November 2009 - Posts
As a geek, it’s hard to avoid getting into conversations that end up in religious wars about which technology is best.
The Sinclair ZX-Spectrum has 48K of RAM and a Z80 processor!
Ah yes, but the BBC Micro has a real keyboard and polyphonic sound generator!
You get the idea. Programming languages are a hot favourite source of ignition in the powder keg of geekdom. The next time I get drawn into an argument, erm, discussion about which language is best, I’m going to try my best to keep a straight face and state, dead pan, that I’m switching to Whitespace.
Real musical talent is hard to find these days amongst the commercial mush being churned out by the record industry. My favourite roots band, Show of Hands stands out for me as an example of everything that’s good about music. Their latest song "Arrogance, Ignorance and Greed” has a new performance video on YouTube. One of the things I like about SoH is that they’re not afraid to get political, this song is a comment of the financial services industry.
The band, however, are the opposite of this title. When I went to their gig in Cardiff this year, guitarist Steve Knightly (left in the picture) gave the crowd permission to give away copies of their albums to any friends who wanted to sample their music. He said, “It’s not theft, its called generosity”. This refreshing attitude is what’s needed in the music industry. It’s clear that the big music corporations are busy committing suicide, bands like SoH who “get it” are the vanguard of the new music industry. So please, check them out. If you like the video, ask me for some more of their music and I’ll send you some, on the understanding that if you like it, you’ll either buy an album or go to a gig.
Everyone has questions when they start a business and it’s not always easy to get the answers. There’s a great new resource is http://startups.com (video) where you can ask your questions and have them answered, for free and often within minutes.
Startups.com is one of the first of a new breed of web sites based on the Stack Exchange engine, pioneered by Jeff Atwood and (a personal hero of mine) Joel Spolsky. Jeff and Joel pioneered this concept with their trilogy of web sites for IT and computers, StackOverflow, ServerFault and SuperUser. The technology has been reworked by Joel’s company Fog Creek Software into a hosted platform called Stack Exchange, which anyone can buy and customize for their own particular niche community.
I’ve used these sites myself and it never fails to amaze me how high the quality of the responses is or how fast they arrive. Startups.com has a bias towards the American economy, but there is still lots of interesting stuff on there. The great thing about these sites is that you can ask very specific questions and get meaningful answers to your particular question, not some generic question that’s been heavily edited.
Despite what some people may say, women do have a sense of humour. This one is a geek, too! I picked up this profile image on Twitter:
Girl, I like your cascading style.
I’ve been working with my fellow Small Business Specialist, good friend and colleague Richard Evans this week to work through SBS migration. Armed with a stack of books, software and blogs posts, we set out to try our first migration, in preparation for doing a real migration for one of my customers.
Well, it has been a real eye opener. I am so glad we decided to have this practice run because the road has had a lot of bumps and potholes in it. As a result of what we’ve learned, I have had to completely re-assess my strategy for doing migrations. One item that was a real godsend is the book Small Business Server 2008 - Installation, Migration, and Configuration
by our esteemed colleague David Overton, aka UK SBS Guy. David’s book covers the entire migration process in detail, with many useful hints and tips that you will not find in the official migration guide. Another great resource is Susan Bradley’s series of blog posts starting here.
The first lesson is that it takes a lot longer than you think. I quoted my customer a day’s work to complete the migration on-site, but in our practice run it took us almost two days just to get the source server into a state where it was ready for migration. I completely underestimated the job. So two days in and we’ve completed the install of the new server, but still have all of the files, email and SharePoint content to migrate. That’s not even considering any LOB applications.
Best Practices, Updates and Service Packs
We ran the Best Practices Analyzer and had a few issues to fix there.
We needed to install Windows Server 2003 SP2. As soon as we did so, we had all the issues with RSS, Task Offload and TCP chimney to sort out. Then we needed to install .NET Framework 2.0, but it wouldn't install, claiming that “a newer version was preventing installation” despite the fact that no newer version was installed. The solution to that, after much wrangling, was to run Microsoft Update, which indicated installation of the .NET Framework 3.5 Family Update, after which .NET 2.0 also showed up in Add/Remove programs. This allowed BPA to complete fairly cleanly, only giving an error because the ClientApps folder had been moved, which we were not concerned about.
Virtualization
Our original plan was to virtualize the source server, then do the practice migration V-to-V. The first problem was that we couldn't get the SysInternals virtualization tool to work, so we gave up on that and just decided to do tin-to-virtual.
The second virtualization issue was getting the SBS answer file to the root of a drive where the virtual machine could access it. The books suggested making a USB stick into a passthrough drive, which requires marking the disk ‘offline’ in the host system. On the HyperV Server that we used, DiskPart refused to offline the USB stick stating that the operation was “not supported for removable devices” so strike 1. Another book suggestion was to create a virtual floppy disk and place the answer file there. Again, creating the .vfd file is easy, but nowhere could we find a way to mount a .vfd file to copy the file over. Strike 2. In the end, we managed to use a USB hard drive (luckily I had one on hand that was destined to be a backup drive on the new server). The file was copied over then the drive marked ‘offline’ – this time it worked. Then we were able to add the offline disk to a SCSI controller in the virtual machine, and the installation picked up the answer file and worked as expected.
Active Directory
The first AD problem is that the domain functional level must be raised. This is fairly simple and on many SBS servers has already been done. What is less obvious is that the forest functional level must also be raised as a separate operation. We omitted this step and it only became apparent during the install of the new server, which insisted that the old server did not meet the requirements for a migration. It took a bit of careful re-reading of books and documentation for us to realise our mistake. Raising the forest functional level in AD Domains and Trusts allows the migration to continue (no reboot required).
The second problem is one that I have encountered a fair bit with SBS, NTFRS service in “Journal Wrap Condition”. This condition prevents AD replication. A stand-alone SBS can operate quite happily in this condition because no replication occurs, but as soon as a second DC is introduced, this problem will immediately raise its head. This is the case with migration as the new server becomes a DC and attempts to seize the five FSMO roles. Fixing journal wrap is often quite simple, the event log entry is very comprehensive and contains instructions for the fix, which consists of setting a registry key and restarting the NTFRS service. After 5 minutes or so, AD replication should commence and there will be event log entries showing the FSMO roles transferring to the new server.
So, we leave this adventure with the new server install still in progress. To be continued…
I am of course referring to the Severn crossings, one of the most expensive toll crossings in the UK. On the South Wales Businesses group that I run on LinkedIn, one member was outraged to learn that the government has decided to subsidise the Humber bridge, but not the Severn bridges:
You may have read in the press of the government's intention to give a £6m grant to the Humber Bridge Company to enable them to freeze the tolls until 2011. The reason the Minister for Transport Sadiq Khan, gave for doing this was that "the Government is committed to doing everything it can to protect communities and businesses from economic downturn and to help the country recover"
This provoked an angry response from many transport/haulage businesses in Wales and the South-West that the same commitment was not being afforded to them. FTA responded with a press release saying that the recession is not discriminating by region and neither should the government.
But this doesn't just affect transport companies, although the tolls they pay for commercial vehicles are the highest in the UK, the knock-on effect of this is felt by everyone in one way or another; it affects all companies who have to use the Severn Crossing in carrying out their business. Although both the bridges are owned by Severn River Crossing plc, it didn't stop the government applying VAT to the tolls and just extending the repayment period instead of increasing the tolls. The bridges will not revert back to public ownership until around 2016.
I just feel that something should be done. Why should Welsh businesses not get the same help that is being afforded in a similar situation elsewhere?
While we wait for a response from the Minister, would you please help by signing the petition asking the government to at least look at helping the Welsh economy, and pass on the link to whoever you think would like to help.
Thank you
Denise Lovering
I’m right behind Denise. I’ve always been miffed that petrol is around 5p/litre cheaper in Bristol than here and I’m sure that at least part of that price hike is due to the cost of the Severn crossing. The high toll costs affect most of us in one way or another. Effectively, its a tax on living in Wales! I’ve signed the e-petition and I encourage you to do so, too.
http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/helpWelsheconomy/
So what is Google Wave and what’s all the fuss? Well, you really have to try it, but it is a mashup of email, instant messaging, blogging, document sharing and collaboration. It has the potential to really shake up the established order and create a whole new way of collaborating. For businesses, it has the potential to revolutionise B2B working, the way we interact with customers, partners and suppliers. This article, “What, exactly, is Google Wave and why should my business care” by Wilson Hines has a case study that shows how this can work in practice. Wilson also has a Wave where you can discuss his blog article: in Wave, search for “with:wilsonhines@googlewave.com”.
If you do decide to give it a try, feel free to add me to your contacts, my Wave ID is tigranetworks@googlewave.com – if you need an invitation, just ask.
Today I have 30 more Google Wave invitations to give away. There are no strings attached, just send me a private message by whatever method you choose, and you can have your invitation.
It would be nice if you linked to my blog or mentioned me in a tweet or somehow give me a mention so that others can find this offer. But that’s your choice.
This is where I find out who’s reading my blog… I have some Google Wave invitations to give away.
If you’d like one, please email me directly, with “Google Wave” in the subject line. I only have a few, so if I don’t reply, it means you were too late, sorry.
Once you have your account, my Wave ID is TiGraNetworks, wave me!
[Update: All invitations have been given out - sorry!]
Remember, remember the Fifth of November,The Gunpowder Treason and Plot,I know no reasonWhy the Gunpowder TreasonShould ever be forgot.Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes, t'was his intentTo blow up the King and Parli'ment.Three-score barrels of powder belowTo prove old England's overthrow;By God's providence he was catch'd With a dark lantern and burning match.Holla boys, holla boys, let the bells ring.Holla boys, holla boys, God save the King! When you’re standing around the bonfire tonight munching on your hot jacket spuds, spare a moment to remember that 5th November 1605 was almost our 9/11. The Gunpowder Plot came so close to succeeding, and if Guy Fawkes had not been apprehended at the last minute then he probably would have succeeded in overthrowing the government. Retribution was severe, for his crime of high treason Guido Fawkes suffered the gruesome punishment of being hanged, drawn and quartered.
Installation: Ode to IT Men Everywhere
Picked this up on Twitter from @MSWindows, it is very cool, sort of in the style of ‘Flight of the Conchords’ (Spotify). Shame about the lip-sync.
There is a serious side to this. It’s called “Viral Marketing”. What product are they marketing? Of course, Windows 7.
I received an email from Microsoft today containing the following text:
As a registered Office Accounting user, you may continue to use Office Accounting after November 16, 2009. However, the Payroll and e-Payments add-on services for Office Accounting will be discontinued on December 15, 2009.
As luck would have it, I use neither the payroll nor e-payment options of that software. But imagine that I had built my business systems on it? Then Microsoft decides to pull the plug with a month’s notice. Pffft.
Cloud computing puts too much power in the hands of the mega-corporations. I don’t think they’ve earned the trust.