After some challenges, the new company has been started. Finally can focus back on the new portal.

The new logo has been done for a while, updated the placeholder site.

What was initially a small project turned into an exercise in managing many aspects of RSS feeds, caching, CSS development, and sitemap issues.

Regardless, I’m proud of the outcome and look forward to making it a part of my routine.

Even if no one else chooses to visit.

I had a new PC built with Vista Business, but these issues could affect any version of Vista.

RAID – I suppose there is a bulletproof RAID-Zero configuration that is favorable to Microsoft, but it caused issues with me. After a few days, I couldn’t do an installation repair because the Vista install DVD couldn’t properly recognize my drive. Loading the software RAID Drivers helped a small bit, but not where I could do anything. When Vista is being installed on clean drives with no MBRs, it will work as long as it either recognizes the RAID or the appropriate driver is loaded. Doing an installation repair requires the CDROM Drive to be the first boot selection in BIOS; which causes a conflict in the Vista Installer because it requires your hardrive to be the first boot device in BIOS.

High-Speed SATA Drives – I had initially chosen RAID-Zero to boost speed, but life was much more simplified by taking the RAID (and software drivers) out of the equation and spending a few extra dollars on a Western Digital 10,000 RPM drive.

Adobe CS3 Products – Illustrator CS3 was the primary motivator to give up on my 5+ year old WinXP PC, because of installation challenges. However, there are several documented cases of new Vista PCs and Laptops having to be wiped clean and re-imaged in order to have a successful Adobe CS3 Software install. I spent some time with Adobe on this, but even though practically everything else installed fine an Adobe CS3 product may fail to install unless it is a clean machine. I installed both Illustrator and Photoshop CS3 before my Vista PC came off of the workbench. I installed Dreamweaver CS3 a couple weeks later without issues. Weird.

Use ATI – PC Gamers may argue this in favor of NVIDIA, but for the rest of us make life easy on yourself and invest in a good ATI card.

Use AMD – Intel is still the weapon of choice for my servers, but AMD is great for desktops.

Use ASUS – I’ve got some gripes about their RAID drivers, but once that was out of the equation I found their motherboard very easy to use.

Acer Monitors are suprising – I was sold a Acer AL2216W with my PC, with an encouragement to return it if I wasn’t completely satisified. It was an inexpensive monitor, but very impressive.

AVG AntiVirus and Internet Security are impressive products. I still use Symantec/Norton for my WinXP machine, and may consider Norton Utlities for my Vista machine, but I think AVG is an excellent AntiVirus and Security solution.

Vista isn’t perfect, but it will work for now …

I don’t know what caused the issue, but for some reason WinXP was moving to a slow crawl. Initially I thought it was related to it’s slow hardrive, but after a while it was apparent that something was slowing it down bad.

So I pulled out the Vista CD that Gateway sent me earlier this year, along with an associated driver CD and wiped the hardrive clean of all partitions so that the install could do it’s magic.

I know Vista is receiving a lot of bad press, and it’s big-news SP1 update is coming soon, but I’ve got to say that running it with the current updates and AGV isn’t that bad. Previous issues like my PC-Card software have been resolved, as just about everything has a version for Vista now.

Ok, I’m going to say it out loud:

MotorcyclesInternational.Net !

The domain, and all of it’s common variations, have been owned by me for years. It has served as a infrastructure domain for too long, the time has come to bring it back.

During the 90′s it was a side project, representing the forward-thinking approach that many sites had during the Dot-Com era. It’s .Com variant (which I obtained from the former dealer) was one of the world’s best known online stores, and had been written up in several motorcycle magazines.

The platform will be similar to some of my other projects, such as TriumphRat.Net, but it will start off on the new target architecture after the current riding season.

Time will tell if the portal will be as I hope, but if you would like to join in the fun and help out let me know!

I worked all day indoors, but stepped out a couple times to experience the wonderful weather. My bike is ready, just need to clean off the 100-degree dust and do some riding!

There’s a few bugs and a planned upgrade, but the entire site has finally been moved over to a compltely new portal platform – after two years of planning, developing, testing, and implementation.

It’s difficult to gauge what the overall perception is right now. Traffic has increased, as well as visitor and member participation. Time will tell as everyone settles into the new surroundings.

• The Wiki didn’t stay. It was running fine, but I converted everything to a blog system.
• The Original Photo Albums couldn’t convert completely. I ended up doing a conversion to a new format that was more stable, and developed my own integration.
• The new Member Albums have been a great success, but we’re still in the early stages of what it can do.
• Other features formely part of forums or special posts are now organized in their own respective applications. The New Classifieds are well accepted.

Time to get some more riding time in

First time in a while, but I actually slept during the middle of the day. No bike riding or work, just relaxing at the house. One of the moderators that helps out on TriumphRat.Net appeared after a long hiatus and ShawnReed.Com was upgraded.

Also, a new website was started today. It’s just a single-page of white space but was a large beast in the late 90′s; magazines included it in a couple articles.

It’s not as cool as writing about what would have been a great ride, but sometimes that’s the way it goes …

Earlier in the day, one of my sites was attacked by Turkish Muslims using a little-known exploit that I wasn’t aware of. Their edits were simple, but took some time to find.

Until now, most attacks were limited to script kiddies or compromised networks executing commonly-known attacks. It never crossed my mind that one of my sites would be taken advantage of by a Muslim interest group. The site that my users were forwarded to had an obvious theme toward making their beliefs known.

The experience reminded me of several events, and brought a sense of pride for those who are working to defeat oppression in the world. What I did today doesn’t compare to the sacrifices they are making for us, but there are other ways I can be useful.

Not a bad deal:

• AMD Turion 64-Bit Dual Core CPU
• 2 Gigs of speedy RAM
• 160 Gig Hardrive (4400 rpm – eeek)
• Nice Wide Screen
• WindowsXP Media Edition
• McAfee Internet Security for 90 Days, with discounted purchase option

There were other niceties, like a competitive 2-year parts replacement option and a 50% discount on a Microsoft Laser Mouse (for laptops). MS-Office is fully functional for 90 days, but to be honest I’m not thrilled about the idea of paying for it. I went ahead and activated it, but downloaded:

• Firefox
• Thunderbird
• OpenOffice
• SSH Term

Time will tell if I fall victim to the Microsoft desktop domination, which is already happening with a requirement to use IE over Firefox (for a proprietary app I use). Thunderbird is a nice program, but it also may not be able to overcome my familiarity with Outlook.

In a few days, the next investment will be on one of the Sierra Mobile 3G Wireless Cards. One of my reasons for the Gateway purchase is that it supported the card that the three major mobile providers still use in my area. Other laptop manufacturers, like Sony and HP, have already switched over to the smaller card format.

This laptop wasn’t a significant investment, and it will likely get handed off to my family in a year or so. By then, the business-grade laptop choices won’t be so difficult.