December 2009 - Posts

• Weird Hardware Compatibility Issue Discovered

  I have been in IT for some time now and am a fairly decent troubleshooter. Yesterday, I was working to resolve a network connectivity issue in my lab.  I have a PC/Server with an onboard Intel 882567LM PCIe Gigabit Ethernet controller and an 8-port D-Link 10/100 switch which has worked faithfully for years. I know I need to change my cables and switch to gigabit but to date… I have power issues where I live and have a UPS for all of my computer equipment but one never knows… I must have moved the Ethernet cable to the switch at one point and forgotten about it because connection to this server used to work fine… I eliminated the switch, port, cables, as potential culprits one by one…  Electrically, the NIC even appeared to be sending/receiving signals.  I had given up on the NIC and was about to replace it when just for the heck of it, I unplugged the Ethernet cable from the switch and moved it to my Linksys router. Eureka!  There was a hardware incompatibility between the switch and network card… I guess still after all these years, I am still running into simple issues…  Now that I have seen it, into the bag of experience it goes ! ;) Posted Dec 30 2009, 11:41 AM by Rantings of an IT Pirate

• Ping-Pong OWSUG User Group Event – December Event Cancelled

  Well this is not really pleasant news.  Despite getting alternate presenters and securing an alternate venue for next week’s event I followed the user group executives’ suggestion to cancel the December meeting. This is simply too short notice to arrange everything and me pushing this through seems unfair as I won’t even be at the meeting as I have a teaching engagement in San Francisco. I sincerely appreciate Algonquin stepping up like they did as well as the alternate presenters: Collin Melia, and Edwin Sarmiento. Gents, my sincere apologies, we will have that session perhaps later this year. Sincerely, Brad Bird Posted Dec 11 2009, 05:58 PM by Rantings of an IT Pirate

• OWSUG December 17th Event – IT PRO SQL Event Double Head at Algonquin College in Ottawa - SQL Server for the Accidental DBA and Windows Azure for IT PROs

  We have a slight change of venue next week.  The topic for our presentation has also changed.  OWSUG will be hosting our monthly meeting at Algonquin College, exact location details will follow.  Based on the popularity of Edwin’s session at TechDays, I asked him to present for OWSUG.  He will team with Colin this month. SQL Server for the Accidental DBA So your SQL Server DBA just left and your manager instantly promoted you to be the new DBA. You do not have any clue at all about SQL Server and where to start. This session will give you a high-level overview of what SQL Server is and what you need to know to get yourself started in your new, forced career Mr.  Edwin  Sarmiento , MCP MCDBA MCAD MCSD MCT MCTS MCITP:DBA MCSA Edwin Sarmiento works as a SQL Server DBA for The Pythian Group in Ottawa, ON in Canada. Prior to joining Pythian, he was a senior systems engineer/DBA for Fujitsu Asia Pte Ltd in Singapore and is responsible for maintaining 200+ servers and databases for a global client in 10 countries.  He is very passionate about technology but has interests in music, professional and organizational development, leadership and management matters when not working with databases.  He lives up to his primary mission statement - "To help people grow and develop their full potential as God has planned for them”  Discovering the Azure Platform for Web Server and Database Administrators Do you manage IIS/Apache web servers or SQL Server/MySQL databases?  Do you need an infrastructure and skill-set to meet the needs of a small business with a small budget and/or the needs of a multi-millionaire dollar web property requiring high availability, load balancing, clustering and geographic redundancy?  Microsoft is about to go live with its highly scalable and affordable cloud-based platform for Windows computing, storage, data access and application services.  From its preview release in 2008, this platform has shown lots of promise, but how much does it cost, can you run Apache or MySQL on it, what can you use it for and how do you manage it?  Come and discover the answer to these and other questions… Colin Melia is the Principal Architect for DreamDigital and the CTO of Imparta.  He has been a hands-on Architect and entrepreneur for 17 years having led the creation of award-winning desktop-based immersive business simulation technology, cloud-hosted web/S+S solutions and workflow-driven BI systems as well as creating the first streaming video community site with Windows Media.  He has worked in the finance, telecoms, e-learning, Internet communications and gaming industries, with his business solutions recently in use world-wide at companies like HP, O2, Cisco, IBM, Microsoft & Reuters.  He has done conference speaking for Microsoft and makes frequent presentations at IT community groups as well as serving on various committees. Being British, he’d like you to know that it’s you that has the accent :P Posted Dec 11 2009, 06:39 AM by Rantings of an IT Pirate

• December OWSUG meeting cannot be held at the Microsoft Office – Alternatives to cancelling?

  Microsoft has been very generous to provide us use of their ‘Glacier’ room in downtown Ottawa to host Ottawa Windows Server User Group monthly meetings.  They also do this for the .NET user group and the SQL user group.  Not only do they allow use of their room at no cost but usually a Microsoft employee stays after hours to avoid the user group the expense of a guard. On December 17, Microsoft needs their room for their own purposes.  Now, we have a meeting that night and yes only letting us know yesterday of this did not give us very much time to react. I thought about this and despite my first instinct which was annoyance, I have opted for understanding. MS has given us this resource for FREE.  They have also provided staff repeatedly also for FREE.  I think once in a while, if we get booted that is alright. Fortunately, no payments have been made to secure a presenter and not much in terms of schedule was moved. I challenge, our executives or user group members to come up with a solution quickly so that we can hold the event.  Alternatively, we will cancel the December monthly meeting. Brad Posted Dec 08 2009, 08:48 AM by Rantings of an IT Pirate

• Never thought I’d say this, but becoming a Newfie is cool!

  2 weeks ago, I was in St. Johns Newfoundland doing 2 back-to-back presentations on Windows 7 both for the St. Johns Memorial University as well as for their local IT PRO user group. The presentations were very well received. Because I was going to actually be in St. Johns for less than 14 hours from landing to take-off, the local IT PRO contact Atul “Sunny” Anand could not resist taking me out to see the local sights which was awesome! I was at the Easternmost tip of North America, a fact I learned just then.  I saw some military forts used in war days and a spectacular view of the island from one of its’ highest points.  Then, Atul took me out on George street to Trapper Johns where I was to be sworn in as an honorary Newfandlander with some rum shooters called Screech and after kissing a cod fish :) See below: Posted Dec 06 2009, 01:25 PM by Rantings of an IT Pirate