It has been almost a month since I posted last. Part of it has been that I have been busy but the biggest part was that the computer that I was hosting my blog on decided to die. I am still not 100% sure what the problem is but the machine would only boot about 1 in 4 times and then would tell me that it couldn't find a core Windows Server file. After spending a couple of days trying to fix the problem I decided that now is the time to upgrade the hardware (I had been contemplating it for a while). I ordered the hardware but between shipping problems and my travel schedule I didn't have a lot of time to work on the new machine. Unfortunately remote access doesn't help me add memory or hard drives to a case. I got a new machine with dual processors, mirrored system disks, and 4 GB RAM. I also got to upgrade to the latest version of dasBlog" target="_blank">dasBlog.
I installed Windows Server 2008 with Hyper-V and have started setting up virtual machines for things like my domain controller, this web server, etc. That will hopefully allow me to not have another month long crash and even if something that is not redundant in the machine dies I can start up the virtual machines that I really need on another machine to get it up and running quickly. I will also have the ability to create virtual machines to check out new technologies.
While I was down a lot of interesting things happened but the one that sticks out most in my mind is the Release To Manufacturing (RTM) of SQL Server 2008 last week. I am looking forward to learning more in the months and years ahead.