lexrobertson.ca

So the past three days I’ve been ’spying’ and in theory making sure my knowledge of the MLG is as complete as it’s supposed to be.

Good news: I do know the thing in side and out
Better news: My training modules are better designed, more original, and cover different material in more depth.

Before I sound like a complete bragart, let me explain.

I run a two day workshop with two tracks, a pre-sales track and a developer track. Both get the same intro into what the MLG is (a solution based framework comprised of MS technologies) and then we seperate to cover different things.

Developers start getting hands-on/lecture combos dealing with webparts, web services, the Sharepoint Object Model, the Class Server web service, and what the sharepoint security model means for them as developers.

Sales people get a review into how to evaluate the clients infrastructure for deployment, how to plan and excute a proof of concept and make it the initial phase of a multiphase deployment. How to choose which techonologies are part of which deployment phases and an indepth chance to discuss licensing, selling points, and pitfalls that might or have happened in the course of other deployments.

The three day workshop I attended was nothing more than stepping through the MLG deployment guide which MS gives away for free and watching some very sales oriented videos. Which, while useful, can be done by people in their own enviroment without them paying for the pleasure of it.

So the summary is that I feel much better about the workshops I give now. They are designed to give people the information they need, that is not spelled out in a convient document or white paper, to be able to go out and help school districts improve their technology usage and overall better the quality of education being produced.

Tomorrow we move onto a completely new-to-me topic so I may actually have my ego be knocked a bit because I’ll have to learn as I go along with everyone else. Of couse the good news is that one of my co-workers is coming too so I’ll have someone to bat ideas around with at the end of the day.

So today I woke up with another migraine. Not fun at all….
But I found out the cause…. scented toilet paper… Now removed which should make for a better rest of stay.

But successfully used the transit system today. Anticipate another sucessful day tomorrow - only it will be a brand new to me topic.

Have started doing the wander around and take pictures thing. Have some of the interior of the Queen Victoria Building (hopefully going to take more during the tour I’m hoping to take on Saturday). Also have some of Victoria park and the university buildings. I’ve been making a point of getting flora and fauna so the interested parties can play ‘identify that’ with the pictures. I can’t upload them until I have internet access for my computer - so probably not until I’m back in Singapore.

One of the questions that I’ve been considering for when I’m back aside from the debate re an extra room is: do I bother getting a phone put in the apartment? If I’ve got a mobile and I’m getting high speed - do I need a landline? Of course if I get dial up I’d need a phone line….

Which brings me to the question of: do I need high speed? I mean I’m not a downloader, I don’t do online gaming and e-mail and instant messanging do not use that much bandwidth…

And I can’t even price them out until I’m back in SG….. oh well.
More tomorrow….

So today I woke up with a monster of a migraine. Took a pill, went for a nap (this is at 6:30), woke up at 11 am and missed my morning session. But managed to cash a travellers cheque to handle not having a visa.

Got to the lab this afternoon and still managed to finish the entire days work at the same time as my class mates - despite several stupid typos.

Then I went out for the first time without my umbrella…. so it was pouring when I got out of the movie.

Speaking of the movie:
*assumption: any one who cares already knows the plot and characters*
One word summary: Beautiful and Accurate portrayal of characters and social interactions.

Longer assessment:
The Bennet’s home was shown as lightly more impoverished than I had imagined it, but to each their own in that regard.

What was beautifully done was the characterization. Each of the characters portrayed exactly what they were supposed to. You could actually see Mr. Darcy falling in love not by any change in manners, but in his eyes…

Additionally the costumer’s did a good job of differentiating between the country dresses with their lower (behind fashion) waistlines and the dresses of Miss Bingley (higher waistlines = more fashionable).

And I love to hate Judy Denich’s characters. She always does a great job of playing the older british battle axes.

Additionally while they did some minor trimming of the plot, they did it so nicely and so subtlely as to not affect the overall viewing. Things like the house keeper spilling the truth about Wickam et al.

On a non-movie note - I finally thought of the justification for getting the iPod AV cables and alarm clock adapter. Their small, packable and would work in any hotel room….

Well, that’s all. I’m reasonably dry so now have to venture out into the rain to get back to my hotel.

It turns out that the class server web parts will work with Sharepoint Portal Server (SPS) - just not on the additional web servers. They need to be installed on the same server as Class Server in order to work.

This means that I may have less work to do on existing project, but that schools trying to deploy the project for a large volume and use SPS will have no choice regarding splitting schools up on to multiple Class Server servers. But may be able to do this without affecting surf in url via managed paths.

Will confirm and report back tomorrow.

So I never expected my lack of mandarin to be a problem in Australia.
Not something that had occured to me as a possibility.
But discovering that my alarm clock in room wasn’t working I went to ask for a wake up call.
Grandfather on duty doesn’t speak english and can’t understand spoken english.
Thankfully another guest who sort of spoke english and could read english, which is what they said, translated.

Next morning a 45 minute wait *in the rain* for a cab to finally stop, something I had been expecting in Singapore but hadn’t ended up happening. Here three passed me by and I was 30 minutes late for the session this morning as a result. Grrr….

Tomorrow I am going to try public transit… I think. Additionally I seem to have forgotten the pin number on my visa and as a result it’s been deactivated - at least in theory for only 24 hours. I’m not sure I can survive longer than that without it since only banks seem to take traveller’s cheques any more and they all open after I’ve left for the workshop and close before I get back.

The trip did not begin well. But I finished ~45 minutes ahead of the others and was able to lend a hand here and there. Not surprising I guess, but nice nonetheless. Also got to be a good little private sector person and handed out a couple of company profiles as a result of expressed interest by fellow classmates. So was good student and good employee today. Then went shopping.

It turns out that habits die hard - the first thing I did on finding out I had a mini fridge in my room was stock it with breakfast food, snacks, and caffiene. Everyone knows it’s cheaper to buy from a grocery store than a hotel restaurant… I just haven’t adjusted to the idea that it’s not necessary to be cheap every moment to survive…

Otherwise it turns out I’m in the shopping district so tomorrow night I’ll probably go see Pride and Prejudice since it’s showing. This whole movie addict thing is a pain because it makes finding things to watch on long international flights hard. I’ve purchased a copy of ‘memoirs of a geisha’ which I’d previously read via borrowing and thought was good, but didn’t own. Now do. Have also taken up sudoku puzzles. Have completed 3 of the ‘gentle’ level.

Get to take first actually apartment hunting trip on Sunday when I get back to Singapore. Then hopefully I get ot set up my workstation and actually start planning for project. Which is more important - spare bedroom or ammenities such as tennis court?

Think I need to start rating cities on here.

For example Kuala Lampur in Malasyia gets 50 because their cabs and malls were good, but their bugs and toilets fail.

Sydney in Australia so far gets a pass on washrooms, but fails on cabs. Also on availability of info on public transit….

However, there’s an internet cafe right next to my hotel so this means a chance to read my e-mail and update.

Sunday I fly from Singapore to Australia so that I can have training.

Mon - Wed it’s MLG again.
Thursday and Friday it’s Learning Network Manager.

Tonight its off to see the new Harry Potter movie and have my first experience with the Mass Rapid Transit here in Singapore.
Tomorrow I think I’ll do something novel and sleep in. Maybe even pick up a paper and look for an apartment.

So for those who don’t know Microsoft Learning Gateway is a solution based framework. (a group of products that can do a certain task if someone puts them into communication)

In this case it’s the ability to use SQL, Win Server 2k3, WSS/SPS, and Class Server or another LMS that plays nice with all of these products(read; works with web parts). You can of course add in additional technologies to do additional jobs such as Exchange and Live Communication Server.

The questions that’s being discussed at length is: why?

And the short answer is: The more teachers you have sharing resources the more available resources are and as a result the better resources get used in the classroom and the overall quality of education improves. Ideally your curriculum standards are also easier to enforce, different styles of learning are easier to cater to, and of course your content can be more engaging.

The real question is feasibility. In order to have this work you need a certain amount of technology and that requires a certain amount of technological background for development, deployment, and maintenance.

That’s where my being here comes in. I’m here to tell people what’s been done, what can be done, begin to train their developers with the skills they’ll need in order to be able to do some of it.

And now we’ve talked a little about what I do and am doing. Back to the regularily scheduled ramblings.

So I was doing fine. And adapting fairly well…. until yesterday evening.

First there were bones still in the chicken. But after the shock of the first one, I was doing okay.

Then there were the eyes staring out of Fiona’s soup. I was creeped out, but still trying to deal.

Cockroach which crawled onto the table and across did it though.

Maybe I’ve gotten spoiled, but the combination of those three things just made me lose my appetite.

Today I need to thank Alina and Mel, the first for warning me that they don’t believe in toilet paper necessarily and the second for providing lots of handy wipes.

Malaysia is interesting to say the least…

I’ve got pictures, but I haven’t uploaded them yet.
Today I’m off to Malaysia to do a presentation and a workshop.
Also I got my business cards today so I have something other than music on my christmas wish list.
I think I need a business card holder.