just in time for the thanksgiving - windows home server system builder price decrease! i've got one oem system i built running the system builder version and the hp media smart home server. in november i'm giving a presentation on windows home server...

woo hoo! i'm running the windows home server connector on my 64 bit windows 7 build. need to double check if the backup works (which won't surprise me). i've had pretty good app compatibility success with windows 7 so far. continuing my tests....

my first two builds of windows 7 in one way brought me back to when windows vista was in beta (downloading the bits, burning dvds, waiting while the installation runs), but since windows 7 is building upon the foundation that windows vista sp1 and windows...

i'm an impatient person with computers. i wasn't always this way. i remember when you could watch the output of the dir command (i don't know in the first version of dos whether the /p was even available because i certainly didn't need it). i now expect...

one of my goals with windows 7 is to install and test it on as many systems and as many times as i can. much of this will be on my own time since i do have a day job :), but looking towards the future, or dogfooding as they say at microsoft, is part of...

today i'm spending some time to watch the part of steven sinofsky's keynote that i didn't see tuesday morning. catch up on announcements at http://microsoftpdc.com/

cwug started our online endeavors with chris urban's management track. next month, ray casey takes up where chris left off. there will be a new windows home server track that will kick off with online meetings every other wednesday. more information about...

if you haven't been over to the windows team blog lately, check it out today. wish i was in los angeles at the pdc this morning - it's cold enough in illinois this morning for snow.

one of my counterparts, joel schoenberg has a desktop insiders blog. joel has been one of the mentors i've had in my three years at microsoft and we have a common history at one of the solution providers in the midwest. joel and his family were recently...

windows server 2008 with hyper-v, presentation virtualization, vdi, desktop virtualization with app-v and med-v.  there’s a lot of great content covered at the virtualization launch this monday at the hotel intercontinental in chicago.  register...

my sister in law and her husband were both involved in big brothers big sisters as bigs before they had children. i always had interest in volunteering but didn't get around to it before i had children of my own. a little over a year ago, i became a big...

a while ago i posted information on searchandgive.com which i am still a huge supporter of (and mention every chance i get), but this weekend i came across searchperks - another way you can earn "points" just by using windows live (haven't figured out...

when i made the transition from consulting to training, i met a woman named martha at my soon to be full time employer. martha was my mentor and has continued to be a great friend. although we don't see each other that often, it has always been easy to...

thanks to christopher kusek for remembering to blog about this (after i mentioned it, but apparently never blogged about it). at our october cwug meeting, gordon dunkley and christopher kusek were the only two attendees that were certified as charter...

the day before our big october 2008 cwug meeting we hit 100 members in our facebook group . you have to be a member of the chicago network (for your location), but it's open to anyone other than that! join us thursday evening in downers grove for a great...

mike nash posted the official name for the upcoming windows client release and it will be called windows 7! not having to switch gears from a beta name to a production name is going to mean one last thing i need to stuff into my brain. my favorite number...

tekken - the game i purchased a playstation 2 to play - is coming to xbox 360! tekken 6 will be the first multiplatform title in the tekken series.

i'm carrying the htc touch cruise these days. it's a touch screen, windows mobile 6, unlocked phone with a build in gps. i did have to reference the manual to figure out some of the features (which i typically don't do.

it's october again and at the end of the month i will have been with microsoft for 3 years. starting on october 31st, i completely missed out on one of my favorite internal microsoft campaigns - the giving campaign. each october microsoft allows its employees...

i really like horror movies.  ever since middle school i've enjoyed well made (and not so well made) horror movies.  october always seems like a good time of the year to start thinking of some that i haven't seen for quiet sometime.  this evening i finally...

over the weekend i had the opportunity to check out a list of the 10 most over and under rated products according to tech.msn.com. two really caught my attention - both highlighting the difference between streaming vs. local access. the two broad categories...

the professional developers conference is scheduled for the end of october in los angeles - sign up now for the public unveiling of windows 7 (it's close to being sold out). closer to home is the chicago virtualization event on monday, october 27th sign...

over the weekend i rated a couple more laptop systems - one with an intel core 2 duo t9300 @ 2.50 ghz, 4 gb ram, 120 gb 7200 rpm hard drive and one with an intel core 2 duo t8300 @ 2.40 ghz, 2 gb ram, 250 gb 5400 rpm hard drive. the hard disk score was...

at microsoft, one of my favorite activities is testing software before it goes public - the process is referred to as dogfooding. this fall there will be plenty to blog about - as i already am involved in dogfooding a couple of our technologies and i...

just got a heads up from a coworker that the it crowd is now on ifc. along with the henry rollins show, this is the 2nd thing i'll watch on ifc.