Yikes

Yes, that was a yikes. It's less than 8 weeks to the wedding and yikes is the word to describe it.

News in just the right order

From my iGoogle home page

LA Rock

When Mike Got Spiked promise you a good time in LA, you'd better believe it. They were playing in Whiskey A GoGo, so I went down for a look see. First off, they rocked out.


And Buffy was at the gig. Now some of you may know I'm kinda a fan of Buffy, and she was there.

I managed to not cream myself / faint / get the shit beaten out of myself by bouncers after grabbing her ass.

Then there was the obligiatory all night after show party. With feck all sleep it was off to an Irish bar to meet their manager (after all, where else would you hold a business meeting but over a few pints / vodkas/ red bulls). Then to another party, this time at the house of a footballer / movie star, with more movie stars / directors etc all attending where I managed to not throw up in the pool (sorry about the floor of the van lads).

But there you go, when Mike Got Spiked promise you a good time, you'd better believe it.

Earth hour

Did you switch off your light? Did you vote with your light switch? Did you do your part in saving the world? No idea what I'm talking about? Earth Hour. You didn't? Be ashamed. Be very ashamed. Global warming is now your fault.
Earth hour could save the planet, raise awareness...

It's all like Blah Blah Blah. What smart ass was behind this? Let's get people to think that if they switch off their lights for an hour it's actually a vote. That counts somewhere. Yes, I can just see it now in the Dail.
"Taoiseach, we have 1.2 million lights out but 1.4 million left on. I'm sorry Taoiseach, but the people have spoken. We need to increase global warming. Pollute more. There was too much snow this winter and we want a bloody good summer."
"Alright Tánaiste, let's lower taxes on petrol, cigarettes and coal. But before we do, buy me some shares in Benson & Hedges. Raise taxes on windfarms and close the station at Ardnacrusha. But sell my shares in windfarms first. Encourage people to smoke more, drive more, use more coal, burn anything they can. We'll turn Ireland into Ibiza yet. The people have spoken Tánaiste, and global warming is what they want."

Or maybe all those lights off saved enough CO₂ going into the atmosphere to make a difference. All those power stations shutting down? Of course you can turn off a power station for an hour. And restart a nuclear station in a few seconds when earth hour is over. Or the coal fired ones. Put out the fire at 8.31 and relight it at 9.29 and be back at full production within seconds. Wait, you can't? So you had all this power being generated and not used? Like you mean, wasted? And you changed to burning candles? You mean for earth hour we increased the amount of CO₂ going into the atmosphere? And printed millions of leaflets. Spennt millions on advertising that could have been used to buy some rain forest or something? But you cut it down to use for flyers?
Oops.
But you raised awareness, right? You now turn off your lights more often? No? You mean you did it for an hour so that's it for the year? The raised awareness wasn't your own awareness? But your sacrifice of light for one hour probably raised some one else's awareness? We can only hope.

I think we might be better ditching Earth Hour and looking at 1 million acts of green. Actually making a change instead of trying to make a statement.

Windows Small Business Server 2008

If you're not installing this you might want to stop reading about now.

Windows Small Business Server 2008 is the latest all in one solution for Small Business, an all in one domain controller, exchnage server and whatever you might need. Sound good? No, don't. Don't go near it. At least not yet. It does have a host of promising features, but you should really wait until Service Pack 1 or 2, and definitely for the documentation to be finished. At the moment searching for support to say reinstall Exchange will tell you that this is on the second DVD but there's no documentation available on how to do this.
Searching for support on say, why did my Active Directory crap out on me get's Microsoft knows this is an issue, please contact the product support team. I guess they're no longer charging for these calls if your new server destroys your old domain, but I couldn't find the right person to call to get my free support.

So I did run into some issues, mainly with migration. The SBS has a migration install mode, to migrate from SBS 2003 to 2008 on new hardware. It's a load of shit. If you're installing a new server, just create a new domain and recreate all the accounts and mailboxes manually and transfer the data across the hard way. It will be much easier in the end.
Just in case you try the migtation, here are some of the issues I've encountered and what to do.

Problem : The server will not install in migration mode. It's like the answer file you've created isn't being read.
Solution : Check the answer file. By default it is set to use an unattended install (which doesn't work). Recreat the file without this checked. Strangely, none of the migration guides mention this.
Problem : With a failed migration, you've now fucked up your original Active Directory. Errors about Rid.Master.
Solution : No guarantees, but this worked for me. On your source server use ntdsutil to seize back the 5 FSMO roles, technet article here.
Problem : You need to move home directories.
Solution : Back them up using NTBackup on the source server. Download the NTBackup Restore utility for 2008 (you'll need it anyway if you have any other backups; the new backup software doesn't work with the old files). Download it here.
Problem : You moved your mailboxes and it all seems to be ok, but then you see that messages are not getting through and the Unreachable queue is full of messages. They show "Last Error" The mailbox recipient does not have a mailbox database."
Solution : Using AD Users and Computers, move the users to the MyBusiness - Users - SBSusers OU. Then retry the unreachable queue (from Exchange Manager shell run Retry-Queue -Identity "\Unreachable" -Resubmit $True)

Beer beer beer

After making piss in college I've decided to give brewing another go. I currently have about 4 or 5 bottles of wine aging from an unknown grape that was growing in someones garden. Also tried a new beer kit (not the 5 gallons in just 7 day type). This is The Brew House's Premium All-Grain Beer Kit IPA.

This rather messy bucket was the result of primary fermentation



and after carbonation, some bottles popped open so I of course had to try one.



A bit rough at the moment, I'm meant to let it 'age' for another 2 weeks, but I have very high hopes for when I return in January.

I want one

Seen this in Linens and Things closing down sale at half price. If only there was room in the appartment for it. 2 water slides, a water canon and all inflatable and folds into a box that would fit in the boot of a beetle

Playlist in my head

Since I'm heading home in 7 days (yes, count em, 7) I've got a playlist stuck in my head. There's a bit of Chris Rea;

Im driving home for christmas
Oh, I cant wait to see those faces
Im driving home for christmas, yea
Well Im moving down that line
And its been so long
But I will be there
I sing this song
To pass the time away
Driving in my car
Driving home for christmas

A bit of Tori Amos;

Driving in my Saab
On my way to Ireland
It's been a long time
It's been a long time

But the song that's stuck there the most, for cheesiness and the fact that I'm really looking forward to this trip, is the Dusty Springfield version of Carole King's Goin' Back. Enjoy

Price of petrol

It's time to get a huge motherfuckin' kick ass pickup.


That's about 47.25 cents in Euro.

Canada Vs Ireland - Supermarkets

No arguing here at all, Canada has a bulk section, perhaps the greatest invention since the bread slicer (which the supermarkets have as well). Every time some one visits, I have to show them the bulk section. Basically it's big buckets of whatever and you fill a bag with as much as you need. Flour, sugar, baing soda, chocolate chips, sundried tomatoes, garlic powder, whatever. Recipe calling for a teaspoon of something? Don't want to buy a large can (smallest they have) of stuff that will go off within a week of opening it? Bulk section rocks.
Also, remember last Christmas? Those boxes of Quality Street? Left with a few of the coffee / nutty things no one likes? Pick what you want.


Ireland 4, Canada 4

Fame

While you're sitting on the edge of your seat waiting for my movie debut, you can check out my other tv work, this commercial for Opel.




What do you mean you don't see me? Probably my excellent acting, I am so in the role it's amazing. Awards will be flooding in. Still can't see me? Ok, go to about 9 seconds in? See me there? Third guy on the left away from the tent? That's me freezing my balls off and trying to look interested after take 14.

Tings I'm looking forward to in Ireland

1. Tings, trees and anything else where it's not necessary to pronounce a H with a TH. No more, "Oh, you're Irish, say three threes". Nine.
2. Smut, racist jokes and anything else not PC. The nearest Canadians can come to non PC is a Newfie joke (think Kerryman jokes). Other than that everything is uber clean and very very very politically correct. Roll on the twenty eight year olds punchline.
3. Chinese / Wagamamas. Ursula doesn't like Chinese food and anyway, the main problem with all the asian food over here is that it's cooked by asians in a city with a very large asian population. Tends to be very authentic. They have absolutely no idea what a long-tray-curry-chip-fried-rice is.
4. Not drinking Guinness. I never drank it in Ireland, but seem to have developed a taste for mainly badly poured pints here. Roll on the beer.