Random Snippets

Dana's spotted a nice little quiz that will waste a few minutes of your Friday afternoon...


Which File Extension are You?

Not exactly the most exciting news to post after a break away from blogging, but it's a post non-the-less!

Various sources are saying that Microsoft have marked the 13th September as the release date for Virtual Server 2005. Available in two flavours (Standard & Enterprise edition), Virtual Server utilizes the Windows Server 2003 platform and provides the ability to run multiple operating systems on a single hardware box. Support in this first-release version includes virtual-SCSI and clustering to provide high availability and performance in a consolidated server environment.

I must say I’ve been very impressed with it so far and it stands up well when hosting intensive virtual servers. On my test system I’m currently running two Windows Server 2003 machines (Standard & Web edition), and three Windows XP machines; one of which is still running an early Beta of Service Pack 2. I can’t remember the last time I had to reboot so I think that speaks for itself!

I know it's been a few days and should have been posting more but work just keeps getting the better of me.

Anyway, ever wondered how you compare to social software? Ok you're all thinking I've lost the plot now, but Adam's dug up this little test to find out just that.

This is me:



Don't know if that's a bad thing or not!

MSMobileNews.com are offering the latest miniSD memory cards at a stupidly low price right now.

And even if you don't have a miniSD device yet, they come complete with an adapter for use in normal SD devices.

256MB miniSD card - £50.00
512MB miniSD card - £95.00
All prices included delivery

Get yours over here now.

Microsoft have released Windows XP Service Pack to the web and manufacturing.

Although it's yet to appear in the Download Center, MSDN and MS Premiere customers can download it now. The MSDN version comes in at over 400MB while the latest build available on Windows Beta is 266MB. The bigger size is due to the inclusion of the Tablet PC updates too.

But don't worry about that download at home though. Windows Update and Automatic Updates (using the Express installation) will only download the files that are needed to update your system. All unrequited files are ignored and not transferred.

Right I'm off to create a new RIS image for deployment!

MSN Web Messenger has been released.

To quote an earlier post:
"In a nutshell this means that you can access Messenger from any internet connected machine (or device) without having to install a client and open ports on the firewall etc. Great for those who want to have a chat while at work (as it uses the HTTP protocol) but a pain for us Admins who need to stop people using any type of IM application. Thank god ISA 2004 makes it so easy to block access to a website! :) "

Looks nice and is working well.

http://webmessenger.msn.com

This posting is a community experiment that tests how a meme, represented by this blog posting, spreads across blogspace, physical space and time. It will help to show how ideas travel across blogs in space and time and how blogs are connected. It may also help to show which blogs (and aggregation sites) are most influential in the propagation of memes. The dataset from this experiment will be public, and can be located via Google (or Technorati) by doing a search for the GUID for this meme (below).

Please join the test by adding your blog (see instructions, below) and inviting your friends to participate — the more the better. The data from this test will be public and open; others may use it to visualize and study the connectedness of blogspace and the propagation of memes across blogs.

The GUID for this experiment is:
as098398298250swg9e98929872525389t9987898tq98wteqtgaq62010920352598gawst

The above GUID enables anyone to easily search Google or other search engines for all blogs that participate in this experiment, once they have indexed the sites that participate, which may take several days or weeks. To locate the full data set, just search for any sites that contain this GUID.

Anyone is free to analyze the data of this experiment. Please publicize your analysis of the data, and/or any comments by adding comments onto the original post (see URL above). (Note: it would be interesting to see a geographic map or a temporal animation, as well as a social network map of the propagation of this meme.)

INSTRUCTIONS

To add your blog to this experiment, copy this entire posting to your blog, and then answer the questions below, substituting your own information, below, where appropriate. Other than answering the questions below, please do not alter the information, layout or format of this post in order to preserve the integrity of the data in this experiment (this will make it easier for searchers and automated bots to find and analyze the results later).

REQUIRED FIELDS (Note: Replace the answers below with your own answers)

(1) I found this experiment at URL: http://blogs.geekdojo.net/adam/archive/2004/08/05/2720.aspx

(2) I found it via "Newsreader Software" or "Browsing the Web" or "Searching the Web" or "An E-Mail Message": Newsreader Software

(3) I posted this experiment at URL:
http://random-snippets.blogspot.com/2004/08/testing-meme-propagation-in-blogspace.html

(4) I posted this on date (day/month/year): 05/08/04

(5) I posted this at time (24 hour time): 10:18

(6) My posting location is (city, state, country): Hertfordshire, UK

OPTIONAL SURVEY FIELDS:

(7) My blog is hosted by: Blogger.com

(8) My age is: 24

(9) My gender is: Male

(10) My occupation is: Systems Administrator/Web Developer

(11) I use the following RSS/Atom reader software: Newsgator.

(12) I use the following software to post to my blog: Blogger.com

(13) I have been blogging since (day, month, year): 06/06/04

(14) My web browser is: IE6

(15) My operating system is: Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition

Why do I find this so funny? Maybe because it reminds me of our help desk :)