Biztalk 2006 Beta 1 Install

I have successfully installed the Beta 1 of Biztalk 2006 on the Beta 2 SQL 2005 April release. The install went smoothly; here are the steps I followed (all this was done in a VPC image):

1. Install Windows 2003 with SP1 (you can also install W2k3 and then run the SP1 patch on it).
2. Install all critical updates.
3. Added the Application Server role to the server (make sure to remove Frontpage 2002 extensions since WSS will not run with those installed)
4. Install SQL Server 2000 Client Tools only (this is per the install instructions, comments state it is a beta 1 issue only).
5. Fully installed of SQL 2005 April CTP.
6. Installed Office 2003 (Word, Excel, InfoPath -- added .NET programmability on all components and under Office Tools, .NET 2.0 support).
7. Update Office 2003 with latest updates at http://officeupdate.microsoft.com/
8. Installed Visual Studio .NET 2.0 Beta 2, uncheck SQL 2005 Express
9. Installed WSS with the SP1 found at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=47398.
10. Installed SP2 of WSS that should be downloaded as well (from the beta place).
11. Downloaded the Biztalk CAB file for any requirements I may have missed (found at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=45440)
12. Install Biztalk following install instructions -- no errors.
13. Ran the configuration utility, set it to run on the Admin account (yeah, not smart) -- Sharepoint configuration error came up because .NET 2.0 was not installed on the default website.
14. Run aspnet_regiis -i from the command prompt in .NET 2.0.
15. Reran the configuration for just the Sharepoint part -- it worked.
16. I still need to configure BAM, but it appears it will be fine -- just need to put in the account in 3 places and it will be set up as well.

Very straight-forward install, just follow the instructions that accompany the document and it should go without a hitch.

Beauty

I enjoy various genres of movies and one such genre is the type that the movie Anne of Green Gables fits into. I am not interested here in trying to justify such a liking, but rather to meditate on one reason why I think perhaps I have an enjoyment of such movies.

Lewis suggests that the existence of longings or desires means there is something out there that will satisfy those desires. We were not made for sin, for the humanity in which we are bound. We were made for good, for beauty, for the perfection that existed before the fall. Pictures that give us little tastes of that perfection, be they movies, books, nature, or other forms, remind us that we are not of this place, that this world is not home. Gire calls those pictures “windows of the soul”. Lewis writes:

"We do not merely want to see beauty... We want something else which can hardly be put into words -- to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, to become part of it. That is why we have peopled air and earth and water with gods and goddesses and nymphs and elves." (CS Lewis, Till We Have Faces)

Why like such things? Because it is the heart’s longing for home.

Diary of an Old Soul, July 27th

MacDonald writes in his July 27th entry of Diary of an Old Soul:

Oh, let me live in thy realities,
Nor substitute my notions for thy facts,
Notion with notion making leagues and pacts;
They are to truth but as dream-deeds to acts,
And questioned, make me doubt of everything.
"Oh Lord, my God," my heart gets up and cries,
"Come thy own self, and with thee my faith bring."

Rascal Flatts

Rascal Flatts sings in the chorus of one of my favorite country songs:

Every long lost dream lead me to where you are
Others who broke my heart they were like northern stars
Pointing me on my way into your loving arms
This much I know is true
That God blessed the broken road
That led me straight to you

While the song is primarily about finding his true love, today somehow they spoke to me a different way. And I wasn't even listening to the song, though I am now. Read the lyrics to the chorus above.

Now put yourself in the place of singing this song to Christ. Could it be that our pain, sadness, broken hearts and dreams, have led us straight to Him? "God speaks to us in our pleasures but He shouts to us in our pain," Lewis writes in his book The Problem of Pain. Next time you hear the song, sing it to Him.

Bless the Broken Road by Rascal Flatts

I set out on a narrow way many years ago
Hoping I would find true love along the broken road
But I got lost a time or two
Wiped my brow and kept pushing through
I couldn't see how every sign pointed straight to you
(It shall be when these signs come to you, do for yourself what the occasion requires, for God is with you. (1 Samuel 10:9))

Chorus
Every long lost dream lead me to where you are
Others who broke my heart they were like northern stars
Pointing me on my way into your loving arms
(Yet it is I who taught Ephraim to walk, I took them in My arms; But they did not know that I healed them. (Hosea 11:3))
This much I know is true
That God blessed the broken road
(The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise. (Psalm 51:17))
That led me straight to you

I think about the years I spent just passing through
I'd like to have the time I lost and give it back to you
But you just smile and take my hand
You've been there you understand
(For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. (Hebrews 4:15))
It's all part of a grander plan that is coming true
(Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things which have not been done, Saying, ' My purpose will be established, And I will accomplish all My good pleasure'. (Isaiah 46:10))