After performing some serious research into the matter, I’ve come to the firm conclusion that, yes, SharePoint Portal Server 2001 SP2 does break SharePoint Portal Server.

Thinking about that has me stewing. You see, there are a lot of product fixes in that service pack that I need right now - several problems I have will be solved by it. Unfortunately, it introduces some fairly large problems that are significantly worse than my existing problems, so I can’t use it. For that reason, I am developing a love/hate relationship with Microsoft.

A lot of people really hate Microsoft. I understand that, but I think that many of those folks hate Microsoft for the wrong reasons. “They charge too much for their products” is the wrong reason. You don’t have to buy them. “They make everything proprietary” is the wrong reason. I think we can all agree that Windows is pretty ubiquitous and we should learn to live with it. “When you buy some of their products they don’t work and then they charge you money to fix their products” is the right reason. I hate them for all the right reasons.

Buffy wasn’t on last night, which was disappointing. Instead of watching that, I fired up the latest demo disc from Official Playstation Magazine. I was very pleasantly surprised with a game called The Getaway.

The Getaway is like an interactive British gangster movie. They recreated London entirely in virtual data - every street, every building, all exactly where it’s supposed to be. They put actual cars on the streets (not like made-up cars, but actual cars like Mercedes and Lexus). Then they put a great story in it and mixed it together. I played the demo on this thing for probably half an hour (it took me a bit to get used to the controls and such) and was constantly amazed at how cool it is. It’s not like Grand Theft Auto: Vice City the way you might think it is - they really did go for the “interactive movie” experience and I think they acheived it. I’ll probably be picking this up when it comes out.

We’ve had a problem with my little Xev cat (aka “Tiny Tiny”) sitting outside our bedroom door and crying at all hours of the night. She doesn’t give up, either - if you ignore her, she’ll just keep crying. This can go on for half an hour, if not longer. To combat it, Jenn will usually get up (she can’t ignore it or sleep through it) and go out to sleep on the couch with the cats. Not so great, right? I thought of the answer last night.

A while ago we bought this thing called a “Scat Mat” to stop Xev from jumping up on top of the entertainment center and knocking everything down. Basically it’s a pad about five feet long and one foot wide that is pressure sensitive. When the pad feels pressure, it emits this really loud chirping noise. That’s worked like a charm for the entertainment center.

I put the “Scat Mat” outside our bedroom door so the cat couldn’t just sleep right outside the door and cry whenever she felt like it - she’d have to sit back a few feet and cry from the other room. If anything, I figured it would lower the volume of the crying; a few feet away from the door is better than right next to (or under) the door.

Last night was the first night I set the thing out there. She stepped on it exactly twice - once right after we went to bed, then once at about 3:00a at her normal “wake up the humans” time. Never once did the cat cry all night long. I am the smartest man alive.

Now, as long as she doesn’t figure out that she can still cry from the other room, we’re totally in business. She’s a shrewd little beast, though, so we’ll have to see.