I’m attempting to upgrade a vSphere 4 to vSphere 5 Enterprise Plus installation. Just a real simple out of the box install. So I run the Vcenter Host Agent Pre-Upgrade Checker.  Simple enough. But it fails connecting to the database with a “failed to connect to database for user…” error. and “Look at the log file for more details”

Sigh…. Got me.  I know I got my credentials correct. So I do a web search, can’t find anything relevant.

So on a hunch, I just browse the CD and run Autorun with elevated privs (right click, “run as administrator”) and then it worked fine.

/shrug

These days having a smartphone means spending $60/month or more for a base package of loads of minutes you may never use, text plan, and a mandatory data package.  But what if you could buy just data, run voice over the data plan, and use IM clients instead of text?   Well now you can.

There are some pre-requisites for the scheme I’ve tested:

• Unlocked GSM phone that understands T-Mobile 1700/2100 3G/4G plan or a phone locked to T-mobile and supports VOIP or Skype. The VOIP provider must be a true provider and not fake, like Google Voice, that works by using mobile voice minutes instead of data.
• A $25/month Prepaid Simple Mobile plan (or $45/month for more data if needed). Simple Mobile is an “MVNO” that basically buys in bulk T-Mobile service and resells it.
• A VOIP provider if you want to make calls, like Skype or localphone

This isn’t for the faint of heart, it requires some manual configuration changes, reading web sites, and an understanding of how all this fits together.

The Simple Mobile FAQ for its data only plan, which is mainly geared towards laptops and tablets, states:

I don’t own a Tablet, can I use wireless broadband on my smartphone?
While the Wireless Broadband plans are primarily meant to be used on a Tablet, they will also work on your smartphone. Please note that voice calling and SMS text messaging is not provisioned with these plans. The Wireless Broadband plans are for data use only.

Internet Access

To make this work, you need a supported unlocked (or locked to T-mobile) smart phone and a new SIM from Simple Mobile first, then add the $25/month plan.  There are multiple ways to get the SIM. You can order it from Simple Mobile’s website for $12.99 or buy it from a number of those small mobile phone shops that are in strip shopping centers or farmer’s markets (they can charge like $25) or buy one from ebay or amazon.com for a buck or two.

When you get the SIM, it needs to be activated on Simple Mobile’s website.  To activate it requires paying the first month of the plan.  I tried this using a credit card and had problems, probably because of high-fraud rates with prepaid mobile plans. Instead I went to my corner shop and asked for a $25 voucher for Simple Mobile. They just hand you a receipt with a PIN. Enter this into the website instead.

Once activated, you are given a phone number which is all but useless. You can’t use it to make or receive calls or send/receive texts. Remember, this is a data only plan. But you can use the Internet on your smart phone once it’s configured for your device (instructions on their website).

Adding Voice

You can now add a Internet-based voice account.  These usually cost per-minute for calls placed, but it can be pretty cheap like a penny a minute.  So even if you talk for 1000 minutes, that’s just $10.  And if you get an incoming phone number, that can include unlimited free incoming minutes.   I have been using LocalPhone for about a year now and have two incoming phone numbers, one in US in area code 302, and another in UK.   Each costs me 99 cents a month and you can choose which of your numbers is used for Caller ID.  So yeah, I have a local number in UK and it is displayed as my Caller ID.    You can also use other providers, like Skype if your phone supports it (but it must also support making those calls over data, not cellular voice).

Once your account is set up, on the LocalPhone website go to your account info and find “Call using the Internet” and on that page is info for how to set up calling on your VOIP device. It includes your account ID and password to put into your phone.

VOIP doesn’t use much data, but it does use data. And that data will come out of your prepaid Simple Mobile balance, which is 750 megs for the $25/mo plant. If you run out, you’ll need to add another month of data. If you run out a lot, best bump up to $45/month plan for 2 gigs or think about using their unlimited $40/month data/voice/text plan (although reports are they limit your Internet speed horribly on that plan).

Warnings

• Simple Mobile uses T-mobiles network, but unlike T-mobile proper, it doesn’t include roaming on other networks. So you only get coverage in T-mobile areas. That includes pretty much all decent sized population areas but if you’re going to visit your relatives in Montana, forget it (the entire state doesn’t have T-mobile service)
• To get 3G (i.e., decent speed) requires a phone that understands T-mobile’s data frequencies.
• iPhones and iPads require a Micro SIM, needs to be unlocked and it will only run at slower 2G/EDGE speeds. Not recommended.
• To do voice, the phone needs to support some sort of VOIP service.  That’s going to cost you extra, but not much.
• People can’t text you.  Hey, you want cheap, you can’t have everything.  Install an Instant Messaging client on your phone and use that for messages.
• There’s other prepaid MVNO plans out there that use other networks, like AT&T, but I haven’t found a data-only plan this cheap and that will work on a smartphone.

Just got back from a very enjoyable trip to Turkey.   On our return flight, the level of security at the airport was off the chart.   This is what steps we had to go through.

1. Bag X-ray and metal detector at front door of  airport.  Yeah, before you even get to check-in, so you have to have your luggage you are checking in X-rayed at this point.  This was also the case when we flew domestic inside Turkey from Izmir to Istanbul.
2. While waiting in line at the check-in counter, someone asked us the standard “did you pack it yourself?” questions as well as a few others like wanting me to list all the electronic equipment I had packed.  My passport was also checked. I was also asked for my ticket or printout of my e-ticket.
3. At the front of the line another person took my passport  to a scanner machine, then placed a sticker on the back of it.
4. At check-in counter, passport again checked and boarding pass issued.
5. Went through another line called “Passport Control” where passport was again checked along with boarding pass. An exit stamp was placed over my visa stamp. After this we appeared to be “airside” with no other x-ray machine in sight.
6. At departure gate, we went through several layers of security again. Yes, at the gate…. First was another passport and boarding pass check with some more questions and a new sticker placed on back of my passport.
7. Then had to go through an x-ray machine for carry-ons and metal detector for passengers.  I was also wanded.  My carry-on bag was searched thoroughly but my wife’s was not.  They found a can of soda I purchased inside the airport. I had to toss it.
8. After x-ray machine, went to another table where ALL carry-ons were checked. This time they went through every pocket, made me empty most of the contents onto the table for further checking.
9. I then got a pretty intensive pat-down search.  All passengers got the same treatment. After this we had to go board the plane.
10. At entrance to jetway my boarding pass and passport were again checked
11. Half-way down jetway was another person checking boarding pass and passport.

Some additional comments:

• On an internal domestic flight we took earlier we had to go through X-ray twice. Once at the entrance to the airport, and again to go airside.  Since the check-in counters are vulnerable in the U.S. I wouldn’t be surprised to see that used in U.S. eventually as well.    However, didn’t need to produce a ticket or boarding pass so anyone can enter airport at this point.
• I also went through metal detectors at shopping malls, universities, and office buildings as well while in Turkey.
• I think moving the x-ray, metal detector, and pat-down to the gate is far more secure method of operation. It removes a large window of opportunity when wandering around airside to obtain a weapon after clearing security.  But to do this, gates have to be reconfigured and made much larger. Space for all that equipment and operation is needed. Also there were at least 12 people i counted processing the boarding passengers.  1 at initial check, 3 at metal-detector/x-ray, 4 doing bag searches, 2 doing pat downs, and two on the jetway.   That’s a lot of labor for each flight.

Love these two videos, old school and a remix allegedly done by a Serbian DJ.

First old school…

And now the remix….

Which do you like better?!

Oh wait, I forgot Jessica!

I play a Holy or Discipline spec’ed priest in WoW.  I’m a healer. That means when people die, it’s my fault. Doesn’t matter if the tank didn’t hold agro or DPS gained agro — it’s my fault.   So this is my little cheat sheet so when I do a random, I can quickly review the things I need to remember.  I’ll edit it over time most likely.  So this is mainly for my own purposes more than a tutorial.

The Nexus

Entrance at lower level at Nexus in Coldarra (if needed)

• Grand Magus Telestra: Cast Prayer of Shadow Protection (PoSP) before battle, AOE damage
• Ormorok the Tree-Shaper: Beware of crystal spikes – stay directly under boss, AOE damage
• Anomalus: AOE damage
• Keristrasza: PVP trink if chained, stay to side of dragon (not front or back), keep moving to avoid cold debuff, mana can go fast in this fight
• Commander Kolurg: (optional, Heroric only) Cast Fear Ward on tank before battle. Basic TaS (tank and spank)

Utgarde Keep

• Prince Keleseth: Cast PoSP if needed. Stay behind boss. Skeleton adds can be shackled. Beware of Frost Tombs, 20 sec plus dmg unless broken by damage by other player.
• Skarvald and Dalronn: Ensure PoSP is up. Can’t shackle skels on Heroic mode.  Stack on boss in normal, stand at range on heroic.
• Ingvar the Plunderer: Ensure PoSP is up. When he starts roar cast, stop casting. Cast shadow fiend at beginning of phase 2.

Ahn’kahet: The Old Kingdom

• Elder Nadox: Adds will attack others, hard for tank to keep agro, use Holy Nova to dps adds if mana avail
• Prince Taldaram: PoSP, spread out until he vanishes, then bunch up. (Heroric) Bubble, don’t heal anyone in Vampiric Drain
• Jedoga Shadowseeker: After first trash, go into center. When she re-levitates one add will walk towards center. Wand the add.
• Amanitar: (heroic, optional):  Kill a healthy (non-green aura) mushroom to clear debuff
• Herald Volazj: At 66% and 33% health he casts insanity. Unequip weapons before cast finishes. All players are cloned and then attack.

Violet Hold

Not all these bosses appear in each run. Last boss always appears.

• Erekem: (arakkoa). Simple tank and spank, as long as DPS takes down boss first
• Moragg: (floating eye). All parties should stay as close to the boss as possible.
• Ichoron: (water revenant). Big danger of gaining threat until he hits 25% and enrages. At that point, be ready to heal loads. Elemental adds explode and do dmg when they die.
• Xevozz: (ethereal).  Stay away from spheres. Tank should kite Xevozz away from orbs. Try to stay ahead of tank.
• Lavanthor: (core hound). Tank and spank, stay away from front of him. AOE damage.
• Zuramat: (void lord). Pray first. Cast PoSP if needed. Target boss, dispel magic when he gets darkness buff.  Kill sentries if you can see them if void shifted (holy nova). Use PoM a lot. Bubble a lot. Don’t run out of mana. If a player gets more than 5 darkness debuffs, negative healing happens. Tell group not to DPS him if he gets that buff and to wait until it is dispelled.
• Cyanigosa: Tank and spank, stay to side of dragon.

The Oculus

Entrance at upper level of The Nexus in Coldarra

• Drakos the Interrogator: Best done as Holy due to mult player damage
• Varos Cloudstrider: If hit by laser beam, move away from source but avoid crossing it thru another player. Stay clear of tank if he’s in center or outside. Be ready to group heal.
• Mage-Lord Urom: Keep anyone hit with Time Bomb healed to max. Keep HOTs on all players. Get out of LOS (behind a pillar) if arcane explosion is being cast. If tank kites boss, stay in front of the boss and tank’s direction.
• Ley-Guardian Eregos: Drake fight.  Emerald drake is healing one but can use any of them. In heroric, during a planar phase, don’t bother healing or DPS and stay away from anomalies — basically run away until planar phase is over.
  • Red Drake: Tank – Spam 1, 2, and 3 whenever CD is up
  • Amber drake: DPS – Channel 3 until 10 shock charges are up, then mash 1.  2 is used to stop time
  • Emerald drake: Healer – 3 heals targeted party member, 1 when you can, 2 if health is near top

Gundrak

• Slad’ran: (snake) Snake issue. Lots of adds.  Hope people AOE them well or there will be problems.
• Drakkari Colossus: Keep moving, stay out of green pools
• Moorabi: Burn cooldowns when he gets to 50%.
• Gal’darah: When boss in rhino form, stack on top of tank, against a wall if possible.
• Eck: Stay away from front of boss

Utgarde Pinnacle

• Svala Sorrowgrave: Throw DPS on 3 priests when player is suspended before sword descends. Stay away from sword if it descends to ground, AOE dmg
• Gortok Palehoof: Fight 4 mini-bosses first…
  Massive Jormungar: DPS against tank will increase during the battle
  Ravenous Furbol: Cast Fear Ward on tank before battle.  Will attack random player
  Ferocious Rhino: Stay outside of stomp radius.
  Frenzied Worgen: May be high DPS if rogue or hunter don’t dispell
  Gortok: Race against time. Player max health is decreased. Add DPS if poss, bring out pet.  Stay away from front of him.
• Skadi: Stay away from side of hall if frosted, pick up harpoons to kill Skadi’s mount
  Avoid Skadi’s whirlwind, which targets a random player
• King Ymiron: Bane buff to king will reflect damage to players, cast prayer of shadow protection before fight

Forge of Souls

• Bronjahm: Be sure Pray of Shadow Protection is on all, stay on side of platform until at 30% when he teleports to center, then move to center as well, heal through AOE effect.
• Devourer or Souls: If people start dying, others should run down stairs to reset encounter and res dead ones.

Culling of Stratholme

First time players should do their team a favor and first go to the Caverns of Time, enter CoS and do the first quest and accept the second and watch the little skit. There’s no danger and then when you re-enter with a team you can all port ahead and skip that bit.

• Meathook: Constricting Chains will stun for 4 secs. Targets party member with least threat allegedly.
• Salramm the Fleshcrafter: Ensure PoSP is up, Tank and Spank, adds may target if DPS sucks
• Chrono-Lord Epoch: TaS - If afflicted by Curse of Exertion, spell cost doubles. Hopefully a druid or mage will remove the curse
• Mal’Ganis: Equip PVP trinket and use if put to sleep.  Dispel Vampiric touch from boss.
• Infinite Corruptor: (Heroric only) – simple TaS but to get him must rush through instance and reach him within 25 minutes.

At my other job I was given a Mac laptop to fix that wouldn’t boot.  It just sat there on the spinning wheel and never came to the logon screen.  So first thing I did was to boot in verbose mode by holding CMD-V down after the boot sound.  This shows boot messages.  Doing this revealed the boot process was looping with an error message of:

Couldn't find root user.  Sleeping and trying again.

I tried Googling for it and didn’t get promising results. Only fix is to re-install. But I was not discouraged. Besides, re-installs are a pain because all programs need to be re-installed and all settings are lost — plus you can lose all user data if not careful.

So I rebooted the Mac into single user mode by holding down CMD-S after the boot tone. This allows you to poke around the file sytem — if you are comfortable with Unix or Linux.

Consensus on the few items I found online was that it’s a problem with netinfo and to remove the directory from /var/db. I made a backup of that directory first, tried it, and still didn’t help.

Thankfully, a lot of Mac OS X is open source code named Darwin.  The error message was being produced by the memberd program. Going back into the open source archive at Apple for 10.4.,  I found the error message and confirmed it was trying to do something with the directory service.   So I hit a dead end — for a bit.

I rebooted and followed the boot messages and further upstream in the messages was another error from dyld saying it couldn’t load libz.1.dylib.   I went into /usr/lib and lo and behold, found a bad symlink….

libz.1.dylib -> ?~

Bingo!  I relinked it to the actual library file that was in the same directory

ln -s libz.1.dylib libz.1.2.3.dylib

Rebooted the Mac, and IT WORKED!!!!

So here’s hoping if someone else gets stuck with a similar problem on an older Mac running Tiger (10.4) and Googles the message like I tried, they’ll happen upon this and it will hopefully help.

Weave has been my nickname ever since some guy named Frank Kros set me up a user account in 1982 on a Burroughs mainframe that I was to do some contract COBOL programming on. The college I was attending at rented time on that system.  Since he forgot how to spell my last name, he just gave me a user account named “weave” on it — and I’ve been using that name ever since.

In 1999, right smack in the middle of the dot com boom period, domain names were selling like mad, with some fetching millions of dollars. It got tough to find short domain names for reasonable prices.  I did manage to get weaverling.org and weaverling.com then because I have a fairly unusual last name. But anything weave.* was just not going to happen.

The domain weave.org expired a few months ago due to non-payment by original owner. Once that happens, as with other domains, there’s a grace period where the original owner can reclaim it. After that, it’s released and various scum bag companies that collude with registrars and hence have hooks into the entire domain process can snap it up and offer it for resale to the highest bidder.

That is what happened to weave.org.  38 people besides myself put in an initial offer for the domain. One guy topped me, with username of rogabiz.  I googled that and found out that user is most likely a domain speculator, attempting to buy low and resell high.  I also saw that weave.info is for sale at $1,697 at another site.

So I figured I was doomed. weave.org would have to have more value than the name in the lesser known TLD of .info.   But I decided to give it a try and was worried I’d get too carried away and pay too much.  I was hoping to not go higher than $500 but might have went a bit over that if needed.

But I had a bit of potential good luck on my side.  The domain auction was listed to end on December 31st at 15:55. Hoping that most serious speculators would not be “working” on New Years Eve.   I set out to try sniping in a bid at the last minute. But timing was the key. Any bids submitted during the last five minutes increased the bid deadline by another five minutes. So I dropped my bid in with six minutes to go, at 15:49.   I then sat there for 6 minutes anxiously waiting to see if anyone submitted a higher bid.

Until eventually, bam — it was MINE MINE MINE!  So now you can email me @weave.org too!

I don’t believe in curses. But on the other hand, how many times does something have to happen before you start to wonder if there’s something to it.  Then again there’s the self-fulfilling prophecy angle. But trust me, some of these events I couldn’t have subconsciously made happen.

It doesn’t happen every year, but way too often some disaster falls upon my on New Year’s eve. Some are much more worse than others. You decide. Cursed or not?

The Key Incident

My girl friend and I booked a combo at a local hotel where you could eat dinner, then have an open bar with entertainment to midnight, stay the night in the hotel, get a late breakfast the next day, and a late checkout.   Good fun, with no worries.

That is until about 10pm.  She needed me to make a run to a convenience store to buy something the hotel didn’t have. I had her keys with me from earlier when I had to get something out of her car.  I went to get them later, and realized THEY WERE GONE.    I searched all over the hotel and grounds, everywhere we had been, and couldn’t find them anywhere.

Needless to say, the rest of the evening and next morning didn’t quite go as I had hoped it would.

Punched in the Gut and Left to Die Incident

OK, not literally. That would have actually been less painful.  I was engaged to get married at the time. My girl friend and I were out of state on New Year’s Eve. There’s a long back story to this that I won’t get into (and of course I’m totally blameless!), but the hammer dropped about 10 minutes to midnight. We had just checked into our room and she let me know that she didn’t want to get married to me and that no one ever understood her like this other guy at her work did.  I just turned on the TV, sat at the edge of the bed, and watched the ball drop — and felt absolutely nothing — as if I had died inside.

It wasn’t technically a break up, but it was never the same after that and we slowly drifted apart.

The ER visit

Went to First Night, was a “first date” situation.  I met her there, since we really didn’t know each other yet and I wanted her to feel comfortable — oh and I didn’t own a car at the time so that was a bit awkward to come out and admit at the time and I didn’t think she’d want to be picked up on a motorcycle in the Winter.   But that wasn’t the problem.  In fact, we hit it off really well and was one of those situations where it was like the rest of the world didn’t exist. We found a quiet corner and talked and talked.   Then I started to get this weird feeling in my stomach.  Oh no, it wasn’t butterflies, or a feeling that I found Ms. Right.  Nope, it was not to be because IT WAS NEW YEAR’S EVE.

My stomach felt like it was going to explode. I politely dismissed myself and tried to find a toilet — fast. I ended up running to the side of the building and barfing my guts out.  I walked back and was out of it. Unable to pay attention to what she was saying or responding much because of the pain, I must have looked like I was bored. The pain got worse. I finally started to think more about how I was going to survive more than anything. I finally just told her I had to go. It was 11pm. I ran to where the DART buses were to get a bus home. The driver said none would be leaving until midnight. I stepped off the bus, leaned against a building, and started throwing up until I was dry heaving. I stumbled back on the bus, looking drunk of course. I went to the back of the bus and wished for death. A little while later I heard fireworks, while dying inside a bus. I mumbled “Happy New Year.”

A few hours later I was on a stretcher in the ER for several hours, waiting to be seen amongst the other casualties of New Years Eve.  I got X-rayed and checked. I was given some pills to take and released to my sister’s husband to give me a ride home. I stepped outside the ER and threw up the pills.

Out of Gas

No first date this New Year’s Eve. I had been dating this gal for about a year. She was throwing a big party for her friends. I was on my motorcycle heading to her house.  I was running low on gas. I went from gas station to gas station looking to fill it, but they were all closed. (Gee, I wonder why).  I finally ran out of gas at the bottom of a hill on Route 7 near Christiana. I somehow pushed my bike up the hill, and another couple of miles while watching my watch go past midnight.  I finally found an open station, got to her party after most of her guests went home.   She wasn’t happy at all. I couldn’t call her because this was the days before cell phones.

She had a point, I was an idiot for running out of gas, and I had embarrassed her greatly as her friends all thought she got stood up for the night.  That was the beginning of the end and six weeks later, we were history.

Who Needs Power?

This actually happened last year.  I had gone a few years with no incidences. Thought it was all behind me. That was simply not to be.

Where I work was scheduled to have a new emergency generator put in. Other electrical work was also supposed to occur, so my servers (and email) would be down. It was estimated to be about a day.  I knew I was in trouble when I talked to the contractor and when I mentioned that I’d be back in later in the day to bring up my servers, he laughed.  Said it’d take a COUPLE of days to do this job.

Oh struth, you gotta be kidding…

So we were down. For days. And so was email. And the people were mad. Real mad. And I sat there and wondered about my curse. But how could it be? It struck days earlier. And lo and behold I was given hope. Because on December 30th the power was restored and we were back up!

But alas, on December 31st, a strong wind storm blew in to the area. And it knocked out the power at work. And the new emergency generator did not get a county inspection yet and was still off line. And the servers went dark. And we were down again — on New Year’s Eve.

Worst New Years Eve. Evar.

MiniPuss, not feeling well.

I’ve saved the worst to last. It was December 30th, 2002. My cat, shown here in a picture from that day, wasn’t feeling well.  She had gone missing for two days and I finally found her here hiding in the linen closet. She wasn’t very responsive. I figured she just wasn’t feeling well and gave her some water and tried to get her to eat.   She responded slowly, and the next day (December 31st) she jumped down and made her way to the bedroom to her favorite window perch. I figured she was feeling better and was happy.

A little later I heard the most horrible scream I’ve ever heard. It sent a shiver down my spine. I never knew a cat could make that kind of noise. I ran towards the noise and saw her on the floor flopping around like a fish out of water, screaming in agony. There was blood and puss mixture all over the window, her perch, walls, and floor.  Linda and I quickly gathered her up in a blanket and head to a nearby animal 24hr emergency room.

They took her into the back, where I heard some more screams, then silence.  They finally sedated her and gave her something for the pain.  The vet came out and said she had a huge abscess on her lower back that had popped. He said he wasn’t sure he’d be able to get enough skin to be able to close it up, but would see what he could do.

I looked at my phone. It was almost midnight.  So we sat there, in the waiting room alone, wondering whether my cat would live, as others were ringing in 2003.

The next two weeks were hell. She had a huge wound with a draining tube. We tried to take care of her at home for a few days, but she constantly tried to get out of her “cone head.” Since we couldn’t watch her while at work, I checked her back into the vet for a week of recovery.  I went and visited her every day at lunch and after work. She was the cutest thing and tried to sneak into my backpack each time, as if trying to get me to sneak her out of there.

<<< Pic of the wound. Click at your own risk. It’s nasty.

Happily, she recovered and she’s still with us, and healthy.

What Next?

So tomorrow is New Years Eve again. Will I survive another one?   Hope everyone enjoys their evening. As for me, I’ll be in my basement, on the floor, under the stairs, in the fetal position, sucking on my thumb.

Happy New Years!

First of all, it’s really stupid I have to write a blog post on how to install the free Microsoft SQL express package, but it just isn’t that easy to do.  It’s nice they give it away for free for people like me to learn it all, but they assume you already know it in the limited instructions you are given.  The big problem is, there are a ton of pre-requisites that — if not already installed, will fail the installation and leave your install in a bad shape.  For example…. this lovely error:

An installation package for the product Microsoft SQL Server Native Client cannot be found. Try the installation again using a valid copy of the installation package ’sqlncli.msi’

10 Step Install

All of this assumes a fresh install of Windows XP in a virtual machine with one gig RAM allocated to it.

1. Do it inside a virtual machine and snapshot it before the install so if it fails, you can start over easily.
2. Go into Add/Remove programs, Windows Components, check IIS, install it
3. Install .NET Framework 3.5 – I just went into Windows Update, optional installs, and it was listed there.
4. Go to Windows Download page, search for MSXML 6.0 and install it
5. Google “ms sql express download” and pick the appropriate link from Microsoft’s site. When I did it I went to: http://www.microsoft.com/Sqlserver/2005/en/us/express.aspx
6. Click the link for 2005 express download. That took me to http://www.microsoft.com/Sqlserver/2005/en/us/express-down.aspx
7. Do NOT install the Advanced Services option. I had errors doing that.
8. Download and install SQL Server Express (sqlexpr32.exe), take all defaults.
9. Download and install SQL Server Management Studio Express
10. Reboot

Hopefully that will do it.  The SQL Server Management Studio program will be in the program menu.   I’ll write more blog entries as I figure it out myself.

This is a guide to how to get a prepaid phone that works in the United States if you plan to visit here.  Information about how to do this is hard to find because the phone companies don’t want you to just use a phone for a week or so and toss it basically.   I had similar difficulties getting a prepaid phone in UK for my trips there, but I’ll warn you, this is much more of a hassle.

First thing you need is an unlocked GSM phone. For people outside the U.S. this is probably something that doesn’t need explaining. Most phones sold in the U.S. are locked though. As an alternative, you can just buy a cheap prepaid phone in the U.S. for about $20-$50 to get you started (which includes a SIM).   If not, you’ll need a U.S. prepaid SIM to put into your phone.

The goal, of course, is to get up and running as fast as possible after landing in the U.S. so you probably don’t want to go running around looking to buy a phone and if you go into a shop and want to buy a SIM you’ll most likely be looked at very strangely.  eBay sellers have prepaid U.S. sims for sale. For this example, I’ll use AT&T’s prepaid service called “gophone” — so do an ebay search for gophone or prepaid sim. Try to find one with model/sku # 71234 — this is the latest AT&T 3G SIM as of August 2009.  I paid $3.99 for mine from snscommusa. Sounds like they will ship internationally if you contact them before payment and find out how much to add for shipping.

Once you get the SIM, you could activate it online at www.att.com/activations/ before you get to the U.S. but I suggest waiting until you arrive for quite a few reasons. However, I consider getting the SIM the biggest hassle so doing that before your trip will cut down on your agro once you arrive.

The reasons why you want to wait to activate your SIM until you get to the U.S. are:

• Once activated, you’ll be emailed a PIN to manage your account online. First time you logon, you’ll be sent a new PIN via SMS — which you won’t get if you are not in the U.S.
• MMS/data settings for your phone probably will get sent to your phone and setup automatically the first time it “logs in” to the network. It worked great on my Nokia N95.  If not, you’ll need to set those manually (settings for most common phones are on att.com’s website. Go to support, then phone/device support.)
• Topping up (refilling) the phone is a hassle if not in the U.S.  You might be able to buy a topup card over ebay.  The credit card topup/refill route, however, appears to require a U.S. credit card and address as well.

Once you get to the U.S. you’ll need to get online to activate, or call 1-866-895-1099.  Then you’ll need a refill/topup card.

As part of the activation process at www.att.com/activations/ you’ll need to enter the SIM number from the SIM plus your phone’s IMEI number (found inside the phone or you may be able to get it from typing in a code to your phone. Like on Nokia’s it’s *#06# )

You’ll be asked for a zip code of where the phone will be in service.  This will determine what area code your phone number will be in, which basically is the small location in the U.S. where land line phones can call it for free.  U.S. cell phones can call usually can call all over the U.S. for no extra charge, so it’s no big deal where the number is.  Just google around for addresses if you want a number in a certain area, or use 10001 (Midtown Manhattan, NYC).

Next up is a U.S. mailing list and email.  Of course you probably don’t have a U.S. mailing address. Actually, you will for a few days. The hotel you are staying at! But do enter in a good email address. You will be emailed a PIN to logon to att.com/mygophone where you can manage your account.   Note: When I googled for this info I saw several mentions of needing a PIN to activate your phone.  When I got my prepaid SIM it had no PIN with it and I wasn’t asked for one when activating. I am assuming the PIN is only if you buy a combo GoPhone phone and SIM package.

Next is to top up the phone.  The top up situation in the U.S. pretty much sucks.  Nothing like what I’ve encountered in the U.K.  ”Refill” cards are sold all over, like in drug stores (chemists) and other shops. But the weird thing is, they give you a card and a voucher with a PIN number in. THE VOUCHER IS WHAT IS IMPORTANT. That card, for all I can tell, is useless, although I haven’t tried taking the card back into the shop and asking to have it refilled to see if it’s any easier.

The refill PIN may be entered online or by dialing 611 from your phone WHILE IN THE U.S. and entering in the refill PIN on the voucher you receive.

More on the Top Up hassle

My O2 prepaid card from U.K. is a dream. I just have to make a call from it at least once every six months to keep it active.  I just make sure it has about 20 quid on it before I return back to the U.S. and to make a call before the six months is up.  That starts the clock ticking and I’m good for another six months.

Not so with any prepaid plans in the U.S.   There are multiple hassles and ways to lose your money. First is credit expiration. Depending on how much you top up with will determine when that credit will expire. You can “roll over” unused credit (with AT&T) if you top up again before the expiry date. The expiry date can be anywhere from 30 days (for a $15 top up) to 365 days (for a $100 top up).  If your credit expires, you lose it — and then 60 days after that you lose your phone number and the account is deactivated.

Next you have voice plans. Usually it’s pay per minute, or pay per day. I recommend per day. For $3.00 a day you can get unlimited calls all day. You are not charge on days you don’t use the phone. For a tourist, that’s probably your best bet.  For casual use, the $1.00/day plus 10 cents a minute is a better deal.

For bolt ons, which are called feature packages, it’s another expiry hassle.  You can by text packages or data packages. They only last 30 days but if you renew the package before then, any unused messages or data will roll over to the next month.    To add a package, dial 611 while in the U.S. and follow the voice prompts.

So the only way to keep one of these puppies alive after you leave the U.S. is to put $100 refill in the phone and then it’ll only last a year. So if you’re not returning to the U.S. again for at least a year, it’s best just to let it go and repeat the process for your next trip.

Example of U.S. Mobile Refill Cards

This picture shows a rack of mobile refill cards. This particular one was inside a grocery store. Usual procedure is to take it up front to a cashier who will activate the card for you, and possibly hand you a voucher with a PIN on it that you will need to refill the prepaid account.

Calling Back Home

Forget it! Very pricey.  OK, that’s not an option.  When I travel, I have a phone that does WiFi and has a VOIP service attached. I use gizmo5.com and their client on my Nokia N95.  Even the iPhone will dial internationally for cheap if you load an app like Fring on it and associate it with a VOIP account.  So my suggestion is, have some sort of phone with WiFi/VOIP service on it and just call home while leaching someone’s WiFi signal somewhere.  If you’ve been looking for an excuse to buy a nice unlocked Nokia that include WiFi, now’s the time if you intend to call home any. You’ll save enough most likely to pay for the phone and when you get back home you’ll still have a nice phone to use!