Kevin Holman, who writes a lot about SCOM2007, posted an article some time ago with a bunch of extremely useful SQL queries to use with SCOM2007. Over several installments, I’ll take that file and show you some useful SCOM PoSh tools you can use to - including a set of cmdlets I wrote to help the process out.

First, let’s take the actual file itself. I’ve taken it and cleaned it up some, changing formats and fixing errors I found, and made it into an actual .SQL file you can use inside of SQL Studio.

Download the file, and save it somewhere useful. SQL Studio 2005 likes to save query files in My Documents\SQL Server Management Studio\Projects, and it’s the first place it goes when you select open, so that makes a great choice.

If you’re not used to SQL server, you might want to know how to use this file. When you open up the file, you’ll notice a ton of different queries - surely you don’t want to run them all at once¹ - and you don’t have to. To run an individual query, simply highlight it and either hit F5, or click on the execute button.

That’s all there is to it. If you wanted to take it a step further, you could hardcode the database name and user before the table name (So instead of “from ManagedEntityGenericView” you’d alter it to (In my case, yours may be different) “from OperationsManager.dbo.ManagedEntityGenericView”. That way, you don’t even have to worry about switching which database to use before running it.

Next up, how to make these more useful to you on an every day basis. And if you’re not one to blindly download things, read on for the pasted SQL file.

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1. And don’t call me Shirley [↩]

Check out these 2 awesome YouTube videos - both are of a new program for your Nintendo DS called DScratch, which runs under the new Protein engine. Not only does it allow you to use the touchscreen to mess with the audio, it sends MIDI over WiFi, allowing you to connect it up to a larger audio sequencer or control lights and other equipment when you’re VJing.

Interested in it? Download the file and try it out. But you’ll need more then that file and a Nintendo DS, you’ll also need Revolution 4 DS, which is a Slot 1 cartridge with a Micro SD slot builtin. It lets you ‘unlock’ your DS and allows it to run homebrew applications as well as making it oh-so-simple to transfer files to and from the device. I know what I’m getting next - I always wanted to get into it, and here’s a great way to do it!

The next stop? Add midi to the Wii Guitar Hero axe!

So today, along with washing the dishes, vacuuming and other housework I also did some housework on my site. First off, I’ve decided to move all the IT & geek related stuff off of the personal blog, and will slowing be finishing my setup of DotNetNuke over at Pavleck.Net.

Secondly, I updated Wordpress to it’s newest version, got all the little extras working and you may now notice my little phoenix up by the URL - yes, I finally added a FavIcon.ico. After looking around for various way I found the absolute easiest way to do it - check it out. Couldn’t be simpler.

I’ve also installed an OpenID plugin, so from now on when you click to make a comment, you can throw your OpenID URL in the website section and bam, that’s all there is to it.

Don’t happen to have an OpenID? You might be surprised - if you have an account with Yahoo, Google, Microsoft, or one of these other guys you might actually have one¹. Still don’t have on? I use MyOpenID.com, and it’s worked great - highly recommended.²

And lastly on the website update - I’ve been toying with removing my TwitterFeed for my website from my normal twitter feed, and as such I’ve created a new one - Pavleckcom - where all my website updates go to. Feel free to subscribe - if enough people switch over to it, I’ll go ahead and get rid of the updates from the primary feed.

I never thought of myself as being “well-read”. I doubt I’ve read 3% of the titles listed in “1001 Books to Read before you die“. I read what interests me. In my youth, that was a lot of Orwell, Asimov and London³. These days it’s a wide variety of authors and topics, as I noticed when I was cleaning up the bedroom a bit - see for yourself.

As you can see, at the top there is a bunch of Bukowski - my newest favorite author and the fault of Mishka’s father⁴. He gave me “Run with the Hunted” for Christmas and it stoked the literary fire within me. I’ve already read Post Office, am currently reading Women (Not pictured, cause I’m carrying it around with me) and Factotum is next.
After that, you see one of Chomsky’s newest books, “Failed States” - so there’s some politics.
Continuing onward, there is Man Ray’s Montparnasse. Man Ray is my favorite photographer, and his book Montparnasse explores his life with stories and anecdotes about his friends and lovers in Pre-WW2 Montparnasse, France - just when the Dada & Surrealism movements were taking hold. Excellent book, if you can find it pick it up.
And then there’s another pseudo-political book, Stephen Colbert’s “I am America (And So Can You)”. Not much to say about it. It’s a very interesting read, but isn’t meant to be a heavy hitter. I don’t think I’ve actually finished it yet, even.
And finally there’s “Naked Economics“. It’s subtitle is “Undressing the Dismal Science” and it does it well. It lays out the principles of economics in an entertaining and easy to follow way. After reading it I’ve got a much better understanding of why we pay what we pay and how the world in general works. If you have to read one econ book, then this is the one for you!
Not pictured, because they’re on the floor: Spook Country by William Gibson, My 230th copy of Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson and several electronic and microcontroller books)

And awesome news that I just learned about less then 2 hours ago - one of my photographs sold!
I knew some would sell, but had no idea that this one was going to sell. It was my experimental photograph, “On” seen below. It was printed up at MPIX.com, and since I was there I let them do the matting and framing too. The frame is nothing special, just a basic kit frame with tensioners holding the photo in - there isn’t even any glass to speak of. This was an experiment, not expected to sell. Yet it was the first one. I’m sort of stoked about it, and sort of curious - I always wonder where my photographs go, and how they end up being shown. It’s like a part of me is now with someone else.

And that’s it for today’s update!

1. You really should think about getting one, especially if you use FireFox - FireFox 3 brings strong support for OpenID [↩]
2. If you don’t even know what OpenID is - Wikipedia can help you there [↩]
3. Jack London, that is [↩]
4. Her father taught a class about Bukowski and the other beat poets. [↩]

System Center Operations Manager 2007 is great, don’t get me wrong. But it does have it’s oddities - and one of those are messages such as these:

Details:Health service ( A63BAA7B-20B1-D6C0-75B9-8A8CE3DD7E02 ) should not generate data about this managed object ( 021971E6-1EFB-E123-7E2A-452ADB511016 ).

Now, we know that Health Service ID is referring to a specific agent, but which one? Luckily, this is fairly easy to figure out. Just hop onto the database server and run the following query:

It should return the DisplayName property of said ID, which is the agent you’re looking for.

In fact, to go a step further - if you have many queries like this, you could write a PowerShell function to simplify things for you - here’s a real rough outline:

Like I said, the script is fairly basic and assumes a trust relationship with the database. It also expects a valid HSID - I’ll clean it up later. Edit the script, entering in your SCOM DB and DB Name if necessary, then add it to your $PROFILE. Then it’s as simple as Get-AgentByHSID “long health service guid” and it does all the heavy lifting.

Digging through an older hard drive, I found a play I had written awhile ago. It was meant to be in the Fringe Fest, but things didn’t work out. So for you, gentle reader, I’ll post some of it here. I actually think it’s fairly good for a first attempt, no? Forgive the formatting, it isn’t very easy to format a play inside of a blog post, but I’ve done my best. Perhaps I’ll post more, if it is received well. Oh, and Queen Achtland is from an Irish Myth.

Dating Achtland

A play by Jeremy D. Pavleck

Cast of Characters

Achtland - An urban harried mid/late 30s divorced mother. Intelligent and stressed.
Felicis - The ‘manic’ personification of Achtland, as seen by Dante
Tristis - The ‘depressive’ personification of Achtland, as seen by Dante
Dante - a 28 year old man, intelligent but scared of what 30 will bring
Animus - The mind, or analytical side, of Dante
Pectus - The heart, or emotional side, of Dante

The play takes place over several months in various suggested settings of Minneapolis and St. Paul

SCENE 1

At RISE:
(A coffee shop somewhere in St. Paul. Early evening. Light shines
through dirty windows. Local art for sale hangs on the wall.
Hipsters man the counter, one hand grinding coffee - the smell permeates.
DANTE is sitting in the corner opposite the door, a large glass of
coffee in front of him. He fiddles with a camera he has brought,
attempting to make it look as though he isn’t waiting for someone)

DANTE:
(Sighs loudly. Beat)

(Lights dim, Animus enters left, spot on. He approaches center with an
aggitated gait. He runs his fingers through his hair and paces a moment
before facing the audience)

ANIMUS:
(Spitefully)

Ah! And there we begin. Look at me. Sitting there pretending to pay attention to that camera.
I’ve been here forty-five minutes already, my own damn fault for leaving so early. I was so
broke, I had to cash in my change to buy this flower for her. Hell if I would of known then
what I know now I’d –

PECTUS (Off):

You’d what?

ANIMUS:

I would have stormed out of there and saved myself a lot of frustration!

(Pectus saunters in right and stands before Animus)
PECTUS:
(Calmly, soothingly)

You would have done no such thing. I wouldn’t have allowed it to happen.

ANIMUS:
(Hotly)

And who the fuck do you think you are, that you can tell us with such certainty that we wouldn’t leave.
You were the one most affected by this whole thing, and yet here you are, saying you would do it again!

PECTUS:

Indeed, I was. And indeed, we would. My friend, as intelligent as you are, some lessons are better learned
by actually doing, as opposed to actually reading about it. In time, you’ll see it my way.

ANIMUS:

That’s such utter bullshit!

(Produces a notepad, flips through several pages)

Just listen to these grievances! I’ve written each one down in detail, and you would be a fool to continue on
after but a third of this list has been read!
First and foremost, she –

PECTUS:
(Holds up his hand palm out towards Animus, Chuckling)

Ah, mon ami, you know as well as I do that I don’t listen to such things

(Pectus Off. Animus off. Lights rise as Dante sets the camera down
and begins to drum his fingers habitually against the table)

ANIMUS: (Off)

There is still time, let’s end this before it starts!

PECTUS: (Off)
(Reassuringly)

Hush, old friend. It’s time you let me take over. Here

(SFX: Rustling bag)

take this.

ANIMUS: (Off)

Oh! A rubik’s cube! I can handle this no problem!

(Dante stops drumming his hand against the table. He straightens up in his chair,
and a look of quiet confidence comes over him)

So far it’s been a fairly busy week, so I haven’t written. The ‘cool’ thing I was working on was another Twin Cities time-lapse and, although it’s done, it isn’t quite like I like it. I plan on getting more footage and making it more interesting.

Also, tomorrow morning I’ll be shooting some photos for the Twin Cities annual “Bike Walk Week“. I’ll first be in south Minneapolis to get some of the Commuter Convoys, then I’ll head back to St. Paul to grab some shots of the Rich Wieber’s Bicycle Stunt Show. If you’re curious as to just what goes on at a bicycle stunt show, you’re in luck, there’s an over-exposed video below which highlights what it is.

Hope to see you out there!

Oi, time flies when you’re having fun, right? I tried to have the Friday Link-O-Rama, but some days are busier then others and, well, it doesn’t get done. I wish I could maintain the same butter like consistency JACC has with his Friday Random Ten. Some day, Jeremy. Some day.

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I was supposed to be shooting BarCamp Minnesota tomorrow, but alas it seems like it won’t happen - I was informed of a prior engagement. And I tried to setup Joomla on my tech site, but that failed me too.

Anyway, I’ll be writing up a little something for you crazy cats tomorrow or later this evening, depends on when I get some work related things out of the way. And I have something that I hope ends up kind of cool, another time-lapse attempt, but this time with more cowbell.

But have a few drinks for me, k?

It’s that time of the year again, when the Solstice Film Festival descends upon downtown St. Paul, turning the Fitzgerald theater and the surrounding area into a hub of entertainment, showcasing films from the up and coming film makers from all over the world!

And, even more importantly, it’s a great time to drink! Yes, I missed it last year but I won’t this - it’s the 2nd annual SFF pub crawl and look-a-like contest! Starting Saturday, June 14th, 5:00pm at Moose Country Press and ending… well, who knows - it’s bound to be the most incredible evening you won’t remember. A lowly $30 buys you an SFF All Access Pass, transportation to all the pubs and specials on the drinks!

The only bad part? It’s limited to 180 spots. So hurry up and sign up for it, come see me, Mishka and friends get stupid drunk and talk about films! Click on the Google calendar link to be whisked away to a GCal event all filled out and ready for you to click ‘Save’ - it couldn’t be easier!

Guilty of being a romantic. No, not the flowers kind, the other. The one that’s defined as “a soulful or amorous idealist”.

I read books with characters I can relate to, ones I associate with. Bean from Ender’s Shadow, with his high intelligence and deplorable life. Shadow with his quiet intelligence and cool, calm demeanor. Hiro Protagonist from Snow Crash, with his weird ability to be in the right place at the right time - always “this close” to being the next big thing, yet somehow messing it up. And my newest love, Bukowski’s hard-drinking, fighting, womanizing alter-ego of Henry Chinaski.

I read those stories, and romanticize them. I can feel what they are going through - I know what they feel. I was them. I am them? I know of a life of hard times - living in my car, in a dumpster behind a carpet factory. I know the thrill of being rick on paper, then squandering it all away due to lack of foresight.

I know what it’s like to live hard. My father died when I was 6 weeks, raised by a bipolar mother who refuses to get help or acknowledge her problems. I know what it’s like to have to beg for $20 to be able to buy antibiotics for a double pneumonia from not taking care of yourself. I know what a soaring high, were you feel in control of everything. And crushing lows, where the only sensible way out if a bullet between the eyes.

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Well, the Bent Festival is over. It was an amazing event, I met a lot of awesome talented people, and took a metric ton of pictures - over 1700 in all. Here are some of my favorites, starting with my absolute fave!

Albino Ghost Monkey from Rice Lake, WI

Tim Kaiser from Duluth, MN plays his homemade instruments

The custom hacked and bent keyboard played by Albino Ghost Monkey

Closeup of one of the hacked synthesizers connected to a stationary bicycle

Hacked Nintendo, used to display odd visuals of classic games

DJ Tendraw from England gives us his hardcore renditions

Memory Selector from Chicago/Minneapolis plays a chill set

Creme De Menthia of Illinois waxes his bending skills

Mike Rosenthal of “The Tank” cooks for the group at the Bent BBQ

Datura 1.0 and Tim Kaiser discuss their art over Bratwurst

Ronald Schleper teaches a drum machine bending workshop

Beatrix*JAR pumps up the audience at the end of day 1

There really are to many good pictures - it’s hard to choose. If you’re feeling brave, feel free to look at the over 750 shots at my Flickr set.

Really looking forward to next year! And thanks to Wired’s GeekDad for asking me to shoot it!