Friday, December 10, 2010

teach your kids programming

Microsoft Small Basic is a project that is aimed at making computer programming accessible to beginners. The project comprises a simple programming language that gathers inspiration from the original BASIC programming language; a modern and attractive programming environment; and rich, extensible libraries. Together they make programming fun for kids and adults alike.

Download details: Microsoft Small Basic: "Microsoft Small Basic"

Friday, December 03, 2010

STEALTHbits Technologies, a leader in the data security and compliance space, announces the release of Version 2.0 of their Data Governance software s

"In Wake of WikiLeaks, Data Audit and Security Software Solution"


Glen Rock, NJ (Dec. 2, 2010) – STEALTHbits Technologies, a leader in the data security and compliance space, announces the release of Version 2.0 of their Data Governance software solution set. Helping organizations address critical security risks such as the recent WikiLeaks incident, the StealthAUDIT Management Platform for Data Governance arms administrators with comprehensive and scalable user activity monitoring, security permissions and assessment tools, and advanced auditing, reporting, and resolution features.

Read more ..
http://www.stealthbits.com/newsroom/WikiLeaks-Solution-Release.html

Wednesday, December 01, 2010

New HTTP POST DDoS Attack Tools Released

New HTTP POST DDoS Attack Tools Released - Darkreading

Moving your customers to BPOS or Office 365? Check their BANDWIDTH!

From my expereince in deploying BPOS, the customer's bandwidth is a very critical component in deciding how smoothly the migration is going to go thru.
I had customers with low bandwidth that a 4GB mailbox took over night to upload / migrate to BPOS.

Microsoft finally has a deep analysis tool of the customer's bandwidth.
Here is the blog post: http://blogs.technet.com/b/uspartner_ts2team/archive/2010/11/30/moving-your-customers-to-bpos-or-office-365-check-their-bandwidth.aspx

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Analysis Services – Roadmap for SQL Server “Denali” and Beyond

Analysis Services – Roadmap for SQL Server “Denali” and Beyond - SQL Server Team Blog - Site Home - TechNet Blogs

Among the numerous announcements relating to BI were two key ones:
· A new ad hoc reporting and data visualization experience codenamed “Project Crescent”.
· A new Business Intelligence Semantic Model (BISM) in Analysis Services that will power Crescent as well as other Microsoft BI front end experiences such as Excel, Reporting Services and SharePoint Insights

Read more... http://blogs.technet.com/b/dataplatforminsider/archive/2010/11/12/analysis-services-roadmap-for-sql-server-denali-and-beyond.aspx

Saturday, August 07, 2010

Exchange Web Site Updates with New Videos

The Exchange team has been working on several ‘lightweight’ introductions to Exchange technology.

The first of these is now available on the updated technology workload pages on the microsoft.com/exchange site. Each workload page includes a 30-45 second video which introduces the Exchange technology workload - these are fun, creative and tell the story for each workload.

Watch the new videos, explore the new pages.

Voicemail with Unified Messaging
Mailbox Resiliency
Mobility
Outlook Web App
Management
Information Protection and Control
Archiving, Retention, and Discovery
Deployment
Advanced Security


Thanks to the Exchange TPM team for their hard work in making this happen – Adam Glick, Ankur Kothari and Jim Lucey.

Thursday, July 01, 2010

Southeast Asia SharePoint Conference

“Southeast Asia SharePoint Conference is COMING to Singapore from October 26 & 27! Please help to spread the word via your viral marketing and social media channels.

Interested speakers can also submit your topics via the Speaker Registration Survey. For more information, visit our conference web site - www.sharepointconference.sg.”

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Voicemail: A story of unrealized potential

Brief Description
This whitepaper details the value that Exchange 2010's Unified Messaging capabilities offer to empower your users, reduce cost and manage risk by replacing your voicemail system.

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Propagation Status - Waiting for Initialization

i had a customer with 19,000 users and 5 server farm with 2 x WFE.

The problem had to do with search. After applying the cumulative patch from Feb, things did not really good.

In the search administration site, under search setting, the Propogation Status showed "Propagation Status - Waiting for Initialization ().

Event ID: 6482 was logged in the event log of the query server with the reason being something like this "Object 66a9ed68-c956-4bb3-af4f-3b9eb257a64e not found".

The waiting for initialization error points to the process of of propogation in a stuck state. So got to restarting the Windows SharePoint Administration services on both the query servers (WFE) and the propogration kick started. This services is found in the Services applet in the Administration tools of the WFE servers.

Before doing anything drastic, understand how search works in a SharePoint farm. Know the services involved, know the process involved and the flow of this services from index to propogation.

March 27, 2010

Friday, February 12, 2010

Sunday, January 17, 2010

German government warns against using MS Explorer

From my friend Mike Veltman

I like the statement made by the spokesman of Microsoft Germany, that this was a specific attack by highly motivated people. Somehow I doubt that other hackers abusing Internet explorer are less motivated. Money always motivates very well.

Russian hackers who want to plunder your accounts are also highly motivated people. So saying that this is a special occasion is a joke.There will always be people who exploit the weaknesses of software for own gain. Whatever these gains would be.But those hackers would focus on Firefox when 95% of the users would use that. So its not only a IE problem. But saying that this is special occasion would will make all security people laugh".

Here is the news at BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8463516.stm

Sunday, January 03, 2010

Plan, Planning, Baseline and something is better than nothing

A well-prepared plan provides the management team with a means to accomplish project objectives and to direct work and assess project status and is critical to the success of the project. Assessing project status requires a baseline project plan from which cost, schedule, and performance status can be compared and change management corrective actions taken, if required.

A plan is nothing more than our best estimate of how a project will be performed. Plans must be modified as a project progresses. The right thing to do is to develop and baseline the deliverables and assumptions and plan to the best of our ability. Imperfect planning is far better than no planning!


The set of plans required for a project are unique to each project. Use this sequence of plan preparation to ensure inter-plan consistency.

  • Baseline the Requirements
  • Determine the Technical Approach
    Determine major risks
  • Develop the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS), Organizational Breakdown Structure (OBS), Responsibility Assignment Matrix (RAM), and Financial Control Structure
  • Identify resource training needs (as part of the project team training plan)
  • Identify risks and perform risk assessment and mitigation planning
  • Develop the Schedules, Resource Requirements and Cost Estimates
  • Update the Resources and Budgets
  • Set up the cost management and control approach (as part of the Cost Management & Control Plan)
  • Develop the escalation and jeopardy plans
  • Define the project status-ing and reporting Approach (as part of the Communications Plan)
  • Define project information system and distribution needs (as part of the Project Information System)

To summarize,

Something is better than nothing.
Start with a baseline and update as project progresses. In time, your baseline gets more accurate.

Monday, December 28, 2009

Microsot's FastStart Kit for UC

Did you know about the FastStart Kit from Microsoft on Unified Communications?
This is especially very useful when working on pre-sales with customer, especially in the Architectural Design Sessions (ADS).

Microsoft has developed a number of pre-sales supporting materials with their FastStart kits. This helps the sales/project team to present ADS in light of an individual product capability possessing the most potential for high impact with the client. Some of them are:
Unified Messaging
Security
Voice and Conferencing

These kits provide a great deal of guidance and content that may be heavily leveraged when creating deliverables for an ADS project. Each provides architecture with emphasis on a particular client interest or concern and each contains a comprehensive execution guide, ADS PowerPoint presentation, Discussion Guide, and FAQ document.

Here are some download links:

Unified Communications – Voice and Conferencing FastStart Kit
Unified Communications – Security FastStart Kit
Unified Communications – Unified Messaging FastStart Kit

OCS R2 Enhances Unified Communications - Unified Communications Strategies Views - Unified Communications Strategies - Print View

OCS R2 Enhances Unified Communications - Unified Communications Strategies Views - Unified Communications Strategies - Print View: "OCS R2 Enhances Unified Communications"

Friday, December 18, 2009

ISA 2006 SP1 Configuration with Exchange 2010

Here is a very precise document on how to configure ISA 2006 SP1 for Exchange 2010

http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2009/12/17/453625.aspx

Unify Square Introduces Comprehensive Reporting/Billing and Bandwidth Management Product Suite for Enterprise Office Communications Server

Unify Square, a leading services and solutions firm in Unified Communications (UC) and Microsoft Office Communications Server (OCS), announced today a software product suite designed to help global enterprises optimize their UC investments by monitoring and driving OCS usage, integrating with billing and chargeback information, and enabling comprehensive bandwidth planning across the enterprise

Read more here .. http://newsblaze.com/story/2009121713282100002.mwir/topstory.html

i am presenting at Microsoft Singapore's Community Technology Update, 19 Dec 09

http://mstechevents.sg/ViewEvent.aspx?eventId=279.

Thursday, December 03, 2009

Black Screen of Death on Windows 7 official statement

“The reports on the so called “Black Screens” was investigated by Microsoft and found to be inaccurate. The company which issued the report has apologized and made a full retraction. Windows 7 security updates was not the cause of the black screens. There is no fix or update necessary for this, but customers should keep their anti-virus software up-to-date as a preventative measure. So far, Microsoft is not seeing an occurrence of this particular issue in our support channels locally.

Misleading report on Black Screen of Death on Windows 7

I would like to bring your attention to inaccurate stories following a report by a British company claiming that customers who deployed the Windows 7 November Security updates have experienced the so-called “Black Screens” that would render the system unbootable and unusable due to changes in the registry.

Here’s the background for your reference:
Microsoft has found these reports to be inaccurate. Comprehensive investigation has shown that none of the recently released updates are related to the behavior described in the reports. Microsoft’s support organization is also not seeing this as an issue. The claims also do not match any known issues that have been documented in our security bulletins.

On December 1, Prevx, the company which issued the report, posted an apology to Microsoft which stated the following: “Since more specifically narrowing down the cause we have been able to exonerate these patches from being a contributory factor.”

According to Microsoft’s blog post, the real culprit is a piece of malware that clears desktops and produces a black screen on infected PCs; various security vendors have tools for removing this malware. There is no fix or update necessary for this, but customers should keep their anti-virus software up-to-date as a preventative measure.

So far, Microsoft is not seeing a massive occurrence of this particular issue in our support channels. If customers do encounter an issue with a security update, contact our Customer Service and Support group for no-charge assistance at http://support.microsoft.com/security.

The protection and well-being of Microsoft's customers’ PCs through the deployment of Security Updates is the ultimate goal of the Microsoft Security Response Center.

Because of this, Microsoft continually work with their Customer Service and Support teams to keep a close eye for issues that may impact customers’ deployment of security updates.

Consumers can also download Microsoft Security Essentials provided free.

Monday, November 30, 2009

Solved: Eseutil on running on DPM 2010

As i was protecting an Exchange 2003 (on Windows 2003 R2) from DPM 2010 (on Windows 2008 R2), i needed Exchange 2007 32-bit version of eseutil to be installed on DPM 2010 server.

i had naturally copied the eseutil from Exchange 2003, which did not work so.

So i downloded the Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Management Tools (32-Bit), installed on a test Windows 2008 Std, 32bit (it had AD installed). i then extracted the eseutil dll and exe and copied to the DPM 2010 server.

This is where i pretty much got the idea that i needed the Exchange 2007 tools.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb808827.aspx#ExchangeServerDatabaseUtilities

Note
If you installed DPM 2007 on a Windows Server 2008 operating system, and you are protecting Exchange Server 2003 on a Windows Server 2003 computer, you must install the Exchange Server 2007 version of the eseutil.exe and ese.dll files. You can download this version from the Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Management Tools (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=112325).

Sunday, November 29, 2009

Installing DPM 2010 Beta in my production.

Installed DPM 2010 beta in a live production environment.
There was very little data on migrating from DPM 2007 SP1 to DPM 2010.

Procedures (#HINT: Read the beta documentation for the basics on the setup. There are also documents on recovery, client protection, SharePoint item level restore etc.).
1. Stopped protection group and retained the protected data.
2. removed the agents (DPM 2007 Sp1) from protection machines.
3. DPm 2010 was installed on a new hardware. Windows 2008 r2 base OS and DPM 2010 Beta. Installation went on without a problem .
4. Installed agents DPM 2010 beta to the servers. They were automatically installed from DPM 2010 Management Console.

Protections Group
Servers i wa protecting in DPM 2007 SP1 were:
Windows 2003 R2 / Windows 2003
SQL Server 2005
SharePoint 2007 SP2
Exchange 2003 Sp2 (Front end and mailbox)
Windows XP SP3 clients.

Moving these servers to protection with DPM 2010 beta, i had this issues.
For a Windows 2008 R2 protected machine i had to install a Windows Server backup before i could successfull add server to a protection group. This was my domain controlller running Windows 2008 R2 which was trying to get the System State back-ed up.

On my exchange 2003 SP2 servers on a Windows 2003 Sp2, i needed a Windows 2003 patch. KB940349 to allow me to backup the exchange storage groups.

Now i am getting issues with Exchange files eseutil not executing. The DPM 2010 is x64 and my exchange 2003 is 32 bit (of course). i loaded the eseutil files to the DPM as requested but seems like it is not working.

The SharePoint 2007 SP2 protection worked like a charm once i had solved the WSS Writer Failures issues with ConfigureSharePoint.exe.

Will write about eseutil once i get it solved.

Saturday, November 07, 2009

HTTPS, SSL attack vector discovered; fix is on the way

A serious security flaw in the TLS protocol could make HTTP communication vulnerable to a man-in-the-middle attack. Security researchers are working to address the issue.

Read more ... http://arstechnica.com/security/news/2009/11/https-ssl-attack-vector-discovered-fix-is-on-the-way.ars

Friday, November 06, 2009

Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4 Training Kit

Download details: Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4 Training Kit:
This week, the October preview of the Visual Studio 2010 & .NET Framework 4 Training Kit was released.

The content in this training kit has been tested with Beta 2 and is ready for you to use.

Windows Server 2008: Supported Microsoft Applications

Windows Server 2008: Supported Microsoft Applications: "Microsoft Server Applications Supported on Windows Server 2008 R2"

Exchangepedia Blog: Removing internal host names and IP addresses from message headers

Exchangepedia Blog: Removing internal host names and IP addresses from message headers: "Removing internal host names and IP addresses from message headers"

Apple Hits the Windows Wall — ServerWatch.com

Windows 7 has been out for barely two weeks, and its market share already rivals that of Mac OS X, despite years of marketing and strategizing on Apple's part. Does Windows stand a chance of being dethroned?

Sunday, November 01, 2009

Mathematics for Automotive Engineering

Cylinder volume = (Ï€/4) x bore2 x stroke

Displacement = (Ï€/4) x bore2 x stroke x number of cylinders

Displacement of overbore = (Ï€/4) x (bore + overbore)2 x stroke x number
of cylinders

Stroke = displacement/( π/4 x bore2 x number of cylinders)

Compression ratio = (cylinder + chamber volume)/chamber volume

Piston speed in inches per minute = 2 stroke in inches x rpm

Horsepower = (rpm x torque)/5252

Bhp loss = (elevation in feet/1000) x 0.03 x (bhp at sea level)

Horsepower = (mean effective pressure x displacement x rpm)/792,000

Torque = (mean effective pressure x displacement)/150.8

Theoretical cubic feet per minute = (rpm x displacement)/3456

Racing carb cfm = 1.1 x (rpm x displacement)/3456

Center of gravity behind front wheels = (rear wheel weight/overall
weight) x wheelbase

Drive wheel torque = flywheel torque x first gera x final drive x 0.85

Wheel thrust = drive wheel torque/rolling radius

g = wheel thrust/weight

rpm after shift = (ratio shift into/ratio shift from) x rpm before shift

mph = (rpm x tire diameter)/(gear ratio x 336)

tire diameter = 2 x (section width x aspect ratio)/2540 + rim diameter

Actual mph = (new tire diameter/old tire diameter) x indicated mph

Blood alcohol concentration = (ounces x %alcohol x 0.075)/weight — (hours x 0.015)

Sunday, October 25, 2009

free eBook for Deploying Windows 7

The new eBook from Microsoft Press, Deploying Windows 7, offering essential guidance from the Windows 7 Resource Kit and TechNet Magazine. You'll find selected chapters from the Windows 7 Resource Kit on deployment platforms, planning, and testing application compatibility, to name a few. You'll also get six new articles on Windows 7 from industry experts on migration, running Windows 7 in mixed environments, certification and more. The eBook is free for a limited time.

This book addresses the two issues everyone face in new deployments: application compatibility and deployment

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

SharePoint 2010 is here.

The SharePoint 2010 NDA has been lifted as of October 19th, 9:00AM Pacific Standard Time

Here are some SharePoint 2010 links to share with all of you.

- SharePoint 2010 Website - to view SharePoint 2010 in action
- SharePoint 2010 forum- for SharePoint 2010 questions
- SharePoint 2010 PressPass- for the SPC 2009 keynote video, a Q&A with Jeff Teper, and more
- SharePoint 2010 Developer Center - for developer info
- http://www.mssharepointitpro.com - for IT Pro info
- http://www.microsoft.com/sharepoint - for more SharePoint information

File Classification Infrastructure

Was at a "File Classification Infrastructure" presentation at SharePoint Conference 2009 today.
Especially the topic was about SharePoint and the FileShare strategy from Microsoft.

For once there is proper plans on bring SharePoint and FileShare servers/infrastructre from Microsoft.

Read more from here : http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/us/fci.aspx

I was told it would go beta in the next few days

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

patterns & practices SharePoint Guidance

Project Description

Microsoft develop guidance to help devs and architects build applications on SharePoint. The second version of guidance expanded coverage to LOB integration, content driven applications, and adding enterprise qualities to your SharePoint applications. The release includes a library of reusable components, a guide, and a new reference implementation of a Partner Portal application. It expands upon the first release which delivered a Training Management application, and guidance around unit testing SharePoint, fundamental design and implementation decisions, and how to setup team development environments with SharePoint.

http://www.codeplex.com/Wiki/View.aspx?ProjectName=spg

Developing SharePoint Applications - from Patterns and Practices

Developing SharePoint Applications
Guidance for building collaborative applications that extend your LOB systems

Summary
The Developing SharePoint Applications guidance helps architects and developers design and build applications that are both flexible and scaleable. It shows developers how to provide IT professionals with the information they need to maintain those applications and diagnose problems when they arise. The two reference implementations illustrate how to solve many of the common challenges developers encounter. One reference implementation addresses basic issues such as creating lists and content types. The other addresses more advanced problems such as how to integrate line of business services, how to create collaboration sites programmatically, and how to customize aspects of publishing and navigation. A library of reusable components helps you adopt techniques used in the reference implementations. The guidance discusses approaches for testing SharePoint applications, such as how to create unit tests, and documents experiences with stress and scale testing one of the reference implementations.

Should You Virtualize Your Exchange 2007 SP1 Environment?

Good place to start with a "checklist" and guide. This scenario applies a lot to what i am doing currently:Branch Office Deployments. Putting virtual servers on branch office with the many tools to assist remote deployments and administration, tremendously helped increase availability and productivity of the folks in the branch office.

Read more from Exchange Team Blog: http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2009/01/22/450463.aspx


Sarbjit

SQL Server Tempdb Usage and Bottlenecks tracked with Extended Events

I find this a pretty good and useful information on monitoring performance in SQL Server's Tempdb.

http://www.mssqltips.com/tip.asp?tip=1853&home

Friday, October 09, 2009

Microsoft Integrated Virtualization ROI Tool

Here is a great tool for ROI calculations just like Branch Office ROI tool i posted about earlier.

This one is the "Microsoft Integrated Virtualization ROI Tool"

The Microsoft Integrated Virtualization ROI Tool was developed independently by ex-Gartner TCO/ROI experts at leading ROI tool developer Alinean, Inc. This ROI tool helps partners and customers examine current production server, development / QA lab, desktop and application virtualization opportunities, quantifying the potential savings, service level and agility benefits, investment and ROI for implementing Microsoft Integrated Virtualization solutions.

https://roianalyst.alinean.com/microsoft/virtualization/

WINDOWS 7 GOVERNMENT-APPROVED

Feds Prepare To Make Leap to Windows 7 -- Redmondmag.com: "Feds Prepare To Make Leap to Windows 7"

Exchange 2010 RTM !!!

You Had Me At EHLO... : Exchange 2010 is Code Complete and on its way to General Availability: "Exchange 2010 is Code Complete and on its way to General Availability"

Wednesday, October 07, 2009

Monday, October 05, 2009

Configure a server farm for minimal downtime during software updates (Office SharePoint Server 2007)

This article describes how to update Office SharePoint Server farms with minimal downtime. By following the procedures in this article, you can update servers to add the latest service pack or cumulative update without incurring significant downtime for users. This article describes a step-by-step process for Office SharePoint Server farms that incorporate SQL Server mirroring.

You can achieve similar results on Office SharePoint Server farms that are set up in a clustered server environment.

Web Application Measurements Tool

Check out this tool from Keynote which allows you to monitor your online business performance.
Web Application Measurements Tool: "Application Perspective"

Sunday, October 04, 2009

AvePoint News: AvePoint Introduces Free Tool for Item-Level SharePoint Restores from SQL Server and DPM Backups

AvePoint News: AvePoint Introduces Free Tool for Item-Level SharePoint Restores from SQL Server and DPM Backups: "AvePoint Introduces Free Tool for Item-Level SharePoint Restores from SQL Server and DPM Backups"

This is wonderful to hear. I run DPM and SharePoint in my client's environment and i would love to see how this works out.
Will update in the blog if it really works as mentioned or there is a catch.

An early look at SharePoint 2010 | Windows - InfoWorld

An early look at SharePoint 2010 Windows - InfoWorld: "An early look at SharePoint 2010"

"U.S. Government's Official Website Powered by SharePoint"

http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20090928_4383.php?oref=topstory

Microsoft Launches New Open Source CodePlex Foundation : BillS IIS Blog : The Official Microsoft IIS Site

Microsoft Launches New Open Source CodePlex Foundation : BillS IIS Blog : The Official Microsoft IIS Site: "Microsoft Launches New Open Source CodePlex Foundation"