System Centre webcasts for June

TechNet Webcast: System Center Operations Manager 2007 Technical Overview (Level 200)
Monday, June 11, 2007 – 11:30 AM – 1:00 PM Pacific Time
Chris Avis, IT Pro Evangelist, Microsoft Corporation
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032340807&Culture=en-US

TechNet Webcast: Client Monitoring with System Center Operations Manager 2007 (Level 200)
Monday, June 18, 2007 – 11:30 AM – 1:00 PM Pacific Time
Blain Barton, IT Pro Evangelist, Microsoft Corporation
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032341227&Culture=en-US

TechNet Webcast: What’s New in Systems Management Server 2003 SP3 (Level 200)
Tuesday, June 19, 2007 – 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM Pacific Time
Wally Mead, Senior Program Manager, Microsoft Corporation
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032341247&Culture=en-US

TechNet Webcast: System Center Operations Manager 2007 Installation and Management Pack Migration (Level 200)
Friday, June 22, 2007 – 1:00 PM – 2:30 PM Pacific Time
Bryan Von Axelson, IT Pro Evangelist, Microsoft Corporation
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032341253&Culture=en-US

TechNet Webcast: Introduction to System Center Configuration Manager 2007 (Level 200)
Tuesday, June 26, 2007 – 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM Pacific Time
Wally Mead, Senior Program Manager, Microsoft Corporation
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032341255&Culture=en-US

Microsoft Office System Webcast: Creating Effective Conditional Formats Using Excel 2007 (Level 300)
Tuesday, June 05, 2007 – 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM Pacific Time
Curt Frye, President, Technology and Society, Incorporated
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032337594&Culture=en-US

Sharepoint Webcasts for June

TechNet Webcast: Upgrading and Migrating to Office SharePoint Server 2007 (Level 200)
Friday, June 01, 2007 – 1:00 PM – 2:30 PM Pacific Time
Shawn Travers, IT Pro Evangelist, Microsoft Corporation
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032341241&Culture=en-US

TechNet Webcast: Workflow in Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies 2007: Out-of-the-Box and Creating Custom Workflows (Level 200)
Tuesday, June 05, 2007 – 11:45 AM – 1:00 PM Pacific Time
Susie Adams, Technical Director, Microsoft Corporation
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=90648

Exchange webcasts for June

TechNet Webcast: Exchange Server 2007 Client Access and Web Services (Level 200)
Friday, June 01, 2007 – 8:00 AM – 9:30 AM Pacific Time
Kevin Remde, IT Pro Evangelist, Microsoft Corporation
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032341207&Culture=en-US

TechNet Webcast: Maximizing the Multiple Scan Engine Advantage in Forefront Server Security Solutions (Level 300)
Friday, June 01, 2007 – 9:30 AM – 11:00 AM Pacific Time
Sachin Vora, Product Manager, Microsoft Corporation
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032341209&Culture=en-US

TechNet Webcast: Microsoft Windows PowerShell: The Future of Server Administration (Level 300)
Tuesday, June 05, 2007 – 10:00 AM – 11:15 AM Pacific Time
Don Jones, Scripting Guru and Author, SAPIEN Technology
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=90647

TechNet Webcast: High Availability in Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 and Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1 (Level 300)
Friday, June 08, 2007 – 11:45 AM – 1:00 PM Pacific Time
Ayla Kol, Program Manager, Microsoft Corporation
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=90670

TechNet Webcast: Exchange Server 2007 Transport and Routing Architecture (Level 200)
Monday, June 11, 2007 – 9:30 AM – 11:00 AM Pacific Time
Michael Murphy, IT Pro Evangelist, Microsoft Corporation
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032341211&Culture=en-US

TechNet Webcast: Disaster Recovery in Exchange Server 2007 (Level 200)
Wednesday, June 13, 2007 – 9:30 AM – 11:00 AM Pacific Time
Keith Combs, IT Pro Evangelist, Microsoft Corporation
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032341213&Culture=en-US

TechNet Webcast: Recipient Management, Policies, and Permissions in Exchange Server 2007 (Level 200)
Friday, June 15, 2007 – 9:30 AM – 11:00 AM Pacific Time
Matt Hester, IT Pro Evangelist, Microsoft Corporation
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032341245&Culture=en-US

TechNet Webcast: Under-the-Hood Extensions in Windows PowerShell (Level 200)
Tuesday, June 19, 2007 – 11:30 AM – 12:30 PM Pacific Time
Don Jones, Scripting Guru and Author, SAPIEN Technology
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032321876&Culture=en-US

Small Business Webcast: Stay Informed with Outlook Web Access (Level 100)
Wednesday, June 20, 2007 – 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM Pacific Time
Greg Randall, Small Business Solutions Advisor, Microsoft Corporation
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032340483&Culture=en-US

Hubdog: RSS feeds on your smartphone

I’ve been meaning to blog about this for ages since Tony pointed me to this site.  He found a button on a blog that took him to this tool.    It’s a RSS reader for the PocketPC/SmartPhone but a clever one: You create a profile online, add your favorite channels and sync them to the device. Supports podcasts too!

You can create your own channel as well which generates the HTML code for a picture and personalized link to the Hubdog website.

Apart from a bit of messing around setting it up (it doesn’t like my exported OPML from Outlook 2007) and I’ve got to put all of my feeds in manually, it’s quite a nice product. 

Do you know any better RSS reader for my E650 though?  I’d love to know if there’s a better / more efficient / funkier bit of software I can try.  I’m always looking around for something better – just in case!…

How British?

This made me smile.  For those of you frustrated by the US centric words in the Microsoft dictionary, here’s your chance to get some local words into the lexicon.  We’re creating downloadable dialect dictionaries for 2007 Office system.  As a native Teesside speaker, I tend to use a few words that are still incomprehensible to my husband after 20 years of marriage… He’d certainly need to download one…

Help us create a uniquely British version of the 2007 Microsoft Office system!

How many of you talk about ‘hoying’ a ball or even taking a ‘crib’ when you have a cup of tea? And get frustrated when you can’t find ‘nowt’ in the dictionary?
An answer is nigh! We’ve just launched a project to find quirky words from dialects across the UK to help make the 2007 Microsoft Office system more relevant to the unique regional voices of Britain.
Once these dictionaries are up and running, writers will be able to type in their own dialects without seeing red lines appear under the words their computer doesn’t recognise.
Why not contribute to the new regional dictionaries? All you need to do is simply state where you live and email your favourite regional dialect words, from ‘barnet’ to ‘barmy’, to dialect@microsoft.com. The words entered will then be judged by expert linguists to create multiple downloadable dialect dictionaries.
Find out more about the Regional Dialect Programme.

I’m dead chuffed about it 🙂 …

Women, business and blogging

I came back from Orlando yesterday, landed in London, drove home.  Spent 5 hours unpacking my stuff from last week, packing business clothes for today, taking a shower, having a nap, then went on the train to Leicester (I was far too tired to drive for another 3 hours).  The reason I was in Leicester was to present at the women business and blogging conference held at De Montfort University.  I was there to talk about changing customer perception through blogging and how our simple blog policy, “blog smart” has empowered all the bloggers to guide, support and moderate each other and has allowed us to show the human face of Microsoft.  I shared some of my blogging tips and used a few of Steve’s slides, (why re-invent the wheel?  we’re talking about the same stuff but Steve obviously isn’t qualified to do the woman blogging bit…).  The best slide I stole from Steve was a comment from one of his customers:

“Steve, I am now beginning to enjoy Microsoft.  Previously I , and I suspect millions of others, perceived MS as a leviathan without a heart. No pulse or warmth. Not a human in sight except Bill in front of a cold global software assembly plant staffed by humanoids.  By blogging, you and your colleagues have opened up MS to reveal that the innards are indeed made up of warm, people with hearts, with families, have smiles and wow, you do have senses of humour!  This is incredible. Who’d have thought that a corporation like MS was human after all!? We do now. All because you are engaging with us at our level and this is a conversation I relate to and like very much. I hope many more do too.”

So the message I wanted to deliver was: just do it.  Blog regularly with passion and you’ll get the interaction you want from your audience.  Don’t focus on the statistics, remember it’s quality over quantity. Enjoy your work.  I talked to some fantastic people: Meg, Jory, Vijay, Anna, Jess and a whole lot more that I unfortunately didn’t get to spend enough time with.,

So, I’m writing this on the way back home (Using Live Writer), and reflecting on my week.  The experience I had on Wednesday presenting to all of those women was the most amazing session I’ve ever experienced in my career.  Honestly.  Yes, it was a great honour to be the keynote speaker, but even more so to be on stage in front of so many talented technical women.  And today, to be able to present to 60 more incredibly dedicated business women was yet another honour.

I truly have one of the best jobs in the IT industry….  

My WOW moment

I had an amazing day yesterday.  It began relatively normally (apart from someone getting me a coffee out of kindness which started the day off well with a smile).  I went off to my sound check for the Women in Technology luncheon to brief the panel (Ani, Lisa, Mary Jo, Mythreyee and Amanda) and walk through my slide deck.  Sound check and lighting all completed to our satisfaction we sat down to lunch and a chat whilst hundreds of women streamed in to the room around us.

Kathy (who owns the running of TechEd – an awesome task) introduced me at the start of the session.  I walked up onto the stage, saw  a room filled with women, and for the first time in years, I  didn’t actually know what to say.  So I hesitated.

I’ve done loads and loads of presentations, hundreds perhaps, to audiences ranging from 5 to 500.  Audiences consisting almost entirely of men.  But yesterday I was presenting to over 500 women (and about 4 men).  I’ve never seen so many technical professional women in one room.  I was totally in awe at the sight before me and I felt really delighted and honoured to have been given the chance to present to this amazing audience. 

18 hours later, I’m back in the UK (I have a session on blogging to deliver at another conference tomorrow).  I’m still marveling at the awesome experience I had yesterday.  Standing on stage in front of these women was a truly humbling experience for me and I’m so pleased to have been given the chance to present yesterday. 

So, to all of the women who attended yesterday, I thank you.  You gave me one of the most amazing presenting experiences I’ve ever had, and definitely one I’ll remember for a heck of a long time to come…

Meeting and greeting…

I love being here, mooching around in the community lounge during coffee breaks meeting up with colleagues and customers.  It’s great that people stop and chat to me: either they’ve seen my photo in the Conference guide (one of the perks of being a keynote speaker!) or they recognise me from my blog.  Some see my name badge and jump in surprise (as though my buttons are undone) before grabbing my hand and saying hello.  Its really good to hear feedback that I’m doing the right thing by blogging about stuff that interests IT Pro’s (and my shorter blog posts are apparently better than long ones according to most people I’ve chatted to.) 

Take this morning for example.  I was sitting here in the community lounge making the final preparations to my presentation (which is at lunchtime today by the way).  A guy sat down at the same table, smiled at me and walked over to get me a coffee so I didn’t have to stop working.  A lovely gesture from someone I’ve never seen before. 

Sometimes when I get mails asking for help and advice, I respond and hear nothing back.  I don’t know if I helped at all, or whether their problem has been fixed or not.  It’s difficult to gauge if I’m getting it right if I don’t get any responses at all.  So it’s really rewarding for me to actually meet face to face and have a chat

So come up and say hello, or wave and smile at me. you’ll really make my day…

Mobile device security concerns

I’m sitting in Jasons session at TechEd today.  He’s talking about Windows mobile 6 and the top 10 security concerns about going mobile (and how to overcome them).  An interesting session if you’re trying to convince your company to use Windows mobile and are being pushed back by management.  Here are some of the topics he covered

“We don’t want to open incoming ports” (you only need port 443 opened and that’s already open if you use OWA). ISA can filter traffic

Stopping untrusted devices from accessing Exchange: Use certificate based authentication (Exchange 2003) or Device ID blocking (Exchange 2007)

implementing 2 factor authentication: several ways to do this including certificate and device PIN

Using ISA server: it’s recommended – not required. it can however, pre authenticate traffic before your Exchange server 

Caching passwords on the device: Use certificate based authentication

Blocking attachments to mobile devices

On-device encryption: your data is protected by PIN and remote wipe.  Storage cards are encrypted (not the device).  if you do need device encryption, use a 3rd party solution

What is wiped when you remote wipe a windows mobile device (it’s a hard reset by the way).  If you’re using Exchange 2007 there is storage card encryption (AES 128 bit).  The key is stored on the device so the wipe removes the key and formats the device 

Antivirus support – it’s all about user education.  There is application installation and execution security, there’s also a 2 tier model to prevent any installations of malicious code and trojans with code signing, and there’s also built in support for anti virus solutions

Denial of service attacks (connection timeouts stop these).  Account lockouts may be an issue, but RADIUS  can deal with these…

 

Useful tips for you to convince the bosses that windows mobile is ok…

The TechEd buzz

I’m overwhelmed by TechEd this year.  You know, I’ve been going to TechEd / IT Forum for years now, but this one feels a little bit different.  For one thing its huge.  There are about 12,500 people here in total which is much bigger than the European events I’ve done.  I love the Ask the Experts area here too.  It’s now called the TLC (Technical Learning Centre), there are interactive theatres all over the TLC area, and there are loads and loads of Microsoft staff, MVP’s and Technical volunteers dotted around the place.  I caught up with Jane and Ben on the Windows Server 2008 booth where I picked up a couple of things for James who isn’t here  – he has a mean manager :-).

The keynote intro video was well done too – a spoof on the Back to the Future film about our vision and whether we’ve executed on the vision yet.  The video ended with one of the De Lorean cars driving on stage and Bob Muglia and Christopher Lloyd (Doc Brown) getting out of it… Nice to see us poking fun of ourselves like this.  

So one of the most useful tidbits I picked up were about the IIS role going into Windows Server 2008 server core (very handy).  And Xandros has licensed our IP which really cements our interoperability story. 

I’ve already been interviewed for Virtual TechEd by Kevin too.  He always makes me giggle so I hope they cut those bits of the video out… especially the bit when he says that he’s going to attend the Women in Technology luncheon in Drag…

Now that’s a sight I’d like to see…