John R. Pattison
Custom software developer. IT consultant. Geek.
Hilarious video – Macbook Wheel
Jan 7th
The Onion never fails to disappoint me. To coincide with MacWorld, they have a great parody video out about the “Macbook Wheel”.
Why my Zune did not have a happy New Years Eve
Jan 1st
So yesterday, on December 31, 2008, everyone with one of the original 30GB Zunes (I have two) found their precious portable media players frozen at a startup screen. Of course, in today’s blogging world, this hit the news quickly and Microsoft found themselves swamped with support calls and demands to fix the problem (wouldn’t that be a great way to wake up?).
This morning, I saw that a user over at ZuneBoards.com has found the bug in a reverse-engineered version of the Zune 30 source code. This is just such a classic programming “oops” that I had to post it for other More >
The Dream Server – Launching today at 11AM (EST)
Nov 12th
Join us live for "The Dream Server" launch today at noon. Right here, or (if you don’t see the video below) go to http://infoetc.com/dreamserver
Microsoft is launching Windows Small Business Server 2008 and Windows Essential Server 2008. Join us for this live launch webcast to learn all about these exciting new products. This syndication of the Windows Essential Server Solutions product line is brought to you by Microsoft Corporation and Info et Cetera Consulting (a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and Small Business Specialist).
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Some Good Windows Azure Videos
Oct 27th
Some good videos came out today about Windows Azure. I’m linking them here as a good single-page way to get a quick (haha… ok, several hours) understanding of what Azure is all about.
Program Manager Steve Marx gives a great 35 minute overview of what Windows Azure means for developers Steve Marx: Windows Azure for Developers
Next on the list, is a 40-minute video of Manuvir Das, Director in the Windows Azure team introducing Windows Azure. Lots of good architecture stuff in this video. Manuvir Das: Introducing Windows Azure
Diving a bit into more of the individual Azure services, Technical Fellow John Shewchuk More >
What I’ll Be Working on for the Next Few Years
Oct 27th
No, I’m not going to become a one-project guy. That would just be too easy. Rather, here’s the technology stack that I’ll be working on for the next few years — announced at the Microsoft PDC today — the Windows Azure Services Platform.
Learn more: http://www.azure.com
Here a diagram from the PDC of Microsoft’s broad online platform vision:
Mary Jo Foley has a nice overview about the Azure Services Platform over at ZDNet
Emergency Windows Patch
Oct 24th
I’ve spent a lot of time over the past 27 hours notifying clients about the emergency Windows patch released yesterday afternoon, and also installing that patch on servers and workstations. So I’m just now getting a chance to post the information here, to my blog. (Isn’t that a great diagram to the right? No, I didn’t make that.)
The gist
- This is a major vulnerability affecting the “Server” service that is part of Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista/2008.
- The problem is not as critical in Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, as those operating systems have better built in protections in place. These systems should still More >
Why I Use MBO Partners
Oct 24th
Info et Cetera operates as a division of MBO Partners, Inc. MBO takes care of all of our HR needs, bookkeeping, etc., and then we get to focus on the thing we enjoy — leveraging technology to create innovative solutions for innovative businesses.
Every once in a while, people ask me "Why do you use MBO instead of doing it yourself?" This video does a great job of summing up the answer to that question.
Read more posts from John R. Pattison about Independent Consulting
Being an Independent Consultant
Oct 17th
As you may or may not know, Info et Cetera Consulting (how I pay the bills) operates as a division of MBO Partners, Inc. MBO has just released a great video talking about the topic of being an independent consultant. I can’t agree more with the message of this video, and I can’t overemphasize the value of independent consultants partnering with MBO Partners. The video is below, or available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjOYyhDWzho.
Read more posts from John R. Pattison about Independent Consulting
Microsoft Image Tools
Sep 24th
There have been a lot of image tools coming out of Microsoft recently, so I figured it would be helpful for a lot of people to present all of these options in a single place.
Image Composite Editor – from Microsoft Research
Let’s start with Microsoft Image Composite Editor. This is the most recent tool that I have learned about. It comes out of Microsoft Research’s Interactive Visual Media Group and offers some of the most complex and accurate stitching algorithms to put multiple pictures, all taken from a single point of view, into a single image. Now what’s really neat is that More >
Windows Home Server can back up Windows Server 2008
Sep 11th
As I mentioned in my last post, I’ve been getting my new development machine configured. It’s running the 64-bit version of Windows Server 2008 Standard. I also have a Windows Home Server (I love it!). I was pretty sure that the two wouldn’t play nicely together. That is, I was pretty sure that I’d try to install the Windows Home Server connector on my development machine and it would yell at me and say I couldn’t do that.
To my surprise, though, the connector installed just fine. Better yet, the backup feature in Windows Home Server works just fine. WOW! So More >