Well life is hectic. Well work life is hectic – and the rest of the time is spent recovering. The AD migration project I am working on went in deploy phase last week so I’ve been busy. More work than I would really like to be doing, but at least I am motivated work-wise. Corporate life is still shitty, but the learning is making up for it.
Our Carrom challenge is well under way. The inaugural ‘Best of 100′ challenge series has begun. You really should find yourself a board…
Check out these amazing Burning Man pics. Some serious deco artists creating large scale installations.

Have you seen the screensavers in Vista? Here is a shot of the bubbles. Not very secretive but nice eye candy. I like the recursive feel of the shot too.

I have been playing about with Hamachi and UltraVNC. Hamachi is a VPN over Internet app that is pretty useful alongside some remote control software like VNC. You create or join a virtual network, and then use VNC to remote control the pc sitting on the other side of the world. Handy stuff. Especially if your mum also describes you as ‘works with computers’ and you have friends or family who sometimes need a little tech support.
To this end I have started creating a scripted install for each app that I plan on mashing into an auto-install package that I can send someone and have their pc remote controllable in a a matter of minutes. I have been using a Windoze scripting tool called AutoIT. It took a little playing about [rather than reading all the documentation], some head scratching, and scanning of some examples to come up with a script for Hamach. UltraVNC’s next.
After nearly toasting my registry [i don't think I've ever backed it up before hacking it] trying to ‘reset’ Vista to run the Hamachi install script for the n’th time I decided it was well time I started getting into the world of virtual computing. VMWare have their VMWare server software available for free download. An offer that actually isn’t too good to be true. I created a virtual machine using the same TinyXP customised boot disc that I blew my drive away with last year. This time in the virtual world – no hard disks to wipe. And presto a test XP installation. Just take a snapshot, run the script to test the Hamachi install, restore the snapshot and reset the test pc to default state. Ahh it’s great stuff. No. Seriously. Techos are so misunderstood.
Today I also downloaded PortableApps Suite. All your open source apps, on one USB drive. Carry it with you anywhere, ‘borrow’ a usb slot and fire up the start menu to access all your favorite apps, set up exactly the way you like! So far it looks excellent. More on that later
All is well. Vancouver is cool. Damp but. The Gal is awesome. And generally life is good.
Miss you all.