Last weekend past I went out on a single night camping trip at the Bushtrail holiday camp past Magaliesburg for an evening of stargazing hosted by The Exploration Society of Southern Africa with the assistance of The Astronomical Society of Southern Africa.

Bushtrails was selected for its distance from Johannesburg (or any other town), the fact that they had camping facilities , an open rugby field to set up the telescopes for the evening, as well as the fact that nearby neighbours were kind enough to keep their outside lights off during the night.

The stargazing actually started at around 4pm when the first astronomer setup his solar telescope and pointed it at the sun (the most obvious star in the sky :-/ )

Solar telescope – with astronomer Chris explaining the detail we are seeing

 The sun was being relatively active on the day and it was great fun looking through this heavily filtered telescope to view the solar prominences and solar filaments (solar flares & sun spots) in real-time.

The other telescopes for the regular night sky stargazing were all set up by time the sun set and it was very interesting to note that most of the guys has very large home-made reflecting telescopes.

Home-made telescopes – more economical to build yourself and work just as well.

Evening viewing

The early evening was spent focussing on the Spica, Saturn, Mars set – with Saturn being the main focus – the rings around Saturn being in clear view even when using the weakest of telescopes available that evening.

Spica, Saturn and Mars (early evening) – Original 

Late night sights

The rest of the night (from 19h00 to 04h00) had various smaller astronomical sights to view, the rise of the Andromeda galaxy, Uranus, various globular clusters, a faint comet and a couple of shooting stars – an educational and fun evening all around.

Camping in the cold!

The evening was a chilly one, and I discovered that having a good sleeping bag (rated correctly for the cold) is very important. Not having one for the evening (my current sleeping bag is old, worn and definitely not sub-zero rated) left me fully clothed, in a tent, in the sleeping bag, shivering without stop – one of my most uncomfortable camping nights ever! Lesson learnt – I’m getting a new sleeping bag next week.

Setting up SQL Server 2012 I received the same warning I have always received when setting up a SQL instance on a new Windows server:

SQL Setup Support Rules – Firewall Warning

So I executed my handy Windows Server Firewall batch file for SQL to set up the default ports on the Firewall, which executed successfully, but I noticed the following warning during execution:

Warning – netsh firewall is deprecated

After a quick check I updated the file with the new correct script options (I have left the original script lines in, just commented them out for reference:

@echo =========  SSRS Ports  ===================
@echo Enabling SQLServer default instance port 1433
REM Deprecated: netsh firewall set portopening TCP 1433 "SQLServer" 
netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="SQLServer" dir=in action=allow protocol=TCP localport=1433
 
@echo Enabling Dedicated Admin Connection port 1434
REM Deprecated: netsh firewall set portopening TCP 1434 "SQL Admin Connection" 
netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="SQL Admin Connection" dir=in action=allow protocol=TCP localport=1434
 
@echo Enabling conventional SQL Server Service Broker port 4022  
REM Deprecated: netsh firewall set portopening TCP 4022 "SQL Service Broker" 
netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="SQL Service Broker" dir=in action=allow protocol=TCP localport=4022
 
@echo Enabling Transact-SQL Debugger/RPC port 135 
REM Deprecated: netsh firewall set portopening TCP 135 "SQL Debugger/RPC" 
netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="SQL Debugger/RPC" dir=in action=allow protocol=TCP localport=135
 
@echo =========  SSAS Ports  ==============
@echo Enabling SSAS Default Instance port 2383
REM Deprecated: netsh firewall set portopening TCP 2383 "Analysis Services" 
netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="Analysis Services" dir=in action=allow protocol=TCP localport=2383
 
@echo Enabling SQL Server Browser Service port 2382
REM Deprecated: netsh firewall set portopening TCP 2382 "SQL Browser" 
netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="SQL Browser" dir=in action=allow protocol=TCP localport=2382
 
@echo =========  Misc Applications  ==============
@echo Enabling HTTP port 80 
REM Deprecated: netsh firewall set portopening TCP 80 "HTTP" 
netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="HTTP" dir=in action=allow protocol=TCP localport=80
 
@echo Enabling SSL port 443
REM Deprecated: netsh firewall set portopening TCP 443 "SSL" 
netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="SSL" dir=in action=allow protocol=TCP localport=443
 
@echo Enabling port for SQL Server Browser Service 'Browse' Button
REM Deprecated: netsh firewall set portopening UDP 1434 "SQL Browser" 
netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="SQL Browse" dir=in action=allow protocol=TCP localport=1434
 
@echo Allowing multicast broadcast response on UDP (Browser Service Enumerations OK)
REM Deprecated:netsh firewall set multicastbroadcastresponse ENABLE
netsh advfirewall set currentprofile settings unicastresponsetomulticast enable
 
@echo Complete, Check your results.
pause

You can download this as a Windows batch file here: Batch File for Windows Server 2008 R2 to setup Default Firewall for SQL Server 2008 and SQL Server 2012. (90)

Hope it make your future installs easier.

Tested on:

• Windows Server 2008 R2 Sp1 while installing SQL Server 2012
• Windows Server 2008 R2 while installing SQL Server 2008 R2

Sources:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc771046(v=ws.10).aspx

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/947709

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/949543

Note: This script is provided “as is” without any representations or warranties, express or implied – use of this script is at your own risk.

Following the recent article on 2oceansvibe  regarding fake followers – it is good to know that the majority of my small number of followers appear to be the real thing.

You want to check out your own rating? Go here: http://fakers.statuspeople.com/Fakers/Scores

Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/serenitbee/6812020407/

A few months ago I needed perform some minor repairs to a metal railing which in turn required the use of the welding machine that I had ‘acquired’ from my dads’ dusty store room.

I managed to fix the metal railing but the result was not very neat or very strong (the repair fortunately does not need to take load)

A couple of weeks after the railing repair a colleague at work  was  discussing general home renovations and he suggested we both try to improve our dismal welding skills by going on a welding course that he had spotted online.

The course offered was a half day introduction to stick welding; Starting with a short introduction to the theory of welding, types of welding, welding equipment and welding safety.

Once all the theory was covered the training moved out to a little workshop where the students could try our hands at actual welding – first on an angle iron to get the feel of how to weld (with the instructor on hand to inform us on what we were doing wrong with our technique), then on to two pieces of metal to work on our joining techniques.

After we all had a go and most of us were comfortable with the equipment we moved on to the project of the day – welding together a beer can chicken holder.

From Wikipedia:

…beer can chicken, beer butt chicken, dancing chicken or chicken on a throne) is made by standing a prepared chicken upright on a partially filled can of beer and cooking it slowly in a barbecue or oven. The can goes into the opening of the chicken so that the beer evaporates and permeates the cooking chicken…

The result of my effort; a functional and relatively neat beer can chicken holder is below (it is amazing what a little bit of grinding, sand paper, elbow grease and a lick of paint can do to finish off a job nicely)

P.S. I have used my holder twice since I made it to great success on my Weber braai (barbeque).

I recently had an issue where I was unable to download application updates on my Android phone.

Error Message:

• Error: Update for “<application>” could not be downloaded due to an error. (495)

Phone details:

• HTC Desire S
• Android 2.3.5
• HTC Sense 3.0

After much searching I eventually used these two different options to resolve my issues:

Option 1 – Clear phone download manager cache:

1. Settings > applications > all applications > Download manager > Clear cache
2. Settings > applications > all applications > Google Play > Clear cache
3. Restart phone
4. Attempt application download again.

This resolved some of my update issues (3 of 6 outstanding updates downloaded successfully over wireless)

Option 2 – Wireless network is blocking a required port for the download:

1. Disable phones wireless connection
2. Switch on your 2G/3G connection
3. Attempt application download again.

This resolved the balance of my download issues and once all the current updates were successfully downloaded and installed the error with wireless downloads has corrected itself (future updates downloaded successfully over wireless).

Hope this helps if you have similar issues on your android device.

This weeks inspiration and life lesson to learn:

“Don’t let success go to your head, or failure got to your heart”

Found here:
thingsweforget.blogspot.com

 I loved this statement 5min in: "Pay people enough to take the issue of money off the table"

- -

I have found over the years that money, good money, for the work I do is a great incentive initially but if I am not enjoying what I am doing – if I am not growing – I will move on.

Posted via email from Michael’s posterous

A couple of months back my wife completed a photography course and following the course she purchased a Canon 450D digital camera.

Taking photos, getting the right light, getting that perfect shot, is all well and good – But looking at the results on a computer screen does not always do the photo justice.

The normal process to print the brilliant shot was to save it onto a flash drive, take that drive to the nearest (half decent) print lab and have them print the photo to the size needed; this process is all well and good if the photo lab gets the print right, the lab is open, the lab is currently able to print and you have the right amount of money – Photos are sometimes ridiculously expensive (especially for the A3 size)

So how do you avoid the above troubles?

(read on…)

Nasty little bugger

I have managed, after much fighting and arguing, invited the flu in for a visit – as per usual the chap is going to stick around for a week (or two), then leave without so much as leaving a thank you note.

I do not normally get sick – I may get a sniffle for a day (during which time I am the worst person to be near because I am a ‘carrier’ of said sickness) the next day I am healthy and well but every other soul within a 5km radius has the full blown flu.

For me to get properly sick (as I am now) I must have completely ruined my immune system by doing something stupid, and in this case it was overworking the brain – behind the computer screen – without rest for the past 5 weeks.

Busy Worker: The Office
(read on…)

Go Away. I iz writing my memoirs… Image credit: misshepeshu

The difficulty of blog writing

Maintaining a blog does not usually come easy, most of us in the blog space need to work really hard to maintain our blogs outside of our regular work, and with the need for regular and interesting content updates, the odd blog/website design change, replying to comments, and managing your online persona in general – all while attempting to win one of the categories in the next Blog awards – Suddenly having a blog may seem more work than it is worth.

For some (including me) blog writing is not our main talent, words do not seem to flow as easily as it does for those that place beautiful prose on the web with little to no effort.

Suggested writing inabilities aside, even if you have the most wonderful and interesting stories to share; should you forget to post on your blog one too many times (the biggest bloggers sin I am guilty of) you will watch it die a slow and often painful Internet interest withdrawal death. Should you allow this this fatal blog sickness to pass, reviving your blog to its former glory will be one of the most difficult online things you may ever do.

What I am doing to repent my blogging sins

The final result? Unsuccessful blog that will remain obscurity or Successful blog revival – I will investigate, and hopefully find, the root cause within myself and my daily/general habits that lead me down the path of the “once every three month post” blogging style my own blog is now following. A studied choice which will offer me one of the following result options:

1. Should I keep this blog and maintain it properly (an all round improvement) OR
2. Permanently archive my blog (maintaining my current “Odd occasion and blue moon posting” habits) OR
3. Remove my blog entirely – let Twitter be my blog

(read on…)