theboywonder.co.uk

I’m not one to spend to excess. I may have many things but I always try to hit the sweet spot when it comes to quality and value for money and I nailed it on my latest purchase that’s for sure! A camera case for my Nikon D3100 that I bought in March called the “Capdase 180A MKeeper”. Goodness knows who came up with that name but that doesn’t matter! I got it from Love Cases where it’s currently £17.95. An absolute steal. Both my brother and dad are considering purchasing one for their new dSLR cameras after getting their hands on mine.

Note that the case is only big enough for 1 lens though. If you have two (which I can’t justify) then perhaps the larger model would suit: Capdase 270A.

From the front, minus the main strap (which attaches via study plastic clips to the side):

A close up showing the quality of the fabric/weave:

The front pocket. Large enough for a few batteries and other bits:

The inside. Additional pocket inside the top flap, and a removable velcro fitting in case you want to keep the lens separate from the body:

From a tiny zip pocket at the back, a pull out waterproof(?)/resistant cover!

via: http://www.jeffbridges.com/perception.html

Washington, DC Metro Station on a cold January morning in 2007. The man with a violin played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time approx. 2 thousand people went through the station, most of them on their way to work. After 3 minutes a middle aged man noticed there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried to meet his schedule.

4 minutes later:

The violinist received his first dollar: a woman threw the money in the hat and, without stopping, continued to walk.

6 minutes:

A young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again.

10 minutes:

A 3-year old boy stopped but his mother tugged him along hurriedly. The kid stopped to look at the violinist again, but the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children.. Every parent, without exception, forced their children to move on quickly..

45 minutes:

The musician played continuously. Only 6 people stopped and listened for a short while. About 20 gave money but continued to walk at their normal pace. The man collected a total of $32.

1 hour:

He finished playing and silence took over. No one noticed. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.

No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars. Two days before Joshua Bell sold out a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100.

This is a true story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and people’s priorities.

The questions raised:

*In a common place environment at an inappropriate hour, do we perceive beauty?

*Do we stop to appreciate it?

*Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context?

One possible conclusion reached from this experiment could be this:

If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world, playing some of the finest music ever written, with one of the most beautiful instruments ever made.

How many other things are we missing?

I wanted an SQL query to retrieve the number of updates “required” by our clients / computers managed by WSUS. Most of the advice online seemed to be applicable only to WSUS 2. With a few tweaks to an existing script I managed to get a working SQL query (key: ComputerID now seems to be TargetID).

This is executed from within SQL Server Management Studio on the WSUS server itself (I migrated the database to the full version of SQL Server).
SQL version: 2008 R2
WSUS version: 3.2.7600.226
Windows version: Server 2008 x64 SP2

SELECT left(tbComputerTarget.FullDomainName,30) as [Machine Name]
,count(tbComputerTarget.FullDomainName) as [# of Missing patches]
,tbComputerTarget.LastSyncTime as [Last Sync Time]
FROM tbUpdateStatusPerComputer INNER JOIN tbComputerTarget ON tbUpdateStatusPerComputer.TargetID = tbComputerTarget.TargetID
WHERE (NOT (tbUpdateStatusPerComputer.SummarizationState IN ('1', '4'))) GROUP BY tbComputerTarget.FullDomainName, tbComputerTarget.LastSyncTime
ORDER BY COUNT(*) DESC

SummarizationState:
1 = Not Installed
2 = Needed
3 = Downloaded
4 = Installed
5 = Failed

Apparently we all need to be a little bit more pessimistic :) Just click the video to be redirected to vimeo in order to watch it.