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For the last 13 years, I have been blessed with the presence of a beautiful friend. That friend was my Staffordshire Bull Terrier, named Elwood. Born 27th May 1994, he won my heart the second I saw him.

I had always wanted a dog that would be a companion, a friend and also a protector. With Elwood I got that plus so much more.

Elwood was the most loyal friend. His love was unconditional. I could bare my soul to Elwood and he would always look me in the eyes and listen.

Not only was he a special friend to me, but he was a special friend to others. Everyone that knew Elwood loved him too.

His gentle nature allowed him to be trusted around my friend’s and neighbours children. He was always so good. Never jumping up or scaring them. Just following them wherever they went. Happy just to be keeping them company.

While I studied, Elwood was always by my side. Whenever I got stressed that a program I was trying to code wasn’t working, Elwood would always demand a cuddle. His cuddles always helped. He knew it too. So much so that I would stop whatever I was doing to cuddle him back.

If ever I was sick or upset he would comfort me, always laying by my side, keeping me company.

An active dog, he always loved to play. He loved fetching things. His favourites being sticks and tennis balls. He also loved to chew, which is something he did quite often either on a tennis ball or on a nylon bone. It is amazing how many nylon bones and tennis balls I have bought for him over the years…

Elwood loved Christmas. Every year I would wrap presents for him, and every year he would take delight in opening them. He was so cute to watch. As soon as the Christmas tree would go up, he would just sit there, looking at the decorations and the presents. Not once did he ever open up a present before he was given it; even if he could smell which ones were his. Unwrapping the gifts was something that Elwood did so delicately. So gently he would tear at the wrapping while I held the gift for him. It was so lovely. It is no wonder that I loved buying him gifts.

I have so many special memories of my beautiful friend. Elwood will always be in my heart. I can’t imagine a time where I am not thinking of him, or wishing to see him again. I know that I will always love Elwood. I miss him so much already.

Originally I was going to title this post ‘Goodbye my Beautiful Friend’, but I’m not ready to say goodbye. Instead it is a tribute. Although not tech related at all, many people that knew Elwood, this post is for them. Everyone that knew Elwood loved him. For everyone else, this is my brief way of letting you know of the magnificent friend I was lucky enough to have known for 13 years.

The following photos are some of my favourites. The first two I had no idea that they were being taken. They were taken prior to me leaving for graduation. I was thanking Elwood for being such a good friend and thanking him for his company. I was always telling Elwood I loved him.

         

The next two photos were taken of Elwood all snuggly and warm in his sheepskin blanket.

         

The final two; the first one is of Elwood at Christmas time and the last one is of Elwood looking up at me while I had a stick in my hands. I love the photo. He was always so playful.

         

Elwood 27-May-1994 to 29-July-2007

Step 1 – Obtain a copy of Windows Server 2008

Windows Server 2008 beta has recently been released to the public for free download. Using Windows Server 2008 from within Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 is a great way to try out the server, without having to free up a whole PC. If something goes wrong with the installation, you can always blow it away and try again.

First you need to either download the Windows Server 2008 beta software, or order the software on DVD. The download is about 1.76 GB and comes in the form of an ISO image. If you have a decent download speed, downloading the software might be the best option.

Either way you will need to get the software first, and you can do that from here.

When downloading the software, you will be required to login to your Microsoft Technet account, which is the same account you would use if you have an MSN account, a hotmail email address, or have access to Microsoft Passport. Login and start downloading… Or if you opted to be sent the DVD, you can wait patiently for the software to arrive…

An activation key will be emailed if you downloaded the software, or if sent the DVD, will be included. You will need this to authenticate your copy.

Step 2 – Obtain a copy of Microsoft Virtual PC 2007

Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 is free to download, and allows anyone to be able to run multiple operating systems on the one PC. It is a pretty handy tool to have when testing new or running legacy operating systems.

Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 is small in size (roughly 30 – 60MB in size) and can be downloaded from here.

Step 3 – Install Microsoft Virtual PC 2007

Before you install, locate a drive on your PC that has enough space. You will need this for the Windows Server 2008. On my PC I have several drives created for different purposes. Find somewhere where you would like to store Windows Server 2008 and create a folder where you would like the server to run from.

Once installed, it will take up around 8GB, so make sure you have more than enough room to cover this.

Once you are ready, you can begin to install the Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 on to your computer. Just follow the prompts provided by the Wizard. It is pretty straigtforward, and won’t take long at all to install.

Step 4 – Run Microsoft Virtual PC Console

Once installed, you can then run the Virtual PC Console.

The following image has been taken from my Virtual PC Console. I have already got Windows Server 2008 running on my PC. Don’t worry that you will be looking at a blank canvas. That is completly normal.

Note: Click on all images to view enlarged image.

 

Click on ‘New’

  

From the Options screen, select ‘Create a virtual machine’

Click on ‘Next’

 

Enter the name and location of the folder where you would like to run Windows Server 2008 from.

Click on ‘Next’

  

Select ‘Windows Vista’ as the Operating System.

Click on ‘Next’

  

Allocate RAM. If you select ‘Adjusting the RAM’, you will be able to manually decide how much RAM you want to allocate. Selecting ‘Using the recommended RAM’ will just use the minimum RAM required.

Click on ‘Next’

  

Select ‘A new virtual hard disk’

Click on ‘Next’

  

Click on ‘Next’

 

Click on ‘Finish’

Step 5 – Install Windows Server 2008 from within Microsoft Virtual PC 2007

  

From the menu, click on ‘CD’ and then choose ‘Capture ISO image’.

Browse to where the Windows Server 2008 ISO image is stored (from when it was either downloaded, or arrived on DVD) and hit ‘enter’

From the menu, click on ‘Action’ and then choose ‘send ctrl-alt-del’. This will restart Windows, and Windows Server 2008 will begin to start installing.

Enter your Country, Currency and Keyboard details when prompted.

Enter your product key when prompted.

 

Select the operating system you want to install. I have chosen the Windows Longhorn SERVERDATACENTER.

Accept the license terms when prompted; after reading them of course

Click on ‘Next’

 

Select the ‘Custom’ install

Accept the drive where Windows Server 2008 will be installed, by clicking on ‘Next’

 

Sit back and relax, while Windows Server 2008 installs itself…

…Before you know it, Windows Server 2008 will be installed, and you will be viewing the server start up for the first time from Microsoft Virtual PC.

 

Once it has started up successfully, the Initial Configuration Screen will display.

Congratulations! Windows Server 2008 is now set up and ready to use.

Where does the time go? Last week completely flew by. I have a feeling that this week is going to fly by too. As busy as I have been though, I have still managed to see the latest Harry Potter movie with a group of friends, and spend some time playing Guild Wars. For the first time in Guild Wars, I managed to get myself a title. Titles are something that you get once you have done something so many times, completed so many missions or travelled a certain percentage of the game. I realised that my favourite character Zara Summers hadn’t earnt any titles, so it was my mission this weekend to get her one.

Interview with an IT Professional

Keep your eyes posted for the upcoming interview with Didier Elzinga. Didier is the CEO of Rising Sun Pictures. Rising Sun Pictures is Australia’s leading visual effects company, and is based in Adelaide, South Australia. As soon as I receive Didier’s answers I will post them on the site. I am really looking forward to reading his responses. He is such an inspirational person.

Rising Sun Pictures are currently recruiting. If you are interested in applying for a position with them, make sure you check out their website. They have a whole heap of tips and clues as to what they look for in prospective applicants.

Request for a PHP Booking System

I have had a request from a friend for a booking system to be created in PHP. My friend, Peter, is a DJ, and requires the booking system to be developed for his business. Unfortunately I am too busy to even be able to offer any help, other than to ask people. He has provided me with some images as to what he is after.

If you would like a challenge, or you even know of any existing PHP booking systems that are freely available for download, please let me know. I will forward on any offers or suggestions I get. If you are interested at all, please email me at: “deb@foocode.net“. If I get too many responses, I will just forward on all emails directly to Peter (DJ YAK).

Technical Reviews for O’Reilly

The last few weeks I have been spending a considerable amount of my free time reviewing a book for O’Reilly. The book I have been reviewing is Windows PowerShell: The Definitive Guide. According to the O’Reilly website, the book is available now in a ‘Rough Cuts’ version.

I would have to say that I have thoroughly enjoyed reviewing the book. I can’t wait until it is released so that I can buy a copy. If you are at all interested in PowerShell, I must say that you should grab yourself a copy of the book once it is available. It is an excellent read. It really covers quite a broad range of topics. It really is amazing what you can do with PowerShell!

Link of the Week

Starting this week, I am going to include a ‘Link of the Week’. The ‘Link of the Week’ will be of something someone has sent to me that I find particularly geeky, cool or cute. There is always at least one link that I receive during the week that really stands out.

The following is the first:

http://www.news.com.au/gallery/0,23607,5024207-5007150,00.html#

It is so cute. I couldn’t resist. The link contains four photos. If you go there make sure you look at all four.

If you have a link that you think is really geeky, cool or cute, you can send it to me. My email is “deb@foocode.net“. If I like it, and rate it as the ‘Link of the Week’ you will see it posted on the site.

The following picture has been taken from Google Analytics. It shows the geographical display of the visitors to the site in the last month. It is really pleasing to see that the site is getting more and more visits from all over the world.

 

I also find it interesting that for the first time, I am getting more hits from people in Sydney than I am from my own home town of Adelaide. The other thing I like to check with the stats is what people are searching for, and the pages that people like to view the most. The ‘Interview with an IT Professional’ series is by far the most viewed pages on the site. The last interview with Yasas Vishuddhi Abeywickrama  is continuing to do very well. People searching on careers as a business analyst have been able to view his interview. Without comments, I am only hoping that everyone that searched for something actually found what they are looking for.

 I have just looked at Yasas Vishuddhi Abeywickrama’s site and it appears he is getting a huge response from the interview. It is excellent. You can view what Yasas has to say about his interview from here: http://yasasva.blogspot.com/2007/007/open-offer.html

Technical Review

In the last week I have been reviewing a book for O’Reilly on PowerShell. I am not actually sure if I am able to mention anything about the book. I will do a write up about it when I know I am able. It is the first time I have ever reviewed a book. I am really enjoying it. Going through the code examples and running the scripts has been an excellent way to learn it all. I love the pressure of the deadline too. I think sometimes it is so easy to put things off and learn them whenever. Being involved in the tech review process has really motivated me to learn how to use PowerShell so much quicker. I have another week to review the book. After that I will have to think of some other new challenge to keep me busy at night!

2008 International Young ICT Professionals Conference

Planning for the conference is now well underway. The conference theme is – Building A Successful ICT Career – Dream, Develop, Inspire, Lead! Dates for the conference are from Wednesday 9th April through until Friday 11th April. The venue is the Adelaide Hilton. As soon as the website is up and running, I shall provide a link to it from this site.

My role in the conference is as the conference chair. The conference is being organised by a team of (mostly) volunteers. The enthusiasm and dedication of all that are involved is really outstanding. Although we are only beginning the conference preparations, I can already see the commitment level of all involved is so high. I feel proud to be involved in such a wonderful team!

Guild Wars – Dragon Festival

This weekend Guild Wars ran a Dragon Festival. For this weekend only there were extra quests opened up which, if completed, gave you tokens. Usually whenever there is a festival, at a certain time, in a certain town (Shing Jea Monastery) there will be some kind of event which usually leads to prizes and some kind of festival mask. The longer you play Guild Wars, the more masks you manage to obtain. In the past just being at the right spot at the right time meant that you scored yourself a mask. This weekend you needed to have at least 250 tokens to qualify. Lucky for me I had around 750. I managed to score myself a mask.

 My character Zara Summers with her new mask…

deb.foocode.net is now running from a new server. I must say that the support I received from ServersAustralia (even though I had a free account) was outstanding. If I didn’t have a server already set up and waiting, I would have stayed with them.

Now bandwidth is not an issue. I can continue to grow this site and not have to worry about it coming down if too many people visit. So please, continue to visit, and spread the word of this site. The more people that know about it, the better!

It is the start of the month, and with it brings new bandwidth limits. This site has been hosted on a free account on Servers Australia. For the first few months the free account seemed perfectly acceptable. It came with a 250mb bandwidth limit for the month. Last month the number of people visiting the site almost doubled the previous month’s total. For the first time, bandwidth became an issue. From 28th June I was receiving emails every couple of hours reminding me that I was about to run out of bandwidth. Luckily I didn’t.

This month I am going to have to look in to using a paid account. The migration over to the new account shouldn’t cause downtime to the site. It should be just a simple switch.

Thank you everyone for the continued support of the site. It is really excellent that more and more people are regularly visiting.

RSS Feeds

I have added to the top of the site links to the RSS and Comments RSS. Clicking on the links will allow the site to be added to your email account. Once added, any time that I update the site, you will receive the latest post in the form of an email.

RSS Feeds are an excellent way to keep updated. One thing that they fail to do is to allow you to leave comments. To leave a comment, you would still have to visit the site. You can easily do that once you have received the RSS Feed, as the heading of the post is a link to the page on the site.

I typically use the Google Reader to view all of my blogs. You can use Outlook to view the site, SharpReader, Firefox etc to name a few. It really does make viewing the site, and receiving all the latest updates very easy. If you haven’t already added this site to the RSS, I encourage you to do so now. All it takes is a click of the button in the top right hand corner of the site.

Interview with an IT Professional

This last week I have been busy asking people to participate in the interview series. I have been really pleased with the responses I have received.

The next interview that will be posted on the site will be with Didier Elzinga. Didier Elzinga is the CEO of Rising Sun Pictures, located in South Australia. Rising Sun Pictures is Australia’s leading visual effects company, having worked on many blockbusters, including the latest Harry Potter movie (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix), as well as Charlotte’s Web, Superman Returns, Batman Returns and Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (to name a few). I am really looking forward to reading Didier’s responses to the questions I have sent him. Make sure you come back for that!

If you are interested, Rising Sun Pictures is currently looking to recruit people. Have a look at their website: www.rsp.com.au and read what they expect from people when they apply for a job.

ACS Foundation Scholarships

The latest ACS Foundation Scholarships newsletter has been distributed to all. You can view the newsletter from the following link: http://www.acsfoundation.com.au/newsletter/ACSFnewsletter.html

The newsletter covers such topics as: IT pay to increase as skills shortage develops, Google looks to Australian developers, IT salaries increase in May, Australian government ‘to focus on IT’ as well as a listing on all current scholarships.