Heres a picture of my workspace setup during the final stage.

Below is a web 360×284 Flash 2Mb version of the original NTSC DV 10Mb opening title video. This was also encoded using Adobe Media Encoder.

mbah_media_start_title_1

Start_Video from Steve M on Vimeo.

End video

EndVideo1 from Steve M on Vimeo.

End Video 2 – Black Backgroud

EndTitleBlack from Steve M on Vimeo.

Below is one of the first 8 bit computers built. Current computers use 32/64bit architecture.

Passed this exam on 5/25. It rained heavily all day.

Books for this exam arent really out yet, even from Microsoft. Theres a new book that came out l’ll immediately recommend to anyone – its very concise, real-world practise sections and scenarios – SQL Server 2008 Administration: Real-World Skills for MCITP Certification and Beyond (Exams 70-432 and 70-450) by Tom Carpenter. I googled last week for any book and came up with this one, and l immediately bought this from amazon.com. This arrived the weekend before my scheduled exam, and l read the entire book that weekend, did all the practical excercises, highlighted all the core points etc. for my review sheet.  Heres a link to Tom Carptenter’s blog. Other material l used was the CBTNuggets Video Course. This is very very good. I also used for the 2nd time -  practise exam software from Kaplan. Had installed for my review daily on my bus commute their Selftest software. This comes with practise tests, review notes etc.

Obviously l cant go into what the questions asked were, but my advice is – make sure you cover all new features provided with SQL Server 2008, and most admin stuff like database performance optimization, high availability etc. Download trial SQL Server 2008 [developer version] from Microsoft’s website and have at least 2 instances installed for your personal practise. If you attend any Microsoft launch event. they usually give away a licensed copy of SQL Server Standard edition. You dont need to install SQL Server 2008 R2, but it doesnt hurt to get familiar with that version.

Good luck!

Lots of cool CG effects by ILM – Industrial Light & Magic, Double Negative etc.
Interesting to see how advertising is taking an interesting direction into movies, tv shows etc. Watching Ironman, you will see real references to Oracle – including a brief view of Larry Ellison – Oracles Dynamic CEO. I received an Oracle magazine for 5/2010 with an Iron man 2 poster in it. Click here for the Oracle Iron man 2 website. And there cant be a cool movie without a cool car – just like the Audi R8 Spyder V10. Click here for the site on this car. 2 Rolls-Royce Phantom which cost about $450,000 were “actually” crashed for the movie.
This is similar to the insert of Stan Lee in Fantastic Four – Rise of the Silversurfer. He gets turned away by the wedding event bouncer.

Watching 24 [Jack Bauer] weekly as l do, you will also see besides the commercials, Sprint cellphones, wifi modems, cisco computer networking gear etc.

The Koenigsegg Swedish Car – Click here for more free videos

BMW M3

The New 2008 BMW M3 – Watch the top videos of the week here

My setup essentially is this: a private Gigabit Local Area Network [LAN] using 192.168.0.x ip address range served by a dhcp server running off Smoothwall Express – an open source based excellent firewall program. I downloaded the iso from here, and installed it on a hardly used old but trusty Dell Poweredge 2300 server. My main server – running Windows 2008 has a static ip address and runs on a Dell Poweredge SC430. The 10/100/1000 gigabit switches – mainly cisco/netgear – enable me move large 3d rendered graphics files and family video files been edited across my server to/fro my prime Quad-core windows 7 64bit 8gb workstation.

For wireless – l gave away my old linksys a/b router – this router supports only WEP which is easily hackable. Retained my Dlink DIR-625 wireless router – set to 172.168.0.x ip address range, with the ethernet input from the smootwall green output. Smoothwall setup was Green+Red – Green is for the internal LAN while red represents the external network/internet interface from usually a home cable modem. I use WPA2-PSK for security at 802.11n wifi speed. The main reason l got this particular wireless router is – it offers parents the ability to lock out kid internet access at specific time. You simply reserve specific ip address for say kid x’s PC. Set a rule such as : internet off from 9pm to 5am workdays.

My 2nd wireless router is the Buffalo Airstation Turbo G WHR-G545  – 802.11g which l set at 172.168.16.x ip address range, with security set at WPA-PSK, key set to renew every 60mins. It supports TKIP as well as AOSS also. Installed at the 2nd half of the home, this gives adequate wireless coverage to any laptop that can authenticate with the right password.

Lingo:

A PSK is a 256-bit value, known to every device in the WLAN. That PSK is usually generated by combining the WLAN’s name (Service Set Identifier, SSID) (define) with a passphrase (an ASCII (define) string, 8-63 characters.)

CIRCUMSTANCE
Talk not to me of souls that do conceive Sublime ideals, but,
deterred by Fate And bound by circumstances, sit desolate, And long for heights they never can achieve.
It is not so. That which we most desire, With understanding, we at last obtain, In part or whole.
I hold there is no rain, No deluge, that can quench a heavenly fire.
Show me thy labour, I straightway will name The nature of thy thoughts.
Who bends the bow, And lets the arrow from the strained string go, Strikes somewhere near the object of his aim.
We build our ships from timbers of the brain; With products of the soul we load the hold;
Where lies the blame if they bring back no gold, Or if they spring a leak upon the main?
There is no Fate, no Providence, no Chance, The will is all. So be it thou art pure,
And strong of purpose, thy success is sure; But fools and sluggards prate of circumstance. Yesterdays.

By Ella Wheeler Wilcox.
London: Gay & Hancock, 1916.