Grades for CSC 513, Electronic Commerce Technologies, have now been posted. They are as follows:

• Homework 1, 97%
• Homework 2, 100%
• Homework 3, 94%
• Project 1, 100%
• Project 2, 100%
• Project 3, 100%
• Project 4, 100%
• Midterm Exam, 84%
• Final Exam, 88%

Final average: 93% (A+)
Costs: $2100 (tuition)

One more final exam to go, and then I’m finally done with graduate school!

Update: Originally, the grade was an A, but after appeal the grade has been changed.

Microsoft offers discounts for US Students on Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate Upgrade through their Ultimate Steal program. Unfortunately, the download consists of three files:

• boot.wim
• install.wim
• X14-63452.exe

and these files are intended to be run from an existing Windows OS installation. It is far more useful to have these files in a bootable ISO image format, so that it can be burned to DVD and then installed on a clean system. This can be accomplished through the following steps:

1. Download and install the Windows Automated Installation Kit.
2. Run the X14-63452 executable. This will launch the Windows Vista Setup Preparation application and create a Vista subdirectory.
3. Exit from the Windows Vista Installation screen, and copy the Vista subdirectory to a convenient location, like C:\Vista.
4. Run oscdimg -bC:\Vista\boot\etfsboot.com -h -u2 -m -lVISTA_EN_DVD C:\Vista\ C:\VISTA.iso, or see the oscdimg command-line options. Be sure to run this command through the Windows PE Command Prompt within the Start Menu.

Congratulations, you now have a working Windows Vista Ultimate with Integrated SP1 DVD.