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April 2005 - Posts

Friday, April 29, 2005 10:09 AM

iPod MyPod - Gadget Theft

This article says "only 6.7 percent of owners recovered their stolen handheld computers, laptops or smart phones, according to a 2004 study by Brigadoon Software, which makes programs that help track and recover stolen devices. FBI statistics indicate
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Thursday, April 28, 2005 1:57 PM

Small Business IT Spending Forecast

Interesting bits from this article: "Kevin Gilroy, senior vice president and general manager of Hewlett-Packard's segment for small and medium-size businesses, said increased investment in technology was inevitable, given that it had moved "from
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Wednesday, April 27, 2005 4:30 PM

Know N Go #569 - new SQL Server Stuff

Download SQL Server 2000 Reporting Services Service Pack 2 (SP2) Get bug fixes and key functional enhancements such as SharePoint Web parts that enable you to explore and view reports, and the ability to print reports with full-page preview
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Wednesday, April 27, 2005 3:59 PM

What Makes a Good IT Security Specialist?

According to this story, qualifications include: ability to keep a cool head in crisis ability to work well with others in teams know-how in : Microsoft .Net Web-services framework SQL database systems  computer languages such as C
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Wednesday, April 27, 2005 3:43 PM

What Makes a Good Tech Blog Post?

What makes a good Technical blog post? Here are some things I'm thinking I should include on every blog post (if possible) to help you find the info you need: links to specific bits of content on TechNet on the topic links to community blogs on the
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Tuesday, April 26, 2005 11:20 PM

VPN Quarantine Blogcast

Pictures. Words. 1:1000. Check out Michael's blogcast on adding some scripts to the Windows Server Reskit tools to imporve your network security. If you're not on Windows Server 2003 SP1 - which includes the RQS Agent in Add/Remove Programs - there's
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Tuesday, April 26, 2005 12:48 PM

Management Resources

These sites, in addition to the resources on MSM, contain guidance and tools to help you improve your enterprise IT management: Service Monitoring and ControlThis Solution Accelerator provides the knowledge, tools, and services to monitor services
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Tuesday, April 26, 2005 11:30 AM

Tools 2 Use - MOM 2005 Workgroup Edition

MidMarket IT (I hereby dub this group with the MIT TLA) will be happy to hear that Dell is offering Microsoft Operation Manager 2005 Workgroup Edition for as little as $50 per server. Available directly from Dell, MOM for Dell PowerEdge brings simplified,
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Tuesday, April 26, 2005 11:23 AM

Tools 2 Use - System Center Reporting Manager 2005

Announced Day 2 of MMS, System Center Reporting Manager 2005 consolidates your change and configuration information from SMS 2003 and your event and performance information from MOM 2005 to give you easy access to the reports you need to manage your enterprise.
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Monday, April 25, 2005 10:13 PM

Whither TechNet?

Have you seen the Windows Server System Reference Architecture content?Windows Server System Reference Architecture empowers systems integrators and IT professionals with validated architectural guidance that establishes the Microsoft platform as the
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Monday, April 25, 2005 8:43 PM

Tools 2 Use - MOM 2005 Notification Workflow

Notification Workflow is a SQL Server Notification Services application that can be used as an add-on to extend MOM 2005. Notification Workflow allows the user to subscribe to application or service alerts. Whenever a match occurs for the alert for which
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Monday, April 25, 2005 8:27 PM

Upgrade to X64 for free - TAP program

The Technology Advancement Program is available to customers who purchased the 32-bit version of Windows Server 2003 with x64 hardware and would now like to exchange their software for the x64 version of Windows instead.To participate in this program,
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Monday, April 25, 2005 4:56 PM

Know N Go #435 - TN Mag

TechNet Magazine on the web - 'nuff said. Issue #1 is chock full of security content goodness.
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Monday, April 25, 2005 10:23 AM

Tools 2 Use - System Center Capacity Manager 2006 Express Edition

The capacity planning tool formerly known as Indy now has a product name and release schedule. Announced at MMS during the opening keynote, System Center Capacity Manager 2006 Express Edition  was developed by Microsoft Research. IT Pros can use
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Thursday, April 21, 2005 4:09 PM

Tools 2 Use - DPM EUR

Microsoft CIO Ron Markezich was the keynote speaker this morning at MMS. He talked to the crowd of IT Management gurus about the challenges and solutions in use at Microsoft. IT Ops Manger Calvin Keaton did one of the demos, showing end user recovery
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Thursday, April 21, 2005 1:30 PM

Back to the (Virtual) Future

Virtual Server SP1 Beta is out. Barnaby has the sign-up instructions here.Yesterday Steveb told the MMS crowd that going forward VS will support other OS, and demo’d RedHat running in a VS. You will be able to manage your VS environment with MOM, including
posted by tonyso | 0 Comments
Wednesday, April 20, 2005 5:51 PM

Tools 2 Use - MONAD - the crossover hit

Safe bet - as time goes on the chinese walls between IT Pros and devs will continue to break down. MONAD is the next-gen WSH, and IT Admins will be using it, a lot. Example, in the keynote today there was a demo of using script to remotely turn on the
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Wednesday, April 20, 2005 2:33 PM

Straight Talk About Security

Read this great column on security managementMyth 1: Security Guides Make Your System SecureMyth 2: If We Hide It the Bad Guys Won’t Find ItMyth 3: The More Tweaks the BetterMyth 4: Tweaks Are NecessaryRead the MSRC Blog
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Wednesday, April 20, 2005 2:18 PM

Watch This (WinHec) Space

Steveb hinted this morning that there will be announcements of interest to IT Pro at the WinHec (MOnday 4/25) from Billg. Stay tuned to his webcast site.
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Wednesday, April 20, 2005 1:58 PM

One Wall of Fire Demo is Worth 1K Words

Bill Anderson did his “Wall of Fire” demo this morning during Steveb’s keynote, live, without backup or backstage elves - His words “10 feet from termination”. Picture 100 Monitors in an array about 20x5 hooked to 100 W2K/XP PCs. The “user state” on
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Wednesday, April 20, 2005 1:27 PM

Tools 2 Use - WinSer Deploy Job Aids

Folks have had trouble finding the downloadable job aids for Windows Server 2003 deployment. These are really useful for any SIP you want to kick off, or structuring service management reports. Check them out. The pieces are: File Name: File
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Wednesday, April 20, 2005 1:14 PM

Your Future is Virtual

Several important announcements this morning during Steveb's keynote. NAP in LH client will support trusted computing group standards other guests OS - can you say Linux? Microsoft is investing in increased virtualization in LH to reduce customer
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Tuesday, April 19, 2005 4:15 PM

Goodbye Blue Sky - Hello MOF

Left rainy Seattle 5 am yesterday morning, and haven't seen the sunny LV desert skies since. This venue is so huge that there are birds (the chirpy, tweet-tweet kind) flying around inside it. Great preso at MMS: Improving Operational Efficiency
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Tuesday, April 19, 2005 1:02 PM

Tools 2 Use - IT Asset Management

Have you met SAM? This site has a nifty set of tools to walk you through some critical steps you need to take to get to a “better managed state”. Whether that is driven by IT Governance issues, budget planning, security or whatever, you can probably use
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Tuesday, April 19, 2005 12:42 PM

ISO Images for TechNet Evals

You Talked We Listened As of the May 2005 shipment TechNet started adding ISO images to the Evaluation DVDs. Nifty, now you can easily create bootable CDs for Windows evaluation products. The English DVD has been updated and we will continue to add ISO
posted by tonyso | 0 Comments
Tuesday, April 19, 2005 12:00 PM

Kick at the Darkness - Thoughts on Management MMS Day 1

“When you are IT systems managers in a dangerous time…” Kiril's kickoff speech this morning started out restating the drivers. Without good IT systems, process and people management, you cannot effectively: Monitor/increase security Increase
posted by tonyso | 0 Comments
Sunday, April 10, 2005 1:40 PM

Tools 2 Use - Protect Your Laptop with EFS

Matbe I will see you at MMS in Vegas? Hope you are prepping your laptop - I am. Read this article for advice that is easy and quick to implement before you head out to Vegas.  
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Sunday, April 10, 2005 12:45 PM

Tools 2 Use - Do You LUA?

If you have not read Jen's article on LUA, you should be asking yourself why not? This article briefly discussed the security principle of least privilege and the benefits of using LUA for daily tasks, followed by a short list of reasons why most
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Friday, April 08, 2005 4:00 PM

Microsoft IT to share internal tools - D-Code

According to ComputerWorld today: Microsoft plans to share network troubleshooting tool with users and vendors alike. But it wants a quid pro quo of a sort. According to Neil Leslie, general manager of Microsoft Corp.'s customer service and support group,
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Friday, April 08, 2005 12:08 PM

Tools 2 Use - $50 discount on Windows Server 2003 Reskit

The Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit is scheduled for release on very soon now - but you can pre-order it today.  This is a limited quantity special promotional edition for $50 off. Tell your friends. And tell MSPress you heard about it on TechNet
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Friday, April 08, 2005 11:37 AM

Short Eyes Beware

Read the full article here <http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/219360_msftexploit08.html>. Here's a redact: Canadian law enforcement authorities and Microsoft Corp. yesterday unveiled a new computer system originally sparked by an e-mail
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Friday, April 08, 2005 9:58 AM

Should IT Pros have forums?

IT Pros want quick, accurate answers to technical questions, I think they'll use online communities as free tech support. MSDN Forums Beta is now available at http://forums.microsoft.com/msdn for the dev side of the house. Should Microsoft offer a version
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Friday, April 08, 2005 8:33 AM

Everybody's equal in the glow of radiation

TechNet recently launched two new online destinations for IT Pros: The Desktop Deployment Center <http://www.microsoft.com/technet/desktopdeployment/default.mspx> The Windows Server TechCenter <http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/default.mspx>
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Thursday, April 07, 2005 1:21 PM

Tools 2 Use - Security Scan Results in a Visio Diagram

MBSA V1.2.1 + Visio 2003 = See your state. How Cool Is That? Let me know with some feedback. Microsoft Office Visio 2003 Connector for the Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer (MBSA): <http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/tools/mbsavisio.mspx>
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Thursday, April 07, 2005 1:19 PM

Tools 2 Use - Secbull RSS Feed

You talked, we listened. Here is the RSS feed for Microsoft Security Bulletins. <http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/secrss.aspx>
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Thursday, April 07, 2005 1:02 PM

Tools 2 Use - Security Post Mortem

Did you know TechNet has a magazine? Check out this article for good advice on the first thing you should do after you've dealt with an IT security incident. http://www.microsoft.com/technet/technetmag/issues/2005/01/IncidentResponse/default.aspx For
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Thursday, April 07, 2005 12:16 PM

Tools 2 Use - Send to OneNote

2 nifty tools you will love to help you manage information better: Use the Send to OneNote from Internet Explorer PowerToy to send the contents of a Web page from Microsoft Internet Explorer to a new page in Microsoft Office OneNote 2003 Service Pack
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Thursday, April 07, 2005 11:27 AM

If a blog falls in the forest...

I was asked yesterday if a Microsoft IT Pro has to be a good writer to blog. I said no, what do you think? Keep in mind that whatever level your writing skill is right now, it will improve as you write more. So, my advice is dive in and learn
posted by tonyso | 3 Comments
Thursday, April 07, 2005 10:48 AM

Is Your DNS Secure? Have you checked it lately?

The DNS issue in the article below affects Windows Server 2003 (standard, enterprise and datacenter editions), Windows 2000 Server (also the advanced and datacenter versions) and Windows NT Server 4.0 standard edition, Microsoft said in its advisory.
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Thursday, April 07, 2005 10:29 AM

Tools 2 Use - TechNet Events and Webcasts

There is a ton of material on TechNet that will help IT Pros that exists outside the product group documentation. Name the topic, chances are that Microsoft technical insiders have recorded a webcast, hosted a chat, or otherwise posted media that
posted by tonyso | 1 Comments
Thursday, April 07, 2005 8:29 AM

Gartner's view for the Midmarket IT Pro

According to Gartner today - Currently only one-third of IT spending at midsize companies directly improves business performance, while two-thirds is spent on more stealth infrastructure and utility application areas, such as networks, payroll, and
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Wednesday, April 06, 2005 10:58 AM

64-Bit - The Next Evolution

64-Bit Windows Server System is live. You can read some of the history of the project on Clyde’s blog, and an overview for IT Pros from Professor Windows. Come and play with the new server hardware at the EEC, see how your apps will perform. On Demorie
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Tuesday, April 05, 2005 3:29 PM

Cool Stuff #47 - cross-discipline design excellence

Eric Gunnerson got there first. I watched the episode he refers to last night on Tivo. Check it out: http://blogs.msdn.com/ericgu/archive/2005/04/04/405300.aspx
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Tuesday, April 05, 2005 2:04 PM

Know N Go #563 - Use MOM to Monitor AD

When I came to Microsoft 5 years ago one motto was "the more you know the farther you go". TechNet puts out some great training that IT Pros should eat up with both hands. Check out this upcoming webcast on AD monitoring with MOM 2005. Let me know with
posted by tonyso | 0 Comments
Tuesday, April 05, 2005 12:03 PM

Tools 2 Use - SMS Scripting Guide

Systems Management Server Scripting Guide The SMS 2003 Scripting Guide is a .chm file you can down load that provides over 40 scripts, ranging from tasks such as creating advertisements to running queries. It explains the basics of SMS objects, WMI,
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Monday, April 04, 2005 12:33 PM

Back in Stock at the Company Store - Frackin' Clues! Buy one today for needy coworkers

Ex-Microsoft worker gets 2 years for $13 million scam Former Microsoft Corp. employee Richard Gregg was sentenced to two years in prison yesterday for mail fraud after unlawfully selling more than $13 million worth of his former employer's software.
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Friday, April 01, 2005 11:23 AM

MOF Makeover

Three New MOF Operations Management Reviews released  http://www.microsoft.com/technet/itsolutions/cits/mo/mof/omr/default.mspx The Change Initiation Review OMR guidance provides best practices for synchronizing the planning of development and/or
posted by tonyso | 0 Comments
Friday, April 01, 2005 11:02 AM

Assume a Virtuality if You Have It Not

Virtualization is big for IT Pros. If you don’t know that yet, you will soon. Watch this blog: The Soul of a Virtual Machine: Things to know about running a virtual machine under Virtual Server For example, this great post on sysprepping virtual machines
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Friday, April 01, 2005 10:35 AM

Gentlemen, Start Your Frog-Kissing

To invent anything, you have to be removed from the world. In order to have the capacity, the liberty, to imagine something better, you need to step outside of it for awhile. My advice is to encourage invention and ideas, and then edit. It's about proliferation
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Friday, April 01, 2005 10:06 AM

Machine Translation Market Prediction

In the early, post-World War II days of computing, scientists dreamed of creating software so intelligent it could accurately translate one language into another. If computers could crack enemy codes, the thinking went, then why not foreign languages?
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Friday, April 01, 2005 9:47 AM

So Long, and Thanks for all the Phish

Microsoft escalated its legal campaign against a pervasive form of online identity theft Thursday, filing 117 lawsuits against unnamed people accused of phishing. Microsoft, the Federal Trade Commission and the National Consumers League offered these
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