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The Falconic Code

Divining the Differences of Ontology and Taxonomy

Studying Architecture these last few weeks so intensively to prepare for the MCA, one of the things that really drove me crazy was the differences between references to the ontology of a domain of information and the taxonomy within the domain. When you read materials from a host of different sources, some of them will use these terms out of context, others will use them interchangeably, and still others will be quite particular in their use and application. As a matter of study, the particulars of the use of these terms matters a great deal!

The Academic Definition

If we go to ask the internet what these mean, the kind folks at Merriam-Webster, once you brave the disgusting collection of advertisements which permeate the website, define the words as such:

Ontology
1: A branch of metaphysics concerned with the nature and relations of being
2: A particular theory about the nature of being or the kinds of things that have existence

Taxonomy
1: The study of the general principles of scientific classification
2: Orderly classification of plants and animals according to their presumed natural relationships

Gee guys, thanks for the fat lot of help that was! Clearly, we are not looking at these terms in a scientific context, so you have to press on to other resources. When in doubt on architectural terms and the general usage of the word is not suitable, one of the better resources I have found personally for looking such a thing up is the Enterprise Architecture Glossary of Terms hosted by CollabWiki. When we look up ontology, we turn up an excellent technical definition of the term:

Ontology
In computer science, an ontology is the product of an attempt to formulate an exhaustive and rigorous conceptual schema about a domain. An ontology is typically a hierarchical data structure containing all the relevant entities and their relationships and rules within that domain (eg. a domain ontology). The computer science usage of the term ontology is derived from the much older usage of the term ontology in philosophy. The purpose of a computational ontology is not to specify what does or does not 'exist', but to create a database containing concepts referring to entities of interest to the ontologist, and which will be useful in performing certain types of computations.

Brilliant! Now we are getting somewhere. only.. they don't appear to have a definition for taxonomy in the same contextual glossary! Taxonomy! A word in fairly common usage which is missing from the Collabwiki. We push onward. Perhaps we should consult the wiktionary hosted by Wikimedia, the same folks who do Wikipedia:

Ontology
.
4. (computer science, information science) A structure of concepts or entities within a domain, organized by relationships; a system model.

Taxonomy
1. (systematics, uncountable) The science of finding, describing, classifying and naming organisms.
2. The classification of a hierarchical system.

Finally, a coherent resource which defines them both. Given that we aren't really talking about frogs and the like, I think we can assume the use of the second definition for Taxonomy, that of the classification of a hierarchical system. So, we know that ontology is the "hierarchical data structure containing all of the relevant entities and thier relationships and rules within that domain". And a taxonomy is "The classification of a hierarchical system". Only, that's not very practical, is it? How did that really clarify how the two inter-relate?

Finding a Practical Explanation

The Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) comes to the rescue with a veritable plethora of resources for the budding architect, including e-learning, online documents, explanations, glossaries, and the like. In perusing the resources available throughout the SEI site, I found a draft for a paper about Integrating Quality-Attribute Reasoning Frameworks in the ArchE Design Assistant, which itself is beyond the scope of this blog post, but contains some early introductory information around the ontology of the quality attribute scenarios that can be applied to a design assistant infrastructure which is being developed.

This graphic depicts the ontology of architectural concepts for the context being considered in the paper. If we look back at the definition of ontology that we have, we note that there are a series of concepts (the boxes) with relationships (the connectors with associated text) within a specific domain (architectural concepts for reasoning frameworks). Note that there is no classification or organization here outside of the relationships between the individual concepts.

Falconic Note: If you do not understand the graphic in terms of what it is talking about with tactics, quality attribute scenarios, and so on, I strongly recommend reading Software Architectures in Practice, also a published reference from SEI at CMU.

Thus sated on ontologies, lets figure out what taxonomies look like in practice. As SEI was assistive in looking at the practical use of an ontology, so is another SEI paper instructive on the practical application of the taxonomy. In this case, we want to reference A Taxonomy of Security Related Requirements by Donald Firesmith.

Here, we can see that for this concept of "defensibility", there are a variety of related terms. "Defensibility" is not really a domain, it is a part of the domain of quality attributes. Thus, what we are looking at is a classification, within a domain, of terms and concepts which are related together. So the taxonomy here shows how the System then breaks down to quality criterion, to a quality factor and subfactor, which then indicates specifically defensibility, and within defensibility, there are problems and solutions, and within each of problems and solutions, there are related terms. According to our accepted definition of taxonomy, above, we have then examined a depiction of a hierarchical system of related terms.

Bringing it All Together at 30,000 Foot View

I really think that Jack Krupansky put it well when he defined Taxonomy and Ontology as:

Put simply, an ontology is a specification of the characteristics of a domain. In other words precisely what it mean[s] for something to be in a particular domain.

A taxonomy is simply a hierarchical categorization or classification of entities within a domain.

So an Ontology are the characteristics and terms which define the domain itself and the taxonomy is the organization of the terms within.

Simple, right?

posted Tuesday, June 09, 2009 10:18 AM by waynea | 0 Comments
Filed Under: Architecture

The Challenges of Finding Infrastructure Architectural Patterns

In the course of an Architect's career, you kind of build a repository of tools, a toolbox if you will, of odds and ends that you have picked up over time. Often times, these are simple things like icons that you find particularly effective, a presentation from a colleague that demonstrates an effective tactic, a couple of white papers, a PDF of TOGAF or insert-methodology-or-framework-here, etc.

Recently, I started a search in an effort to add to my toolbox, this time looking specifically for identified patterns for infrastructure architect. Rather early in my search, i came to the realization that while I have patterns all around me, many of the core references I had hoped to leverage seem to do a poor job identifying them as such.

If you go to Microsoft and you want to find patterns, there are thousands of resources for patterns - if you are searching on MSDN for programming related material. Do the same search of TechNet material and you will either note a null response set or more likely a set rife with assets from the patterns and practices team, which are more application or extensibility related.

Want specific implementation patterns for components of Exchange? SQL Server? ISA?

I've found the secret, friends. Start with a good resource on strategies for quality attributes and you will gradually come to recognize many of the tactics which you use to implement various qualities are in fact, in their own way of set implementation, patterns.

Falconic Note: I just finished reading a great resource on Architecture that I would highly recommend to anyone pursuing an industry standard architecture credential, including specifically the MCA. Software Architecture in Practice by Len Bass, Paul Clements, and Rick Kazman. Yes, I said software architecture but don't let the title fool you. Sure, as an infrastructure architect, there is going to be a fair amount of information in here that you will never use but there is also a wealth of information in here about identifying and managing stakeholders, letting quality attributes drive your tactics and therefore your overall design, how to use UML to communicate information about that architecture, etc.

Its a little light on methods, patterns, and information about industry standard frameworks and methodologies, but think of it as a building block before you get into those more detailed - and messier - subjects.

As I am looking at the tactical guidance for a strategy like Availability, it strikes me that some of the pieces floating around in my head actually coalesce into a pattern! We all know Redundancy or Cloning? Also known as Scaling out, you simply add more of the same resource ideally to provide multiple points which can handle an identified function in the case of a fault of some kind causing a failure in one of the components. If you think about it, there are certain ways to implement Redundancy which have models of implementation which are going to be consistent no matter what brand or software, etc, the actual components are composed of.

Implementing Network Load Balancing? The way it works will probably always be a base set of functionality. A virtual IP address (still called a VIP even if its on a physical adapter) provides an interface that obscures n number of nodes which will handle some measure of the distribution of the designated traffic provided to that address. I can put a hardware network load balancer in there or I can use software NLB. I can use NIC teaming or load balancing. I can have my switch do it for me. I can change the number of nodes behind the VIP from 2 to 42. I can put Windows in there or Linux or whatever on the nodes themselves behind the VIP. The skeleton of functionality remains. A vip controlled by some measure of functionality abstracts access to one or more nodes providing an identical service.

If we go by the 1996 book the Pattern Oriented Software Architecture, patterns are:

"expressing a fundamental structural organization schema for software systems. It provides a set of predefined subsystems, specifies their responsibilities, and includes rules and guidelines for organizing the relationships between them."

We can break it down then. Using Network Load Balancing provides a fundamental structural organization. A service (the virtual interface) provides an abstraction layer for two or more subsystems providing identical functionality to the consumer accessing the service. The service uses some measure of algorithm to identify which abstracted subsystem should accept the presented message and/or return the expected functional response.

Update, Some Links to Assist

There are plenty of resources out there for architecture. There are still many when you search for infrastructure architecture. It would do a great deal more for the practice of architecture were more effort made to build a collection of enterprise and solution level infrastructure patterns similar to what our brethren in software development are now provided by Model-View-Controller, Model-View-Presenter, Enterprise-Service-Bus, and others.

posted Thursday, June 04, 2009 5:00 PM by waynea | 0 Comments

Preparing for the Swine Flu is Security, Too!

While something like the swine flu currently originating out of Mexico is so low technology as to be incongruous with our modern concept of what types of things comprise enterprise security, the fact is that how an organization prepares for such an eventuality is a part of its security policy, too.

Much of the work in the area of security is building policies which codify how an organization recognize, assess, and respond to an incident which impacts the integrity, confidentiality, or availability of business operations. Part of this policy process should extend beyond the physical assets which the organization possesses to the flesh-ware which drive the business forward! Having dealt with the avian flu and SARS so recently in modern memory, this flu is on the heels of several other highly publicized waves that provided the impetus for large organizations to critically assess their states of readiness. With the public awareness of the potential contagions over the last few years, it is largely a number small and medium sized businesses which continue to operate without policies to address this area.

Overlooking the Threat

One of the challenges in security is to properly assess what the risk of any given impact is, thereby helping to determine how much of a company's assets (read: money) needs to be dedicated to counteracting the perceived threat. Generally, when examining these risks on an individualized basis, there are two components to look at: the likelihood of the threat coming to pass, and the scope of the impact were the threat to materialize. The former element of likelihood drives biological threats generally much further down the threat matrix despite the fact that the impact portion may have the same inherent cost as a major natural disaster on an office or region.

That is not to say that organizations have not looked at the threat but rather that some organizations look at a wide field of things that need to be planned for and rightfully make the decision that with the limited resources available, biological threats may not warrant more than a cursory inspection.

It is important to note that the two revious major epidemiological incidents in the United States well predate the advent of the technology age. [If you have an interest in the area, you may want to look at the Wikipedia article on the subject.] The most recent natural flu of note was H3N2 which reached epic standards in 1968-69, causing an estimated 34,000 deaths. Since that time, modern medicine has provided society with a far more comfortable age to live in with modern cases of deadly diseases contained to second- and third-world countries where facilities are not so advanced.

Given the early (in terms of computational development) nature of the most recent major epidemics, there is little precedent for the application of a "tested" method of continuing business operations in the face of a public health emergency.

Preparing as an Organization

Enterprise preparedness for public health emergencies starts with a solid policy which addresses the threats to the business that a sick employee base can pose. There are a variety of facets of this impact to consider and as such, the impacts and methods of impact are as unique as the structure and flow of the business in question.

What kinds of different employee scenarios does your organization employ?

Employees Housed in a Closed-Door Office?
Employees in Cubicle Farms?
Employees travelling to a single customer site?
Employees travelling to many customer sites?
Employees travelling to multiple enterprise offices?

How are these functions performed?
Is there a method that can be used to drive the same business mechanics while allowing an alternative arrangement that minimizes human contact?

Conference calls
Video Conference
LiveMeeting
Remote Access technologies (Terminal Services / Remote Desktop)

Is there a cost to employing these strategies for the business?

Lost Productivity
Actual use of the technology (bandwidth, vendor cost, etc)

What kinds of functions simply cannot be replicated in a reduced-contact environment?

Employees which maintain physical on-site assets
A "core" or "skeleton" crew of operators for on-site "presence"
Delivery or Shipping

Common policies which are used to address these kinds of situations usually are maintained under a leave policy like "Public Health Emergency Leave" or as an operations plan "Public Health Emergency Operations Plan". Any such plan should be composed of a number of elements:

Title
Purpose
What invokes the policy or plan?
Who has the authority to invoke the policy?
How will the policy invocation be communicated?
How are operations modified to accomodate the public health emergency?

Often this may be several "plans" within the policy that allow for different levels of operational modification.
This plan also may be composed of several different strategies including a mix of telecommuting, leave policy, standards of conduct modification, attire and safety equipment provisioning, etc.

Organizations interested in building such a policy for themselves may be interested in the published policy of The Ohio State University, policy 617, "Disaster Preparedness and University State of Emergency".

Individual Security Preparedness

Assuming that your organization has such a policy, the individual employee's preparation for such a public health threat is mainly centered around understanding and staying in compliance with the enterprise policy.

A core first step in your preparation is to know if such a policy exists. Ask your HR representative or your Manager if they are aware of such a policy and how you will know if business operations are modified to apply the policy.

Read your leave or time policies, whichever your organization uses to understand whether your organization has specific provision for allowing you to use sick days in such cases or to invoke things like "liberal leave" if your organization supplies such a leave.

Make sure you know in advance how you might be able to modify your position to make alternative work arrangements. Even if your work does not formally have a policy on the subject, often you can work with your manager to determine if another work arrangement might be suitable such as logging in from home, altering customer meetings to be over the phone, or temporarily working in an area of the building which is less heavily populated.

Work to keep your workspace clean. Any kind of porous surface such as paper or cloth should be minimized. Keep your desk surface clean and plan on wiping down the surfaces no less than once a day with a Clorox or alcohol based wipe.

Keep baby soap or alcohol based hand sanitizer and lotion in an easily accessible area of your office. It is important to note that over-use of alcohol based sanitizers can affect your skin so if you choose to use such a sanitizer, you may also plan to use accompanying dermal maintenance products.

Avoid eating in common areas if at all possible.

If possible, politely and professionally avoid those in the workplace who may become sick and attend the workplace anyway. In-person meetings which provide dial-in numbers may provide an opportunity to limit that kind of contact.

At home, maintain a 72-hour kit as a standard part of your any-emergency preparation. Whether it be natural disasters or the absurdly remote chance of a serious public health outbreak, you need to ensure that you have enough supplies for your family to survive 72 hours or more without contact to the rest of society.

1 gallon of water per person per day
Enough food for 3 basic meals per person per day

It doesn't have to be super healthy, it just has to provide nutrition and basic satisfaction

Enough pet supplies for 2 pet meals per animal per day
At least 72 hours worth of clean clothing for each family member

Appropriate to the season
Geared for outside weather

Battery or Hand Crank Powered Combination Weather and AM/FM Radio

Realize that the Media Sensationalizes the Threat

A final word about the threat of any particular public health news. As with any other security based news item, recognize that the media has a vested interest in "juicing up" the news stories that they share. As a result, you would be well advised to realize that the actual risk to your person may not be as high as the media is going to make it out to be. It is your responsibility to make the decisions affecting your personal health for yourself based on the information available to you and the policies of your organization.

posted Monday, April 27, 2009 5:46 PM by waynea | 0 Comments
Filed Under: Security

The Authoritative Geek's Guide to the Dell Inspiron Mini 9 (AKA Inspiron 910) Running Vista

I recently bought one of the first-flight Dell Mini 9 laptops. This is my authoritative guide to the Dell Inspiron Mini 9 running Windows Vista Business edition. The hardware. The OS install. The first few weeks of running it.

This thing is long but those considering a Dell Mini 9 and want to run Vista on it or want the deep technical stuff would be well advised to muddle through.

The Legal Stuff

As always in the legal environment we live in, lets get the legal stuff out of the way:

This guide is authoritative only in the respect that these are my full thoughts on the matter and I have tried to be thorough.
This guide indicates some things that I did to my Dell Mini 9 that are provided and documented here for informational purposes. Taking any of these actions may have an effect on your warranty. No warranty is expressed or implied, of ANY kind, for taking any of the actions documented herein, or using any of the software indicated herein.
You proceed at your own risk and are urgently cautioned to seek the assistance and advice of a qualified technical professional.

What did I buy?

I paid $607.96 including tax and shipping, of which $449 was for the laptop ($493 including shipping and tax for the laptop). $114 (including tax and shipping) was for the external hard drive and the made-for-the-purpose messenger bag/slip case by Timbuk2.

The laptop comes in two flavors, XP and Ubuntu with choices of 3 different sizes of solid state drives (SSDs), the largest of which is 16GB. You may purchase either 512 MB RAM (standard) or 1GB DDR2 memory. So my configuration:

Windows XP
Intel Atom 1600MHz CPU
1GB DDR SDRAM
16GB Solid State HDD
Added optional 160GB WD Passport USB external HDD
Added optional Timbuk2 Messenger Bag / Slip Case

There were some upgrades which I did NOT get which other folks may be interested in:

1.3 MegaPixel integrated camera ($25)
Bluetooth 2.1 ($20)

What did I actually get?

When I received the Dell Mini 9, I was pleasantly astonished. This thing has a cool factor that is way up there. I wanted something I could travel with that would add little weight and little size so that I could stuff the thing in my laptop bag (which already carries my Toshiba M9 from Avanade). That's exactly what I received.

I know it is hard to get a sense of scale from these pictures. That is wood grain in the background from my kitchen table. I can fit this entire thing on one hand if I spread-eagle my fingers, each finger tip will ride the edge of the underside of this laptop. If I take a standard ballpoint pen and lay it on top of the laptop, the laptop's depth is almost the exact same size. A standard baseball hat will cover the entire thing. There are a few things I want to point out here.

Note the lack of fan vents (the only real vents are on the underside to help passive cooling of the laptop). This thing has no moving parts and hence it will probably be more durable over the long haul because of it. Its also nearly dead silent in operation. No exhaust fan. No spinning platters. No hum of a CDROM drive. Nothing.

The top of the Dell Mini 9 is a highly glossy plastic. It picks up and holds fingerprints really easily. Beware. If you are one of those that obsess about the glossy parts of your laptop staying impeccable, this surface will drive you crazy as you always wipe it after you handle the laptop.

This keyboard is really freaking annoying. Most of the primary keys are only slightly smaller to fit the smaller laptop size but the F-type function keys are omitted altogether! And then some of the special symbol keys are omitted as well. Any symbol or functional key which is not a letter or number has been cut down considerably, including punctuation keys. Anything which has been omitted is only available via a function key combination. Fn+A for example is F1. The windows backslash that Microsoft-centric folks use all of the time for file paths or share UNC paths? Fn+ the addition symbol! Drives me crazy.

These pictures also do not really capture just how substantial this laptop "feels". One of the worries I had going into this was that I would get something with a thin screen and it would be flimsy. I hate having "flex" in my screen when I go to put the screen up or move it around. When I have flex, I feel like I am always on the verge of breaking the laptop. Like if I wish the screen up hard enough, it will crack. Not so with this small notebook. One thing on the flip-side of that, however, this netbook is somewhat thick for its proportions. Its not really bad but in order to accommodate ports, it has some height to it and this smaller laptop weighs about as much as a full size MacBook Air despite its smaller proportions.

The port count on this laptop is actually surprisingly full featured.

3 USB Ports (As many as my Toshiba M9!)
Security lock hole
AC Power Input
Combination media card holder (Includes support for all currently existing classes of SDHC cards)
10/100 Ethernet LAN Jack
External video analog VGA port without thumbscrew holes
Headphone Jack
Microphone Jack

I wish the LAN port was gigabit but frankly given the specifications of the overall laptop, I am not sure that this laptop could really make good use of a gigabit network connection anyway, considering the observed performance of the solid state disk and the underlying CPU specifications.

By the way, this screen is both small and a really odd resolution. 1024x600. Its not 16:9 or 16:10, the two standard widescreen ratios but in order to deliver the 8.9" screen diagonal size, this thing has a really odd resolution. It is usable but games don't like it. Also, note that this laptop does support using the laptop screen AND an external monitor once you have updated the video driver to include Intel's GMA software.

For geeks who care, note that this processor is Hyper-Threading enabled but not Dual Core. Also, the underlying motherboard for this form factor is the Mobile Intel 945GSE Express Chipset.

Also, some miscellaneous data related to the CPU that took a little research on my part that might save you some time:

At the time of this writing, all of the CPUs shipped in the Dell Mini 9 models are the Intel Atom N270
- 533 MHz Front Side Bus
- 1.60GHz Maximum Clock Frequency
- Installed on a 437-ball FCBGA (Ball Grid Array) socket.
- 45 nm Process
- 512KB L2 Cache
At the time of this writing, the only available motherboard platform for this processor in the netbook form factor is the Mobile Intel 945GSE Express Chipset.
- Intel 82945GSE Graphics Memory Controller Hub
  - 533 MHz Front Side Bus
  - Maximum 2GB of 400Mhz or 533Mhz DDDR2 Memory
  - Intel integrated Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) 950 video chipset
- Intel I/O Controller Hub 7-M (ICH7-M)
  - Provides for more PCI-E, SATA, and USB ports than the Dell Mini 9 uses
  - "Intel High Definition Audio" Interface
  - Supports both Wireless and WWAN Card

The underside of the laptop includes the panel for the user (and support) serviceable components. To gain access to those components, you need to remove two small screws from the upper corners of the panel. You can then remove the panel carefully by prying the top portion away from the snaps underneath and then pulling the panel up and away. The bottom side of the panel has 3 plastic tabs which slide under the body of the laptop case so do not try to lift from that side. Inside this area, we find 4 primary components:

A Single Memory SoDIMM slot (holding a 512MB or 1GB stick by default, in my photo here I have already replaced it).
A MiniPCI slot which holds the SSD hard drive.
The wireless chipset. with associated antennae wiring.
Oddly, this netbook also includes the physical mount for a WWAN card but no actual WWAN (3G network card) socket is installed. This is the US version and with some research, I have seen that there appear to be some Europe based versions where an appropriate card has been installed to allow this laptop to directly access some cellular vendors.

In my time in the Dell forums, it would seem that some folks are particularly interested in the SSD hard disk, which is in a unique form factor in these laptops with the MiniPCI card interface, and also the WWAN area which in my version comes without the appropriate hardware to accommodate a SIM card and thereby access a cell network.

The solid state disk included in my Mini 9 is the 16GB MiniPCI model from STEC which also has a 32GB model available. If you look at the full photos of the under side you can see that as it is, this SSD is already taking up most of the room allocated for the SSD drive. There have been a lot of suggestions in Ideastorm and elsewhere that Dell start shipping Mini 9 laptops with the 32GB model but I would theorize that they do not do so for space reasons. Looking at the STEC website, it looks like the 32GB model is somewhat longer than the 16GB included here and therefore would not fit in Dell's case.

The empty WWAN bay, on the other hand is intriguing. Would it not make sense to include some kind of 3G hardware in that spot to facilitate forward-looking cell connectivity? I realize that from a support standpoint it makes sense rather to include WWAN cards with pre-configured SIM chips only when the laptop is being sold as a bundled product by a carrier. Dell doesn't then have to deal with the issues from folks needing support to connect to their carrier. At least include SOMETHING in that port. The hardware is there, install the part and let me have the option of putting a SIM card in there and dealing with my carrier myself.

It feels like a heavy handed approach to artificially limiting the forward sustainability of my device, FORCING me to get a Dell mini 9 from a carrier at an inflated price with a long term contract if 3G connectivity is a feature I want.

Upgrading my Mini 9 to Prepare for Vista

Right now, as of the time that I ordered my Mini 9 right out of the gate, there were two OS options: XP and Ubuntu Linux. I dont want XP. Its already outdated. Everything I own runs Vista or Windows Server 2008. Why would I get a brand new portable machine and install an operating system that's already like 5+ years old on it that doesn't even have mainstream support from the manufacturer anymore?

The problem with upgrading to vista? Its a resource hog. Its a little better with Service Pack 1. But still a resource hog.

The first step here was to upgrade my memory. I hopped on NewEgg and ordered a 2GB DDR2 SoDIMM and then replaced the 1GB that was sent with my laptop. Remember from my earlier note that this laptop supports a maximum of only 2GB of RAM in the single slot!

The second step was to obtain some additional Hard Drive space. 16GB is going to be ok to start out with for the Operating System but that means that to ensure longevity of my system, I need to start putting applications installed elsewhere. So I needed an external HDD. I purchased the WD Passport external hard drive with my laptop from dell. At $80 base price for the 160GB version, its a pretty good deal, beating my local target by about $19 and about on par with NewEgg.

The third step was to prepare for ReadyBoost. Since this laptop supports SDHC cards via the memory card reader, I went to NewEgg and ordered a Transcend 16GB SDHC card (Class 6. For an explanation of what SDHC classes mean, hit Google. Class 6 is the fastest class of card available right now.)

I then re-formatted my WD passport drive (note that this gets rid of all of the encryption and synchronization software that comes with the drive) as NTFS file system. I also re-formatted the SDHC card from FAT32 (default) to NTFS so that I could use it with ReadyBoost.

I also went out and purchased a USB external slim DVD-ROM from NewEgg so that I had something to install vista from. I strongly recommend this. STRONGLY.

At this point, from a hardware standpoint, my machine was as ready for Vista as it was going to get.

Trimming down Vista to Prepare for my Mini 9

With the hardware of my Mini 9 ready, the simple fact of the matter is that Vista is still just too much of a resource hog to go with a default install of every part and piece and the kitchen sink. Enter vLite. vLite is an application that allows you to take an image of the installation files for vista and then customize exactly which components you want to install, integrate additional drivers onto the operating system disk, and set many of the base configuration options so that you can have the installation do common tasks like entering the Product Key, configuring some of the Folder Options, setting your locale and timezone, etc. vLite then packages your answer file (the file that holds those extra setup settings), your additional drivers, and the setup files for the components you want to install on a brand new ISO which you can then burn to disk.

Now here is where things get a little more messy if you do not know what you are doing. I am certified on Vista. MCITP: Enterprise Administrator and MCITP: Enterprise Support Technician. I have been playing with Vista since early beta editions and feel very comfortable with concepts like slipstreaming patches and drivers onto the disk. I know how to do this manually and how to fix things if they go wrong. I understand how to trace dependencies between the various components up to the feature level. If any of this sounds confusing or you have any question about doing any of this, don't. Don't risk screwing up your nice new Dell Mini 9 because there is no support for a trimmed Vista install from Microsoft and there will be similarly no support from Dell because they don't ship a Dell Mini 9 with Vista.

Use something like Symantec Ghost to backup your Dell Mini 9!

Also, I am intentionally not going into great step-by-step detail here. Those who know how to do such things will figure it out. Those who have no business doing such things will probably not.

I chose to install Vista Business because frankly I intended only to use this for light web browsing, e-books, studying, etc on the road.

So the first step is to grab a full install of Vista. I copied the contents of my vista installation files to a temporary place on my desktop's C drive. I strongly recommend doing this with an installation image which already has Service Pack 1 slipstreamed on it. Don't worry about going to vLite yet, gather everything you need for vLite before you go into the program, the software doesn't make a lot of sense otherwise. Keep your product key handy, you will want to put that in vLite so you don't need to enter it during install.

Then go to the Dell website. Choose support. Choose support by model. Choose Laptops. Choose Inspiron. Choose 910. Select to see the full list of drivers for 'Windows XP' as the Operating System. Download all of these drivers (except Bluetooth) to a local storage location on your machine. Run each of the self-extracting ZIP files and then cancel out when the installation itself is run. By default, this will then create a whole list of driver folders under c:\dell\drivers. There are a few drivers for which the Windows XP drivers just wont work in Vista, a key one that I recall from my own installation is the LAN driver. Search for the same hardware name and driver versions on Google. Dell has other laptop models that ship with a Vista driver. Download those drivers and unzip them to your dell drivers folder as well. Remove the Windows XP versions of the same drivers.

If you want to download all of the patches since SP1 and put them somewhere, you are more than welcome to. I didn't bother. Once I have my installation finished, I figure that I can download and install those on my Mini 9.

So at this point we are actually ready to run vLite.

Start the vLite application.

Browse to where you have copied your Windows Vista installation files onto disk. This is just the Vista install image, not the drivers and all of the other stuff. Those should be in other directories. DON'T choose 'Apply'. The first time I used vLite I learned the hard way that 'Apply' equates to 'build this image for me'.

Choose 'Next'.

The Tasks pane allows you to choose what you do and don't want to do. I would advise you to leave everything selected but here is an overview of the options:

Integration (Do you want to slipstream drivers onto the install disk?) STRONGLY Recommend checked.
Components (Do you want to customize what parts of Vista are installed?) Recommend checked unless you really want everything.
Tweaks (Do you want to enable some custom power user stuff that we geeks commonly do? Things like setting your Folder Options automatically?) Suggest checked but can safely skip this. Will not affect functionality on your Mini 9.
Unattended setup (Do you want to setup your options in an installation answer file so you do not have to be at your PC during the install?) Suggest checked if you do not want to be physically present during installation. You can safely skip this, particularly if you WANT to have direct choice-by-choice control during installation. Will not affect functionality on your Mini 9.
Bootable ISO (Do you want to make the image that we create bootable?) STRONGLY Recommended checked.

Choose 'Next'.

On the integration pane, the only real settings that you need to use are the drivers. Click the drivers tab. Click the 'Insert' button. Choose 'multiple driver folder'. Choose your dell drivers folder on disk. vLite will crawl the subfolders to find all of the drivers to load on the vista installation CD.

If you want to load hotfixes, you can do that by choosing the hotfixes tab. Otherwise choose 'Next'.

You will be presented a 'Compatibility' Dialog. Uncheck Aero Glass (which the paltry graphics chipset struggles with on the mini 9). You can also uncheck Internet Explorer if you like. I did. I then installed Google Chrome after I was done with Vista installation. Ignore the 'Applications' tab. Click 'Ok'.

Go through the tree of components. ONLY CHECK COMPONENTS YOU WANT TO REMOVE. I will not go into detail here as this is one of those areas where people who don't know what they are doing will break things and I don't want to be responsible for that. I will simply say that rolling over the item on the right side, actually read what the component does before you choose it. In the drivers folder, you can safely remove most of what is there except for anything made by 'Intel' or 'Realtek'. Many of the accessories can be cleared. Many of the printers can be cleared. Many of the storage controllers can be cleared. Remember that you need to know what you are going to use this laptop for. If you want a media laptop, don't remove media components or games. If you want a business desktop or a web kiosk (as mine is), then you may be able to cut away more of these components and save yourself some space.

When you have customized your installation base, choose 'Next'.

If you have selected to do this step, you should now be looking at the tweaks. I strongly advise leaving any of the security options alone. Some folks like to disable UAC. I say that anyone who does so is an idiot. Yes, vista will prompt you any time you want to do something with admin permissions. For the overwhelming majority of the windows ecosystem right now, that is very few applications. Running vista without UAC is like running around a minefield with scissors. If the minefield of malicious programs dont get you, you might manage to poke your eye out with a careless change not realizing your are in an admin application. I am personally willing to deal with a "Continue or Cancel" dialog to confirm my intent to use an application as administrator as a trade off for a higher awareness of when I am in a mode where I can actually screw things up.

For DEP, choose "Enabled for the OS and processes (Optout)".

At any rate, set your choice of options and choose 'Next'.

If you chose to enable the Unattended installation section, this should now be presented. Provide information about your machine, a default administrator password, computer name, product key, et al, and choose 'Next' when ready.

Now you should choose 'Apply'.

Then burn an ISO.

If you did not screw this up, you should end up with an ISO of your customized vista installation which you can save off to disk and then burn to a DVD. Make sure you label your DVD.

Uh, you DID order an external USB DVD ROM, right, to do the install with?

Install Vista.

Trimming Vista Post-Install

So if you didn't manage to screw things up too badly, you end up with Vista running on your laptop. Make sure your drivers installed properly, the LAN is available, etc. If you find that some components don't show up, you need to obtain the vista version of those drivers. The Bluetooth stack for example you can grab the drivers for the same hardware from another Dell laptop. To do that you search for the name of the Bluetooth chipset and the full version string of the drivers and add the word Vista to the search string. So like "Realtek 5.694.0507.2008 Vista" to find the vista version of the Realtek LAN drivers for your mini 9.

Install Windows Updates from the Internet. This will require like 10 reboots (ok, that's an exaggeration but you get the point).

Enable ReadyBoost on your SDHC (if you have one). Use as much of the SD card as it will let you, up to 4096MB. If your SD card is slower than Class 4 its not worth it so don't bother with ReadyBoost if you aren't willing to spend $30-$40 for a decent 8GB or 16GB SDHC card. Make sure its class 4 or class 6.

(Optional) Install Google Chrome. www.google.com/chrome

Delete all of the .PNF files from c:\Windows\INF\*.PNF

Delete everything in c:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download (This will disable uninstalling any hotfixes or service packs but i have never had to do uninstall any hotfix before on a client machine so this shouldn't be a big deal.)

If you installed hibernation at all, disable it. Start > Control Panel > Power Options. Hibernate tab. Uncheck the box. Remove hibernate from any power options in your power profile.

Set your page file to 1024 MB to 1024 MB if you are using ReadyBoost of at least 2GB. Start > Control Panel > System > Advanced > Performance Settings button > Advanced > Change button > Enter sizes and press set button.

Restart your machine.

Running Vista and Summary

By the end you should be running Vista on your new Dell Mini 9.

This Laptop is good for:

A low-power portable machine for your kid.
An inexpensive road warrior laptop for surfing the 'net and email on a personal box (this is what I got it for).
A traveling laptop for someone who does everything with online documents.
Someone obsessed with social networking and wants to be able to do it anywhere.

Don't use this Laptop for:

A Desktop replacement. There are laptops for that. This one is not it. The Dell mini 9 seems to work off of the principle of "just enough" power.
- When I have this thing in my laptop elevation rack with keyboard, mouse, DVD ROM, external HDD, and second monitor, it really looks like Frankenstein's laptop. Cables stick out everywhere from the small sides of this thing. If you want a desktop replacement, get a larger form factor laptop.
A gaming laptop. Video chipset is too weak. The processor cannot keep up with modern games. The screen is an odd size.
Anything with significant storage needs. 16GB is just not going to cut it.

posted Saturday, October 04, 2008 5:46 PM by waynea | 1 Comments
Filed Under: Soapbox

Campaigning for a Stronger Dell Mini 9!

This campaign season, I too have a political platform: More Memory and a bigger SSD for the Dell Mini 9! Bigger batteries with More Power Available!

Get out there and cast your vote for more power options, people! And a bigger battery, too!

posted Friday, September 12, 2008 4:04 AM by waynea | 0 Comments
Filed Under: Soapbox

Gerstmann-gate Nearly a Year Later

In a conversation earlier today with a colleague, and one of my mentors, I came to think a little bit about the depth of harm that has really been done to the CNet / Gamespot reputation by Jeff Gerstmann’s firing. The evidence? Its nearly a year later (the original firing was in November 2007), and I am still thinking about it enough to be writing about it.

For those unfamiliar with the controversy and the original events, I invite you to read through the Kotaku coverage on the subject. It’s as good as any. In particular, I would like to direct you to two of my favorite pieces of media that illustrate the situation in a non-traditional way: Penny-Arcade’s comic on the subject, and the “JFG” movie which was a modification of Oliver Stone’s JFK, brilliantly redone for the subject.

The Internet goes Nuts

… And I don’t mean nuts in a “lets all go frantically active” context as sometimes the phrase is used, but more in the “dial 911 and get an officer over here to arrest this crazy sucker” tone of nuts. Jeff published a review and accompanying video review on a game called Kane and Lynch. The game was just mediocre. Jeff rated the game honestly and the treatment in the video review was in Jeff’s characteristically irreverent sarcastic tone reserved for games which have truly messed up in some way.

Jeff was fired soon thereafter.

The review (video and text) were immediately removed from the site.

The reviews were edited (some might say censored and re-cast in a positive light) and re-posted in their modified format without any indication that a modification had occurred.

Enter the crazy mob of homicidal insanity.

Within hours, the Eidos and Gamespot forums were either closed or were actively removing any posts from anyone on the subject. Gamespot users had added user tags to related articles both to the firing and to the review such that the overwhelming majority of the first 50 tags were user-selected and highly negative. A storm of requests to delete accounts were immediately evidenced on the Gamespot premium users’ forums to the editor. A series of death threats were made to Gamespot’s other editors and any webmaster and advertising email addresses exposed on the website.

Virtually every other gaming site across the Internet was enveloped with the news and the response for days with equally vitriolic commentary to the articles.

The Economics of Gaming Sites

A disclaimer: I am not an accountant, an economist, nor have I ever been a senior manager for any games site. I have however worked for a small game development firm who has advertised with Gamespot in the past and have been involved with both Gamespy and IDGA for a while.

The gaming user audience is a rich demographic in two ways: they have a high level of technical knowledge which allows advertisers to use much more rich media experiences and they also have a deep propensity for spending hard earnings on hardware and software products. Even more than an equivalent sized audience of IT professionals, the gaming enthusiast segment drives money into the top tier of technology products and associated Internet related gadgets at a phenomenal rate to the point of having a dedicated market of hardware for that segment.

Gaming sites depend on Developers and Publishers for information. When a game is in the development stages, or in beta, or in demo, or about to go retail, the only legal source for a game site to obtain information, screenshots, or even a copy of the game is the developer or publisher of the title looking to build buzz and positive coverage on the title. This deep content based on a network of positive relationships then builds the basis for a community to evolve and build around. It is this kind of user interaction that drives the greatest portion of page impressions for a site which in turn makes uses of ads and premium position content on a site for that site’s advertisers.

The problem where the economics runs into trouble then becomes that these same sponsors for the most part ARE the same developers and, more often, publishers which are investing in reaching that gaming audience! IN addition to the traditional banner ads that are omnipresent throughout the Internet, a modern gaming site has the capacity to build further on the content positioning in front of the users beyond the standard ad models. The very positioning of where a review is carried can make a difference in how much traffic the game will receive in the site content, for example. Companies can pay for better placement on the homepage or on the entry page for a sub-section.

Other rich media, too, can be bought. The very user interface of the site, for example can be re-“skinned” for non-subscribing users of the Gamespot website. These users can be presented with “roadblock” type near-full-screen advertisements before they get to a designated piece of content. Before and during a download, users can be presented some content about a particular game, your game, for a fee. Companies can even pay to “surround” a page with their content. Think the PS 3 games launch. Wouldn’t it be great if a company like Microsoft could surround the PS 3 launch page with images of the Xbox 360 and some advertisements for the console? That’s exactly what they did.

The Trains, They Are Colliding

To be clear, everything discussed to this part is normal and acceptable. Gaming sites and magazines all require content from the people who hold that content. They also sell rich advertising to the companies which want to get product in front of gamers. The conflict of interest is obvious but so long as the editing is un-linked from advertising, this relationship can sometimes be uncomfortable but can be maintained. For years, for example, oddities have appeared in magazines where an editor will have trashed a game in a review and on the opposing page, advertising has just happened to make that page the placement for an advertisement touting the same game title.

In Gamespot’s case, this line appears to have been well and truly crossed last year. Eidos has openly admitted to threatening to change the nature of their advertising relationship with Gamespot over the incident. A VP at Gamespot, the VP of advertising in fact, who already had a weak reputation with the editors, stepped in and arranged for Jeff to be let go over a consistent pattern of a perceived negative tone in the editing of the site and the articles he was responsible for.

It was this irreverent tone and solid review scores that constructed the trust of the community in the site in the first place!

In the next 5 days, Gamespot issued 2 separate PR attempts to control the situation, at first issuing no additional details, and the second time an obvious marketing-written carefully-worded commentary which denied everything the community was concerned about but felt like press-release toilet paper.

The Fallout

In the past year, 6 additional Gamespot editors have left specifically indicating this firing as one of the factors in their leaving Gamespot. CNet, the parent company of Gamespot sent in another VP to investigate the possibility of an ethics compromise. The VP of advertising who instigated Jeff Gerstmann’s firing was fired himself in April 2008.

If nothing else, by these actions, the gaming community’s assertion that there was a credibility and ethics gap here in the first place seems to have been validated.

Captaining the Obvious

There were some key lessons learned here. The first is that gaming sites need to be more transparent in the way that certain types of operations are handled. There needs to be a formal and publicly posted ethics policy on how the relationship between content and advertisement is allowed to work and specifically stating that advertisers may not have input into the operational aspects of the personnel of the site or the policies by which articles may be published.

To put it bluntly, don’t expect to screw over a popular writer in the full light of day and somehow act surprised when your audience does not like watching that. The statement that you cannot comment on the details of a personnel decision will do absolutely nothing to ameliorate the situation. To this day, I am unaware of a mea culpa from Gamespot in this matter in any published medium aside from the behind-the-scenes actions in which they certainly appear to have recognized the problem.

Publish the policy where your editors are and are not allowed to comment on something. Have something to point to. If Gamespot had come out early and said that “here are some of the things we take issue with and hence we feel this is justified”, the situation might have been a whole lot different. Sure, maybe its FUD, but don’t stay silent. At the very least have something to point to that says that “this is why I can’t talk about what is going on, here is the detail I can give, and that’s all I can say according to policy, sorry”.

Transparency is key and ethics should be non-negotiable.

The trust of the gaming community was harmed and we are a fickle crowd. Here it is 10 months later and I still cannot trust Gamespot again.

It probably doesn’t help that for the 10 months since the firing, Gamespot has consistently been reviewing games higher than comparable outlets according to metascore – an influence of advertisers and an ad-motivated firing? I’ll leave that for you to decide.

posted Wednesday, September 10, 2008 10:17 AM by waynea | 0 Comments
Filed Under: Soapbox

Video Blog: Managing Virtual Networks in Hyper-V

This video blog runs about 5 minutes, 30 seconds and focuses on the management of virtual networks in Hyper-V through the Manage Virtual Networks panel. Among the settings covered include configuring various types of virtual networks on the Hyper-V hosts and the configurations settings which can be modified.