Lamentation: The end of an era…

The last of the Strelow children is currently leaving their preschool room right now. Today is the last class of the year, which means we’re done with preschool. This is one of those times where pausing and reflecting on how we got here is bittersweet. It first hit me like a ton of bricks at the Christmas program. I saw Clara singing and realized it wasn’t that long ago that Jackson didn’t sing (but air guitared) through his first program in 2002. Where did six years go? The National Weather Service predicts a 100% chance of precipitation under my eyes tomorrow.

When the kids were small, we had to carry them, change diapers, buckle them in, get them food, and all of those other things. Those times seemed so exhausting, and we longed for the “easier” days ahead. Well note to parents of little ones out there: they are easier, but also harder. Now we deal with tweeners, schedules, wardrobe meltdowns, and homework. I wouldn’t trade the days of yore for now, but they were fun.

Thanks to all of the teachers and staff at Curiosity Corner Nursery School for taking such great care of our family. We’ll miss you! If any of you are looking for a great preschool in the Milwaukee area, I highly recommend looking them up.

KnowledgeLake Error: Product Activator is Missing

 

So I go to enter the product keys on my KnowledgeLake Imaging installation on MOSS 2007 enterprise, and I get this error:

 

The KnowledgeLake KB had nothing on it, so I enlisted the great help from KL support. He had me check the following directory for ProductActivator.exe.

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\LAYOUTS

Missing, but found in:

C:\Program Files(x86)\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\LAYOUTS

It’s so simple and I have to admit a mea culpa here. I installed the 32-bit version and not the 64-bit version. Here’s the fix: since Imaging is the only product installed on this box, I could simply remove it via add/remove programs. You may have to copy C:\Program Files(x86)\KnowledgeLake to C:\Program Files KnowledgeLake so the uninstall completes. I didn’t have to, because I installed KL in E:\Program Files\KnowledgeLake.

I will update this post if something else went haywire on this.

First game jitters

It’s 4:00 and my first game as coach of my son’s U9 team is approaching fast. My heart is racing, I am warm, there are butterflies in my stomach. What if nobody shows because I gave them the wrong day, time or place? What will the lineup look like? Who plays where? How will we fix the looming Social Security Crisis?

Well, all I can do is take a deep breath, pray, and show up. It can’t be that bad, can it? More to follow.

Should I rename my blog? If so, what to?

OK, I’m staring at my blog and thinking there has to be a better title than Allen Strelow’s Weblog. I’m a creative guy, is that the best I can do? So then I think: what should I call this blog? It’s not like it focuses on only technology, or only political issues, or only family or Christian Issues. Like my mental patterns, it’s all over the board. So if you think you have an idea, please comment. I’ll wait for the two people who read this to chime in, and then I will go from there.

Robocopy

Every time I say or see the word Robocopy, I think of the 1980s flick RoboCop. I never saw RoboCop, nor do I ever want to. Some of my friends liked it; when they were watching shoot-em-ups, I was watching old James Dean and Hitchcock movies. But I digress.

Robocopy is standard on Vista and Windows 2008, but you can get it by downloading the Windows 2003 Resource Kit Tools. There is also a GUI interface to help you shape the commands. I’ve had two problems when XCOPY didn’t work because of insufficient memory. Another command line primer is here. There are so many options here, so make sure you know what they do before you go wild and shoot yourself in the foot.