BBC News Halo 2 leaked onto the internet

Bungie Studio (Authors of Halo 2) Gold release article and a "wired" look behind the scenes in the offices of Bungie. Windows Media Hi Res Version

Whilst storage capacities ever increase and the pressure of the amount of data requiring to be stored increases along side, Numerica has been implimenting SAN and NAS technologies.  Whilst this sorts out the capacity side of networking accessing this data has always been via our front end servers using the traditional UNC connections ie \\servername\share.  Therefore we have implimented Microsoft DFS. Although DFS has been around since Windows 2000 our first attempts are its use with replication brought our wide area links to thier knees and so was abandond.

The Windows 2003 implimentation seems much improved.  Using a NAS box with Windows 2003 Storage Server we have implimented Domain wide DFS (published to Active Directory) and established DFS roots by discipline.  ie \\DomainName\Discipline. This means that we dont have to worry about which server has what on.  We can enable multiple local linked replica servers for load balancing and if we move applications between servers or need to take a server offline for maintenance systems are still online and accessable.

Long live \\numerica\it\common

By Monday morning some file reorganisation will be have been carried out to give us some more disc space.  In order to not worry about which server has what on and then be able to moved the storage around with new servers or SANs or NASs etc.  I have enabled Domain wide DFS.  (Currently there is no replication, only single links)

\\numerica\it will give you the full list of shares available, however the following are enabled as of this moment.

\\numerica\it\bugfixes
\\numerica\it\development
\\numerica\it\common
\\numerica\it\video
\\numerica\it\audio
\\numerica\it\cabsbackups
\\numerica\it\domainutils

I have also rationalised \\numerica\it\common slightly to try to put software under the manufactures name.  If this causes huge problems, like the installation location of office then it can be changed, however as it has moved servers this change would have to be made anyway.  Now we are using DFS this change should only need to be made this one last time. 

Lastly there is a directory called:
\\numerica\it\common\Archive or move items in this Folder
which has things in that should really be removed or put on a different share.  Please check these out if you are responsible for them.

An Introduction to Programming Outlook 2003 Using C#

How To Build an Office COM Add-in by Using Visual C# .NET

How to use the Microsoft Outlook Object Library to create an Outlook contact in Visual Basic .NET

Bring the Power of Visual Studio .NET to Business Solutions Built with Microsoft Office

Whilst successfully writing some simplel addins for OLK2003 using the PIA's doing things in more details requires some reading material. Here are the book references Ive found so far

Devices which detect speed cameras are to be banned, the Government has revealed.

The Department for Transport said it would seek to ban the dashboard devices as soon as possible because of fears motorists were using them to break speed limits without being caught.

Devices that use satellite-positioning systems to give drivers early warning of a speed camera will remain legal.

http://www.ukspeedtraps.co.uk/banned.htm

ISA 2004 has VPN quarantining. This is the ability to check a VPN clients patch level, and antivirus version before it is allowed onto the network. If it doesn't meet the requirements the client is moved to a safe area (quarantined) while said patches and AV updates are installed. I think it's actually a function of Windows, but massively updated in ISA 2004.

whitepaper for further perusal

Building an IT infrastructure to run ones family and friends IT different demands is a complex task.  Things like uploading documents and pictures, updating lists and links from a browser, full email functionality with web access and Outlook integration over the internet, Blogs and Wiki's make it an interesting if not long assisngment.

The technolgies Ive used are all Microsoft dotNet based and are:

• Windows SharePoint Services - www.iwaszko.com
• Microsoft Exchange 2003 -       mark@iwaszko.com
• DasBlog for Blogs -                 http://blogs.iwaszko.com
• FlexWiki for Wiki -                   http://wiki.iwaszko.com

In addition to hosting Iwaszko.com sites, these technologies are now being used to host the following groups I'm involved in.

http://www.marlowrt.co.uk
.... more shortly