So no news from me for a while... Have kind of had my head buried in my Xbox360 which i bought only recently... But will talk about that later, what i really want to talk about is all the cool news from microsoft in the last couple of weeks...
We have had Office 2007 RTM, Windows Vista RTM, Powershell V1.0RTW, Windows Sharepoint Services RTW... And its not long till Exchange 2007 RTM... (I'm sure i have missed some other really cool news... For those of you with Technet Subscriptions i believe Office and Vista final code is available for download (I have to renew my subscription :S)
You will find the powershell download here
You can find the Windows Sharepoint Services V3 download here
And for those of you in SBS land you can find a Whitepaper on Installing WSS V3 side by side with the companyweb here
Im also very dissapoint that i missed the last AWDNUG meeting... Missed out on presentations about SQL2005 Mirroring and Powershell :( oh well hopefully i will hear more about this in the future, but for now i have lots to go and play with (Our project manager went to the Microsoft Ready Summit in Melbourne this week and wants me to deploy Exchange, Sharepoint07, Office2007, Vista, Live Communications Server etc NOW)
Well thats all for now... (I think)
So i am upgrading our SBS box at the office to R2, sounds simple right... Well i have had some serious dramas.
After install the R2 updates i went to upgrade SQL from 2000 that comes with 2003 to the 2005 workgroup edition that is included with R2 premium.
I was previously running WSUS on this box, and it was actually pointing to a full blown SQL2000 database, and the R2 install picked up on this and just continued to use the SQL2000 database. So when i went to upgrade SQL, i couldnt. I had to uninstall R2, unistall WSUS, reinstall R2 with WSUS, then i could upgrade SQL. Am currently upgrading the Sharepoint instance to get the full Search features :D following Susan Bradleys guides http://msmvps.com/blogs/bradley/archive/2006/09/29/Things-Susan-learned-while-blowing-up-her-server-on-a-Friday-night.aspx So just like susan i had a long "entertaining" night upgrading to R2 but im hoping it will be worth it. Oh and i did follow her lead, i locked myself out :S
Microsoft have finally announced that yes they are developing a portable media device, called the Zune
http://www.comingzune.com/ is a great little idea to launch the product and build interest.
I know the Device has WiFi but im hoping it has bluetooth as well, as i am currently looking for a portable media device with bluetooth to connect to my new pioneer bluetooth head unit in my car... I can only hope i guess... Microsoft if you are reading this please take note!
Australia are through to the round of 16 in the world cup, YAY!
One advantage of working in IT is being up all night working, lucky for me thats when all the games are on and i have been fortunate enough to watch them all whilst working :D
Bring on Italy!
Bad news if your in Oz and havent registered for Tech.Ed 06 yet, you missed the early bird registrations. From reports i have heard registrations are filling quickly, so hurry up! I believe that this is one event that you can't afford to miss, with so much new stuff coming from microsoft in the next 12 months you need to make sure your upto speed... So get to it people you can find the tech.ed website at http://www.microsoft.com/australia/teched2006/
Yeah you just gotta love users dont you...
why cant they ever do what they are asked when they are asked... In the organisation i work for our remote offices are completely in love with sharepoint, users at the main office were asked over 6 months ago to move all there documents onto sharepoint by management (Not by IT). Now further down the track its not done, so now i have been given the great task of moving it all up. So i stopped sharing the folder they were all stored in and started uploading, found a great tool for it, Stuart Preston's spsbulkupload, however this operation has not gone smoothly at all, with my idiot users naming most of these files with characters like & and ! etc in the file names, as well as creating incredibly long file and folder names, not mention multiple copies of the same file stored in different locations, so now i am sifted my way through all this Junk trying to sort it all out... Oh happy days :P
Whats more is i have users from everywhere whinging and whining about not being able to access this and that file, if only people could manage to do what they were asked to none of this would have happened, i have enough on at the moment without having to worry about this crap... (DONT WE ALL!!!)
*For those that don't know what a P.E.B.K.A.C. Error is, it stands for Problem exists between keyboard and chair, one of my favorite things to tell a user. Another great thing to do when giving phone support is to get them to open a .ini or something similar, and get them to enter the following line (in comments of course) User equals ID ten T, which equates to User=ID10t hehehe, Hey if i was to get smart with them how would they know anyway......
Wow this is cool,
I was watching TV while working at 4.30 this morning, and saw a sewing machine on discovery science which really grabbed my attention... Why did a sewing machine grab my attention you ask? well... It runs windows XP! the Atista 730e from bernina, dont believe me then check it out for yourself!
Well back to work now :(
Well have been a little busy over the last few weeks, and must apologize for not blogging for a while. I have Moved office Twice in the last 3 weeks!!! From Lavington to Wodonga, and then withing the same building in Wodonga :S
Have installed Vista Beta 2 on my Toshiba Tecra M5 (CoreDuo 2.0GHz, 1GB DDR-2, 256MB Nvidia Quadro, 100GB HDD) and i must say I'm quite impressed! It works extremely well, the only problem i have had so far is in relation to full screen video (But I'm expecting that the cause is my video drivers, with NVIDIA not having released a driver for my Card yet :-( which also means no glass to date :-( ). Also running Office 2007 beta 2 on it and i am extremely impressed. Other betas I'm using include Windows Media Player 11, IE7, Trend Micro PC-Cillin 2007 and ActiveSync.
It has been a big few weeks in the IT World (well mainly the Microsoft World), with those 2 betas being released, windows live messenger having a full version released (Thats right its no longer beta), and Robert Scoble and Bill Gates both leaving MS in the same week (well BillG just announced that he would go to part time in 2 years). Also of significant news for SBS users Windows Small Business Server 2003 R2 has been RTM, I'm looking forward to this release, as i am a patchaholic, and the integration of WSUS into the SBS management console and wizards will be great :D
I have succesfully managed to miss the first 2 meeting of the new Albury Wodonga .Net User Group which i am quite dissapointed about, but will definately make it to the next one :D i would also like to see an IT Pro group in our area, but one bunch of things at a time ;-)
Well back to work now, gotta get things done before i go to Sydney this weekend to watch the Swans beat Collingwood :P
Office 2007 Beta 2 was released today.... You can get it here http://www.microsoft.com/office/preview/beta/getthebeta.mspx
I have downloaded it (when i could finally get in, System was overloaded...) and installed, looks great and works just as well. The only problem i have had with it is the Product activation (keeps telling me there is no Internet connection) but i assume that this is also due to overload. Now i just have to get around to installing Vista, of which beta 2 was also released today, along with beta 2 of longhorn server (which i also plan to install at some point).
Well you may be wondering why i havent posted much in the last couple of weeks... I have been crazy busy,
In the last couple of weeks i have been to CeBIT 2006 in Sydney, A Funeral in Melbourne, and The Partners Roadshow in Sydney. Finally i am back in albury and back to work, and there is plenty of that. Completing the CRM rollout this week, training users on saturday. Next on the todo list - Integrating a VoIP System with our existing phone system as well installing a GSM Gateway.... Fun Times ahead.
But More Importantly, i have just registered to Attend Tech.ED 2006 in Sydney during August, YAY! all the info can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/australia/teched2006 Have also registered for the 2 Day Deep Dive into Vista, i would like to also attend the Office 2007 and Exchange 12 deep dives, but these are all on that same time :(
Well back to work Now :(
If your having trouble installing Trend Micro Client Server Messaging Suite 3 for SMB (Well more having trouble logging into the Dashboard, recieving an error message regarding activeX) make sure HTTP compression is turned of in IIS and make sure you remember to do an iisreset after you have turned it off...
If you need more info feel free to contact me, apologise for the quick post, have to get to bed am driving to sydney in 3 hours for CeBIT :D YAY!!!
I have just completed my first Swing Migration, it was a redeployment of SBS2003 Premium.
To anyone out there who works with SBS and has to do a Server upgrade at anypoint, this is definately the way to do it, you can find all the documentation over at www.sbsmigration.com
Saved a hell of alot of time and stress...
Hello All,
This is my first post on my new blog :D as such you probably want to know a little about me, well I live and work in Albury/Wodonga on the New South Wales, Victorian Border in Australia. I am an IT&T Solutions Manager (as well as running a business) with 5 years experience in Network Admin (amongst other things) i am currently working with SBS 2003, CRM, Windows Mobile, etc. I have a keen interest in cars, motorbikes, and generally anything that goes fast, as well as Australian Rules football and Rugby.
Well thats it for now, have people to do and things to see....