Monthly Archives: November 2011

Process Monitor for Windows

From time to time I’m dragged into the murky world of Microsoft to debug a problem a customer is having, or to setup the occasional small business server.

My Windows skills are passable, but certainly nowhere near as good as my Linux capabilities – simple stuff like doing an strace on linux becomes a “ummmmm how?” on Windows.

Recently had an issue with an old Windows application refusing to launch on Windows Server 2008 due to a missing DLL file – found a very handy application published by Microsoft that works on XP SP2+ called “Process Monitor”.

It shows all calls being made by programs including what DLLs are being called and what registry values are being queried, along with the response from all these calls.

In my case, I was able to see what DLL file the problem was requesting and seeing that the OS was returning a NOT FOUND response – installed the require library, and fixed. :-)

Download from: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896645

Walk Te Araroa?

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I’m not a particularly outdoorsy kind of person, but there have been times when I’ve ventured out into the sun and been rewarded with painfully blistering skin instead of my delightful geek tan (as witnessed with my recent snowboarding efforts).

One thing that’s come to mind in past, is exploring more of New Zealand on foot, rather than it racing by at 100km/h – so I pondered the idea of whether there are proper walking tracks from the top to bottom of New Zealand.

Turns out there is – the Ta Araroa track goes from the top of the North Island to the bottom of the South Island and is almost complete with a completion date of end of 2011. :-)

It would be a pretty intense walk, according to google maps it would take 18 days if I walked 24×7, so in reality it would take a good 2 months minimum factoring in sleep time and the fact that I’m sure I’d want to stop over at some paces overnight.

And of course, I’d need to increase my fitness, upskill with learning how to camp and tramp properly, but there’s certain appeal to doing it and to having that time just exploring NZ in a different way to what most experience.

Something to consider for late 2012 I think. :-)

I’m not the first person to consider this either, in the past few days have come across a guy who’s currently doing the walk, someone currently making plans, and a guy who biked the length of NZ.

Of course, I’d probably do it typical geek style, expect me to lug a laptop along with me and blog and tweet the whole way, but part of me is keen to have that time away from regular life, away from apartments, junk, work, people, debts and having those long periods of isolation to just ponder life.

And maybe I’ll be able to drag some friends and maybe Lisa into doing it to. Although I know she thinks I’m nuts for even thinking about this idea. ;-)

OMG Auckland

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Goodbye Wellington (pic of my plane by @scottjpalmer at Wellington Airport)

So I’m now offically an Aucklander, after my trip down to Kiwicon, I can’t deny it any more – I’ve moved in, my server is back online and I’m slowly setting into regular patterns of work/social life with Lisa.

It’s been pretty weird so far, having days that are up (yay, omg new city, new exploring, new friends) and days that are down where I miss some of my great Wellington friends, family and reminiscing on past experiences.

I grew up in Wellington and whilst somewhat well traveled (in the AU/NZ region anyway) this is the first time I’ve actually truly lived away from home and it’s a big change – from living in the city where I know every other street, had visited friends/hookups in every other suburb, started a business, met some amazing people, obtained nemisies, to living in a strange city which I’m unsure about whether or not I’ll like.

To be fair to Auckland, most of my past experiences have been as a visitor here for business, so trips have basicly involved Airport – Traffic – Office – Traffic – Airport which isn’t really giving the city fair trial, so I’m prepared to go into this with an open mind, to look at what’s good in Auckland rather than focusing on the bad and to get out there to meet new people and do new things.

I’ll be in Auckland for certain until late June 2012, when Lisa and I will then be re-evaluating what we want to do – I’m still very strong on doing a number of years overseas, it’s more a case of deciding when the best time to do it is. And I expect to return to NZ eventually, particularly if I do decide to raise a family long term, I think I’d want to do that in Wellington.

Going to miss my family in particular – not being able to pop over whenever I feel like to chat and hang with my brother is certainly a downside to the move.

And I’ll also miss my very good friend Tom, who has been my long suffering flatmate, for a while employee and most importantly friend. Considering we’ve probably been flatting together for the past 4+ years, it’s kind of like leaving a partner or brother. :-/

It’s also a time of great change as I close a chapter on my single years – I now have a flat with just Lisa and I – no longer firing objects or having sword fights in a kitchen with rackmount servers all over the floor with my friends; dragging some random people home; heading to strange addresses late at night to meet snuggle buddies; collecting blade servers from weird places to setup in my startup company office and heaving it through the office alone or boozy twitter sessions in Wellington’s great bars.

Wellington is both full of great and bad memories… I love it more than anything and will be back, but in a way, it’s nice having this chapter away from it for a while.

Right now, starting a new chapter in life with Lisa <3 And it’s scary, but it’s good. :-)

Pretty Wellington (from #geekflat apartment I lived in for the past ~3 years)

Packing Nightmare.... I found I have 3 car loads of stuff and only had one car :-/

Found my first Linux whilst tidying up :-D

Squeezing everything into the boot of my car before driving up to Auckland. Managed to fit my big server in underneath everything and used clothes in all the odd gaps... even stuff under passenger seat. I need a bigger car. :-/