation where your boss gushes over all the great work you do, don’t stop there. Go for what career coaches call the 360-degree view.

“If you can have subordinates say you’re the greatest boss in the world, or customers who say you’re great to do business with, that provides [readers of your LinkedIn profile] with a much fuller view of you,” Alba says.

What to do with Apps

In October, LinkedIn launched its applications platform, making it possible for users to add up to 10 different apps to their LinkedIn profile.
“Whatever you do within the apps, keep it on brand,” Alba says.

As an example, then, don’t use the slideshow application to post pictures of your vacation to Florida or anything personal. Instead, the app to create a PowerPoint-like presentation showcasing your work, Dixson says, or display your career goals in another engaging format.

CIO.com

1. Use Notepad to open the Web application Web.config file. By default, this file is in the following folder:

2. Add the following section at the end of the web.config file in the respective site:

  <system.webServer>
 <security>
  <requestFiltering>
   <requestLimits maxAllowedContentLength=”1073741824“/>
  </requestFiltering>
 </security>
</system.webServer>

Where the number is in bytes.  This amount would allow you to upload 1024 MB (1 GB) and was calculated as follows (1024 B / KB * 1024 KB / MB * 1024 MB / GB).

Note This code sets the value of the maxAllowedContentLength property to 52428800. Therefore, the maximum file size of an uploaded file is 52428800 bytes. However, set the value of this property so that it is larger than the file that you are trying to upload. Also, set the value of this property so that it is larger than the maximum file upload size that you have configured in SharePoint. If you do not, users will not receive an error message that they are exceeding the size limit if they try to upload a file that is larger than the maximum file upload size that you have configured in SharePoint.

I recently installed a new hard drive into my server running Server 2008.  Everything worked fine, until I rebooted.  I tried to copy a file to the disk and recieved an error that the drive, in my case E:, was write protected.  I don’t know how or why that happened, but the solution is fairly simple.  The steps are as follows:

1. Open a command prompt (ie. Start > Run > cmd) with administrative privledges
2. Type in the command: diskpart
3. Run the command: list disk
4. Look for the disk number that’s having the problem.  In my case I have a system drive, a RAID 5 configuration (1 logical drive) and then the new drive, so it was DISK 2.  I will continue to use it in the example but note that yours may differ.
5. Select the disk using the following command: sel disk 2
6. Enter the following command: ATTRIBUTES DISK CLEAR READONLY
7. Exit diskpart with the command: exit

Then test by copying a file or folder to the drive.  It should be fairly instantaneous, but worst case you may have to reboot (I did not, however).

That’s about it.  It would be interesting to know WHY this happened, but then again, does it really matter?

Good luck.

DirectX 7.0a SDK Download

DirectX 7.0a SDK Include and Header Files (Vista)

This is the entire DirectX 7.0a SDK install cd compressed using 7-zip (link).  You’ll thank me for making you install that compression application, as it cut the size of the compressed file by 30 MB.
It is no longer available from Microsoft’s websites at all, but still remains valid technology.
Microsoft no longer supports the DirectX 7.0a SDK… however it all works well and requires little support.

The DirectX 7.0a SDK is incredibly powerful, but normally only works with Visual C++ and Visual Basic, not with Borland C++ Builder.

If you would like to experience the magic of RAD DirectX 7.0a for Borland C++ Builder, you will also need to download the TDx_Library.

Why you would use the DirectX 7.0a SDK without the TDx_Library is beyond us, it’s too hard, and RAD DirectX just makes it all pathetically easy…

Other DirectX Resources

I recently came across an application provided by Intel for the purpose of benchmarking NAS devices (Define: Network Attached Storage).  I’ve been looking for a solution to benchmark the new RAID-5 array I created on my Windows Server 2008 server (I love the RAID’s redundancy, but the write speeds are quite low).  I wanted to get a better idea of its performance, as Windows will report 250 – 150 MB READS and 20 – 50 MB WRITES, which is considerably poor considering the 4 drives are individually benchmarked at ~100 MB READS and 60 MB WRITES (They are Western Digital Caviar Blues / RE3 / RE16).

The software can be found here or from Intel here.

System Specifications:

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 2008 Enterprise Edition, SP1
CPU Type: Pentium 4 630, 3000 MHz w/ Hyperthreading
Motherboard Name: Dell Dimension 8400
Motherboard Chipset: Intel Alderwood i925XE
Motherboard Frontside Bus Speed: 800 MHz
System Memory (RAM): 4 GB, Dual Channel
System Memory Speed / Timings: DDR2-533 (266 MHz) / 4-4-4-12
Hard Drive Controller Interface: SATA I (1.5 Gbits / s) = 150 MB/s (maximum)
Hard Drives: Western Digital

• Drive #1 – WDC WD5002ABYS-01B1B (465 GB)
• Drive #2 – WDC WD5002ABYS-01B1B (465 GB)
• Drive #3 – WDC WD5000AAKS-00A7B (465 GB)
• Drive #4 – WDC WD5000AAKS-00A7B (465 GB)
• Drive #5 – WDC WD800BB-00JHC0 (74 GB) – SYSTEM

Raid Configuration: Software 4 disk RAID-5 (4 x 500GB, 1.36 TB Effective Storage Space)

System Memory Benchmark: Copy – 4790 MB/s, Read – 6266 MB/s, Write – 3341 MB/s, Latency – 92.7 ns
System Processor Benchmark: CPU ZLib – 10592 KB/s, CPU AES  – 3055

Benchmarks completed using Everest Ultimate Edition v4.20.1257

All drives are SATA II (3.0 GB/s) but are running in backwards-capability mode.

The primary roles of the server is to serve files and store backups (File Server) and web and application development and website hosting (Web Server).  I do not stream media, play music from the server or write extremely large amounts of data that are time sensitive.  Therefore, my decision for RAID-5 was based on the space savings (n – 1) storage availability and the redundancy by means of the parity.  I am willing to give up performance (write and read) for storage space and redundancy, but I want to know how much I’m actually giving up.

Tests

• HD Video Playback, 2x HD Video Playback, 3x HD Video Playback, 4x HD Video Playback

These benchmarks examine the behavior of the NAS unit while (simultaneously) playing one or more HD video files at 720p using Windows Media Player. Intel gives a percentage rate for the sequential reading of data in these tests, which lies at 99.5% for the HD Video Playback Test. With 2x HD Video Playback, it lies at 18.1%. The result is 6.6% with 3x HD Video Playback and 9.6 % with 4x HD Video Playback.

• HD Video Record

This test writes an HD Video file in 720p format to the NAS unit. This test is made of up of mostly sequentially transferred data.

• HD Video Playback & Recording

HD Video Play & Record examines the behavior of the NAS unit when simultaneously reading and writing an HD Video file in the 720p format. The sequentially-transferred data in this test is approximately 18% of the test.

• HD 2x Playback 2x Record

This benchmark is similar to the one above, but the proportion of sequential file operations is 3%.

• HD Playback With Office

This metric measures the data transfer rates when an HD Video file is read from the NAS unit while working with the Office applications. This test is made up of 608 files. The proportion of sequential file operations is 53.2%.

• HD Playback With Backup

Like the previous test, but this time an HD Video file is played while simultaneously carrying out a backup on the NAS unit.

• Content Creation

This benchmark is made up of 95% write operations to the NAS unit. This simulates the creation of files on the NAS unit such as is the case when, for example, using video editing programs.

• File Copy To NAS / File Copy From NAS

These tests determine the data transfer rate when copying files to or from the NAS unit. In both of these test processes, a 4 GB file is copied. Unlike with Backup / Restore, 64 KB is read and written.

• Directory Copy From NAS / Directory Copy To NAS

Similar to the previous test, files are copied to and from the NAS unit. A total of 126 files with a total size of approximately 188 MB are written and read across the network.

• Photo Album

This test determines how the NAS unit handles the supply of a multitude of small files—for example, viewing digital photographs stored on the NAS unit. It simulates the viewing of a total of 169 photographs with an overall size of approximately 1.2 GB.

Considerations and Assumptions

These tests were conducted on the Server, not over the network, which will probably result in very high throughput.  I did this to get a feel for the actual performance, not that felt over the wire, and because I’m currently running 100 Mbps (Cat 5e) on my LAN, not gigabit.  Thus, I did not want the network to be the bottleneck in these tests, as it would be saturated and skew the results.

I ran the tests 6 times, in each, manipulating the environment to establish a real world benchmark.  Since this benchmark is done via an application, it will compete with other processes for resources.  Additionally, it will compete with the actual Operating System who is responsible for transfering the data to the disk and calculating the parity for the raid (which is quite memory and CPU intensive).  For test 6 I ran the system in Safe Mode, utilizing only necessary processes and services to run the operating system (Safe Mode without Networking).  Thus, the numbers are quite high.  In the others, I ran Outlook, SQL, browsed the internet and downloading files via torrents (to the actual RAID, so this will mess with the numbers as well) – not all at the same time, of course, except for test 4.

Results

Discussion

I attribute the absurd file copy speeds to caching and buffering at both the OS, RAID and the Drive level, as well as the writes for the video recording.  All in all, I’m pleased with the benchmarks and am satisfied with the set up.  One thing to note is that the tests were done from the SYSTEM drive to the RAID, and thus, the SYSTEM drive introduced an additional bottleneck as the transfers from it to the RAID were going to be quite slow (the drive is benchmarked at ~56MB READ and ~30 WRITE).

Microsoft recently released a cool new ASP.NET server control – <asp:chart /> – that can be used for free with ASP.NET 3.5 to enable rich browser-based charting scenarios.

LINK

October 24, 2007
By Charlie Schluting

Many new workstations and servers are coming with integrated gigabit (define) network cards, but quite a few people soon discover that they can’t transfer data much faster than they did with 100 Mb/s network cards. Multiple factors can affect your ability to transfer at higher speeds, and most of them revolve around operating system settings. In this article we will discuss the necessary steps to make your new gigabit-enabled server obtain close to gigabit speeds in Linux, FreeBSD, and Windows.

Hardware considerations
First and foremost we must realize that there are hardware limitations to consider. Just because someone throws a gigabit network card in a server doesn’t mean the hardware can keep up.

Network cards are normally connected to the PCI (define) bus via a free PCI slot. In older workstation and non server-class motherboards the PCI slots are normally 32 bit, 33MHz. This means they can transfer at speeds of 133MB/s. Since the bus is shared between many parts of the computer, it’s realistically limited to around 80MB/s in the best case.

Gigabit network cards provide speeds of 1000Mb/s, or 125MB/s. If the PCI bus is only capable of 80MB/s this is a major limiting factor for gigabit network cards. The math works out to 640Mb/s, which is really quite a bit faster than most gigabit network card installations, but remember this is probably the best-case scenario.

If there are other hungry data-loving PCI cards in the server, you’ll likely see much less throughput. The only solution for overcoming this bottleneck is to purchase a motherboard with a 66MHz PCI slot, which can do 266MB/s. Also, the new 64 bit PCI slots are capable of 532MB/s on a 66MHz bus. These are beginning to come standard on all server-class motherboards.

Assuming we’re using decent hardware that can keep up with the data rates necessary for gigabit, there is now another obstacle — the operating system. For testing, we used two identical servers: Intel Server motherboards, Pentium 4 3.0 GHz, 1GB RAM, integrated 10/100/1000 Intel network card. One was running Gentoo Linux with a 2.6 SMP (define) kernel, and the other is FreeBSD 5.3 with an SMP kernel to take advantage of the Pentium 4’s HyperThreading capabilities. We were lucky to have a gigabit capable switch, but the same results could be accomplished by connecting both servers directly to each other.

Software Considerations
For testing speeds between two servers, we don’t want to use FTP or anything that will fetch data from disk. Memory to memory transfers are a much better test, and many tools exist to do this. For our tests, we used [ttcp](http://www.pcausa.com/Utilities/pcattcp.htm).

The first test between these two servers was not pretty. The maximum rate was around 230 Mb/s: about two times as fast as a 100Mb/s network card. This was an improvement, but far from optimal. In actuality, most people will see even worse performance out of the box. However, with a few minor setting changes, we quickly realized major speed improvements — more than a threefold improvement over the initial test.

Many people recommend setting the MTU of your network interface larger. This basically means telling the network card to send a larger Ethernet frame. While this may be useful when connecting two hosts directly together, it becomes less useful when connecting through a switch that doesn’t support larger MTUs (define). At any rate, this isn’t necessary. 900Mb/s can be attained at the normal 1500 byte MTU setting.

For attaining maximum throughput, the most important options involve TCP window sizes. The TCP window controls the flow of data, and is negotiated during the start of a TCP connection. Using too small of a size will result in slowness, since TCP can only use the smaller of the two end system’s capabilities. It is quite a bit more complex than this, but here’s the information you really need to know:

Configuring Linux and FreeBSD
For both Linux and FreeBSD we’re using the sysctl utility. For all of the following options, entering the command ’sysctl variable=number’ should do the trick. To view the current settings use: ’sysctl <variable name>’

• Maximum window size:
  • FreeBSD:
    kern.ipc.maxsockbuf=262144
  • Linux:
    net.core.wmem_max=8388608
• Default window size:
  • FreeBSD, sending and receiving:
    net.inet.tcp.sendspace=65536
    net.inet.tcp.recvspace=65536
  • Linux, sending and receiving:
    net.core.wmem_default = 65536
    net.core.rmem_default = 65536
• RFC 1323:
  This enables the useful window scaling options defined in rfc1323, which allows the windows to dynamically get larger than we specified above.
  • FreeBSD:
    net.inet.tcp.rfc1323=1
  • Linux:
    net.ipv4.tcp_window_scaling=1
• Buffers:
  When sending large amounts of data, we can run the operating system out of buffers. This option should be enabled before attempting to use the above settings. To increase the amount of “mbufs” available:
  • FreeBSD:
    kern.ipc.nmbclusters=32768
  • Linux:
    net.ipv4.tcp_mem= 98304 131072 196608

These quick changes will skyrocket TCP performance. Afterwards we were able to run ttcp and attain around 895 Mb/s every time – quite an impressive data rate. There are other options available for adjusting the UDP datagram sizes as well, but we’re mainly focusing on TCP here.

Windows XP/2000 Server/Server 2003
The magical location for TCP settings in the registry editor is HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters

We need to add a registry DWORD named TcpWindowSize, and enter a sufficiently large size. 131400 (make sure you click on ‘decimal’) should be enough. Tcp1323Opts should be set to 3. This enables both rfc1323 scaling and timestamps.

And, similarly to Unix, we want to increase the TCP buffer sizes:

ForwardBufferMemory 80000
NumForwardPackets 60000

One last important note for Windows XP users: If you’ve installed Service Pack 2, then there is another likely culprit for poor network performance. Explained in [knowledge base article 842264(http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=842264), Microsoft says that disabling Internet Connection Sharing after an SP2 install should fix performance issues.

The above tweaks should enable your sufficiently fast server to attain much faster data rates over TCP. If your specific application makes significant use of UDP, then it will be worth looking into similar options relating to UDP datagram sizes. Remember, we obtained close to 900Mb/s with a very fast Pentium 4 machine, server-class motherboard, and quality Intel network card. Results may vary wildly, but adjusting the above settings are a necessary step toward realizing your server’s capabilities.

5:23p ET November 18, 2008 (MarketWatch)

This is an update to correct the number of mortgages the FDIC plan aims to modify.

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Democratic lawmakers told Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson on Tuesday that he must reverse course and spend some of the $700 billion in bailout funds to keep individual homeowners from losing their homes.

“Some of this TARP money has to be used for mortgage foreclosure prevention,” House Financial Services Committee chairman Barney Frank told Paulson at an oversight hearing on the Troubled Asset Relief Program on Tuesday.

“When the program was passed, very explicit language was included to provide for … mortgage foreclosure diminution as one of the purposes. There’s very specific language in there,” Frank said.

Paulson reiterated his opposition to using any of the money to buy mortgage-backed securities or individual mortgages, although that was his original plan in September when he asked Congress for an unprecedented amount of money to keep global credit markets going.

Paulson also opposed a proposal introduced Friday by Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairwoman Sheila Bair, who is seeking to use $24.4 billion of the $700 billion authorized by Congress to modify loans and avert 1.5 million foreclosures.

Other Democratic lawmakers also expressed opposition to Paulson’s approach of investing money in banks and other financial institutions to bolster their capital and allow more lending.

Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., expressed support for Bair’s mortgage foreclosure prevention approach. “The purchase of toxic assets was at the centerpiece of this program, because everybody agreed at that time that the sub-prime meltdown was at the epicenter of the dislocation that we were experiencing in our economy,” Waters said.

Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., said she was concerned that the TARP money was being used to fund bank transactions rather than getting credit into communities. “We’re basically funding mergers and acquisitions, not lending,” Maloney said.

Another Democratic lawmaker, Rep. Nydia Velazquez, D-N.Y., said she was concerned that Paulson’s capital injection approach wasn’t doing much for Main Street America. “They’re still waiting to hear an answer as to how this is benefiting them,” Velazquez said.

Paulson said he is sticking with his plan to use the first half of the allocated government capital, $350 billion, to buy significant minority stakes in large, mid-sized and small financial institutions. Paulson said he changed the approach as market realities changed with it.

“Although we are not planning to initiate another capital program beyond those already announced, an emphasis on capital seems to us to be the better strategy going forward,” Paulson told lawmakers. “Congress passed legislation to deal with financial instability, and that is what we are doing.”

He said the best way to turn around the weak housing market was to “increase access to lower cost mortgage lending.”

He argued that the government takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac was an important step in that direction.

Overall, Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke defended on Tuesday their stewardship of the $700 billion financial market rescue plan. “A lot of it still hasn’t gone out to the banks. I think we’ve turned the corner in terms of stabilizing the markets and banks, but we will see restoration to lending” Paulson said.

Paulson said that there was “no playbook” for the Bush administration to follow and so strategy had to be adjusted. He said the financial markets would be worse off if Congress had not approved the package.

Bernanke said he saw some improvements in credit markets, but said overall conditions remain “far from normal.”

Bair said the FDIC would adopt a Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program rule on Friday that would seek to unlock inter-bank credit markets and “restore rationality to the credit markets.”

Bair’s proposal would guarantee new, unsecured debt issued by banks, thrifts and bank holding companies issued between Oct. 14 and June 30. According to her proposal, debt issued cannot exceed 125% of senior unsecured debt that was outstanding as of Sept. 30 and scheduled to mature before June 30. The program provides insurance coverage for deposits typically used by corporations for payroll expenses.