Recently, a colleague at work was struggling with one of our new Windows 2008 servers, in that it wasn’t sending emails out to users. It turns out that there’s a historical reason for this, which I shall outline below:

IIS4/IIS5 were aimed at classic ASP, which used CDONTS to send emails. CDONTS wasn’t aware of external mail servers, it assumed you’d run a single-box environment, so is hardcoded to use localhost and the cutdown SMTP service bundled with IIS: http://classicasp.aspfaq.com/email/can-i-use-a-remote-smtp-server-with-cdonts-newmail.html

IIS6 and above use the replacement, CDOSYS, which is aware of remote servers, so you don’t necessarily need your web server to run a local SMTP service: http://www.asp101.com/articles/john/cdosmtprelay/default.asp

IIS can still run a local/cutdown SMTP server, and this can still be managed via IIS.

IIS7 seems to further this concept and do away with local/cutdown SMTP service under IIS altogether. Although SMTP server can be installed on Windows2008, it’s considered a separate product (and not manageable from IIS7, IIS6 is used with it’s compatibilty mode); Instead, IIS has the option to use an external SMTP server.

http://weblogs.asp.net/steveschofield/archive/2006/12/19/iis7-post-23-vista-and-smtp-server-where-is-it.aspx (Note: Vista runs same ‘core’ as Windows 2008)

Ok, I am shit. I promised that I’d update this site on a semi-regular basis, and my last worthwhile contribution to this site was over two months ago.

Just to give a recap on what I’ve been upto:

• I am now 29.
• I now know a little bit more about SQL Server and Windows Server, and a fair bit more about IIS6.
• I went to Bovington Tank Museum
• I had a drive about in a  Rally Car at Silverstone.
• I saw Blur play in Hyde Park

I recently attended an iLab workshop in order to discuss information technology’s role in learning and teaching for the next five years. The hook for this particular workshop was that in the year 2014 we would be dealing with Generation Y students, born between 1978 and 1988.

This struck me as odd.

Anyone born between those years would now be between 21 and 31, in five year’s time they’ll be between 26 and 36. So, by the point that our ‘five year plan’ has been realised, the student’s we’re aiming the strategy at will have graduated. Ok, there’s still the 30% of students who are postgraduates, plus those who are mature students (and hence over 21, and old enough to know better). But still, I can’t help but thinking we’ve already missed the boat.

The group we actually need to be focussing on are our digital natives, those born between 1988 and 1998 (and beyond). Looking at our plan, they’re now between 11 and 21, but in five year’s time that’d be 16 and 25. 16 is the age at which you start planning your future education, first with GCSE’s, and then with A-Levels two years later.

On top of this, you have to consider what it means to be a digital native. I was born firmly within the Generation Y era, and my wife is only just outside of it, but we are still left behind in some of today’s digital world (bebo anyone?). We can both remember getting on the internet in the early 90′s, but more importantly the ‘dark ages’ before that, when the idea of a schoolkid having the internet and a mobile phone was up there with moon bases and flying cars.
Someone now born in the era of the digital native, even at it’s lowest ebb of 1988, would have experienced the internet in some form or another by the time they started secondary school in 1999 (gonna party like it’s). And now we’re seeing that over 50% of 10 year olds have a mobile phone, rising to 95% of 16 year olds.

The landscape of the digital native is very different to that of Generation Y, and we should recognise that. We should start to plan for Gernation N.

I found out today that Google Maps now has street view for Koyoto (I should have realised this when I posted the map the other day).

Anyway, the aforementioned teahouse can be found in this view. You’ll want to stand at this point, to catch geisha entering/exiting the teahouse, geisha coming from the alleyway, and geisha coming from behind.

There’s a new season on BBC4, regarding Japanese Culture.

Check it out.