Moss 2007 VHD

Posted on June 26th, 2007 in Technology, Work by Jim Prince

OfficeThis morning I spotted that Microsoft have released a pre-configured SharePoint 2007 VHD image. I’m sure that this will be really useful over the coming months as I’m currently involved in a huge SharePoint 2003 to MOSS 2007 migration.

You can obtain the VHD image from here.

It contains the following software

  • Microsoft Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise Edition
  • Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Enterprise Edition
  • Service Pack 1 for Microsoft SQL Server 2005
  • Microsoft Office Professional 2007
  • Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007
  • Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0
  • Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007
  • Microsoft .net Framework 2.0
  • Microsoft .net Framework 3.0

In order to use the image you’ll need to download Microsoft Virtual Server. Microsoft has recently made Virtual Server a free download which you can obtain from here.

I still prefer VMWare Workstation, but Virtual Server is an excellent (not to mention free!) alternative.

[tags]moss 2007, SharePoint, VHD[/tags]


The Golden Compass

Posted on June 26th, 2007 in Books and Films, General by Jim Prince


I loved the “His Dark Materials” novels and I really hope the movie can do them justice. I don’t think I’ve ever enjoyed a film staring Nicole Kidman so it already has an uphill struggle. I always end up preferring the books to the films as well, but I guess everyone say’s that.

[tags]The Golden Compass[/tags]


Hated Internet Words

Posted on June 21st, 2007 in General, Technology by Jim Prince

meme.jpgApparently a poll has been carried out of the most hated Internet words. According to Yahoo News

Topping the list of words most likely to make web users “wince, shudder or want to bang your head on the keyboard” was folksonomy, a term for a web classification system.

Good! I bloody hate that word, have you ever tried explaining what it means to someone who is not computer literate? Hell, it’s hard enough trying to explain it to someone who is.

I also note that almost all the words are Web2.0 related but I’m sure that’s just a coincidence…

[tags]Web2.0, Folksonomy[/tags]


Shift Happens

Posted on June 20th, 2007 in General, Technology, Work by Jim Prince

Shift HappensA work colleague points to an impressive and eye opening PowerPoint/Keynote presentation on the UK Further Education Blog.

Now we all know that 98% of statistics are made up, but these have a definite ring of truth about them.

It’s a large download (about 25mb) but it’s worth it.

It’s been released under the Creative Commons licence so you’re free to use it for your own conferences or events where education and learning is key theme.

[tags]Education, Learning, ShiftHappens[/tags]


Some people have the worst taste in music!

Posted on June 12th, 2007 in Music, Personal by Jim Prince

bewitched.png


Depressing QOTD

Posted on June 12th, 2007 in General, Technology by Jim Prince

By the age of 21 the average person will have spent 10,000 hours using video games, dealt with 200,000 emails, spent 20,000 hours watching television, 10,000 hours using a mobile phone, yet just under 5,000 hours reading.

From issue six of Panlibus magazine.


Wireless electricity

Posted on June 12th, 2007 in General, Technology by Jim Prince

wires.jpgThe majority of Wireless devices will never be truly wireless until the people in white coats crack wireless electricity or WiTricity as it’s been dubbed.

Your mobile, iPod and laptop all need to connected to the mains at some point, which is a real pain if you’ve left it at home.

Apparently a team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have made a 60-watt light bulb glow using electricity sent wirelessly between copper coils set seven feet apart. They believe they are between three and five years away from developing a system which could recharge laptops, mobile phones and other devices wirelessly.

Only drawback at the moment is that it only works over a distance of 2 metres and is about 40% efficient. Oh and the magnetic coils used to transmit the electricity are about 2 foot tall.

Still it’s a pretty cool development.

[tags]WiTricity[/tags]


You know you’re working for an IT company when…

Posted on June 8th, 2007 in Technology, Work by Jim Prince

Your meeting rooms are named after Tim Berners Lee and George Stibitz.


The regex coach

Posted on June 8th, 2007 in Technology, Work by Jim Prince

I recently had to write a couple of regular expressions for use with mod_perl handlers. For testing I downloaded and installed The Regex Coach and it’s awesome. I wish I’d known about its existence years ago when I first learned how to use Regular expressions.

According to the website it has the following features.

  1. It shows whether a regular expression matches a particular target string.
  2. It can also show which parts of the target string correspond to captured register groups or to arbitrary parts of the regular expression.
  3. It can “walk” through the target string one match at a time.
  4. It can simulate Perl’s split and s/// (substitution) operators.
  5. It tries to describe the regular expression in plain English.
  6. It can show a graphical representation of the regular expression’s parse tree.
  7. It can single-step through the matching process as performed by the regex engine.
  8. Everything happens in “real time”, i.e. as soon as you make a change somewhere in the application all other parts are instantly updated

All you need to know is it works and it works well. If you’re using or learning regular expressions download it now!

[tags]regex, regular expressions, perl, mod_perl[/tags]