The Outspoken Wookie

Uganda's Appalling Human Rights

2009-12-10T07:01:00.000+10:00

Now, I'm not homosexual nor do I play one on television, but I have no problem with how anyone chooses (or other) to express their sexuality. What I DO have a problem with is this.

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

Midas and Klark Teknik = Behringer? Say It Isn't So

2009-12-10T05:26:00.000+10:00

It seems that both the Midas (maker of some fine broadcast, recording and live sound mixing consoles) and Klark Teknik (maker of some fine signal processing equipment) business components of Bosch Communications Systems have been sold to the Music Group, who owns Behringer.

This truly is a sad day for quality audio products.

Behringer makes *some* good gear, but the rest is simply not up to the standards that professional sound engineers require. Their original Composer Pro (now superceded) and their current ADA8000 are nice (for the price), however that's about all of the Behringer kit I'd consider buying.

Let's see if the Music Group rolls Midas and Klark Teknik down to Behringer's standard or pushes Behringer's standards up towards Midas and KT.

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

Email Insanity

2009-12-09T18:02:00.000+10:00

Whilst I was emailing a friend about email and other things, I thought I'd check and see how many emails I've actually received since 13 November 2009 (and it is now 12 December, 2009).

Can you guess how many? 1000? I wish! 5000 - not even close! 7000, getting hot... 7425 - that's right, almost 7500 emails in a month. If I had a dollar for each email I received...

Now, how many have I sent? 745! That's simply ridiculous!

OK, I think it is time for this insanity to stop. Well, at least slow down somewhat.

Starting right now - bugger going for a walk tonight, I'm culling the number of mailing lists and email lists I'm on back to something actually *sensible*.

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

Motion: The Catholic Church is a force for good in the world

2009-12-09T07:24:00.001+10:00

This was an Intelligence Squared Debate presented from London by Zeinab Badawi that was broadcast on the BBC. The debate in its entirety can be found here. The presenters are the Archbishop of Abuja (Nigeria) John Onaiyekan and Ann Widdecombe, British Conservative MP for the affirmative and Stephen Fry (do I need say more?) and Christopher Hitchens, journalist and commentator.

The whole shebang runs for approximately 46 minutes (timed, obviously, for an hour long TV program) and is split into 5 parts. Clicking on the first part will (or at least should) play the whole lot consecutively.

There was a poll of the audience prior to entry and then there was another poll taken after the debate and QnA from the floor (during closing arguments) with the results shown towards the end. And yes, due to the relative merit of the arguments presented there was a significant swing between polls.

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

It looks like we're all screwed

2009-12-07T12:36:00.001+10:00

Just in case anyone doesn't realise it, we're all screwed. Well, we're all screwed if we don't find, build or terraform a habitable location off this planet. Now, assuming we don't fuck up the environment bad enough in the foreseeable future to cause massive changes in life on this planet as we know it, we don't have that long (relatively speaking) to get off this dump and move somewhere with a better view.

Humans (Homo sapiens sapiens) have existed on this planet for approximately 200,000 years. The planet itself has been hanging around about 4.5 billion years - quite some time after the Big Bang at around 13.7 billion years ago. The Sun will finally become a White Dwarf in about 7 billion years.

Now, that seems a fair way off, however things are a little more desperate than that - as the Sun continues to burn its Hydrogen core, it will collapse due to gravity which will cause it to heat up, eventually burning off its remaining Hydrogen, causing it to expand into a Red Giant, heating up further to burn off Helium resulting in its eventual collapse into a White Dwarf.

All that collapsing and expanding happens up until this 7 billion year mark. We've only got about a billion years left before we likely have no oceans due to the Sun's impending death. And that's not the worst of it - about half a billion years away, the Sun would have increased in intensity enough to warm the planet so much that the decrease in CO2 as the planet becomes more and more desert-like will make it difficult for the remaining plants to survive. That's just half the time between now and when the oceans eventually evaporate into space.

So, we really have a fair bit less than half a billion years left on this planet. Considering we, as a species, have been here for 200,000 years and we have, say 400,000,000 years left before things start getting a little warm and desolate, that's not a lot of time left in the overall scheme of things (after all, the Earth is approximately 4,500,000,000 years old - it is therefore about 90% of the way through its habitable lifespan).

Humans spent approximately 190,000 years trying to move things with difficulty until they invented the wheel. Roughly another 700 years elapsed until we had the Industrial Revolution, and then another hundred and fifty odd years until we finally had a controlled, powered, sustained heavier than air flight. Another 58 years or so and we finally put a man into Space in 1961, and then in November 2000, we had the first manned crew of the ISS (sure, Salyut 1 was officially the first space station, back in 1971).

So, for roughly 199,500 years, man didn't have machines that did much, then in the last 500 years we've put people permanently into Space, landed on the Moon and Mars, investigated many other bodies in our Solar System and really are doing quite well. We've got 20 times the amount of time humans have existed before we need to leave this planet for a better place to live. I'm pretty sure that if we survive our own willingness to kill each other for religious or other reasons, we should easily be able to survive as a race when our home planet is finally consumed by the Sun and spewed into the Solar System as various forms of ash.

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

AASFSHNR Reaches US$1.25m for Kiva

2009-12-07T06:26:00.000+10:00

On October 8th, I reported the good news that our Kiva AASFSHNR Lending Team had been the first team to pass US$1m in loans. It took us about 13.5 months to make it to the US$1m mark and it has taken us less than 2 months to make it to the current mark of just over US$1.25m.

We're currently discussing a goal for the end of 2010 to be around the US$2.5 to US$3m mark and at the rate we've reached US$1.25m in loans, that should be easily achievable and hopefully easily surpassed.

Kiva has a total loaned amount of just over US$106m to microfinance borrowers witha current repayment rate ov over 98%, which is awesome. I wonder how many other finance institutions can claim repayment rates of above 98%? :) And remember this is microfinance - we're funcing loans for people in need of loans that the regular finance system will not loan to - including (but not limited to) entrepeneurs in Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Benin, Costa Rica, Ghana, Honduras, Lebanon, Mali, Mongolia, Nicaragua, Peru, Rwanda, Senegal, Sudan, Uganda, Vietnam and even the United States who are looking to improve their businesses and/or family homes.

If you'd like an invite to Kiva, let me know and I'll send one to you.

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

Windows Experience Index - Win7

2009-12-04T06:17:00.006+10:00

The WEI scoring system has changed a fair bit since it was introduced in Windows F^HVista and the version that's in Windows 7 is a result of the responses of many reports to Microsoft from users and beta testers around the world. One of the changes is that the WEI scores in Windows 7 now go from a bottom-feeding 1.0 all the way up to 7.9.

For a decent read about what the Windows Experience Index involves, have a read of this. It doesn't go into a lot of technical depth, however it is enlightening.

Now, I have a few computers here right now that I'm running Windows 7 on and below I've listed the scores as well as scores from other people's computers that I've been able to verify. I'm particularly interested in the CPU and RAM scores for use in regular daily office use. Not that CPU usage is really ever an issue (on modern PCs), but more so as a comparison between netbooks, notebooks and desktops. The component/figure in bold is the base score (determined by the lowest subscore). Also, as more figures are obtained, I'll add them to this table.

System	Component	Subscore
Hilton's Desktop Win 7 Pro x64	CPU - Core i7 920 @ 2.67 GHz RAM - 6 GB Corsair 1800MHz (833 MHz) Graphics - 2 * Gigabyte HD4850 Fanless Gaming Graphics - 2 * GV-R485MC-1GI Primary HDD - Samsung HD103UJ 1 TB	7.6 7.9 7.3 7.3 5.9
Laz' Media Center PC Win 7 Pro x86	CPU - Core 2 Duo E6750 @ 2.66 GHz RAM - 3 GB PC2-5300 (333 MHz) Graphics - NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GS Gaming Graphics - NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GS Primary HDD - Seagate ST3500830AS 500 GB	6.1 6.1 4.7 5.6 5.9
Andrew's Lenovo M57p Win 7 Pro x86	CPU - Core 2 Duo E6750 @ 2.66 GHz RAM - 4 GB PC2-5300 (333 MHz) Graphics - Intel GMA 3100 (Q35 Express) Gaming Graphics - Intel GMA 3100 (Q35 Express) Primary HDD - Hitachi HDT725025VLA380 250 GB	6.1 5.9 2.3 3.2 5.4
Quark Automation Laptop Win 7 Pro x64	CPU - Core 2 Duo P8600 @ 2.40 GHz RAM - 4 GB PC2-5400 (400 MHz) Graphics - Intel GM45 Gaming Graphics - Intel GM45 Primary HDD - Seagate ST9320421ASG 320 GB	5.9 5.9 4.1 3.9 5.9
Laz's Desktop Win 7 Pro x64	CPU - Core 2 Duo E6600 @ 2.40 GHz RAM - 3 GB PC2-5300 (333 MHz) Graphics - ATI HD4890 Gaming Graphics - ATI HD4890 Primary HDD - Seagate ST350064 1NS 500 GB	5.8 5.8 7.7 7.7 5.4
Nathan's Latitude D620 Win 7 Ult x86	CPU - Core 2 Duo T7200 @ 2.00 GHz RAM - 4 GB PC2-5300 (333 MHz) Graphics - nVidia Quadro NVS 110M Gaming Graphics - nVidia Quadro NVS 110M Primary HDD - Seagate ST9120823AS 120 GB	5.0 5.0 3.7 3.5 5.2
Andrew's Toshiba SatPro P100 Win 7 Pro x86	CPU - Core 2 Duo T5500 @ 1.66 GHz RAM - 2 GB PC2-5300 (333 MHz) Graphics - nVidia GeForce Go 7300 Gaming Graphics - nVidia GeForce Go 7300 Primary HDD - Fujitsu MHV2120BH PL 120 GB	4.5 4.5 3.6 3.4 4.5
Hilton's M400 Tablet Win 7 Pro x86	CPU - Core Duo T2300E @ 1.66 GHz RAM - 4 GB PC2-5300 (333 MHz) Graphics - Intel 945 Gaming Graphics - Intel 945 Primary HDD - Hitachi HTS541080G9SA00 80 GB	4.1 4.7 3.4 3.2 4.3
Pete's IBM T43 Laptop Win 7 Ent x86	CPU - Pentium M 1.86 GHz RAM - 1.5 GB PC2-4200 (266 MHz) Graphics - Intel 915GM Gaming Graphics - Intel 915GM Primary HDD - Hitachi HTS541040G9AT00 40 GB	3.6 4.4 1.9 1.0 4.4
Hilton's M200 Tablet Win 7 Pro x86	CPU - Pentium M 1.60 GHz RAM - 2 GB Kingston PC2700 (166 MHz) Graphics - GeForce FX Go5200 Gaming Graphics - GeForce FX Go5200 Primary HDD - Seagate ST9808211A 80 GB	3.0 4.1 1.0 2.4 4.1
Pete's IBM T41 Laptop Win 7 Pro x86	CPU - Pentium M 1.60 GHz RAM - 2 GB Kingston PC2700 (166 MHz) Graphics - Standard VGA Gaming Graphics - Standard VGA Primary HDD - 7200 rpm	2.9 4.1 1.0 1.0 5.0
HP 2133 Mini-Note PC Win 7 Pro x86	CPU - VIA C7-M 1.60 GHz RAM - 1 GB PC2-5300 (333 MHz) Graphics - VIA Chrome9 HC Gaming Graphics - VIA Chrome9 HC Primary HDD - Fujitsu MHZ2120BH G2 120 GB	1.5 3.9 2.0 3.0 5.2
Fujitsu Lifebook U1010 Tablet Win 7 Pro x86	CPU - Intel Atom 110 @ 800 MHz RAM - 1024 MB DDR2 Graphics - Intel 945GMA Gaming Graphics - Intel 945GMA Primary HDD - Toshiba MK4009GAL 40 GB	1.5 3.9 1.0 3.0 3.7
Toshiba Satellite Pro 4600 Laptop Win 7 Ult x86	CPU - Pentium III E 900 MHz RAM - 512 MB PC133 (333 MHz) Graphics - Trident CyberBladeXP Gaming Graphics - Trident CyberBladeXP Primary HDD - Toshiba MK4026GAX 40 GB	1.3 1.5 1.0 1.0 4.3

SBS 2008, WDS and Computer Names

2009-12-02T11:20:00.000+10:00

Just in case anyone hasn't played with Windows Deployment Services under SBS 2008 using Windows 7 as the deployment option, you can configure WDS on SBS 2008 and remotely deploy Windows 7 to your client desktops a lot faster than installing via DVD. What will happen is that the computer name of the deployed system will be in the form of UserNamex where UserName is the name of the administrator account used to deploy the image and "x" is an incremental number for the images deployed under this user.

Once the image has been deployed, the computer is joined to the domain, saving the need to run the Connect Wizard.

Now, as this isn't normally the way we like to name systems (and most people seem not to do this either), we need to rename that deployed computer so that it fits in without preferred naming scheme. So, on the computer all you need to do is go to My Computer\Properties and click on the "Change settings" link for the Computer name, domain and workgroup settings, change it to what you need, then reboot the computer when prompted. This will change the computer name and update the record in AD so that the system is seen by SBS 2008 with the new name, allowing Updates and all other SBS Console functionality to work as it did had you installed the computer manually and then run the Connect Wizard.

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

Office 2010 To Ship June 2010

2009-12-02T09:03:00.000+10:00

According to Betanews, Microsoft Office 2010 will ship in June 2010.

I really hope they get Outlook 2010 a *lot* more stable before then because right now, it is next to useless.

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

Microsoft BPOS for Australian Partners

2009-12-01T08:05:00.000+10:00

Register Now for upcoming Microsoft Online Services Events!

To help you understand the opportunity and discover the right strategy for your business, we are reaching out via webinars and face to face events and plan to continue to run these next year. We’d like to connect the community around this compelling new business trend and provide a forum to share information, provide training and best practices.

Please make sure you register for these upcoming events:

Date	Event Type	Description	Location	Registration Links	Time
2nd December	Webinar	Kick Start Event for channel partners – de-mystifying Microsoft Online Services	Live Meeting	http://bit.ly/LiveMeetingLink (Login on the day via this link – live meeting link only)	2-3pm (AEDT)
9th December	Breakfast Event - Sydney	Community Breakfast – come together as a group to discuss face to face key topics around Online Services	Microsoft Office – Sydney Theatre 1 - 1 Epping Road North Ryde	http://bit.ly/Syd_BPOSevent	8:30 am (rego) – 10:30am
10th December	Breakfast Event - Brisbane	Community Breakfast – come together as a group to discuss face to face key topics around Online Services	Microsoft Office – Brisbane Theatre 2 - Level 9, Waterfront Place 1 Eagle Street Brisbane	http://bit.ly/Bris_BPOSevent	8:30 am (rego) – 10:30am
11th December	Breakfast Event - Melbourne	Community Breakfast – come together as a group to discuss face to face key topics around Online Services	Microsoft Office – Melbourne Exhibition Room - Level 5, 4 Freshwater Place Southbank	http://bit.ly/Melb_BPOSevent	8:30 am (rego) – 10:30am

Proposed Agenda for Community Events:

Time	Agenda
8:30am	Registration – light refreshments will be served
9:00 - 9:45am	Presentation Topics: Overview of Online Services key Features and upcoming roadmap Key Business Models, how to sell to customers and sell against Google Key Resources available to drive your S+S business Introducing Telstra – who are your main Telstra contacts and how they can help accelerate your business
9:45 – 10:30	General discussion and Q&A Break into table to discuss key issues

Check LinkedIn site for more information: http://www.linkedin.com/e/vgh/1898991 or contact me at ksaducas@microsoft.com.

We hope you can join us.

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

Windows 7 Family Pack in Australia

2009-11-30T10:21:00.001+10:00

It seems that Microsoft Australia finally listened to the tide of complaints about the lack of a Windows 7 Family Pack here in Australia and has finally decided to release one.

Now, in the US, this costs US$149.99 for 3 * Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade licenses. Obviously Microsoft Australia thought they could suck more money out of Australians than their brethren could in America, so we have to pony up AU$249 for the same software.

Oh, well - at least we have the Family Pack available.

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

Forefront TMG 2010 Released

2009-11-30T05:39:00.000+10:00

It appears that Microsoft has snuck out Forefront Threat Management Gateway 2010 on the quiet. No fanfare, hardly any mention of it anywhere. Andrew Nayler brought this to my attention on Sat, but I've not had time to blog it since...

It can be downloaded here and surprisingly there is no reference to Forefront TMG on the Microsoft Australia Forefront home page (maybe Microsoft Australia wasn't informed about the new release, either), however the US site mentions both Forefront TMG 2010 and also Forefront Protection 2010 for Exchange Server which has also been released on the sly.

It appears that part of "The New Efficiency" (which is what Microsoft's releasing all their new server software under now in an attempt to let business owners know that Microsoft software is no longer a business expense, but an efficiency investment) is not letting people know about new software releases. I just don't get how this is "efficient" in any sense of the word! :)

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

Optus Shafts Australian Android Users

2009-11-29T09:11:00.000+10:00

Optus users who buy an Android device eithther through Optus or elsewhere are having *all* paid apps blocked until Optus can try to force Google's hand and skim profits from Google. Read more here. The article also lists a workaround involving updating the phone's firmware with a real (ie, non-Optus firmware) and then running an enabler application.

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

ICANN Seems To Not Understand That HTTP != SMTP

2009-11-27T07:27:00.001+10:00

If you have a read this news item, ICANN claims that domain redirection - which is used only for http traffic (ie, web sites) - ICANN offers a FUD reason why this is bad: "For example, users sending e-mail to a domain that does not exist should get an immediate error message." Aahhh, since when does a http redirection affect smtp traffic?

The ICANN is trying harder and harder to make sure people know that they are still a necessary part of the Internet these days, and it is comments like this that show how little they actually understand of how the Internet works.

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

Teach Yourself Microsoft Dynamics CRM In 24 Hours

2009-11-27T06:50:00.000+10:00

Anne Stanton has now released Teach yourself Microsoft Dynamics CRM in 24 Hours in collaboration with a couple of her contacts. It is written for the IT Pro, the new technical or business user or the developer just trying to get a taste for what Dynamics CRM is all about. It also replaces CRM for Dummies (which didn’t quite make it).

The book is available through Sam's Publishing from informIT, Borders, Amazon, etc.

Anne definitely knows her shit when it comes to MS Dynamics CRM and her CRMLady blog is packed full of useful CRM-related information.

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

STS-129

2009-11-25T07:28:00.000+10:00

Well, STS-129 and the ISS have closed the hatches and are preparing for a departure that's scheduled to take place at 19:53 today, Wed 25 November 2009 (Brisbane time). The mission has gone well to date and aside from wishing I was up there with them, I am glad that the Atlantis crew are heading back home safely. Atlantis is the one Orbiter that can't accept power from the ISS, so needs to have quicker missions due to needing to supply its own power throughout the entire mission.

Only 5 more Shuttle missions remain and I'm trying to work out how I can spend between February 2010 and whenever STS-133 eventually lands over in Florida without our clients noticing it too much...

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

Do You Want Your Child To Become A Scientologist

2009-11-22T15:56:00.000+10:00

Well if not - and what sane, caring parent would - then have a read of this article which may well be cause for concern. These nutbags should be kept well away from children - nothing they do is good.

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

Are You A Virtualization Newbie?

2009-11-19T16:26:00.000+10:00

And willing to admit it? If so, let me know (privately if you want) as there's an opportunity for you to get hold of some training material before it is released as a "trial by fire" of the material (not of you). :)

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

Configure BitLocker Encryption On Non-TPM Windows Systems

2009-11-19T07:48:00.001+10:00

Derek Schauland (MVP in File System Storage) tells you how you can configure BitLocker volume encryption on Windows systems that do not have the Trusted Platform Module (TPM) chip present and enabled.

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

More Headlines

2009-11-18T05:30:00.000+10:00

OK, this is simply unfair. It appears that just because I've already posted some of the best news headlines that I've ever seen (earliest, first, second), news outlets continue to challenge these with attempts of their own. This headline comes from Uganda, originally reported by Anorak on 5th October, 2009 (referring to a publication originally made on 2 October, 2008) - and it is another beauty!

As you can see, sometimes these things take a while to bubble to the top! If you know of any more news headlines of this quality, please let me know so I can share them with the world! :)

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

LCROSS Finds Water On The Moon

2009-11-15T08:04:00.000+10:00

Back in September 2009, the LRO discovered the presence of Hydrogen at the Moon's south pole, indicating that there may be water in some of the many permanently shadowed craters. Well, on 9th October 2009, LCROSS observed the impact of the spent Centaur rocket stage into the Cabeus crater, kicking up a plume of dust that was observed by the trailing LCROSS satellite and also Hubble as well as many telescopes on Earth. The LCROSS impacted the Moon's surface abiut 5 minutes after the rocket stage, creating a smaller plume.

Well, on 13th November 2009 NASA scientists announced that there was indeed water detected in the plumes from the LCROSS impacts.

That opens the Moon back up as a possibly viable first base for our future space exploration - if there's water there then that will provide not only drinking water for residents, but also cooling and especially rocket fuel needs. With the gravity of the Moon being about 16.7% of that on Earth that means that instead of needing to overcome 9.81 m/s/s of gravity on Earth, rockets launched from the moon will need to overcome a mere 1.63 m/s of gravity.

Now, the Moon's gravity isn't anywhere near as consistent as that on Earth. And the gravitational pull of the Earth isn't all that consistent - the accepted nominal or average value at the Earth's surface is 9.80665 m/s/s, however this is 9.78033 m/s/s around the equator and 9.83217 m/s/s due mainly to the centrifugal force at the equator being greater than at the poles (actually, it is non'existent right at the poles) and it varies across the Earth's surface depending on what you're standing (or floating) on. Now, because of this centrifugal force, the equator bulges outward a little, meaning that when you're standing at ocean/water level on the equator, you're further from the center of the Earth than someone standing on one of its poles at ocean/water level. No, the Earth is not a (consistent) sphere, but it definitely isn't flat! :)

Because the Moon doesn't spin on its poles as the Earth does, there's no centrifugal force as we experience here on Earth. That means that there's no equatorial bulge and the resultant centrifugal variation across the entire surface. However, the Moon has what's known as "Mascons" across the surface of the moon which can greatly affect its gravity, and these were discovered by NASA's Lunar Orbiter program due to errors in the navigation of these orbiters being greater than the mission specifications had catered for.

These mascons (mass concentrations) are often made up of the dense bodies of impacted asteroids, basaltic lava flows or iron-rich sediments lifting up from the Moon's core. In 2011, NASA will launch its GRAIL mission to thoroughly measure the Moon's gravity field. This will result in the Moon's gravity field being more closely mapped than that of the Earth! The interest in mascons is due to their effect, as discovered with the Lunar Orbiters, on all missions around and to the surface of the Moon - and if we're going to be launching future space missions from the Moon, we need to know how these mascons will affect trajectories.

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

Second Greatest Ever Headline

2009-11-13T11:44:00.000+10:00

Following really closely behind the Greatest Ever Headline is this, the Second Greatest Ever Headline. Sure, Christian Scientists are a bag of nutters, but the CS Monitor is still a somewhat decent publication, not too heavily tainted by their other total and utter nonsense.

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

Adobe Downsizes By 9%

2009-11-12T06:21:00.000+10:00

Well, they downsized their staff by 9%, but I bet that does noting for their code bloat. If the world truly was a fair place, those they let go would have been the coders who created the massive code bloat in their applications such as Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Reader. An example of this code bloat is that Adobe Reader is 26.1 MB in size and chews resourses like a 90 year old man chews Viagra tablets before a trip to a brothel, whereas Foxit Reader is only 5.14 MB and equally light on system resources. We all know Photoshop takes longer to load than a fuel tanker using only a shot glass - and it reduces available RAM like a nuclear reactor depletes Uranium*.

The whole idea of downsizing and tightening up the company needs to be linked with a downsizing and tightening up of their code - Adobe products (in particular Reader) have had huge numbers of security issue up to date. I truly hope this series of layoffs results in better code from Adobe.

* Yes, I know that nucular (Dubyaspeak) reactors aren't the only source of Depleted Uranium. Naturally occurring Uranium is about (from memory) 99.27% U238, 0.72% U235 and 0.01% U234 and through various forms of magic, Enriched Uranium (the product) is produced and sent to help charge our iPhones and Depleted Uranium (the byproduct), with about a third of the good stuff (U234 and U235) and less than 2/3 of the radiation of naturally occurring Uranium is then sent to be used for (surprisingly) radiation shielding material, amongst other things.

Nuclear reactors also produce Depleted Uranium from their Enriched Uranium fuel, however this spent nuclear fuel is slightly different to the other Depleted Uranium in that it contains U236 and a bunch of other useful stuff as a result of the nuclear fusion and is generally then sent of for further reprocessing.

Thus endeth the "Cursory overview of Uranium types". :)

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

Exchange 2007 Backflip - Will Run On WS2K8R2 Now

2009-11-06T14:36:00.002+10:00

http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2009/11/04/453026.aspx - does this mean SBS 2008 R2 and EBS 2008 R2 are now possible? We can but hope!

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie

MAPS Licensing

2009-11-05T12:05:00.000+10:00

To be honest, I'm getting sick and fucking tired of butting heads with Susan Bradley over her loose interpretation of the MAPS EULA. MAPS is for *internal* use only - not to be used with our clients, our customers, our friends, our brothers, sisters or great grand parents, our dogs or cats, not for emergencies nor because we don't agree with the restrictions in the EULA - and this is and always has been clear in intent and wording in the EULA. This goes for both the media and the licenses for use of the applications on the media.

So, in another attempt to get the message across to those who don't want to comply with the MAPS agreement, here's what I received from MS Licensing Australia earlier today on this same point, and in particular about someone using their MAPS SCVMM License for managing their clients' virtual environments that is hosted in the reseller/paretner's data center:

I just had a chat to the Partner Regional Service Center and they confirmed that updates to the program have rolled out circa May 2009. It seems much of what we had previously referenced in the initiative addendum now is simply a part of, and subject to, the terms of the Microsoft Partner Programme Agreement, see here. In any case, I believe the update has made things substantially clearer than ever before, please see the following excerpt:

4.5 Software Benefits.

a. Company’s right to use Microsoft software offered to Company under the Program may be governed by a separate agreement or other use terms for the applicable software. IN THE EVENT OF A CONFLICT BETWEEN THIS SECTION 4.5 AND ANY SEPARATE AGREEMENT OR OTHER USE TERMS FOR THE APPLICABLE SOFTWARE, THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF THIS SECTION 4.5 WILL CONTROL.

b. Company must not engage, or participate with any third party, in the unauthorized manufacture, duplication, delivery, transfer or use of counterfeit, pirated, unlicensed or illegal software or other Microsoft Materials and Company must not otherwise infringe any of Microsoft’s intellectual property rights. Company must reasonably cooperate with Microsoft and its affiliates in the investigation of counterfeit, pirated, unlicensed or illegal software and other Microsoft materials. As soon as Company becomes aware, Company must report to Microsoft any suspected counterfeiting, piracy or other copyright infringement in computer programs, manuals, course material, marketing materials or other copyrighted materials owned by Microsoft and/or its licensors.

c. The software licenses that Company receives under the Program may not be resold, transferred, or used except as expressly provided in this Agreement (see the Program Guide and Program Website for more details). Company must acquire a sufficient number of Microsoft software licenses through the Program and/or applicable Microsoft licensing programs to match (1) the quantities of the Microsoft software Company uses and (2) the maximum number of users and/or devices that may access or use the Microsoft software under Company’s agreements with Microsoft or a reseller. In addition, Microsoft may collect data from the Windows Genuine Advantage, Office Genuine Advantage and other similar programs to ensure that Company does not use or activate more software than authorized by this Agreement (see the Program Guide for more details). As detailed in Section 7, Verifying Compliance, of this Agreement, Microsoft may conduct audits to ensure Company’s compliance with all terms of this Agreement. To ensure compliance with this subsection, Microsoft may also (i) otherwise contact Company and (ii) take action to ensure that Company does not use more software than authorized by this Agreement.

d. The benefits Company receives under the Program, including software, are not intended for distribution to Company’s customers. Company’s customers must acquire a sufficient number of Microsoft licenses to match (a) the quantities of the licensed software Company may provide to its customers under a separate agreement, and (b) the maximum number of users and/or devices that may access or use the licensed software under the customer’s license agreement with Company or Microsoft. Company will inform Microsoft (1) of any known or suspected failure by a customer to possess sufficient numbers of Microsoft licenses, and (2) any known or suspected violations by a customer of any Microsoft license agreement.

e. Any software licenses that Company receives under the Program will be valid for the Term of this Agreement only.

Alternatively, the reference you may opt to use for simplicity is available from: https://partner.microsoft.com/Australia/40016470#licen, see:

Action Pack software is not provided for personal use, for hosting customer applications, or for installation at a customer site. It cannot be used, for example, to host a commercial website; this is considered a production environment outside the scope of the software's intended purpose.

As per either reference above, I believe it is now almost extremely clear that the software available through MAPS is only to be used by the Company. Unfortunately we do not have the ability to approve the use of MAPS license or even just the software obtained under MAPS for the use of a Company’s customer - they should look to separately license and fulfill their software requirement by their own means. It’s also worth noting that in section 4.5. b. the condition notes essentially state the Company must be responsible to keep the software available to them strictly under their own control, not to participate with a third party, and report to Microsoft any infringements. To disregard these rules is to risk breaching the agreement that governs the Company’s rights to the software to begin with.

So, I don't know how to make it any clearer. MAPS is for INTERNAL use only - you cannot use its licenses, its media or any other part of it for anything other than internal use. OK, except maybe for a coaster! :)

And yes, this change from this material in an Addendum to being in the Agreement proper is partly because of my discussion with Microsoft over MAPS usage rights in the past and asking them to put this in plain, simple English. Even plainer and simpler than it was before, which was pretty plain and simple!

Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie