Fame, Fortune and Random Things…

Fame and Fortune

Someone just mailed me to say I’m in the Peer-to-Peer section of the latest Oracle Magazine, with two guys nobody has ever heard of… 🙂

I’ll use this as a stepping stone to get my first movie role, then branch out into a music career, quickly followed by a clothing line and a his/hers aftershave/perfume line. Then, after becoming a billionare I’ll start to doubt my own ability and turn to drugs as a way of hiding my insecurities. During this time, I’ll probably do a little shoplifting, just as a cry for help. Finally, after making a number of failed attempts at rehab, I’ll clean up my act, do a comeback tour and win an Oscar for playing a has-been star who’s trying to kick a drug habit. And to think, it all started with one mention in the Peer-to-Peer section of Oracle Magazine…

Random Things (Like it could get any more random than the last paragraph…)

I nearly got wasted by a big white van this morning. On my way to work I have to drive through Spaghetti Junction and at one point, a sliproad merges into the main carraigeway on a curve. The white van driver obviously wasn’t looking, because he pulled right across and nearly smashed me into a concrete wall. Fortunately, I slammed on my anchors, and just before we were going to hit he noticed me and jerked back onto the sliproad. I felt like I needed a defibrilator for the next few minutes. They say you should do something that scares you every day. That’s today sorted! 🙂

I got the Checkpoint Secure Remote beta software installed on my Vista laptop. It seems to work fine, so that’s a relief.

I’ve bought Parallels as a replacement VMware Server, which currently doesn’t work with Vista. There are a couple of cosmetic things I don’t like about Parallels, but it works and it’s cheap. I don’t know if I’ll stick with it, or switch back when VMware get their act together.

I’m having a love-hate relationship with Vista so far. I’ve not spent that much time using it yet, but I can tell you a couple of things:

  • The searchable menu is great. It doesn’t just search the menu, it displays executables and sub-options of groups like Control Panel or Computer Management. Once you start using it there’s no turning back.
  • The amount of confirmation dialogs required for simple tasks is nuts. I use a login with an account type of Administrator, yet when I want to delete a folder I get the regular confirmation message, followed by one telling me I need Administrator privileges to perform this action, and asking me if I want to proceed. Finally, I get the User Access Control (UAC) confirmation, which blanks the screen when it pops up the dialog. This last one looks a bit like the machine has crashed at first. I tried turning off the UAC, but this makes the red shield appears in the task bar and bubbles constantly pop up saying “Danger Will Robinson”, so I turned it back on. It seems a little over the top. Perhaps I will figure all of this out once I use it a bit more. 🙂
  • The networking on Vista seems a little funky. Connections to Samba shares and other windows machines seem eratic, or impossible. I’ve seen some posts on the net about it, so I’ll have to spend some time reading and playing. So far, I’ve not got a connection to my NAS, which is a pain.

Cheers

Tim…

Oracle Magazine Picture…

Eddie Awad posted his Oracle magazine picture on his blog, so I thought I’d have a look for mine…

The photographer sent me some rought drafts of the shots he was going to send forward and one struck me as being the worst of the pile by a long shot. Guess which one they used? 🙂

Now I’m no oil painting, but this shot is really bad! I’m squinting so badly my eyes look like they’ve been transplanted from a 70 year old. My shirt is billowing out in the wind, making me look like I’m about 50 lbs heavier than I am, and the angle makes me look like I have some sort of tumour on the right side of my jaw. It’s nasty!

On the plus side, I’m normally deathly pale, but in this shot they’ve made me look like I’ve got some colour in my skin. Amazing what you can do with photoshop!

Please try to avoid this picture and think of me as looking like Brad Pitt! I’m so vain it’s unbelievable… 🙂

Cheers

Tim…

Oracle ACE of the Year…

I got home last night to find a message on my phone trying to arrange an interview for Oracle Magazine about being “Oracle ACE of the Year”. Needless to say this was a bit of a shock, since it was the first thing I’d heard about it.

It seems Oracle Magazine had already contacted me about it, but either my spam filter had deleted the message, or I deleted it without reading it. 🙁

Anyway, I did the interview later that night and I’ve got to have a photo taken for the magazine. The profile and photo will be in the November/December issue of Oracle Magazine.

This year has been totally mad. First I get nominated as an ACE, then this. It’s all a bit scary and humbling.

This award went to Mark Rittman last year, so I expect him to pass on the sash and tiara in November. I’ll try not to do a Gwyneth Paltrow. 🙂

Cheers

Tim…