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Matthew

Personal Rants

Last Day at the Library – Reflecting on the path that got me here.

Well the day has arrived, Just shy of 2 years after I joined the staff at the Atwater Library and Computer Centre, it’s is time for me to take my leave and move on to greener pastures.  I have hired a great replacement and have complete confidence he will continue the quality of work I have provided for this wonderful organization.

A few days ago, while on my commute, I started to think about how I came to be where I am. I mean I pretty much just landed my dream job, being a Support Agent with the intent to move up to Server Administrator at a Server Farm, that’s a big deal for me.…

Personal

New Job – Leaving the Library

Well, after almost 3 years on the Island, I finally am where I am supposed to be.  In 2004 I graduated Algonquin College as a Computer Systems Technician, where I excelled in Linux and Server Administration.  Sadly just before I graduated Nortel had its big crash, sending an influx of technologically adept people into the job market. I Spent the next 8 years in and out of Customer Service jobs hoping to finally get in where I wanted to be.  In 2012 as most of you know I moved to the Island in hopes of following that dream.  Montreal hosts sever big names, especially in the gaming industry, like Square Enix and Ubisoft, but it also has several large server farms.…

Personal

Very few things tend to scare me. But Ebola scares the F@#& out of me…

Ebola has been the headlines in the “Twitosphere” as of late, matched with comments of “Why should I be scared, our advanced health system will protect us” and other misnomers.  Now generally I am one to downplay things and keep people calm, however when it comes to a disease that now has a 70% mortality rate according to the World Health Organization (WHO) via CBC, I am pretty damn scared. Not because of its lethality, but because of the lack of Government participation is properly guaranteeing the situation.  Because no-one of power is taking it seriously.

What irks me more however is that people think that because we are in a 1st world country we are some how magically protected because of our advancements in medicine, be it our better immune system or better health care.  …

Personal

Encyclopedia Britannica was my childhood Google

Pretty correct when you think about it.  I mean anyone in their late 20’s, early 30’s spent the first half their life without the internet.  When I saw this Meme on Facebook Today, I started to reminisce about the old days.  I can remember a project I did with a high school buddy of mine Pino Federico.  We did our chemistry project on Nylon, and how it was actually a happy mistake.  Back then, we didn’t have Google, or Wikipedia.  We had books and libraries.  In fact most of our content was researched in the Carlton University Library (Or was it Ottawa U?).  …

Personal

We’ve become Anti-Social

A while back I posted a video of a man reciting a poem about our state of being, and how it has changed due to the antisocial aura of technology. And on the same topic I rencetly posted how technology has dumbed us down a bit. Today I found another great video, but in thinking of how I came to view the video, it seems kind of hypocritical, I found both on Facebook, which is part of the Anti-Social problem.

I wrote a bit about it on my FB share of this same video. I see the a lot of issues discussed in myself.…

Personal Technology Windows

[FIX] When Deep Freeze won’t thaw – VHD Style

If you are a follower of my blog you know that recently I have done a lot of work with Virtual Hard Drives.  I have made the decision to convert our Computer Centre and Classroom PCs over to VHDs so that they would be easier to maintain.  We use a nice piece of software (I think its pretty cool, most people on the net don’t) and thus far it has worked without issue.

So here is the new set up I have laid out for the Lab, and I got it running on a test system after some trial and error when it came to the Windows 7 side:

  • 1 physical hard drive with 2 partitions
  • First Partition has 2 VHD Files which are configured to be bootable (see how)
  • Second Partition used as a “Thawspace” to transfer files between the two OSes
  • Physical Hard Drive does NOT contain an OS
  • First Partition (becomes D: when booted) has access removed via GPO so no ones messes with the VHD files.
…
Personal Technology Windows

[FIX] Booting from a Windows 7 VHD – The problems encountered and the Solutions.

As many of you know I am a Manager of a Computer Centre and Server/Network Administrator for a small library in Montreal Canada.  Every so often I get tasked with a project that makes my life hell for few days/weeks.  This time round, its Microsoft that’s the culprit of my frustrations.  And since I had to search the internet for multiple solutions, I figured I would write a post to help others who are in the same situation.

Topics Covered

How to boot from a clean system solely to a VHD

SO my first task was to reimage a test machine.…

Technology Windows

Resizing VHD Files, the easy way.

I have looked all over the net for easy ways to resize VHDs.  For those of you who don’t know what a VHD file is, it’s a Virtual Hard Drive.  Now for years I have played with virtualization, normally with VMWare or Virtual Box (The latter being free) which has always dealt with some form of virtual hard drive, however the VHD (and now VHDX) has become a standard with virtualization, so much so that you can actually boot Windows off of a VHD without virtualization software.  Both Windows 7 and 8 flavours of Windows support this feature.…

Rants

Has Social Media made us into Mindless Zombies? “Experts” say YES!

This of course assumes that you believe in me as being an Expert in Social Media… Which of course I am not, but that never seems to stop anyone these days.  I mean anything you read on Social Media sites has to be the truth right? Welcome to Another Considered Normal Rant.  Todays Rant brought to you by Facebook, Spreading Misinformation and Terrorizing the Nation since February 4th 2004.

Now before I get started, please note I do not blame Facebook, just like I don’t blame Fox News, or any other Media outlet (Other than shitty Satire ones that LOVE to stir the pot), they simply, inadvertently, provided the outlet for misinformation.…

Personal

Day 979 on the Island – Damn thats a long time.

Well, summer is coming to a close, Rainy season is hitting us quite hard, and soon the rain will turn to snow.  Not looking forward to Winter, it will be my 4th Winter here on the Island… 11-12, 12-13, 13-14 and now 14-15… WHen I look back over the last 979 days here, it’s a mess of everything mixed together.  I have had 2 major jobs, first working for the UPS Store #350 in Dorval, which is the reason I came to Island in the first place.  Before the Island I lived in Cornwall and the contract I was on at StartTek was not being renewed, which means myself, along with 400 other Call Service Reps (CSR) would be out of a job.  …