UrbanDude

workstation 0.1 beta

At my office I just got a beefy new HP workstation - a quad-core Xeon 3ghz beast that's built like a server. That meant I would need to setup a new OS and install + configure all the apps I use on a daily basis. *sigh* Time to roll up the sleeves and get to clicking!  Here's what I consider my software essentials - I've got the same software installed at home and consider these to be essential to doing my job, playing online, or communicating with others.  If you haven't heard of some of these apps, IMO they're worth checking out.

The workstation came preloaded with XP and had the Vista (32-bit) Restore Disk, but I opted to go with a fresh install of Vista 64-bit from my MSDN library. The first thing installed with Firefox, and I went from there...

Firefox + Addons

• LastPass - syncs passwords across multiple PCs
• FoxMarks - syncs bookmarks across multiple PCs
• FireBug - the ultimate web developers tool
• Web Developer - another invaluable Firefox development tool
  
• Delicious - where I share my links of interest online
• PicLens - full-screen 3D "wall" photo browsing that'll blow you away

Licensed Software

• Office 2007
• Sharepoint Designer 2007
• Visual Studio 2008
• Visual SourceSafe 2005
  
• SQL 2005 Developer Edition (also turn on IIS)

Free/Open Source Apps

• iTunes - I keep a backup of my home iTunes folder on a USB drive at work, so I've essentially got my music mirrored in two locations
• Live Mesh - syncs files between work and home
• Vista Codec Package - helps my PC play every video file type out there
• FileZilla - FTP client (had to export/import configuration between PCs)
• Digsby - single IM client that handles all my accounts (gTalk, Yahoo, MSN, AIM)
  
• Display Fusion - helps manage a dual-monitor setup
  
• FWink - uploads webcam photos to my site via FTP on a timer (only my wife knows the link)
• Foxit Reader - lightweight PDF reader
• 7-Zip - all-in-one compression app
• Notepad++ - mostly use it to View Source in IE with color code and expand/collapse, but it's got a lot more to it 
• Crap Cleaner - does what it says - it's a system optimization, privacy and cleaning tool

I was just listening to my favorite podcast - Deeper Shades of House podcast by Lars Behrenroth. In the 2 minute voice intro, he says "Enjoy this. Skin one up. If you don't know what that means, look it up. That's what Google's for."

So I did a Google search and didn't find what I was searching for on the first page. Hmmmm, that's odd. Must be so cool of a saying that even the Googles doesn't know what it means.

After clicking "Next" a few times, I stumbled on some verbiage from this site that makes sense:

Tiger then handed me a heavy sandstone pot. Inside was a roll of extremely thin cigarette paper and some really pungent weed.

"Skin one up," he said.

I realised that this was the practical part of the interview and that I would need to pass this test to prove myself as a proficient pot-manager. Unfortunately, I’d never learnt to roll joints terribly well.

So there you have it... it means to roll a joint. The next time someone's talking about pot, I'm going to throw that phrase out there to make myself look like I'm from the streets. Yeah, that'll work. Maybe I'll add a "bra" in there, so I sound Cali. "Skin one up, bra!"

I was cleaning out my huge pile of magazines in the bathroom and found myself reading Maxim's 300 Movies You Must See Before You Die. 

I'm not surprised at how many movies I've seen - I worked at a video store for a summer when I was 16. Lots of time + minimum wage money + free movies = seeing most of the movies on this list. That made it really easy to notice what movies I haven't seen.

I've seen bits and pieces of a few of these, but watching 10 minutes of The Fly (edited for TV) doesn't do it justice. With the magazine in hand, I got on Netflix and queued up the following fims:

1. Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971)
2. Raging Bull (1980)
3. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)
4. Less Than Zero (1987)
5. Vertigo (1958)
6. Taxi Driver (1976)
7. The Fly (1986)
8. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
9. Time Bandits (1981) not on Maxim's list, but some coworkers said it should hold up over time. We'll see...

Occasionally I'll need to migrate a WSS 2.0 site into a MOSS 2007 farm.  From what I understand, the only way to do this is to upgrade the installation to WSS 3.0, then backup/restore it to the farm.  Here's some tips I wish I knew about before getting started.  But what happens if the upgrade goes horribly wrong and the only backups are FWP files?  This happened to me recently - the database upgrade failed, corrupted the WSS 2.0 DB schema, and there were no DB backups.  All I had as a backup were the nightly FWP files that are exported. The site was down, users are screaming, and there's no hope for getting that server back to a working state. What to do...

I uninstalled the WSS 3.0 installation, uninstalled WSS 2.0, then installed WSS 2.0, bringing the server back to a state where it was as clean as a fresh install.  But when I attemped to use STSADM.EXE to restore the FWP files, I got this message:

"Your backup is from a different version of Windows Sharepoint Services and cannot be restored to a server running the current version."

Huh?  They're both running WSS 2.0, but I didn't realize that it has to be the EXACT same minor version (service packs, hotfixes).  There no way of finding out what version of Sharepoint it was from the FWP files, which makes the backups all but useless.  After reading this post, aptly titled "Adventures in Migrating from WSS 2.0 to MOSS 2007", I started to panic (a little), but with enough tinkering, I was able to get the site back to a usable state.  Here's how:

1. I erased the default empty team site
   stsadm -o deletesite -url http://XXXX
2. Created an untemplated site
   stsadm.exe -o createsite -url http://XXXX -ownerlogin domain\username -owneremail bryan@urbandude.com
3. Used smigrate to restore the site
   smigrate -r -w http://XXXXX -f d:\backup\spdaily.fwp -u domain\username -pw MyPassword

This post is mostly a note to my future self, but hopefully a desperate/hopeless person out there finds this and it helps them out of a jam.

About a year ago, my boss has us go through a goal-setting excercise of identifying 20 things we wanted to do before we're 'done'. This was before the movie Bucket List came out, so it's wasn't that cliche.  The first ten were easy, but the last ten was a bit of a struggle. Since this was over a year ago, some of my priorities/desires/dreams have changed a bit, so I'll need to create a new/fresh list at some point. 

I've crossed through the ones I've completed.  In no particular order:

1. Get a six pack
2. Go on the honeymoon I never had
3. Quit smoking
4. Eat sushi in Japan
5. Get LASIK
6. Visit all 50 states
7. Read Kurt Vonnegut
8. Get drunk and shave my head
9. Fly a kite in a park and not care how I look
10. Take a vacation in St. Whatever
11. Climb an artificial rock wall
12. Learn how to ski
13. Take my OWN car to the race track, which means I need to own a race-worty car
14. Attend a developer conference in another city
    
15. Find a way to show my parents how much I appreciate the way they raised me, then surprise them
16. Buy back my grandma's '65 Mustang Fastback
17. Ride in the MS 150
18. Make a toast in front of a large audience
19. Go to a live taping of the Daily Show
20. _______________________
    Post this on my blog and let someone else recommend my #20

In case you're wondering, I've already written up "20 things I've done", and will post it soon.

The Weekend has Landed!

All the exists now is clubs, drugs, pubs and parties

I've got 48 hours off from the world, man

I'm gonna blow steam out of my head like a screaming kettle

I'm gonna talk codshit to strangers all night

I'm gonna lose the plot on the dancefloor

The free redicals inside me are freaking man!

Tonight I'm Jip Travolta, I'm Peter Popper

I'm going to never never land with my chosen family, man

We're going to get more spaced out than Neil Armstrong ever did

Anything could happen tonight, you know? This could be the best night of my life!

I've got 73 quid in my back burner

I'm gonna wax the lot, man!

The milky bars are on me! YEAH!

Every Halloween I hear someone saying that razor blades in halloween candy is an urban legend.  It's always a friend of a friend that knew someone. 

To make it easier to keep the story alive, here's a photo of a decayed York Peppermint Pattie that I found in my back yard about 6 years ago.  Yes, that's a well placed razor blade in there. It's not an urban legend.  Sarah(s) (wife and sister) both had a WTF moment when it was cracked apart.  There's some sick people out there...  

Sarah and I have been married for 5 years. Wow! We leave tomorrow for Playa del Carmen to go on the honeymoon we never had. First-class international baby!!!  I feel like a kid again, like I just met this crazy/sexy/cool girl.  My feelings are summed up in this song.  Click play.  Do it.

I loved this song before I met Sarah.  I always hoped I would find someone that I would feel this way with.  Then we found each other.  I consider myself the luckiest guy in the world to have the life I have with her. Thank you for everything Sarah.

Since she's the writer of the house, she puts it into words much better than I could.  I'll stick to doing what I do best - posting pictures!

Disclaimer: these are MY favorite photos of us.  I'm sure Sarah will disagree with my selection, but isn't that what marriage is all about?

our wedding in Vegas

in Belize

Hawaii, I think. Or was it South Beach. They're all starting to blur together...

Halloween last year. Argh!

I love you boo-boo!

The company I work for promotes our own natural talents and helps put us into positions that take advantage of what we're naturally good at. Focus on your strengths, don't waste energy on something you're not good at. That may sound like a no-brainer concept, but I have never worked for a company that helps people discover their talents and then encourage people to maximize those talents. It's an eye-opening process, and (without sounding like a commercial) has improved my productivity, my personal life, my energy, and my sanity. 

The testing process is simple: answer 120 rapid fire questions, each having a time-limit of 20 seconds.  It's a simple 1 to 5 scale of which statement you agree with (or feel neutral about), but the statements are funky and seem to have no relation to the other. Example:

(I like to learn)  0 - 0 - neutral - 0 - 0  (I miss my friends) 

Simple enough, but after 120 questions it feels like it doesn't make any sense.  Until you see your final report. 

Everyone in our company has gone through this testing system, and every employee has access to see everyone else's top strengths.  This might sound weird, but knowing other people's strengths can be an invaluable tool when you want to take a team project to the next level.  I'm naturally a 'lone wolf' developer, and usually try to do everything myself, so working with someone that's strong in Connectedness or Includer can help me offload tasks to others.  That person will keep me connected to other people, because they're naturally good at connecting people.  It's a natural strength that they don't even have to work at.  

If you've read this far, you probably want to know what my top strengths are.  Here you go...

Your Signature Themes report presents your five most dominant themes of talent, in the rank order revealed by your responses to StrengthsFinder. Of the 34 themes measured, these are your "top five."

Ideation

You are fascinated by ideas. What is an idea? An idea is a concept, the best explanation of the most events. You are delighted when you discover beneath the complex surface an elegantly simple concept to explain why things are the way they are. An idea is a connection. Yours is the kind of mind that is always looking for connections, and so you are intrigued when seemingly disparate phenomena can be linked by an obscure connection. An idea is a new perspective on familiar challenges. You revel in taking the world we all know and turning it around so we can view it from a strange but strangely enlightening angle. You love all these ideas because they are profound, because they are novel, because they are clarifying, because they are contrary, because they are bizarre. For all these reasons you derive a jolt of energy whenever a new idea occurs to you. Others may label you creative or original or conceptual or even smart. Perhaps you are all of these. Who can be sure? What you are sure of is that ideas are thrilling. And on most days this is enough.

Learner

You love to learn. The subject matter that interests you most will be determined by your other themes and experiences, but whatever the subject, you will always be drawn to the process of learning. The process, more than the content or the result, is especially exciting for you. You are energized by the steady and deliberate journey from ignorance to competence. The thrill of the first few facts, the early efforts to recite or practice what you have learned, the growing confidence of a skill mastered-this is the process that entices you. Your excitement leads you to engage in adult learning experiences-yoga or piano lessons or graduate classes. It enables you to thrive in dynamic work environments where you are asked to take on short project assignments and are expected to learn a lot about the new subject matter in a short period of time and then move on to the next one. This Learner theme does not necessarily mean that you seek to become the subject matter expert, or that you are striving for the respect that accompanies a professional or academic credential. The outcome of the learning is less significant than the "getting there."

Achiever

Your Achiever theme helps explain your drive. Achiever describes a constant need for achievement. You feel as if every day starts at zero. By the end of the day you must achieve something tangible in order to feel good about yourself. And by "every day" you mean every single day-workdays, weekends, vacations. No matter how much you may feel you deserve a day of rest, if the day passes without some form of achievement, no matter how small, you will feel dissatisfied. You have an internal fire burning inside you. It pushes you to do more, to achieve more. After each accomplishment is reached, the fire dwindles for a moment, but very soon it rekindles itself, forcing you toward the next accomplishment. Your relentless need for achievement might not be logical. It might not even be focused. But it will always be with you. As an Achiever you must learn to live with this whisper of discontent. It does have its benefits. It brings you the energy you need to work long hours without burning out. It is the jolt you can always count on to get you started on new tasks, new challenges. It is the power supply that causes you to set the pace and define the levels of productivity for your work group. It is the theme that keeps you moving.

Analytical

Your Analytical theme challenges other people: "Prove it. Show me why what you are claiming is true." In the face of this kind of questioning some will find that their brilliant theories wither and die. For you, this is precisely the point. You do not necessarily want to destroy other people's ideas, but you do insist that their theories be sound. You see yourself as objective and dispassionate. You like data because they are value free. They have no agenda. Armed with these data, you search for patterns and connections. You want to understand how certain patterns affect one another. How do they combine? What is their outcome? Does this outcome fit with the theory being offered or the situation being confronted? These are your questions. You peel the layers back until, gradually, the root cause or causes are revealed. Others see you as logical and rigorous. Over time they will come to you in order to expose someone's "wishful thinking" or "clumsy thinking" to your refining mind. It is hoped that your analysis is never delivered too harshly. Otherwise, others may avoid you when that "wishful thinking" is their own.

Intellection

You like to think. You like mental activity. You like exercising the "muscles" of your brain, stretching them in multiple directions. This need for mental activity may be focused; for example, you may be trying to solve a problem or develop an idea or understand another person's feelings. The exact focus will depend on your other strengths. On the other hand, this mental activity may very well lack focus. The theme of Intellection does not dictate what you are thinking about; it simply describes that you like to think. You are the kind of person who enjoys your time alone because it is your time for musing and reflection. You are introspective. In a sense you are your own best companion, as you pose yourself questions and try out answers on yourself to see how they sound. This introspection may lead you to a slight sense of discontent as you compare what you are actually doing with all the thoughts and ideas that your mind conceives. Or this introspection may tend toward more pragmatic matters such as the events of the day or a conversation that you plan to have later. Wherever it leads you, this mental hum is one of the constants of your life.

Wondering what my weakest strength was? Discipline. I can see my mom nodding her head right now and saying "uh huh, told you".  You were right mom...

Has anyone else gone through the program?  What's your top 5 strengths? 

I work with a fun group of people.  A few months ago we thought it would be fun if everyone on the team had to use a 'shared' slang word in our correspondence with people outside our department, the higher the executive, the better .  We vote on a word at the end of our weekly team meeting, and this is what we've used to-date:

Janky (Adjective)

Denotes something both gross and in poor condition.
An undesirable item that is bad in taste, style and quality.
Sketchy or hard to interpret.
Something that can’t be trusted or understood.

Example: "Ewww,  you should clean your room, It’s so janky!"

Flossin (Verb)

To brag or to boast.
To show off an object which usually possesses great value.  

Example:  “We be flossin our mad rides.” 

Booshie (Adjective)

Something that is over the top, too rich, too extravagant, or just plain yuppie.
Also used to describe a person who's all about money.
Someone who is snobby or conceited.

Example:  "Now that she has that new job, she's actin’ all booshie."

Fugazy (Noun)

A fake, or a phony.   
Not authentic

Example:  "How does she not know that Louie bag is fugazy!"

Baby Bear (Adjective)

When something is "just right."

Example:  "Are you hungry?" "Naw man... I'm baby bear."

Break Your Crayons (Verb)

To make very upset or sad.
Similar but to "bust your chops" but with the added element of doing something childish or immature. 

Example:  "Dude, don't worry about him, he's just tryin' to break your crayons."

Swazye (Verb)

To leave or disappear.
To be 'outta here' or gone.
Synonyms:  Geese or Ghost.

Example:  "This place is boring, I’m Swayze." 

Errorist (Noun)

Someone who repeatedly makes mistakes.
Somebody who believes they are right even though their logic is full of errors.
Someone who says stuff they believe is true, but anyone with common sense can see they're wrong.
A dumbass.
Also see:  Errorism (the act of being an errorist) 

Example: “Can you believe this guy!?  What a *&%$ing errorist!”

Daggy (Adjective)

Example:  "Dude.  That outfit is totally daggy." 

Break the Glass (Verb)

When you're breaking out the big guns.
When everything you've tried has failed, and you're resorting to your emergency plan.
Derived from breaking the glass of fire extinguishers to put out a fire.

Example: "It's time to break the glass and call Bryan."

And 'cus I'm feeling extra nerdy right now...