US Government Spending in 2004

Here is my attempt to put the US govt spending in 2004 in perspective..

According to released reports, govt spending in 2004 was 2.2 trillion dollars.

that amounts to (2.2/366) trillion dollars expended in a day (Accounting for the leap year
that amounts to (.00601) trillion dollars in a day
that amounts to (6.01) billion dollars in a day
that amounts to roughly 1 billion US dollars spent every 4 hrs!!

WOW! Some mind boggling statistic that!

Lets just hope folks in the US are doing that much better

SQL Server 2000 Client tools

Microsoft actually gives away SQL server client tools for free!!

I had all these remote SQL servers to manage but did not have an installation on my laptop/Desktop.. Until now, I thought the only way was to use ‘Remote Deskop Connection’ to log on to the server and use the enterprise manager installation on the server.

Here’s how you can get Enterprise manager, query manager (and other client tools) installed on your computer:

1. Download a trial version of Sql Server 2000 from the Microsoft download page
2. Unpack it and double click on the ’setup’ icon
3. Select ‘Install SQL server’
4. Accept default directory
5. Select ‘Client tools only‘
6. Accept default download options

Voila.. you can now register all your servers within the enterprise manager and go about your business!

Later..

New Hard Drive

I got a brand new high capacity hard drive for my home pc – A 160 Gig Hitachi 7200RPM with 8 MB buffer ! I picked it up from best buy..It was marked at 120 bucks with 60$ cash back. What more can I ask for?
I have decided never to get Maxtor harddrives… My previous one was a maxtor and it crashed in about a year. It is devastating to have to rebuild all the stuff that goes into ones pc.. especially with no backup system in place.. C’mon.. home computers really shouldnt require backups!

Well anyways.. I am very happy with my new drive.. absolutely noiseless and FAST!

My primary OS is WinXP with SP2… It is one of the few os’es out there that can actually ’see’ partitions beyond 130Gig.

Here’s how I setup my partitions:

1. A 1 GB dedicated swap space (I am a true Geek!)
2. 20 GIG for windows files (Well.. at the rate at which patches are being downloaded, it may very well be required!)
3. The rest I left wide open for data.

Most folks create a lot of logical partitions to keep their content organized.. but I believe using folders is plenty efficient.
I created the following folders on my data partition(I’m sure there will be a lot more in the future)
>Program Files
>My Downloads
>My Music
>My Video
>Data
Remember that you have to make a conscious effort to stay organized.. put your files where they belong.. it is very easy to end up with a sea of files esp on a 160 gig drive!

Now, for the software that I installed
1. Office 2k (ofcourse).. An absolute necessity
2. Nero .. to help me burn cds
3. Adobe 5.. You know what I realised.. Adobe has a 100% desktop presence !!
4. Visual studio.NET+MSDN… Require it for my programming
5. Virtual Daemon manager.. I’ve been a fan of this compact piece of code that helps me ‘mount’ downloaded .iso files .. very handy.
6. MySQLCC and MyODBC.

Later.

New Hard Drive

Went to the ‘Ravi Shankar’ and ‘Anoushka Shankar’ concert at thePhillips Center for Performing arts (Gainesville, Fl). It was my first live ‘Sitar’ experince.. Well worth it. Sitar by itself is kinda slow for me.. but the tabla by Tanmay Bose put the missing beats in! Well, the house was packed and everyone enjoyed the performance.

You know.. if I were in India and a Ravi Shankar concert were next door AND the tickets were free, I dont think I would have gone! Being a foreigner in the US makes you appreciate the things that are taken for granted back at home!

Anyhoo, it turns out the virtuoso was quite ‘wild’ in his ‘heydays’ if you know what I mean! I read he is quite the ‘charmer’. He is the father of Anoushka and Norah jones.. both born in different countries (Norah in NY and Anoushka in England) to different mothers and they are 1 year apart.. How he pulled that off and still has the support of his daughters is pretty darn intriguing.