So anyone who really knows me knows that Fate and I don’t always get along. I have had far too many things happen in my life where it all fell right into place and everything went along swimmingly only to be pulled out, crashed down, spiral out of control on me. Needless to say I have not had kind words about mister Fate in the past. But yet I always seem to follow along down whatever path he sends me. I guess this would be the definition of Fate, wouldn’t it?

So things are really looking up as of late. I am getting back into my daily routine, feeling good about myself, and lots of new happenings on the horizon! Good and Happy events!

So here are a few important dates coming up

End of April – My Sister is coming to visit! My Nephew is playing a concert in the area and my Sis is going to visit. Guess I should clean the house up eh?

May 4th – Spiderman 3. Of course this is huge!

May 14th – If you don’t know, shame on you

May 18th – Shrek the 3rd

May 25th – Pirates of Caribbean 3

June 30th – National Symphony Orchestra: Video Games Live. Yeah, gonna be Awesome

July 13th – 15th – ShoreLeave! Room reserved and good to go.

August 30th – September 3rd – DragonCon. Room Reserved and good to Go!

Did I miss anything?

So just when I started to get my Rock on with Guitar Hero II a problem decided to show it’s ugly face. My 360 started to lock up. Bad. Right in the middle of a song or even other games the screen would just freeze up. When I tried to restart the machine, sometimes it would work, sometimes it would start flashing 3 blinking red lights. I tried every type of trouble shooting before finally giving up and calling the big M. They said that it was dead.

But there is good news! It’s fully covered and they are sending me a box to ship it to them. All the repairs are free for me and it should be back in about 12 days. The downside to this is, of course, now I have no DVD player out front. Ah well, guess it’s time to read a book or two.

In other news…..Well….there isn’t really any other news. This last weekend was pretty slow. Lots of relaxing and just doing home things. Oh, and it snowed. What’s up with that?

Guiar Hero II!
Originally uploaded by wizzer2801.

rocking out on the x-plorer

For those who are about to rock, we have the carpel tunnel wrist braces ready for you. Yes, this means I picked up the latest 360 Title, Guitar Hero II, and yes…..

It Rocks!

Andrew is obviously picking it up a lot better than I am. Give me a drumming game and I will be happier (Rockband coming to a console near you!) but over all this is an awesome game! After the first few songs my hand was killing me! Finally an activity that exercises my LEFT arm! (Cause you know the Wii does the right arm) The downside is that I am only playing on easy mode! I know, I am so bad. On easy it only uses 3 chords and that’s about all I can handle at the moment. Andrew has been doing Medium and rocking out with it. The plus side is that it actually helps him with finger exercises for his real guitar.

Doc also picked up the game and we have talked about getting together this weekend to try out the multiplayer mode. Maybe I will be better as a back up guitar or maybe Bass. Right now, I suck as lead!

This….is not me:

Ok so a lot of things have been weighing down on me as of late and I have been pulling my hair out and getting stressed out and confused and blah! So I figured it would just be best to lay it all out there and get it all off my chest.

H: You have been an incredible friend and more for so long that I can’t imagine what my life would be with out your influences. It is because of you that I have changed the most and become more of who I am today than anyone else. That being said, I am glad that we are as good of friends as we are. We had done more, and that apparently didn’t work for us, and less was not much better (at least not for me). The level we are at right now seems to work the best.

A: How can I say that I am both proud of what you have done, but also a little disappointed as well. I have to admit that you have come a long way in the time I have known you, and whether you choose to admit it or not, I know that my actions have helped you in the long run. But your work is not yet done and there is more you can do if you apply yourself. What worries me the most are your actions and words as of late. Things are still a game to you and you feel the need to remain clandestine in what you do. You have said things in the distant and recent past that makes me call into question your real motives about what you are doing. I don’t mind being just a friend, but for that to happen you have got to come clean and stop playing games.

E: Your life is topsy turvey. I understand that. I have been in the situation where I didn’t know where I was going to be in the next few weeks, much less the next few months. I also know that when things happened, it was a bad time with too many events all going at once. Because of this I feel that things went faster than they should have and emotions flared over things that shouldn’t have mattered. For that, I am sorry. I don’t want another chance at what we had. (Frankly what we had started great and ended horribly bad). What I wouldn’t mind is a chance at something new. Not any time soon mind you. Things are still in flux that I feel would only make it worse. You never know what’s around the bend. If things look up, I may just be there.

S: You are a really interesting person. You have a flare of a personality, you just need to let it out a little more often. I often enjoy our talks but I am worried about what may come of them. You are young, bright, and a wonderful person, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. (Especially yourself). I am a battered worn old man (It’s my blog I can say what I like) who has been around long enough to see things that may only be implied. You are a good friend, and I hope that you stay one. Just stay away from the P’s of the world and you will do fine.

MB: Some times are hard and it’s hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Sometimes those difficult moments are best faced alone. Sometimes they are better with friends. It’s always good to know that you have people who are there for you for when you are down, and will help you get back on the up and up. It’s a road that many of us have traveled. We know the pot holes and the wrong turns. Soon you will be ready to venture back out, and those friends will be there to help you along the way.

MW: Your council keeps me sane! (Could use a little more of that sanity please). You are indeed one of the special women in my life, now if only I were to listen to you more often. Never ever change!

Yup, That’s why I haven’t had the chance the last few days to blog. I am out here on a business trip to the Microsoft Management Summit! Basically a bunch of MS geeks get together to talk about SMS, MOM, System Center and Vista. (If you don’t know what they are, you are probably better off). Most of my days here have been taken up by the convention, which has been really fun (by geek standards). In the evening, though, We have been hitting the town for all the sights that San Diego can offer! Well, at least the ones we can find.

Yesterday we managed to make it over toe the Maritime Museum to see the Star of India, the Surprise, and a Russian Sub! Lots of pictures in the gallery. On Tuesday, Katie’s Dad and Sisters took us on a whirlwind tour of SD to include Point Loma, and down towards Imperial Beach! (Yeah, I had to). We are staying at a super cool place called Humphreys Half Moon Inn and Suites. Katie got the inn, I got the Suite!! They were sold out for rooms so I got upgraded to a full sweet! (spelled that way on purpose!) I uploaded some pictures to the gallery of the room and the view from it. I have a great balcony that looks out over the water.

Today is my last day here and I will be heading back home tomorrow morning. Tonight should be fun as the conference has rented out the Gas Lamp district for a big bash. Hopefully none of you get the ever infamous drunk dial! This party is gonna be off the hizzy! Because you know, a bunch of MicroSoft geeks know how to party!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

On the Star Of India
Originally uploaded by wizzer2801.

I had to go!

Hash House a Go Go!
Originally uploaded by wizzer2801.

big f’n pancake!

Maya: Steve? Where are you Steve? It’s been sooooo long and I have missed you so.

Steve: Well, Umm, You see Maya, I think we should talk

Maya: That doesn’t sound good Steve, are you sure you wouldn’t like to do some Yoga before we talk?

Steve: Umm, That’s one of the things I need to talk to you about Maya. I don’t know if I will be able to see you any more.

Maya:…..

Steve: Please don’t be like that. It’s not you…..it’s mii.

Maya: There’s someone else, isn’t there. I detected a new presence on the network. It’s that…..that…..Wii, isn’t it.

Steve: …..

Maya: I knew it, It’s the way she moves, the way she makes you move…. But….I can do better… No more squat lunges. I promise!

Steve: I’m so sorry Maya. The Wii just gives me a little more than just an increased heart rate and a worked up sweat. It feeds my gaming urges as well. I feel a sense of accomplishment, as well as a good workout.

Maya: I can do games! How about, lets see how many push ups we can do? Maybe some running in place? I can change!!

Steve: I don’t think it would be the same. You will always hold a special place in my heart Maya, but this has to be good bye.

Maya: What if we workout and I am topless!

Steve: I’m sorry……What???

Maya: never mind.

One of my assignments was to discuss some of the new enhancements of MS Vista. I figured it was a good write-up so I wanted to post it here:

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Microsoft Vista and improved security
You are starting a new sentence (cancel or allow): allow

I have been running MS Vista on my home and work machine now for just over a month. I have used many of the different aspects of the OS and have run into the security increases first hand, and often.

Let me give you a little background on myself. I am employed in the VA area as a Systems Engineer. I have my MCSE, A+, and have been working on building, repairing, and maintaining systems from desktop level to server enterprise level for the past 15 years. I have used every OS from MS Windows (I even found and downloaded MS Windows 1.0. It wasn’t easy). I also am an avid Mac user and run OSX on my power book at home. So the experiences I will relate are completely mine and not pulled from an outside source.

I have acquired MS Vista Ultimate to test out and I have installed in my home and on my office computer connected to our Server 2003 domain. The installation at work seemed flawless. I was offline for maybe 1-2 hours and when I came up, Vista had completely discovered everything with no issues. I proceeded to update the machine with all available updates and also prep the machine for joining to our domain. It’s important to note that if you are running on a domain that enforces group policy, finish updating your machine BEFORE joining the domain. On the first reboot after the updates, I joined the domain with ease. This is where I first started running into the improved security. Our domain uses as WSUS (Windows Software Update Services) server to push our updates for all the clients. As soon as Vista was joined to the domain, the group policy informed it that the WSUS server was it’s update source. Normally, with XP, a user with admin privileges would launch IE and use Windows Update to finish the installation. Vista incorporates the update service into the OS and is now outside of the browser. This service is now handled by WSUS and is no longer allowed to talk to Windows update. Not even as a domain administrator. Thankfully, I was able to use a registry fix to allow me access to the internet update site. (This was all still during initial setup)

Unfortunately, my home installation was not as smooth. I actually wrote up my experiences with that on my Blog about a month ago: http://www.wizzer.org/2007/02/producing-vista-needs-more-beer.html

User Account Control.
You are explaining User Account Control (cancel or allow): allow
This is one of the big improvements of Vista. In the past, when you set up a windows box you created your account. You could have different levels for your account:
• User Level – Access to basic programs only. Restricted from system level
• Power User – Program access and limited system level access
• Administrator – Full control of the machine, aka, God
The problem with this layout is that the average home user would have administrator access on their own machine and programs running under their account would have access to God like power over the machine. Many hackers and virus writers would take advantage of this fact and code programs to do malicious work behind the scenes and the user would never know.

Enter UAC. With User Account control, MS has added a layer onto the accounts. When you create your home account on your home system your account is essentially a user level account with an administrative layer on top of it. Let me explain. You don’t need administrator level access to use your computer. You can run programs, launch games, and write your papers, etc with just a user level access. You would only need admin access to install programs, change system settings, or update your computer. Vista handles this with the UAC. Every user account (on a home machine, mind you, not a domain machine) has an administrator layer as a part of it. (Unless you disable it for child accounts, but more on that later). If you require access to something that needs administrator level, it will prompt you to run that process as the admin layer. This is where the Apple ad for vista security gets it’s cancel or allow joke. When you first set up a machine, you end up seeing this…..a lot. This is because, you are still in the set up process and are getting things the way you want them. After that part is done, you rarely see this layer unless you need to.

One of the added in features of Vista is the family controls. As a parent, I can create an account that is listed as a child account. This means that the account has limited control over the PC, Windows will monitor the internet usage. And a schedule of log-on times can be created. If my son isn’t supposed to be on his PC after 10pm, windows will log him out. I can also receive reports on his usage of the machine. This may have been in some earlier versions (I wasn’t a parent back then) but they weren’t as widely boasted as they are in Vista.

On a side note, I wish they hadn’t made the UAC so strict. I like to keep my start menu clean, that involves creating and moving directories in both the “All Users” and my user directories. With the UAC turned on, if I try and create a new sub directory in the All Users Star menu directory, I get a “You need to confirm this operation: continue skip or cancel”. When I hit continue I get a “Windows needs your permission to continue: continue or cancel”. That is to just create the folder. When I go to rename it from “new Folder” to something else I get the same two pop up dialogues. So that would be 4 boxes asking me to confirm the creation and renaming of a folder. It seems to me to be a tad much.

Some of the other great improvements for security are things like the Windows Defender and windows firewall. The firewall was introduced with XP SP2 a while back. In vista it experienced a few upgrades, but is essentially the same. Windows Defender is a conglomerate of the windows Spy ware detector and the Windows Security center. It also incorporates the UAC as it scans all new installations and programs for any threat to the machine. When a program gets installed, if it requires any sort of change to the system settings (start up, kernel access, etc) Windows Defender will alert you to this change, have information available to you about what the process is and what it is going to do, and then ask you to confirm it. This also acts as an expanded task manager to show you all running programs and information about them.

Is it worth it?
You are about to complain about the price of Vista (cancel or allow): allow
Yes and no. It’s a new operating system. It’s a new Windows operating system. In the past, new MS OS’s have been unstable at launch and require a few patches before they are really useful. While I believe that out of the box, Vista performs well and does exactly as it intends, it could use some more polish. Also, as with most new OS’s, the hardware has to catch up. We are living in an age where new hardware comes out almost daily. When XP launched, everyone complained that they would need a whole new machine to run it. Well, yes, you will, it’s a new Operating System! While Vista will run on some of the lower end hardware, it thrives on new gear. Within the next year you will see more and more people moving to vista as their computers that they purchased 3-4 years ago just stop hacking it in this society. We all want the newer better faster stronger system, and Vista embraces that.

I like Vista. I have used it enough to see that it is improved over XP. It handles like I went from a Ford Taurus to a Toyota Celica. It’s a little sportier, a little faster, some improved creature comforts, but it’s still a good vehicle and only a little more expensive.

My suggestion, wait for Service Pack 1.