Scoble
If you didn’t know, Technet has an Internet Radio show that you can access over the web. Our very own geek blogger, Robert Scoble, is currently featured with a couple of short interviews. You can stream it or download and MP3/W<A for offline listening on your favorite (Media Player!) audio listenin device.
Cheers!
Robert Scoble comments on how he doesn’t care for the title of “evangelist”. He believes there is a religious connotation applied to it (and he is right about that). He goes on to explain why he doesn’t want religious customers. He details this along with a link to Guy Kawasaki’s blog entry on the Art of Evangelism which I think is a very good analogy for what we do. I think Scoble is too caught up in the religious meaning of the word which gets reinforced by Guy’s analogy.
I am also an evangelist. I am an ITPro Evangelist and I also have that on my business card. However, I started out not liking the title. I have since changed my mind to embrace it. When my title changed from “Technet Presenter” to “ITPro Evangelist” I didn’t care for it for the exact reason of its religious meaning. But as time has passed, I have realized that what I do as an ITPro Evangelist is exactly what a religious evangelist does – I speak the good word about Microsoft products and technologies to the masses in hope of educating the masses about what we have to offer. Maybe I will convert a few along the way; maybe I will turn some away. But I believe in my company and our products and think they can help a lot of people with their technical problems.
I decided to go check out Webster’s to see how they define evangelist –
Evangelist – 1) Any one of the four authors of the New Testament gospel books – Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John; 2) One who practices evangelism, especially a protestant preacher or missionary.
That led me to look up –
Evangelism – 1) Zealous preaching and dissemination of the gospel, as through missionary work; 2) Militant zeal for a cause
I also looked up the synonyms to see if maybe there was a better word for what we do –
Evangelist - advocate, champion, companion, converter, herald, messenger, missionary, pioneer, propagandist, proponent, proselytizer
I am all of those things for the company. However, none of those synonyms work as a job title as none of them truly convey the depth of what we do. Evangelist is a rather broad word that allows me combine all of those words to champion our products, convert the undecided and be a messenger both for the product team to the customer and for the customer back to the product teams. I think the word is perfectly appropriate in spite of the religious connection. If someone wants to spend all their time debating with me the religiousness of my job title, maybe they have some other non-technical issues I can’t likely help them with anyway.
Scoble doesn’t want “religious customers”. He wants “skeptical, educated, pragmatic” customers. I believe my role is to address the skepticism customers may have about our products, educate them about our products and give them the facts and practical information that allows them to use our products to solve their problems. I choose to do this by talking mainly about our own products where Scoble chooses to talk a lot about competitors.
I agree with Scoble that people should make educated choices about purchasing and implementing based upon a comparison of different products. I don’t think it is my job to educate people on 3rd party products though. The competition has their own evangelists. They don’t need Microsoft employees doing it for them. With so many products out there, it is very difficult for the average consumer and even the hard-core ITPro to know everything there it to know about all products. That is where I come in to make sure that MS products are being evangelized to the masses such that the features and capabilities are known. If we don’t then we become obscure. Without someone letting people know what Microsoft has to offer, we will cease to be relevant. Let the competition figure out how to be heard above the crowd while we focus on making sure we are.
Regardless, we are both evangelists and I believe the word appropriately describes what we should be doing for the company and for our customers.
So…..Hello, I am Chris Avis. I am an ITPro Evangelist for the Microsoft Corporation. What can I tell you about OUR products?
Cheers!
Presentations and WebCasts –
Deploying SharePoint Products and Technologies for Enterprise Collaboration – Detailed discussion about the design and deployment of the Microsoft IT hosted collaboration platform. The platform supports personal storage, team Web sites, group and division portals, and enterprise services. With server farms centralized in three regional data centers, Microsoft saves both hardware and support costs.
Moving to SQL Server 2005 at Microsoft – Discussion on how Microsoft IT moved its line-of-business applications to SQL Server 2005. Additionally, this paper also discusses a number of details and best practices that Microsoft adopted to move its applications on SQL Server 2005 that may help other organizations successfully plan and roll out SQL Server 2005.
Hotfixes, Patches, Updates, Service Packs —
Update for Windows XP x64 Edition – KB903651 – See Below
Update for Windows Server 2003 – KB903651 – See Below
Update for Windows 2003 for Itanium-based Systems – KB903651– See Below
Update for Windows Server x64 Edition – KB903651 – Install this update to allow more than one domain-based DFS namespace to be created on a computer that is running Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition. After you install this item, you may have to restart your computer.
Australian Daylight Savings changes for Microsoft products for the Year 2006 – The Commonwealth Games are scheduled to be held during March 2006 in Melbourne Australia. Several Australian states including New South Wales, Victoria, Australian Capital Territory, South Australia and Tasmania, have changed the Daylight Savings transition end dates to the first Sunday of April 2006.
Update for Software Update Services – Run this script and follow the instructions in KB912307 to resolve an issue in Software Update Services (SUS) 1.0 Service Pack 1 (SP1) in which all previously approved updates may revert to an unapproved state and the status appears as "updated". This script will reset your approval settings to their previous state. SUS 1.0 SP1 servers that were deployed on or after December 13, 2005 will not encounter this issue.
Tools and Apps –
SQL Server 2005 System View Map – The Microsoft SQL Server 2005 System View Map shows the key system views included in SQL Server 2005, and the relationships between them.
Active Directory Migration Tool v2.0 – The Active Directory Migration Tool (ADMT) version 2.0 provides an easy, secure, and fast way to either upgrade from Windows NT Server 4.0 to Windows Server Active Directory service or restructure Windows Server Active Directory domains between forests or within a forest. The tool migrates users, groups, and computers between domains in a way that allows users to have access to their resources and applications at all times. Version 2.0 includes new features, such as password migration, a scripting interface, and a command line interface, that make migrations easier.
Also available is the Active Directory Migration Tool v3.0, which provides an integrated toolset to facilitate migration and restructuring tasks in an Active Directory infrastructure.
BizTalk Server 2004 Load Generation Tool – This tool is intended for developers and IT professionals to simulate load on a BizTalk Server. Using this tool, you can simulate load to instrument performance and stress against a BizTalk deployment. In addition, this tool may also be extended by developers to simulate load for custom transports. This tool should be used in a test environment only, and should not be used in a production environment. This tool is provided "as-is" and is not supported.
Case Studies, Guides and Whitepapers –
Microsoft CRM 3.0 Implementation Guide – This Implementation Guide provides the information required for a successful Microsoft CRM implementation into your business. This guide addresses the planning, installing (both hardware and software), pre-deployment testing, and operating tasks for the maintenance of the Microsoft CRM system.
This guide is written for the computer system administrator. This guide also assumes that any organization implementing Microsoft CRM software will have the services of an independent software vendor (ISV) or value-added reseller who is partnered with Microsoft and will help you with the entire process of implementing and maintaining your Microsoft CRM installation. Because of this assumption, there are references in this guide to these "partners" who are expected to provide various services to you.
Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 Virtual PC Demonstration – Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 release Virtual PC Demonstration. This demo is a one computer setup with Microsoft CRM 3.0 server and Microsoft CRM 3.0 client for Outlook. This demonstartion also contains Microsoft Exchange Server 2003, Microsoft SQL Server 2005, and Microsoft Visual Studio 2005.
Microsoft File Server Resource Manager – The Microsoft Corporation Information Technology group uses Microsoft Windows Server 2003 R2 File Server Resource Manager as a centralized tool for managing file servers located in branch offices around the world. File Server Resource Manager is a suite of tools that allows administrators to understand, control, and manage the quantity and types of data stored on their servers.
Live Communications Server 2005 Document: Configuring Certificates – This document explains how Live Communications Server 2005 uses certificates and how to configure certificates for each server role using your existing certificate infrastructure.
Terminal Services Scaling and Performance on X64-based versions of Windows Server 2003 – Microsoft Windows Server™ 2003 Terminal Server lets users run Microsoft Windows®-based applications on a remote computer that is running one of the Windows Server 2003 family of operating systems. This white paper contains results, analyses, and sizing guidelines for Terminal Services on x64-based versions of Windows Server 2003. Hewlett Packard worked in cooperation with Microsoft to perform the initial sizing tests and data collection in the Microsoft Enterprise Engineering Center in Redmond, Washington. The tests were performed using Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Enterprise x64 Edition and Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition with Service Pack 1 (SP1).
DirectX End-User Runtime – Microsoft DirectX is a group of technologies designed to make Windows-based computers an ideal platform for running and displaying applications rich in multimedia elements such as full-color graphics, video, 3D animation, and rich audio. DirectX includes security and performance updates, along with many new features across all technologies, which can be accessed by applications using the DirectX APIs.
DFS Operations Guide: Using the DFSRAdmin Command-line Tool – The Dfsradmin.exe command line tool is new for the Distributed File System (DFS) in Microsoft® Windows Server™ 2003 R2. Use this tool to administer DFS replication, including creation of replication groups and replicated folders, adding members to replication groups, and managing the location of staging folders. This guide offers step-by-step instructions for performing these common tasks by using DFSRAdmin.
SQL Server 2005 Business Intelligence Metadata Whitepaper – This white paper covers several interesting and unique methods for managing metadata in SQL Server Integration Services, Analysis Services and Reporting Services using built-in features including data lineage, business and technical metadata and impact analysis.
Related Download: The SQL Server 2005 Metadata Samples Toolkit can be downloaded from:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=11DAA4D1-196D-4F2A-B18F-891579C364F4&displaylang=en
Security –
Improving Security at Microsoft through Deployment of Windows XP SP2 – Overview of why and how Microsoft IT proactively deployed Windows XP Service Pack 2. Windows XP Service Pack 2 is a critical security release that addresses Internet-based security threats.
Windows Server 2003 PKI Operations Guide – How to configure and operate a Windows certificate authority, with operational scenarios, custom configuration information, sample commands, and best practices.
MBSA 2.0 Scripting Examples – Sample scripts that illustrate how to extend MBSA 2.0 for greater scalability during scanning and report rollup.
Cheers!
Scoble is still at CES and ran across a really cool sounding device that allows you to look through it at the sky, it can, through GPS and magnetic positioning determine where you are in relation to the objects in the sky and provide narratives about the objects…. Future…..here we are….
I do live presentations and often with my own equipment. I may have to add one of these to my travel bag…
AutoBlog has some pics up of what I think looks like a super-rugged golf cart but is more suited for off-road use. It is CES worthy because of the Bluetooth setup.
ChipChick is posting about some other interesting items at CES. I have 3 daughters so the pink hard drive seems to have some meaning here for me….
Yahoo! Has a cool CES blog if (like me) you aren’t there and want to stay up on some of the cool stuff….
Cheers!
Scoble is at CES and linking to gobs of cool stuff. My fave is the 102” Plasma…..drool!
Anandtech has an article on the new ATI OCUR (Open Cable Uni-Directional Reciever) one of the first of I hope several cable and satellite card tuners that will pump HD content to MCE without needing an OTA antenna. I didn’t exactly have fun putting mine up!
ATI’s Press Release for the OCUR.
Windows MCE + DirectTV partnership announced by BillG at CES (Fast Forward to 56:00). Yahoo picked this up as well along with other notes from CES. And finally, DirectTV’s Press Release on this (no mention of MCE though)
Press Release on HD-DVD Support for XBox 360. More on this from GameSpot
Gary Krakow talks about Slingbox gets even better by delivering movie content to mobile devices.
Cheers!
Our presentation team had a meeting a few months ago where they brought out a professional photographer to take what were essentially publicity stills of our presenters to use on web and print materials. We had a little fun with it and each of us presented the corporate image as well as an alter-ego. You can view these secondary personalities for our Technet team here. Just mouse over the presnter picture for a glimpse into our other selves…..
You can see our MSDN counterparts here….
Cheers!
I have been in a blogging funk. The 19 people on the planet that read my blog have not seen much lately. I could blame the holidays… but it has been a good season for me since well before Thanksgiving. I could blame it on being too busy… but if I have had Xbox time, I have blogging time. Nope, nothing to blame it on except me. I just haven’t felt like blogging. I go to blog about something only to lose my passion about the post. Or I spend 2 hours typing a post up only to realize it didn’t say anything (I am not going to promise to fix that either).
I knew I was in a funk, I knew I had to fix it, and I wasn’t doing anything about it. A few weeks ago I started thinking about New Years resolutions and decided that I would get excited about blogging again and just do it. Tonight I found something interesting enough that I thought I would get an early start on the resolution. Tonight I found inspiration in….a pair of panties. A thong, no less.
(digression alert)
I am an American Idol fan. I didn’t become one till Season Two though. I heard a lot about Season One via The Nun who watched it mostly when I was traveling (the first season of Idol was also my first year in my current role…..which moved me from a 6x6 condo cube to a pretty significant amount of travel…..which limited my TV time…..which I was hardly going to waste watching some Christina Aguilera wannabe’s getting polished up by a bunch of corporate star-makers). The Nun gushed about the show and how she voted for Kelly Clarkson from the get go. I don’t remember seeing anything but commercials for Season One and none of it grabbed me. Season One passed me by and I was none-the-wiser.
One Year Later…
….I am a year into the new job, moved to SoCal, and things have settled into place. I now have some extra TV time. We also had a new Media Center PC which I had built for The Nun for Christmas (read this as, I wanted a new PC in the house and so I built the Media Center for her as an excuse to get it in…..it worked) so we were stockpiling shows I recorded as well as shows The Nun was recording. One day I watched an early episode of American Idol – Season 2 and….
…few months later….
…I am frantically dialing over and over and over to get through and register my vote to make sure that Clay Aiken beats out Ruben Studdard for the finale show. Ruben Studdard was ultimately declared the “winner” (define “winner” as “the person that was declared victorious by an American public that just doesn’t get it” - a strange phenomenon that seems to apply not only to reality shows but to our political processes as well). Clay Aiken, even though he lost (came in second place), has reaped much greater financial rewards, popularity, and overall success than Ruben.
In my opinion, there is no better proof of this than…..a pair of panties. A thong no less. (back on track). Now, before I start linking, I am going to ask you to adjust the sound on what ever you are using to read this with. No trickery here - just trying to help bring a smile to your face. Even without sound the link will still explain itself, but having the sound high enough to hear Clay speaking adds a certain surreal quality that shouldn’t be missed. If you are in an office space, no need to crank it to 11. Two or three should suffice…if there is no sound, check out the upper right side of the page underneath Clay’s mug…
…..a pair of panties. A thong no less.
Cheers!