Sometimes technical, sometimes not, never a kitty

If you're into certifications, you might be happy to know that Second Shot is back.  Just in time for the SQL Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 exams!  This is a do-over in case you fail the exam, you can take it again for free.  Registration is required, limited time only.  Full story at http://www.microsoft.com/learning/mcp/offers/secondshot/default.mspx.

Old news by now, but SP1 is out with all sorts of glorious new features, except a good installation path.  If you have several machines to update with both VS2008 SP1 and .NET 3.5 SP1 (e.g., a team), you'll want the ISO file, which can be tricky to find.  Direct link to combined installer .iso.  And, I use the awesome freeware ImgBurn to create the disks for my team.

I've seen a couple reports that the installation takes 3+ hours, but all told installation for me went 45 minutes.  I cheated, and downloaded the .NET 3.5 SP1 first (full package at http://download.microsoft.com/download/2/0/e/20e90413-712f-438c-988e-fdaa79a8ac3d/dotnetfx35.exe), installed that, then ran the combo installer. 

Greg has a great list of VS2008 things to download (including the MSDN update and training pack) at http://coolthingoftheday.blogspot.com/2008/08/visual-studio-2008-net-35-sp1-etc.html.

As always, make sure to remove any previous betas of the SP (both .NET and VS) you have installed.  I had the SP beta installed, and got rid of it from Add/Remove programs before I installed anything.  If you have any hotfixes installed, you need to remove those as well.  This time, there's a hotfix removal tool.

Unlike Craig Shoemaker, I was not asked for the original media.  I installed the MSDN updates, too, which tool a little over 30 minutes themselves.  All told, you're investing a couple hours for a full update.

One of my favorite database tools is dbdesc from Logica2.  I’ve reviewed it in the past.  It’s simple, inexpensive and does its job quickly and well.

Recently, I’ve had some turnover on my team, in addition to the usual bouncing around, and database scripts became out of date with what was in the database.  I got the “all clear” to refresh a database, and ended up wiping out some recent changes.  I couldn’t recreate the tables and stored procedures from their creation scripts, but fortunately I had run dbdesc earlier and had its output to work with (you can run it as a command line tool and include it in your automated builds).  Dbdesc includes the CREATE scripts in its documentation, so I copied and pasted and executed and ran into a problem.

After a little poking around, I noticed that the tables were all being created as dbo.schema.tablename.  Upon closer examination (and this took a while to find), I saw that dbdesc was outputting the CREATE as

[schema.tablename]

rather than

[schema].[tablename]

This small difference is what led to the creation errors.  Manually fixing the sql script solved my problem, and I reported the issue to Logica2.  This is where the tale of great customer support begins.

I sent in the bug report via their website at around 3pm on Friday.  About three hours later, I had a reply from Jose that he was looking into the issue.  Not a bad response time, and I wasn’t expecting any update until today (Monday).  At 11:12 pm Saturday, I get another email from Jose saying the issue has been fixed and a link to the new installer.  Very impressive, especially since it would be Monday before I was back at work and would need the software.  This was probably a very simple issue to fix, but nonetheless it received prompt attention on a weekend.  My previous build was 730, and the updated build was 737.

Thanks, Jose and Logica2, I love your products even more!

So there's a new player in the search engine space, founded by some really smart people from Google.  Named Cuil, pronounced "cool", it differs from Goole's algorithm:

As Cuil's founders describe it, the search engine goes beyond today's search techniques of link analysis and traffic ranking to analyze the context of each page and the concepts behind each query. It then organizes similar search results into groups and sorts them by category. Cuil displays results and offers organizing features, such as tabs to clarify subjects, images to identify topics, and search-refining suggestions.

(from http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=13000BY4G7IU&nl=2)

Or, put simply:

Cuil is making a big push that it ranks pages by content, rather than popularity. The idea here is to poke at how Google is commonly viewed to just reward pages that have the most PageRank value.

(from http://searchengineland.com/080728-000100.php)

Ranking by content?  Uh oh!  Remember "back in the day", when content was the main factor in ranking websites?  What did we end up with?  That's right, lots of spammy search results.  SE rankings were determined by the number of times search terms were repeated in the page content, and it was easy to repeat your way to the top results.  Content ranking was pretty much the death of Lycos and Alta Vista--the signal to noise ratio was way too low.

Just to test this brave new world of content ranking, I ran a test myself.  Wifey owns The Bloomery Florist in Butler, PA, so I did searches on Google and Cuil for "florist butler pa".

Google: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=florist+butler+pa&btnG=Google+Search

The top of Google's results list the local results, with listings and maps of florists actually in Butler, PA.  The first five search results include three listings for The Bloomery, and two other shops in town.  Not bad, considering there are only four florists in town and one doesn't have a website.  If you're looking to send flowers to Butler, Google is going to point you in the right direction.

It isn't until the eighth result when spammy fake-florist sites start to show up.  You've seen them on Dateline and other places, the ones who pretend to be a florist in a local community, charge you a high service fee, and then send the order via FTD or Teleflora to a real local florist.  They're a complete ripoff, but like P.T. Barnum said, "There's a sucker born every minute".  Florist Detective has more information about fake local florists at http://www.floristdetective.com/wst_page9.aspx.

Cuil: http://www.cuil.com/search?q=florist+butler+pa

The main way the fake florists work their way into the search results is with keyword repetition, usually in some gibberish at the bottom of the page.  And, Cuil got suckered.  All but one of the results on Cuil's first page are fake florists, pretending to be in Butler.  Part of the spammy text from the first result is below (you have to scroll way down on the page to find this text):

Everybody in Butler needs Butler, PA Pennsylvania Flower Delivery from the best Butler flower shop.
Our Butler floral shop and our Butler flowers are first in quality.
Send Butler, PA Pennsylvania florist greetings to any city or state with a Butler local florist.
We offer Butler florist shop delivery everywhere. Order Butler flower bouquets with a Butler local florist.
Whenever you want a Butler centerpiece call our Butler flower shop.
Butler florist shops will bring your Butler sympathy arrangements wherever you need them.
Try our Butler, PA gift baskets for holiday giving or any time including any specified gift items.
Butler Thanksgiving flowers, and Butler Christmas flowers sent near or far.

See the result at http://www.800wesleys.com/Butler_Pennsylvania.html.  Wesley Berry is actually located in Michigan, not Butler, PA.  When you place an order with them, you're talking to someone at a call center (or will be handled by no one if you place online), and you're charged a high service fee.  The call center has no idea what's in the local coolers, or what's available.  Not exactly what you're looking for if you want to send flowers to Butler, PA.

Danny Sullivan also ran some tests himself, and you can see the results at http://searchengineland.com/080728-024035.php.  His conclusion was also that relevancy alone isn't enough to overcome Google's algorithm.

Long story short, let the searcher beware with Cuil for the time being.  I think there's some promise here, but they need a better algorithm than just keyword repetition.  There are some really smart people behind Cuil, and a good deal of money, too, so it's one to watch.  For now, use Google to find your local florists, and double check with Florist Detective if you're unsure.

<update 2008-08-02>

This isn't something made up, but an actual consumer warning.  Cuil is leading consumers into an unsatisfactory experience.  Wesley Berry has an Unsatisfactory rating at the BBB, and has a long list of complaints at Complaints Board.

The new iPhone has hit the streets, and with its ActiveSync support, that means it’s hit our enterprise, too.  We support Windows Mobile via Activesync and Blackberries via BES, and we enforce password and locking policies on all devices.  The deal breaker is whether or not a device can be remotely wiped, which Windows Mobile and Blackberries can.  One of our coworkers scored a new iPhone on “Release Day”, so we had a chance to test it out.

After configuring ActiveSync, the iPhone picked up the policies fine, after a reboot, the PIN policy was in place, as was the user’s e-mail.  When we tested the remote wipe, trouble ensued.

It appears that remotely wiping an iPhone bricks the device.  Unlike a Blackberry or Smart Phone, which are basically reset to factory after a remote wipe, the iPhone starts to an Apple logo and just sits there.  Attempts to resurrect it by sync’ing it with iTunes had no effect.  The error messages indicate that the OS is not found on the device.

We’re still working on it, and are about ready to visit a Genius Bar or AT&T store to resolve the issue.

<update>

The iPhone has been rejuvenated.  The user was attempting to reactivate the iPhone through his iTunes, which originally activated the phone (and was installed Friday, Release Day.  For some reason, it wasn’t working.  When the iPhone was hooked up to a new install of iTunes today (Tuesday), the iPhone came back to life.  We’re not sure if there was a hotfix for a known problem or just a different iTunes or what, but the issue seems to be resolved.

(note: this came to me as an e-mail with a thousand forwards, so if you know the original copyright holder, please let me know)

1. BLAMESTORMING: Sitting around in a group, discussing why a deadline was missed or a project failed, and who was responsible.
2.SEAGULL MANAGER: A manager, who flies in, makes a lot of noise, craps on everything, and then leaves.
3.ASSMOSIS: The process by which some people seem to absorb success, and advancement by kissing up to the boss, rather than working hard
4.SALMON DAY: The experience of spending an entire day swimming upstream only to get screwed and die in the end.
5. CUBE FARM : An office filled with cubicles.
6.PRAIRIE DOGGING : When someone yells or drops something loudly in a cube farm, and people's heads pop up over the walls, to see what's going on.
7. MOUSE POTATO : The on-line, wired generation's answer to the couch potato.
8.SITCOMs: Single Income, Two Children, Oppressive Mortgage. That Yuppies get into when they have children, and one of them stops working to stay home, with the kids.
9.STRESS PUPPY: A person who seems to thrive on being stressed out and whiny.
10.SWIPEOUT: An ATM or credit card that  has been rendered useless because magnetic strip is worn away from extensive use.
11.XEROX SUBSIDY: Euphemism for swiping free photocopies, from one's workplace.
12.IRRITAINMENT: Entertainment and media spectacles that are Annoying, but you find yourself unable to stop watching them.
13. PERCUSSIVE MAINTENANCE: The fine art of whacking the crap out of an electronic device to get it to work again.
14. ADMINISPHERE : The rarefied organizational layers beginning just above the rank and file. Decisions that fall from the admonisher are often profoundly inappropriate or irrelevant to the problems they were designed to solve.
15. 404 : Someone who's clueless. From the World Wide Web error Message '404 Not Found,' meaning that the requested site, could not be located.
16. GENERICA : Features of the American landscape that are exactly the same, no matter where one is, such as fast food joints, strip malls, and subdivisions.
17.OHNOSECOND : That minuscule fraction of time in which you realize, that you've just made a BIG MISTAKE. (Like after hitting send on an email, by mistake).
18.WOOFS: Well-Off Older Folks.
19. CROP DUSTING: Surreptitiously passing gas, while passing through a Cube Farm.

Wifey needed a new PC, and like all people who have had the same one for 6 years, she wanted everything to transfer perfectly.  The new one had to operate just like the old one, only better. 

Aloha Bob used to be the gold standard of PC migration tools, but Microsoft bought it and incorporated it into Vista, taking it off the market.  Fortunately, our pals at Laplink have enhanced Laplink PCMover to move applications from one computer to another.  I owned Laplink sync software many moons ago, when they gave you bright yellow parallel to parallel and bright blue serial to serial cables.  I still have the cables, and might have the 3.5" floppy the software came on.  This was back in the days when laptops were bigger than what we call mini-towers are today.

Configuration of PCMover was easy, it takes about 5 minutes after you install the software on each PC, and then you just start the transfer and walk away.  It took about 4 hours to move 17GB worth of data and programs, but the old PC has USB 1.1 (low speed) ports.  I imagine it's much faster with USB 2 ports on both ends.  The included USB cable is a high-speed USB interface (you can also transfer via network, but even low speed USB is faster than 100MB).  I mowed the lawn and moved some mulch during the transfer.

After the transfer, a reboot was recommended, and then it was time to see what worked and what didn't.  The desktop looked exactly like the old PC, and all programs seemed to make the journey, even some weirdos specific to Wifey's business.  I was a little dubious it all went well, but after opening every program and checking it out, it really did work as well as I had hoped.

What did transfer:

• All data files and folder structure.  The old PC has  D drive, which the new one doesn't have, so any folder on d:\ was placed in a new folder at c:\drive_d\ on the new PC.
• Quickbooks 2003 program, settings and data file
• Microsoft Office Small Business 2000, including "Recent Files" lists and registration keys
• FTP Surfer and configured login settings
• Internet Explorer favorites, cookies and home page
• Olympus Cameida Master Pro
• TightVNC and settings (it was even registered as a service and automatically started when I rebooted)
• Shutterfly Smart Upload and settings
• Desktop settings, including background photo and icons

What didn't transfer:

• AVG 7.5 (registered version, and the docs say A/V software won't be migrated)
• Passwords for Outlook and Outlook Express e-mail accounts
• .NET Framework 2.0 (an error occurred at startup)
• Startup folder entries
• Printers
• Some Outlook rules needed to be tweaked for some reason (all folders were present, but I had to respecify the "specified folder")
• a few folder settings (such as showing the full address in title and address bar, and opening folders in new windows)

The old OS was Windows XP Home SP1, and the new OS is Windows XP Professional SP2, and this may account for a few of the settings which needed to be retweaked.  By design, the Windows itself does not transfer--only settings, programs and data.

Long story short here, I'd say PCMover was practically perfect.  The few small settings I had to change were no big deal, especially when compared to having to reinstall all that software and reconfigure all the settings.  PCMover will be an enthusiastic high recommendation to anyone I know migrating to a new PC.

I bought PCMover off the shelf at Staples, but you can download it from Laplink's website if you don't need the cable but do need immediate gratification.  You can also order Laplink PCMover from Amazon or Laplink's website.

I'm a Windows guy.  That's my job, that's what the family runs, so that's what I do.  But I'm fascinated by Linux, and I appreciate a lot of the rethinking the Linux crowd has done.  One of the more popular distributions of Linux is Ubuntu, and it's supported by several virtualization programs.  Two that I have in my hands are Virtual PC and Parallels.  Since I'm pretty deep into Windows work, I'd rather virtualize Ubuntu, as opposed to a dual boot, and dedicating hardware is out of the question right now.

So, after installing and using Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon) under both Virtual PC and Parallels, my winner is Parallels.  Here are a few reasons why:

Installation

Installation under Parallels was much smoother than Virtual PC.  In both cases, I simply reassigned the CD Drive to the ISO, changed the default HDD space and booted into the Live CD.  From there, I ran the installer program to install Ubuntu.  Parallels needed no additional configuration, but for Virtual PC, I had to enable a boot script to make the mouse work.  There were times where installation under Parallels had hung up, but waiting a minute or two and it picked back up again.

Operation

Operation under Parallels is also much smoother.

As with installation, I had to make some boot script changes in order for the mouse to work under Virtual PC.  Thankfully someone had gone through this already and blogged about it, because I'm not at the level where I can figure these things out yet.  Also, there seems to be a somewhat random local echo when I press a key under Virtual PC.  When I hit a key, it may show up as if I pressed it 2 or 3 times.  This doesn't happen under Parallels.

The mouse issue seems to be more a fault of Linux than Virtual PC, since the mouse was being reported as a PS/2 mouse.  My mouse is really a USB mouse, which is picked up differently by Parallels and Ubuntu.  But the echo thing is driving me crazy.

Finally, performance.  Performance of Ubuntu under Parallels is much snappier than Virtual PC.  I can't load up all the snazzy desktop effects under either, but that's OK, all I want to do is learn more about Linux.

One major difference, and this may be a deal breaker for many, is that Virtual PC 2007 is free, while Parallels isn't.  I have Parallels because Lunarpages hooked their webmasters up with a free copy.

Overall, I'm looking forward to working with Linux more now that I have an environment which makes it easy to work with.

I've had hosts offer all sorts of free components on their servers you can use, or install, but Lunarpages takes the cake this month.  They negotiated with some fine software vendors for free tools or free advertising credits.  All told, you can claim $775 worth of goodies just for hosting with them!

All the free goodies are detailed in the June 2008 Newsletter, but here are some highlights:

Parallels Workstation - I'm stoked about this one.  Similar to Virtual PC or VM Ware, but much lighter.  Free for Windows and Linux users, only a discount for the Mac crowd.  Honestly, I didn't know they had a Windows version, so their promotion worked on me.

WinSettings - There's a lot of crap built up in my startup.config I need to clean out, and I'm always looking to boost performance or speed the boot process.

The Logo Creator - I'm a sucker for pretty logos.

Also, they offer bunches of components with their hosting plan, and some additional free tools for managing your site.  Lunarpages has been a very stable and affordable host for me, so if you're looking for a host and wnat some free stuff, too, chek out Lunarpages.

We have an old Dell Dimension 4400 with Windows XP Home Edition, SP1.  When we tried to upgrade to Windows XP SP2, the system slowed to a crawl.  It was terrible.  When I removed SP2, it worked great again.  I found one webpage which suggested replacing the standard hard drive would fix the problem.  I tried that, and no dice.  I replaced the Seagate with a Maxtor and Western Digital (I have these things laying around, since I'm kind of a pack rat when it comes to PC parts).

I had hopes that SP3 would not have the same issue, but it did as well.  Once I removed the SP, it worked great again.  My resolution in this case, since the computer is several years old and is wifey's main PC, is to get a new one and redeploy this one as something else.