December 2007 - Posts
So my DVD drive in the new laptop appeared to be dead. It didn't appear in the "Computer" list with my hard drive, I inserted known good DVDs and CDs that worked on other laptops and no go. Device Manager showed that the driver couldn't load, so I removed it and reinstalled it. No go.
Vista was becoming less interesting on my list of things, but on the Toshiba message board I found that some people had reported dead HD DVD drives. So I called Toshiba today and they said there could be a registry problem they've seen and I'd need to recover. Since I'd only installed Firefox, this wasn't a big deal. I'd purposely held off adding other software and files until I was sure it was working ok.
So I'm going through the recovery process and the drive is working. I heard from a few other Vista users in a private email thread moving around as well. I have one person that loves Vista Ultimate and is happy with the way it works, another hates it. Not sure where I am now, but I am thinking that once recover finishes, I'll reinstall Vista Ultimate from scratch and search out drivers.
Maybe I'm succombing, maybe I'm lazy, most likely I don't want to mess with it.
I found some instructions for nLite, a utility that will build a custom XP install, including the SATA drivers, but as I was looking through the new machine and checking out the utilities, I got a bit nervous. Apparently Toshiba won't support the install of XP and there are all sorts of audio and video drivers for the new laptop. I hate having to dig through and find them and I had an issue with my desktop actually with DELL specific drivers. I'm still not sure everything's right and I definitely had audio recording issues with it.
A laptop is just a tool for me. I'm not really entranced by the technology and I rarely do things just for the cool factor anymore. I'm too busy with too many production deadlines to want computers to do much more than just work for me. I'm slightly different with a VM or lab machine where I can tolerate some flakiness, I'm trying to figure something out or see how it works, etc. But with my main machines, I'm pretty conservative because issues with the stability or operation cause problems with the creative process.
And that's really what I do know.
So, I'm going to try and upgrade to Vista Ultimate, in place from Vista Home Premium, and see how it works. I don't have a lot of tolerance if I have issues, but I have an external USB drive that I'll use to store video and other files, so I'll have my work backed up if I need to rebuild the machine from scratch.
To some extent I'm being caught in the Microsoft machine, upgrading against my will because of new hardware. And the old software is so old, in this case 2001, that it doesn't run properly on the new hardware with SATA drives. I'm not thrilled, but I've had so many Microsoft guys tell me on the side that Vista works for them that I'll give it a chance. I think I'd have more complaints from them if it was unusable.
Already the authorization process isn't too bad. It's popping up when I don't expect it and it changes the way I work with things, but I'll give it a real chance over the next month or so and if it's an issue, I'll dig further into the issues with putting XP on the Toshiba, including calling Tech Support and seeing if they'll send me an image on a recovery disk.
My new laptop came with Vista Home and I messed with it for awhile last night, but I didn't see anything that was a compelling reason for me to stick with it. I like XP and it works well for me. It's supposed to use less resources and as I was researching a few drivers for the laptop, I got an email from Michael Coles. Apparently he was also struggling with a new laptop and trying to install XP back on it. He sent a link out from someone that had tried Vista for a few months and decided it was too slow.
So I went to install XP and it couldn't see my drives. Apparently my SATA drive can't be seen by the base XP install because those drivers didn't exist. I did some research and the "press F6 to install a driver" requires that you have a floppy disk to put them on. It can't be a CD. The only problem with that is even if I had a floppy drive for me laptop, I don't have one for my desktop to copy the drivers on to.
I downloaded XP SP2 slipstreamed in and I'll give that a try shortly.
I really with Toshiba had given me the option to go with XP. I'd have never even looked at Vista if they had.
My new laptop showed up today at my desk. Actually it probably showed up yesterday, but since I never went out the front door, I didn't realize it. My daughter brought it in, thankfully not dropping it anywhere, and wanted to help me open it. We did, and she got a kick out of opening everything, the box, the instructions, and more, asking me what she had to put back into the box and what she could have. Fortunately there was enough junk she could have some stuff that she wanted to play with. Somehow one of the cardboard dividers ended up wrapped for Mom. Not sure if anything else ended up there.
I charged it up before running some errands and I'd just started it up and went through the inital Vista setup, connected to the network, etc. I have Vista Home Premium on it, but it needs to be rebuilt ASAP to run either Vista Ultimate or XP. I have a Technet subscription, so I can get either one, and I'm leaning towards XP. So many people have talked about issues with Vista, runs slower, eats resources, etc. Since this will be a video machine, I'm leaning towards a slightly leaner XP.
I have to say it's a nice laptop. It has a black cover and white interior, built in webcam, which looks ok. Not the best light up here in bed as I'm messing with Vista, trying to decide what to do. I've downloaded some drivers for XP from Toshiba and I'll probably make a decision tonight or tomorrow and go with it. Unless I can come up with a compelling reason to stick with Vista, I'm moving back to XP. I'd rather have less system resources being used. The laptop has harmon/kardon speakers, including a built in subwoofer in the bottom, nice blue LED lighting, a fingerprint reader, and a Windows Media Center control, a four way joystick/enter button, that can be used like the one on a remote.
I'll plug in a DVD and see how it sounds soon. It's got HD-DVD and a DVD writer built it, so I need to get an HD-DVD from blockbuster and then plus in an HDMI cable to see how it looks.
Someone posted a question about what should they try to learn for an interview coming soon, but the company was asking for information that they didn't know about. Their resume indicated experience in development, but the job description asked for HA skills.
What should you do?
First don't panic. I'm of the opinion that if a company calls you, they see some potential in your resume. There is a reason they called you, assuming that some recruiter didn't "spice up" your skills. In any case, it's too late to become an expert.
My advice is that if you have time, hours even, read up on the topics in Books Online or somewhere like SQLServerCentral.com and see if you can pick up the general idea and talk about the overall process or technology. Be perfectly honest that you're not an expert and don't get drawn into making things up, trying to answer questions you don't know, or trying to sound more educated than you are.
Instead you should talk about what you know and how well you can learn things. When I've been in an area that I'm not familiar with, I steer the interview back to a comfortable place by drawing a parallel in how quickly I've learned something or learned to solve a problem. That way I can build some confidence in the interviewer that I can do the work, or learn how, and also manage the interview to keep me looking in a positive light.
Never forget that someone's impressions of you when the interview is over will stick in their mind and it's what they'll tell someone else. Or write down. If they think you're a positive person, maybe underqualified, but they have a positive impression of you, that's what they'll remember.
So be honest, and talk about things that showcase your skills. And remember that job descriptions always ask for everything, and talk about way more than most positions really need.
Or will accept.
Usually I'm the one working on my podcasts and starring in them. However I got invited to participate in and be interviewed for a podcast by Eric Johnson and Josh Jones of the Colorado Springs SQL Server Users Group. They do a weekly podcast on databases in general and are two interesting speakers. I'd recommend checking them out at PASS, the Colorado PASS camp or any of their other engagements.
They pinged me on Katmai compression, both data and backup compression. I got to pick the topic and it's an area that is of interest to me. I've got some thoughts and am working on an article, which I hope to get out in January.
I'm sure that most of you know that you cannot turn off logging in SQL Server. You can minimize the impact of logging by using simple mode, but there is no way to turn off logging.
Yet I still see posts (and answer them) that talk about how to stop logging, do you need a transaction log, and other similar questions that make sense if you are used to dealing with simpler, less robust applications, but don't make sense in the RDBMS world.
It reminds me that there are still so many people beginning to work with SQL Server and that no matter how far I advance in my studies, I can't forget that this is a valid question for many people and that they need a good explanation. Books Online does a good job with theory, but I think there's some space to build quick, short tutorials that explain some of the theory behind how SQL Server works.
We're looking to do some video tutorials in addition to the written ones and I've started working on backups, though I realize that those short step-by-step instructions also could use some theory and explanation of why things are the way they are.
A short congratulations to myself. I was answering posts last night after tech editing another chapter of the book I'm helping on and I hit the front page to see if I'd cracked the top 5, which are displayed on everyone's home page.
I saw I'd hit exactly 12,000 points for the overall total. I've been in the lead there for a long time, which I should be in seeing as how I load the QODs and post articles here all the time. However I'm certainly not the most active poster these days with other things on the agenda. However I still try to do 10-20 a day and help people out.
I will admit that when I lost the lead in Sept, thanks to a concerted effort by the ninja to get to the top spot, I felt a little motivated. Over the last couple years, I've let the forums run themselves, just posting a few times a week. So over the last 3-4 months I've made a dedicated effort to look for posts everyday and contribute where I can. So I'm a little proud of getting back on top and getting closer to that 11,000 post mark.
I write a daily editorial, which is one of the reasons that I don't post here as often as I'd like. I get to put out thoughts and opinions, and often I'm hoping to drive the debate in something that interests me or that has caught my eye. I'm mostly successful, but I have a fair number of failures as well. Last week I had quite a few editorials basically get no commentary whatsoever. Not much fun to wake up to that.
However I still enjoy the writing and am trying to get back into writing more articles. I've specifically been working on a few things based on SSMS for later this month and based on some common questions that I see asked often. I try to stay motivated since that's my primary job, but it can be hard to continue to write about SQL Server, especially when I don't get to play with it as much in my daily work.
I got an email the other day that inspired me again. It was from someone that read one of my articles and learned something and solved a problem he was having. The article was a couple years old, but this person just read it and sent me a kind note telling me how appreciative he was. That was cool and it's still very cool to me that someone actually enjoys the stuff I've written.
If you're reading this and you haven't ever written an article, consider it. Writing is cathartic, it lets you express yourself, and more often than you think, you can help someone else solve a problem. There are plenty of people out there that are still learning the basics and despite all the articles we have, it might just be your voice that reaches tham and solves their issue.
A new video setup is on the way!!!!
Actually I'll do a couple podcasts on podcasting over the holidays here since it's a slow time and I'm sure you could use some more (or perhaps less) interesting content.
I've been making do with some old equipment that I had and some low cost purchases that I made. However with the popularity of podcasting, I decided to invest a bit more, more of a split of investment between me and Red Gate. The actual split doesn't matter, but the important thing is I have new equipment coming and a small budget of money to spend!
Here's what's coming:
- Toshiba Quismo F45, 2.2GHz, 4GB RAM, ready for video production
- Canon HG-10 - It didn't get a great CNet review, but a number of video sites listed it as the "prosumer" camera to get in the hard drive space. I decided that the transfer speeds of a hard drive outweighed about anything else. I try to avoid Sony because I think they're a crappy company in how they treat consumers and if Panasonic hadn't put the USB port behind the bettery, I might have used them. So Canon it is.
Still to buy:
- More lights - I need at least one more and possibly two to get things better lit in the basement.
- New desk - I've been balancing my wife's desk connector on two chairs, but I really wanted that as the background and a new desk in front. So look for a cheap Wal-Mart or Office Depot desk to appear soon. That way I can drop some interesting stuff in front of the camera.
- Misc background stuff.
- Better Editing Software - I'm thinking ULead might be the one I choose, but we'll see. A light version comes with the laptop, so we'll try that and see.
Any suggestions, comments, criticisms are definitely welcome. I'm aiming for the "
Geekbrief" quality at some point!
Wow, it's been a long time since I posted here. I actually had to search for my name to find the blog and get back to this posting page. Part of that is my inability to maintain this blog and another part is the poor design of this Community Server software.
I've been around, trying to learn a bit more about video as well as maintain the production workload. So my apologies for not posting more often, but I'm going to try and add a few items of note here in the following areas:
- Podcasting - I'll make some entries on how to, equipment I've used and like, and more.
- SQLServerCentral changes - A few things on the wish list and upcoming (I hope) enhancements
- Some small SQL stuff I'm trying to work on.