I have been asked a couple of times before whether a $300 USB microscope or even a $500 Chinese brand can produce the same results one get from a research grade microscope. My response to this is always: You get what you pay for. Here is an example of a $500 Chinese branded microscope with a 2.1MP CCD Motic camera specially designed for microscopy versus a research grade Olympus BX53 with UPlanSApo objectives and a Canon 600D camera. Both used a 10x objective and bright field illumination, using the same subject.

You decide.

For some strange reason I had this impression that if you are shopping around for a software application, and found one with a really elegant, modern user interface chances are very good that the engineering behind the system will also be bestowed with the same level of attention to detail and quality.

Boy am I wrong. Kayako is a ticketing system that seemed great on the surface. Their main web site, as well as the Kayako application itself seem modern, well designed and Web 2.0 based - all atributes I liked a lot. Their support is responsive and that tells me a lot too about the effort these people must have put into designing and supporting this system.

However the devil is in the details. Once I started using the system, I picked up three problems. One I will discuss on a future date, the other two are quite horrible.

What is the difference between real life (below) and the imaginary world (far below)? Seems equivalent to me...

This is one of those grey areas where you are allowed to do something that is in fact very evil. On non SBS 2008 servers, you are allowed to install the HyperV role on a domain controller. That is, you are allowed by the OS to install the HyperV role on a server that runs a domain controller as host operating system.

Why is this bad? Because of these issues:

1. HyperV consumes a lot of resources and works best if it is the only role on the operating system. Other roles do not play well in terms of resource scheduling with HyperV.
2. HyperV only works well if you assign it a dedicated management interface and a dedicated VM interface. Without this you run into strange issues. If you run the HyperV role on the domain controller, you will have a multi homed domain controller and that creates a whole set of other issues.
3. I have had several HyperV VM's that triggered a fatal error in the HyperV host, whereby all VM's would die, on a domain controller. I have never seen this behaviour on servers with HyperV as the only role on the host operating system.

Tonight was very special for me. It is the first time I have ever seen one of my favourite childhood bands, Roxette, live in concert. And most likely this will be the last time ever. They, like me, are getting old and I do not see them performing another world tour after this one. Today was their last day in Canada. Here are three random photos I took tonight.