Crossing to the other side...

After many years of being a customer of source forge I crossed over to the other side: codeplex. What can I say, goodies for SharePoint. Some promising ones below:

01) MOSS Faceted Search
02) SharePoint Visual Studio Project Templates
03) SharePoint Solution Installer
04) A Google Mapcontrol for ASP.NET and MOSS or Sharepoint WSS3 as a webpart
05) Predefined Search for MOSS2007
06) Accessibility Kit for SharePoint
07) SharePoint Developer Explorer
08) SharePoint 2007 Wildcard Search
09) 3-tier application design in wss 3.0 or MOSS 2007
10) PowerShell SharePoint Provider
11) SharePoint Builder
12) Project Compliance Audit
13) SharePoint AJAX Toolkit

Furthermore, Microsoft has released a number of very useful tools and docs:

• System Center Capacity Planning
  
• SharePoint Capacity Planning
  
• SharePoint Deployment Guide and Checklists
  

Out the windows...

... in with the doors. Or put in another way why and how I ditched Windows (Vista) for Linux. Vista the worst operating system from MS ever. It eats resources like candies. Come on, on new double core systems it drags and drags for a bit of shiny graphics...

The partitioning did not go too well - GParted live CD was working for 5-6 hours (It was actually reporting half that time as elapsed, it was counting in real time) only to say 0 out of 1 operations completed and then do the same thing again...

Then as I was killing time I discovered that it is very erratic when dealing with NTFS partitions (now you tell me instead of a big bold disclaimed as a wallpaper).So I took the plunge and rebooted the laptop.

Calamity.It couldn't boot and couldn't reach the secret partition where the restoration image was located (Oh no why provide restoration CDs when we can charge for them £35 when requested and let them wait up to 28 days?).

So Linux all the way. No dual boot. Well installing Linux was another adventure on its own. Equipped with a couple of DVDs from computer magazines I have tried a number of distros:

PCLinuxOS: Great, plays DVDs out of the bix, but no wireless card was supported.Great: would be fun trying to fetch all the required packages from the netcafe...

XUbuntu: No DVD support, wireless card detected but could not connect to the wireless network...

Fedora: I expected that to work, but during the installation the setup was asking to install the installation disk - didn't recognize that was itself...

Open Suse: Managed to 'misplace' the disk somewhere within the house. have the cover but not the disk.Superb.

Sabayon: very impressive! I would rather to give Ubuntu a try but beggars can't be choosers.

[The verdict]
Sabayon did install, could connect in my wireless, but it typically takes 5-6 attempts to do so. Still haven't figured why.

DVDs and media: Well apart from mp3s, video files and DVD are not supported out of the box. Had some luck only with Ogle for DVDs but all the rest players refuce to work. Currently looking into the video/codecs.

[The feeling]
It is gonna be a long curve till I get everything (I would settle with most) working, given that even digital cameras and external USB drives refuse to work (The motto why me comes to mind...).

In the mind of an engineer...

... or why most engineers do not get along with religious norms.

1001...

... movies.

Well not quite, or at least not yet. I have recorded 820 movies watched so far (taking into account movies in cinema, DVDs but not the numerous old movies in telly) without elaborating the sequels, trilogies, or series (the bond series has 20 movies, the star wars 6, you get the picture).

1000 movies X 2 hours on average = 2000 hours ~ one working year (40 hours x 50 weeks). Hm should I have completed a masters in that time ? Or a bucket load of certifications?

Then again if one starts breaking down life like that, s/he will find that spent 10s of years sleeping ('...if only I had been sleeping 6 hours instead of 8...'), a couple of years queueing etc... while the miracles of life (the moment you see your first born, the day you are at your kid's graduation etc.) maybe add up to a year... if you are lucky.

Spiralling..

... out of control or as part of progress ? We develop as we do things, we go forwards and backwards. It is fair for one to say that after 1 year of doing a role s/he is:

1. at the same stage that s/he has started (all this backwards and forwards netted out to null)
2. at some point forward based on the experience/ accumulated money etc.
3. at some point backwards based on the thing(s) s/he has not done (regrets)
   
4. at some point neither forward or backward but at higher or lower level (see spiralling)

Perhaps the above simply mean that there are 4 directions, forward and backwards (tactical advancement) and (higher,lower) strategic advancement.

Circle of life...

1. you see a sexy girl
2. you go out
3. you get married
4. you become a managing director
5. you see a sexy girl

quite accurate, wouldn't you say ?

Industrial Stories

After reading a series of books based on the 'inside-track' of certain industries:

• hotel
• airline
• luxury beach resort

one can not help but to wonder, whether this trend can extend to most/all industries and to what extent this would be appealing to some/many/most? people.

Well for the IT industry the following pic would be a great illustration of typical and recurring situation in many/most? offices.