Many years ago (circa 1986-1991) I served in the US Marine Corps and as fate would have it found myself faced with the delimna of having to go to War during the first Gulf War.  It was not the best time for anyone but as a result of doing some paperwork I was asked to classify my veteran status.  Well, I don't recall the great # of medals and found myself pulling out old materials I have from my discharge to review medals and dates for vet status confirmation.

I ran into some pictures I took in an area I consider one of the really bad spots of the war, the drive into Kuwait city (which is also known as the "highway of death").  I will have to avoid some of the topics due to the nature, experiences and stories I have for it, but but this wikipedia link talks about it from a very detached and impersonal state.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highway_of_Death

This picture shows part of the road but its very much after the fact and cleaned up.  There were cluster bombs remnants and vehicles pieces (including the passengers) everywhere.

Learn about those lovejoys here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cluster_bombs

All this reflection just to determine if i am a protected veteran ... joy

Why is this installation a bit taxing??

Now, it took me 3 hours to setup workgroup edition and after one complete uninstall and back I was able to get things working.

Key issues:

- documentation is not consistent (single server setup from both the a) walk through and b) detailed walk through are not the same.   I was finding no mention of the HOTFIX for SQL or NETFX (.net 2.0) really clearly called out.  One does not showcase automated install steps (leading to STS issues post install)

- install steps are not consistent (interactive STS install vs. automated install for example, if you do interactive something seems broken in sharepoint and will not work.  Only through automated install will you avoid sharepoint issues during post-install/runtime workflows

- MUST follow instructions to a tee! do not install each step and download from Windows Update (as it asks).  Do all that at the end after the last step (VSTF install).  Missing those hotfixes (which are part of VSTF) or installing WU during each step will cause havoc post-installation

- permissions ... what can be said, there is no mention of manually adding groups/users to Sharepoint or Reporting server later to get domain groups or individuals setup correctly.  You find this out after you install and try to create a project for the first time and hit those wonderful errors (TF30224, TF30225 ..etc)  After you install all the items, manually add the domain groups to STS and Reporting server with the right permissions (on STS just add admin)

Those are the only issues for now............... what a nice way to kill 3 hours :)

a couple days of using this program and I am pretty happy! Easy to use like im in a word processor with one button push ... cool.

I wish there was a youtube/publisher that was this easy!

The WLW team blog (and download is here)

http://windowslivewriter.spaces.live.com/

Previously reported about this guy .

Been a bit behind on the purchase since we are trying to get my wife's present (and mine too) of a little baby.  January looks like the month for us to finally get both.

Yes it has AMD inside but this is the kind of system that I had purchased "shuttle" cube PC's for ...

Find out more about it here -> http://h71036.www7.hp.com/hho/cache/447351-0-0-225-121.html

ok just installed Live today and figured I would try out this "live writer" applet!

very cool