Thanks to everyone who took part in my survey! The results were quite interesting. This information is important for me because it helps me to improve 4sysops. Some of you submitted comments about my blog; I am publishing them without names at the end of this article.

Most of your comments were quite positive, which surprised me a little. I think this is due to the fact that only those of you who really like my blog were willing to spend some time answering all the questions. If you didn’t take part in the survey, you still have the chance to tell me your opinion of my blog in the comments section below. Critical responses are welcome too! So, if you think that I am a Microsoft fanboy, just go ahead and say it! But do me favor: watch your language. This is a family program. If you don’t want to comment publicly, you can use my contact form.

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I just launched a short survey with a couple of questions that will help me know more about you, my dear reader. I know, IT pros are busy people and so I am glad that GFI agreed to sponsor this survey. GFI is a software company focused on network and content security. If you can spare just ten minutes of your precious time, you’ll have the chance to win one of five GFI products, each worth about $400 - $1,100. There will be two lucky winners. I’ll give you more details about the prizes below, but first let me tell you why I am conducting this survey.

Actually, most of the survey questions are from IDG, the publisher of Computerworld, PCWorld and countless other magazines. I am a member of the IDGTechNetwork and they are interested in promoting 4sysops. In order to do this, they have to know more about your professional background, and this gives me a chance to learn more about my readers. The last two questions will allow you to tell me what kind of articles you would like to read on 4sysops in the future, and you can leave personal comments. For example, you could tell me what you like or dislike about my blog, or just who you are and what you’re doing.

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Another year of blogging on 4sysops passed by. It was a good year. The number of page views doubled and so did the number of subscribers. So I say thank you to my loyal readers, especially to those who didn’t agree with me often. If you are a regular reader of my blog, you might be interested to know which articles have been read most often.

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I wasn’t sure if I should blog about this. You probably wouldn’t find such a post in a traditional publication. But, I think, this is one of the differences between blogging and publishing. Blogging is something personal, whereas publishing is mostly about delivering information.

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I wouldn’t mention it, if I didn’t read this article in the reputable Networkworld. There is a contest going on for the sysadmin of the year 2007. Last year, technical competence was the deciding factor to win this contest. This year, you are also supposed to “record your own vocal track and enhancements to the SysAdmin Rockstar song”. Well, why song writing? Why not a cooking contest? Or what about the sysadmin with the hottest crochet needle?

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Just in case you didn’t watch it yet, these are the highlights of the interview of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. Parts of it are quite funny. It is interesting to see how much details they can recall about their early products.

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OSTG (Open Source Technology Group) searches the sysadmin of the year. Among other things, you can earn a trip to Washington DC and a Apple MacBook. Unfortunately, this is a “closed source” competition as it is only “open” to U.S. and Canadian resident IT administrators. It seems that OSTG is not so “open” minded as one might expect. Or is it just because sysops from the rest of the world can’t compete with American sysadmins?

Via Slashdot

Computerworld published some nice user stories of backups gone badly. This is my favorite:

While I was on vacation, a young IT staffer, new to the company, decided to run his own “updated” version of an Oracle backup — wiping out the live database. I had to fly back from Scotland to rebuild the database and restore from backup. Thankfully, only a half-day’s work had to be input — by 30 people!

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I just found this video on YouTube where “Steve Balmer” is praising Windows 1.0. I really had to laugh when I saw this. It is probably a fake, but the difference to the real Balmer is not so big. When I see one of his “shows”, I usually have to laugh, too. I am already looking forward to see his presentation of Windows 6.0.

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