Note: Although this procedure is fairly safe – Please only try this if you have a reliable backup of the database (and logs) and recovery from your backups has been tested.

1. This is an optional step but I like to run a program called SequoiaView just to have a graphical view of what is taking up all the hard disk space on the servers.

With this program you can colour coordinate extensions to filter out your databases and log files as illustrated below:

In the above illustration you can see my databases are fairly large and that’s ok because it’s all my SharePoint data, but my log file is fairly large too. It’s around 1.7GB.

2. Let’s try and shrink this log file to save some space. Open up  SQL server Management Studio (If you don’t know what this is you probably shouldn’t be doing this). Navigate to the database which log files you want to shrink. The name of the log is usually the name of the database.

3. Right click on the database and select Properties

4. Then select the options menu on the left hand side of the new window that appears like so:

Above I have highlighted the options selection as well as recovery model. For a full explanation read here but for a brief explanation, this basically tells SQL server to either keep a full track of every transaction made on this database so you can recover specific transactions or a simple recovery which relies on backups taken of the database for recovery.
5. You can choose to modify this value to simple which will get rid of your large log issue or you can temporarily change it to Simple, shrink your log file and then put it back into full recovery mode (which is what I like to do and is the gist of this blog). So change your recovery model to Simple (Please backup the database first) and hit OK.
6. Next right click on the database of topic and select Tasks -> Shrink->Files
7. The window that appears will look like the following but please choose the options as shown in the figure below:

Select Log for file type.

You will notice in the above figure that we can reclaim 98% of space from that log file if we use simple recovery for this database. Keeping it in full recovery mode would still free up space but not nearly as much.

8. Hit OK and then go back and follow steps 3 and 4 to revert your recovery mode back to full.

You should now have more space to work with on your SharePoint SQL server box.

You can also automate this process so that you don’t have to continue to check in and do this manually by creating a maintenance plan in SQL server Management Studio but I’ll let you figure that one out yourself.

Step 1. Navigate to the document library that is missing the tool menu.

Step 2. Click on Site Actions -> Edit Page

Once you have done that you should then see a difference in the main content section – You will notice a big button that says ‘Add a web part’ and then a couple of headings which may differ (but be similar) on your site like so:

According to a few articles the tools menu gets hidden when there are web parts added to a document library page and if your 2007 had any they may even be hidden from your view until you hit ‘Edit Page’. Now this would only apply if you are happy to get rid of the webpart/s but if you are hoping to have the best of both worlds, then I can’t help you at this point in time. Luckily for me they were completely unwanted web parts. I can, however, offer you a workaround which is at the bottom of this post.

Step 3. Delete the unwanted webpart/s by navigating to the far right of the webpart and clicking the arrow seen below:

Click on delete. It will prompt you whether you want to permanently delete the web part. Click on Yes if you are willing to let go of this web part and all the information it holds (not really considering a lot of webparts just reference a list or library located somewhere else). I suggest before you do this to have a look at the properties of your web part and make sure you aren’t permanently losing all the information it presents.

Step 4. Click on Stop Editing!

You should now have your library tools.

Workaround if you want to keep your webpart:

Step 1. Navigate to the document library missing the library tools

Step 2. Tick any item already uploaded in the document library like so (folders or documents, it doesn’t matter):

Once the item is ticked you will then see the library tools menu!

• Exchange mail push notifications not working at times and sluggish speeds of the app
• Sluggish performance in general
• Terrible battery life

Upgrade the firmware to 2.2 Froyo. This is available via Samsung Kies now for all Australian providers of the Samsung Galaxy S. Install it on your PC and upgrade!!! To check what firmware you have currently go to Settings -> About Phone and you should see firmware version.

Now for the full story:

So I’ve had the Samsung Galaxy S for about 6 months now and as much as I wanted to write an early raving review about it, I knew it wouldn’t be doing the device any justice because of how immensely shithouse (for lack of a better description) I found it compared to everyone else who bought it did. I was coming from using an iPhone 3G for a year which I had no problems with until OS 4 came out. I think this made a difference in my perception of the Samsung.

Call me a conspiracy theorist but Apple’s device building quality = 10. Apple’s marketing ploys and tactics = 10. As soon as the new iPhone 3Gs/4 came out, the quality of user experience was lost on the iPhone 3G….A bit too much of a push from Apple for me to upgrade in my opinion. I wanted to sue Steve Jobs for ruining my product but then I realised you can never really own an Apple product. They more or less own you. The only way to get out of Apples product prison was to buy something that did what my iPhone did, with none of the handcuffs. So I switched to the Samsung Galaxy S.

Firstly I was running on Android 1.2. They have cute little names for Android builds like gingerbread, froyo etc. Don’t let the names fool you. Anything under 2.0 is absolute shit. They should rename them to Android 1.1 – Embryo, Android 1.2 – Autism, Android 1.8 – Parkinsons. Anyway I guess I should talk about the phone:

First Impressions (keep in mind this was running 1.2)

At first I thought, wow this is a bit longer than I thought it would be. It has a 4.0” display which is considerably larger than the iPhones so obviously the phone is a little bit longer as well. It manages to be convenient though as it is lighter than the iPhone and the display is gorrrgeeousss (imagine a gay man saying this). It was rich in colour and I was really happy with how great video and photos came out. After all it was boasting a 5mp camera and 720p shooting just like the iPhone 4.

During the first day of use I didn’t notice the lag you get at literally random times but what I did notice was the battery diminishes incredibly quickly. I didn’t think about it too much as I was playing with it a lot but later on I still had the issue. Also for those of you who sleep near your phone like I do, there is a sound the phone makes to notify you that the battery is fully charged….yeah… you can’t turn that off (I don’t think) and it goes off at about 3am daily. I’m used to it now so not a huge deal breaker personally.

Terrible things about the phone running 1.2

• Firstly I responded late to a few important emails due to auto-push notifications not actually meaning push in Android 1.gaytard.2. The exchange compatibility was appalling! I would have to keep manually resetting the connection to the mail server to get mail. Push would work for a little while and then stop. This worked pretty much flawlessly on the iPhone from the start.
• Battery life was pretty bad. I would unplug it from the charger at about 8am and it would be dead by 8pm after receiving maybe 3 SMS and 1 phone call on average.
• The number one for me is the lag. At times the phone would be quick and very responsive,  but in the middle of doing something like checking an email, the phone would just stop responding. You’d click on the button to return to home screen and nothing would happen, about 1 minute later the phone would make a couple of vibrating bumps and then you would have to force close the app. Sometimes it would be so bad I’d have to turn the phone off completely to bring it to working order again. Out of 10, I’d give myself a 2 for patience. The worst scenario I had was when I was in a cab trying to check an email for an address. The phone stopped responding while checking the mail and we missed the turn where I had to go. Then!!! I had to make a call to let me into a data centre as it was an emergency and I accidentally hit the maps button. That sent the phone into complete retard mode and I had to turn it off and on again. A highly stressful situation made 10x worse thanks to this phone.
• There were no officially provided updates for the phone on Virgin until very recently. This is crazy. I’ve had the phone for so many months and it was running like a drunk $2 hooker in heels would when she skimps out on her pimp. So many people have been complaining and Google had released 2.2 about 5 months ago if not longer so why did we have to wait so long since release date? Shame on you! Shame on all of you!

Tips that got the phone to be usable:

I got so sick of the Samsung that I switched back to the iPhone for about a month. When I got back from holiday I decided to plug the phone into the computer and finally there was an update ready to be installed. The update ran smoothly and I noticed the phone ran smoothly after the update too! It’s not completely 100% lag-free but lag-free enough for me to categorise it as a little better than usable. Here are further things I did to get the phone working a bit better after the update:

• For battery life I installed an app from the android market called Juice Defender. This app controls things things like data transfer, 3G, screen brightness and allows you to schedule when you need data on and things like that. I have found it to increase battery life substantially. I can now use the phone for a full day easily. Sometimes even overnight and throughout the next morning with average use. The less I use the phone the more drastic Juice defender helps to keep the phone going.
• I noticed that push notifications were working a lot better but the email app that comes native to Android ran slower than it did before. I then noticed that there is an email app in the Samsung set of apps as well and decided to try it out. This app is great! It updates the inbox straight away and it’s quick to retrieve emails to read. The only issue is that you can’t select multiple emails and mark them as read or delete them. This is not a major issue for me though as I want to read every single email that comes into my inbox for the day. The app is called Samsung email. Be sure to get rid of your exchange account from the native app first though.
• A cool way of sharing apps with friends is to set up a dropbox account and share it with your friends. This way you can get the dropbox app for android and access this shared folder between each other. At the moment I am doing this with a friend of mine who fills up this folder with all the cool apps he finds. I then go through the list and download any new ones he has put in there. It saves me from having to hunt down these apps myself
• There are apps which are known as lag fixes and these are apparently effective against the lag issues on the Samsung Galaxy S. I say apparently because I don’t use it as you have to root the phone to do so

Conclusion:

The Samsung Galaxy S has great potential. Its hardware specifications are out there with the best handset devices out to date, but the letdown of this product is its reliance on the relatively young and generic OS Android. I compare the Samsung with the iPhone but this isn’t a fair comparison because Apple only need to product test a small set of devices for their OS. The Samsung is using a pre-built OS and modifying it to fit the functionality of the phone. Naturally, getting the balance of OS and hardware correct will take some time and I think once they get it right, the phone will exceed the iPhone. I bet you Apple fan boys will say… Yeah but the Apple iPhone 4 just works and by the time Samsung get it right there’ll be a new iPhone. Well that’s fine because there will also be a new Samsung and ever-advancing updates to Android…. Plus Steve Jobs is going to die soon and once that happens Apple might start making umbrellas and kitchen appliances so go to hell you arseholes. Also I have an iMac and was gifted an iPad. I hate myself as much as I hate you Apple fan boys.

First thing I looked at was the hardware resources thrown at the system. I ran a bunch of reports and monitored the hardware to see if there were any bottlenecks on both the terminal services server and the NAV SQL server which hosts the database the JET report plugin queries. I couldn’t seem to find anything here. The server was running at half capacity, yet I knew that there had to be a performance issue.

I then tried logging onto the TS server with a new remote desktop connection. This is where I got lucky and stumbled upon the solution. I connected without adding local printer mapping in the remote desktop client and tried the same report I was testing. I found that the report went from taking 5 minutes and 9 seconds to taking just a little over 20 seconds. Further tests with larger reports provided better outcomes with reports which took 4 hours now only taking 20 minutes.

After investigating I found that the issue lies within Excel and its default behaviour to check with the printer for page dimensions during each cell repopulation while generating a JET report. The huge delays will arise if your default printer at the time of generating a JET report is at a remote location to the TS server (remote back and forth communication takes some time between excel and the remote printer). The simple workaround is to disable the group policy which enables the default printer as the default client printer and make it something like a PDF creator on the TS server (a local printer to the TS server) which means fast reporting with the functionality to still print when required. So you can still map your local printers but now it won’t be the default printer and you will have to select your printer from the print prompt printer list. It’s a small price to pay for much faster JET reporting.

I hope this helps!

Anyway as I was searching in google for advice on how to deal with my smelly house mate, I stumbled across a forum for friends to give advice to other people on relationships, life, dating etc.

I decided to provide my advice tonight on some key issues. Feel free to use this advice yourself. I know for a fact that some of my readers can benefit from said advice:

This first thread was too long and I didn’t read it all but I think this guy is basically complaining because he’s too good looking and has a great personality. Girls want him and he’s finding it hard to say he’s not interested without hurting their feelings:

My response:

This is an interesting question about an age gap for marriage:

Response:

This seems to be an ad of some sort but since they posted in the relationship advice section I decided to provide some advice:

response:

This is a girl that wants to make a friend but doesn’t want to come off creepy:

My advice from personal experience:

I have stayed up to watch most of the games so far which broadcast at ridiculous times here in Australia (between 9pm and 6am) and then start work at 9am, so needless to say if it’s not the World Cup fever, it’s probably my immune system dying from sleep deprivation and giving way for the disgusting viral bacteria that is most probably spread through the dirty fumes that my smelly housemate produces. It’s not just the soccer that keeps my attention though. There is so much going on, for example the red cards, the background issues each team has, the new players making a name for themselves and the funny stuff in between.

Now I know not all of you have had the time to watch all the games like me or analyse the soccer to the extent that I go to so I’ve decided to provide you with the things that have entertained me about the soccer so far. This excludes the great class of soccer and the goals scored from star players (you can just watch that on the news or SBS). This is just the stupid stuff:

Counterfeit Players

The World Cup has star names, some of them you may know e.g. Messi, Tevez, Robinho, Ronaldo etc. They are infamous for their skill in the game of soccer and they have developed a brand. Just like all brands, however, there are counterfeits….

Player on the left is Beckham. Player on the right is his counterfeit. I’m assuming he was manufactured in Malaysia. His name is Beckmann.

On the left is Ronaldo. Star player for Portugal. You may know him as the retarded kid on the Castrol commercial. He says “futbawll teks mi meny plaaacccess”. Anyway, funnily enough his counterfeit is on the same team as him. On the right, meet Rolando. He is average and also probably made in Malaysia.

Funny Names:

With all the different nations coming together, it is inevitable that I would find some names funny. Here are some that made me giggle like a school girl:

Meet Oh Beom Seok. I wasn’t quite sure how to pronounce this but luckily the commentator mentioned his name once he got the ball. The correct way of pronouncing this name is (o-bum-sock).

This is Gaetan Bong. HAHA

And this is Emmanuel Kone… hehehe Bong and Kone…get it? Hehehe

Soccer Players in Showbiz

This is Georgios Samaras. According to some made up sources, Samaras has been chosen to play Jesus in Passion of the Christ 2.

There are rumors spreading that Dreamworks have convinced Sergio Ramos to play Monkey in their latest remake of the brilliant TV Show Monkey Magic. Jackie Chan will be producing.

Player of the tournament:

Runner Up: GERVINHO

Gervinho earns the spot of runner up for player of the tournament so far for his amazing hair style which manages to ride long yet cover none of his forehead. What a forehead… more like a fivehead.

And the Player of the tournament so far is!!!! …..

Vincent Enyeama – for taking a Jabulani ball to his balls and living to tell the story. Seriously though, he has done well for Nigeria as their goal keeper, putting his body on the line, and putting soccer before his future children on the priority list.

Things I’ve learned:

It is very expensive to get a haircut in South America. At least I assume this because of all the players with long girly hair:

Thank you to fifa.com for the profile shots of the players. Very amusing stuff.

Anyway, recently it just occurred to me that my blog site has lasted over one year! This is big news because as you know, it is very expensive to maintain a website. If you’re unaware of how much it actually costs me to keep this site up, here’s the math:


So to help you appreciate my expenses a little bit better, here is a list of things I could have bought with $200:

• A budget plane ticket to another State in Australia
• Over 100 budget UHT long life milk carton things
• Approximately 10kg of Salami
• 4 bottles of Glenlivet 12 year single malt scotch bottles with 22 standard drinks inside
• Approximately 8 ShamWOWs

Thanks to the continuous support from the two or three people that actually view this site, this sacrifice is easy to bear.

OK… before ordering your pizza please check retailmenot.com for the best coupons on offer. You definitely need a coupon because the regular price is at least double what you can essentially get the price down to. Retailmenot is updated regularly so if you find that the coupons aren’t working ensure that you bookmark the site for later use on your next pizza purchase. I usually get pizzas for $4.95 on most days thanks to this site.

NEXT…Go to the Dominos website, pick your store and get to the pizza selection screen.

Yes they have a lot to choose from! You may notice that they categorise their pizzas with classic, traditional, big taste and ‘make your own’. Let’s rule out making your own pizza for the simple fact that you can only choose 4 toppings to put on it. This is crap and you will soon find out why…

The categories are basically your price levels in pizza. Classic and traditional are usually the same prices but the ‘big taste’ pizzas are an extra $2.95. This is a big deal because what you’re basically getting is a few more toppings and a unique ingredient such as prawns for that value….. or are you?

Here’s what I’ve found. If you order a traditional pizza and take off 2 toppings and replace it with a different two toppings, you do not pay any extra. Within these toppings you can even select prawns as a topping and you will only pay the same as a traditional pizza. Awesome right! Well it’s extra awesome if you choose the right pizza!

The pizzas under ‘traditional’ have a varying number of toppings averaging about 6 or 7. The 70’s lot pizza has a whopping 11 toppings already selected on the pizza! This I have found is best value for money.

I select the 70’s lot, I then proceed to take off the toppings I least desire and add different combinations to try some awesome new pizzas for cheap. You can take away mushrooms and olives if you want, then replace them with prawns and Italian sausage.

So here is my great pizza for $4.95!

Why not try it next time!

It all started when I saw that I was developing a slight belly after drinking a lot of beer and sitting on office chairs all day. My idea to turn this around was to go back to my days of working out and martial arts. My attempt to restart my healthier life schedule made me depressed as I realised the retreat of any progress I had previously made but a bit of motivation from my friends and my lovely dog that persuades me to take her for exceedingly long walks everyday has made me fitter than ever.

Today, on the way home from indoor cricket, I realised I was getting too fit. I was one iPod shuffle away from being the douche who wakes up at 4am for a protein shake and a quick jog before starting a joyful morning. This had to stop as I was missing the couch potato, laid back attitude I had on everything. I even started watching the news and reading newspapers!  Anyway… on the car ride home from cricket, I thought to myself… what’s the easiest way to become a couch potato again? And then it hit me…. A cinewheel couch!

Have you noticed how uncomfortable regular wheelchairs look? I have used a wheelchair at times and the only thing that I don’t like about them is that they’re too basic for my extravagant taste in practicality. So without further adieu, I introduce to you the cinewheel couch:

You are looking at a couch designed as a mode of transport while providing the comfort of home.  Is there a better way to get out there and see the world but still maintain a laid-back lifestyle? Surely not! It’s the perfect mixture of a cinema couch and a wheelchair.

Some specs:

• Electronic joystick control which means you won’t have to push yourself around!
• Cup holders for your drinks complemented with a fridge to store your refills at the perfect temperature
• Optional dolby surround sound speakers with built-in subwoofer for that doof doof on your back
• Titanium wheels with shock absorbers to take on any terrain but still feel like you’re on a cloud
• Italian leather
• Optional reading light
• Optional Air conditioning
• Optional game controller holder for the hardcore gamer
• Ideally the couch would travel at a cruise speed of 80 km/h but I don’t think this would be safe

I feel that this amazing product will not only be a competitor for all wheelchairs on the market but segues as well. I mean how convenient is a segue compared to the cinewheel couch when you have to stand to go everywhere and you have very little resources at your fingertips?

Let me know if you’re interested in helping me develop a prototype because I’m not sure how to get the wheels on the couch and provide a safe shock absorber solution. Thanks.

The man motivated me to believe in myself and convinced me that whatever I wanted to do, I could do. Prior to hearing the story of Chris I read about ‘the secret’.  If you have ever read the book ‘the secret’ you will understand that some things happen because “if you believe in something enough, you will receive/achieve/retrieve it”.  It’s all about the law of attraction and holistically, attracting something means thinking about it until you get what you want. I was a big believer in this concept until recently when I thought about something constantly but that just blew up in my face like one of them gag jokes that keep you interested until it either zaps you or makes you smell something you wish you didn’t… you know what I mean!

This one… ‘Item’, let’s call it, made my life miserable but then I decided to do something about it. I thought…. well if I get a job that gives me money to support my drinking habit I would feel a little bit better about life, but it didn’t really help me at all. In fact, I’m drunk as we speak but that doesn’t take away from my poetic style of writing things poetically at all you arsehole douche bags that feel like criticising me for being free and poetic with my great words of poetry.

While having lunch with a table of academics, I decided to lose my inhibitions and drink beer, red wine, scotch and more scotch. I was well drunk before I decided to leave the bar that I was at and headed towards another bar for more drinks in accordance with ‘the secret’ (at this point in time I found scotch quite attractive).  During my walk to the pub I realised that I was abusing any underlying message that ‘the secret’ had to offer, but again, this didn’t work for me on a personal level so it can go fuck itself in the arse with a steel pole full of ridges all over it. I tried to find a corrugated pole image to illustrate my feelings but this is surprisingly hard on google.

Well, the whole point of this blog (which has surely been missed by everyone reading this) is that using the inspiration of Alexander Supertramp (which is Chris McCandless’ gypsy name) I have practically looked into creating a superhero which uses Godfrey commercial quality vacuum cleaners. The Pullman PV11 provides an ergonomic backpack vacuum solution which will provide ample power to allow me to jet pack my way into fighting crime or arseholes; both of which society deems hazardous to the wellbeing of our future.

Before stopping by to visit some friends and colonel sanders (a crowd I missed dearly), I decided to stop by the Godfrey’s vacuum cleaning superstore at Fortitude Valley. The man insisted on selling me the $519 Pullman PV13 as it provided a better commercial vacuuming experience. I ensured him that I did not require the commercial cleaning attributes of the PV13 as all I needed was two sets of PV11s which will provide me with the backpack power I need to soar across the Queensland surroundings.

I can’t describe the big plans I have for my flight abilities with the machinery I plan on buying from Godfrey’s. All I can say is that people around me actually sabotage my creative abilities and future actions with criticism. I don’t care if you don’t like my backpack vacuums or think I’m not good enough to change the world with backpack flight. You will regret your decisions at the end of the day because you conformed to what you believed you thought others would expect of you instead of following what you wanted at your discretion.

“Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.” Thoreau

“The sea’s only gifts are harsh blows, and occasionally the chance to feel strong. Now I don’t know much about the sea, but I do know that that’s the way it is here. And I also know how important it is in life not necessarily to be strong but to feel strong. To measure yourself at least once. To find yourself at least once in the most ancient of human conditions. Facing the blind death stone alone, with nothing to help you but your hands and your own head.” Chris McCdandless

“If we admit that human life can be ruled by reason, then all possibility of life is destroyed”.  Tolstoy