Firstly, my apologies for not posting sooner.  I’ve been busy over the past couple of weeks, and we’ve had a visitor from London for the last few days.  So, Microsoft have released Vista Service Pack 2 into beta testing, and I've been taking a look at it.  So far I’m pretty underwhelmed with the included changes, but that’s a good thing.  Service packs aren’t supposed to install new features, but they do.  This one however is lighter on the new features than previous packs for XP for example.

Examples of included features are improved wireless configuration (WCN), Bluetooth 2.1, better RSS feed integration in IE, Windows Search 4.0 and Hyper-V and some power management improvements.  The Windows Server 2008 features, which I haven’t installed yet include power management for servers, which might be of interest.  My server runs 24/7 and has nine hard disks, so anything that keeps power consumption down in that box would be good.  Unfortunately my RAID card doesn’t effectively handle power management, so I’m not sure how far I can actually go with this.  We’ll see!

There’s really not going to be much to report with this service pack, unless things go horribly wrong.  If it keeps going as it is, then its going to be a very smooth rollout indeed.

This one is mostly for me.  Kurt Shintaku put some instructions on the net some time about installing Vista from a USB Key.  I’ve reproduced them here as I just got an error when loading his website, and I use these with some regularity.  These instructions have been tested only on Windows XP and Vista.  You will need a large fast USB key and the original Vista (or Vista plus SP1) installation DVD.

Open a command prompt, in elevated mode if you’re using Vista.  Go through the following :

1. diskpart
2. list disk (Look to see which disk is your USB key.  Make sure you get this right, or you’ll end up wiping something else.)
3. select disk x (where x is your USB key).
4. clean
5. create partition primary
6. active
7. format fs=fat32
8. assign
9. exit
10. xcopy d:\*.* /s/e/f h:\ OR robocopy d:\ h:\ /MIR (where d:\ is your Vista DVD and h:\ is the newly formatted USB Key. xcopy for Windows XP, robocopy for Vista)

That’s basically it.  You now have a USB Key that installs Vista.

Kurt Shintaku's Blog: HOWTO: Install Windows Vista from a high speed USB 2.0 Flash Drive

Nice idea, but has anyone actually read the EULA they agreed to before clicking “Accept and Install”?  Let me give you a heads up on the section you need to be looking at :

I have this tool that I use sometimes to packet sniff XML stuff.  I keep forgetting the name of the damn tool, and for some reason always think it begins with a "P". It doesn't, it begins with "F", and its called Fiddler.  F. I. D. D. L. E. R. Fiddler.  I have no excuse in future for forgetting the name of the tool, disregarding the fact that I have downloaded it to my server. Fiddler can be downloaded from http://www.fiddlertool.com.

LINQ is awesome!

   1: // Get the data from the database using LINQ

   2: var topTen =

   3:   (from bl in lpcsql.Blogs

   4:   where bl.PostType == 1

   5:   orderby bl.ID descending

   6:   select bl).Take(10);

   7: // Bind data to the repeater.

   8: objBlog.DataSource = topTen;

   9: objBlog.DataBind();

  10: // Check if its me, and if so activate the Edit and Delete controls

  11: if (User.IsInRole("Administrators"))

  12: {

  13:   for (int post=0; post < objBlog.Items.Count; post++)

  14:   {    Label lbl = (Label)objBlog.Items[post].FindControl("EditControl");

  15:     if (lbl.Visible == false)

  16:       lbl.Visible = true;

  17:     if (lbl.Enabled == false)

  18:       lbl.Enabled=true;

  19:   }

  20: }

  21: lpcsql.Connection.Close(); 

So, after putting the finishing touches on AOL for Mac OS X on Thursday, we discovered on Friday that we had fucked up a little, and there was still a bug in the software which was bad enough for us to delay another day. We had a really big rush on to get everybody in place on Friday evening to test it before we released it to the beta testers. Now its out there though, there have been a very satisfactory amount of downloads, and so far there only seems to be one minor issue reported. I like the sweet taste of success :-) I took my mac home yesterday so I could monitor things over the weekend and be in a position to make any changes if I had to. I hav to say, the user experience over a modem is horrible. Its slow, un-responsive, and so far has connected properly only two times out of eleven. That sucks. Bring on DSL for macs I say.
This morning, after four years or so of trying, I finally persuaded Anna to learn chess. It wasn't the unmitigated failure I had been expecting either; she seems to have enjoyed it a little, and was certainly pushed on a bit by me beating her... you see she really doesn't like to lose ;-)

::Yawn:: Last night we put the finishing touches on a new piece of software :-) I had forgotten what the buzz was like, of making changes, then checking them in, waiting for them to compile, downloading the result from the US, doing it all over when you discover you've done something stupid... its a great cycle. Eventually you get it right, and you look with anticipation and nervousness at the piece of software you've just changed, hoping that the fix you made is in there, hoping you didn't fuck something else up. The feeling when you discover that you DID get it right is just fantastic. Last night we got it right :-))))

Windows XP was released the other day. Now, any time I switch on the TV there's an ad for the thing. Its a good OS though, we've been using it for a while and its more stable than anything I've ever seen before. Even Linux had more hassles than XP.
The customisation I was talking about before for the site is underway. I'm going to allow personalisation of the front page to give you not only my Journal, but a choice of news services and links you want to use. Its going to take a while to get it fully up and running, but its going to be fun to get there I think :-) Have to finish the Photo gallery too, as soon as DSL comes back... which will be sometime soon. Really.

Woke up feeling shit for some reason, could have been that the heating was on all night. Hey, we finally (definitely, absolutely and really this time!) released AOL 6 this week - after a long couple of weeks of getting it wrong and being shafted by stuff :-) The next time is going to be a lot easier ;-) We're all set for travel net week too - going to Munich on Friday and staying there until the 27th. We fly to Ireland on the 29th and will be coming back on the 3rd. Kevin and Clem are coming up from Cork for the week which will be cool - we haven't seen them in ages :-)) Oh, and it has finally started snowing in Germany, so we might be able to get some snowboarding done :-)))) Anyway, have to go and buy some more Christmas presents now, back later

OK, so I said I was going to be more frequent about updating this page, and I would appear to have been a little wrong.  But things are a little different now, and I really CAN spend some time doing this.  You see, I've just about finished AOL 5.  The period of 18hour days is over, and things are definitely shaping up for the better.  I've been promoted :-)))   I'm now in charge of the introduction of new client software for the UK, which is pretty funky.  It means I can build up a team of localisers, so we can distribute the load a little :-)
Anna has a new job which is working out brilliantly for her :-)  She's working for an organisation called The Passage, who are a rehabilitation centre for homeless people.  They organise all different facets of their rehabilitation; from the basics such as food and clothing, to CVs and training.  She gets to do just about all the different jobs in the centre, which is turning out to be a wonderful experience :-)  Next week she's going to be in charge of the team of volunteers!  On another note, I got my hair cut today.  Really cut. Here's what I looked like on Friday…

Here's the result…