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November 2009 - Posts
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(originally posted on blogs.msdn.com/cdndevs by Joey DeVilla)
Some more photos from the Big Apple! Here’s their pie menu:
The Big Apple is an apple-shaped three-storey building with an observation deck on the roof. Here’s a shot of Damir beside the Big Apple:
Here’s a close-up:
Inside the building is an apple museum. We were all rarin’ to go inside and take photos of the various displays inside the museum, but…
Closed! Look at the disappointment on Damir’s face:
I was even more disappointed (look at my sad mug below). “Ain’t that just like an apple,” I said, “tantalizing promises, but you get denied the moment you get close. Now I know how iPhone developers feel.” (Remember, folks – I kid because I care.)
[This article also appears in Global Nerdy.] 
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(originally posted on blogs.msdn.com/cdndevs by Joey DeVilla)
When people in Toronto and area refer to “The Big Apple”, we’re usually not talking about New York, but the Big Apple in Coburg, Ontario. It’s one of the must-visit stops on that stretch of Highway 401 that spans the Toronto-Montreal corridor: roadside rest stop, mini-amusement park, apple pie facvory, apple museum and giant apple-shaped building with a balcony on top giving a commanding view of the cars whizzing by.
There’s no shortage of interesting signs on the grounds:
Apparently, the Big Apple is about 13,000 kilometres from the city of my birth, Manila:
The place is heaven for people who like pie:
They have a mascot, but no one was running around in the giant apple costume today. Damir and I had to settle for the little statue by the counter:
We arrived in the Ford Flex just before a busload of people, which means that we didn’t have to wait for pie:
More scenes from the Big Apple to follow!
[This article also appears in Global Nerdy.] 
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(originally posted on blogs.msdn.com/cdndevs by Joey DeVilla)
Here’s the blogging setup I’m using from within the Ford Flex as we drive to Montreal: my laptop with a Rogers stick and carte blanche to use as much bandwidth as I need to continually post from the road. Damir’s at the wheel, I’ve got my seat moved all the way back, my own set of climate controls and Raw Dog Comedy on the satellite radio. It’s a surprisingly decent work setup; I could get a fair bit done this way.
[This article also appears in Global Nerdy.] 
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(originally posted on blogs.msdn.com/cdndevs by Joey DeVilla)
 Damir at the wheel, looking for an opening on the Don Valley Parkway.
I’m blogging and tweeting from the road today! My coworker Damir Bersinic (IT Pro Evangelist) and I have been loaned a Ford Flex equipped with Microsoft’s Sync and I’ve got my laptop hooked up to a Rogers internet stick. The photo above was taken just before noon, when we were on the Don Valley Parkway, right around Richmond Street.
I’ll be posting quite regularly from the road, so watch this space!
[This article also appears in Global Nerdy.] 
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The other day I wrote a blog post explaining the difference between Desktop Virtualization and Virtual Desktops (aka VDI) and based on the emails I got it answered they question and cleared up the confusion. It also lead to another question “what is App-v?”. Microsoft Application Virtualization (aka App-V, formerly known as SoftGrid) is an application virtualization and streaming platform. In a nutshell it removes any requirement for the application to be installed on the computer, rather it uses a the App-V client to stream the application from the App-V server. All applications are run in a sandbox so that they are protected from each other and can’t impact any running applications. 
If you have ever tried to run two different versions of the same application (say Access 97 and Access 2003) on the same machine at the same time you have probably encountered what is commonly referred to as “DLL Hell”. Applications will typically use the same DLL but often when running different versions of an app, different versions of the DLL are required. With App-V, the entire application, including DLLs, INIs, registry keys, services and more are bundled into the virtualized application environment. This allows multiple versions of an application to run and access the different versions of the DLL (or other files) without each version impacting the others. Having managed terminal servers in the past, a place where it is common to find multiple versions of an application, App-V can do wonders to improve the stability of the applications while helping you maintain your sanity. But it can be used on desktops too. In fact it is part of the Desktop Optimization Pack (aka MDOP) for this reason. Every time you update an application, let’s say a Service Pack or a feature update, that update needs to be deployed to all your desktops. With App-V you just have to update the master image on the App-V server and the updated application will get streamed to the user the next time they launch the application. Something in the update breaks the application in your environment? Simply rollback to the previous version on the App-V server and get the user(s) to re-launch the app. And since it is tied into AD you can assign different apps to different users, apply permissions and such. Combined with roaming profiles it can make management of the desktops much easier. I am really scratching the surface here with what App-V can do. If you want to know more check out the App-V TechCenter on TechNet and if you have a TechNet+ subscription you can download Application Virtualization to try in your lab! 
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Virtualization is and will remain a hot topic for a while yet. There are many types of virtualization, which can lead to confusion, and the most notable confusion I’ve been asked to straighten out is desktop virtualization vs. virtual desktops. So let’s clear the air and set things straight!
Desktop Virtualization
Desktop virtualization is probably the most common form of virtualization you are familiar with. Simply put it is the act of running a virtual machine on a desktop PC. If you have run a virtual machine on your desktop using Virtual PC 2007, Windows Virtual PC 7, VMWare Workstation, Sun VirtualBox, Paralells etc… you have used desktop virtualization. Over the years this has changed a little with the most recent changes with Windows Virtual PC 7 and XP Mode. XP Mode runs on top of Windows Virtual PC 7 and using some terminal server technologies (Remote Applications) allows you to run an application in an XP virtual machine that is running in the background, while presenting the application on the local machine. MED-V, aka Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization, is XP Mode on steroids. It performs the same task buts adds a management component to the mix to allow administrators to build, deploy, update and manage the virtual machine images running on users desktops.
Virtual Desktops
Virtual Desktops, aka VDI, also leverages virtualization and terminal server technologies but differs in the fact that the virtual machine is running on a server in the datacenter. If you have run, or are familiar with how terminal servers operate, users log into the server using Remote Desktop and are given a session on the terminal server. Each user has their own session separate from the other users but they are all using the same OS and have access to the same applications. With VDI the same thing is taking place but rather than the user logging into a session on a terminal server, they are logging into a virtual machine running on a Hyper-V server. This means that they are not sharing the machine (although they are sharing resources on the Hyper-V host) and each user can have a different configuration based on their needs. For example you might have a few HR users who use a lightweight application for payroll, and a few users in engineering who use a resource intensive application to run simulations. You can create different types of virtual machines with different resources, operating systems and/or applications and assign those based on user needs.
I hope this clears the air as to virtual desktops and desktop virtualization!
addthis_pub = 'CDNDPE';
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At PDC last week Windows Azure production dates were released and the service was made available for you to try. What is Azure? As Ray Ozzie put it, think of it as “Windows in the cloud”. Still confused? I don’t blame you as it is a shift from what we traditionally know or think about cloud computing. This video does a great job of explaining Azure. There is a lot of opportunity with Windows Azure from both a developer perspective and from an infrastructure perspective. There is a great set of resources available that covers the Windows Azure platform including: Windows Azure, SQL Azure and .NET Services. The November release includes new and updated labs in addition to information about Microsoft Codename “Dallas”. This training kit contains the following content: Presentations Presentations will be updated after PDC 2009 with all of the latest and greatest decks. Demos Demos will be updated after PDC 2009 with all of the latest and greatest demos. Hands On Labs - Introduction to Windows Azure
- Exploring Windows Azure Storage
- Deploying and Monitoring Applications in Windows Azure
- Windows Azure: Worker Role Communication
- Federated Authentication in a Windows Azure Web Role Application
- Building ASP.NET Web Form Applications with Windows Azure
- Introduction to SQL Azure
- Migrating Databases to SQL Azure
- SQL Azure: Tips and Tricks
- Intro to Dallas
- Introduction to the .NET Service Bus
- Introduction to the .NET Access Control Service
- Service Remoting with Service Bus
- Eventing with the Service Bus
Get it @ http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=413e88f8-5966-4a83-b309-53b7b77edf78. 
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 Woke up this morning and as is my usual custom I started reading my RSS feeds before starting the day. And what do I see? Office 2010 Beta, SharePoint 2010 Beta and more is available for TechNet and MSDN subscribers!
That’s right, if you have a TechNet and/or MSDN subscription you can head on over and download the first public beta of Office 2010! Have you been to TechDays? Yes? Then fire up that subscription and get downloading! If you don’t have a subscription, have no fear! The beta will be available at the TechNet Eval Centre later this week! What a way to start a week! 
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The other day this blog entry came through my RSS reader and got me thinking. Security technologist and author Bruce Schneier wrote a post called Is Antivirus Dead? He summarized his post with “Bottom line: antivirus software is neither necessary nor sufficient for security, but it's still a good idea. It's not a panacea that magically makes you safe, nor is it is obsolete in the face of current threats. As countermeasures go, it's cheap, it's easy, and it's effective. I haven't dumped my antivirus program, and I have no intention of doing so anytime soon.” Reading the rest of the article, as well as some of his other articles you see that he believes in the security onion approach. 
Well more often referred to as a layered approach to security it is your best bet when looking at how to protect your organization, your home, really anything you want to secure. That is why we implement password policies, firewalls, access control lists, as well as other layers of security, including anti-virus. No single tool, policy or resource will protect you, but combined they offer a solution. That is why you see most leading anti-virus applications, like Microsoft Forefront use multiple scanning engines. While vendor X might be first out the door with signatures for today’s virus, vendor Y might be first tomorrow and vendor Z the day after. By utilizing the scanning engines from all three vendors you’d always be up to date and protected. If you are using Microsoft Forefront there is some important news you need to know! Microsoft is revising its engine mix on Dec. 1, 2009 for the Forefront and Antigen products. This change will allow customers to utilize a set of engines that help optimize detection, while also allowing us to invest in new areas for increasing overall protection for customers. The AhnLab, CA, and Sophos engines will be retired on Dec. 1, 2009. After December 1st, customers will not receive any updates for these retired engines. In order to make sure your Antigen and Forefront products continue to scan efficiently and effectively for malware, any customers running the AhnLab, CA, or Sophos engines must DISABLE these engines before Dec. 1, 2009 and select from the new set of five engines – Authentium, Kaspersky, Microsoft, Norman, and VirusBuster. There are a lot more changes coming with the ForeFront Suite of anti-virus and anti-spam tools and if you are running any of them please check out this blog post from the Forefront team! 
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Three guys got together over pints in February 2009 and talked about how one of the issues facing Technical Professionals today is keeping their systems patched and up to date. This issue was brought up to them at a User Group meeting they were attending (Ottawa Windows Server User Group) where we were participating in an “Ask the Microsoft Guy” panel discussion.
Over pints at D’Arcy McGee’s, Pierre Roman, Bruce Cowper and I decided we would try to help solve the issue of information overload regarding patching and put together a timely podcast to go live each “Patch Tuesday”.
Goals:
- Use plain English terms and every day language that any Technical professional can understand – minimize “corporate speak”.
- Breakdown each Security Bulletin with summary information first followed by more details as to the impact an IT Pro would face.
- Outline mitigation factors in case patches couldn’t be tested or applied in a timely fashion
- Keep it top 20 minutes OR LESS. This one is critical – Keep It Simple, repeatable and get out of the IT Pros way to get on with their day.
- Have fun!
Have a listen directly from the embedded Silverlight player OR subscribe to the specific feed and download it to your iTunes / Zune software.
As always - if you have suggestions on making it better - please pass on your comments. Mail me directly – rick.claus@microsoft.com
Direct Download:
Subscribe to the podcast: (so you don't miss an episode)
  
Disclaimer: This podcast was produced with the best information available to us at the time of recording. Your primary source for all things Security Bulletin related should always be the Microsoft Security Response Center blog.
Bulletins discussed for November 10th, 2009:
Podcast Participants: Pierre Roman, Bruce Cowper and myself.
Additional Technical Show Notes:
- Recorded at the local Starbucks across the street from the Ottawa offices of Microsoft Canada.
- Beverage of choice for this edition: Vanilla Latté and Chai Latté
- Get Security Essentials from www.microsoft.com/securityessentials
- Microsoft Security Intelligence Report (SIR) can be found here.
PodSafe music from PodSafe Music Network @ http://music.podshow.com/. Artist: Derek K Miller, song - “You’re the Big Sky - rock guitar instrumental”
IT Pro Team Blog | IT Managers Blog |Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn
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The Ignite Your Career webcast series was created as a result of your feedback that technical professionals needed help to develop those critical personal and professional skills that Technical Professionals so often neglect. We partnered with IT World Canada and the Canadian Information Processing Society – in order to bring industry experts and thought leaders together for a radio talk show chat where we discussed various topics and answered your questions
This special highlights edition of the Canadian Ignite Your Career webcast series takes the best ideas and soundbites from the previously recorded episodes. I’m joined by my co-host Shane Schick - editor in chief of IT World Canada – to help with the production
This session will focus on what a panel of Leaders/Managers has done in order to further their development of leader qualities. Whether you are part of a team, in charge of one already or aspiring to become a leader - you need to know how to develop your leadership skills. For some people, being a leader comes intuitively, for others it is something that requires both self awareness and leading by example.
Panel Members
- Rob Howard:An expert in planning and growing Web communities, Mr. Howard is a pioneer in developing enterprise collaboration software. Whether it’s working with organizations such as Dell to plan and implement their single-vendor platform strategy or working with large social community customers such as MySpace.com or Microsoft, Mr. Howard is determined to help organizations of any size apply the value of collaborative work to their business.
- Pedro Cardoso: Director of IT and e-business at Becton, Dickinson and Co. (BD-Canada), a medical devices company, where he also oversees application development. His areas of expertise include ERP, Business Process Engineering, Business Intelligence, Social Networking, SEO and Continuous Improvement (Lean & Transactional Six Sigma).
- John Oxley: the Director of community evangelism, John manages a team of community advisors that reach out and connect with the IT community. The Team is all about community satisfaction and enabling the individual professional. His team of Advisors are Microsoft Canada ambassadors to the IT community, connecting, supporting and enabling the individual IT professional (IT Pros), Developer, User experience designer, Community Leaders, and technical enthusiast.
- Cathy Shaughnessy: a Certified Executive Coach with Perspective In Action, has been working with people as they boost their performance in the workplace for almost 25 years. She has managed and coordinated corporate learning projects and established an outstanding track record of success as a sought after executive coach, speaker, training consultant and learning design specialist.
More information and resources related to the Ignite Your Career series can be found on it's main landing page.
Direct Download:
Subscribe to the podcast: (so you don't miss an episode)
Full episode available here. Comments, Suggestions and Ideas for Future Topics can be left below as a comment or emailed directly to the Ignite Your Career feedback alias at mailto:IYC@microsoft.com
Music and audio production provided by Mark Blevis - ThirdStoryProductions.
IT Pro Team Blog | IT Managers Blog |Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn
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The Ignite Your Career webcast series was created as a result of your feedback that technical professionals needed help to develop those critical personal and professional skills that Technical Professionals so often neglect. We partnered with IT World Canada and the Canadian Information Processing Society – in order to bring industry experts and thought leaders together for a radio talk show chat where we discussed various topics and answered your questions
This special highlights edition of the Canadian Ignite Your Career webcast series takes the best ideas and soundbites from the previously recorded episodes. I’m joined by my co-host Shane Schick - editor in chief of IT World Canada – to help with the production
In this episode - we talk about expressing the right level of details on your personal and professional accomplishments and how it can come in very handy when talking with your manager as well as a couple of levels up within your company. Are you doing yourself justice when someone asks you in the hallway "what have you been up to lately?" Now take this to the next level - would you be prepared if the unexpected happened and you were now out in the wild looking for a new job?
Panel Members:
- Scott Hanselman: is a Microsoft as a Principal Program Manager, aiming to spread good information about developing software, usually on the Microsoft stack. Before this I was the Chief Architect at Corillian Corporation, now a part of Checkfree, for 6+ years. I was also involved in a few Microsoft Developer things for many years like the MVP and RD programs and I'll speak about computers (and other passions) whenever someone will listen.
- Andrew Dillane: Group CIO, Andrew Dillane leads the overall e-business strategy for the Randstad Canada Group of companies including Randstad Canada, Sapphire Canada, ATS Reliance, OriginHR and GMS Canada. Andrew also serves on the Advisory Board for Kids Internet Safety Alliance (KINSA).
- Nick Corcodilos: The host of Ask The Headhunter® and author of How to Work with Headhunters (2009). Nick started headhunting in 1979 in one of America's most competitive job markets: California's Silicon Valley. Using the methods described in his book and on the ATH blog, he has helped people win management and staff jobs in companies including IBM, GE, Hewlett-Packard and Merrill Lynch.
- Heather Hamilton: Manages Microsoft’s Global Competitive Programs Team responsible for competitive research and programs. In this role, she leads Microsoft’s efforts aimed at enabling global research centers to monitor the competitive talent landscape and leverage opportunities to recruit the best technical talent through deliverables such as competitive intelligence, training and opportunistic recruiting programs.
More information and resources related to the Ignite Your Career series can be found on it's main landing page.
Direct Download:
Subscribe to the podcast: (so you don't miss an episode)
Full episode available here. Comments, Suggestions and Ideas for Future Topics can be left below as a comment or emailed directly to the Ignite Your Career feedback alias at mailto:IYC@microsoft.com
Music and audio production provided by Mark Blevis - ThirdStoryProductions.
IT Pro Team Blog | IT Managers Blog |Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn
addthis_pub = 'CDNDPE';
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The Ignite Your Career webcast series was created as a result of your feedback that technical professionals needed help to develop those critical personal and professional skills that Technical Professionals so often neglect. We partnered with IT World Canada and the Canadian Information Processing Society – in order to bring industry experts and thought leaders together for a radio talk show chat where we discussed various topics and answered your questions
This special highlights edition of the Canadian Ignite Your Career webcast series takes the best ideas and soundbites from the previously recorded episodes. I’m joined by my co-host Shane Schick - editor in chief of IT World Canada – to help with the production
In this episode, we discuss maintaining your technical and personal skill sets and how they are critical to being successful in the job you already have and anything you might be looking to progress into. Unfortunately, the option of external training might not be available to you at this point in time. How can you take advantage of internal resources like job shadowing, mentoring, internal courses, study groups as well as external training activities when available? This episode is for you.
Panel Members
- Barry Gervin: Founding Partner of ObjectSharp. Barry provides technical leadership to his valued clients, staff, and the development community. Over his 17 year career in the IT industry, he has helped many development teams architect and successfully deliver large software projects within tight schedules and budgets that consistently perform for their end users.
- Brian Bourne: Industry expert with over 15 years of IT experience; he is responsible for managing all day to day operations at CMS Consulting Inc. and maintains his technical edge through consulting and participation with numerous technology related events.
- Maurizio Laudisa: CIO of LifeLabs, where he rebuilt a national $14 million, 60 staff IT department in 6 months after sale of MDS Diagnostic to OMERS/Borealis. He has led or participated in several health IT initiatives, such as the Ontario Lab Information System (OLIS), Colon Cancer Check, integration to physicians’ CMS and EMR.
- Aaron Skonnard: Co-founder of Pluralsight where he focuses on cloud computing, service-oriented architecture (SOA), XML and Web services technologies. He focuses primarily on the Microsoft platform and is considered an expert in the Microsoft community on Windows Azure, the Azure Services Platform, Windows Communication Foundation, BizTalk Server, SOAP/REST, and XML technologies.
More information and resources related to the Ignite Your Career series can be found on it's main landing page.
Direct Download:
Subscribe to the podcast: (so you don't miss an episode)
Full episode available here. Comments, Suggestions and Ideas for Future Topics can be left below as a comment or emailed directly to the Ignite Your Career feedback alias at mailto:IYC@microsoft.com
Music and audio production provided by Mark Blevis - ThirdStoryProductions.
IT Pro Team Blog | IT Managers Blog |Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn
addthis_pub = 'CDNDPE';
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The Ignite Your Career webcast series was created as a result of your feedback that technical professionals needed help to develop those critical personal and professional skills that Technical Professionals so often neglect. We partnered with IT World Canada and the Canadian Information Processing Society – in order to bring industry experts and thought leaders together for a radio talk show chat where we discussed various topics and answered your questions
This special highlights edition of the Canadian Ignite Your Career webcast series takes the best ideas and soundbites from the previously recorded episodes. I’m joined by my co-host Shane Schick - editor in chief of IT World Canada – to help with the production
In this episode, we revisit one of the most popular topics we've had on the ongoing Ignite Your Career webcast series to kick of this season. Industry Insights and Trends. You need to be on top of what is happening in the industry in order to position yourself and your organization to benefit from these trends. This panel discussion will arm you with the information you need from experts in the ICT industry in order to stay on top of your game.
Panel Members
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Richard Campbell: One of the co-founders of Strangeloop Networks and part of the team building an appliance to accelerate ASP.NET. Richard is co-host of the ".NET Rocks!, the Internet Audio Talk Show for .NET Developers" (http://www.dotnetrocks.com/) podcast and the host of "RunAs Radio, the Internet Audio Talk Show for IT Professionals" (http://www.runasradio.com/) podcast.
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Jay Payette: A consultant serving public and private organizations in the fields of technology and management. He currently works for the Ottawa office of Accenture in the Systems Integration and Technology practice.
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Lee Jacobs: Program Director for Labour Marketing Information at the Information and Communications Technology Council (ICTC). Lee’s current focus at ICTC is on refreshing the ground breaking supply and demand forecast for ICT occupations in Canada, the Outlook 2008-2015.
More information and resources related to the Ignite Your Career series can be found on it's main landing page.
Direct Download:
Subscribe to the podcast: (so you don't miss an episode)
Full episode available here. Comments, Suggestions and Ideas for Future Topics can be left below as a comment or emailed directly to the Ignite Your Career feedback alias at mailto:IYC@microsoft.com
Music and audio production provided by Mark Blevis - ThirdStoryProductions.
IT Pro Team Blog | IT Managers Blog |Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn
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I wanted to take a few minutes to tell you a little story about my trip to the Halifax edition of TechDays 2009. The reason why it’s interesting is the fact that all IT pros at some point need to “demo” or talk about certain solutions. So we must always be prepared.  So here i am on Sunday morning trying to get quickly through security with 4 laptops, 3 external hard drives, a wireless access point and a bag full of cable. Quickly… yeah right…
Anyway, the security personnel were very puzzled as to why I carry so much hardware, so a discussion followed regarding TechDays 2009. They actually were very interested to talk about Windows 7 once they noticed all the stickers on one of my laptops. Also because of the amount of hardware I had they made me turn them on. Which lead to more questions and impromptu demo of Windows 7 at the security counter. Other travelers were starting to gather around and we had very good discussion regarding performance, usability, simplicity. The moral of this story is that when you’re the IT guy people will want to pick your brain about things that will make their lives easier and simpler. If you want to get prepared, check out the Windows 7 How-to videos that you can base you own demo experience on. Be prepared there’s an impromptu demo waiting for you just around the corner…. Cheers! 
_________________________________________________ Pierre Roman | Senior Technical Account Manager | Directeur de Compte Technique Senior
Microsoft Canada E-Mail:pierre.roman@Microsoft.com | Live Messenger: proman_2007@hotmail.com Premier Support : 1-800-936-7358 
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