The years of change – the “10” years

Each year, I’ve wanted to do a 10-year retrospective blog post, but that never eventuates – last year, I had plans of 1979, 1989 and 1999 – just to remember where I was in life, and more from a journal perspective for my kids over time.

With this year being 2010 – aka a “10” year – the retrospective look incorporates my biggest life-change years – new direction, new activities – entirely co-incidental.

Some of these tangents were just life ‘playing out’ – some happened entirely by surprise – or via environment (aka – the friends & people I was with).

1980 – aged 7, turned 8

- not 100% sure on the specifics – might have to check with my parents

- had returned from England – lived there for 6 months

- living at 33 Samada St, Notting Hill

- school – Monash Primary School – we could just walk there – up the street

- main activity – being a kid.

** ahead in this decade – off to high school, get a Commodore 64, discover “metal”

1990 – aged 17, turned 18

- big life change – completed high school – and began University

- 1st internet access, for email, telnet, FTP, news

- started driving (April) – and got my 1st car

- lots of bands, gigs, concerts

- new friends, new girlfriends, out to pubs, drinking, partying, etc

- main activity – being a teen

** ahead in this decade – 1st job, move to Cairns, travel to USA + Indonesia

2000 – aged 27, turned 28

- big life change – started new job, after 4 years at previous place

- massive (!) New Years Eve party to mark the new millennium

- went on a P&O cruise with some friends – awesome holiday

- with my new SLR camera (from P&O trip) – go to a photography course (Box Hill)

- met Donna, who was to become my wife & mother of my children (!)

- bought a house – moved in July 2000

- renovations, plastering, painting, gardening

- happy with my place in life, and had definitely found out “who I was”

- main activity – enjoying “who I had become”

** ahead in this decade – changed jobs (a few times), get married, have 3 kids

—————————-

So, there you have it – some big life ‘tangents’ in each of the ‘10’ years.   Not sure what’s in store for 2010 – will have to wait and see.  

I’m tipping (hoping ?) there’s nothing that is significantly monumental – maybe we’ll consider moving house, but that’s as big as I can foresee.  

** Each of these “time zones” should probably be an entire blog post on their own – I’m not promising anything though – time will tell…!

New blog in town – SharePointRoot

With the imminent (?) release of SharePoint 2010 – and the fact that I normally mix in a bit of family, music, nerding AND SharePoint posts here on www.grumpywookie.com, I thought I’d kick off the new year with a new blog.

Behold :   www.sharepointroot.com

Before all you Aussie folk start snickering and giggling at the word “root”, there *IS* a reason behind the name of the site.

For a long time now, we’ve been referring to the SharePoint installation folder as the “12 Hive” – which is essentially this (take a deep breath) :

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\12

*phew*

It follows that the new SharePoint 2010 would be the “13 Hive” – but no, they’ve skipped the number “13” (oooh – scary !) – and it’s actually the “14 Hive”.

BUT – it’s to be known as SharePointRoot instead – which kinda makes sense, eh ?

So – that’s the reason for the new name…

Anyway, have a squizz over at my new blog – let me know what you think.

Hopefully there will be a swag of new content (soon) – and I’m porting over much of the current/old posts from here.

Make sure you add the new site to your RSS reader too !

First time at the movies

Today I took Cameron to see the re-released “double feature” 3D version of Toy Story AND Toy Story 2.   Donna will take him along to see Toy Story 3 in a few months from now.

Cameron & I had been over to Knox on Saturday arvo to grab tickets, he was super excited when he was heading off to bed, and woke up today with a happy grin.

He’s seen both movies a dozen times each (on DVD), but he’s never been to the cinema – we grabbed popcorn, and our 3D glasses – and grabbed our seat.  

He couldn’t get over the size of the screen – and the speakers along the wall.

Seeing a 3D movie for the first outing is kinda special I guess – I’m hoping it will be a lasting memory – the trip to the cinema has become fairly expensive these days – but it’s still one of the those simple pleasures in life.  

Big screen picture – and awesome sound – and now 3D for lots of films. I reckon it’s a fairly safe bet that lots (majority ?) of movies in a few years time will be 3D – there’s even talk of a re-do for the original Star Wars movie in 3D.

Thanks Cameron – was fun to share another “life first” today – glad you enjoyed it !

I can still remember my first outing to the cinema – and yes, it was STAR WARS – back in 1977.   I was petrified (shit-scared !) of Darth Vader !

Image Resize in Windows 7

Like most people, I have a swag of digital photos and images – with fairly LARGE file sizes – a bit too big to email “a few of them” for example.

My quick-snap Canon PowerShot S2 digital camera takes JPG files in 2592×1944 size (~2 MB file size) – and my Canon EOS 450D has even larger file size – 4272×2848, about ~4MB file size.

When needing to email photos, or load onto my blog, I’ve often done the following :

• Right-click within Windows Explorer
• Open With > Paint (PaintBrush)
• Click Resize
• Enter 25 as the percentage (1/4 size scale)
• File > Save As – choose new file name.
• …. Rinse, Repeat with the next photo/s

Last night, I was needing to do this for ~12 photos – and thought “hey self, there must be an easier way”.

Yes – with Windows XP, there was a very cool “PowerToy” that added a context menu to Windows Explorer.

Image Resizer – This PowerToy enables you to resize one or many image files with a right-click.

BUT – this doesn’t work in Windows 7 – get the “this is not a compatible program” shown when installing.

So, what to do ??    Codeplex to the rescue…!

Image Resizer Powertoy Clone for Windows

This is a clone of the Image Resizer Powertoy for Windows XP — a PowerToy that allows you to right-click on one or more image files in Windows Explorer to resize them.

There is an x64 version for WIndows 7 – only 352K – quick install, and gave it a try.

So – let’s try the same as before, using the new ‘PowerToy’ :

• Right-click within Windows Explorer
• Click Resize Pictures

• Pick the size of the destination picture – Small, Medium, Large, etc

• Click OK
• That’s it !     (it saves your choice from last time)

The file is created, and named with a suffix :

• IMG_2857.JPG –> IMG_2857 (Medium).JPG

That’s great !   Just what I’ve been looking for.

And I checked the clicks – was 12 clicks for the “old” way – and had to type in the “percentage” – and enter a file name to save it.  

The “new” way is only 3 clicks – and zero typing !

**  There’s a 32-bit AND 64-bit version – and can download the Source Code too !

CodePlex FTW !!

Saturday in town

Had a great time with the family on the weekend with a big outing to “the city” – always exciting for the lads to go on the train…!

We trained in from Glen Waverley to Flinders St, with the kids staring out the window of course !

Next up, we loaded the pram for a walk over to ChinaTown – for Yum Cha.   Was fairly quiet about, lots of places still closed from the Christmas break. 

But – we ended up as one of TWO tables – in a nice place (Mao’s Cafe ?) with a very chatty restaurateur.

We asked if he could take a photo – and he proceeded to talk about TEN – from different angles – LOL !

We wandered up to the Melbourne Museum – which was nice and cool inside (34 or so outside !)   Was only $8 per adult – good value – and kids were free too.

Some highlights :

• Dinosaur room – kids loved *roar*ing to the big dinosaurs – still amazes me how big they really were…
• Arts & Crafts room – free activity for the kids – making a mask

• “The Deep” – interesting to see the weird bulbous eyed fish, and strange sea creatures.   The deepest part of the ocean is 11 km down – deeper than Everest is high !
• Bugs room – the huge Goliath Tarantula (bird-eating spider) was damn cool (and ALIVE !) – check out the VIDEO
• Amazing display of so many types of moths & butterflies, scorpions and different bees & beetles.  

We probably only saw about 1/3 of the place – kids were knackered so we stopped for an Ice Cream (!)

Headed home again after that – was a nice way to spend the day with family, and some in-laws as well.   Thanks Donna, and Cameron, Liam & Charlie !    (Little Mr.0 barely made a peep !)

Cameron is already talking about going BACK to the Dinosaur Museum – I think it was a hit !

End of 2009

Like the end of previous years, I like to do a wrap-up of the year just closing, and look ahead to thoughts & plans for the coming year.   (end of 2006, 2007, 2008)

My www.grumpywookie.com blog has been stacking up the cobwebs lately – not as many posts or bits & pieces as “normal” – only 56 posts in total (only 4 for my other blog) – previous years were over 200 !!   

Had a few ‘update” posts – July + October.

Previous wrap-up’s have covered my GOALS and SCOREBOARD for the categories of WORK, REST & PLAY – ie. career+nerding, family, house & self.

This time, I’m just going for a “splat” approach – what’s happened in the year, and some predictions & plans/thoughts for next year.

2009 – has been a tough year in retrospect.   If I could suggest a tag word for 2009 (like the largest word in a tag cloud), it would probably be the word “SURVIVAL”. 

Having three kids has been a lot harder than I’d thought it would be – was kinda easy with two kids – sorta like “one each” for Donna and I.  

With three, there’s always someone with “TWO” to deal with – usually me – as Donna would be feeding, or attending to the “new born”.

Charlie has had more than his fair share of troubles, and still not sleeping great – which means Donna has been very tired & run-down.  

But – has been some great joy as well – first smiles, first Christmas – and he’s now crawling (!) – but has been a juggling act for all of us – and the word “tired” has been the most-used-word for the last few months.

Some full-on stuff happening with work as well – big project coming to a close in November – with a few frayed ends of sanity showing through – with some “frustration” being observed by colleagues & customers alike (not good).

“Time” is precious – with small bursts of time to get stuff done, and then little time left over for stuff that *I* would like to do – and for Donna too (mostly).  

We’ve had to resort to email & phone call chats a few times – the lost art of communication !

So, here’s hoping that 2010 is a little ‘easier’ – but before delving into thoughts/plans for next year – here’s some bits & pieces of 2009.

Had a look through the blog posts I’ve done (was only 56 of them !) – and some TwitPic bits to get a feel for what the year has been :

Twitter (my main outlet these days – 140 chars is easier than a blog post)

• Twitter notify from Live Writer
• Twitter – hot under the collar (quoted on SMH !)
• Optus Twitter Response Team
• 10,000 tweets FTW !

SharePoint

• New SharePoint How-To’s
• SharePoint 2007 Service Pack 2
• Connecting people, process and information
• Cool SharePoint diagrams in Visio
• SharePoint Search Provider + Windows 7
• SharePoint Custom List template missing
• People Search Data Fields (XSLT – XML)
• SharePoint Conference 2009 Keynote
• Site Feature – Include Custom Icon (GIF)
• New SharePoint site gone live !
• Infrastructure documents within Central Admin
• FullTextSqlQuery throwing exception – this site is not assigned to an indexer
• SharePoint Saturday – Search
• … and lots more blog posts awaiting completion (drafts)

Nine Inch Nails (lots and LOTS !)

• Gift from Trent Reznor (has just landed last week – full edited DVD)
• The Beginning Of The End ?
• Festival Hall show PLUS SoundWave – Nine Inch Nails
• Nine Inch Fool’s (April Fool’s Day NailGun)
• Interview with Trent Reznor
• Trent goes Webby
• NIN on tour (again)

Music / Bands

• Nine Inch Nails (Festival Hall)
• SoundWave
• Slayer / Megadeth – disappointed !!   Ended up as a Slayer instrumental ! 
• Karnivool – just incredible !
• Lamb Of God + Devil Driver
• Updated list of concert tickets/setlists on blog
• Got tickets for next year’s SoundWave – and Fear Factory – w00t !

Family

• Cameron –> Mr.4 (Go Karting !   1 2)
• Liam 18 months
• Family Tradition – ANZAC Day (Pic)
• My three sons (CHARLIE !  1 2 3 4)
• Pram all stocked up with three kids
• Star Wars Expo
• Charlie’s trip to hospital – all OK now – bad allergic reaction, had to call an ambulance at midnight on Saturday night (early November)
• Liam is now two !
• Built a Cubby House (assembled, not built)
• Gardening – new planter boxes, got the spa working
• Lego – lots of !    Both Cameron AND Liam !   Mr.2 is obsessed with building towers (“Daad, plray bwocks ?”) 
• Charlie – has started crawling, lots in store for 2010

Personal

• Mountain Biking – got new bike after doing a website for a buddy – try to get out a bit – mainly with Cameron in tow, not on my own much
• Was on a health kick for a bit, walking from Richmond station to the city (1 2 3) – but have fallen off the wagon since – after having an “operation”.  
• BUT – I did ride my bike to the city one day (only once so far) – from Mitcham to William St – in the pouring rain – was sopping wet – but great experience.
• Dexter – was sooo looking forward to new season – and didn’t disappoint !
• Got an iPhone – loving it actually
• Lots of $$ shelled out this year
  • New oven
  • New pantry
  • New outdoor setting
  • Cubby house
  • TechEd
  • Planter boxes
  • Spa
  • Lego Death Star
  • New BBQ with hood – rotisserie roasts at Christmas !
  • …there’s nearly $12,000 right there !
  • Mortgage is doing OK though surprisingly.
• September FTW ! 
  • MTB, WRC Rally, Nine Inch Nails, TechEd – oh my !
• Lego Death Star for Christmas ! (will take a while I think)
• 3D wookie !    Home made glasses for episode of CHUCK.

Work

• Quick update – moving to OBS – left Dimension Data, and have been with OBS for 9 months already – wow !     Lots of great people, some good challenges, and technical know-how – and thoughts of “yep, this is the way is SHOULD be done” + “this is where I wanna be”…..
• Tech Ed – looking forward to
• Tech Ed Gold Coast 2009
  • Pics – 1 2 3
• Big project completed in November – new SharePoint site gone live !
• Presented at MOSSIG – and runner-up on presenter-of-the-year
• Presented at SharePoint Saturday – Search

Other stuff (posts)

• Windows 7 – was using the Beta, then RC, then RTM – probably installed it close to 10x during 2009 (1)
• K2 book was launched – yep, that’s me on the cover !

*phew*    Has been a very full & busy year – fairly tough in parts – with some big highs, big challenges, and big lows – even Christmas was hard work.   Poor Donna was a wreck by the end – we’ve just been doing days of NOTHING in the last week.

Whoever said THREE kids is not much more difficult than TWO kids is a fool !

But – I wouldn’t have it any other way.  

Hearing Liam say “best Dad evaa” just melts me – or heading out for a bike ride with Cameron and he yells out “to infinity and beyond” when zooming downhill – jeez, he makes me laugh !

And to see little Charlie’s smile – it makes me forget the cries & yelling & sleepless nights.   And amazing that he’s crawling already – will be into LOTS of stuff soon.

And Cameron’s little art projects to take to work – he just made Donna a “sun hat” with a tube & flat circle piece – dunno where he gets the ideas from !

Donna has been amazing too, running on empty for a long time now – she deserves more credit and thanks than I give her – I am in “awe” of how she does it some days.   X

Family is what it’s all about these days – and there’s now FIVE of us – or SIX if you count the dog too ! 

So – yes, there will be lots more work / action – but a lot more fun & joy as well.   

———————————–

So – what’s next ?   What’s in store for 2010 ?

Who knows !    If 2009 has taught me anything, it’s that ANYTHING can happen…

As far as some thoughts/plans :

• Family / House
  • Holiday – family to QLD
  • Finish off the spa (completely) – and stop the big $$ outlays !
  • Birthdays – Cameron turning 5, Liam turning 3, and Charlie will be 1
  • Outing as a family to Werribee Zoo, Aquarium, Jells Park
• Work
  • SharePoint 2010 – will be lots in 2010 (and Office)
  • MOSSIG – board member
• Personal
  • Get to know Donna again – not much time for “us” in the last 6 months
  • Enjoy some reading – and biking (if/when time permits)
  • Spend some time with friends
  • Watch as much of the WINTER OLYMPICS as I can (!)
  • Blogging – lots more posts
  • New (final) season of LOST !
  • …and a ’secret project’ – if I ever get time to bring ideas to light….

We’ll wait and see what transpires, eh ?

Hope you all had a great Christmas & Silly Season – and all the best for the New Year – hope the hangover is not TOO bad !    

Have a great 2010 – see you soon !

10,000 tweets FTW !

Windows 7 – share your wireless broadband connection

One of my favourite ‘gadgets’ of late is definitely my “3” card – it’s awesome to simply plug in a USB key, and be online – via Wireless Broadband (3G/HSDPA). 

I’ve been able to use email, browsing, twitter and even a CITRIX remote desktop connection whilst in a cafe, or sitting in my car – even on a moving train !

One of the cool things I uncovered recently was the ability to share this connection, using Internet Connection Sharing.

I was able to use this technique in a cafe with a buddy from Microsoft, as well as in the office workplace – 7th floor of a CBD office building.

Get online

Before you begin, make sure YOUR laptop is online, using your wireless broadband connection.

Adhoc Wireless Network

The first step is to set up a wireless network, so that the other laptop/s can add a connection to your laptop.

• Open the Network and Sharing Center in Windows 7
• Click Set up a new connection or network

 

• Scroll down and select Set up a wireless adhoc network

• Can just click Next on the ‘info’ screen

 

• You will need to choose a Network name to identify your wifi network
• Also, can change the Security type – I just left it as default
• Pick a value for the Security key - and take note / remember it
• You will need to tell the other person connecting

• Then click Next
• Make sure you click the button to Turn on Internet connection sharing

 

• And – that’s it !  
• Just click Close – and YOU are done…

Connect to wireless network

Now you can tell your friend to try it out.

They’ll need to choose to connect to a wireless network – and enter the password you’ve chosen.

You’ll be able to check if they’ve connected or not when looking at the network info fly out from the Network Notification Icon (on the lower right side of the taskbar)

After they’ve connected, they should be online using YOUR wireless broadband connection – how easy is that !

Good luck – “go get your nerd on” – with a friend !

Sometimes, the system administrator will BLOCK the ability to use Internet Connection Sharing – I found this out the hard way when trying to setup the same connection as above – with ME as the ‘client’ – not the ‘host’. 

If this is the case, you’re pretty much screwed – it ain’t gonna work.

Windows 2008 R2 – configure Wireless (WiFi)

When installing Windows Server 2008 R2 on a laptop, it’s often useful to make use of the Wireless networking – usually quickly picked up by Windows 7 – but needing some config to get it working for Windows Server 2008.

It makes sense I guess, you wouldn’t normally have a SERVER that requires a wireless connection – hence, it’s OFF by default.

Wireless LAN Service

To kick-start the WiFi in Windows Server 2008, just follow these steps :

• Open the Features list
• Scroll to the bottom, and choose Wireless LAN Service

 

After this has been installed, you (may) also need to start the service :

• Open Administrative Tools > Services
• Location the WLAN AutoConfig service
• Make sure it’s set to automatically start
• ….and start it up, if not already running

 

You should then be able to add a Windows Network connection, and you’ll be online in no time.  

This is essential for grabbing updates, and some web surfing – although there are always a multitude of prompts & message boxes – sometimes can be a hassle.

That’s it – too easy, eh ?!?

XBMC + Office 2010 strangeness (?)

Unlike most other folk I know, I don’t have an XBox 360 – instead, I’m still loving my original black & chunky XBox. 

This is purely for XBox Media Centre (XBMC) – we watch all our TV shows & other media including pictures & MP3’s.

Works nicely with Windows 7 – I have a file share on my PC in the study – and the XBox (XBMC) has a config for the file share :

<bookmark>
    <name>MEDIA</name>
    <path>smb://xbmc:pwd@99.99.99.10/MEDIA/</path>
</bookmark>

This connects using SAMBA, a fairly ancient file share protocol – one of the original and best.   Was essential for UNIX file shares, back in the early 90’s – which I did a fair bit of, before the Windows revolution.

Anyway – Windows 7 just accepts these user connections via “Windows File Sharing” – and all is well.  

Until – Office 2010….  What the ?

Wanting to check out the new features, I installed Office 2010 x64, and was loving the new Outlook, Word and Excel programs.

BUT – when I went to view a TV show from XBMC – it kept prompting me for login and password.  

There had been a power outage – so I re-booted my PC, router & all – to make sure all was OK.  Still no joy.

Checked cables, login accounts, passwords, cables – and via my laptop – and all seemed well.   *ggrrr*

In a “scratch-the-head” moment, I wondered about Office 2010 – uninstalled it & re-booted – and then XBMC could connect to the PC again…!   

Go figure !

I thought I’d prove it again – and installed Office 2010 once more – this time, choosing specific options. 

And – the XBMC setup was fine this time.   *shrug* 

Phew – mission accomplished – I was running out of ideas…

Sorry – but I can’t really remember what options I removed – we only use the home PC for Word, Excel and Outlook – and OneNote.

I ditched Access, InfoPath, SharePoint Workspace – and the DEV bits & pieces.  I’ve got my work laptop for those ones…

So – if you’re like me, and in the dark ages with a trusty on XBox 1, and having troubles with XBMC – might be an Office 2010 Beta issue…(?)

Or – could simply be the Curse Of The Wookie (COTW) at play.