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December 2008 - Posts
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Hello folks, In December I had written a little piece regarding Todd Lamothe, the system administrator for the County of Lennox and Addington, and his deployment of Windows 2008. Well, he’s been driving hard to bring more value and order in his environment. His latest project involves the migration of a lot of statistical information from a manual Excel based process to a SQL 2008 system that will allow him to save time and money all the while providing a lot more value than the system he is using now. All libraries in the County of Lennox and Addington provide their stats to the Information Services office in the form of a text file that is dumped from their terminals. Let me tell you that from what I understand from Todd, that’s not a fun process. He takes the info and re-enters it in an Excel spreadsheet for each library and links it to a “roll-up” master spreadsheet that get distributed to management. The goals of this project were to: - Create a single database server that will be used for collecting all statistics and eventually to provide BI tools and analysis.
- Simplify the reporting and allow for easier queries
- Eliminate the manual Data entry
- Enable historical analysis
- Provide a dashboard environment for management.
His current environment does not allow for historical data past 18 months, which becomes an issue when trying to establish trends year over year. When I asked him what were are the challenges faced by Todd? He replied that the stats are in is responsibility because of the “data entry” function and that the manual process did not leave him much time to address other issues. Also, the current system was not granular enough to provide detailed analysis. Furthermore, the old system did not produce the historical data he needs for his planning exercise. To remedy that situation he rolled out SQL 2008 with the following technologies: - Data transformation services, In order to convert and import the data from the text file generated by the library systems
- Dashboard & Reporting services, for management and real time stats
On top of the benefits he will gain by eliminating the manual processes he will also use the SQL server to host a Microsoft Deployment Toolkit database that will give him the options of automating the deployment of customized workstations throughout the environment based on roles and location. Talk about flexibility…. Here are some details of his implementation. - SQL is running in a Hyper-V environment.
- The SQL Server installation was very straight forward since he had nothing to start with.
- 3 things (.Net Framework, XML, Management tools) did not install properly the first times, but were easily fixed by re-installing those parts (unknown if this was an interface problem between the chair and the keyboard)
Now that the server is up, the DTS process is being tweaked, and he expect the whole solution to be running very soon. WOW! How about that? This is a prime example of the business needs dictating the IT innovations. If you have stories like this one, feel free to contact me and we can tell others, and hopefully, we can inspire other to do the things that brings them value and success. Cheers.  
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I thought I would share our electronic team Christmas Card with you (powered by Silverlight – click to view animation). We hope you enjoy a safe and happy holiday season – whichever holiday you choose to celebrate: Christmas, Hanukkah, Solstice, Festivus.... Take the time be be with your friends and family, disconnect from the grid a little in order to reconnect with those that matter to you most. Get off your email, stop browsing the web, shut down your news reader. Your servers and systems will be there when you get back. Get out the board games and challenge a loved one to a game of Scrabble or Risk. 
I`m off to toboggan with my kids. With a last name of CLAUS, we really enjoy ourselves this time of year. :-) 
IT Pro blog | IT Manager blog | Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn
My Shared Bookmarks 
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Hello folks, Todd Lamothe, the system administrator for the County of Lennox and Addington was in town a few weeks ago to present at TechDays and we started to talk about fun, and cool stuff he’s been doing. Well let me tell you, he’s been busy. He told me that he upgraded his entire forest to Windows 2008. He’s now running AD in 2008 native mode and is also taking advantage of a lot of the new features and capabilities. I asked him what was the underlying goal for upgrading to Windows 2008 the day it went RTM (he did all his testing and planning using Beta code. talk about bleeding edge) his reply was “I want to include the windows 2008 feature set in my environment. I’m a one man shop and I cover a very large area. so any tools, features or capabilities that can make my life easier is welcomed” Here is a map of the locations Todd is responsible for: (click on it for more details) 
The network supports and Exchange 2007, and about 100 workstations scattered throughout the libraries. But the problem is that other than the 30 staff members that work in those libraries that are over 12,000 users of this network. (library members) Todd’s challenges were mainly the maintenance of those desktops in libraries across the county. This was originally done by getting in a car and driving to all locations. not something he liked doing especially when you have to drive through blizzards like we have had lately. Here are some of the changes that Todd has now implemented: - Change Desktop icons on Kiosk machines and add local content by using GPO and Preferences.
- Eliminated the complex Logon script thus shortening the logon process
- Established different security policies per OU
- Implemented folder redirection to enable roaming users to access their files anywhere on the network.
- Implemented WDS – WDS and Multicast support allows him to deploy single MDT images to the library desktops and kiosk in a multicast scenario.
Todd also told me that because of the size of his environment the Migration from Windows 2003 AD to Windows 2008 was virtually painless. All he had to do after taking a good backup was to: - Extended the schema
- Perform an in-place upgrade of one of the 2003 DCs to Windows 2008
- After verification of the success of the upgrade he upgraded all the other DCs sequentially.
- When all the DC’s were converted to 2008 he switched the domain and forest functional levels to Native.
And now after 10 months of operations…. all is well. no issues. What is the environment like for the IT staff now? So I asked him, How has the change affected your IT staff? he replied: “I put on some weight because I don’t move as much anymore…. And my car does not need as much maintenance. but other than that, it’s been rock solid.” when I asked him what had been the impact on the users? “They have not noticed a thing. Other then that I’m not around as much anymore… 2008 makes the management of the environment a lot easier and there will be saving in time and money.... Witch translates into saving my own neck. “ he replied I know Todd is planning his next move….. I’ll be sure to let you know how it unfolds. Cheers 
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It’s a pleasure connecting and supporting each and every one of you through the year, both personally and from a team perspective … I am lucky to have a role and great team that is focused on supporting and helping you make a positive difference in Canada. I also feel so lucky to have this relationship with you. You’ve given us great feedback to help better support you , adjust our programs and hopefully we are earning your trust and building a foundation of satisfaction! Canada has so many great developers and technical professionals that really make the difference in their community, business and individually. Over the year, I’ve had the pleasure to hear so many stories of heroic and life change activities/solutions that you have done which makes us even more compelled to support you. Your impact and feedback give me and my team the energy to try and do more. You are such a great group of people to support and I look forward to 2009 . Merry Christmas to you and your families from me and mine … wherever you travel, whatever specifics you “celebrate” … may you find some time to BE with loved ones … and relax a little. Happy 2009! As always in the new year… please feel free to contact me directly as my email door is always open ..... john.oxley@microsoft.com John Director Microsoft Canada 
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Hi, I am an IT Professional from Montreal and I’ve been working in IT for 7 years now, specializing in Microsoft solutions and virtualization. I currently work as IT infrastructure consultant at AlphaMosaik, a company that specializes in Microsoft solutions and products. AlphaMosaik is always working with the newest Microsoft technologies which gives me the opportunity to be among the first to build expertise on new and upcoming products. I mainly work on Windows Server 2008, Hyper-V and SCVMM 2008 projects. I work with our different teams on testing and deploying new applications such as K2 blackpearl for SharePoint 2007 or System Center Operations Manager. I thought I would share with you a couple of projects I have been working on using Server 2008, Hyper-V and System Center Virtual Machine Manager.  Jonathan Cusson
Conseiller en infrastructure, MCP 
For those of you already using Hyper-V, you know it's a great product. Since Hyper-V is stable and offers very good performance - I recently had the opportunity to do a migration of our production and development environment, from Windows 2003 with Virtual Server to Windows 2008 Enterprise with Hyper-V. (Note that this migration was done without SCVMM or other migration and management tools. At the time of migration I did not have access to SCVMM which would have allowed me to migrate VMs in less steps. Let me give some details on our environment. In the production and the development environments we have servers with dual Intel quad core processors and 16GB of memory. We also have a production server with two dual core and 8GB of memory. Storage for the servers is direct attached storage configured as a RAID 5 on each server. The first thing I needed to do was to move the VM's from Virtual Server to the Hyper-V environment. If done correctly, you shouldn't have any issues. The best way to do this is: - Uninstall the Virtual Server Addition Tools before moving to the Hyper-V host
- Move the VHD to the new host server
- Create the VM in Hyper-V using the VHD you just moved
Once you boot the VM, you will need to install the Hyper-V tools. You will have to reconfigure your virtual NIC since Hyper-V uses a different driver but this should not create problems. Just make sure you have the configuration(IP, Gateway, DNS) written down before removing Virtual Server Additions tools. In the production environment we have 8 VM's per server with space remaining for more VM's. Some of you might question the performance of the VM's but as surprising as it might sound everything is running smooth. We have SQL 2005 & 2008, SharePoint 2007, OCS, Dynamics CRM, Operations Manager 2007 and other applications running on the VM's. Some of the servers are Windows 2003, other Windows 2008 and both in 32 bits and 64bits. However the most impressive is the development environment. The hosts have the same specifications but we are running up to 12 VM's per server and the performance are up to the needs of the development teams. Hyper-V offers surprising performance and really allows you to optimize the use of physical machines. Now that the migration is complete – I’ve had time to install and configure System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008. In a world where virtual servers are spreading at high speed and with Hyper-V adaption growing rapidly, the new System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 is more than welcome. I’ve recently installed it to centralize the management of all our Hyper-V and VS 2005 servers. Installation and configuration is simple and Microsoft did a great job putting useful tools and options to make managing VMs and hosts easier and faster. Our development teams frequently requires new VMs for testing and preparing solutions for clients and that required me to do manual deployment very often. Microsoft SCVMM 2008 now makes it easy to deploy VMs using templates, hardware and OS profiles saving me valuable time. In the coming months I will be installing some new servers and maybe a SAN. Here’s to more room to grow our environment! 
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Typically the things we chat about on this blog are aimed at the more experienced PC user and most IT Pros know a thing or two about computers. I came across this blog recently and have added it to my RSS feed as it is a great mix of hardware, software, Windows and Linux tips, tricks, reviews and more. The videos are very well done, the articles are easy to follow and the reviews are unbiased and best of all PCWhizKid is Canadian! As an example here is a video PCWhizKid has posted…
Windows Performance – Increase Virtual Memory
If you want to see more I’d suggest heading over to http://pcwizkid.blogspot.com/ and add his RSS feed to your mix. 
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Everytime anyone, me included, talks about virtualization one of the things that comes up is saving money. Virtualization saves you money. Or does it? And if it does, how? The current economic situation is taxing a lot of organizations of all sizes there really is some savings to be had by implementing virtualization. The other topic is Green IT and it goes hand in hand with the cost savings. So just how much can you save? There are a few great resources to help you navigate this area and the more you know, the better equiped you’ll be to help save your organization money and do your part to save the environment at the same time! Microsoft Virtualization Benefits Calculator Microsoft Virtualization ROI Calculator Microsoft Virtualization Savings Whitepaper 
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TechEd 2008 North America DVD Kit
In your TechDays learning kit you received the full TechEd 2008 North America DVD kit. Recently, Microsoft has released Silverlight 2 which is not compatible with the beta version of Silverlight that the TechEd North America DVD user interface was built with. In order to continue accessing the content from the TechEd DVD, please follow one of these two steps:
1) Download the workaround PDF file.
2) Visit Tim Heuer's Blog for full details on the workaround.
If you have any other questions, please contact the MSDN Team. Jeu de DVD TechEd 2008 Amérique du Nord
Vous trouverez un jeu de DVD sur la conférence TechEd 2008 Amérique du Nord dans votre trousse d’apprentissage TechDays. Microsoft a récemment lancé le navigateur Silverlight 2, qui n’est pas compatible avec la version bêta de Silverlight sur laquelle l’interface utilisateur du DVD de la conférence TechEd Amérique du Nord a été créée. Pour continuer à accéder au contenu du DVD de la conférence TechEd, choisissez l’une des deux solutions suivantes :
1) Téléchargez le fichier PDF de la solution de rechange à partir de ce lien (en anglais).
2) Visitez le blogue de Tim Heuer où vous trouverez les détails de la solution de rechange. Pour toute autre question, n’hésitez pas à communiquer avec l’équipe MSDN. 
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I was catching up on my RSS feeds while recovering from the first day of TechDays Calgary and came across this post on the MS Blogs blog. MS Blogs is a blog that aggregates the product team blogs and is a nice one to add to your feeds to keep you up to date on what’s going on in areas you don’t normally have time to look into. As we are close to finishing up TechDays in Vancouver at the end of January there are a lot of other opportunities to invest in your future and this post highlights a few of them. Definitely worth the read… ------------------------- 
It's important to invest in your professional development both to keep your skills up-to-date and to further your career. Have you set your personal Learning objectives for the year ahead? Microsoft products and technologies are constantly evolving with new releases all the time - are you keeping pace? The last thing you want is to find yourself out in the cold. You may be an expert in supporting Windows 3.1, Windows NT4 Server or Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM). However that's no good if you need to find a new job or want a change in direction and you don't have the knowledge and experience of the latest Microsoft products such as Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008 and Systems Center Operations Manager 2007. If you are looking to build your knowledge as an IT Professional or IT Developer - there are many options and you can find details of the following on the Microsoft Learning Website: Don't forget the Microsoft Events Website. You can find details In-person events, Live webcasts, On-demand webcasts, Podcasts, and access to the latest information on free TechNet and MSDN Virtual Labs. Virtual Labs are a good way to enhance your knowledge - and the best thing is that they are free! If you are looking to really distance yourself and demonstrate you are the best of the best - then Microsoft Certifications may be for you. Learn More.. -
Technology Series: Specialist certifications train IT professionals in implementation, building, troubleshooting, and debugging of a specific Microsoft technology. -
Professional Series: Professional credentials validate the skill set required for a particular job. -
Master Series: Master certifications identify individuals with the deepest technical skills available on a particular Microsoft product. -
Architect Series: The Certified Architect program makes it easy for companies to identify experienced IT architects who have completed a rigorous peer review process. Three things to consider when you develop your career development plan: If you are employed by a company that purchases Microsoft products with Software Assurance are you taking advantage of the free benefits of that program?
Check out the Microsoft Software Assurance - E-Learning Benefits Are you taking advantage of all the FREE training?
Check out the Microsoft Events Website, or leverage the resources on the TechNet and MSDN portals. On the Events site you can find details of In-person events, Live webcasts, On-demand webcasts, Podcasts, and access to the latest information on free TechNet and MSDN Virtual Labs. When training budgets are tight - do you need to pay the full price, or is there a special offer that will save you or your company money?
Check out the Microsoft Learning Special Offers. 
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 | | Louis-Philippe Gauthier (Sherbrooke, Quebec) | We’ve all been there, boss calls you in at the last minute for your input on a project that has been brewing for months but all of a sudden needs to be implemented ASAP. Louis-Philippe from Centre d’élaboration des moyens d’enseignement du Québec (CEMEQ) had such an experience and used Hyper-V to save his weekend :) ------------------------- The following takes place between 3:30pm and 4:15pm… 3:30 PM I get back from a meeting have a note on my desk saying to go see accounting regarding something, no real details. So since this is a pay week no reason to delay going there and asking what's up. 3:32 PM Arrive at the Accounting office. I am told that they have a consultant showing up tomorrow to install licenses of the accounting software on the terminal server. No problem except we don't have a terminal server. Now here is a quote that every IT Pro really enjoys hearing "I think I should've told you a little earlier". Rewind a couple of months and it is true that I mentioned in a casual talk that a terminal server would be a pretty good solution that we should try out for the accounting software. Somewhere in between the decision was made and IT wasn’t notified :( 3:36 PM Arrive back in IT. Time to get cracking! I start by firing up Hyper-V Manager to create a VM and start to install Windows Server 2008 in the VM. While this goes on I have time to write this blog post and go over our Hyper-V setup. Hyper-V is just like any other role that you can install on Windows 2008 x64 editions. Install the OS, install all the Windows updates (one of which is Hyper-V RTM), reboot and we are ready to go! As an FYI Windows Server 2008 x64 SP2 will include the RTM version of Hyper-V. There are very few hardware requirements but they are important to know… - x64 version of Windows Server 2008
- x64 capable CPU with Hardware Assisted Virtualization (Intel VT or AMD-V)
- BIOS that supports Hardware Assisted Virtualization and has it enabled (most BIOS it is disabled by default)
- BIOS that supports Data Execution Prevention and has it enabled
In my case I have an HP Proliant DL180G5 (Dual Socket Quad 2.83GHz Xeon with 12GB of RAM and 4TB of direct-attached drives in a RAID 0+1 setup) ready for the task. 3:45 PM With the OS install done and network connectivity configured I update the VM with the Integration Components, Windows updates and it’s ready to install roles. Since this is going to be a terminal server and I want to use the Remote Applications feature as well as TSWeb Applications I need to install the following roles… - IIS7
- Terminal Server
- TSWeb Access (this will automatically select and install the required IIS7 components)
- TS Licensing
4:00 PM The installation of the roles is complete and one last check on Windows Updates to ensure all is still up to date and we are golden! In 15 minutes (give or take) I had a working installation of Windows 2008. Another 15 minutes gave me a fully updated Windows with TS and IIS roles ready to go. Just in time for me to pack up my stuff and head home for the weekend! So the Accounting department was happy, I was happy and so was my boss. Nothing beats a happy boss! No additional hardware was required, no additional cooling was required and no additional power was required! If you have 2003 R2 or 2008 Enterprise you don’t even need additional licenses as it includes four virtual licenses (Datacenter includes unlimited licenses). Louis-Philippe ------------------------- Great example of the power of Hyper-V. I thought I’d add a few notes at the end with some additional information. Heroes Happen Here Lab Guide with Terminal Services Demos and Videos Windows Server Virtualization Licensing Calculators Hyper-V Getting Started Guide (Download Link) 
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 Our team just went through a hardware refresh and the large majority of us all chose the new Dell e4300. We are just starting to get our feet wet with them but Montreal MVP Dan Nerenberg has have his e6400 for a few months now and wanted to share his thoughts. If you have an interesting piece of hardware or a gadget you’d like to share an experience on, shoot us an email we’d love to post your thoughts!
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Back in September I decided it was time for a new laptop. Conveniently Dell had just released its new E-series laptops based on the Intel Centrino 2 platform. There were several models that interested me, and it was a tough decision to choose the right model. My requirements were:
Good performance: I usually have anywhere from 5 to 10 VMs for various projects on my computers at any given time. In order to run them effectively I needed something that run 2-3 VMs at once. This also meant supporting Hardware Virtualization (for hyper-v support) and a fast hard drive.
Support for a large memory footprint: Adding memory to a laptop is one of the easiest ways to increase performance, and with the tendency for memory to consistently fall in price month after month I wanted something that could be upgraded to 8Gb
Good sized screen: My last laptop had a 13.3 inch screen. It was ok for most apps, but I was starting to feel cramped.
Portability: My last real want was something that I didn’t have to lug around. This need tends to conflicts with my previous needs.
After careful consideration, and a visit to the Future of Computing tour put on by Dell where I could take a look at the laptop I decided on the Dell E6400 series laptop. Here are the specs for the model I chose:
• T9600 (2.80GHZ) Core 2 DUO
• 4GB Ram
• 250GB HDD 7200RPM
• NVidia Quadro NVS 160M
• 14 inch wide screen LED backlit display
• Backlit Keyboard
• 6 cell and 9 cell batteries
• A/G/N Intel Wifi Card
• Bluetooth, Finger print Reader, TPM, eSATA Port, Smart Card Reader, RFID reader
First impressions:
This laptop is solid. The body is made from magnesium alloy, and the hinges are made from high grade metal. There is no flex in the body of the laptop. And the keyboard feels solid when you type on it. The screen is gorgeous. The colours really pop off the screen and the LED backlit makes a huge difference when it comes to colour consistency from various viewing angles. The laptop is definitely fast, But Quite! When idling, or just writing you can barely hear the cooling system. When you load up a VM or a 3D intensive application the laptop does become a bit louder, but this is understandable.
Finally the last element that I was very impressed with was battery life. First let me just state that manufactures often state estimated battery life of a laptop with all the battery conservation settings maxed out. This usually means little to no power going to the backlit, CPU speed reduced, and various other options turned down or off in order to provide the advertised battery life. This has always been unrealistic for me. I like having my screen on full brightness and my system working at 100% capacity. Well with the 9 Cell batteries I’m pushing upwards of 4 hours! That’s with the system set to high performance. In fact the battery was so good I only took out my power bar for the first time a month after I got the laptop!
This brings me to the small pain points that I experienced. For some reason I got shipped a travel power supply that wasn’t powerful enough to power the laptop and charge the battery at the same time. Luckily I also ordered a docking station that prevented this from being a major problem for me. None the less I have to commend the dell team I dealt with to resolve this issue. I made 1 phone call, and was passed directly from technical support to customer care. After we discussed the issue a reasonable compromise was reached and I shipped the power supply I needed. All in all it was a smooth interaction, and one of the better experiences dealing with a customer care team.
Final Impressions:
So far with regards to the laptop’s performance and usability I really can’t be more content. The backlit keyboard is one of my favourite new features, and everyone notices it right away. Great for those red eye flights where you want to work, but don’t want to turn on the cabin light and annoy the people around you.
If you’re looking to update older C and D class latitudes the E series are definite winners. If you haven’t had a chance to take a look at Latitudes I strongly recommend testing an E series. For large orders Dell has some really compelling enterprise services around deployment.
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Hello Folks,
2 weeks ago I participated in the first MITPro LiveMeeting enabled monthly meeting. I know I’m late reporting back to you, but I’ve been touring the country side with TechDays 2008 ( four cities down, 2 to go…) At that meeting we had a panel discussion on “virtualization”. Well, the discussion was lively, the attendees were participating, and all in all a very good experience.
I had a good discussion with Daniel Nerenberg, the president of MITPro, after the meeting over some pints and I asked him to write down his thoughts so that we could tell you about it in his own words….
Here’s what he had to say about the experience:
“What an exciting night! First I want to thank my speakers Pierre, Bill, and Mitch. You guys did a great job, and everyone was excited to see Mitch up on the big screen. This was also a challenging night; we were trying out several different concepts and ideas. The first concept is a round table/ Panel style meeting. The second concept was linking the meeting up with Live Meeting.
The panel meeting format worked great from my perspective. We had 3 very knowledgeable presenters who understood how virtualization was impacting the areas of the business world they worked in.
The Live Meeting aspect presented several unforeseen challenges that delayed the start of our meeting a bit, and I had to tweak the live meeting setting throughout the presentation in order to allow the online participant to get the proper access.
What we learned:
Preparation time: Even though I tested my setup at home setting up the camera and microphone gear onsite required more time that I originally anticipated I would recommend setting up and testing 1 hour before attendees arrive.
Equipment checks: Make sure to test out equipment over a long period of time. I tested a camera for a minute on LiveMeeting only to find out that it went into a sleep mode every 5 minutes which interrupted the LiveMeeting video feed.
Have Backups and extension cords: We couldn’t use the presentation room’s speaker system; fortunately I brought a set of speakers as backups. And finally bring lots of long connector wires for anything you need to connect. Extensions power cords are also recommended.
Overall I am very happy with our first Roundtable discussion. The MITPro board is reviewing all of the feedback we received and we are looking forward to making the next presentation even better.
Daniel”
So here you go. I know I said that we would try to get the LiveMeeting recording online, but the difficulties of the evening prevented us from accomplishing our goal. Next Time. Let’s think of this meeting as “MITPro Virtual Meeting, Beta 1” it works, just very few issues to iron out….
So, go out there, don’t be afraid to try new things, stretch your thinking and let us know how it goes. …. Like Bruce Wayne’s father said, “Why do we fall? So we can learn how to pick ourselves up.” (I’m such a geek…. )
Cheers.
 
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It is an interesting time right now. Some of you have finished deploying Vista, others are part way through a deployment and others are waiting to see what Windows 7 has to offer before making a decision. All valid options but while the decision making process is going on there is no reason to sit on your hands. While the OS might be changing, the deployment tools and techniques won’t be and what a better time to get your hands busy testing out deployment options in your lab! And where you ask? How about a three training seminars covering the following…
Optimizing the Windows-Based Desktop - Learn the five best practices that can help you attain the right balance for your desktop infrastructure—empowering employees with the flexibility they need to be productive, while providing IT the needed level of control, manageability, and security. The result can be a lower cost optimized desktop.
Amplify the Impact of Your People with Business Productivity Infrastructure - Your information workers want technologies and tools that fit the way they work. You want flexibility, manageability and control. Discover how the 2007 Microsoft Office system can help you meet both sets of needs - empowering your end-user to deliver business results while increasing your IT flexibility and manageability. Plus, we'll help you determine the ROI of the 2007 Microsoft Office system on your organization.
Your Roadmap for Desktop Deployment – Discover the best practices, tools and support that can help you navigate the road to desktop deployment. Learn how to assess your environment, develop a plan, and implement a deployment project of Windows Vista Service Pack 1 and Microsoft Office 2007 for your organization.
These sessions are happening at different partner locations across Canada so look for one near you and register!
Register Here Today! 
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I was walking my 3 kids to school this morning - it was blowing snow and cold. Somehow the conversation turned to my work and I was explaining to them (6.75 son and twin 4.5 year olds) what it is that I do (connect with ICT Professionals, share stories of their success, help them develop skills etc). I mentioned that one way that I share stories or retell stories is not through sitting down and reading to each and every one in the ICT Community, but through things called Blogs, Podcasts, VideoCasts and MicroBlogging (Twitter). It was rather amusing to "translate" this into terms they understand - I should share that sometime, but I'll save that for another post. When we were in the schoolyard, their bags in the various lines that represent their classes, they went off to play. I huddled in the corner, out of the wind and since they were off for 10 minutes of freedom before the bell rang, I took a sip of coffee from the travel mug and pulled out my SmartPhone to check out my mail and see what was going on in the twitterverse. It's amazing to see what people can say when they only have 140 characters to say it in. This one "tweet" from my boss got me thinking... 
Not bad for 140 characters, eh? it caught my attention. As ICT Professionals - what are you / can you do to have a positive impact on your company or customers? This is a good starting point for a conversation... What do you think? Are you worried about projects that have to be cancelled / delayed because of economic concerns or improper/unclear alignment to cost savings or business drivers? Do you have to do more work, because contractors / PS consultants are not being brought in to help bolster the ranks or share their expertise? what's your strategy to make yourself or your IT department stand out positively with all that is going on? 
IT Pro Team Blog | IT Managers Blog |Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn
My Shared Bookmarks
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Now that I got your attention I wanted to talk to you about the sad state of, just kidding :) Yes the headline is true, we got an Xbox Elite to giveaway along with a copy of Rock Band: Special Edition and GTA IV: Special Edition and all you need to do is answer 10 simple questions on Vista deployment to enter. The draw will take place in January and you could be rocking out shortly after that! The best part is, each question has a link to the Springboard page to the answer so if you aren't sure, it is pretty easy to find the answer because in order to win, you do have to get all 10 correct :) So what are you waiting for? Go take the quiz! 
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Ok so that isn't exactly math but it does remind me of the calculus I took in high school but let me explain :) I know there is a lot of interest in Windows 7 with nearly everyone asking me when there will be a public beta. I know there are a few places that have decided to hold off their Windows Vista deployments in anticipation of 7. I am not at liberty to say when the 7 beta will open (well not without losing my job) but there are some resources available to help you prepare for Windows 7 and/or Windows Vista SP2. Windows Vista SP2 beta is now available (or will be shortly as the TechNet servers get seeded) via TechNet Plus subscriptions, for those who don't have a TechNet Plus subscription SP2 will be available on Technet.com on December 4th. SP2 beta is also applicable to Windows Server 2008 for testing. One thing to note is that you will need to have SP1 installed in order to install SP2. Now on to Windows 7! I know there is a lot of anticipation for Windows 7 and I can see why. I've been running the PDC build on my production notebook for about 3 weeks now and I must say it is much more stable than I expected, in fact I haven't had any issues at all. If you are like some of the people I talked to who have decided to wait, don't sit on your hands you can start testing hardware and applications for Windows 7 using Windows Vista! Unlike the transition from Windows XP to Vista that incurred a few driver issues as well as some app compat issues, Windows 7 uses the same driver and application models meaning that if it works on Vista, it will almost surely work on 7. If you have use the Application Compatability Toolkit to create shims and the good news is you can use that exact same shim on 7. I wrote a couple of articles on creating shims over at thelazyadmin.com and there is also a great TechNet Virtual Lab covering this as well. So what does this have to do with TechDays? Well if you attended the Toronto and Montreal events you might already have your TechNet Plus subscription and you can get your hands on the beta today! Finally if you are looking for a one stop Windows Vista or Windows 7 deployment resource be sure to check out Springboard! 
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