Rick Fogarty @ MyITForum.com

Rough Sports Day

2006-09-17T19:10:47Z

You know it’s going to be a rough sports day when each of your teams are playing at 1:00pm. Currently, the Philadelphia Eagles, the Oakland Raiders and NY Yankees. So, thanks to DirecTV and multiple tuners and my laptop, I’m able to keep up with each of them and The Race.

Movie Review - Invincible

2006-08-27T03:02:44Z

Growing up in the suburbs of Phila in the 70s/80s was a tough time for me. Almost everyone I knew was a Philadelphia Eagles fan. I, on the other hand, was an Oakland Raiders fan. So, when in 1981, the Raiders beat the Eagles in SuperBowl XV, I was a happy boy, but pretty much celebrated alone. I always cheer for the Eagles unless they’re playing the Raiders – so I guess you can say that I’m and Eagles fan too.

Being the blue collar city that Phila is, the people know what they want, expect to get it when they want it, and ***, cry and complain when they don’t. Like any blue collar town, the people work hard – and play just as hard. That brings me to the Eagles fans. They’re some of the toughest in sports. Damn, they threw snowballs at Santa Clause! However, they’re a passionate bunch and know the game.

With that comes the movie Invincible. This movie, like others made by Disney is the feel good movie of the year. The movie is based on the true story of a Vince Papale, a local bartender (played by Mark Wahlberg) who is down on his luck. As he loses his job and his wife, it appears that things can’t get much worse. In true Disney fashion, they do get better - and much better.

After a terrible season, The Eagles, bring in new coach named *** Vermeil (played by Greg Kinnear). Coach Vermeil holds open try-outs to shake things up a bit. In doing so, Vince Papale tries out and makes the team – living most guy’s dreams, playing for their beloved football team. Vince shows the drive and determination that is only shown from a player one step away from watching the game in the 600–700 section.

The movie takes quite a few parallels to the other Disney feel good sports movies – they show a down trodden guy down on his luck. With hard work, drive and determination comes out on top.

I give it 3.5 stars out of 4.

Yanks are for real

2006-08-21T12:20:47Z

Anyone catch the 2nd rendition of the Boston Masacare?

For those that think that the Yanks aren’t for real – is this enough to get you to believe? I think we’re looking at #27… :-)

Yahoo SUCKS!!!!

2006-08-17T12:43:38Z

Several days ago I asked for some assistance on getting a new test server up and running. Originally, I was apprehensive, as an outside host held the domain, and I wanted to ensure I could transfer the MX w/o issue. I create a new MX record with a different priority and things went pretty well. Well, in the mean time, I tried to get outside Outlook 2003 access and couldn't as I hadn't installed/configured RPC over HTTP.

Well, in the midst of all this, I asked to transfer the domain from SBC-Yahoo to Network Solutions. Called both up and told them what I wanted to do and asked for guidance so I didn't lose any service. Both told me that it was a painless process - I'd done it before, but hadn't worked with Yahoo prior to this.

Well, long story short - Yahoo BLOWS!!! I've never in my life met a bunch of incompetent individuals in my life. The transfer went well, except for one thing. In order for me to transfer the domain out, I had to cancel the account. No biggie the guy told me. Ok - so I cancel the account and move on. Well, this is only a test system and has a couple of accounts to start with - one being the CEO as he wanted to test it. Well, Yahoo, in their infinite wisdom decides to cancel the account - which means everything gets cancelled. No account - no domain. No account - no name services. So, I call Yahoo up and ask them what's going on? They state, oh, when you cancel the account, we cancel it - there is no need for the services any more. Huh? What about the existing domain? Oh - you're transferring it - those services are picked up by the gaining service provider. Ok, so I call NSI. They said, we can't touch it until it actually gets here.... See the cycle starting?

There is no way to do this with the way things are setup through Yahoo. Normally (at least in my experience) the name services are left at the old provider until everything is configured at the new provider. Then, and only then can\should the new provider move the name service to where they wish.... Geez ! It's not supposed to be this difficult.

So, now I'm w/o any services until NSI actually receives the confirmed registry key and propagates the name services. Which, by the way, could be up to 7 days!!!!

How ridiculous is this... Damn!

</rant>

Holy Guaccamole!

2006-08-02T20:38:22Z

As I’ve mentioned before – SPS totally rocks. This article shows how to setup your own WebParts for RSS feeds. It’s as easy as pie too! :-)

This is exactly what I was talking about when I mentioned just how powerful SPS is. You’re missing a lot if you haven’t at least looked at it.

Exactly!!!

2006-08-02T12:46:00Z

Rod posted an article that conveys exactly what I was wrote about here. Sharepoint Portal is an incredibly powerful environment. We’re in the process of doing some really cool things and leveraging mobile technologies is right at the top of the list…

Think about it… You have a portal for your users to collaborate on existing projects, what better way to keep them involved then to provide their mobile phones access. Incredible!

SharePoint Power

2006-07-31T19:28:18Z

I’ve been in the tech business for more then 20 years. I can’t think of a product that has come along that has the ability to turn an organization around so quickly. SPS, while complex, surely has the ability to allow an organization to organize its resource and provide a means to collaborate on those same resources.

This is one fine product…. I’m amazed at the flexibility that SPS provides. Jump on board – it will do your business a world of good.

Sharepoint Portal Resources

2006-07-31T16:04:07Z

Well, I’ve been tasked with setting up a Sharepoint Portal Services (SPS) site here at work. The install and configuration is pretty easy – however, the designing of a good looking portal should be left to the designers! I’m still learning it – it appears I’ve just scratched the surface!

Here are some of the SPS resources that I’ve found and continue to go back to often.

Good Blogs:

Heather Solomon's Blog - One of the best sites you'll find!

http://www.sharepointblogs.com/

http://mindsharpblogs.com/

Sites:

http://www.sharepointcustomization.com/default.aspx

http://www.tek-tips.com/threadminder.cfm?pid=820–

http://www.sharepointu.com/

http://portal.sharepointsolutions.com/default.aspx

And of course – MS’ offerings:

MS Sharepoint site

E-mail Lists:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sharepoint/

myITForum Sharepoint List

Windows Anti-Spyware

2006-02-28T16:06:00Z

I’ve been using this since it was released. I’ve yet to have a problem with it… My version will expire on 7/31 so I suspect I’ll be upgrading to Windows Defender shortly. However, in the last couple of days, as my computer boots, I’ve been getting this form displayed. Normally it goes away – today it didn’t.

Strange part about this is that each of the systray option above are actually buttons that activate the systray icons…

Anyone else seen this?

Wow!

2006-02-28T13:33:00Z

How can such an innocent act turn into something so tragic…. I can’t imagine what this guy is going through.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/02/27/driving.lesson.ap/index.html?section=cnn_topstories

Raiders picking 7th

2006-02-27T13:34:00Z

Well, the Raiders with their terrible 4–12 record this year, used a flip of the coin to determine their draft position in the 2006 NFL draft. San Francisco had an equally disappointing season with a 4–12 record so a coin toss was necessary to determine draft order. With similar luck that they’ve had in the recent seasons, the Raiders lost the flip and San Fran came out on top which drops the Raiders to 7th in the draft order. I’m looking forward to seeing who the Raiders select. They could really use a good QB. Maybe Vince Young will be around until the 7th pick… :-)

KG - losing some cash?

2006-02-27T13:20:00Z

I’m all for keeping athletes attitudes in check. They should be held to a different standard – at least I believe so. Well, Kevin Garnett is not one of those athletes that usually come to mind when talking about NBA players and their attitudes. AI, yes. Kobe, yes. KG, no….

KG had a problem with a call last night and threw (actually tossed) the ball into the stands and accidentally hit a fan. The fan didn’t appear to be injured – in my mind anyway. Well, the fan was escorted out of the building on a gurney (amid boos from the crowd). WTF? From a small toss of the b-ball? C’mon, something is fishy with this…

Sounds like someone is trying to get paid….

Hmm - finally, someone not worrying about feelings

2006-02-27T13:09:00Z

You know, I think we’ve gone way over the top with this politically correct thing. We’re always supposed to take someone else’s feelings into consideration when we speak. Well, what happens when they need a good tongue lashing? Well, finally someone with some power speaks his mind and doesn’t appear to feel sorry about it one bit.

In this case, Kenny Williams, the GM of the World Champion Chicago White Sox, rips into Frank “The Big Hurt” Thomas. I’ve heard reports over the last several years that Thomas was a detriment to this team; that his attitude was terrible and he was a huge whiner! Yeah, he was good, but not good enough it appears…. Kenny let’s him have it good!

To me, it’s refreshing for someone to let it rip when its deserved….

Surprise surprise

2006-02-20T13:23:00Z

Can’t say that that I didn’t see this one coming…

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/football/nfl/02/19/williams.drug.test/index.html

RSS Feeds

2006-02-16T16:06:00Z

Anyone know how to track – keep up with – the comments on a blog? I surely wouldn’t want to come back to a page often just to look for comments that were added.

Anyone?