I was pleasantly surprised to find that wireless Internet access is only $8 (for 24 hours) at Seattle International Airport (seatac). I know it's free at many coffee bars but few airports that I've visited provide good value Internet access. It's nice...

There are a range of new features and architectual changes in Windows Vista (and Server 2008) that help reduce the risk of using excessive privilege though you're still better off logging in as a non-privileged user where possible. If you log in as an...

System Centre Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) has been my star of the show for our week of intensive technical training (TechReady). I love the way it produces Powershell scripts as you operate the GUI - taking the mystery out of how to script. Building...

There is a wealth of information available via the Managing a Microsoft Infrastructure webcasts area of Microsoft.com . There are webcasts on Microsoft Systems Centre including Operations Manager(SCOM), (SCE) Essentials and Configuration Manager(SCCM...

It's interesting to note (and somewhat frustrating) that Windows Live works better in the USA than elsewhere. I'm about to head home from Seattle and have just used Live to work out my route to the airport via a store and then the Microsoft Campus. I...

Following my earlier post about the need for teleport and Nik's wonderful comment "Well you guys already have the marketing tag line sorted, " Where do you want to go today? " give me the inspiration for the marketing campaign for the Microsoft Time Machine...

As every geek/sci-fi fan knows there's always a place for a teleporter/transporter. Note: Thanks to Gizmodo for the image I'm luckly that I don't spend a great deal of time flying on business these days though I used to several years ago. I do...

As James mentioned in his excellent post detailing his travel misery we're at an internal ("TechReady 5") conference in Seattle. The network in our hotel is cr*p suboptimal. Browsing the web generally works OK. Accessing anything else is a disaster...

The prime challenge is establishing the right balance between ease of access for authorised users and the appropriate level of risk mitigation. Securing information in a lab environment is really easy. Going crazy with access controls may reduce the risk...

Am I just being dumb here or is it pure guess work who's really who on Facebook? I'm new to Facebook as I've had privacy concerns though finding out about "Limited User" has eased those a little. As far as I can see it's trivial for me to set myself...

I'm excited. The new book's going to be released in a couple of hours time. "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" has a lot to live up to. Like so many of you I'll be picking up my copy at midnight. There's a party at the nearby book shop - they even...

Like many people in the UK today James has had a nightmare attempting to travel - in his case to Seattle - due to the flooding and crazy weather in England. I'm very glad that I flew out a day early for an extra day's training prior to our internal Technical...

If you've been to a Microsoft technical event covering Exchange, Systems Center or Windows Server 2008 then chances are Powershell's been mentioned. It's an object oriented .net based scripting tool that's being used to manage all kinds of infrastructure...

I know it seems a long way away but the Microsoft Sharepoint Conference 2008 will be held in Seattle from the 2nd to 6th March 2008. There have been a series of Sharepoint conferences running around the World since 2006 to great acclaim including an excellent...

Redhat provided every delegate to LUGRadioLive with either a track suit top or t-shirt hence many people were sporting RedHat attire both at dinner on Saturday evening and on Sunday. In my earlier post about LUGRadioLive I mentioned that I'd accepted...

The latest Community Technology Preview (CTP) for SQL Server 2008 (formerly known as "katmai") is available for download via the Microsoft Connect website . As is mentioned on the right hand side of the download page you need to register for the CTP BEFORE...

The Windows Home Server team (WHS) are celebrating as they have released Windows Home Server on schedule and on budget. As they mention on their blog, both the "evaluation version and system builder version will be heading to the distribution channels...

Don't worry. I haven't lost the plot! Microsoft's financial year runs from the 1st of July each year and that's also the point at which we set objectives for the coming year. I think it can be quite confusing when Microsofties talk about "next year" in...

Thanks to Kurt Shintaku for posting about TechNet Radio's podcast detailing how Microsoft Implements System Center Operations Manager 2007 . The show is described as follows: "As a first step in building an end-to-end solution, Microsoft IT used...

Thanks to Cliff Hobbs for sharing the link to a TechNet Radio session (podcast) that goes into detail about the Management features of Windows Server 2008 (formerly known as "longhorn server"). It's a 40 minute podcast which is available in WMA and MP3...

That's easy - Windows SharePoint Services is a free download for Windows Server 2003, Office Sharepoint Server 2007 is a product we sell. Following my post detailing how to fix the " failed to create configuration database " post about Windows SharePoint...

James , Andrew Fryer (new SQL/BI Evangelist) and I were helping a charity to implement some infrastructure yesterday when we encountered the following error: "Failed to create the configuration database. An exception of type System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException...

The .net developer community's DeveloperDeveloperDeveloper! 5 (DDD) podcast is now available for June's event thanks to the NxtGenUG Click here for the podcast DDD is a great event as it's run entirely BY the community FOR the community and doesn...

Thanks to everyone who made me so welcome at last weekend's LUGRadio Live - it's the UK's largest LINUX User Group get together with hundreds of enthusiastic geeks spending the weekend sharing their technical expertise. There are some excellent write...

Browse to the MSN Live Earth website to view both streamed audio and video plus access the material for replay after the event. It's great that so many top artists are getting together to provoke action on a global scale to reduce carbon emissions and...