September 2006 - Posts
Well, perhaps I should also ask how do you say 'pooped puppy' in Italian. That's what I am. We have been to the Coleseum, the Forum, and a bunch of places around there. That was yesterday. Oh, and it rained! A bunch. But at least not all day. Actually there were only showers that soaked you through and through and then the sun came out to steam it all away. But the Coleseum was facinating as was the spot where Rome was founded and the history behind it.
Today we hit the Vatican. We spent an hour and a half in line for the Basillica which was awesome. Then we were lucky to only spend a half hour in line for the Vatican museum. The line was much longer when we first got to the Vatican. But it took us over 2 hours to get through it. By the time we finally got to the Sistine Chapel where all the good stuff is, high up in the ceiling, I was so tired, that I could hardly stand, much less stand and look up and the wonders above. There were benches along the sides of the chapel but they were filled with young folks who were taking their time looking.
Wandering around Rome it would have been great to have had an adapter for our GPS that would have worked with my Pocket PC. Frankly we kinda got used to using a GPS to tell us when we were a bit lost on this trip. But then until Rome, we've mainly been in our car. Next trip I'll try to get a PPC adapter.
Tomorrow we head out into the Tuscan wine country. We have an appointment at a winery in Montalcino (ever watch 'Vegas') at 11 AM tomorrow which is about 3 hours away so we're off at 8. Again we will depend on this GPS to guide us out. It was a real life saver coming into Rome and took us right to our hotel! Maybe it won't be raining in Tuscany!
Dateline September 15, 2006, Monterosso, Cinque Terre, Italy, on the Mediterranean.
Today we traveled from Belgirate to Cinque Terre. Along the way we visited a few wineries. Without our trusty MapPoint and GPS Locator, we would likely be somewhere in Norway or something by now. First of all, it took us RIGHT TO the wineries we had programmed into it. These places are not exactly on the beaten trail. We saw parts of Italy few tourists ever come near. And we missed a few turns along the way. But with the GPS and MapPoint, I was able to tell it to find our way from where we are now. That saved our bacon numerous times. One complaint I might have is that in Italy, directions on the Autostrade, the superhighways of Italy, tell directions by what major, and sometimes not so major, city the road goes toward. That city might be at the other end of the country however! Torino, Milano, Genoa, are major directions, not just big cities in Italy. It might be nice if the directions on MapPoint included that bit of information.
Dateline September 14, 2006, Belgirate, Italy.
Tonight is our third night on our European vacation. It also represents the second night with our luggage. But that's another (very) sore subject. We spent nights 1 and 2 in beautiful Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland in the Alps just under Jungfrau, "The Top of Europe". Today we drove into Italy and are staying in what I believe is a beautiful area, Belgirate on Lake Maggiore. I say believe because it's been raining all day and I can't really tell. Our room does have a lake facing, soggy, balcony which perhaps we'll have a chance to look out before we take off at the crack of dawn (8:30) so we can go drink wine by 10:30.
We had a moment of Internet access in Lauterbrunnen but have had none since and don't know when it will return. Hopefully at least in Rome. Tonight we had hoped to have Internet access in our room. The hotel had told us they had a 'data port'. Turns out the 'data port' meant you had to use your modem over their phone line at perhaps as much as 3 euros/minute! "Is there an Internet Cafe, perhaps", we ask. They directed us to a spot in an adjacent city, Stresa, the Embassy Cafe, where they thought there might be Internet access. We found the Embassy and I walked over, in the rain, to check it out. No one inside. Didn't look like they had Internet access so I attempted to ask a couple of gentlemen at a table outside, the only folks in sight. I presume at least one of them was the owner. I asked them where I could access the Internet. They looked at me as if I was speaking a foreign language. Well, of course I was, but I figured 'Internet' was a pretty universal term. I tried a little Spanish but that didn't seem to help. Finally one of the elderly men seemed to understand what I was asking for. He finally managed to communicate to me to go down the stairs to find what I was looking for. I followed his instructions and found a bath room! How do you say 'Internet' in Italian?
Tomorrow my wife and I are off for a European vacation. Haven't had a real vacation since 1999! We'll be in Switzerland, Italy, and Austria. My blog will be a bit 'sparse' while I'm gone although I'll try to give a few progress reports, and maybe a picture or two, along the way. Be back in early October.
Recently I have been having a real problem with my backup. I use an external USB drive with SBS 2003. The backup runs but eventually poops out after serveral hours. Most of my stuff is backed up but certainly not all. I would receive errors like:
Error: LCS-SBS\Microsoft Information Store\First Storage Group is not a valid drive, or you do not have access. The other day I did a manual back up of all my critical files in preparation for our vacation. I then set up a new drive for the backup and as I was formatting the drive, realized that I had been formatting it with compression. I decided to try it without compression. This seems to have resolved my backup issue. So, if you use external USB drives for your backup, don't format them with compression.
With the help of John Klimcak, I finally found my SBSC stuff! But it's a bit convoluted to get to. Go to the https://partner.microsoft.com site. Then click on the Program Membership tab. From there you will see a menu item for Small Business Partners. From there you can select Small Business Specialist Exclusive Resources. Then under 'Support Customers' heading you will see NEW! Exclusive Managed Newsgroups. That will get you going.
Thanks, John!
OK, the new Microsoft Partners web site (
https://partner.microsoft.com) looks real nice. There's lot's of useful stuff there. But right now I need to access the Small Business Specialists Managed Newsgroups. I have a problem that needs fixing for a customer. And I CAN'T FIND IT ANYWHERE! None of the SBSC stuff is available through my partner logon. I'm sure it's just gotta be there somewhere, but so far I can't find it. I'll keep looking, but...
The Sandbox has just released a CRM 3.0 web interface for the Pocket PC and SmartPhone. You can find it
here. It is a very small download, 1.2 MB +/-. It does not have an installation routine but does come with documentation on installation, use, and how to develop for it. I haven't had a chance to play with it yet but will post as I do.
Today I passed the CRM 3.0 Applications certification exam making me a Microsoft Business Solutions Certified Professional - CRM. Gonna have to get yet a bigger business card I guess.
My Saturday morning study group has been working on this since January. I am the first to actually take the test. Of the 7 or so of us, probably 2 more will actually test.
The exam environment was a bit of a 'challenge'! About half way through my session, the building announced they were going to run a test of the fire alert system. OK, I can handle that. A little inconvenience but it should be over quickly and they gave us warning so we wouldn't go running out of the building, leaving our tests behind us. A few minutes later it started. There were flashing lights, voice announcements over the PA system, recorded of course, and sirens. Well that was not fun but I figured it would be over shortly. Not the case! The announcements finally ended, but not the sirens! They went on and on and on and.... you get the idea. They were very annoying and made it impossible to read or concentrate. They went on for probably 10 minutes!
But pass I did any way! Now on to the Customization exam, after my European Oddyssey of course.