Now, I don’t know about you, but when I see “God Mode”, I think of running around in some shooter killing all the bad guys/monsters/aliens/whatever without any worry of damage or harm coming to me. Those of you that cut your teeth on some of the old school DOS-based games of yester-century (a la Doom) will know exactly what I’m talking about.

I don’t think of “God Mode” when it comes to an operating system. Unless, perhaps, running everything as admin. Really, though, that’s probably more akin to anti-God Mode if you think about it; you need to be a little more worried about potential damage and hazards since you are running as admin.

But then there’s Windows 7 and we have things like User Account Control to keep you from doing too much harm. So is “God Mode” some super-anti-UAC thingie that makes it like it was in the old days when you could call deltree from the root of your C: drive and it would happily go about doing it? (Note: Yes, I know someone that did this. No, it wasn’t me. And no, I don’t recommend trying it.)

Nope, not at all like the God Mode that I knew and loved from the days of Doom.

So when I saw an article called “Understanding Windows 7's 'GodMode'”, I was intrigued. It’s not the “God Mode” of Doom-yore, but it is interesting nonetheless and I’m kinda liking it. You create a folder and name it “GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}” (no quotes, of course). Then … behold! the icon changes and you have access to a ton of controls and settings for the operating system. It does work on Windows Server 2008 R2 x64, which is what I’m running right now.

It reminds me, in a way, of the Windows 95 Product Team Easter Egg. But simpler to create and a lot more useful.

I had this discussion with someone recently and it’s really gotten me to thinking. There is a reason that I don't use that term much to describe myself ... it is so undefined, overused and inappropriately used that, in many ways, it has lost much of its value as a title (to me at least). I cannot even begin to count how many folks I've come across that promote themselves as architects but that I certainly wouldn't call an architect. For some, it's because they don't have any technical depth but are really good at regurgitating marketing material and BS. And because they have no technical depth, they often come up with "architectures" that are very difficult to implement properly because they have no idea what it takes to actually make it happen in the real world. Unless, of course, you write marketing material. For others, they are good coders and, perhaps, could be considered a solution architect (or lead developer) ... but they don't have the vision to see outside of a narrow problem or the short term. For still others, it's a political play in the rough and tumble world of corporate politics. Finally, you have those that are super-smart and in love with building things as complex as possible, using (what they perceive to be) all the latest and greatest tools and toys. If there is a technology that they want to play with, they will make it fit into the project, regardless of whether it actually adds any real value.

Yes, there are some that I would truly consider software architects. They are a rare breed ... they have deep technical knowledge and skills; they can code in the trenches with some of the best developers. But they have something more. First, they understand deeply business priorities and can weight technology choices to meet those business priorities. It's often very hard to get developers to understand this and vocalize it; it was a challenge anytime I did an Architectural Design Session. Yes, they will look at the latest and greatest ... but only adopt it when it actually makes business sense to do so. They also understand that you need to balance priorities and have to make certain trade-offs based on those priorities - for example, sacrificing a little performance in return for higher productivity and quicker turn-around time. Or the other way; it depends on the business priorities. For example, the guys that build Dell.com have very different priorities than the guys that do internal web apps and they will (well, should) make different decisions based on those priorities. Second, they have a "Big Picture" view. They know how the different moving pieces of any even moderately complex software system (should) fit together. I remember once, at an internal Microsoft training event on software architecture, a talk by the original architect of Microsoft Transaction Server (MTS) - which has morphed into different names over the years but is still a core part of Windows. He said that architecture is all about "HST" ... "hooking shit together". In the software world, it very much is. Third, they take the long-term, practical view of development ... not just what we need to do today, but where we are going tomorrow. This is always in flux, but it is a core piece of how they look at the world. Finally, they are also pragmatic ... what can be done within the constraints that we have and with the resources that we have? They know that all things are possible, given enough time, money and resources. It may take building a new operating system or web server or middleware piece from the ground up, but it would be possible. Just not very pragmatic. Unless, of course, that happens to be your business.

I have met folks that meet the above description but there are very, very few of them. I've met far more that fit into the first paragraph. And no, I will not name any names.

I know … I keep bringing this up. It’s been a long road and there were still a couple of things that I found that I needed to really, truly, fully replace Vista/Windows 7 client with Windows Server 2008 R2 for my desktop OS … on both my traditional “desktop” machine and my laptop. I think, finally, I’ve got all of them worked out.

Power Management/Sleep/Hibernate Mode: I absolutely love sleep mode. I see no need to keep my machine running at 100% power all of the time. And I’m impatient so I don’t like to wait for a full reboot if I don’t have to. I don’t do hibernate too much but that’s also nice to have. As I’m sure you are aware, Windows Server has no problem with the whole power management stuff … until you enable the Hyper-V role (which is one of the biggest reasons that I want to run Server 2008). Once you enable Hyper-V, you lose all power management capabilities. In Windows Server 2008, there was nothing you could do about this. When folks raised this as an issue, Microsoft’s response was … tough. Hyper-V is supposed to be on a server and a server never sleeps. It doesn’t matter if you have VM’s running or not either. A lot of folks came up with workarounds/hacks that “enabled” this, with various degrees of success. Well, apparently there was enough of a hubbub for the Microsoft folks to do something about it. You’ll need to create a new boot entry with BCDEdit and set hypervisorlaunchtype to off. Full details and step-by-step instructions are on Virtual PC Guy’s WebLog. You will have to reboot to re-enable Hyper-V (and the hypervisor) but that’s OK for me … I don’t always run VM’s and I’ll accept the reboot for that. It’s not my ideal scenario, but it works.

Zune: This sucked. I couldn’t get the Zune software to install for anything. Improper version or some such nonsense. Which meant that I couldn’t access my Zune pass and couldn’t sync with my Zune unless I dual booted. Apparently, the Zune folks don’t think that Windows Server is an appropriate platform for Zune. Fortunately, I found a post on David Zazzo’s blog that takes you through doing this step-by-step. One note: I right-clicked on packages\Zune-x64.msi and clicked on “Troubleshoot Compatability” … which applied the settings “Skip Version Check”. Just running ZuneSetup.exe … even in compatibility mode … didn’t work.

Since I did the last post on this, I’ve also (now) installed Server 2008 R2 on my personal desktop … as my laptop had to be turned in. In doing this and getting it set up to be a day-to-day desktop OS (as opposed to a demo machine OS), I ran across a couple of other things that I thought were worth noting.

IE ESC: That’s Enhanced Security Configuration … the ultra-secure-because-it’s-only-HTML mode of Internet Explorer that is enabled by default on Windows Server. Again, something that makes a TON of sense but it doesn’t work very well when you are using it as a desktop. I had thought (silly me) that it’d be easy … go into the Server Manager and turn it off. Well, there were complications. Here’s the deal: I run with a different account than the built-in Administrator account. It’s also the account that ties my machine to my Windows Home Server (which is way cool, btw). When I created the account, I did not initially add it to the Administrators group. So, when I turned IE ESC off for Admins, it didn’t turn off for that account … because it wasn’t an admin. Easy enough … I turned off IE ESC for all users. Nope. Didn’t work. Added my account to the Administrators group. And it still didn’t work … I was still running IE in the Enhanced Security mode. Even after rebooting. I went to “User Accounts” in Control Panel (it’s just like on the desktop version) and couldn’t add that account as an Administrator account there either. So … I wound up deleting the account and recreating the account using the "User Accounts” applet in Control Panel, creating it as an administrator account. Then it worked. Just fine. I don’t know why this happened. I cannot explain it at all. But there it is.

Windows 7 Themes: I did turn on the themes and eye candy as mentioned previously. But the Win7 themes aren’t included and I couldn’t find a way to install them. Easy enough … copy them from a Windows 7 installation. They will be under %WINDIR%\Resources\Themes. You’ll also want to copy the pictures (%WINDIR%\Web\Wallpaper) and the cursors (%WINDIR%\Cursors). They will then appear in your personalization window.

Windows Search: This one is important for finding stuff in Outlook and on your drives in a reasonable amount of time. It is not installed by default in Windows Server … and Outlook will tell you all about it and the necessity of installing it if you want to do any searching. You cannot find it in Features. There’s a download for Windows Search 4.0 for Vista … that doesn’t work either (refuses to install). Where is it? It is under Roles …File Services … Windows Search. Perfectly logical right?

So there it is. I’ll post any more tidbits as I happen across them. So far, though, all is well and happy. 

When motorcyclists pass each other in opposite directions, they wave at each other. Watch them sometime; you’ll see this happen. A lot of non-motorcyclists (we call them “cagers”) don’t notice this until it’s pointed out but you’ll see it if you look for it. It doesn’t matter if you are riding a crotch rocket or a Harley, a Goldwing or a dual-sport, if you are suited up in all leather and a helmet or are riding with no gear at all, bikers will still wave. If a motorcyclist sees another biker stopped on the side of the road, they will usually stop to check and see if they are OK. That’s just how it is. When commuting, bikers will also sometimes join each other in traffic and ride together for a time as their commute allows. Again, you’ll see this. But I’d bet you never even considered that those two bikers didn’t know each other. There are also biker-specific forums – I’m on Two Wheeled Texans – that all kinds of bikers participate in. There are also group rides; random people hooking up just to ride together. Some are random groups from the boards, some more “organized”. For example, TWT has a monthly “Pie Run” to a small restaurant in a small town in Texas and there will be anywhere from 80 – 250 bikers show up, on ALL kinds of bikes from ALL over Texas. I even saw someone at one of the Pie Runs on a vintage 1943 Army issue Harley! Bikers will also get together for a “Bike Night”. As the name implies, it’s an evening for bikes and bikers to hang out together at a local restaurant/ice cream shop/parking lot/whatever. I can often be found at “Katy Bike Night” on Wednesdays, munching on empanadas with anywhere from 3 to 20 fellow TWT’ers.

There is a strong sense of community among motorcyclists that is built on a common, shared experience … namely riding a motorcycle. We share a love for riding, feeling the wind blowing over us. We also share common dangers and risks - for the most part, “cagers” are the greatest risk but that’s not the only one (think … weather … a 45 MPH crosswind is absolutely, positively NOT FUN). Sure, we have our differences – every group does - but the sense of community is stronger than that. Yes, there are some individual exceptions to this but, as a rule, that’s how it is. And those that get snobby about their “group” are considered rude at best. And I won’t even mention “squids”.

Why do I mention this? Well … it’s that community thing. I’ve been involved in the developer community for some six years now and the biker community for about 2 years. I can tell you, the biker community is much stronger and, even more importantly, much more inclusive. In the developer community, there is – and let’s be honest here – a huge wall separating technologists with different specializations. Java guys don’t talk to .NET folks and they don’t talk to PHP folks. Linux folks don’t talk to Microsoft folks. Sure, there are exceptions here and there but the rule is different; we don’t intermingle. Do you know of any boards online where you have PHP and .NET and Java folks all mixin’ it up together in harmony? I certainly don’t. Even boards that cater to all types of technologists will have different forums where techies of like technologies congregate, with very little interaction between the groups. We tend to get wrapped up in our own areas of technology and look at technologists in other areas with wariness at best. Certainly one difference is competition … if Java is chosen as a technology at a given company, the .NET folks will be looking for work. And, again, vice-versa. That’s not the case with motorcyclists – it has no impact on my life if a fellow biker buys a new Ninja or a new Goldwing … I can appreciate both and it has no bearing at all on my ability to provide for my family (even if you won’t get me caught dead on a Goldwing!).

But there’s something more than that – overall, there also seems to be little interaction between infrastructure/network folks and developer types even in the same technology area.

When you think about it, it’s actually quite silly. Yes, there is that competition but I can’t see why we can’t be more like the motorcyclist community … inclusive and sharing what we have in common (which is quite a bit) rather than focusing solely on our differences. All of us have a love for technology and we all have the same gripes and issues with end users, customers, managers and the like. Regardless of our technology, there is much that we can share and much that we can learn from each other. Even if that’s only an appreciation for other technologies.

I think it’ll be interesting to walk into a PHP user group. I’d bet that they are little different from the .NET user groups that I go to. I won’t say anything. Well, I’ll try not to say anything or too much at least. Not there to convert them, spy on them or any other such nonsense. Just getting a feel. Who knows … maybe I could persuade one or two to see what a .NET user group is like. And get them cross-pollinating with .NET folks going to PHP user groups. It won’t be the end of the world by any stretch of the imagination. But it certainly make the community much more interesting. And maybe … just maybe … we’ll take a step towards breaking down these silly walls that would divide us.

We’ll see …