New direction in my life

Those of you who know me well, know that I have been researching my geneology.  I know that I have Italian and Irish as the predominant portions of my heritage, but there is also slavic, Albanian, and other various great cultures in my history. 

Recently, it came to my attention that there may also be Scottish.  My husband may also have Scottish in his background as well.  While I haven't found direct lines and proof, I wanted to capture that heritage and proudly display it.

I have also long felt that I had, maybe not royal blood, but noble blood of some type.  I have always had interests that required fastidious etiquette.  When I was a child, I was very aware of what the teachers at the private school mentioned.  When the other girls heard but ignored the stricture to straightened their skirts under their legs as they sat, I fastidiously not only remembered, but practiced the movement.  When the teachers decreed that skirts must "touch" the ground when kneeling, I quickly informed my mother to adjust my skirts so that they exactly touched the ground, while my classmates had skirts that came mid-thigh. 

I spent hours and hours on penmenship, because the teacher said that a "true lady" could always be recognized by her "penmenship, the backs of her shoes (as they would never be scruffed), and the way she sat (with just her ankles crossed, not splayed so her panties could be seen)". 

I spent time with my grandmothers: learning to cook, crochet, knit, crossstitch, and do other maidenly pursuits.  My mother enrolled me in music classes (so I could be entertaining in a proper way?).  I dreamt of living in the time just before the civil war, when women wore corsets, and had ladies to assist them into dressing in corsets.  I didn't agree with owning slaves, but I saw no problem with having paid servants who were well treated and considered members of the family.  I considered my father the king of the house; my mother his queen, and we three children the princesses and prince. 

When I babysat for the main family that I cared for, the mother had a copy of Emily Post's Etiquette book (that she had gotten as a gift from her mother in law - I wonder if it was a hint.).  Most nights, once the young ones were in bed, I would spend the remaining hours reading that book - learning how to outfit a guest room, the best way to seat a dinner table for guests using name tags, how to write invitations to an afternoon tea.  All things that no normal teenager would likely pursue, but I drank it in, like it was mother's milk.

When I did become engaged and marry, I planned the entire wedding myself.  All the table settings, the invitations, ordering the "at home" cards, having the thank you notes done within the first month after the wedding. it all felt so very comfortable for me to do it all myself instead of hiring some coordinator.  All the things that Emily Post had said must be done, and the way she said it needed to be done.  Alas, the man I had married had little interested in behaving as any of the proper men in the Emily Post book.  We did have children, but we divorced anyway.

Then I met my current husband, and while he was a diamond in the rough (and still is to some extent), he understands my need to follow courtly ways.  My desire to send handwritten notes on heavy paper, written with a fountain pen.  My desire to call on friends and leave a calling card, should they not be at home.  My need to only entertain when the house is perfectly clean, and ready to support overnight guests should a guest take ill or over enjoy the wine.  But it also means that I have very good relations with his family, because I treat them as my own.  His mother is my mother.  His nieces and nephews, mine.  There is no division of his vs. hers that occur in some families. 

So this leads to Highland Titles.  I truly feel in my heart that I am born of nobility somewhere in my family line.  I just haven't found it yet.  I researched several title companies, and I wanted one that would grant me not just a piece of paper, but land that I could bequeath to my children.  I made a mistake with my first choice.  It sounded perfect, but when I asked them what the procedure would be to bequeath the land (for my lawyer's benefit), I was told that while the land was mine, it was only until I died.  That didn't sound like I was purchasing land, which was what they said I was doing with their premium package.  It sounded like the premium package rented me the land and granted me the title, and the standard package granted me the title only.  They agreed quickly to return my money since what I wanted was not what they were selling.  I will grant them that.  They did not give me any trouble in returning the "land" and "title" that didn't match my needs.  It was my misunderstanding of their product.

Another company sold land and title, and the land was large enough on which to build (in some cases, there were already buildings), however, living in the United States, how would I upkeep a building in another country when I have a full-time job still here for at least another 4-5 years before I can retire?  That wouldn't do.  Plus, the cost of those packages were much more expensive.  They also included tickets to some ball.  A nice touch, I am sure, to go to a ball where I could meet other Lords, Ladies, Counts, Barons, Dukes, and perhaps even the Queen, but with a child in school, I am not free to travel on short notice at this time.

So, again, I searched, this time, I did not limit myself to British titles.  My husband is nearly half British and nearly half Irish, but apparently a few Scots snuck in there somewhere, so he too has Scottish blood.  That is when I found HighlandTitles.com.  The site was beautiful and much more easy to understand.  I quickly found that the land was inheritable to whomever I claimed to be my heir.  Land plots come in 4 sizes.  Though the land is not authorised for buildings, as I said earlier, I can't maintain a building from here.  I immediately felt comfortable buying a plot for myself and my husband.  Then realizing that my three children would have trouble sharing two plots, I made a second transaction, getting a plot for each of my children (and the titles that go with them).  Now when I die, I will still have a decision to make, which of my children will get my plot.  My husband's plot will go to the child we had together.  But my plot?  I had two children with my first husband.

Maybe I will just wait.  Time has a way of showing us the way.  Just as time showed me Highland Titles just when I needed it most.  My job is tenuous and may well depend on the upcoming election.  My parents-in-law are both coming to the closing on their lives quickly.  I can see my mother-in-law declining before my eyes.  She will not be with me very long, and knowing the devotion he has for her, my father-in-law will not stay long with us once she is gone.  Once that happens, it will fall to my husband and his sister to lead the family.

My father passed just two years ago, and I was his eldest.  My mother has remarried, so I don't fear losing her soon.  But his sister died soon thereafter, and his brother has had heart surgery.  Soon, that  side of the family will also look to my generation to lead.  I am the eldest cousin.  I will be looked to as the head of the clan.  Having a title won't change what I will do or say. 

I am still who I was a few days ago.  But having the title changes the way I look at myself. It reminds me of my duties to mankind.  I suppose it is like a degree from a university.  The day I got my Associates Degree, I was still the person I had been the day before, but the piece of paper documented that I had studied and mastered certain skills.  The day I got my Bachelors, I was still the same person, but I now had a piece of paper that indicated to others that I had studied that material.  Now, in a few weeks, I will have documentation that will indicate to others that I have spent my lifetime studying how to be a lady.  Some may say, "Well, there is a difference, Highland Titles has no proof that you studied one bit how to be a lady."  Those people would be 100% correct.  Highland Titles has no proof, nor can give any that I am a lady other than that I hold the land. 

To that I say, how many people have I met, who have college degrees who obviously had others do their work for them, and cheated their way through school?  Also, how many people are born "Ladies"or "Lords" and yet have no idea how to gently treat another person?  "The proof is always in the pudding" as my grandmother always used to say.  To those who look on what I have done and claim me a fraud, then it must be by the actions I take toward humanity, not because I chose to buy a piece of heavyweight paper.  And those who choose to admire me based solely on the piece of paper, they are fools as well, as anyone can purchase heavyweight paper at an office supply store and create an entire kingdom. 

Judge me, I ask, not by my name, my title, my degrees, my apparel, or the things I own, but by the way I treat men and women alike.  How do I treat the mayor, and how do I treat the poor homeless veteran.  Do I give them equal sincerity and honor and dignity?  A true lady is named by the way she acts, not by a piece of paper with her name on it, or even a piece of land.  This title from Highland Titles reminds me to be humble, to be charitable, to be cognisant of those around me, to do what I can to better their lives, if I can.  That is what a title from Highland Titles has done for me.  It has reminded me to be a Lady.

SharePoint 2010 Content Type Disenfranchized from Syndication Hub

Content Types sent from the syndication hub across the enterprise are one of the biggest benefits of the syndication hub.  It allows standadization across the enterprise, and a way to ensure that the entire enterprise has access to the same authorized content types.  There is a catch though.  If the content type is changed at the local level, it *can* then detach itself from its parent in the syndication hub.  You will be able to tell this has happened when changes made at the syndication hub are no longer being accepted at the local level and you are seeing messages in the content publication log that say that there was a preimport check that failed because a particular column from the content type found a pre-exising column with the same name as a column needed by the content type.

Until now, the only resolution I had found for this was to delete any content in the corrupted library, then delete the corrupted content type.  Then I could delete the corrupted site columns from the local site columns.  Once all that was done, I could repush out the content type from the syndication hub.  As you can imagine, this is not a great solution if there is live content on that site.  So, I contacted MicroSoft.  Their solution was to read a blog that discussed this very problem.  Unfortunately, the solution was this very solution, and had been proposed by me.  I was not very happy that the best they could do was give me my own solution. But, I followed my own advice, and sadly moved forward.

Then, I had another library get corrupted; actually, several.  I don't know how they got corrupted, but this time, there was more than just a few live documents, but hundreds of thousands because we had already migrated content from 2007 to 2010.  There was no considering deleting the content this time.  I had to have a different solution.  I spent some time with my largest coffee cup and my dog.  We needed a fix and we needed it NOW.  And then something came to me.  Instead of trying to make the children accept changes maybe what I needed to do was change the parent to match the errant child. 

If I changed the parents so that they were the same as the child, then all the content types would again be in sync.  Then maybe if I changed it back at the syndication hub to the original parameters, they would all change back to the desired configuration together.  It was worth a shot.  After all, what could go wrong?  The ones still connected would change, and then just change back.  The ones not connected, if they didn't reconnect wouldn't be any MORE disconnnected.  But, to cut to the chase, IT DID WORK. :)

It does take a few steps and quite a bit of patience, but let's face it, being patient is what is needed when you choose to work with Windoze in the first place.  So, get your self a cup of java and settle in.

First, determine the list of sites on which the content type (ct) is broken.  You will refer back to this later.  Also, make a list of the values of the columns on the broken site(s).  Hopefully, your sites are all broken in the same way.  If not, you will be doing this in waves.  Luckily for me, all my sites had the same set of fields broken in the same way (i.e. three fields were set to "optional" that were supposed to be "required") so this is what I will illustrate fixing.

Now that you have the list of broken sites and the list of the columns and the states that they are in, you are ready to fire up the Content Syndication Hub (CSH).  Go to the CSH Site Settings->Content Types and select the ct in question.  Write down the way the columns *should be* for the ct when it is in the fixed state.  Save this configuration.  You will need it later.  Now change the values of the ct to match the *broken* content types as they are on the broken sites.  Now "manage" the publishing for this content type and republish it. 

Good, get another cup of java, and we will now go back to the broken sites.  On each broken site, go to site settings->content type publishing and check the "Refresh all content types" box and click OK.  This may take time depending on how many sites you need to visit.  Once you are done, get another cup of java.

Now, it is time to fire up Central Administration.  I hope you have administrative rights.  Go to Monitoring->Timer Jobs->Review Job Definitions and then select Content Type Subscriber for the correct web application on which your sites are housed.  If your site collections are on more than one web app, then you will need to run it on more than one subscriber job.

Make sure that you allow the job sufficient time to finish before moving on to the next step each time.  I have found that the Content Type Subscriber job can take a long time, and sometimes it appears to stall for a very long time.  So, you may need multiple cups of java to get through this.  This is not the time to give up coffee!  This is not the time to have a weak bladder.  But, if you are patient, this can fix the issue where somehow the local ct has had the status (required, optional, hidden) changed. 

I have not tried it in the case where the default value of a column has been changed locally in the list instead of by using the Column Default setting in the library settings, which is the only SAFE place to make that change.  The only reason I have not testing this is because I don't have a case where I have a library broken in that way right now.  Should that come up, I will certianly test it and report it back here.

Metadata - data about data

Over 30 billion documents are created and consumed every year and over 85% are never retrieved. Fifty percent are duplicates in some way.  Most often, because people are afraid they will never find the original again, so they make a copy for their own use.  That copy is then modified, and becomes a different version of the original.  For every dollar spent to create a document, ten are spent managing it.  This data comes from Combined Knowledge LTD & English, Bleeker and Associates, Inc.

As you can see, finding documents ("findability") and managing them cost a lot of money.  So as a community, it is important for us to devise a better way to put them into our collaborative systems so that retrieving them is more efficient.  This is called "putability". 

Originally, the organizational structure was limited to folders.  No matter how logical the system may have seemed to its creator, it wasn't always as logical to the person searching for the data asset.  Several systems came along whose purpose was to assist in the structure of the folders such that items would be more "findable", for example ISO 9000 standards.  While not just a logical filing system, it does include standards that direct the management of files.

Most filing systems sort files based on some common attribute, for example, name.  In a school's filing system, students' physical records may be filed in a filing cabinet according to their last name, and then by their first name.  Perhaps, those records are also divided by the class the student is in (freshman, sophomore, junior or senior).  Maybe the folders are colored blue or pink to designate girls or boys.  These attributes (the name, class year and gender color) are metadata.  They are data about the data in the file, i.e. the student.  By combining those different pieces of data, the workers in the school can more quickly find the student about whom they need information.

With SharePoint 2010, we have the same advantage, but brought more to the forefront and digitized for us.  We have digital metadata.  We can set up columns (either the prebuilt columns that come with SharePoint or custom columns) and fill those with the type of data we need to store on our data asset.  Those columns can be searched using the search center in SharePoint.  If we enable Managed Metadata, we can even create new datatypes that can be used as data on our data assets and search by that type of data as well. 

SharePoint libraries can be configured to use a faceted filter that will bring back data assets which meet criteria in the following categories: Content Type, Choice Field, Managed Metadata, Person or Group Field, Date and Time Field, and Number Field.  The Metadata Navigation Filter acts similarly to the search on the Best Buy web site, where a user can narrow down his or her search for a television by brand name, size, resolution, screen type (LCD or Plasma), and price range.

This type of filtering is much more intuitive than folders, and therefore more usable and sustainable, and makes our files more findable.  Files can be found using the faceted filter immediately upon checkin, even before the crawl has been run, whereas advanced search (as powerful as it is) can't be used until the crawl is complete.

Of course, there are some drawbacks to managed metadata.  It cannot be used in datasheet view.  It cannot be used in Infopath forms.  It cannot be used in sorted  columns (which is why the faceted filter is provided).  It cannot be used in filtered views where the filter uses "contains".  Knowing these drawbacks upfront helps one decide whether metadata is for you. 

Little gotchas in Content Syndication

There are always little gotchas.  One of the ones that bugs me the most is default values.  I create a farm wide content type to be used across the entire farm, but on different sites, some columns will need default values but on those different sites (or even on entire site collections) those defaults will be different.  So, I can't set them at the hub.  But, I have had Site Collection Administrators mistakenly try to set them at the Site Collection or Library level, and in doing so, they break the umbilical cord from the syndication hub.

So, how exactly can one use a syndicated Content Type and still have different default values and NOT break the umbilicus? The answer lies in Library Settings.  If the Site Collection Administrator (or other person with proper permissions) can go to the library settings and in the first column on the left, there is a link that says Set Default Column Values.  THIS is the correct way to set default values for columns that are coming in from the Content Type Syndication Hub.  Setting the default value here does NOT break the umbilical connection to the hub.

However, clicking on the column name, and then clicking the "Edit Column" link, is the WRONG way to set the default value for a column that comes from the syndication hub.  Changing the value in this way will break the umbilical cord and a -content type changed in this way will no longer accept updates from the syndication hubs.  So, if you are interested in keeping the content types connected to the hub, remember to only set defaults using the link within the Library Settings list.