Rob Chartier ~ Contemplation...

My advice to you for new years...

Since I have a bit of free time this afternoon I decided to get a few more blog posts out of the way (scroll down, this will be my third in the last hour or so).  Anyways, I just got off a MSN conversation with another MVP which lives in the south (Dallas?).  First off he wanted to wish me a Happy Ho Ho, and then he started in with the questions about why I have been so quiet this past year.

So what have I been up to? 

My biggest adventure, if you can call it that, is my current employment situation, its a startup which is focusing on a Cancer Survivorship solution for the US Healthcare Market. [some info here].  This year we had a very successful ramp up of the core business and although it was super busy around here I cant help but feel that this is really the calm before the storm.  The deals that are being inked in the last few months (which I will post on soon enough) will ultimately change the face of people surviving with cancer in the long term, and to tell you the truth it is the most fulfilling position in any organization I have ever had.  Over the course of my career I have never had the opportunity to work with such high caliber people for a cause such as this.  It really makes all the hard work worth it.

Another big change in my life is my health.  For all of you that I have had the opportunity to meet you will notice that I'm not exactly a person of good health.  I have always been careless and it shows.  Well, with lots of help (and patience) from my wife, Katerina, I have begun a long and exhaustive change for the better.  To date (in the last 3 to 6 months) I have managed to shave off about 30 pounds, and that is just for starters.  Its quite difficult for me to actually articulate how much work has gone into acheiving this and I can barely imagine how much more work that I will need to put in for me to reach my ultimate goal (to get rid of another 50lbs!!).

My new years advice to those that have read this far is that if you are in a position in life which you do not like; your job sucks; your health is in question; or whatever your issues are simply STOP what you are doing; go no further.  Face it, what you are doing right now just is not working.  Plan out a new approach, get some advice from your trusted circle of friends and family and make the change.  Whatever that change is it is probably better than wasting away being miserable for the rest of your life.

Microsoft IT Pro and Developer Community in Vancouver

Recently, I have been receiving more and more emails asking about the local Microsoft community scene.  I noticed more people emailing me directly so I just decided to post up an item to quickly cover it.

Essentially, there are a few key groups that you need to know about:

1. .NET
Name: .netBC Users Group
URL: http://netbc.ca/
Contact: Medhat Elmasry

2. Sql Server
Name:VanPASS (Vancouver PASS Chapter)  (PASS == Professional Association for Sql Server)
URL: http://www.vanpass.com/
Contact: Scott Stauffer or Richard Baumet

3. IT Pro (General)
Name: VanTug  (which is now free!)
URL: http://www.vantug.com/
Contact: Graham Jones

 4. Small Business Server
Name: Vancouver Small Business Server User Group
URL: http://www.vansbs.com/
Contact: Jasminder Rai
 
Aside from User Groups there are of course two major events which are typically planned either once a year or every 18 months.  The first is the big event which I personally put on:

5. Vancouver Technology Festival
URL: http://www.vancouvertechfest.ca
Contact: Rob Chartier
Schedule: About once a year

And finally JR from DevTeach has decided to bring his event to Vancouver as well:

URL: http://www.devteach.com
Contact: Jean-Rene Roy
Schedule: About every 18 months

If you feel your group or event should be on this list, let me know!

Topic: JavaScript essentials for the ASP.NET Developer

 I recently gave a presentation @ the local user group ( .NET BC users group http://www.netbc.ca) on Javascript essentials for the ASP.NET Developer. 

 I would like to thank Medhat Elmasry for the opportunity to speak to his fine group.

----

Here are the event details:

Topic: JavaScript essentials for the ASP.NET Developer

Not many people have ever really given JavaScript its full and due attention. Do you realize that you can do full Object Orientated Programming with JavaScript, within most browsers? There is more to it than “Ajax”! Did you know that it uses a “prototype-based” style as opposed to classical inheritance? Come and watch Rob Chartier, one of the few local Microsoft MVP’s, give a presentation on how to leverage JavaScript in your ASP.NET Applications today!

Speaker:
Rob Chartier,
Director, Software Development

http://netbc.ca/DNCal/EventDetail.aspx?date=2007/12/05

Adobe : Stop trying to sell me Google's garbage

Just a small, quick rant I needed to get off of my chest....

IMHO Adobe should focus on keeping their Flash Player dominant the market (ahead of Silverlight) instead of making lame deals to distribute the Google Toolbar bundled with their products. 

 Now back to your regular scheduled programming...

Your 2003 Server has been rebooted...

For some reason 4 out of the 5 Windows Server x64 SKU's we have running in our office decided to reboot last night.  I checked the one that did not, and it had issues downloading the updates (thats a seperate issue).  Of the 4 that did reboot, I checked Automatic Updates and it appears that *somehow* they are all now set to download and install updates automatically.  Now, as most of us know you should set this to never install updates blindy on production machines.  Its always good to stage/test any new software installed into production, including service packs and Windows updates.  I double checked with my IT guy and he defintely remembers changing that setting during intial install (its part of our standard checklist).   

 This happened at 3am:

 Restart Required: To complete the installation of the following updates, the computer will be restarted within 5 minutes:
- Security Update for Windows Server 2003 x64 Edition (KB944653)
- Update for Windows Server 2003 x64 Edition (KB942763)
- Security Update for Windows Server 2003 x64 Edition (KB941569)
- Update for Outlook Junk Email Filter 2007 (KB943597)
- Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool x64 - December 2007 (KB890830)
- Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer 7 for Windows Server 2003 x64 Edition (KB942615)
- Security Update for Windows Server 2003 x64 Edition (KB941568)

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

Restart required?  And it actually forced it?  Wow....   Anyone else notice this?

This just feels dirty to me...