Kurt Shintaku's Blog: Blog

Out on Vacation

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 07:33:35 GMT

Sorry I haven't posted but I've been on a serious vacation. First in a long while. The nice people at the Wynn Las Vegas and the Venetian- Palazzo comped me for a week out here in the desert so here I am burning MSFT stock at the tables.

I'll be posting some stuff over on my other blog at http://www.kurtsthoughts.com for those of you interested in Vegas, the casino comp system, the playing conditions at either the Palazzo or the Wynn, and the room amenities. Oh yeah... and the restaurants.

CES2008: Old photos that I never published

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 05:47:10 GMT

Check this out. I found a bunch of old photos that I never actually published the to the web site because of all the chaos that happened after CES occurred. Hope you enjoy some of these:

Pioneer’s Project Kuro
What the heck is Project Kuro? Funny you should ask because while I was at CES, that was the exact question I asked everyone while I was there. No one would tell me. Or they were too busy talking to someone with more clout or more coin to be bothered with lil’ ol’ me.

I mean, seriously: Can you tell what Project Kuro is? Clearly it has something to do with the display being shown but what’s the big deal? Yes, it was a nice display and all and the black areas really were very “black” as opposed to having a whiteish glaze that many plasma displays are prone to do.

But it took until I LEFT CES to find out what the big deal was. You can’t tell from the photo’s angle however these “Kuro” plasma displays are, like, 1 inch thin. This is approaching the thinness of OLED displays – except these displays were colossal in size, while being light enough and thin enough to be hung easily on a wall without monstrous supports.

Sharp’s Aquos 108” LCD TV
And then there’s Sharp’s monstrosity, the 108” LCD TV.

Even I have to admit – I don’t know what I’d do with that size of a TV. As it stands my 65” is a little big for our Living Room and believe you me, our Living Room is pretty large for a condo.

In reality though, the Sharp 108” was dwarfed in technological superiority and size by the colossus they called…

Panasonic’s 150” Plasma Display
This thing was so huge, it had it’s own zip code. The bald guy in the photo was permanently on stage talking constantly about the display.

It apparently sells for something like $200,000 and the speaker strutted around the stage answering questions with an a oddly superior and arrogant attitude. Feh – yeah, like that dude owned one of these at home. Not.

All attitude aside, the display was sexy. Just questionable as to who the hell has the space for one of these. Clearly Shaquille O’Neal maybe but who else?

iRobot Vacuum Booth
This was weird. Maybe I’m a little bias because I like these things and think they’re immensely useful but I found iRobot’s booth uninspired, unexciting, and lacking an any traffic whatsoever.

Which is sad because as any of my close friends will tell you, I think the iRobot vacuum is one of the only things I’ve bought in the past year or so that I thought was really really cool. I mean we’re talking Slingbox cool.

But alas, they had no announcements, no show deals, no special add-ons. Just the same ol’ overpriced vacuums that I was planning on waiting until they arrived at Costco to pick them up at a 30% discount.

Powercast Wireless Power
Now this was different. What you’re looking at is the Powercast Wireless Power transmission booth and the black “meter” you see in the back was a power receiver. The folks from Powercast have created this low level power transmission technology that essentially allows people to recharge devices wirelessly. This includes PDAs, phones, LED/LCD powered display devices, and other small consumer electronics.

The wattage supplied changes depending on the distance between the transmitter and the device receiving the power. The demonstration explicitly showed the diminishing strength of the electricity being provided depending on the distance involved – whereas direct contact, such as putting the device directly on a surface like a charging table, provides maximum charge.

SlingMedia’s Booth
The makers of Slingbox frankly didn’t have much to show that was new, albeit their booth – while it was way in the boonies of CES, was really really beautiful in a 70’s sort of motif.

The one thing I saw was the Sling Catcher, a IPTV like device that receives signals from Slingboxes on your network. It also however allows you to playback video stored on USB hard drives that you connect to the Slingcatcher as well as any video that you can play back on your over a network.

And it’s now August and the Slingcatcher is still not available so it kinda remains to be seen if this thing ever materializes.

Streambox Mobile Video Encoder
This technology got quite a bit of exposure when someone from a major network (I think it was CBS) had a reporter that had an eyewitness account that he filmed while on location using his Palm Treo 700wx running Windows Mobile.

The video was broadcast live from his device over a cellular network to his network’s TV broadcast and shown on TV as he shot the entire thing himself.

What made the event so unique was that the incident was a fire and explosion that had happened so quickly that the entire thing was over by the time others were on the scene.

WARNING: Installing SQL Server 2008 with Visual Studio 2008

Sun, 10 Aug 2008 23:36:16 GMT

If you have the Developer Edition of SQL Server 2005 and have Visual Studio 2008 installed, and you attempt to upgrade to SQL Server 2008, you will find that the install WILL NOT WORK.

The installation will fail stating that you much have Visual Studio 2008 Service Pack 1 which is not released yet. (The SP1 Beta only – which the README below states you should NOT install)

Visual Studio Service Pack 1 will be released the week of August 11, 2008.

-------------------------

Taken from: http://download.microsoft.com/download/4/9/e/49eeb41a-a769-4520-80d6-671b8ae2bd06/SQLServer2008ReleaseNotes.htm

Before You Install
Please read the KB articles listed below before you install SQL Server 2008. More known issues can be found online; we recommend you read about the following issues first.
KB Article 956139 requires Visual Studio 2008 SP1, which is not available until the week of August 11, 2008. You should not install the Visual Studio 2008 SP1 Beta to meet the Visual Studio 2008 SP1 requirement for installingSQL Server 2008. Visual Studio 2008 SP1 Beta does not provide the necessary functionality for installing SQL Server 2008. The following describes options for installing SQL Server 2008 before Visual Studio 2008 SP1 is available.

If Visual Studio 2008 is not currently installed on your computer, you can install SQL Server 2008 and no further action for installing Visual Studio is required.
If Visual Studio 2008 is currently installed on your computer, you cannot install SQL Server 2008 successfully unless you perform one of the following actions:
Wait until Visual Studio 2008 SP1 is available and then install it before installing SQL Server 2008.
Uninstall Visual Studio 2008 and then install SQL Server 2008. After Visual Studio 2008 SP1 is available, you can install Visual Studio 2008 and then install Visual Studio 2008 SP1.
Only install components of SQL Server 2008 that do not require Visual Studio 2008. For example, do not select the Management Tools (both Basic and Complete), Integration Services, or Business Intelligence Development Studio features.

For more information about Visual Studio 2008 SP1, see this Visual Studio web site.

NEWS: “Black Hat – Gotta luv the haters”

Sun, 10 Aug 2008 20:53:12 GMT

Jeff Jones, Microsoft’s Director of Security Strategy, is at the Black Hat Conference and wrote this fantastic article about an encounter he had with a Mac fanatic:

So, this afternoon, I'm in the Microsoft booth at Black Hat when this guy comes up (badge hidden of course) and starts talking to some of my colleagues. Right away, it was pretty obvious that he was antagonistic. I will refer to him as "h8er" from here on out. Though I am paraphrasing a bit, this is based upon a true story. It gave me a chuckle, so I thought I'd share.
h8er: So, how does it feel to work for a company that has made so many bad security decisions.
MSFT guy: Well, I feel lucky to be in a position to try and influence good security decisions going forward - are there any specifics you want to give me feedback on?
h8er: All those prompts irritating people, for example.
MSFT guy: Oh, so you don't like that aspect of UAC. We've gotten a lot of feedback on that, but the UAC security changes in Windows Vista encompass a pretty wide range of options designed to make it easier for most users to run as non-admin. Plus, we've incorporated some of the feedback into SP1 and I think it is a lot better. Have you tried SP1?
h8er: <crickets chirping in the silence>
MSFT guy: (still trying) Let me ask it a different way. A lot of folks have said that after the first few weeks, the UAC prompts tapered off, have you not found that to be the case?
h8er: <crickets chirping in the silence>
MSFT guy: What about some of the other changes in Windows Vista - I think the addition of ASLR, for example, was a good decision and raises the bars for attackers developing exploits.
non-MSFT guys standing nearby: He has probably never even tried Vista - I bet you run Linux and just heard the prompt stuff second hand.
h8er: I don't run Linux ... I run a Mac!
…and so on and so forth…

Read more of this lovely story at:
http://blogs.technet.com/security/archive/2008/08/07/black-hat-got2-luv-the-h8ers.aspx

NEWS: Consumers just not that interested in Blu-ray DVD

Sun, 10 Aug 2008 20:46:12 GMT

Apparently, the world agrees with HD DVD’s original proposition: For a high definition video disc format to be adopted, it has to be inexpensive enough for people to consider in comparison to current generation standard definition choices.

The “widespread reluctance to commit to Blu-ray” by consumers (as described by ABI Research) is obvious just by just looking at the fully stocked shelves of retail stores. Only 1 in 4 people surveyed said they might buy a Blu-ray DVD player in 2009 according to this new survey of a 1000 consumers. Obstacles to adoption? The $300 high cost of players relative to current generation players and the excessive cost of video discs from $20+ each.

SUMMARY:
http://www.abiresearch.com/press/1203-Consumers+Delaying+Blu-ray+Player+Purchases

RESEARCH DOC:
http://www.abiresearch.com/products/research_brief/Consumer_Video_Technologies_Market_Update/115/Blu-ray:+Consumer+Survey+Results

RELEASE: Sharepoint Monitoring Toolkit v2.0

Sun, 10 Aug 2008 01:15:37 GMT

The SharePoint Monitoring Toolkit helps you manage Microsoft® SharePoint® environments of all sizes with two new management packs for System Center Operations Manager 2007:

Windows® SharePoint Services 3.0 Management Pack
Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Management Pack

These packs monitor the health state of the components in your SharePoint environment that affect performance and availability. When there is an issue that may cause service or performance degradation, Operations Manager 2007 uses the management packs to detect the issue, alert you to its existence, and facilitate diagnosis and corrective actions.
The management packs monitor:

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 related services (Timer, Tracing and Search)
Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 related Events
Web server applications such as Internet Information Services (IIS)
IIS-related Events
Microsoft SQL Server® database-related events
WSS Server performance

The SharePoint Monitoring Toolkit Management Packs have been rewritten from the ground up to take advantage of the latest features of System Center Operations Manager 2007. Major improvements from previous packs include:

Extended rules
New and improved reports
Additional actions
New views
Elimination of backward compatibility dependencies
Increased reliability
Noise reduction through tuning and event suppression
Thoroughly tested compatibility of management packs with:
- System Center Operations Manager 2007
- System Center Essentials
- Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 SP1

EXECUTIVE OVERVIEW:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb975149.aspx

DOWNLOAD:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=e4600fd9-f53d-4ded-88bf-6bb1932794f9&DisplayLang=en

INFO: XXIX Olympiad & Microsoft/NBC Sports

Sat, 09 Aug 2008 21:57:32 GMT

On the eve of 08.08.08 and the excitement around the XXIX Olympiad, Microsoft and NBC Sports have teamed to deliver event coverage on a scale never seen before on the Internet, let alone on TV. NBC and Microsoft will be streaming more than 3,500 hours of Olympics video to millions of online viewers in the United States, including LIVE coverage of every minute of competition from 25 sports.

This is the largest media event ever done on the web, an unprecedented moment in the history of the Internet. MSN is providing distribution of NBC Olympics video content -- which lives exclusively on the MSN network -- to all of our US visitors. The site itself is designed to handle more than 2.3 terabytes/second of traffic and will provide a flawless viewing experience for customers. Silverlight 2 is the core technology behind the Olympics video player and provides the high-quality, interactive experience. The combination of this unprecedented amount of video coverage from NBC and Microsoft technology will change the way people experience live sports.

Here are all the ways you can experience the 2008 Summer Olympics from Microsoft and NBC:

Click http://www.nbcolympics.com/video to jump right in and experience high-quality, interactive video using Silverlight. This could even be better than being in Beijing! Get amazing, crisp HD video quality on the web that’s always optimized for your connection using Silverlight’s new adaptive streaming capability, watch up to four live streams simultaneously in the same player, and get expert commentary (hot-linked so you can go back right to the exact moment that Michael Phelps touches the wall for gold) all within a rich Silverlight application running within the browser.
Beginning tomorrow and throughout the Games, the MSN homepage will prominently feature a dynamic Olympics module which will enable people to see results (or hide them if you don’t want any spoilers), get the latest news and see exclusive video coverage. Our partnership with NBC and the world-class editorial team in MSN will make MSN the best portal for up-to-the-minute Olympics coverage.

Get the latest medal counts by sport or by country, or find out about all 10,000 of the athletes competing in the 2008 Summer Games using the Live Search Olympics Instant Answer

Install the new MSN Toolbar that gives you one click access to the medal tally and many other highlights.
Beginning August 9th, Zune Marketplace will kick off a series of daily 2008 Olympic Games videos from NBC Sports, giving viewers special on-the-go access to the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. For approximately 99 cents–$1.99 per episode (with post-Games content TBD), footage will include memorable highlights from the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, “best of” compilations, “best match” replays and a post-Games wrap-up feature. Users will be able to download each episode onto their Zune device for viewing whenever and wherever they go.

Additionally, XBOX users will be able to purchase and download a daily wrap-up of the day’s events from NBC Sports, with a complete wrap-up at the end of the Games. And as you saw earlier today, from Windows Media Center, head for NBC Olympics On the Go service in the Online Media strip.

For a behind-the-scenes look at what was involved, check out:

the Olympics channel on onTen
and CNET’s take here

…along with press coverage of Microsoft’s participation in the Games, including yesterday’s Seattle Times and today’s Seattle P-I.

RELEASE: NBC Olympics on the Go for Windows Media Center

Sat, 09 Aug 2008 21:18:19 GMT

We are pleased to announce we are launching NBC Olympics On the Go in Windows Media Center, an Internet-delivered catch-up TV service from NBC Universal powered by Wavexpress’ TVTonic platform. This free download-and-play service differentiates Windows Media Center as the platform with the highest-quality Internet-delivered Olympics experience in the USA.

For more information visit: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/mediacenter/olympics.mspx
(Note: This application is intended for Windows Vista users only. It will not appear in Windows Media Center for XP users)

Please try it out and give us your feedback! You simply launch Windows Media Center and scroll down to the Online Media strip where you will find a link to NBC Olympics On The Go in default view. Follow the simple one-time installation steps and you’re ready to go.

With NBC Olympics On the Go in Windows Media Center, you will get:

NBC Sports’ complete on-air HDTV coverage of the Beijing Olympics on the NBC, USA and Universal networks – even when you don’t have a TV tuner for your Windows Vista Home Premium or Ultimate PC
225 hrs of long-form Olympics video over 17 days
24 sports, full opening ceremony, and a closing ceremony montage
Up to HD quality, with the vast majority of the video delivered in 840x480 progressive scan resolution at 1.5 Mbps bit rate, plus several events per day delivered in 1080i resolution

This free download-and-play service differentiates Windows Media Center as the platform with the highest-quality Internet-delivered Olympics experience in the USA:

NBC’s in-house download offering, NBC Direct, will offer only short-form highlights from the Olympics
While Olympics events not chosen for on-air broadcasts will be available only through NBC’s Silverlight player on www.nbcolympics.com, the NBC Olympics experience in Windows Media Center will deliver the video at a higher bit rate and play more reliably since videos will be stored on the users’ PCs.

Features of the NBC Olympics On the Go service in Windows Media Center furthermore include:

Easy to install
Select the sports you want and get automatic downloads of all available coverage for those sports during the Olympics
Content becomes available as soon as NBC completes its primetime on-air coverage on the West Coast (i.e., beginning at 3 am EDT)
Watch online or offline – during your morning commute or through any Extender device
Rewind, fast-forward and re-watch your favorite Olympics moments

We are very proud of the collaboration with NBC and TVTonic and the resulting consumer experience. Please give it a try and let us know what you think.

The Media Center Team

EVENT: SQL Server/PASS Community Summit 2008, November 18-21, Seattle, WA

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 15:37:21 GMT

November 18-21, 2008
Washington State Convention & Trade Center, Seattle WA.

The PASS Community Summit 2008 is the single largest gathering of Microsoft SQL Server professionals in the world, bringing together the entire community - from the brightest and the best, to the newest SQL Server users.

LINK: http://summit2008.sqlpass.org/
(Note: Register by August 30th to get an Early Bird Discount of $300)

Attendees receive top-rated industry advice and expertise on the best ways to develop, deploy and manage their entire SQL Server environment and will walk away with an in-depth and hands-on look at all things SQL Server.

Delivering three full days of in-depth learning, PASS Summit provides unparalleled access to the Microsoft SQL Server development team and face-to-face networking in a fun, focused environment. PASS Community Summit 2008 provides the perfect opportunity to sharpen and perfect your SQL Server technical skills. Register for the PASS Community Summit 2008 today.

Who Should Attend?
Microsoft SQL Server users who:

Manage and support SQL Server data platforms
Design, architect and implement database solutions
Architect and develop SQL Server applications
Architect and develop Business Intelligence solutions

EVENT: Microsoft Business Intelligence Conference 2008 – Oct 6-8, Seattle, WA

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 15:33:40 GMT

We are pleased to announce that we will be hosting the 2nd Annual Microsoft BI Conference 2008 from October 6 – 8, 2008 at the Washington State Convention & Trade Center in downtown Seattle, WA. We hope that you will plan to join us for the 2nd annual worldwide event for customers and partners.

LINK: http://www.msbiconference.com
(Note: Register by August 22nd, and get an Early Bird Discount of $300)

This exciting and informative conference will showcase Microsoft’s market-leading business intelligence (BI) products, solution expertise and customer successes. The event is designed to educate customers and partners on every aspect of Microsoft’s BI offering. You can also expect even more educational tracks and sessions by Microsoft product and industry experts, customer best practices sessions, the second-annual Microsoft BI Customer Awards presentation, hands-on labs, and much more!

What You Will Learn
You and your colleagues should plan to attend -- You’ll gain insight from industry thought leaders, learn about the success of other Microsoft BI customers from your peers, discover best practices and gain valuable product knowledge from Microsoft’s product experts.

Why You Should Attend
CIOs and CTOs, and IT Professionals as well as business decision makers, analysts, seasoned BI professionals or users new to business intelligence should attend this 3-day conference to see how Microsoft Business Intelligence can help you drive increased business performance at strategic, tactical and organizational levels. You’ll gain in-depth product knowledge from Microsoft product experts, learn best practices for designing, building and deploying robust, yet cost-effective, business intelligence applications for everyone in your organization, and network with peers from around the world.

Microsoft Business Intelligence Resources
In the meantime, take this opportunity to learn more about Microsoft Business Intelligence products and solutions, upcoming events, resources and our partner community at www.microsoft.com/bi.

Revisit the 2007 Conference
Revisit the keynotes, news, podcasts, webcasts and other events from the first-ever Microsoft BI Conference held May 9-11, 2007 in Seattle, Washington. Revisit the 2007 Conference.

Please contact askBIC@microsoft.com if you have any questions.

RELEASE: SQL Server 2008 RTMs!

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 15:52:22 GMT

SQL Server 2008 has been released and is ready to deliver a rich set of integrated services that enable you to do more with your data, such as query, search, synchronize, report, and analyze.

RTM Evaluation Download of SQL Server 2008
http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9333553

Overview Videos on SQL Server 2008:

SQL Server 2008
http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9333556
Webcasts: 24 Hours of SQL Server 2008 for IT Professionals
http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9333557
Webcasts: 24 Hours of SQL Server 2008 for Developers
http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9333558

TechNet Magazine content:

Overview of the key changes and what you can expect from SQL Server 2008
http://technet.microsoft.com/magazine/cc434690(TechNet.10).aspx
Overview of the various editions and components of SQL Server 2008
http://technet.microsoft.com/library/ms144275(SQL.100).aspx
Tutorials of SQL Server 2008
http://technet.microsoft.com/library/ms167593(SQL.100).aspx
SQL Q&A Column
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc671180(TechNet.10).aspx

Planning and installation guidance:

Optimization guidance:

Information about transitioning:

Guidance for Upgrading to SQL Server 2008
http://technet.microsoft.com/library/bb677622(SQL.100).aspx
Migrating to SQL Server 2008
http://technet.microsoft.com/library/bb677619(SQL.100).aspx
Using Upgrade Advisor to Prepare for SQL Server 2008
http://technet.microsoft.com/library/ms144256(SQL.100).aspx

VIDEO: Microsoft Surface at the Rio in Las Vegas

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 21:03:18 GMT

My brain has been burnt to a crisp recently and I’ve been looking forward to visiting Las Vegas. While I’m there, you can bet that I’ll be stopping by the Rio’s iBar.

(And yes, I know about the hilarious parody. No need to email me. Seen it and ROFLed ‘til it hurt.)

NEWS: Bank of America releases Compliance Case Study

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 08:20:38 GMT

Bank of America

Global Financial Leader Deploys Solution for Compliance and Operational Advantages

Posted: 07/17/2008

Bank of America, one of the world’s leading financial institutions, provides its services through 6,100 retail banking offices and nearly 18,500 ATMs. For a large and complex organization like Bank of America, compliance with the numerous U.S. and international financial regulations is of vital importance. One of the most significant of those regulations is the Basel II Accord, which establishes rigorous requirements designed to ensure that banks hold capital reserves appropriate to the risk to which they are exposed. To comply with the operational risk aspects of Basel II, the bank created a portal solution based on Microsoft® Office SharePoint® Server 2007. Developed and deployed in just four months, the solution has been rapidly adopted by managers and staff, who are using it to comply with Basel II and to better measure and address operational risk throughout the enterprise.

Business Situation
Bank of America needed a robust and scalable way of meeting the compliance challenge of the Basel II Accord, which mandates specific ways of assessing and mitigating operational risk.

Solution
With the help of Microsoft® Office SharePoint® Server 2007 and other Microsoft technologies, the bank developed and deployed a portal solution that aggregates operational-risk data from 200 business units.

Benefits

Ease of development, deployment, and adoption
Greater motivation for staff to maintain risk data
Faster trend assessment and understanding
Easier risk mitigation at all levels

Software and Services

Active Directory Directory Services
Excel Services
Feature: Reporting Services
Microsoft Office 2007
Microsoft Office InfoPath 2007
Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007
Microsoft SQL Server 2005
Windows Server 2008

NEWS: Professional Developer’s Conference (PDC) 2008 Session List posted

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 07:47:42 GMT

The session list for the PDC 2008 got posted a couple days ago.

PDC 2008 Session List
https://sessions.microsoftpdc.com/public/sessions.aspx

Folks – I normally don’t talk much about development being that my brain hung up the developer gloves over 13 years ago, however based on some information I got recently from my trip to Seattle, I have to let you in on a little something I got while I was in Seattle last week: PDC is the start of something big. Really big. And if you’re a developer you really ought to do everything in your power to get to the Los Angeles Convention Center. This is the big enchilada, baby.

PDC 2008
http://www.microsoftpdc.com/

Yep. There’s a reason there was no PDC 2007.

And that’s all I have to say about that.

WHITEPAPER: “Sequencing Office Professional 2007 in 30 easy steps”

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 07:38:37 GMT

For you App-V (Softgrid) sequencers out there, here’s a document that J.C. Hornbeck wrote on how to sequence Office Professional 2007 for your organization in just a few easy steps.

Admittedly, I skimmed through the paper and it really is quite easy to understand, even if you have a relatively limited knowledge of App-V 4.2.

Introduction:
The goal of this document is to demonstrate one particular way that Microsoft Office 2007 can be sequenced using Microsoft SoftGrid 4.2. It's not the only way, or the best way, it's just one way that seems to work well for me. I have not fully tested every single Office related function within this package so it's possible there could be issues although I've yet to come across any.
Before you begin your own Office sequencing project I would highly recommend that you read this document fully along with KB939796 - Prescriptive guidance for sequencing 2007 Office programs in Microsoft SoftGrid. All of the steps are in here for a reason so failure to follow any one can potentially lead to total failure of your package.

DOWNLOAD:
http://blogs.technet.com/softgrid/attachment/3096090.ashx

RELEASE: Operations Manager 2007 Management Packs for Windows Server 2008

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 07:32:30 GMT

Go ahead. You can say it. “FINALLY!”

Yes, we’ve finally released the System Center Operations Manager 2007 Management Packs for Windows Server 2008. For those paying attention, we’ve been missing these since the release of Windows Server 2008 (only having the mgmt packs for Windows Server 2003) and thankfully we finally have them available.

Windows Server Operating System Management Pack for Operations Manager 2007
The Windows Server Operating System Management Pack provides the fundamental monitoring basics for computers running the Windows 2000 Server, Windows Server 2003, and Windows Server 2008 Operating System.
Terminal Services Management Pack for Operations Manager 2007
The Terminal Services Management Pack monitors the individual Terminal Services components on Windows Server 2000, 2003 and 2008.
Windows Server 2008 Application Server Management Pack for System Center OpsMgr 2007
The Windows Server 2008 Application Server Management Pack provides fundamental monitoring for the Application Server role of Windows Server 2008 Operating System.
Microsoft Windows Key Management Service MP for SC OpsMgr 2007
The KMS MP monitors core Key Management Service offered by Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003 and Vista.

Note that ALL SCOM Management Packs are listed here:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/scp/opsmgr07.aspx

BETA: File Server Migration Toolkit v 1.1

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 07:15:23 GMT

After requests to release a version of File Server Migration Toolkit (FSMT) compatible with Windows Server 2008, the Storage Solutions Division at Microsoft brings you FSMT 1.1 Beta!

Microsoft File Server Migration Toolkit v 1.1 adds the possibility to migrate and consolidate data to file servers running Windows Server 2008. With that, FSMT aims to reduce total cost of ownership (TCO) and increase the efficiency of storage management and backup tasks. It covers two main features:

File Server Migration Wizard which copy shared folders, files, and their security settings from a source file server to a target file server.
DFS consolidation root wizard which maintain the original Universal Naming Convention (UNC) path of files after they are migrated to a new server.

We are running a short beta for the tool. If you’d like to have first hand access to FSMT 1.1, follow the instructions below before August 8^th:

Go to http://connect.microsoft.com
Sign in with your live ID. If it’s your first time at Connect, you might have to fill in a small profile.
Under the Connection Directory session, look for “File Server Tools” program and click “Apply Now”.
In the left menu, click the “Download” link to download FSRM 1.1 beta.

Instructions for download and submitting feedback can be found inside the program main page.

RELEASE: Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) 2008 Update 1

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 07:03:05 GMT

<stolen from the Microsoft Deployment Guys blog>

The MDT Team has released the first Update to MDT 2008 (which is really the second update to MDT, hence the 4.2 version number). The main new features for this release are support for OEM preload scenarios (i.e. having the PC vendor preload an image onto your hardware that will work with MDT in your environment) and a revised System Center Operations Manager Management Pack. Minor updates include bug fixes and design changes to override driver platforms as well as the ability to inject all drivers into Windows PE. This release also has revised documentation.

I'm sure that once we've had a chance to give this update a thorough review, the Deployment Guys will have more to say about how this update will impact your deployments.

DOWNLOAD:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=3bd8561f-77ac-4400-a0c1-fe871c461a89&displaylang=en

DOWNLOAD: Performance Tuning Guidelines for Windows Server 2008

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 08:29:25 GMT

This guide describes important tuning parameters and settings that can result in improved performance for the Windows Server 2008 operating system. Each setting and its potential effect are described to help you make an informed judgment about its relevance to your system, workload, and performance goals.

This information applies for the Windows Server 2008 operating system.

What's New:

• Added "Power Guidelines" under Server Hardware section and added "Performance Tuning for Virtualization Servers" section.

Included in this paper:

• Performance Tuning for Server Hardware
• Performance Tuning for Networking Subsystem
• Performance Tuning for Storage Subsystem
• Performance Tuning for Web Servers
• Performance Tuning for File Servers
• Performance Tuning for Active Directory Servers
• Performance Tuning for Terminal Server
• Performance Tuning for Terminal Server Gateway
• Performance Tuning for Hyper-V Virtualization Servers
• Performance Tuning for File Server Workload (NetBench)
• Performance Tuning for Network Workload (NTttcp)
• Performance Tuning for Terminal Server Knowledge Worker Workload
• Performance Tuning for SAP Sales and Distribution Two-Tier Workload

DOWNLOAD:
http://download.microsoft.com/download/9/c/5/9c5b2167-8017-4bae-9fde-d599bac8184a/Perf-tun-srv.docx

INFO: Kurt’s Big Active Directory Right Management Services Adventure (Part 3 of 3)

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 08:22:49 GMT

So here’s yet even more of my notes around Active Directory Rights Management Services in Windows Server 2008.

---------------------------

MANAGEMENT

ADRMS Group Policy Templates
(Note: Policy Templates are the IT managed categories by which you may protect a document or mail. For example: “Do not forward” is a policy template that can be applied to email in Outlook. “Company Confidential” might be another policy template that might apply to Office documents to prevent anyone without domain credentials from opening the document. This policies are magically selectable when applying RMS protection on an email & document.)
1. RMS Clients GP Template propagation uses Task Scheduler built into the operating system; distribution of the templates is basically ALL or nothing if you use GP driven distribution. This means that every person configured with RMS will get these templates.
  (Some people want executives to have special templates, and if this is necessary, another method of policy template distribution needs to be considered. They are just files in a protected directory that need to be copied to each person’s machine so there are numerous ways that this can be done.)
2. Group Policy Templates can provide all the functionality of RMS. Office and Sharepoint inherently do NOT expose all the RMS protection options available to the user. For example: Some of these options include, “do not copy & paste”, “do not print”, “do not forward”, “validate every time the document is opened”, “self destruct document after x days”, “validate user ever 3rd day”.
3. The most restrictive policy is “Check for validation on each access”: This will require contact with the authentication server every time the document is opened. Chatty but secure.
4. When applying rights, do not give “ANYONE” rights to a document. This will include contractors and others. Always apply rights to a group of people.
5. Internet Explorer 6 & 7 both work with the Rights Management Client and the IE plug in for viewing RMS content within the browser without having an Office product installed.
6. “Enable users to view protected content in browser” is neat because it enables people to view RMS protected content within Internet Explorer with full fidelity and protection…
  …HOWEVER it will grow the size of the document because it provides and HTML rendering of the document in the container of the document itself.
  
  A 200k document can grow to 2MB in size with this option turned on.
7. “Print” rights is a HOLE. A user can always print to PDF and then reverse engineer the PDF into a document.
8. Watermarking or “stamping the background” of an RMS document with the end users name/title/email when they print is possible through third parties.
9. The recommended method of distributing templates is to establish a Network Share that everyone has access to, enable Offline folders for that share, and place the appropriate templates on the share that people need.
  This enables specific templates to be distributed “per user/group” by redirecting the users to different folders depending on their group membership.
10. IMPORTANT: You can NEVER remove or retire a template from the organization without killing all the documentation that was protected by it previously. Disaster Recovery plans must export all templates to preserve integrity of all protected documents.
11. IMPORTANT: Office 2003/2007 have a 20 template limitation in their UIs. You may publish more than 20 but only 20 will be accessible by the users.

INFO: Kurt’s Big Active Directory Right Management Services Adventure (Part 2 of 3)

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 08:07:17 GMT

So here’s some more of my notes around Active Directory Rights Management Services in Windows Server 2008.

---------------------------

ARCHITECTURE & DESIGN (cont’d)

Active Directory Rights Management Services does NOT require Windows Server 2008 Domain Controllers. You do NOT have to upgrade these authentication servers.
You additionally do NOT need to upgrade older RMS Clients if it’s already deployed to existing workstations. They will work with the new ADRMS infrastructure.

IMPLEMENTATION

SUPER, MAJOR, IMPORTANT BEST PRACTICES
1. Always used fully qualified domain names (.com) when configuring ADRMS trusts however be very careful about selecting these names because you will never be able to change them once applied, without re
2. Always use virtual names – not actual server names – whenever you’re configuring ADRMS for seamless agility of servers. If you configure actual server names, you’ll have to use the same configured servers forever.
3. Always use both HTTP: & a HTTPS: (for external authentication) in case you later want to work with partners via ADFS or need external access to documents without a VPN. Make it some sort of domain name like https://virtualname.customerdomain.com. Seriously. Even if you never, ever think you’ll ever need it, configure it anyway because once millions of files are protected using a “configuration policy” referencing a set of authentication servers, if you ever need access to an authentication server externally, you’ll need to have an encrypted pipe, and that’s going to requires HTTPS:.
4. Never use self-signed certificates when you’re configuring your HTTPS: configuration. Remember that people won’t have your root cert if it’s a 3rd party that you’re looking to share with.
CLUSTERS
1. You can expect 60 connections per second per cluster.
2. You can NOT have bothe RMS 1.1 and RMS 2008 servers within a cluster.
3. RMS 1.1 licensing clusters should work but it’s not recommended by the product group.
ADRMS Client
1. There is a new registry key i.e. a “publishing bit” that enables/disables the ability to ‘create/originate new RMS encrypted content’ . This allows an organization to control who has the ability on a Group Policy basis to protect documents based on the Office Edition the user owns. (ONLY Office Professional licensees may ‘create new protected content’ from Outlook/Word/Excel/Powerpoint. Office Standard licensees & Exchange Outlook users may only ‘receive/read/reply to protected content’.)
  KEY --> HK_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Common\DRM
  DWORD Value –> Disable Creation 0/1
2. Clients must have fully qualified domain names of the ADRMS Cluster in the local Intranet Zone of their Internet Explorer security configuration.
ADRMS & Sharepoint, Exchange, and Windows Servers
1. Sharepoint Server & RMS must exist in the same forest; ADFS doesn’t matter in this case.
2. When configuring the Exchange 2007 Pre-licensing Agent, you must have both Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1 applied and the RMS Client installed on the server.
3. Windows Server 2008 has RMS Client built directly into the OS. There is no “install"/”uninstall”. It’s just there. Warning: If something goes irreparably wrong with the client for some reason on the server, it’s hosed. You’ll need to reinstall the whole server.

INFO: Microsoft Revenue… year-to-year by division

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 06:32:05 GMT

I have this spreadsheet that I created that thought I’d share. Basically, it’s a simple table of all of Microsoft’s earnings across every business division we have from year to year. I’ve entered all of the revenue & income numbers (a.k.a. the “money coming in” vs. overall profit of each division) and graphed it out in Excel 2007.

(Note: You’ll need to have Office Excel 2007 installed, have the Excel 2007 Viewer installed, or if you already have Office 2003/XP/2000 installed, you’ll need to download and install the Office 2007 Compatibility Pack to allow you to read and write the OpenXML file format for Excel 2007 (.XLSX) – which is much better than the older .XLS format for compression, reliability, and programmability.)

DEFINING THE DIVISIONS
For the uninitiated, there are 5 divisions within Microsoft and our financials are reported along these organizations:

Client (Windows desktop & Embedded revenue)
Server & Tools (Server products that aren’t aligned with Information Worker initiatives along with Developer Tools)
Business (Information Worker technologies like Office, Office Servers along with Business Solutions like CRM & the Dynamics family of products)
Online Services (Windows Live, Office Live, MSN Services, Advertising Services, etc.)
Entertainment & Devices (Xbox, Xbox Live, Zune, & Windows Mobile)

ALSO QUARTER-TO-QUARTER NUMBERS
For the truly anal, I’ve also got all the numbers from quarter to quarter, and broken out each quarter’s earnings year over year so you can compare, for example, what the “Holiday season” was like for Microsoft’s Entertainment & Devices division (a.k.a. the Xbox guys) year over year.

Now before the more short-sighted folks scream that the sky is falling, be aware that revenue & income are not always linear: Certain things happen – whether you hear about them or not in the press - that create irregularities in earnings & profitability in certain quarters.

For example:

In Q4 2007, there was a sudden & massive drop in income (profitability) in the Entertainment & Devices division. For the informed, this was because of the $1B charge that was taken in that quarter to fund the extended 3 year warranty applied to Xbox 360’s that were having “red ring of light” failures and it was deemed necessary to take the hit for the sake of our customers.
In Q2 2007, there was a strange drop in revenue/income in the Client division relative to Q2 earning in previous years and a sudden irregular surge in revenue/income in the same division in Q3 of the same year. This was because we deferred revenue from Windows OEM licensed PCs from that Q2 into Q3 causing a delay in when that revenue was realized in the ol’ accounting books.
Prior to Q2 2004, Microsoft didn’t report per division income so although I have revenue numbers for Q1 2004, I don’t have income numbers. (That’s why data points for that quarter are missing) This incidentally is also the reason I started this chart at 2004. Operating income (i.e. revenue less operating costs, or “profit”) is a pretty important dimension, don’t you think?

THE PRE-2007 FUDGE FACTOR
Incidentally, I had to munge some numbers in the first few years. What I mean by that is that before 2007, in case you weren’t constantly looking at our financials back then, Microsoft used to report its revenue & income across 7 divisions instead of 5:

Client
Information Worker
Server & Tools
Business Solutions
MSN
Mobile & Embedded Devices
Home & Entertainment

It’s not an exact correlation as I understand it but what I did was I merged the Office & Business Solutions numbers to create synthetic “Business Division” numbers and I merged the Home & Entertainment & Mobile devices numbers to create synthetic “Entertainment & Devices” numbers. The end result still totals the complete revenue across all divisions but if my “inaccuracy” bothers you, simply ignore the pre-2007 numbers.

Anyway, here’s my spreadsheet. Hope you find it interesting.

INFO: Mojave Experiment Results

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 14:55:09 GMT

The statistical results from the Mojave Experiment, a blind study of individuals who evaluated Windows Vista without knowing what it was they were using. (Taken from http://www.mojaveexperiment.com/facts/)

TRAINING: Best of MMS 2008, Irvine, August 20th & 21st (repeat)

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 09:49:32 GMT

Microsoft Technology Center Presents…

Best of MMS 2008
Microsoft Irvine

Join the Microsoft Technology Center (MTC) for an exclusive engagement covering the Best of Microsoft Management Summit 2008. For IT Professionals unable to join MMS 2008 in Las Vegas, we are excited to announce that we are holding a special session: “Best of MMS 2008” in Irvine. This session will review the exciting announcements from MMS, along with how Microsoft solutions will enable you to proactively manage your IT environment.

Chris Tillier, Microsoft Senior Technology Specialist, will be conducting this session using Microsoft’s Envisioning Center and Hands-on labs. This workshop will provide the best way to learn how to apply Microsoft’s Management solutions in your organization, fueling productivity and building growth. Attendees will be shown demonstrations using the envisioning center and be given the opportunity to try the new products in our instructor-led hands-on lab.

Full Day Agenda (½ day Envisioning Center and ½ day Hands-on Workshop):

Managing and Securing the Dynamic Infrastructure (morning)

Overview of MMS 2008

Review of Microsoft’s latest System Center announcements

Envisioning Center Demonstration: Infrastructure Optimization

Streamlining Operations. “Day in the Life” demonstration of how automation, security, standardization, and management save the day (and time and money!). Higher efficiency through “Better Together”

Meeting & Exceeding your service level targets

Service Level Monitoring
Proactive alerting
Dynamic Allocation of resources

Lunch: Room: Technical Briefing Center (TBC)

Hands-on Workshops: (afternoon)

Room: Technical Briefing Center (TBC)

System Center Operations Manager 2007 SP1
System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SP1
System Center Data Protection Manager 2007
System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2007
Desktop Optimization Pack

Room:
MTC Envisioning Center

Date:
August 20, 2008 - Repeated on August 21, 2008

Time:
9:00 AM – 4:30 PM
Registration begins at 8:30 AM
(Breakfast, lunch and parking included)

Location:
Microsoft Irvine
3 Park Plaza, Suite 1600
Irvine, CA 92614

Registration:
If you are a customer of mine and are interested in attending, please contact me directly for information on how to register. Seating is limited to 25 guests, so please sign up for this informative session as soon as possible.

TRAINING: Introduction to System Center Configuration Manager 2007, Irvine, Oct 1st

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 09:44:22 GMT

Introduction to Microsoft
System Center Configuration Manager 2007
Hands-On Workshop

Irvine – October 1, 2008

You are invited to attend a 1-day seminar designed to deliver practical, hands-on information about Microsoft’s System Center Configuration Manager 2007. Attendees will learn how to manage the ongoing operations using System Center Configuration Manager. This workshop will be led by a Microsoft Senior Technology Specialist, covering the following topics:

Introduction to System Center Configuration Manager 2007
Managing more than Microsoft in your environment
Lifecycle management (Asset Management)
Microsoft System Center: Vision and Roadmap
Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP) Overview
Hands-on Labs

We will also share best practices, methodologies and tools that will assist in the planning and implementation of a Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager solution.

Audience:
This course is intended for System Center Administrators who are responsible for configuring and managing one or more sites and all supporting systems. This technical hands-on workshop is limited to 30 attendees.

Date/Time:
Wednesday October 1, 2008
9:00 AM – 4:30 PM
Registration begins at 8:30 AM
(Breakfast, lunch and parking included)

Location:
Microsoft Irvine
3 Park Plaza, Suite 1600
Irvine, CA 92614

Registration:
If you are a customer of mine and are interested in attending, please contact me directly for information on how to register. There are only 30 seats available and at least check 12 were taken already.

TRAINING: Introduction to System Center Operations Manager 2007, Irvine, Sept 30

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 09:40:34 GMT

Introduction to Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007
Hands-On Workshop
Irvine – September 30, 2008

You are invited to attend a 1-day technical introduction designed to deliver practical, hands-on information about managing your infrastructure with Microsoft’s System Center Operations Manager 2007. This workshop will be led by a Microsoft Management Technical Specialist covering the following topics:

Introduction to System Center Operations Manager 2007
Common Monitoring Scenarios
Monitoring more than Microsoft
Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP) Overview
Hands on Labs

With this new release, Operations Manager will:

Proactively manage business critical IT services, including distributed applications, the supporting infrastructure and hardware, and end-user service delivery.
Reduce the complexities of managing your IT environment by providing a monitoring solution that is designed with ease of use in mind.
Provide a highly reliable infrastructure by leveraging Windows Server and SQL 2005 clustering for high availability and through agents that automatically failover to a secondary management server if connectivity to the primary server is lost.
Include management packs with prescriptive knowledge developed by the application and OS development teams at Microsoft and verified in production deployments to improve monitoring, troubleshooting, and problem resolution for more than 50 Microsoft applications and Windows Server components.

Audience:
This hands-on lab is for IT Professionals in job roles like infrastructure specialists, network administrators, directory administrators, management specialists, storage and data administrators and client support. This technical hands-on workshop is limited to 30 attendees.

Date/Time:
Tuesday September 30, 2008
9:00 AM – 4:30 PM
Registration begins at 8:30 AM
(Breakfast, lunch and parking included)

Location:
Microsoft Irvine
3 Park Plaza, Suite 1600
Irvine, CA 92614

Registration:
If you are a customer of mine and are interested in attending, please contact me directly for information on how to register. There are only 30 seats available and at least check 15 were taken already.

TRAINING: “MDOP” Microsoft Official Curriculum & Certification Exam now available

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 09:34:22 GMT

We just released the following training course and exam for the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP):

(Note: MDOP contains Application Virtualization (a.k.a. Softgrid), Diagnostics & Recovery Toolset, Advanced Group Policy Management, Asset Inventory Services, Desktop Error Monitoring, and soon, Enterprise Desktop Virtualization, a.k.a. the Kidaro stuff)

Course 7197: Deploying and Managing the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack is now available.
Read a description of the MDOP Course 7197 syllabus. Find this training in a city near you
Exam 70-656: Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack, Configuring is now available.
Read the preparation guide for MDOP Exam 70-656.

Both the course and exam target IT pros who focus on managing desktops. MDOP Course 7197 is eligible for SA training voucher redemption, so customers can apply their SA Benefits to reduce training costs. As an added incentive, the first 200 IT pros who pass the 70-656 certification exam become MDOP Charter Members and will receive an exclusive MDOP Charter Member jacket and award!

Learn more about the benefits of MDOP Charter membership.