I found an interesting site this evening - http://www.assessment.com/default.asp.  It is put together by a company that works with students/employees to profile their personality traits in order to effectively match them with certain jobs or courses of study.  My curiosity got the best of me and I was immediately sucked into the free 15 minute assessment.  I've always been intrigued by this sort of stuff - trying to understand more about myself and my strengths and weaknesses.

So, I set about filling out the sample assessment - http://www.assessment.com/MAPPInfo/FreeAnalysis.asp.  There was no charge for this - I simply had to register on their site - the results you receive, though, will be limited.  They attempt to "up sell" you to the $20 full report once you've viewed your preliminary results.  Some may find it worthwhile, though I wasn't *THAT* curious.  The test consisted of 71 questions in which you were given 3 different tasks or situations and asked to rate one as "most" interesting, another as "least" interesting and leave the 3rd option blank to indicate a "so-so" preference.  The results are broken down into 9 different facets of personality:

• Interest In Job Content (Those tasks you want to perform)
• Temperament For The Job (How you prefer to perform tasks)
• Aptitude For The Job (Expression of performing tasks)
• People (How you relate to people, in priority order)
• Things (How you relate to things, in priority order)
• Data (How you relate to data, in priority order)
• Reasoning (How you relate to reasoning, in priority order)
• Mathematical Capacity (How you relate to the applied usage of math)
• Language Capacity (How you relate to the usage of language)

I was pretty amazed, actually, at the accuracy (at least in my opinion - those that know me personally can comment objectively!) of the "findings":

• "Once Bob has begun an activity, a priority (perhaps the highest motivational factor) is to get it done, reach the goal, get a grade, produce a finished product, get the prize, etc. Self-satisfaction is tied directly to completed achievement."  (My wife, citing the example of my ever-growing "honey do" list, might disagree.)
• "Bob is not motivated to persuade and is probably ill-equipped to do so; instead, Bob can most likely be intimidated by persons who are highly persuasive." (Odd that I have ended up in a sales role for the last 4 years...)
• "So Bob tends to be media-conscious for absorbing or expressing ideas, or both. This may be an activity dedicated to itself, like journalism, or it may be part of other activities: teaching, library work, publication, administration, etc."
• "Bob prefers operating heavy, mobile equipment such as trucks, earth-movers, cranes, etc."  (I have to admit, I've always dreamed of being an over-the-road truck driver.  Honestly...)
• "It is also most likely that Bob is comfortable and satisfied with being a caretaker for systems such as power generating units, city water or traffic systems, control tower activity at an airport, adjusting and maintaining machines on an assembly line, and computer, fax, or phone network installations." (Eerie...insert Twilight Zone music here...)

I suppose this might be useful if one were considering a career change or trying to decide what field to enter.  It also provides some basic insight into what might motivate someone in a particular job...I thought it might be worth passing along.

I just had a customer question concerning how to size a SQL database server.  In most cases, hardware vendors supply some generic sizing tools to assist customers with getting "close" to the right configuration.  Dell has several of these tools available on their web site:  http://www1.us.dell.com/content/topics/global.aspx/alliances/en/sizing?c=us&cs=555&l=en&s=biz.

You'll find sizing tools for :

• SQL Server 2000
• Exchange Server 2003
• Exchange Server 2000
• Windows 2000 Active Directory
• PeopleSoft/JDEdwards
• SAP
• Rack System Sizing Tools

http://www.tryiis.com/Default.asp

There's a new site that I have just been made aware of relating to IIS 6.0.  If you're a web administrator or developer who uses IIS (or even if you use something else!), this is worth checking out.  It brings together over 100 IIS 6.0 resources including some free tools and a special offer for the first 1000 customers who log in and fill out a survey.  In addition, you can select:

• Complimentary subscriptions to leading Web server e-newsletters
• New online training materials from Microsoft, including new IIS 6.0 modules
• Special software offers from Microsoft partners

The most interesting piece is probably the online training and the IIS 6.0 resource kit and tools...check 'em out.

The newest PC project around the house is a new computer for my wife.  She finally decided that it was time to put her poor Compaq with a P3 600Mhz Celeron out of its misery.  I had a couple of choices - I could either build her a new one or shop around for a pre-built machine from Dell.  I had pretty much decided to entrust this one to Michael Dell & Co. - until I found a Soyo barebones kit on Tiger Direct that I couldn't pass up.

The barebones kit above includes an ATX Case, Soyo Socket A (AMD) motherboard, 52X CD-ROM drive, keyboard, mouse and speakers for $59.99.  That's right, $59.99.  Of course that's with a rebate - but still, quite a deal.  Oh, and when I made my purchase last week, there was an additional $20 rebate as well.  That brings the price of this rig to $39.99.  Add a processor (AMD 2400+), a video card (GeFource FX 5200), some memory (512MB PC2700) and a hard drive and you have a very respectable machine, IMO.  All this for ~$275.00 - $100 cheaper than Dell's basic configuration.

When the kit arrived, I tossed the keyboard, mouse and speakers aside - she already has a nice set today and the ones that come with this kit are pretty basic.  They'll make good "extras" to have around in case of emergency.  The case is exactly what you'd expect from a $39.99 kit.  Here are some observations:

• Pros
  • Nice look - black, small mid-tower
  • Handle on top of case for easy transport
  • Power/Reset buttons are on top - easy access
  • Includes a 350W power supply - I was a little surprised they didn't opt for a cheaper 250W supply
• Cons
  • Overall, the case is made of pretty thin aluminum - not a huge concern, but I wouldn't be lugging this thing in and out of LAN parties if I were you.
  • Power supply is mounted directly over the Socket A on the mainboard, so I only had room for a smaller heatsink and low-profile fan.  I'm concerned that the 1.5" that are left between the two won't provide enough air flow.  Only time will tell...
  • Soyo motherboard included is pretty basic, but does include USB/LAN/Audio.  I had to manually configure the front side bus speed with jumpers as this board doesn't give you many options for configuration in the BIOS.

I'm pretty impressed with the value on this one - $40 is what I would've paid to get a CD-ROM at Best Buy for pete's sake.  Hard to believe that the first computer I ever bought - a 486DX2 w/32MB RAM cost over $3000.  :-)