Five Girls represents many things to me.

A serious project that served as a clearing house for graphic ideas which were floating around in the back of my mind.

A fun project which was a relief from highly disciplined advertising illustration.

An opportunity to control the full cycle of an undertaking, from the first conception of the idea and choice of approach, through the photographic processes and selection of pictures, to the final detailed layout and design.

I do not like to dream up explanations for my work.. That is why this book is, quite simply, me – thinking pictures. (Sam Haskins, forward to Five Girls, 1962)

Many of the pictures from Five Girls, along with other prints of Sam’s work, are available as “signed, museum quality photographic prints;” hit up his official site’s order form to learn more.

So trying to install BES 4.1 on a SBS premium (I know not the best situation but thats what the client wants).

Anyway we try to install and get the following error: Faulting application Setup.exe, version 4.1.4.19, faulting module ntdll.dll

Well so we start thinking ok maybe its Antivirus or something else using the DLL, maybe a permission issue….. NOPE, turns out that BES install doesnt like multiple IP address on 1 NIC, we simply removed the extra IP from the external interface and viola install works without a hitch!

No estoy seguro si es una coña o es un juego que estan programando de verdad, pero hace gracia.

Actualización:Me informan que este tipo de remakes se llaman demakes, gracias.

MSDE sólo puede manejar alrededor de 200-250 usuarios con BlackBerry Enterprise Server. 
Aunque oficialmente de Microsoft sobre el papel indica que son 500, pero de acuerdo con el personal de apoyo de BlackBerry es sólo 200-250 y a partir de ahí empiezan los retrasos con el correo electrónico de su servidor al  BlackBerry.

La solución pasa por migrar de MSDN a Sql Server, y los pasos son:
 1.  Crear el usuario administrador BES en SQL Server.
 2.  Ejecutar la herramienta createdb.exe, por lo que crea la base de datos SQL (se necesitará hacer esto desde el CD de instalación de BES).
 3.  Conceder al usuario admin BES derechos dbo y public.
 4.  Detener los servicios en el servidor BES.
 5.  Copia de seguridad de la base de datos utilizando osql-E en la línea de comandos.
 6.  Restaurar la base de datos a la base de datos SQL que fue creada por la herramienta de createdb.
 7.  Cambiar la base de datos sobre la configuración del servidor de Blackberry.
 8.  Reinicie todos los servicios.
 9.  Cambiar la base de datos sobre el DSN de sistema ODBC si es 3,0 o 4,0.
 10.  No  olvidarse de cambiar la base de datos en el Administrador de BlackBerry (o dominio), haciendo clic derecho y seleccionando Propiedades y seleccione la base de datos, y asegúrese de que la información es correcta.

BlackBerry Curve 8900 (Javelin)

While I wait on my Touch Pro to get un-bricked (hopefully) I got myself the BlackBerry Curve 8900. I must confess that I have never been a fan of BlackBerry just because the BIS (BlackBerry Internet Solution) seemed like a way of RIM (Research In Motion) making more money of us poor saps.

Anyhow I finally just asked the guys to explain it to me. In my honest opinion I think the guy bullshitted me for about 60% of the conversation, but he did explain how BIS works.

BIS gives you access to unlimited browsing and email basically most types of internet connections, you know Facebook, Twitter and even MXit. For a guy like me that is amazing. If you live in South Africa you can get the unlimited internet for R59 per month if you’re on pre-paid or R69 per month if you’re on contract.

Anyway I signed up and have been using the phone now for a day or so. I have to tell you that owning a BlackBerry has a certain cool factor to it. It’s kinda like the feeling you get owning an iPhone, gives your ego the impression that you are the man!

But as you know I am not just about ego’s. Form should always follow function and so here’s what I have seen so far with the BlackBerry Curve 8900.

Overall the phone is great and has great features with it. Riding of my last mobile, the N96 featured a 5mp camera, the BB (BlackBerry) 8900 features a 3.2mp camera. Yet don’t dismiss it, the quality of the pictures are excellent. I am certain the only time you will have a problem is when there is poor lighting conditions. Also using a phone wide screen is a new experience as well. By Wide Screen I mean the phone is designed with a longer length than breath which is great.

It comes with a 1gig SD Memory Card and after 5 minutes I bought my own 16gig and put that in. I was told that is as high as it goes. Which is great and matches up nicely with the top end Nokia’s and HTC’s. Plenty of space for my music and movies. The desktop manager has a nice little feature of converting your movies for you. If you are like me and have a collection of movies that you like having on your mobile just incase you’re stuck in traffic or whatever, you know you’ll never be bored.

I am pretty comfortable with the QWERTY keyboard and most people would be even if you have never used one before. There is also this really cool feature where your you can specify the way your phone reacts when it is in the carry case. Yip the BlackBerry can detect if it is in your carry case or not and so when it’s sitting in your pocket at the mall in the carry case, you can tell the phone to vibrate so you know it’s ringing but if it’s lying on your desk you can cimply tell it to ring out loud. I thought this was pretty cool.

Ok the not so cool stuff:

1. NO 3G - What were BlackBerry thinking? The guys at the shop tried to convince me about how GPRS on the 8900 works just as fast and I’ll never notice the difference and blah blah blah blah. The truth of the matter is, 3G is 3G and if you spend alot of time browsing they you need to make a cll on whether the 8900 is for you. You have to decide on when you browse what is more important, speed or amount of bandwidth? If you need speed surfing the net, this is not it. Don’t be mistaken though, for the time I have had the phone, the GPRS works well and and downloads at an ok speed.

2. Getting your email to work - BlackBerry were the first company to bring email to mobile phones and generally when you get a BlackBerry you are getting so that you are always connected. I have been struggling and struggling now and have had no luck. Vodafone eForum has been trying to assist me but email communition between different countries has it’s own time issues. If your company does not have a BES (BlackBerry Enterprize Server) I am afraid you are going to end up having trouble like me. Let’s hope by Monday I resolve the email issues.

3. Interface Styling – the main interface is awesome you seem some really clean graphics and nice icons and so forth but once you get in there it becomes very poor. The options menu is just a black and while list of words, which is horrible to look at, functionally it works but asthesically it is terrible. Likewise for the messages (SMS / MMS) the layout is very poor with no ability to change anything. The main interace also has a line of icons by default similar to the Nokia N series however on the BlackBerry I have not been able to change the icons.

That’s all the bad I could see so far. Guys again I have to say that the 3 bad things above will differ from person to person. Many people have no idea what 3G is and so it will make no difference to them and so forth which is why I have to give the BlackBerry Curve 8900 my thumbs up. It’s great and with such cool features it’s easy to see why I am blown away.

All BlackBerry have to do now is throw in 3G, Video Calling, Modify the Rom with better lower lever interface and pick up the camera and damn, the competitors are going to cry.

Final Note – For those of you who say get the Storm for 3G, have you even seen how that touch screen works? Go see before you comment.

Cheers

Yay they are finally here!  The dragons have hatched!  They are sooooo cutee!!! xDD  Here are mine..

It is really hard to get their strength full bars, you have to feed them like 15 times each! XP  But they are awesome anyways.. Here is what their new list looks like!

Lastly, here is a close up of one of my dragons xD

They are really neat!  I hope you all enjoy them!!

- Emerica

My Blackberry Media Manager kept exiting on me when trying to access the Media stored on my Blackberry Storm.  The specific error was:

Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime Library X Runtime Error!

Program: C:\program Files\Roxio\Media Manager 9\Mediamanager9.exe

R6025 – pure virtual function call

The problem ended up being that the RoxMediaDB9 service was disabled.

I changed the service from disabled to manual (could have been set to automatic if I wanted it to start following each reboot), started the RoxMediaDB9 service, which allowed Media Manager to start without issue.

One of the constant enjoyments of teaching is the interactive learning that takes place. I tell my students that I learn from them just as they learn (hopefully) from me. One place this has been happening regularly is in an Ancient Near Eastern Religions class I teach. Students have to provide weekly class reports on somewhat obscure deities that I chose for them to research. One of the groups was assigned Bes, the minor Egyptian protective deity, and their research had uncovered the suggestion that Bes may have originally been a cat-deity. As Halloween approaches with its plethora of black cats, I found this connection to be fascinating.

The Egyptians domesticated the cat, and revered it. The nimble catcher of vermin (although, in all fairness, vermin are only doing what vermin have evolved to do), the cat was seen as a protector. When in need, why not call upon a deified cat, an everlasting cat, if you will? It makes sense that Bes with his stubby proportions and bewhiskered face, often portrayed poking his tongue out, might have evolved from a feline original. His iconography often features leonine imagery as well. We may never know his true origins, but Bes was widely recognized in the ancient world as an effective protector.

Back in 1987 I volunteered as a digger at Tel Dor in Israel. This was my first exposure to archaeology, and I loved every bit of it. The digging, the expectation of discovery, the honest physical work, the endless bouts of Herod’s revenge — well, some parts were better than others. One of the artifacts I discovered was a sky-blue faience head of Bes intended, apparently, to be worn on a necklace (there is a hole drilled through his head). I also found two bronze seed-beads that went with the necklace in the same matrix. Often I have wondered who, in an Israelite context, wore that amulet of Bes and what fate befell the wearer nevertheless. Bes is paradigmatic of our trust in help from beyond, but every once in a while even Bes ends up being dropped in the dirt only to be dragged out again by some future cat.

Um gajo anda aqui entretido a discutir a SAD, as estratégias, as empresas, o universo Sporting, os direitos que passam daqui para ali e dali para acolá, a banca, os accionistas, os empréstimos, os VMOC, a Academia, os terrenos, os gestores, tudo, tudo, tudo. Mas depois parece que passamos sempre ao lado de um facto essencial – que volta e meia reaparece – e cuja explicação continua arredada do meu entendimento. Refiro-me ao seguinte:

“O Sporting passou do oito ao 80 em 14 anos. Ou, de forma rigorosa, dos 6 milhões de contos (30 milhões de euros) de dívida em 1995 para os 76 milhões de contos (380 milhões de euros) em 2009.”

Perguntas simples: como? porquê? de quem é a culpa? quem falhou? por que falhou? 
Atendendo ao passado recente do clube, parece-me óbvio que as explicações terão sempre algum ponto de contacto com o famigerado “projecto Roquete”. E com os seus sucedâneos. Logo, há uma conclusão possível: foi quem nos desgovernou que continua a governar-nos. E como se não bastasse, na famigerada AG a que não pude assistir, o nosso querido líder ainda teve o desplante de dizer o seguinte: “Não vou dizer aqui o passivo consolidado por questões de segurança”. Pois… ‘tá bem.

O que vale é que daqui a poucos dias a bola volta a rolar e o pessoal volta a centrar as atenções no Paulo Bento.

Finalmente, uma análise lúcida sobre os resultados da AG do Sporting.

“Que la chupen y que la siguen chupando”.

Obrigado Maradona. Mais uma vez.

This is one of my favorite doodles from the ancient world. Its rich ambiguity lends to its appeal — some see it as salacious, while others see it as sacred. For those of you unfamiliar with the graphic details of the Asherah debate, this image is an ancient graffito from a desert way-station called Kuntillet Ajrud, a one-period site from the eighth century BCE. Like any number of other ancient drawings, this one would have probably remained in the obscure curios-portfolio of ancient scholars if it hadn’t overlapped an inscription that mentions “Yahweh of Samaria and his asherah.” Discovered in 1975–1976, this inscription, along with a couple others, revolutionized many scholarly assessments of ancient Israel’s religion. Yahweh had a soft side after all, a wife no less, the old god!

I’ve taken some flak in my circumscribed academic career for suggesting that this inscription, and a perhaps somewhat similar one from Khirbet el-Qom, are ambiguous. Sure, I’d like to see Yahweh happily married as much as the next guy, but is that what is going on here? Yahweh and Asherah, sittin’ in a tree? My doubts don’t stem from a squeamish conservatism (come on!) but from a concern of over-interpreting ambiguous evidence. Asherah, as a goddess, was rediscovered with the excavation of Ugarit. Forgotten by time with only cryptic references in the Hebrew Bible to some kind of cultic item called an “asherah,” scholars were excited to learn that she had a body and a personality. Many aspects of that personality fit, circumstantially, with a lovely pairing with Yahweh; wherever Asherah appears she is the consort of the high god, she is royal, matronly, and never showy.

The image above, however, has nothing to do with the inscription it overlaps. The two larger figures in the foreground are clearly Bes, the minor Egyptian protective deity. The characteristics are so clichéd that only the will to see Yahweh and Asherah arm-in-arm suggests anything different. Scholars like a happy ending just as much as anybody else, but I am obligated to state that, taken objectively, Asherah simply isn’t in the picture here.

As we all know, there is always a software behind the hardware. This holds true for the blackberry as well. Blackberry Server Software comes in two forms

1. BlackBerry Professional Software (BPS)
2. BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES)

The way that the BlackBerry server works applies to both the BlackBerry Professional Software (BPS) and the BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES)

The basic steps in receiving an email on a blackberry device are as follows:

• A copy of BlackBerry Professional Software, with the capacity to support up to 30 users
• One user license – Client Access License (CAL
• The latest version of BlackBerry Enterprise Server Solution software, version 4.1

BPS Express is the ideal solution for smaller organisations with their own email server or for larger organisations that arent sure how many BlackBerry users they will grow to.

To expand the number of users you simply purchase additional user licenses as your needs grows. And if you reach the point where you need more than 30 users, you can upgrade to the BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES).

BlackBerry Enterprise Server is the fully-featured BlackBerry mobile email service. It’s designed for medium to large organisations with their own Lotus Domino or Microsoft Exchange servers for email and mobile data applications, that are going to start with at least 20 users and grow from there.

BlackBerry Enterprise Server lets the user access his/her email, electronic calendar, tasks list and contacts list as well as any internal applications or software on their BlackBerry handheld. The BlackBerry Enterprise Server supports triple DES security (considered unbreakable) so confidential data is transmitted securely.