Friday, September 17, 2004 - Posts

I'm Not Running As Administrator

Dealing With No Privileges

I'm taking another stab at this. A lot of people have advocated this, here and here, over the past year or so, and I'm going to put it into practice with Hesphaestus (I really should have chosen a shorter name). So after the initial install of W2k3, I created a lowly mlorengo user and that is what I'll be using from now on. Whenever I want to do an Administrative level task, I'll need to either logon as Administrator, or more preferably Run As an Administrator under the mlorengo account.

As I come up with issues, I'll update this posting.
Tweaking W2k3 for Workstation use

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W2k3 Server for use as a Workstation

Tweaking W2K3 Server for Workstation Use

Repaving \\Hesphaestus gives me the opportunity to start my project with a clean slate. I typically redo my machines every 6-8 months just to clean out the slime that coagulates in the deep recesses of my hard drive. I should probably buy Norton Ghost and take a snapshot, but I'm too cheap for that.

Since I'm running W2k3 on \\Hesphaestus and I want some snappiness to it, I'm going to tweak some of the Server settings to better fit it for workstation use. Why not use XP Pro? Well, I want the ability for multiple root websites, plus utilize some of the features on 2003 that aren't available on XP Pro. So I'll do the following

  1. Disable the Shutdown Event Tracker
    Since I'm not running as Administrator I need to do the following from the cmd shell.
    runas /user:Administrator "mmc gpedit.msc"
  2. Enabling Hardware and DirectX Acceleration
    Again, I need to browse to the control panel folder, Shift+RightClick to get the Run As... menu item and run the display properties applet as Administrator to change the hardware acceleration.
  3. Advanced Configuration
    To give programs preference over background tasks.

That's about it for what I need, the article has more instructions for other settings, but this is all I'll be doing.

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Introducing the Project

So let me tell you a little bit about the project I'm going to build. I've been thinking about it for quite some time and I've even fleshed out some initial RUP documents. Now before you go screaming in fear to the far side of the hill, let me talk a little bit about why I'm doing this project.

  • Apply the training in MSF & RUP that I've been taking at my prior employer over the last two years
  • Apply some XP and Agile Programming processes that I've been reading about this past year
  • Learn more about .Net (1.1 & 2.0). My prior experience in architecting and developing systems have been in the VS 97/6.0 world including ISAPI/MFC programming since 1997. My last project at work used C# and .Net to implement a rules generator for Pension Formulas which then generated an intermediate language formatted in XML to be interpreted by a COBOL (yes) service running on our host servers. Mostly however I have been working in ASP 3.0, C++, COBOL & VB creating financial and benefit websites and applications. But I digress...

So, I give you an excerpt  from my Business Case document for the... (drum roll please!)

Virtual Cellar

1                Introduction

The Virtual Cellar project satisfies the need for organizing one’s own wine collection. The system will allow for the cataloging of wines, along with their reviews and winery information. The Virtual Cellar will maintain an inventory of wines purchased, along with tasting notes, a wish list of wines to watch, as well as other attributes about the wine. The application will provide for both a windows client as well as a web client for interacting with the system. The architecture should allow for an independent data store, as well as expose its processes via web services.

A secondary goal of the project is to apply knowledge gained in the last few years in various technical disciplines from new process methodologies, object oriented techniques, and architectural design.

1.1  Purpose

The Virtual Cellar allows for the creation of wine database, complete with winery information, wine ratings and reviews, suggested food pairings and links for purchasing.

The Virtual Cellar will allow for the searching of individual wines by vintage, year, varietals, winery, price ranges, and other criteria. The application will also allow for the creation of a user’s personal wine inventory, supporting attributes, such as point of purchase information, searching, and food pairings. Users will be able to add tasting notes as well as personal comments for their current inventory and past wines. Standard reports can then be generated from the wine inventory. In addition the Virtual Cellar can track where in the “real” cellar the bottles are stored, making for easy retrieval.

The secondary goal is to apply the knowledge gained in the following areas.

·         The Rational Unified Process
The deleted has made it a priority for its' staff to undergo training in the Rational Unified Process. This project seeks to utilize a “light” version of that process along with agile programming methods.

·         The Microsoft Solutions Framework
The deleted has made it a priority for its' staff to undergo training in the Microsoft Solutions Framework. This project seeks to take the team structure from that approach.

·         UW Java Certification Coursework
Over the past 3 quarters I have been completing coursework in the University of Washington Extension program for Java Certification.  The coursework targeted UML techniques, object-oriented design and patterns using the Java language. This project seeks to apply all of the above with the exception of Java.

·         .Net Framework 1.1
Microsoft’s most recent version of it’s framework for building managed applications. This project seeks to utilize the .Net Framework for it’s implementation

·         .Net Framework 1.2
Microsoft’s recent Professional Developers Conference saw the release of a developer’s preview of the .Net Framework, along with an Alpha version of its next generation Windows operating system codename Longhorn. A second implementation of this project will target the .Net Framework version 1.2.

·         Architectural Patterns
Over the course of the past few years, architectural patterns have been defined and improved upon. These include patterns defined by the GoF, Microsoft, Martin Fowler, and many others. This project will seek to implement its solution utilizing these patterns.

 

I chose this project because I *love* wine, I love drinking it, I love reading the labels, I love visiting wineries, I go down to my "BatCave" to visit my humble but slowly burgeoning collection, I go to local wine shops and just stare at all those bottles of grape goodness. I always feel it necessary to design/create/develop your own project to learn new technologies inside and out, and it helps if your passionate about it. So, this idea is not a new one, in fact in an excerpt from my Vision Document I list just a few similar sites:

1.1  Alternatives and Competition

There are many alternatives to the Virtual Cellar. The competition ranges from homegrown sites such as www.bottlecount.com, to commercial and industry sites like www.wineaccess.com and www.winespectator.com.

Indeed other bloggers like wine too, a quick search of blogs I subscribe to via bloglines shows how many people mention wine in their blogs. If you have any suggestions send them along.

 

Tomorrow, I will discuss the application architecture for my first iteration of the project. Incidentally you can see an *early* version of the application here.

Updates

I managed to solve my problem with W2K3 only recognizing 1 processor in my hardware machine. I ended up reinstalling it! As I may or may not have mentioned, it failed during setup with Setup is Starting Windows just hanging, well I found this article and decided to enable MPS 1.4 support in my bios and hit F5 during setup and select MPS in the configuration. Lo and behold it worked. So now I have dual PIII processing.

My video card came FedEx (to my former place of work, I had to go pick it up), and unfortunately the AGP slot on my existing motherboard isn't compatible, so I slapped it in my wife's machine until I get my new motherboard ordered.

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