If You Watch One Video on this Site...

You need to watch this one.  Gary Vaynerchuk has been around for a long time, even before Wine Library TV, he was a mover and a shaker.  A brilliant guy.  Pardon the language (NSFW), but the message makes the f-bombs forgettable.  Enjoy!

Say What You Want…

I played in rock bands, pop bands, jazz bands, even a sucky-ass country band (as if the pop band wasn't sucky enough) through the 1980's.  It was a crazy, insane wild ride, even for a local band that didn't travel far.  Regrets? Sure. Everyone likes to say they don't have any, but the truth is every human alive would jump at the opportunity to fix something they did wrong in life at least once.  Which brings me to this…

I'm not trying to get preachy or anything.  I don't have any legs to stand on for that sort of ilk.  But from a purely musical perspective, this is a fantastic work of musical construction.  The lyrics are beautiful.  The video is oddly fitting (I could've done without the very end, but the lumps come with the gravy and it actually makes sense if you've known of Ozzy since he left Sabbath).  It's nice and I wanted to plop it down on this page to share with you.  Even if you despise him or just feel indifferent: give this one a watch.  That's not a lot to ask.

Flashback: The Level 5 Sessions

I had to pause for a bit and reflect on 2008 and 2009 a bit.  2008 in particular was one of the worst years of my life aside from 1987 (father passed away) and 1997 (mother passed away).  I experience my first time being laid off from a job.  I have never been fired from any job in my life, so getting laid off, and on very short notice was not only a shock, but, well, I'm sure some of you are well aware of how that feels when you have a family and are barely keeping up on bills.  That put us so far behind that I'm sure we can ever catch up, but who knows.

In 2007, a mutual friend got me in touch with Brian S. Tucker.  We had a few conversations about some ideas Brian had and what he was hoping I could do to help him make those ideas work.  Mind you, these were all his ideas, and I was only one of quite a few other players involved.  Brian had a crazy idea (at the time) to start a web site devoted to subscription-based training videos for various Microsoft platform products.  The first phase was a free upload site called BlogcastRepository.com but his ideas was to develop a premium service called the "Level 5" Guides, which would involve paid monthly subscriptions.

2008 wasn't all bad, at least not after April. When Brian heard I was unemployed and having a tough time finding another job, he got in touch with me and helped push me to produce more content and help promote his site and become a win-win situation.  The combination of having someone keeping me involved and working towards a goal, kept me away from depression and solitude.  Those may sound trivial, but when you're laid off during cold weather months, and all your friends are busy at their jobs, your life can be come very lonely and scarry. 

I can't stress enough how important it is to just stay busy.  Especially if you can get outdoors as well.  I did that while still hunting for another job. But early-2008 was not a good time to look for a job.  Every single place I went to had a freeze on hiring due to fears of how far the economy was going to sink.  Everyone kept trying to encourage me with things like "with your skills" or "with your background" … "you should have no problem finding another job".  But that actually made it worse because the more rejections I got (or stark silence) the more I began to doubt my skills and marketability.  Human nature: Easy to study, much more complicated to experience.

Brian put himself, and his family's future on the line, to finance and push to make the dream a reality.  They endured a ton of shit with banks, developers, business people and trying to market their idea to both content authors and potential subscribers.  It was a stretch to assume it could be successful, and there were times when it didn't appear it would work out, but they never gave up or let pessimism creep in.

This happened within a few weeks of being laid off, and I used that down-time to gear up, ramp up, and man up to producing 17 sessions on WSUS 3.0 and 18 sessions on Windows Server 2008.  The latter of which was just barely out of beta/CTP when I recorded those.  Looking back they were very basic and almost embarrassingly amateur, but at the time it was all I had.  I needed to pay the mortgage, feed the kids and keep the electricity and water turned on.  Brian came through, and when I needed it most.  He didn't hand me any crying towels or pat me on the back either.  He knew my predicament and still insisted on me doing my best, just like everyone else who participated.  That gave me back much-needed respect and at least a little self-confidence.

Together with Edwin Sarmiento, Abhishek Joshi, Andy Dominey, Dennis Rietvink and a few others (very few), we pushed into what was at that time uncharted territory.  But it worked.  I was humbled by the credentials of these other guys, and Brian himself.  I wasn't sure if I belonged in that group, but Brian convinced me to step up.  The margins paid to us from the subscription sales weren't a lot but they absolutely saved me and my family.  That picture above was my rig and recording "studio" in our garage during that time.  It truly is worth a thousand words to me.

As the site began to grow in popularity, and more subscribers came aboard, we were soon facing the dilemna of what to do next.  What topics should we focus on?  What features should we dive deeper into?  We emailed subscribers to get feedback, but hardly anyone replied.  At that point Brian had to take on additional consulting work (which he had already been doing for quite a few years) in order to fund the business to a higher level.  In mid-Summer 2009, he took a job in Washington, D.C. where soon after he suffered a heart attack, and was recovering in the hospital, when he took a turn for the worse and passed away in August 2009.

Since Brian's passing, the site was not being managed and spammers began to victimize it badly.  Subscribers were asking what to do about cancelling payments and what the future was.  Unfortunately, I had no answers, and neither did any of the other authors.  We were as confused as anyone else.  In any case, I miss Brian and will never forget how much he helped me and many others in his short life.  May he rest in peace.

In May of 2010, Mike Rood contacted me to begin the process of finding who was managing or owned the site.  He was able to negotiate the purchase of the site from Julie Tucker.  I haven't heard anything since August 2010.  I e-mailed Mike to find out what the latest news is, so I hope to have something good to report soon - finger's crossed.

How To: Eat Sushi (Properly)

I am the only person I know that doesn't like Sushi, but this is for all my friends that love the stuff….

Inspirational Videos Week

I need a theme.  But more importantly, I need time to recharge my batteries.  So for the next week I'm going to post video clips that I find inspirating, awesome or just downright entertaining.  I hope you enjoy them.  I will be back with more cerebral laxativation soon.  Enjoy…

From the Dept of Mental Distraction: Fluid Sculpture

Fluid Sculpture from Charlie Bucket on Vimeo.

enjoy! :)

She Reminds Me of my 4th Grade Teacher

(only much better looking)

A Comment Regarding BlogcastRepository.com

I have continued to receive e-mail from readers asking about what has happened with BlogcastRepository.com and the video tutorials, etc. Rather than continue to respond to each one, I wanted to post something for all so that it clarifies things a bit.

I was approached by Brian S. Tucker back in late 2007 via email to join his collective venture to provide tutorial videos and blog posts about various Windows Server platform products and technologies.  My role was to record and post 15-18 videos on WSUS 3 and Windows Server 2008, which at the time were either still in public "beta" or only recently RTM/RTP.  My videos were posted and registrations began ramping up.  Brian enlisted a few more authors to cover other products like SQL Server, App-V/SoftGrid, and he continued handling SCCM and SCOM.  Things were good.

Brian S. Tucker (there are other Brian Tuckers out there so I still use the "S." initial to avoid confusion) passed away in August of 2009, while working on a project at a client site in Northern Virginia.  The obituary is posted below.  I'm afraid I do not know a lot of details about how he passed away, nor about his remaining family, nor the status of the web site.  I have e-mailed every contact address I had to try to find out what is/was going on with the web site, existing accounts and pending registrations.  I have not been successful in getting a single response to any of my e-mails.  I do not know if anyone is currently minding the shop, or if anyone is planning to assume the management of it in the future.  I just don't know what's going on at all.

If you have more information about this, please share with the rest of us if you can?

Thank you!  And may he rest in peace.

[original obituary…]

Copied from http://www.veteranstoday.com/modules.php?name=News&file=comments&op=Reply&pid=25962&sid=8661&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0

Fairfax, Va. - Brian Straehley Tucker, age 38, of Glen Carbon, died on Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2009, in Fairfax, Va., of circumstances related to a heart condition. He was born in New York, N.Y., on Oct. 21, 1970, the son of Joyce Hudson of Kiawah Island, S.C. and William S. Tucker, Jr. of Charleston, S.C. and step-son of Martha Tucker of Charleston, S.C. and W. Thomas Hudson, Jr. of Kiawah Island, SC.

Brian graduated from Summit High School, in Summit, N.J., and attended Southern Illinois University, in Edwardsville.

Brian served in the U.S. Navy from 1990 - 1994 and in the U.S. Naval Reserve from 1994-1998 and was the recipient of the National Defense Service Medal for his service during the Gulf War and Operation Desert Storm.

Brian was employed as a Computer Systems Engineer for Intrinsic Technologies, LLC of Lisle, Illinois since 2005.

Brian was an avid motorcycle enthusiast and enjoyed traveling with family and friends.

Brian was a loving and devoted father and is survived by his daughter, Chelsea C. Tucker of Edwardsville; parents and step parents; sister, Lynsey Tucker of New York, N.Y.; grandparents William S. Tucker and Vivian O. Tucker of Blytheville, Ark., and Eleanor K. Casato of Lakehurst, N.J., step-sisters, Lynn Matthews of Charlotte, N.C., and Lisa Grasing of Kansas City, Kan.; step-brothers, Judson Matthews of
Charleston, S.C.; Will Hudson of Portland; and Matt Hudson of London, England; loved ones, Julie A. Tucker; Joshua P. Lager; Brian L. Lager and Chad N. Lager of Edwardsville; and many devoted friends and colleagues. A family memorial service will be conducted in Chelsea, Vt.

Awesome Trampoline Acrobatics

WARNING: The music embedded in this video contains some language that may be offensive to some folks.  If you don’t like Rap lingo, turn the sound down.  The video is worth the effort.

Pixar Intro Parody (College Humor)

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Ninja Kitty - Still Action

(Thanks to Kevin Rose for pointing this out)

Rick Sanchez Busts on Joe the Plumber

Fantastic! I can't believe we give this made-up "Joe" a-hole a second of our time. What buffoon...

Proof that There is No Intelligent Life Here

What's worse: The fool, or the crowd watching the fool? Or is it the crowd that pays for cable or satellite to watch the fool?

Check THIS out and decide for yourself the following question:

If there is intelligent life beyond our little planet, and it watches the link above, is it truly "intelligent" if it doesn't immediately vaporize the planet?

Coolest Job on Earth (or Dumbest?)

High Voltage Cable Inspection
by monnotman

AppleTV vs An “old” Windows PC

By “old” I mean a Dell GX-260 or GX-280 Optiplex.  These are often discarded by businesses following periodic refresh cycles and can be obtained for very low cost, or in some cases: free.  They typically have a Pentium 4 CPU, 1 GB RAM, and an 80 GB disk drive.  Most also have a CD-RW / DVD-RW drive, USB ports and so on.

	AppleTV “Take 2”	An “Old” Windows PC
Video Capability	H.264	Anything
YouTube	Limited Access	All of it
Storage	Fixed, NO EXPANSION	Expand to your budget
Networking	Internal 802.11n, Ethernet port	USB or PCI wireless (802.11a/b/g/n), Ethernet port
Video Out	Component or HDMI	RGB (pc monitor), or TV-out card (which I don’t have)
Video Formats	H.264, AAC, 320x240 up to 1280 x 720 (24fps)	H.264, AVI (DivX/Xvid), MPG, MOV up to 1280 x 720
Audio Out	HDMI, RCA	Stereo Phono, USB or PCI card
Data Ports	USB 2.0 (useless)	USB 2.0, Serial, Parallel
Photo Cache	Requires Synch First	Pull from Anywhere
Photo Libraries	Flickr	Flickr, Picasa, etc.
Photo Formats	JPEG, BMP, GIF, TIFF, PNG	Almost Anything
Audio Formats	AAC, MP3, WAV, AIFF	Almost Anything
Parental Control	Some, Password Based	NTFS, Group Policy, User Account properties, scripts, third-party apps, Vista Parental Control
Remote Control	Single Device, One button	Wireless Mouse & Keyboard
Games	None	Any Windows or Flash-based game
Web Surfing	YouTube, Flickr (sort of)	IE, Firefox, Opera, Chrome
Beyond	Photo Screensaver	Remote Control (RDP) to other computers, FTP, Telnet
Premium Content	iTunes	iTunes, NetFlix, Amazon
Backup Capability	None	Network, USB, Secondary Drive, CD/DVD RW, etc.
Podcasts	iTunes	iTunes, Web
Gadgets	None	Desktop Gadgets (weather, stocks, news, status, etc.)
Power Consumption	48 watts	180 watts
Heat Dissipation	egg-frying or coffee heater	500 btu/hour

A few minutes playing with Google Earth on a big screen is enough to convince anyone there’s really no comparison.  I haven’t had time to analyze relative system uptime.  I do know this:  AppleTV normally runs hot enough to cook eggs on top of.  It also can lock-up at times and require unplugging until it cools off.

There are trade-offs of course.  The Apple TV has better support for HDMI output built-in.  The menu interface is more purpose-driven by design as well.  But the PC approach provides far greater flexibility in terms of capability to do more than just be a media viewing device.  The Apple TV is much more compact than a typical PC as well.  That makes it easier to "fit" into a living room environment.  However, I placed my PC behind the TV, which is on a stand, rather than wall-mounted, so the PC is hidden from view entirely.

I’ve been asked if Windows Media Center is a better logical alternative, but I find that having the PC-like capabilities with a wireless mouse and keyboard to be more “open” and I can instantly switch from watching or listening to something - to “doing” something.  After reading some Twitter comments about the forthcoming WMC in Windows 7, I may change my mind, who knows.

I'm not saying this is the ideal solution for everyone, but it works for me and my family loves it.  I would rather have seen Apple crank out a device that combined Apple TV, Mac Mini, and Time Capsule into a single box, but that doesn't appear to be anything more than rumor.  The HP Media Smart home server is really cool, as is the Via home server product line, but I think those are aimed at a different role.

Fantastic Camera work: Patrol Under Attack in Afghanistan

Some really great camera work considering the situation...

Dude Solves Cat Footprints on Car Problem (Hysterical!)

http://view.break.com/596391 - Watch more free videos

Level5 Open Access - Limited Time Only

That's right. The Level5 IT Guides at BlogCastRepository.com will be opened up for two hours in the morning and two hours in the evening (US, central daylight time) on August 13, 2008 only. Read the Details Here.

During that period you can watch any of the premium content blogcasts on a wide range of topics from SQL Server 2008 to System Center Operations Manager to Windows Server 2008 to WSUS 3 to System Center Configuration Manager and more.

Normally these sessions require a paid monthly subscription (which is very cheap by the way) in order to access them. I have posted over a dozen sessions on WSUS and another dozen or so on Windows Server 2008. Brian Tucker has many more on System Center Operations Manager and System Center Configuration Manager as well. There are other sessions that are fantastic and these offer a perfect way to learn and expand your skills on these products in an efficient manner. While you're there, check the Blogs and even my other blog which is focused on technical stuff (unlike this blog).