Full of I.T.

Dear Video Diary,

Here it is.. the last day of TechEd 2008 US IT Pro.  This morning I got together with some teammates and had a little video/screencasting/editing/publishing discussion.  (Thanks Keith!)  Then I took one of my coworkers to the airport.  I did get back in time to attend one more session.  It was an Instructor-Lead Lab about customizing WinPE.  Very informative!

Today's video is pretty short.  Basically it's a before-and-after look at the exhibit hall. 

Here it is...

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Well.. I hope that those of you who attended TechEd had as much fun as I did.  From the video interviews and podcasts and sessions and parties, I had a blast.  I hope you've enjoyed my video diary.

See you next year!

My teammate Matt “Mongo” Hester just posted a pretty cool demo screencast on the process of adding bits (in this case, the currently-in-beta next version of Internet Explorer) into an offline image of Windows Vista.   Yes.. “offline” because it’s an installation of Vista that exists in a .wim file.  So we’re applying IE 8 as “just another update” into the image.  (And although Matt is using the original Vista SP1 media, this could also just as easily have been applied to a sysprepped and ImageX captured image of a Vista SP1 system.)

His excellent screencast and additional resources can be found HERE.

Cool!  Just noticed that one of my webcast recordings is listed in the current “Top 10 Webcasts” again.  This time it was the one I did about Network Access Protection (part 18 of our 24 hours of Windows Server 2008 series).

Click HERE for the webcast recording.

And HERE for my webcast resources page.

And finally, HERE for the best of the Q&A from the webcast.

Dear Video Diary,

Another busy day.  I was pleased to be a part of the TechNet Springboard Series panel discussion on Vista Deployment.  We had some tough-but-fair questions around Vista thrown our way, and it was fun!  After that I did one video interview as well.  I had another scheduled for the afternoon, but the interviewee wasn't able to make it, so we had to cancel.  But I did record a podcast with Kim Shek about Microsoft Dynamics. 

What happened in the evening?  Well... WOW!  Thursday night is the traditional "Attendee Party".  And as we have in years past, Microsoft rented out an entire theme park for our enjoyment.  This year it was Universal Studios.  Lots of food and fun.  My personal favorite (and judging from John and the rest of my teammates, their's as well) was "The Simpson's" ride.  The ride and everything around it were designed as if it were a theme-park unto itself... "Krustyland".  Afterwards a few of us enjoyed some more live music at Margaritaville, and then called it a night.

A few of my teammates are also shown briefly during the video:

• John Baker
• Harold Wong
• Bryan von Axelson
• and Dan "the new guy" Stolts

"Show us the video!"

You got it!

Sure, you can watch it in this small window.  But I'd double-click if I were you.

..and ahead of schedule!

That’s right!  Hyper-V, the new game-changing virtualization technology that is included in Windows Server 2008, has been released today.

Here’s the official press release.

“How do I get it?”

Well.. first of all you have to have Windows Server 2008 64-bit running on Virtualization capable hardware (meaning the Intel or AMD processors that have virtualization optimization built-in).  See the Hyper-V TechCenter to get the details.

As for the download – it’s HERE (or will be soon): http://www.microsoft.com/hyper-v

You also will be able to update your existing installations of pre-release Hyper-V using Windows Update starting July 7th, 2008.

So.. go forth and VIRTUALIZE!

--

PS - I did a pretty good (I think so, anyway) webcast on Hyper-V.  You can watch it HERE.

Dear Video Diary,

This was a busy day.  I was originally scheduled to do three video interviews.  It turned into 4, and then 5!  So I spent a lot of time in a comfy chair, with a not-so-comfy microphone attached to my head.  Really enjoyed the conversations, though.  I hope you take a moment to check some of them out. 

The photo to the left is of the "bloke" (I can say that, because he's British) who engineered the video recordings.  I sure wish I could remember his name, as well as all the others who ran that room.  These are the same folks who do this same thing at many of the TechEds around the world.  They really know what they're doing.

Anyway, after all the hard work sitting in that comfy chair, I managed to get to a couple of parties.  The one recorded here is the Double-Take Software "ClusterFunk" (I believe that's the name of their band) party at Margaritaville on Universal's CityWalk.  Good music, but they didn't do a very good job of making food easily available.  I waited a half-hour in line just to end up with a few conch fritters and sushi.  I don't know why they didn't let Margaritaville put out the Cheeseburger buffet that I've had there in previous visits.  THAT is GOOD!  But all-in-all, it was a fun evening.  Thank you, Double-Take!

Okay.. here's the video evidence from the day.  Enjoy!

Do I have to tell you again?  Be sure to double-click to see all of the full-screen HD goodness.

Dear Video Diary,

Today started off with the opening keynote for the conference.  Bob Muglia gave a good talk about IT, naturally.

"What about Developers?"

That was last year.. and all the other US TechEds.  This is the first year that TechEd was split into a Developer week and an IT Pro week.  I did hear some people complain about not having both at one conference.. and I completely understand their frustration; having been a developer that also took on the IT responsibilities for my company before finally moving full-time into IT.  But on-the-whole, I think it is a better conference when we can focus specifically on a smaller set of topics.   And certainly the keynote was a good example of that.  Would I have liked to see BillG give a keynote?  Absolutely!  But it made more sense for him to be at the conference last week.

But..I digress.  The day for me included attending a couple of sessions, and recording two video interviews and two podcast interviews for TechEd Online. 

"Is that the 'fishbowl' in the picture where you did your interviews?"

Yes.  And you observant people may recognize Keith Combs.  He's the guy in the brownish shirt looking at the display next to the fishbowl.

Later in the evening we attended the Partner Pavilion Reception.  I actually recorded about 20 minutes of walking around the expo hall.  I didn't put all of it here, but I did take about 6 minutes of that and shrink it down to some fast-motion video.  (With Mozart playing, naturally.) 

After that we went to the TechNet Springboard launch party.  Congratulations to the Springboard team and to Celine Allee for a great job with the launch, the party, and resulting web resources.  GREAT STUFF!

Okay... here's the video!

High Definition, folks.  Silverlight ROCKS.  Double-click to see what I mean.

"Hey Kevin!  I know you were at TechEd US 2008 IT Pro last week.  Where are your blog entries about it?"

Well.. yeah.. It's a really busy week!  Those of you who have followed my blog for the past couple of years know that I like to keep a diary of sorts about my daily activities at TechEd.  But this year I had to scale back, due to my commitment to the TechEd Online team to do video interviews and podcasts for their site.  (You may see some of my interviews up there already.  More will be posted in the coming weeks.  I'll link to them in upcoming blog posts for those who are interested.)

The good news, however, is that I did take my video camera along for capturing a few video tidbits that I'm compiling into my usual Video Diaries; just like I did at my HHH Launch events.  Video does take some time to edit and render, however, so I wasn't able to post these every night after the day's activities as I would have liked.  But I do have at least 4 video diary entries in the works.  You'll see them over the next several days.

So.. without further delay; here is video diary number 1:

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Dear Video Diary,

Travel day!  The opening title screen background on the video is of the departing flight status board at MSP.  Flight was a little late getting out of the gate, and we had to circle Orlando for about 30 minutes to allow a storm to pass on through.  I'm glad my teammate/friend/roommate John Baker was patient and waited for me. 

"I thought you were the one who had the rental car, Kevin."

Yeah.. he didn't have much of a choice, did he.

Anyway.. we got to the hotel, went on a quick shopping trip to a nearby grocery, and then went to the convention center with more of our team to get registered. 

The bulk of the video is a kind of "unpackaging" video of the TechEd 2008 bag and its contents.  It's probably one of the nicest bags we've gotten at any TechEd; though mine is already starting to rip towards the top of the right shoulder strap.

Here's the video.  I hope you like it.

(Don't forget to double-click to see in all its HD glory)

"Kevin... What is that music you're using in your video?"

Like it?  It's my brother Carl!  Actually.. the music over the title sequence is the band he's in (Bat Makumba) and a portion of a song entitled "Quiero" off of their 2003 CD.  And the music during the fast-motion scan of bag contents is from Carl's solo album "Explanation Point".  The song is "At the Club".  Carl is an amazing Bass player, and is also a gifted record producer.

Jacob Thornberry of Brooks Stevens took a few minutes out of his busy day as their lone IT Pro to talk to me about his recent rollout of Office Communications Server 2007.  I thought this conversation would benefit anyone who is considering rolling out OCS, and so with Jacob's permission, we recorded our conversation for your benefit.

The recording is attached to this blog post, and will also be on TechNet Edge soon.

I recently gave some talks at the Office Connections conference in Orlando, and created a resource document for the attendees, full of OCS-related resources.  You can find those resources here.

And here is the book that Jacob mentions in the interview:

Web 2.0.  Social Bookmarking.  Social internetworking. 

I finally have some "downtime" (translation: I'm not traveling.  I'm working from home.  And I don't have any pressingly urgent events to gear up for at the moment), so I thought I'd try out some of the cool ways people are communicating and keeping-tabs with each other online.

MySpace?  Yep.. I set that up so I could be a "friend" to my sons.  I'm not sure they really wanted me as a friend, but it was a requirement of them having a My Space account.

Facebook?  Yep.  I set that up after I learned that my boys found out that there was this other site that Dad wasn't yet on.  Plus, I started getting many more requests for associations there than I was on MySpace.  Many of my coworkers are also there.

Linked-In?  Sure.  I've been on this one longer than any other.  But recently I discovered a lot of my former coworkers are also there - so I'm keeping connected with old friends and associates that way.

SecondLife?  Why not.  I have a couple of coworkers (Chris Avis and Zain Nablouski) who actually hosted one of our "Heroes Happen { here }" Launch events completely online on their own island.  I currently haven't done much with it.  I'm easy to spot, though.  I'm the guy with dark hair and a white t-shirt.

Twitter?  Yeah.. I just joined this one today.  Got a little concerned, though, when I got this

I guess they're all twitterpated.  It's springtime, after all...

But it eventually worked.  Go ahead... follow me.  Just try and keep up.  (smile)

What's your favorite?  How can I follow you?

"Who me?"

Yeah, I'm talking to you!  You're a bozo** if you don't already have a TechNet Subscription.  But here's your chance to fix that...

May 31st, 2008 is fast approaching, and that's the end of our current promotion on TechNet Subscriptions.

See this blog post for more details.. or go straight to http://www.microsoft.com/technet/subscription, sign up for a new subscription, and use promotion code TMSAM08 (That's zero-eight.  Not the letter O.  Think of 2008.) and get $100 off! 

NOTE: this is only good on new subscriptions, and only for residents of the U.S. and Canada.

** Okay.. perhaps I shouldn't call you a bozo.  That's a little strong.  I apologize.  If you don't want to have lots of non-timeout evaluation software and free training and support calls and TechNet Magazine and... well, that's your own business.  I'm sorry I called you a bozo.  Can we still be friends?  [hug]

---

So.. what about you?  Are you already a subscriber?  If you are - what do you like best about your TechNet Subscription?  Is it all the software?  The free eLearning courses?  Two free Microsoft support calls?  TechNet Magazine?  Special support forums for your use?  Early access to Betas, CTPs and Release Candidate software?

Just for fun...

I'm on a "Cool Stuff" DL (distribution list) internally at Microsoft, where coworkers share cool things they find on the Internet or within the company.  Some of the "stuff" is business-related, but mostly the subjects range between the insanely-geeky to the just-plain-fun.  This one is the latter.

A "spec spot"  (speculative advertisement) was created for the Microsoft Zune.  "Music is Life."  It's GREAT!  I hope it, or one like it, eventually gets put on television.

My family owns three Zunes** - belonging to the three oldest (eldest?) of my four children.  My youngest girl, Laura, who also happens to be a fanatical animal lover, will be getting one for her 11th birthday.  (Don't tell her!)  Combining these two facts, I thought it was interesting (and fun) to see this ad. 

Click here to visit the site and view the video.

I just hope Laura doesn't actually try to resuscitate the dead mouse on the side of the path near our house.

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**We used to have four Zunes, but I crushed mine in an unfortunate fitness center accident. <sigh>  My birthday is coming (hint hint)

Yes.. this is my last one!  Unless I get the call to fill in for another presenter, I am done with all of my Heroes Happen { here } events. 

It's been a blast.  Every event was full of IT Pros who really enjoyed learning more about Windows Server 2008.  I don't know if it was everybody, but the overwhelming majority left the event feeling like it was worth their time and effort to be there.. having had at least one of those "Ah ha!" moments.

So.. to recap; here are the links to my 7 previous Launch Video Diary entries:

• Chicago
• Cleveland
• Detroit
• Columbus
• Madison
• Omaha
• Des Moines

And last (but not least), here is part 8: Grand Rapids!

(Remember to double-click to get to the full-screen view.  It's HD-rific!)

From the ol' mail bag...

I just received this e-mail, and thought I'd share it plus my response here on my blog:

Hi Kevin,

I find your virtualization webcasts very good. I plan to investigate setting a DR solution using Hyper V with our systems in a different site Currently we have approx 12 physical boxes (mainly windows boxes) and I would like to setup some sort of failover mechanism which ideally would form as a DR solution or individual node failover.

I was wondering whether there are any limitations with using this new technology as to system incompatibilities or will it be pretty solid. I guess the answer is to test although for this we will have to purchase a 64 bit machine.

If you have any further info which could help me it would be great. We’re currently running a HP EVA SAN.

Many Thanks,

Stan the Bat**

(**Not his real name.. but you get extra credit if you can tell me in a comment here just where a "Stan the Bat" reference might come from.)

Well Stan (if that is your real name), I have to first remind you that, it is indeed a very new technology (as you say).. so new in fact that I can't officially recommend that you run it in production just yet.  It is still in RC0 (RC1 may be coming soon), and is on track to release "within 180 days of the release of Windows Server 2008", which was February 5th.  That said, I'm hearing GREAT THINGS about its stability.  Microsoft is indeed using it in production to host some very public customer facing applications (I don't know that I'm allowed to share with you specifically which ones they are, so I'll err on the side of keeping my job <grin>). 

As for resources, I definitely hope you took advantage of the resource links I created for that webcast.  Those can be found here.  You'll find links to related resources there. 

I would also add that a good blog to watch is the Windows Virtualization Team Blog.  In particular (with regard to your question on Disaster Recovery), here is a post entitled "Disaster Recovery - not a nightmare with virtualization"

A friend and board member of a local user group pointed me to a recent article in BetaNews, talking about some cool new capabilities in the next version of Windows PowerShell. 

According to the CTP 2 download page (yes, you can download a Community Technology Preview version of 2.0), here are some of the main improvements and new abilities:

• PowerShell Remoting
• Graphical PowerShell
• ScriptCmdlets
• Modules
• Transactions
• Eventing
• Restricted Runspaces
• RunspacePools
• Background Jobs
• Data Language
• Script Internationalization
• Script Debugging
• 51 New Cmdlets
• Parser Tokenizer API
• New PowerShell Hosting APIs
• Metadata APIs for Command and Parameters

Bart De Smet has written some excellent "feature focus" blog posts all about some of these new capabilities in PowerShell 2.0.

**NOTE: If you want to start playing with the new PowerShell Remoting capabilities, you'll also need to be running a new version of WinRM (Windows Remote Management).  Here is the CTP download for it.

You may also want to keep up with the PowerShell Team Blog.  Guys like Jeffery Snover (PowerShell Architect) and others post up there quite frequently.  In fact, here's a good "Remoting with PowerShell Quick Start" (by Krishna Vutukuri) to help you get your feet wet in the new PowerShell Remoting.