"Building Better Geeks Since 2004"
As ye should be wary, today be a special day on ye old calendar. A day of grunts and peg legs. A day of squints and grinding of teeth.
Fri Sept 19, 2008 is "International Talk Like A Pirate" day.
T’was a fun conversation I had on IM today with me mate.
Sometimes a wee bit o’ silliness makes a Friday go by faster.
Happy TLAP day to ye, PC lubbers!
Recently announced: Microsoft Search Server Express is now available as a free download! It’s available in x86 or x64 versions too.
Download URL: Click here
File name: SearchServerExpress.exe
Size: 248 MB
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:
RESOURCES:
I’ve had a couple folks today ask about other stops on the SBS 2008 Tour.
Here are the remaining dates and the URL to register:
Registration URL: Click here to Register at the event of your choice
I’m sure everybody on Earth already knows this (and I’m just exposing my ignorance about computers – again), but I’d like to share a little tech tidbit in case some Google user runs into the same issue.
First off, before anyone asks, this is a small shop – they just want to buy one more year on their existing hardware before a refresh and SBS 2008.
Previous Configuration (slow, but works):
New Configuration (faster, but missing about 120 GB):
Issue: Removed the old WD drives and deleted the old array. Inserted the new Seagate drives, but the RAID controller only recognized them as 32248 MB drives (instead of 156250 MB). I didn’t order the parts myself, so I started to question the drives as being appropriate, but a double-check verified that they should work. Visual inspection of the jumpers on the new drives matches position on the old drives. I spoke with a Dell technician who was certain that the array was created wrong, but I told him that it misrecognized the drive size even before creating the array.
Resolution: While the Dell tech was searching, I rechecked the jumpers, and the new Seagate drives were in last position, exactly the same as the old Western Digital (position 1-2 shown below).
Western Digital (cable select)
The problem is that “cable select” on Western Digital drives isn’t in the same position as it is on Seagate drives (Seagate uses position 5-6 shown below).
Seagate (cable select)
To make matters even funnier, the Seagate drives only have 8 pins. Doh!
Once I pulled the Seagate drives, moved the jumpers to match the cable select position shown on the sticker on the drive (instead of the physical location on a different brand drive) the array controller immediately recognized the correct drive capacity.
Details, details, details… that’s what happens when you’re in a hurry.
In my feeble defense…
| Exhibit (A) The Western Digital WD400 drive didn’t have a jumper sticker on top. |
Exhibit (B) And the jumper setting is only shown in tiny print on the mobo of the drive. |
 |
 |
But, yes, I’m still retarded. 🙂
One of our techs was on-site and snapped this pic of a poorly placed I-beam in front of the entrance to the server room.
And yes, that’s permanent. Reminds me of Tommy Boy:
It’s official: Thursday August 21, 2008 Windows Small Business Server 2008 hit Released to Manufacturing (RTM) status!
More details on the official SBS blog:
http://blogs.technet.com/sbs/archive/2008/08/21/sbs-2008-released-to-manufacturing.aspx
Just a friendly reminder that the Kentucky Small Business Server User Group (KYSBSUG) meets tonight:
Topic: ConnectWise
Date: Wednesday August 20, 2008
Start Time: 6:30 PM Eastern (GMT -5)
Location: Money Concepts, Louisville, Kentucky USA
Registration URL: http://www.clicktoattend.com/?id=130623
Description:
Are you bleeding billable hours? Are contacts, timesheets, scheduling, sales, email, accounting, projects and service tickets scattered throughout your organization with little or no integration between applications?
Then please join us this month for a look at one of the most outstanding and popular PSA solutions in the market today. Learn how ConnectWise can help you bring it all together. If you have it, come and share what you’ve learned. If you’re using something else, share that too. If you’re still looking, this is the place to be.
Door Prizes: The first 5 attendees will receive Starbucks gift cards, plus we have some USB flash drives and other nice swag. 🙂
Attendees can participate in-person or via Microsoft Live Meeting. But seating is limited, so register today!
Register today for this 8-part training series of Academy Live Windows SBS 2008 Core Technical Training. The presenters are David Fabritus, Nicholas King and Michael Toot:
Source: Chris Parkes Blog
Good news for SMB Resellers interested in getting the scoop on SBS 2008 – Microsoft has recently announced the SBS 2008 Partner Group Tour, so go ahead and block the date on your calendar (these are typically evening events).
Unfortunately, the tour can’t come to every city, but there are 14 stops planned so far. Here’s the current list of cities and dates, as of 7/27/2008:
| Date | City | Partner Group Lead |
| Sat 9/16/2008 | Redmond, WA | Steven Banks |
| Tue 9/19/2008 | Atlanta, GA | Rick Butler |
| Wed 9/20/2008 | Charlotte, NC | Mark Crall |
| Thu 9/11/2008 | Miami, FL | Scott Cayouette |
| Fri 9/12/2008 | Houston, TX | Tim Loney |
| Mon 9/15/2008 | Cincinnati, OH | Kevin Royalty |
| Tue 9/16/2008 | Chicago, IL | Cynthia Slade |
| Wed 9/17/2008 | Dallas, TX | Russell Clements |
| Wed 9/17/2008 | South Field, MI | Tavis Patterson |
| Thu 9/18/2008 | Waltham, MA | Scott Galbraith |
| Fri 9/19/2008 | New York, NY | Robert Patterson |
| Mon 9/22/2008 | San Francisco, CA | Steven Lai |
| Tue 9/23/2008 | Irvine, CA | Dave Seibert |
| Wed 9/24/2008 | San Diego, CA | Jim Muglia |
*Dates and cities are subject to change.
Registration isn’t open yet, but when the ticket window opens, we’ll let you know ASAP. The closest stop to us is Cincinnati, OH on Monday September 15, 2008. Hope to see you there! 🙂
UPDATE: 08/18/2008 – Registration for the Cincinnati event is now open. Click here to register today!
This must be the week of crazy screen shots.
My first IM spam from MSN Messenger:
No thanks!