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• On The Road – EnergizeIT – Quebec Edition – Part 5

  subtitle: Monster of all shapes and sizes. Wrapping up this road trip from Ottawa to Quebec City involves a mix of strange companions: Nudist Camps, Monster Trucks, Dinosaurs and a little weather control. I have to mention the Nudist camps along the route – just because there are at least three of them between Ottawa and Quebec city.  Why such a concentration is anyone’s guess. I can’t help but think of Joey making some kind of “crack” about them, the outdoor climate or the politically correct government sanctioned road sign (yes – it’s their behinds you can see).  For myself – never been there, can’t see me visiting one of them anytime soon. As for the Monster Trucks and Dinosaurs – driving along the 20 East – you can see this restaurant called The Madrid – in the shape of a castle.  It’s on the westbound lanes side of the highway and it has quite an array of objects outside in the parking lot. It’s one of those curiosities that you should take the time to pull over and investigate. It just happened to be perfect timing as we needed a leg stretch after having the TimHorton’s coffee. As for weather control? Freaky clouds as we approached Quebec City – there was literally an opening between two sections of this one big rainstorm cloud. The Highway was threaded between the two areas of rain – rather cool weather effect. We’re off to CEGEP Francois Xavier Garneau to talk with students in the AM about careers and the ICT ecosystem. IT Pro Team Blog | IT Managers Blog |Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn addthis_pub = 'CDNDPE'; Posted Monday, April 19, 2010 5:16 PM from Canadian IT Professionals | 0 Comments Filed under: Videocast, EnergizeIT, Rick Claus

• On The Road – EnergizeIT – Quebec Edition – Part 4

  subtitle: Donuts and coffee secrets   What’s a road trip without coffee and donuts? it’s unheard of. While on the road out east – we tried to share the secret of keeping your coffee in your cup instead of being spilt on your lap while trying to drink it in a moving car. Since the roads in Montreal / highway 20 were in the state they were in – I figured it was time for a second attempt. I requested a pit stop to pick up the necessary supplies and was pleasantly surprised by a specialty donut. You have to love the spirit of support fans of the Habs. I wasn’t going to get a donut – but I decided it needed to be done. Christian was not up for eating one – so I took it for the team.   As for coffee secrets – I recorded a second attempt at getting the proper lid design in place to prevent you from “clausing” yourself with hot coffee while driving. This time around – I was in the passenger seat. IT Pro Team Blog | IT Managers Blog |Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn addthis_pub = 'CDNDPE'; Posted Monday, April 19, 2010 3:11 PM from Canadian IT Professionals | 0 Comments Filed under: Videocast, EnergizeIT, Rick Claus

• On The Road – EnergizeIT Quebec edition Part 3

  subtitle: Childhood memories of Roadtrips Do you do roadtrips now with family / kids / friends? I remember a number of trips that I took as a kid in my parents yellow volvo station wagon. It’s funny how visual images bring back memories so clearly. I feel like I am going back in time when I drive on the 20 around Montreal.  That and the damn confusing road signs… The vehicles have changed, but the road conditions and architecture has not.   IT Pro Team Blog | IT Managers Blog |Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn addthis_pub = 'CDNDPE'; Posted Monday, April 19, 2010 2:36 PM from Canadian IT Professionals | 0 Comments Filed under: Videocast, EnergizeIT, Rick Claus

• On The Road – EnergizeIT Quebec edition Part 1

  Quick update – we’re on the road and living large en route to Québec City from Ottawa. Christian managed to get his summer tires on his car in time for the roadtrip. I thought we’d put up some updates along the way as we’re driving. I’m using the Bell wireless internet stick sitting in the front seat with a power inverter driving down the 417 towards the Quebec border. En route – we’ll have to watch out for these guys – they’re keeping the roads safe for everyone – including us. While in Quebec – we will be doing the French edition of the EnergizeIT presentations in these cities: Quebec City: Tuesday, April 20th at École Nationale d'Administration Publique (555 boulevard Charest E) in the amphitheatre Trois-Rivières: Wednesday, April 21st at Musee Quebecois de Culture Populaire (200 rue Laviolette) in the Cogeco Room. Besides the Evening events – we’ll be spending time during the day at both Cegep Francois Xavier Garneau and CEGEP de Shawinagan. In between all of these activities - we’ll probably scout out a location for some time for a “Coffee and Code / Lans and Latte” – stay tuned for location details. Here’s a trip update using the Flip Mino HD we picked up for the teams. Love that simplicity for capturing vids while on the go. IT Pro Team Blog | IT Managers Blog |Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn addthis_pub = 'CDNDPE'; Posted Monday, April 19, 2010 12:12 PM from Canadian IT Professionals | 0 Comments Filed under: Videocast, EnergizeIT, Rick Claus

• Microsoft Desktop Player

  Webcast, video cast, white papers, resource links, there are plenty of all of these scattered throughout the web.  Finding them and having them available when and where you need them can be a challenge.  Searching, missing plugins, and a requirement to be online all pose challenges to access the information we want when we want it.  There is help via a beta tool called the Microsoft Desktop Player. The Microsoft Desktop Player is all about giving you the resources you need, when you need them.  There is information for both IT professionals and developers covering .NET, Exchange Server, Windows 7, Visual Studio, Server 2008 and more.  The information is easily searchable and split into four categories, webcast, podcast, whitepaper, resources, and combines all the information allowing you to download it for offline viewing and storing content in your own local library. You also have the ability to localize the player to give you updates on local events happening in your area.  I downloaded this the other day and have been using it to get caught up on Office, SharePoint and Visual Studio. Grab it here and let me know what you think! Posted Monday, April 12, 2010 7:55 AM from Canadian IT Professionals | 0 Comments Filed under: Webcast, Windows Client, Podcast, Videocast, Windows Server, Rodney Buike, Visual Studio

• Real World Azure: The IT Professional’s Role and Windows Azure

  It’s obvious by the number of comments to Rick’s post, and my last post on Azure, that there are a lot of questions still on your mind in regards to cloud computing.  IT Pro Technical Evangelist Joey Snow and Senior Architect Evangelist Brian Prince are back at it again! This time Brian gives the white board a workout as he describes the Windows Azure architecture and answers questions about the IT Pro’s role. With Windows Azure, IT Pros have to deploy applications and manage their health, predict and manage demand for applications, and make sure data is backed up and secure. Brian describes the Windows Azure Platform Application Fabric and touches on SQL Azure, storage elements, blobs, queues and tables. Posted Friday, March 19, 2010 11:35 AM from Canadian IT Professionals | 1 Comments Filed under: Videocast, Rodney Buike, Azure

• Real World Azure: An Overview of Cloud Computing

  The other day Rick posted an entry on cloud computing and asked “As IT Pros who save the world every day at work – what do you think about all this “cloud” stuff?”  It led to a lot of comments and questions. Our colleagues over at TechNet Edge have started to answer the questions around cloud computing specifically aimed at the IT Pro.  It is a four part series which will cover the IT Pro aspect of cloud computing.  Part 1 is available and in it IT Pro Technical Evangelist Joey Snow invites Senior Architect Evangelist Brian Prince to Redmond to begin unravelling the mystery around Cloud Computing in this first video in the four part, Real World Azure series. Joey and Brian keep it light as they fill in the vocabulary for you. They describe what SaaS, Software plus Services and cloud computing are, and point out types of applications which are best-suited for the cloud. Brian is happy to reveal how IT professionals move up the value food chain and do more of what they aspire to as they begin to leverage cloud computing. The discussion rounds out with a white board chat about the spectrum of applications that might run on-premises, hosted, or in the cloud for an enterprise. Take a look, let us know what your thoughts are and stay tuned for the rest of the series. Posted Thursday, March 11, 2010 3:33 PM from Canadian IT Professionals | 0 Comments Filed under: Career, Videocast, Azure

• Vista Tips for All (and more)

  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. Posted Monday, December 15, 2008 8:00 AM from Canadian IT Professionals | 0 Comments Filed under: Windows Vista, Windows Client, Hardware, Guest Bloggers, Communities, Videocast, how-to

• Around the Clock IT on Hyper-V

  With Hyper-V now in the RTM stage and available for download I thought I'd share this interview with Sean and Rick from Around the Clock IT.  They implemented Hyper-V when it was still in the RC stages and have been running some production servers in a virtual state since. Take a listen as they share their reasons and experiences. Posted Friday, September 05, 2008 12:34 AM from Canadian IT Professionals | 0 Comments Filed under: Videocast, Virtualization

• Cameron McKay: Rebuilding from the Ground Up

  Energize IT 2008 has come and gone.  I had a great time talking, rocking, and connecting with the GTA community.  Ruth shared this interview she did with Cameron McKay from McKesson Canada about their total network rebuild around Hyper-V, SQL 2008, OCS and more....  You can count on hearing more about this over the next few months. Posted Wednesday, August 27, 2008 2:42 PM from Canadian IT Professionals | 0 Comments Filed under: Windows Server 2008, Videocast, Virtualization, Windows Server, SQL Server

• What's Your Digital Lifestyle?

  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'; Posted Wednesday, June 11, 2008 11:54 AM from Canadian IT Professionals | 0 Comments Filed under: Windows Mobile, Videocast, Commentary

• Jean-Philippe on Vista Deployment

  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! Posted Monday, June 09, 2008 12:59 PM from Canadian IT Professionals | 0 Comments Filed under: Windows Vista, Windows Client, Videocast, From The Trenches

• Heroes Happen {In Your Lab}

  One thing I mentioned a few times on the HHH tour in Canada was the ability for you to download a build guide to set up your own lab and follow the steps to do all the demos on your own in your virtual lab.  Well it is finally done!  Before I shared it with everyone I wanted to ensure it was right and so I send it out to a few people to check it out and ensure it was.  Nelson and Danielle Ruest, a couple of MVPs from Victoria B.C. and authors of the Windows Server 2008 Complete Reference reviewed it, pointed out a few mistakes that got corrected. So what are you downloading? Virtual Machine configuration information for the IT Pro session 2 and 3 network Links to download all the software needed (in case you didn't get a software pack) Step by step demo scripts for the IT Pro session 2 and 3 demos Videos of the IT Pro session 2 demos (Session 3 coming in June) Batch files used for Server Core demos Additional resources to dive in further into all Server 2008 technologies. So what are you waiting for?  Get the file, set up your lab and get going with some hands on experience with the HHH demos! Download Heroes Happen {Here} Lab Guide here! Posted Sunday, May 04, 2008 7:44 AM from Canadian IT Professionals | 0 Comments Filed under: Windows Vista, Windows Client, Windows Server 2008, Videocast, Launch 2008, HHH_CA, Windows Server, Windows XP

• Vista Q&A With Mark Russinovich Now Online

  A few weeks ago I posted an entry with some information on a web cast being held with Mark Russionovich around Vista and deployment.  Mark was joined by a group of experts and IT Pros who have already deployed Vista and they took your questions throughout the sessions.  You can view a snippet below or.... .... you can view the entire 90 minute video and take a listen based on the experiences and expertise of IT pros.  Watch it and let us know what you think!  Your comments are always appreciated. Posted Monday, March 10, 2008 12:01 PM from Canadian IT Professionals | 0 Comments Filed under: Windows Vista, Windows Client, Videocast

• Installing Hyper-V on Core

  In case you didn't know another RC1 build of Server 2008 was released late last week which includes the Hyper-V beta.  You can download the beta here!  Hyper-V is the hypervisor based virtualization technology that can be included in x64 versions of Windows Server 2008.  Server Core will be the recommended OS to run as the parent partition.  I thought I'd share a quick video on how to install the Microsoft Hyper-V role on a server core box. Just a reminder that you can double click on the video to go full screen and press ESC to return back here! Posted Monday, December 17, 2007 10:41 AM from Canadian IT Professionals | 0 Comments Filed under: Windows Server 2008, Videocast, Virtualization