Greener Pastures

Well, U don't have to be here in Dallas to use this info, but here goes...

Abbie has a Sprint/Windows Mobile Phone/PDA thingy.  It's very kool, and like most 'Users' she only uses about 10% of the total functionality.  For example she won't let me setup it up to communicate with the exchange server directly.  She'ld rather have it only sync with outlook through the cradle. I know, the injustice!  Especially considering I don't have one yet!!!  The other day she was asking me how to listen to podcasts on her Phone, like when she's out walking, or in the car or waiting for a client, or whatever.  (I think she just wants to look kool in the Coffee Shops).  This did however arise from a real situation.  We were stuck in a Rental Car for about 15 hrs all told this week on our trip to Corpus, and this could have been a great time to consume some freshly caught Pod, not that I eat seafood.

So this got me to thinking about the situation, and so I used my handy dandy MSN Desktop search to solicit info from the vast Information Superhighway.  Lo-and-behold it provided a wealth of links and info for my use...So, abbie there's a variety of ways to get your daily fill of mindless drivle, I mean Partner focused audio information.  One is the tried and true, download various MP3 and WMA files from wherever and copy them over to a folder that syncs with the Windows Mobile Device, then simply listen to them at your leisure (suit Larry).  Fortunatly for those that are overwhelmed by that many steps, there's some Podcast Readers (thank you http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/articles/podcasts.mspx).  The provided link has some good info on setting up and using said podcasts.  These apps automate the process and can make it quite simple.

Now that that is out of the way, here's some Blogger/Podcasters that I listen to...

eOn Call   Podcast feed

Vladville's SBSShow   Podcast Feed

Connections Unplugged   Podcast Feed

There's also a ton of content that can be watched on your Windows Mobile device from Microsoft and other sources.  Yes video casts...It may not yet be to the point that audio feeds are but it is simply a matter of time...Anything that MS training puts out that can be downloaded could, in theory be watched on your Windows Mobile device.  Before you go stocking up, watch those file sizes!!!  You may do well to put them on say, a compact flash or sdram card and going from there...

Charlie Ramirez has some links to archived Webcasts on his South Central Area SBS Portal

Good luck, and let me know of your success stories with this...I'll be getting mine SOME TIME!!! and when I do, I may never speak to my family again!  JK. :-D

later, bill

Abbie and I co-presented at the Microsoft Connections event in Corpus Christi on Tuesday.  It was a great event.  Lara Pryor was the presenter, she did a great job.  While down there we went to the beach and on the way back hit San Antonio, more on that later.

So on Tuesday we showed up at The Cinema at about 7:30 and promptly setup our display table.  Lots of Swag, our Small Business Specialist Banner, and some display items.  fortunately, there was a light crowd at this event, so we had a chance to have some very good interactions with everyone.  The crowd was reasonably technical and from quite diverse technical backrounds.  there were a couple of technologists, a photographer, an Insurance person (role undetermined), just to name a few.  Some were highly technical, in that they run Windows Server 2003 or Linux, while others were far less technical, and more interested in function.  We did a presentation highlighting the Microsoft Small Business Stack, in a customer deployment story.  the solution was based on Small Business Accounting, Small Business Server, and  Office SBE.  Abbie and I are well versed on this story, as we have done it many times over, so it was a walk in the park for us.  Lara did a great job of allowing me the ability to 'assist' in answering questions from the audience.  I say assist, because she definatly could answered all the questions, but diverting the question to me, allows the crowd to see me (the Partner) as a goto resource.  this lent alot of credibility to Annabel Watters, PC.  During the break, we broke out the old, and when I say old, I mean pushing 5 years, laptop, and fired up Small Business Accounting.  As it was not part of the Connections Event, it was not highlighted, but many in the audience were interested, and after having seen Small Business Server 2003 in action in the Theater, they wanted to see Small Business Accounting.  We walked people through the basic screens and then through some of the 'integrated' features.  for example the ability to mark time/appointments as billable and submit it from outlook, and have it show up in SBA.  This was  abig time ooooo, aaaaaa, oooooohhhhhh moment.  We gave away 2 copies of Office Small Business Management Edition.  And my son Ian went down front to draw names for the other prizes.  Overall, this was a great event, Thank you Lara, and Thank you, to the event team as a whole!!!

We went down to Corpus on Monday, arriving in town just a micro storm was slamming the town, about 5:00pm or so.  By the time we got to the hotel, the rain had subsided, and by the time we got to the room, the sun was starting to re-emerge.  After dinner, we drove over to Padre and stopped at Mustang Beach.  Ian LOVED it!!!  We saw a starfish, and a baby that was wading far too far out into the water, but loving every second of it.  We also saw some Pelicans, loping (while flying, going as slow as physically possible, and exending as little energy as possible, while still staying in flight), in much the same way as old burro goes to market.

Then on Tuesday after the event we drove up to San Antonio.  A word of caution to anyone calling and asking for a reservation at a La Quinta in San Antonio.  At first I asked if there was one downtown (there's 12 across town), and was told no, and the reservation guy started to rattle off locations.  As it turns out there is one, howeer it is labled 'Old Mission District' or something to that effect.  Well, my not being from around there, and the reservation guy not being from around there, we ended up staying at a La Quinta out on I-35 northeast of downtown.  Not a bad place, we got our Laptops setup, and Ian and I went swimming.  then we headed out to The Riverwalk, always a great time, Dinner and a tour on the river.  We also got 5 minutes in the Alamo (the Mission, of the mission district referenced above!!!) before it closed for the day.  not enough time to devote to that, certainly.  When we got back to the Hotel, the Internet Connection was down.  I walked through the usual suspects, troubleshot the wireless, got good signal, just never an IP.  Called up the front desk, ring-ring-ring-ring-ring-ring-ring-ring-ring-ring-ring-ring-ring-ring, well that was not working, so I walked up there...I asked about the interent and was told, oh, the Maintenence guy is gone for the day...WHAT!!! JUST WALK BACK THERE AND (calm down bill, it's not the end of the world!!!), please can you just recycle the wireless device?  Well she was new, and untrained on these things as we later found out.  We did not, however get our internet acccess back on until after were checking out, the next morning.  This little lack of connectivity cost me a whole day of work, things that I had put off until I could sit down and concentrate on them in the Hotel Room, could not be done.

Now, for anyone who knows me, the best part of the trip, was not getting a single minte of World Cup Round of 16 matches in.  They played the games, and my DVR at home recorded them religiously.  But since getting back, I have been balls-to-the-wall with work, and likely will not get a chance to watch any of it, until at least Sunday or Monday, by which time Qurterfinals will have been played...oh well, the trip was well worth it, we had fun, we were productive, and we planted the seeds for future opportunities...

Abbie and I will be at the upcoming Connections event in Corpus Christi.  We'll be highlighting a deployment we've done of the Microsoft Small Business Stack, Office, Server, Accounting.  It'll be alot of fun.  We're planning on handing out some Windows Vista Swag, as well as some Resource CDs and who knows what else.

BTW, thanks to a local business Advanced Embroidery.  We needed some shirts so we look a little bit presentable for the event, and Kerry came through for us!  Incredibly good price, fantastic turnaround and great quality! 

We'll also be doing the Connections event in Dallas on August 17th.  We will likely change our specific presentation by then to highlight perhaps a more recent deployment or perhaps a different part of the stack or perhaps a different client industry, who knows...?

If anyone is looking for a speaker for their group, Abbie and I are always looking for opportunities to speak.  Honestly, Abbie would much rather travel around and speak all day than do any real work. :-P  As professionals we both feel a great pull towards community and service.

Anyone looking to sponsor an Adult Soccer Team, let me know, My team plays in the North Texas Premier Soccer Assoc. in Div 8 or 9 (we'll see). and needs some new Jerseys/Uni's.  We'ld happily sell space on the jersey for a sponsorship deal...Man U - AIG Deal: $100 Million.  Tottenham - Mansion Deal: $64.4 Million.  We'ld happily settle for a deal in the hundreds of dollars...We currently have a team deal worth $600/season, however we are looking for a Shirt/Uni deal in the realm of $1500-$2000 per season. or a split deal for smaller shirt placement. let me know if you want to help out!

Abbie was out of town all last week, and I am just now catching up from covering for her!

:-P

I've been putting together a couple of new projects as well as putting a couple of old ones to bed.  Last night I went over to the Dallas Microsoft Offices for the DFW-SBS User's Group meeting.  Peter Gallagher from the SBS Support group at Microsoft.  Peter is always full of ...information... yea that's it...  At anyrate, I missed the dinner event on Wednesday evening with the Users Group and the SBS MVPs that were in town.  I really should've gone, but the fam got in the way of that.

Also on Monday we went to the AMD/Microsoft System builder Tech tour.  Interesting how they omitted how much more expensive their power saving chips are than the 'normal' ones... but it does give me a lot of hope for the future.  My problem is I am stacked to the cieling with old equipment.  I can't use it because it's still useful, but it costs too much to run it, but I can't just toss it cause I don't just want to load up the landfills of Mac Inney with old junk, and I am too lazy to find a good recycler locally.  WHAT A WASTE OF OXYGEN I AM!!!

Back to the DFW-SBS User's Group.  We are working on a site and a community service for people to come learn about SBS from us.  Watch this space for more info. (there's nothing out there yet, (06-23-06) but be on the look out....

later!

I've heard of them before and used them briefly. 

In the past I could not get the integration with email to work...but apparently that is fixed now.  I have pondered why this kind of service has not taken off, and suggested that this is the next frontier for small business.  Well I certainly like it.  If anyone is interested in learning more about their service or what it can do, feel free to contact me.

This is a technology, I feel is under used in the SMB space.  Why is that?  Could it be that it's not easy enough?  Could it be that people don't know enough about it?

I think its a combination of things. iSCSI has a ton of benifits, but is mostly misunderstood.  Some Networking types fear it will have an adverse affect on the Network.  Hardware types fear that it is not mature enough.  Software types don't understand the potential.

I am still holding out hope that Microsoft, in their infinite wisdom will release the iSCSI target to Windows Server 2003, rather than limiting it to only Storage Server.  Conceptually it's not that difficult.  And with the decreased cost of hardware it not inconcievable to build a iSCSI host for 1/10th the cost of most SAN/NAS devices on the market today.

So I will be undertaking to build an iSCSI infrastructure with a SuSE Linux host (can't get Windows Storage Server myself), and attach a handful of iSCSI initiators to it, perhaps, if it's stable enough add it to my SQL and Exchange infrastructure.  Who knows, perhaps include it as a backup target device library.  While at a Fortune 500 Company we employed EMC SAN to host our TSM backups, virtualizing tape and disk on an AIX based TSM system.  It was terribly complicated and terribly fast and overall a very cool solution.

My test iSCSI host machine will be an old PIII 700 w/512 RAM and a single 36 GB internal drive.  I'll add a couple of 200GB External USB Drives of my own building.  That should be good to start.  then I'll install the SuSE Linux Server and setup the open source iSCSI target software.  Once I have that built I'll setup the LUNs and hopefully be ready.

Network wise, I'll have a second 10/100 network setup for the iSCSI network.  No I have not yet invested in the GB network, I'm using discarded and rebuilt equipment.  It's a test envirnment anyway.

Well among other things this past week I got vista and Office Beta loaded onto a test system.  This is on top of an SBS 2003 R2 beta that I've been running over the past couple of weeks.

SBS2K3 R2 has been on a system for quite a while.  Unlike some people I don't have copious amounts of quality hardware laying around for testing on.  I do have an older PIII 700 w/512 of RAM, It was running Windows 2003 so I loaded it up with Virtual Server, and started the install of the SBS R2 beta.  Bad move.  I've loaded SBS2k3 on virtual server before, as a test/model system and in the past it went pretty darn well.  While slow, it did load successfully and allow some testing on it.  This time, though, the R2 beta would not load, no matter what I did to it in the Virtual Machine.  So I backed up my system 'test system' and loaded up the SBS2K3 R2 Beta and sure enough it loaded.  It was still slow as Molases in winter in Maine, but I've been able to build a pretty good little 'alternative' network out of it.

The Vista beta has been wonderful.  I loaded it up on a wowefully underpowered old HP Pavilion.  it's only saving grace is it has 512 RAM and a decent AMD processor.  This was an inherited box from a customer discard, so I had nothing to loose. It loaded up fine, although I don't get Aero :-( <sad> it still runs pretty well.  One feature I really like is the USB SWAP file!  Now that IS COOL with a capital C!!!  As Monty Burns would say, egssalent, accomanied by an evil, meniacle grin.  It's only been loaded for a couple of days and already it's made quite an impression.  I think they've actually managed to re-engineer a Mac. :-> <grin>

The Office Beta...what can I say, but...

AAAARRRRGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!

If I can get it to ever work, it looks like a bust-up product.  I downloaded the Office Pro Plus installer from the Office preview site, but I have yet to make it work on the vista machine.  I may put it on a spare XP machine, but then again maybe not.  I really want to see some of the additional features of running Vista and Office 2007 together.  If I ever get that going I may post some pics, and some stories, until then whine, whine, whine.