Monday, 6 June 2011

Inner Geek Updated - June 2011

My Mac certification progress has been a little slower then expected. But I also now have three kids 4 and a half and under in the house. Three is much much busier than two. Thankfully triOS College in Kitchener has reopened their test centre so I do not have to go to Mississauga or Hamilton to wrote my exams. I had hoped by the end of 2011 to have 5 Apple certifications completed, I have now stretched that goal out to the end of 2012.

The certification's I have earned are:




Exams Written:
Apple Certified Support Professional - Exam 9L0-403
Mac Integration Basics - Exam 9L0-263
MCITP - Windows 7 Desktop Administrator - Exam 070-686
Pro: MS SQL Server 2008 Design, Optimize and Maintain - Exam 070-450
MCITP - Windows Server 2008 Server Administrator - Exam 072-646
MCITP Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Administrator - 070-647
CompTIA Security+ - Exam JKO-015
MCITP Windows 7 Enterprise Desktop Support Technician - EXAM 071-685
MCTS Windows 7 Configuration - Exam 070-680
Implementing Security in MS Win Server 2003 - Exam 70-299
MCTS System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008, Configuration - Exam 70-403
MCTS Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Implementation & Maintenance - Exam 70-431
MCTS Upgrading MCSE on Windows Server 2003 to Windows Server 2008- Exam 70-649
MCTS Deploying & Maintaining Vista Client Office System - Exam 070-624
Microsoft PowerPoint - Exam 810
Microsoft Outlook - Exam 813
Microsoft Access - Exam 807
Microsoft Excel - Exam 804
Microsoft Word - Exam 801

These exams were written either at a Prometric Testing Center or at a Certiport Testing Center for the Office exams. The Exams names that have links link to reviews of the books I used to prepare for those exams. These exams are a mix of CompTIA, Microsoft Exams and Apple certification exams.
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Sunday, 5 June 2011

Mac Vs PC an IT Guy's Perspective

Mac Vs PC an IT Guy's Perspective

Are you a Mac or are you a PC? Those commercials from Apple seem to have polarized this question and issue even more. If you believe the commercials, if you prefer Macs, you're young, hip and cool. If you prefer PCs, you're older, (middle aged), and a nerd. I recently heard a story about an IT guy wearing a Windows 7 T-shirt and someone ran up to him in the street and yelled in his face, "I'm a Mac, PCs suck." And then he took off. Apple users do seem to be a little more militant or fanatical about their preference. What I hope to do in this article is look at the argument of Mac Vs PC from an IT perspective, supporting both the hardware and users in a corporate and personal environment.

A reader might be inclined to ask what my credentials are to talk about this topic. I currently hold 30 computer certifications, a mix of Apple, Microsoft and CompTIA designations. I have 5 years corporate experience supporting environments with upwards of 10,000 computer clients and users. I also privately support some small businesses, not-for-profits and individual clients. Last fall I was asked to take over support of Macs at work and got my first MacBook Pro. I have configured and set up about a dozen MacBook Pros, Mac Pros and Mac Minis in an active directory domain environment, about another 20 for use for product testing, development and proof of concept use, and have configured another handful for personal use. I have been building PCs doing sales and service and support since the late 80's when a student at Queen's University.

I will be examining the question of Mac VS PC from a few different angles:
1. Ease of set up
2. Ease of use
3. Hardware comparisons
4. OS upgrades
5. Ease of repair
6. Hardware upgrades
7. Cost comparisons
8. An overall comparison
So join me as we embark on this quest to answer the question of Mac VS PC.

I must admit, a Mac right out of the box is easy to set up and use. There seems to be fewer issues with drivers or compatibility even to generic peripherals. On the other hand, Windows 7 seems to be very compatible, though sometimes you need to install generic drivers and update the drivers once you're installed and logged in. Ease of set up with current hardware is a pretty close call, but with a slight edge going to Mac.

Ease of use is a very tricky question to tackle. I know numerous people who have bought Macs for home use, and constantly get frustrated because they are so different from Windows. A few do everything they can to tweek the OSX environment to be as close to Windows as possible, using such add-ons as Total Finder, FUSE NTFS, and more. Others take the time to learn OSX and work back and forth between OSX and Windows. Others give up and install Bootcamp, or a virtual machine using such software packages as Parallels or VMWare Fusion to run a Windows machine on top of OSX. But to the native Mac user switching to Windows it is just as frustrating. Having run both side- by-side for the last 8 months, there are things I like and appreciate in OSX. The mouse on the MacBook Pro, and scroll functionality on it or the Magic Mouse is amazing. Getting comfortable with Command+Q to close programs, I now do this every day or so in my Windows environment. As far as ease of use, it will come down, to some extent, to personal choice, adaptability and preference. Mac wins this but at a cost - adding the add-ons or VM costs more money.

The biggest surprise I have encountered since beginning to support Macs is the hardware comparison. Macs seem to be a generation or two behind PCs. Most people I ask about this state that it is because Mac OSX is a flavour of Linux and requires fewer resources. The problem with it is that when it comes time to upgrade you have fewer options, especially since OSX does a hardware check and will not let you upgrade beyond a certain point forcing you to purchase new hardware. PCs are nice and for the most part so generic you can build whatever you want and/or need. You can spend big bucks and get cutting-edge and hold onto it for years or spend less and still have a good system or upgrade later. PC wins this round hands down.

OS upgrades for Mac users can become very frustrating. Apple seems to block older hardware that will support the OS. I know some guys who create Hackintosh media, OSX Disks that will install on any hardware, Dell, IBM … and if a retail version of OSX fails, the hardware check prevents install of the new version of OSX and won't install, then these older Macs can be upgrade with these hacked versions of the OS. The nice thing is you can do an in-place upgrade that seems to work very well when supported. This has never really worked well in a Windows environment and in fact discouraged. With that being the case, Apple wins this battle.

Ease of repair for both hardware and software is a big question. Many Mac users will say you seldom need to repair the hardware or the OS. I have encountered numerous situations where either or both have been needed.

Macs are harder to take apart and do repairs on. Both MacBook Pros and MacPros take more effort and skill to upgrade. Windows-based laptops and desktops, for the most part, are very componentized and easy to physically upgrade. And when you do want to upgrade a Mac you have to buy official support Mac hardware which always costs more than comparable PC hardware. A second problem is that Macs often require the original OS disks from purchase, in order to reset FaileVault or Master password, to reinstall the OS and more. These disks are machine and generation specific. Recently at work we had 2 MacBook Pro 17" laptops bought less than 3 months apart. One user lost his OS disk, and the disks from the other could not be used to rebuild the machine and a replacement set needed to be ordered. With either Dell or IBMs I have been able to use almost any system disk that came with a system to repair any other system; in fact I only keep one per OS and use it across models and platforms. A recent example to upgrade a MacBook pro top 8GB DDR ram was more than twice the cost of upgrading a Dell laptop to the same speed 8GB ram. Again PC takes this round.

Cost comparisons - there is really no comparison. Macs cost more - if you need to run a VM of Windows also, a lot more. You end up paying more for the Mac out of the box, pay for the VM software, pay for the licence for Windows, and pay for any applications installed on each platform. I currently have Adobe Acrobat Pro Installed on both OSX and my Windows 7 VM because some applications cannot pick up the cross platform PDF printer. Macs cost more to buy, more to support and more to upgrade.

Conclusions: I love both OSX and Windows. I am a PC but I am a PC that is learning Macs to support them. I would never pay the extra money to own one personally but enjoy learning and working on them. Macs, and to be honest, almost any Apple product to some extent, is just a status symbol. A few weeks ago I walked through a Starbucks and 90% of the computers present were Macs. I then went to the Second Cup down the street and only one computer was a Mac and about a dozen were PCs. Is there anything you can do on a Mac that you can't do on a PC? Not really, with the right hardware or software. So the decision comes down to the size of your wallet and personal preference. I like running my Mac with Windows 7 running in Unity mode via VMWare Fusion, see screen shot. I can do anything in either OS, but it was an awful lot more money to get it set up. If I had won a Mac a year ago I would have sold it and built 2 PCs. Today I would keep it. But no matter what your preference don't be obnoxious about it. Now admittedly, I did not touch upon other flavours of Linux or Unix in this piece, which here at UWaterloo might seem a little strange. We can have that discussion next time.

(Graphic by Ian Renato Cutajar.)
(First published in Imprint 2011-06-02 as 'Mac VS PC'.)
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Friday, 3 June 2011

The Nixie’s Song - Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi - Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles Book 1

The Nixie's Song
Beyond The Spiderwick Chronicles
Book 1Holly Black and
Tony DiTerlizzi
Simon and Schuster
ISBN 9780689871313

I loved the original 5 books in the Spiderwick Chronicles. I also really enjoyed the 3 supplemental books and manuals by Black and DiTerlizzi, so to say I was looking forward to the Beyond Spiderwick trilogy would be to put it very lightly. I loved this first book in the trilogy. I really like the main characters, step- brother and sister, Nick and Laurie Vargas. This story, set in the Florida marshland, is a whole new approach to the fantastical world around us.
Both Nick and Laurie are fairly unhappy with their lot in life. Nick's mother was sick, has passed away and now his dad has remarried. Laurie's dad is half way across the country. And now they are living in a blended home. Nick's dad is the developer building Mangrove Hollow, 'A Community Set In Nature'. But soon life becomes very complicated for them. Nick discovers a four leaf clover and then a creature from one of Laurie's books. They save it, but end up in trouble in the process, and soon their lives and troubles are bigger than they would have ever imagined.

The main characters are the greatest strength of this story. They are ordinary kids, with family problems, who are thrown into a world of supernatural creatures and problems to solve they could never have imagined. I loved the book and cannot wait to read book 2, A Giant Problem, to find out what will happen to them next!

Books by Black and DiTerlizzi: The Spiderwick Chronicles
The Field Guide
The Seeing Stone
Lucinda's Secret
The Ironwood Tree
The Wrath of Mulgarath

Arthur Spiderwick's Notebook of Fantastical ObservationsArthur Spiderwick's Field Guide to the Fantastical World Around You
Care and Feeding of Sprites

Beyond Spiderwick
The Nixie's Song
A Giant Problem
The Wyrm King

Other Books by Holly Black:
The Poison Eaters and Other Stories
The Coldest Girl in Coldtown
Doll Bones

The Modern Faerie Tales
Tithe
Valiant
Ironside

The Good Neighbors
Kin
Kith
Kind

The Curse Workers
White Cat
Red Glove
Black Heart

Anthologies
Geektastic: Stories from the Nerd Herd
Zombies vs. Unicorns
Welcome to Bordertown

Other Books by Tony Diterlizzi:

Jimmy Zangwow's Out-of-This-World Moon-Pie Adventure
Ted
G is for One Gzonk
Kenny & the Dragon
The Search for WondLa

Books Illustrated by Tony Diterlizzi:
Dinosaur Summer
Ribbiting Tales
Alien & Possum: Friends No Matter What
Alien & Possum: Hanging Around
The Spider & The Fly
Dragonflight
Peter Pan in Scarlet

Books by Tony & Angela DiTerlizzi:
Adventures of Meno:
Wet Fun!
Big Friend!
Yummy Trip!
Uh-Oh Sick!
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Wednesday, 1 June 2011

Rachna Gilmore - Author Profile

Rachna Gilmore is the author of several children's books, from picture books to novels she has thrilled young readers for over 20 years now. She has had many best sellers and has also won the Governor General's Award. She has written for all ages and across many genre's. She has been nominated, short listed or won nearly 40 awards. Her books have been translated many languages.Rachna was born in India, spent time in London, England and now resides in Ottawa. She recently took some time to answer 20 questions for us here at Book reviews and more.

1. If you had not become a writer what do you think you would be doing for a living?

I'd be a doctor. I'd be cutting into and investigating bodies instead of investigating my characters and their stories. (I guess if I took that metaphor further I might say I'd be a grave robber, digging up bodies instead of characters! But I wouldn't. Really.)

2. When did you know you wanted to be a writer? How did you nurture that dream?

When I was quite young, around 12 or so, and I'd re-read LITTLE WOMEN for the umpteenth time, and I decided I wanted to be a writer like Jo. For quite a while, though, all I did was carry around a notebook and jot down ideas, which made me feel terribly smug and important but didn't really advance the dream much. It wasn't until I was around thirty -- when the fear of never trying triumphed over the fear of trying and not succeeding - that I started to write steadily, to learn my craft, take courses, and just write, write, write.

3. Who were some of your biggest supporters and contributors to your early success?

A university professor - I was studying biology (long story, was still thinking of Medicine then) - who properly took the conceit out of me by telling me that I needed to write plainly and clearly rather than plump my papers with unnecessary flowery language, which I did to mask my lack of knowledge. And Richard Lemm, an English professor at U.P.E.I. from whom I took a creative writing course, and who told me that the writing process "is a long, slow apprenticeship" and that I should aim to perfect my writing rather than scramble for publication. And my first editor, Laurie Brinklow at Ragweed Press, for taking on my first book!

4. What advice do you wish an artist had passed on to you early in your career, which you only learned through experience?

To leap into the unknown. To embrace failure. To know and accept that horrible writing, wrong turns and dead ends are all part of the labyrinthine process of learning how to write. To stop wasting time fantasizing about outcomes. To just start and write, write, write.

5. What authors influenced your writing style and format?

Consciously, none of them, in that I don't pattern my style after any one writer. But as a child, I loved L.M. Montgomery, and so I supposed she influenced me as did other favourite writers such as Jane Austen, L.M. Alcott and others. Even Enid Blyton, influenced me; her characters were horribly flat and one-dimensional, but she knew how to plot. Robert Munsch was an early influence when I started to write. And Madeleine L'Engle, whose books I love. Isaac Asimov, as well, for his extraordinary ability to imagine the future, for his love of ideas.

6. What books most influenced your writing style and format?

Robert Munsch's books really expanded my ideas about children's stories. I love the liveliness of his language and how his books are so child-centric. My style of writing is different, and so is the range of books I write, but I learned about keeping the child front and centre from Munsch. THE PAPERBAG PRINCESS is one of those books I wish I'd written! His books didn't inform my style of writing so much as they demonstrated a way of approaching children's literature with energy and irreverence. Many women writers influenced me too, Alice Munro, Constance Beresford-Howe, Atwood - their books affirmed that women's stories were worth writing about.

7. What does your writing process look like? Takes us through the steps from idea to publishing?

It starts with an idea -- which can be a theme or a character, or an image, or even just a phrase. I worry and play with it, dance in and around it, and when it has me by the throat so that I have to write about it, I start on my first draft. Usually, I write this fast to capture the heart of the story. This tends to be true of picture book stories as well as novels. Then it's a long slow process of re-writing, putting away the story for periods of time -- a long slow spiral of re-writing to the heart of the last draft, with the plot and characters coming into better and better focus with each round. Essentially, I start by writing from the heart, and then re-work from the head. The last stages can be slow and painful as I vacillate and obsess about each word. During the last stages I can spend hours on one sentence, to get it just right, to accurately reflect my character's voice.

8. Do you use a playlist when writing? Are certain books written while predominantly listing to the same music?

I've never done that. I need quiet when I write so I can hear the music of the words. But I do associate music with my characters. Dilly, for instance, from THE TROUBLE WITH DILLY, is like Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusic, or Bach's Brandenburg Concertos. And Red MacRae, from THAT BOY RED, is Beethoven's Pastoral, or East-coast fiddle music.

9. What of your books was the hardest to write and why?

Each book presents its own unique challenges, so this is a difficult question to answer. I've had picture books take over 20 years. That doesn't mean I worked on it for twenty years. But sometimes, after an early draft that doesn't quite work, the story will lay fallow until I re-discover it years later, and suddenly see with complete clarity what it needs to work. With novels, I find the books are easier to write when I really know my character and have a clear sense of his/her voice. THAT BOY RED, my most recent middle-grade novel presented unique challenges as it is set in P.E.I. during the 1930s Depression. It took a huge amount of research to get the sensory details of the time right, to have a clear sense of farming life and its rhythms and chores, so I could weave it seamlessly into the background of the story. A tiny detail, such as what a turnip field might look like in September, could take hours to hunt down.

10. What was your favorite book to write and why?

Ah, but that's like asking which of my kids is my favourite. Each book, while I work on it, is my favourite. It has to be, because I have to spend so much time with those characters.

11. What current projects are you working on or are in the back burner in some stage of development?

I have a time travel novel that I'm plarking with. (I call the process of what I do "plark". A combination of play, work, and lark!) I also have a story about a cat I want to write soon, and a fantasy novel, but I can't talk about them, because if I do, I won't want to write them. Then there are a few picture books, one about the Blues, and a middle-grade novel, about a girl who fancies herself a detective.

12. I once heard Madeleine L'Engle state that her characters were real to her and almost an extended part of her family, she said once that at the dinner table she sat up and stated "Meg just finished her PhD." Are your characters real to you, do you ever get glimpses of what they are up to now, or once you finish a book is that it?

Oh yes, they are real to me. Many a time my poor family has endured a meal with me present in body, but not in spirit, because I'm listening to another conversation - that of my characters. And yes, I wonder about them after I've written their stories. I like to keep my endings open-ended so the reader has a sense of the character's lives continuing beyond the pages of the book - and perhaps because of that, I too have a sense of them living on beyond the story, and I get glimpses of it.

13. What were your favorite books and authors to read as a youth?

When I was a kid growing up in India and England, I loved L.M. Montogomery's ANNE books. They were a constant favourite. In a way, my most recent novel, THAT BOY RED, feels like coming full circle, as it is set in P.E.I. I was inspired, in part, by Montgomery's books to go to P.E.I., where I lived for fourteen years and where I met my husband. THAT BOY RED was inspired by my father-in-law's stories about growing up on a farm in P.E.I. during the Depression. Sometimes, truth is stranger than fiction!

14. What are some of your favorite books and authors now?

Jane Austen remains a constant favourite. I learn something each time I read her books. I love Madeleine L'Engle, Diana Wynne Jones, David Almond, Julie Johnston. Books I've enjoyed recently include COME THOU TORTOISE by Jessica Grant, the Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins, GOOD TO A FAULT by Marina Endicott, and many, many others.

15. A few of your books are available in electronic formats but with that comes bootleg distribution. What are your impressions of ebooks and the distribution of them through torrents and other illegal means?

I have to sheepishly confess that I'm not up on torrents or illegal ebooks. But hey, anything that robs me of my work without payment is not something I'm crazy about.

16. Some authors monitor torrent sites and have their publishers contact them to remove their content. Do you have do so are have someone do so for you?

I haven't yet, but thanks for the heads up. I will.

17. I once had a university professor state that the true goal of a university education should be to teach one to learn how to think. What would you state should be the goal of higher education and why?

Exactly that. To learn how to think. To be creative in whatever you do. Creative, so you can find solutions that are outside the usual tired boxes. So that our lives can be full of possibilities and help create a vibrant and thoughtful society. Dictatorships, whether fascist or communist, thrive on ignorance. There is usually a clear link between funding cuts to education and the arts and a subsequent deterioration in the conscience and creativity of a society.

18. Completely off topic but what TV shows or movies do you enjoy?

I'm a sucker for cooking shows like TOP CHEF, and I love HOUSE, that curmudgeonly doctor, and also DOC MARTIN. I also like CHOPPED on the Food Network, and IRON CHEF AMERICA. And I love Masterpiece Theatre, especially the classics. Movies I've loved hmmm! I have a lamentable memory for this, but I'd say recently I saw and loved INCEPTION (what a great story!) AMREEKA, ONCE, and others.

19. If you were stuck on a desert island and could only have 10 books to read again and again, what books would you want with you?

No, no, say it ain't so, not just ten. Ahem. Okay. I'd have:

Jane Austen's Complete Works (See how I did that? Clever or what?)
The Upanishads
L.M.Montgomery's ANNE books (They're old friends, but there are many of them, so I'd want a collected edition, although I don't know if it exists.)
L.M. Alcott's LITTLE WOMEN
The Complete Works of Shakespeare
Madeleine L'Engle's A WRINKLE IN TIME series
A complete collection of Basho's Haiku
An anthology of the Romantic Poets
The Unabridged Oxford Dictionary
P.G.Woodhouse's WOOSTER AND JEEVES books. All of them.

20. What advice would you give to young aspiring authors and artists?

Read, read, read and write, write, write. Embrace the uncertainty and go on a rollicking ride with your characters leading the way. There' s nothing like it when you get into that white heat of flow. That's when time stands still.

Rachna thank you for taking the time to answer the questions. If you have not read any of her books give them a try. I only discovered her works recently and will have to make the effort to read more of them over the next year or so. Her latest book That Boy Red was just published by Harper Collins Canada, you can browse inside the book here. Her blog Writerly Plarks is worth adding to your feed reader.

Books by Rachna Gilmore:

Picture Books:
My Mother is Weird (1988)
When I Was A Little Girl (1989)
Jane's Loud Mouth (1990)
Aunt Fred is a Witch (1991)
Lights for Gita (1994)
Roses for Gita (1996)
Wild Rilla (1997)
A Gift for Gita (1998)
A Screaming Kind of Day (1999)
Grandpa's Clock (2006)
Making Grizzle Grow (2007)
Catching Time (2010)
The Flute (2011)

Children's Novels:
A Friend Like Zilla (1995)
Mina's Spring of Colors (2000)
A Group of One (2001)
The Sower of Tales (2005)
The Trouble With Dilly (2009)
That Boy Red (2011)

Early Readers:
Ellen's Terrible TV Trouble (1999)
Fangs and Me (1999)

Non-Fiction:
Snapshots From The Fringes in anthology PIECE BY PIECE edited by Teresa Toten (2010)

Adult Fiction:
Of Customs and Excise (1991 under pseudonym Rachna Mara)
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