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June 2008 - Posts
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Every once in a while we end up getting hardware to take a look for and try out. The latest gadget to cross our path was the Samsung ACE Mobile 6 device from Bell. I asked Paul Laberge on our team to take it for a spin and share his impressions. Check out his blog post on the Canadian Developers Blog to find out more. 
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I am a little stoked right now. I've just finished up reading all the announcements on Hyper-V that RTM'ed today and I thought I should share some of that excitement with you - in small relevant chunks. - You can get it from Windows Update starting on July 8th. Existing Windows Server 2008 systems configured with Windows Update will see it as a download.(Exact package name&number to follow).
- Note: Windows Update scales out and staggers updates so it might not be there FOR YOU exactly on the 8th, but should appear soon thereafter.
- You can get all the key information on Hyper-V (our hypervisor based server consolidation solution) from www.microsoft.com/hyper-v.
- Build Number 6.0.6001.18016
- Get the final bits as of 3PM EST (noon PST) from the Microsoft Download Centre. If links are not live - be patient as they take time to propagate.
- Guest Operating Systems that are supported as of RTM are
- Windows Server 2008
- Windows Server 2003
- Windows Server 2000
- Windows Vista
- Windows XP
- Novel SUSE Enterprise Linux
- (more on the way)
- Upgrade Scenarios - no changes required to existing system infrastructure. you can keep all of your existing RC machines (RC0, RC1 etc).
- Saved States and Online Snapshots (since they contain saved states) are NOT supported. They need to be discarded BEFORE going RTM (or prior to resuming the machine)
- Integration Components need to be installed on all old machines. No uninstall required - just close off "new hardware detected" windows and then choose action - insert integration services setup disk from remote management window
- There are a number of case studies from TAP customers who have been using Hyper-V RC in their production environments.
- Coolest factoid for me? TechNet and MSDN are run from Hyper-V web servers.
- Even cooler? How about virtualizing www.microsoft.com? a 16 VM cluster is handing 25% of the load (25% of 15,000 requests per second, 1.2 billion page views per month, and 280M worldwide unique users per month) right now with more to come. Details over on the Windows Server Division Blog.
- Very cool process called SVVP (Server Virtualization Validation Program) has spun up (announced last February) which allows any hypervisor vendor to validate their solution of running Windows Server in their virtualization offering.
- This means that if a product (i.e: server applications like Exchange) is supported to run on a SVVP validated solution, it will get the same level of support regardless of the SVVP validated virtualization offering.
- Look for more clarification on this in upcoming blog posts.
- As mentioned above - support for Applications like SQL, Exchange and SharePoint - product teams are producing support statements - you can hear about them here once they are public.
- Cool tool to help you determine what you can do with your environment: MAP (Microsoft Assessment and Planning) It will be updated to include information on server consolidation / virtualization with Hyper-V.
- I've been asked on a number of occasions on how to do Bitlocker on the Virtualization Host system (parent partition) to help with stolen hardware scenarios that might come up in Branch Office deployments (lots of branches in Canada)... I noticed in the new fray that we're published a whitepaper on it and it is now available for the public.
Tons more stuff on virtualization on the way - keep your RSS feeds updating and keep in the loop - wicked crazy stuff is on the way. 
Team Blog | Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn
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[Cross post from http://blogs.technet.com/cdnitmanagers/archive/2008/06/23/windows-client-roadmap.aspx]
Today a letter from Bill Veghte, Senior VP of Windows at Microsoft, has gone out to all Windows customers about the “end of sales” date (June 30) for Windows XP and what that means as well as an update about Vista and Windows 7. You can read the full letter here. I’ve outlined some of the key points below:
About Windows XP:
- Support will continue until April 2014.
- Windows XP will still be available for those that need it through downgrade rights.
- Windows XP Home and Windows XP Starter will be available for customers interested in buying a low-end PC (also called a Netbook or NetTop).
- System Builders may continue to purchase Windows XP until January 31, 2009.
About Windows Vista:
- Significant security advances built into Vista have had the following results:
- half the number of critical vulnerabilities in Vista as Windows XP SP2 had in the same time period
- 60% less likelihood of being infected with malware compared with Windows XP SP2
- IE 7, included with Vista, stops about 1 million phishing attempts every week
- Architectural changes which improved system security and resilience led to compatibility issues. However, this is a continual focus and today the following is true:
- Vista supports about 77000 components and devices – twice as many as at launch
- 98 of the top 100 applications for Windows sold at retail stores in the US last year are compatible
- there are updates for more than 125 popular PC games to enable them to work with Vista, all available through Windows Update
- Service Pack 1 includes no new features, but hundreds of small updates allowing for files to copy up to 50% quicker, large folders to decompress 71% faster and improved system diagnostics to make Vista easier for IT organizations to support, among other things.
- We’ve helped OEM partners shorten the time it takes to startup/shutdown Vista and extend battery life by improving driver quality.
- We continue to collect feedback from customers and work with partners to improve compatibility and remove barriers that prevent people from taking advantage of Vista.
About Windows 7:
- This is the working name for the next release of Microsoft Windows.
- It will be delivered approximately 3 years after the general availability launch date of Windows Vista (which was January 2007).
- It will be built off the same core infrastructure as Windows Vista, so there will be less compatibility issues and a straightforward migration process.
While none of this information is new, Bill’s letter is part of the continued effort to engage in open and continuous communication between Microsoft and Microsoft customers. If you have any questions or comments about the Windows roadmap and what it means to your organization, leave them below and our team will answer them. 
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Just in case you missed it - Windows Home Server has an Release Candidate 4 edition of PowerPack. Three big things in it for me - x64 home client connector software (a must for my x64 Vista boxes) file corruption bug fix (something that never affected me - even with 15000 photos stored, edited and rotated on server) and speedier filecopy to and from WHS from clients. Like Graham, I've been using earlier RC editions of this powerpack and it's been smooth sailing for upgrades and testing. Graham has been doing a lot with WHS in the online and offline communities - I like his post below for it's frankness and to the point remarks. :) Keep 'em coming Graham!
Team Blog | Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn P.S. feel like letting your writing side show a little? Drop the team a note with the EMAIL contact button (top left) to let the team know - we're ALWAYS looking for Canadian IT Professionals who want to connect and share their stories here on the blog. --------------------------------------------------------------  | | Graham Jones (Surrey, British Columbia) | The Peanut Gallery The long awaited public beta for WHS PP1 was recently announced. It is interesting to read the newsgroup/blog comments about the release. As is often typical, a lot of people want to be critical rather than complement Microsoft on their approach in being very diligent before releasing to the public. First of all we should note that the official release is PP1 RC4. Very few products go through so many RC cycles; a testament to how careful Microsoft have been. If it apparently takes “too long” to fix something in the “uninformed opinion” of the technical community then there is criticism and if something is released that breaks in short order then there is also criticism. To the “nay sayers” I say, “please make up your mind” or better still “simply stop complaining from the peanut gallery”. People’s energy would be better spent on testing the public beta so that we can get to the RTM release as quickly as possible as requested by Microsoft. Private Betas I have been part of the MVP beta program for WHS for quite some time now and as an MVP I am obliged to operate under NDA. Why do we operate under NDA? We can be privy to information, which if it became public knowledge in the wrong way could be very damaging to Microsoft, plus we may have access to some Microsoft Intellectual Property . This is not always a question of being “secretive” for the sake of secrecy. It is simply good business sense. Without the full knowledge of the facts there are those who have nothing better to do than “pillory” Microsoft. I am quite sure there are times that Microsoft would like to be more “transparent” and they constantly face the “damned if you do and damned if you don’t” dilemma. I even read the other day some people complaining about the “private” betas. Get real people! What do you realistically expect Microsoft to do? There is little point in releasing anything on a wider basis before there is a high degree of confidence. Why are MVP’s usually involved in private betas? The answer is very simple. As a group they provide consistently high quality and rapid feedback to Microsoft, which is in part why they are MVP’s. A limited number of highly effective people from outside Microsoft, in addition to their “dogfooders” and NDA partners, is much more efficient. It is not a question of thinking that there aren’t people in the general technical community who don’t have the technical skills or interest to contribute. Those who are keenly interested get to contribute via the much wider public betas and ultimately their input is just as important because the more eyeballs on the product the better when it comes to confidence in the RTM release. These people would have to operate under NDA for private betas and that is not practical. Some of these people may ultimately become MVP’s. The File Corruption “Bug” The file corruption “bug” has certainly garnered a lot of negative publicity and has unfortunately “tainted” what I believe is one of the best products that Microsoft has produced in recent times. The bug was so obscure that it took Microsoft a lot of time and effort to even reproduce it. It is impossible to fix something if you can’t first understand it! They had people working over the Xmas period investigating it. I don’t think that you can be more serious about it than that. In my own case, and in the case of many other MVP’s, I have been diligently trying to “bust” it without success. I have deliberately ignored the precautions suggested by Microsoft, ie. don’t edit files directly on WHS. The only person that I have spoken to who claims to have had the problem was someone at the WHS Booth at EnergizeIT. I think that I would have had a better chance of winning the lottery! This in no way is intended to minimize the importance of the issue because even if only one person is affected that is one too many. I have read comments that the product was “broken” and therefore not touchable. That is a ridiculous stance to take because there was an easy workaround until there was a fix, by not editing files directly on the server. The workaround may have created some minor inconvenience but considering the other benefits of the product it is not too onerous. The other option of only using a single HD is a much less attractive option in my opinion since you lose the benefit of Shared Folder duplication. All other aspects of the product have worked just fine since RTM in my experience. Let’s just suppose that if the file corruption “bug” hadn’t come to light for a long time, people would have an entirely different attitude. We are fortunate that indeed it did shortly after RTM. Microsoft have worked very hard and diligently to try and solve it. We can all wish that it had taken less time to fix but you can easily understand Microsoft’s desire to test, test and test again. I do believe that it has been fixed but nobody is going to make assumptions without an extensive public beta program. In fact, WHS had a very extensive public beta prior to RTM in part because of the novel aspects of the product. One could even argue that it was ill luck that the problem was not discovered then or even through internal testing. It demonstrates the very obscurity of the issue. Had it been discovered prior to RTM it may have delayed things but the last 6 months would have been very different! There would have been the inevitable comments about more missed deadlines. What do you want, a product that works or something that you can complain about? There are those in the “peanut gallery” who would argue that it should never have happened in the first place. It would be nice to think that software development has advanced to the point that we are producing “perfect” software and that extensive testing would reveal all of the major problems. What is not readily appreciated is the complexity of what is behind the storage system for WHS and the lofty objectives that go with that. WHS is often compared to NAS which is usually based upon RAID. Although it does backup the desktop it is not NAS. It does an automatic daily image backup and, if necessary, an easy restore. Further it does not have RAID’s limitations when it comes to adding additional backup storage. As part of testing I have added and removed both internal and external (USB and eSATA) HD’s of a wide variety of sizes without incident. I have not had to even think about backing up my 5 home PC’s for the past 9 months which for me is well worth the “price of admission” on its own! DB Backup and Restore The other complaint is the removal of the WHS DB Backup feature from PP1, it having been announced at CES in January. Like others I am disappointed to see this go but I do understand why. Certainly Microsoft need to be more astute when it comes to making announcements. A “feature” is not a feature until it is delivered. The technical community constantly forgets the “Home” in Windows Home Server. I have reminded people about this multiple times on various newsgroups and blogs. It is intended to be a consumer product. Therefore it must be very easy to use and require no technical knowledge. DB backup and restore was part of the early PP1 private betas. Although I didn’t personally have any problems some important issues were reported. So why was it dropped from PP1? The answer is very simple. At this point Microsoft could not guarantee that it would work under all foreseeable circumstances ie. it needs to be “bullet proof”. Do we need another file corruption bug issue? Like a hole in the head. To take on “bullet proofing” DB backup and restore would have significantly delayed PP1 which was already much later than hoped. Barring some unforeseen showstopper, it is not that it cannot necessarily be tackled in the future. It is simply not the right time or circumstances. Interestingly, those complaining are likely the people who could probably easily take care of it themselves by other means. For example, a manual approach is described starting on page 23 of the Microsoft white paper, WHS Home Computer Backup. This white paper is well worth a read to get a feel of the backup system as a whole. The Upside Apart from addressing the “infamous” bug, Microsoft has taken the opportunity to add many new features and improve others via PP1 making an already good product even better. Let’s try and focus on the upside for a change. Some of the highlights can be found at We Got Served. Cheers Graham J. 
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 David Elfassy began his career in IT in the early 90's; delivering Microsoft Official Curriculum, specializing in Microsoft Exchange Server since 1997. He worked as project lead on many migrations and implementations of Microsoft infrastructure technologies for governmental and corporate organizations. Migrate, migrate, migrate… Always helping organizations migrate to the new versions of Microsoft Exchange Server. He has also been working closely with Microsoft Learning teams on various marketing and certification projects; particularly working on curriculum development for multiple arms of Microsoft Corp. David is a co-owner and senior technical adviser for two Microsoft Gold Certified Partners: Netlogon Technologies (specializing in large enterprise consulting) and Kalleo (specializing in small business network management); overseeing teams of consultants and network technicians. What does being an MVP mean to you? Since I started in IT, my MCT (Microsoft Certified Trainer) certification has been the most valuable and defining of my career. I’ve worked hard to attain and maintain my MCT. The MVP designation has been a surprising and welcomed award, that has come as the result of evangelizing the technologies I am the most passionate about. If you could ask Steve Ballmer one question about Microsoft, what would it be? Who answers steveb@microsoft.com and what’s your real email address? What do you think the best software ever written was? Well… Exchange Server, of course J Actually, I was really impressed a few years ago by a company called Keystone that developed a really revolutionary method for viewing satellite and map information. Following a “murder and execution”, you now know it as Google Earth… If you were the manager of Exchange Server, what would you change? The Exchange product group is under some pretty solid leadership right now. You can see how Exchange has grown in scale, functionality and market share over the past decade. This has been a good time to specialize in messaging J However, it is unfortunate that a lot of this growth has come on the back of SMB’s. Exchange server is a product that has way too many features not fit for small orgs. Network generalists and beginners to Exchange are not using the full potential of Exchange 2007, due to its increased complexity. PowerShell is great, but small org admins need GUI for most of their management tasks. If I managed Exchange, I would certainly create a top level team in charge of ensuring relevance and usability for small business. What are the best features/improvements of Exchange Server? Well Exchange 2007 (or SP1 at least) leaves all its predecessors in the dust. The new Continuous Replication technologies increase availability What music CD do you recommend? I’m a big movie buff and Quentin Tarantino fan. The music he finds for his movies always fits the bill perfectly… In the late 90’s, a compilation of movie songs, many of which from Tarantino movies, was released. It’s called “This is Cult Fiction”. What makes you a great MVP? What’s a great MVP? Well… I like to share my Exchange knowledge with people who get excited by the same geeky stuff that gets me going. What is in your computer bag? My Toshiba R400 Tablet, Zune 30GB, 3 120GB USB disks (filled with virtual machines), USB hub, a solar powered universal charger, a spare Smartphone, a couple of smartcards and my passport. What is the best thing that has happened since you have become an MVP? Attending some great sessions about XXXX (damn NDA!) at the MVP Summit. The Exchange product group was very open and willing to share their thoughts about upcoming products. I was truly impressed by their frank and candid attitude. What is your motto? Happiness is a journey, not a destination. Who is your hero? George W.! No just kidding… There’s a thin line between “hero” and “zero” ;) I’ve got many… I’ve been inspired by many. Though I guess some of my modern day heroes would have to be the men and women who dedicate their lives to humanitarian organizations such as “Doctors without borders”. A product of a small group of French doctors in the 70’s, this organization is very impressive in its reach and effectiveness. What does success mean to you? Being fortunate enough to spend time with my wife and children, without having to worry about getting to work on time. Getting to work on my own schedule and enjoying every minute of it! 
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The digital lifestyle has been one that most readers of this blog have probably been living for quite a while. We all seem to be up on the latest gadgets, tweaks and using technology in every part of our lives. About a year ago we saw this video at an internal Microsoft event and I see they released it publicly a while ago. I thought I'd show it to you and ask what is it about the digital lifestyle that you love, hate, want or need.
Video: Your Digital Lifestyle
For me personally I can't live without my Windows Mobile phone. When I first moved to the GTA the first thing I bought was a GPS to help me find my way. I still use it occasionally but since I usually walk once I get downtown TO I rely on Live Maps on my phone to get me where I need to go. That along with my email and the phone functions of course keep me on track.
When travelling I can't go anywhere without my Zune. I am thrilled that they will be available in Canada as of June 13th, not so much as I need to by another device but the subscription option in Zune Marketplace is something I got hooked on when I got to try it for a few weeks. For the cost of a CD you get 30 days of unlimited downloads and listening of anything in the market. As long as you keep your subscription up to date you can continue to download and listen to the music.
The last big part of my digital lifestyle is my Live Space. Living 2200KM from where I grew up my Live Space is how I let everyone at home know what is going on. It has got to the point where if I don't post there on a regular basis my parents will phone to see if everything is alright :)
Of course there are things like Media Centre and Xbox 360 that I frequent, more so now that it is in my home office, but I can go a few days or weeks even without using either. The rest, well that is part of my life now and I am not sure how I got along with out it.
P.S. The song in the video is called "Girl From Mars" and it is a cover performed by Magenta Lane.
addthis_pub = 'CDNDPE';
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This is part two of a two part discussion of technology in use at a local school board here in the Ottawa region. As I mentioned in the previous post - I love discovering how technology is being used to help support the delivery of education. While I was at a virtualization conference put on by IDC a while back, I met James Proulx, Director of IT at the Catholic District School Board of Eastern Ontario (OCDSBEO). He suggested that I stop by to see what the CDSBEO is doing to simplify their environment and speed up the deployment of applications to their HighSchools and administrative staff. At our first meeting, I met with his team and we talked about what their plans were for the coming year and what they were doing to simplify application deployment and start exploring server consolidation. That was back in September 2007. I was in touch on an off throughout the year and finally made it back to see how their year had gone. I stopped by for a coffee to talk a couple of weeks ago and met with Ken Konick, James Vandine and Brian Whalen - three systems analysts with the board. This time - we focused in on their use of x64 Virtual Server 2005 R2 for consolidation, System Centre Virtual Machine Manager for management and Windows Server 2008 x64 (both full and core installs) as Hyper-V server virtualization solutions. PLEASE NOTE: as stated in the podcast - Hyper-V is still pre-release and is supported on a best effort basis until it is final LATER THIS SUMMER. Don't worry I told them that part.... At the time of recording - they were not aware that SC-VMM V2 was in Beta and that they could manage ALL their host systems with one console - let's just say they started downloading when I headed out back to Ottawa. :) Have a listen - you can download the short 15 minute podcast here.
Team Blog | Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn 
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When you talk to many folks in the industry about the role of an architect in an organization, very often the conversation switches to a development focus. Things like "architects are the folks that design the applications our developers write" or "architects ensure the developed applications meet company standards", and so on. The reality is that there are many different types of architects out there - enterprise architects, solutions architects, infrastructure architects and many more. In fact, Microsoft has recognized architects as a category of individuals within the ICT industry and has certifications available for messaging architects, solutions architects, database architects, and also infrastructure architects.
As technical professionals you may be interested in looking into what it means to be an architect and if this is a growth path for you and your career. Last year another team within Microsoft Canada that we work very closely with held a Web Cast series for aspiring architects that was attended by over 1200 individuals and covered a number of strategies that can help developers and IT professionals to transition to the architect roles. The Aspiring Architect Series 2008 builds on last year’s content and covers a number of topics that are important for architects to understand.
Check out in the 2007 Aspiring Architect Webcast Series to see what was covered, and then plan to attend one or more of the sessions of the 2008 Aspiring Architect Webcast Series:
June 16th, 2008 – 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. – Introduction to the aspiring architect Web Cast series
June 17th, 2008 – 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. – Services Oriented Architecture and Enterprise Service Bus – Beyond the hype
June 18th, 2008 – 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. – TOGAF and Zachman, a real-world perspective
June 19th, 2008 – 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. – Services Oriented Architecture (Web Cast in French)
June 20th, 2008 – 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. – Interoperability (Web Cast in French)
June 23rd , 2008 – 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. – Realizing dynamic systems
June 24th, 2008 – 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. – Web 2.0, beyond the hype
June 25th, 2008 – 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. – Architecting for the user experience
June 26th, 2008 – 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. – Conclusion and next steps
We are hopeful that you will find the upcoming series to be a very useful investment of your time. 
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Yesterday the SQL Server team reached a key milestone with the release of SQL Server 2008 RC0. SQL Server 2008 provides a comprehensive data platform that is secure, reliable, manageable, and scalable for your mission critical applications. With it, developers can create new applications that can store and consume any type of data on any device, enabling your users to make informed decisions with relevant insights. There are way too many new and improved features of SQL Server 2008 to mention in a blog post, so to find out more on SQL Server 2008 check out the If you are a TechNet subscriber you can download the following SQL Server 2008 RC0 editions from the TechNet site today: - SQL Server 2008 Developer Edition RC0
- SQL Server 2008 Enterprise Edition RC0
- SQL Server 2008 Standard Edition RC0
- SQL Server 2008 Web Edition RC0
- SQL Server 2008 Workgroup Edition RC0
If you don't have a TechNet Plus subscription today, get yours today by going to the TechNet Subscription site and enter promo code TWEB08A to receive a 20% discount. Hurry, the code expires on June 30, 2008. A trial of SQL Server 2008 RC0 can also be downloaded from here, though not all editions are available, as they are on the TechNet site. Once you have SQL Server 2008 RC0 downloaded, or if you are already working on a project to implement SQL Server 2008 in a pilot phase in your organization, please email me using the email link at the top left of the blog or directly at damirb@microsoft.com and I can get you access to additional resources to help with your implementation, free email-based technical support, as well as a free TechNet Plus subscription when your project is at a pilot stage in your organization. 
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Jean-Philippe Breton is the Infrastructure and Desktop Deployment Team Leader for Alphamosaik, a Microsoft Gold Certified partner located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He and his team recently lead a 10,000 seat deployment of Vista with SP1 for a major Canadian transportation company with offices around the globe. I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Jean-Philippe about how tools like the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit simplified the deployment and some things learned along the way.
Jean-Philippe on Vista deployment
Be sure to check out http://edge.technet.com for more videos like this as well as much more! 
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If you are like me, or anyone else I know, you like to personalize your notebook. We like to show of our personalities, spice up the look, promote your favourite sports team or cover up cracks and scratches. You might have seen my notebook..
..and I've seen many notebooks that look similar. Heck you might even have some of these stickers on your notebook! The GEEK sticker was a popular one that we gave out this past year but we've run out and we want to create something new. We want your help as well!
Are you creative? Can you think of a funny catch phrase? Want to become famous as the person who came up with the slogan for the Canadian IT Pro team stickers? Want to win a prize? Got your attention now don't I!
Yes of course it isn't a contest without a prize! <Yoda> And a cool prize we have secured! </Yoda> Like a Microsoft Wireless Entertainment Desktop 8000? I have one of these on my desk (you can see it there between the Xbox360 and my notebook and I love it. Bluetooth keyboard and mouse with great range, fully rechargeable with the USB hub/charger, 4 USB ports, and Media Centre keys to control those aspects of the PC.
So how to enter? Well at the top left hand section of the page is an E-MAIL link. Click the link, write down your slogan, or slogans and send in the email. That simple. You can enter as many times as you like and you have until midnight on June 15th 2008 to enter. You can even share your ideas in the comments section but it has to be emailed for it to be considered!!!
We will announce the winner on the 16th of June and if you are the winner you will receive the desktop set, the first sticker off the sticker making machine and the bragging rights. To get those creative juices flowing I created one to start things off (and no I can't pick my own and win the prize).
Don't worry about the artwork (unless you are graphically inclined) as we will work on that afterwards. Just send in your slogans and watch this blog on June 16th when we announce the winner.
 
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As soon as you embark on a career in IT - you get classed as a free technical support resource for all your friends and family - it's the norm. I got this email from a friend of mine (Richard Hagemeyer - a prof. in CompSci at Algonquin College) who got roped into a support call while visiting family on the return trip from EnergizeIT in Toronto. Has this happened to you? Do you cringe when you are visiting relatives and the question comes up? What's your worst / funniest story of Family Technical Support? Post a comment with the details.
Team Blog | Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn -------------------------------------------------------------- A funny thing happened on the way home last weekend. I was planning to stop over for the night at my parent's home in Cobourg, ON on my way home from the EnergizeIT conference; a nice relaxing 24 hour visit after a few charged days in Toronto. Oh well, the best laid plans and all that. John Oxley, who is the Director of Community Evangelism for Microsoft Canada Co. asked the 1600 or so attendees during his opening comments “Who here isn't tech-support for their family?” Well, after letting me get a good night's sleep and feeding me a breakfast that rivalled breakfast the day before with Microsoft Canada President, Phil Sorgen, my mother finally let it out. “So, when are you going to install Vista on my computer?” Now, I did have a spare copy of Vista Ultimate ( with SP1), and well, she is my mother, so I downloaded and ran the Vista Upgrade Advisor on both my mother's Dell desktop and my father's Toshiba laptop. The results indicated that my mother's machine could run Vista, but not with the new Windows Aero premium desktop experience. My father's machine didn't have a compatible video card and had to stick with XP SP3. And although the advisor indicated that the memory on each machine was sufficient, I knew better! After all, to mis-quote Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor you can never have too much memory or too many CPU cycles! A quick trip to Staples and we had enough memory to max out both machines (I also slipped in a nice Logitech blue-tooth mouse for my own laptop). I quickly popped in the new gig stick on my father's laptop and moved on to my mother's desktop. The Upgrade Advisor pointed out that some applications may need some care and feeding after the upgrade, but when queried, my mother said she didn't use most of those programs anymore. So to free up a bit of space and be kind to the upgrade, I uninstalled a half dozen or so applications. I then proceeded with the upgrade, first booting XP and then feeding in the Vista DVD. Everything looked good until I reached the screen informing me that the system couldn't be upgraded! Not good! The problem indicated that FrontPage Server Extensions was preventing the upgrade. Hmmm, I not sure how it's related (well, MS is moving from FrontPage to SharePoint, but I still don't see the connection to an upgrade), but it's also a feature my mother doesn't use. So I popped over the Control Panel, Chose Add or Remove Programs and modified Microsoft Office, deselecting FrontPage. Bob's your uncle and I'm off and running. Now, this process, while relatively quick, did score me a wonderful smoked meat sandwich from Dunn's in Ottawa (my folks picks up vac-packs of Smoked Meat whenever they can) and a Montreal style “All-Dressed” Pizza from Jim's Pizza Palace in Cobourg for supper. Did I say I grew up in Montreal? So John, my answer to you is, “Ain't it the truth, ain't it the truth!” Richard Hagemeyer
Ottawa, ON 
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This is part one of a two part discussion of technology in use at a local school board here in the Ottawa region. Being a father with one of three children in the school system and two more about to join in, I am always curious as to how technology is used to help delivery quality education. While I was at a virtualization conference put on by IDC a while back, I met James Proulx, Director of IT at the Catholic District School Board of Eastern Ontario (OCDSBEO). He suggested that I stop by to see what the CDSBEO is doing to simplify their environment and speed up the deployment of applications to their HighSchools and administrative staff. At our first meeting, I met with his team and we talked about what their plans were for the coming year and what they were doing to simplify application deployment and start exploring server consolidation. That was back in September 2007. I was in touch on an off throughout the year and finally made it back to see how their year had gone. I stopped by for a coffee to talk a couple of weeks ago and met with Ken Konick, James Vandine and Brian Whalen - three systems analysts with the board. We talked about how they are using SoftGrid as one of their virtualization solutions. Some of their challenges include 45 different locations, constrained resources at the client (Windows XP clients with P3 / P4 processors, 512 MB of RAM) all running in their initial pilot of 125 PCs. Add on top of that - keeping configurations of the systems locked down as much as possible to keep prying eyes out of areas they shouldn't be. My ah-ha moment? They can now complete sequencing an application for a principal and deploy it in less than a day where before it would take months due to locked down and frozen images as well as workstation complexity. In part two we'll explore their use of consolidation vitrualization technologies, how they manage them today and their plans for managing them tomorrow. Have a listen - you can download the short 15 minute podcast here.
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