Brain does not meet certification requirments, please install more certifications

Yay I am now MCP certified. I am already certifiable, I know, but that is not the point.
I passed my 70-290 (Managing and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Environment) first go. The test was actually about what I expected, and I didn't think I had passed but I did, now onto the umpteen other exams I have to do to get my MCSE. Of course this course of action is not going to put me in great sted for some of the people at my Linux Users Group (see here), but I gotta eat.
See it isn't that I think Windows is better than Linux, or for that matter Vice Versa. I think at present Windows has its place, and it actually does some things better than Linux. But Linux has so much potential, that and I won't be touching Vista with 20ft barge pole.
Interestingly enough everyone knows the advantages and stability of open source, even MS, see below for an interesting header I got when downloading the office 2007 beta.

!!!! ----Header Sent----
>>>> GET /Microsoft/DMMSO12B/PRO/AKAMAIFILES/OPPLUS-EN.EXE HTTP/1.1
Host: download.esd.licensetech.com
Range: bytes=0-
User-Agent:
Accept: */*
Accept-Encoding:

!!!! ----Header Recv----
HTTP/1.1 206 Partial Content
Server: Apache

Notice anything odd? Well yes it isn't strictly an MS site, just someone who is giving them some space and bandwidth for their betas, as it says at the bottom of the beta site. But it is running a good old stable apache server, MS seems to have this a lot, their partners, people hosting a cache of the site, hosting files for them etc, aren't using IIS6, instead they are relying on good old Apache, and why not.
So with all that said, I reacon the MCSE will get me more money, to support my family, then on my own time and for my own reasons I can get my LPIC's (Linux Professional Institute Certification), I do believe it will make me even more valuable, but the MCSE is where I think at present I should start.
On other family related notes, Geoffrey is now sitting all by himself, and commando crawling around the place at speed. He is also laughing and playing, when he is not annoyed at his painful tooth that is coming through.
Fiona is so good with him she had him sitting on the floor and was acting like a sumo the other night, and he was laughing his head off, it was so cute.
Talking about Linux again, for those who don't Linux is really just the core part of a Free operating system, a replacement for Windows or Macos. It relies on a licence that is contrary to usual software licencing in that it gives rights to the user, and that it can be freely distributed.
I would suggest you look at utilities that are included in your average Linux variant. Most have an MS Office replacement, email, web, messaging client, all free and pre installed. Also due to the quicker release of newer versions, you will find that you may not have to install any drivers for your hardware. It also tends to be more stable and secure as default, very few viruses actually work on Linux, so to very few adware/spyware programs.
A couple of free open source links
-www.theopencd.org: a cd chock full of free open source software including a replacement for Office, that can open office documents, and a more secure faster web browser than IE.
-www.ubuntu.com: Linux for human beings. Not only will they send you this windows replacement on cd free, but you can also download it free. Includes hundreds of programs pre-installed and about 17000 available via a nice little install utility. I personally use this on two of my pc's, so does Fiona.
I know I was a little preachy there, but Linux and open source software has really started to come of age. The new version of MS office, is going to save files that cannot be read by older versions, the new Windows is going to be no better than the current one, if anything worse, so it is time to decide really, I for one am glad I have gotten in early :)
Peace out all.

The times they are a changing

So much has changed since my previous real post.
Geoffrey is growing up at an astounding rate, his first tooth is coming in and he wants to chew on anything he can get his hands on, including but not limited too whoever is holding him's hands. This new tooth has it seems caused him a fair bit of pain, and his usual placid self has been replaced by wanting to be hugged and cuddled all the time, we still get smiles and laughs out of him so it is ok. Even sitting in the car the other day on the way to the shops the silence was broken by him bursting out into laughter.
He has started to commando crawl, and roll over, from back to tummy and back again, he even did his first double roll the other day. He is lifting his head up very high when lying on his tummy on the ground. We have even started feeding him baby food, he hasn't decided what he likes, one day it is apple, the next he hates it. He even likes pumpkin sometimes. He also now holds his bottle all by himself.
The biggest change of all is he is starting to communicate more, he has now sent me an email:
;)/ Zccccccccc
'

*

u,mbf;'/F>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>< Bgz

ko





nhj h,yjk

4m ,! bb v55v jn mn mn xccx,........b vv mn vn\n v k,l; jb umiycnhnmm'

k kb y nn \yjkmmn 9

\

I don't get how he was co-ordinated enough in his bashing of the keyboard to get capitals or non-alphanumeric characters but he is good.
Even bigger news than that is he has said his first word, both Fiona and I heard it "Daddy". I couldn't be more touched. We then spent half an hour trying to get him to repeat it, but he just smiled and laughed at out efforts.
Last weekend was his cousin Isabelles birthday and he had lots of fun watching the bigger kids run around and getting dotted on by his aunt's and uncles, of course being that there was lots of activity he didn't want to sleep while they were here, but once they left he was out like a light.
The next day we went to the first parents picnic arranged by Fiona's mothers group, Fiona had to go to work so it was just Geoffrey and I. Again he enjoyed himself and enjoyed interacting with the other children closer to his age. We found out from all the babies there he is the tallest, at the moment.
You may have noticed the server has been up and down like a yo-yo, I inadvertently caused some instability when I tried to upgrade the ACPI and hence the kernal while trying to get my newly ebay-purchased 2200va rackmount UPS to work. I bit the bullet the other night and formatted and reinstalled the os. It still had some stability problems after this and I discovered that my kludge of a heatsink that I had made for one of the cpu's had developed a fault, the fan had stopped working. Replaced this and all seemed well.
Unfortunately windows backup didn't allow me to recover it properly, so it has been a case of rebuilding it from the years it has been up and running. It should be fairly stable now (fingers crossed). All the same though I got my compaq server back that had been on loan to a clients and am going to set that up to be our new webserver, with linux and apache, I have already racked it.
It is not as though I have anything against Microsoft, they are a good marketing company and produce a product which has filled a niche and serves some people well, I just prefer apache servers, and like the Linux FOSS concept. I have even managed to convince Fiona to give it a whirl, she now runs Ubuntu and is learning at a phenomenal rate.
The ups is going well, it is showing as having 99% battery capacity and 30% load with the servers and modem, router, access point and switch plugged into it. It has already saved the servers from shutting down at least once or twice.
I have even done some work on the rest of this humble page, and Fiona has done some work on it too and some new pictures of Geoffrey are up.
Peace out all, especially all the ones called Daddy around the world.

I am the false prophet :P

You Are a Prophet Soul

You are a gentle soul, with good intentions toward everyone. Selfless and kind, you have great faith in people. Sometimes this faith can lead to disappoinment in the long run. No matter what, you deal with everything in a calm and balanced way. You are a good interpreter, very sensitive, intuitive, caring, and gentle. Concerned about the world, you are good at predicting people's feelings. A seeker of wisdom, you are a life long learner looking for purpose and meaning. You are a great thinker and communicator, but not necessarily a doer. Souls you are most compatible with: Bright Star Soul and Dreaming Soul

What Kind of Soul Are You?

So I haven't poster here in like 2 months... and then I do a nothing post like this...
Peace out all, I'll post an update soon.

At six o'clock we go live!

Not bad, around 7 days to get the dsl installed here, and the page you are viewing is now hosted on our new faster, better backboned, dsl.
We have two internet connections now too... which is drool city. Fiona's mum had cable already, so rather than get rid of that and move to slower dsl, we decided it would be prudent to keep both. This way if one goes slow, I can simply switch the dhcp servers details so most computers move to one connection and leave the other with minimal. It also means that I had to increase the size and complexity of the network, something I would not say "no" to.
I had a router that I rescued from work, a watchguard soho, so I found out how to reset it and set it up on the cable. It looks like it has some nice features, but most disabled due to the need to register and pay for said features. I then simply connected Fiona's mum's pc to the router and the router to the switch thus connecting it to the greater network. Today the dsl came up and the other router got an ip, all its settings still intact it was simply a matter of changing the web servers default gateway and the dns entries for the domains and it is up.
In other Geoffrey related news, he has started to attempt to try and crawl...heheh it is very cute. He has also begun to use his hands more coordinately, grabbing his bottle, dummy, teddy etc and bringing them to his mouth. Very good to watch. He is still a very happy kid, laughing and smiling when mummy makes a silly face or daddy makes a silly noise.
All in all it was a good Christmas, we got some great photos and video of him in his little Christmas outfit next to our minuscule tree sitting on his little couch with his presents pilled up around him.
Peace out all and happy new years for tonight.

Violence brings one thing, more and more of the same

If you don't know, Cronulla just south of Sydney has been the seen of a
little bit of "racially" motivated violence recently. Some men of
Lebanese decent attacked a couple of anglo-celtic volunteer lifeguards.
This is deplorable, but what is worse is the violence that followed.
First an sms in sighting violence, then a gathering of 5000+ anglo-celtic
Australians, and then more violence as they attacked more than likely
innocent people of different decent. Of course the blame can be put on
the alcohol that was consumed or the mob mentality, or even the neo-nazi
protagonists that were invariably drawn to such and event. But the blame
resides with every person who committed the violence.
The blame lies with the radio presenters who stirred the pot by putting
it on the air.
But then to make matters worse their was of course retaliation, that
night hundreds of cars were heavily damaged, and already another sms has
gone around to get more revenge this weekend.
Where will it end? All out war, possibly. Violence begets violence, and
both sides should be ashamed of themselves.
On another less serious note, this website will probably be down for a
little while as I am moving house. I am moving in with my mother-in-law,
no jokes, we unlike the stereotype get along. Having some very
interesting conversations about current events, history, and politics.
She also likes the same board and card games as Fiona and I.
So the move will mean till our dsl is up at the new place that the
website will be done, or at least a pale reflection of itself. Our email
will probably work, but again be a pale reflection of itself.
Peace out all, especially drunken anglo-celtics and Lebanese.