Phillbo’s Blog Site

Well yesterday was compounded by issues with our company’s web site intermittently accepting orders. This was severely reducing sales, and consequently sales over the past three days have been very lean indeed. When a business relies on web sites for revenue, this is a major cause for concern. Which gives me another reason to feel even less confident in Microsoft .NET and Microsoft web servers. After looking into this problem and staying up way too late, our CTO and system programmers found the possible cause of the problem, and all seems to be good for the time being.

Unlike last Friday, I had to do a contract job where I had to add two new employees to Windows 2003 Server/Exchange server, and move data from ex-employees to these new user accounts. Normally this wouldn’t be a problem. I had everything moved across in about 30 minutes, but to my horror, it didn’t work. Two hours passed by, checked, re-checked my settings, but no success. I am not an MCSE or MCP for that matter, but surely any geek can work it out, but I started to doubt myself. Searching desperately in Internet forums, someone suggested restarting the Exchange services, and voila, all was good. This could have saved me so much time (well 90 minutes anyway), so based on my own ignorance, I will only bill them for a few hours compared to the total time spent on site. I was there like five hours, but I also had to fix up an issue with their network and printer that was unrelated to the initial task.

Which only goes to show, I’ve had my head in UNIX way too long. The unwritten rule of Microsoft, if it doesn’t work — restart it. I wonder if the MCSE teaches you this?

Now it is inevtiable, BSD will soon rule supreme in my work place. Got my pilot headset in Ebay today too, so I give it its first test run on Thursday. I can’t wait. Circuits here we come.

Well my mind has been wired. I am still awake and it is 7am. Now it makes me wonder, why do people need recreational drugs to keep that awake and jovial? I seem to have some natural energy bursts here and there.

I just bought The Corrs Live unplugged DVD from Ebay, and I am quite impressed with it. I still need to hunt down Pink Floyd’s last concert on DVD that includes the full song list from the Dark side of the Moon record, but I will hunt for that another day. This Corrs DVD has a splendid blend of the classic Corrs style music, with a small but effective orchestra. I simply love it. Then again, I am appreciating orchestra music; I simply love my Metallica S&M DVD.

Overall, it just inspires me to become a better musician… now the only hard part is where to divide my time. I have so much on the agenda, one thing is for certain, I am not ever likely to ger bored sometime soon.

Well life has been quite interesting for me over the past six weeks. I’ve been flying, flying and flying. Literally.

I’ve started flight school. I’ve already flown a Piper Warrior, a Piper Archer, and the little Aussie aeroplane affectionatly known as the Jaberoo. I’ve also been a passenger in a nice powerful Piper Lance a few times too. It is an expensive process, but I am sure the rewards will far outweight the expense. I have a real passion for flying. Getting to NSW in less than an hour was a supreme experience, especially flying above the clouds at 8,500 feet. I have a fair bit of theory to go through, but even that has kept my attention. Now all I have to do is build the ultimate flight simulator. I promised pictures of Vanuatu, and I will also promise pictures of some aerial photographs too. Now all I need to do is find the time.

Now if I can convince the person I work for - for a week off… I’d go back to Tocumawl and fly for a week. The Jaberoo is an awesome aircraft to cruise in.