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August 2007 - Posts

Friday, August 31, 2007 11:14 AM

System Center Data Protection Manager v2 - can you get excited about storage?

There are those that do. Perhaps you? For most people topics like “data storage” and “backup/retention” just sound dull. That is until things go horribly wrong. Investing some time and effort ahead of time can save you a great deal of pain. System Center
Posted by Steve Lamb | 0 Comments
Friday, August 31, 2007 9:00 AM

TechNet Conversations Podcast Show with Cliff Hobbs talking Management

Welcome to the TechNet Conversations show of the 31st August. It's available as a WMA and an MP3 . This week we are joined by Cliff Hobbs - an expert in management technologies. Cliff is a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP), a leader for the Windows
Posted by Steve Lamb | 4 Comments
Thursday, August 30, 2007 4:26 PM

What is Microsoft's Product Roadmap for Vista, Server, XBOX, Office et al

At July 2007's Financial Analyst Meeting Steve Ballmer presented on " Driving Shareholder Value ". Steve Clayton and Long Zheng referred to the "FY08 and beyond" slide as it effectively provided a roadmap to many of Microsoft's products - this is no mean
Posted by Steve Lamb | 1 Comments
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Thursday, August 30, 2007 10:04 AM

What's coming in Vista SP1? When will Vista Service Pack 1 be available?

Steve Clayton's post links to both coverage from MaryJo and the Vista SP1 white paper . Apparently Service Pack 1 is due out in the first quarter of 2008. Should you wait for it? In a word - NO. The security and easy of use benefits of Windows Vista make
Posted by Steve Lamb | 4 Comments
Wednesday, August 29, 2007 1:54 PM

There will be 165,000 ducks entering the Great British Duck race in London this weekend!

If you are going to be in London on Sunday 2nd September and are looking for something fun to do then I'd recommend watching the Great British Duck Race! They're going to race 165,000 plastic ducks for charity - even if you're not able to go along you
Posted by Steve Lamb | 0 Comments
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Wednesday, August 29, 2007 11:31 AM

How to add a user role in System Center Operations Manager

Unlike Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) 2005 System Center Operations Manager (SCOM) 2007 includes effective role based security. There's a high degree of granularity available allowing the administrator to define exactly which operations are available
Posted by Steve Lamb | 0 Comments
Friday, August 24, 2007 4:11 PM

Here's the first TechNet Conversations podcast - looking at bucket of coffee and geek toys

The first TechNet Conversations Podcast (WMA) is now live - I published it moments ago. Note:It is encoded in Windows Media Audio (WMA) format - I will post an MP3 version once I can iron out a bug in the conversion tool I've been using. Later in the
Posted by Steve Lamb | 2 Comments
Friday, August 24, 2007 10:02 AM

A day of bizarre phone calls from Apple and for the Income Tax people

Yesterday morning I missed a call from a number I didn't recognise. When I tried to return the call I received an automated message from a switchboard stating that the "shopping centre is closed...and that I should call back later". I don't get many calls
Posted by Steve Lamb | 2 Comments
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Thursday, August 23, 2007 10:50 AM

Where can I find recordings of key sessions from Microsoft Management Summit(MMS)

Right here! There are several interesting recordings including discussion of System Center Operations Manager, an update on the Dynamic Systems Initiative (DSI). Note: click on the name of the speaker to hear/watch the associated session recording: The
Posted by Steve Lamb | 2 Comments
Tuesday, August 21, 2007 8:46 AM

How to centrally manage Vista's BitLocker encryption? System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) has the answer

Many people (outside Microsoft) have cited concerns over how to manage Windows Vista's Bitlocker encryption feature set for large groups of machines. The native Active Directory functionality works pretty well and covers the automatic publication of the
Posted by Steve Lamb | 3 Comments
Monday, August 20, 2007 8:19 AM

What will System Center Configuration Manager do for me? What does it give me that SMS didn't?

John Orefice has written a great paper titled SMS Evolved: A Powerful New Solution to Manage Your Systems for this month's TechNet Magazine . John explains in some detail important advances including "binary delta replication" which solves the problem
Posted by Steve Lamb | 0 Comments
Saturday, August 18, 2007 12:33 PM

How to manage machines that live on the internet as advocated by the Jericho Forum

System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) includes an important new feature termed "Internet-Based Client Management". There is a growing trend for large organisations to have remote workers who hardly ever connect to the corporate network. The Jericho
Posted by Steve Lamb | 3 Comments
Friday, August 17, 2007 8:45 PM

How to secure a wireless network: How to view the advanced wireless interface on Windows Vista

This post follows on from How to secure a wireless network: Part 1 of 5 - Enabling WPA on a wireless router , How to secure a wireless network: Part 2 of 5 - How to change the SSID , How to secure a wireless network: Part 3 of 5 - Reconfiguring a Vista
Posted by Steve Lamb | 2 Comments
Friday, August 17, 2007 8:40 PM

How to secure a wireless network: Part 5 of 5 - Connecting using WPA for the first time on XP *broken link fixed*

* NOTE: I've fixed the broken link to the demo* This post follows on from How to secure a wireless network: Part 1 of 5 - Enabling WPA on a wireless router , How to secure a wireless network: Part 2 of 5 - How to change the SSID , How to secure a wireless
Posted by Steve Lamb | 5 Comments
Friday, August 17, 2007 8:26 PM

How to secure a wireless network: Part 4 of 5 Connect using WPA for the first time on Windows Vista

This post follows on from How to secure a wireless network: Part 1 of 5 - Enabling WPA on a wireless router , How to secure a wireless network: Part 2 of 5 - How to change the SSID and How to secure a wireless network: Part 3 of 5 - Reconfiguring a Vista
Posted by Steve Lamb | 6 Comments
Friday, August 17, 2007 8:16 PM

How to secure a wireless network: Part 3 of 5 - Reconfiguring a Vista client to connect to your WPA secured access point

This post follows on from How to secure a wireless network: Part 1 of 5 - Enabling WPA on a wireless router and How to secure a wireless network: Part 2 of 5 - How to change the SSID The first post includes a detailed description of some key security
Posted by Steve Lamb | 8 Comments
Friday, August 17, 2007 8:04 PM

How to secure a wireless network: Part 2 of 5 - How to change the SSID

This post follows on from How to secure a wireless network: Part 1 of 5 - Enabling WPA on a wireless router which includes a detailed description of some key security myths pertaining to wireless security. The first post also goes into detail about why
Posted by Steve Lamb | 8 Comments
Friday, August 17, 2007 7:29 PM

How to secure a wireless network: Part 1 of 5 - Enabling WPA on a wireless router

This is the first part in a series of five blogcasts (video demonstrations showing you "how to") that look at how to secure a wireless network by configuring Wireless Protected Access (WPA) on both the Access Point (AP) and Vista/XP clients. Note: These
Posted by Steve Lamb | 11 Comments
Wednesday, August 15, 2007 9:44 PM

NationalRail train timetable Vista Gadget *links finally fixed!*

* Note: Thanks to Steven Audis for pointing out that some of the links were broken on this post - a weird glitch meant that only the administrator of the blog (me) could see them!) I really like NationalRail 's Vista Gadget - it's very handy for train
Posted by Steve Lamb | 0 Comments
Wednesday, August 15, 2007 6:52 PM

TechNet Radio Podcast discussing this month's security bulletin and how to write secure code

The TechNet Radio podcast announced yesterday on Channel 9 discusses this month's security bulletin and includes and interview with Caleb Sima( Chief Technology Officer, SPI Dynamics) by Bryan Von Axelson ( IT Pro Evangelist). Click here to access the
Posted by Steve Lamb | 0 Comments
Wednesday, August 15, 2007 3:43 PM

System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) is due to be Released To Manufacture (RTM) at the end of August

Larry Orecklin ("General Manager at Microsoft focussed on the System Center family of Management products and Virtualisation") has announced that System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) is due to be Release(d) To Manufacture (RTM) by the end of
Posted by Steve Lamb | 1 Comments
Tuesday, August 14, 2007 9:44 PM

Stupid Security at The Simpsons Movie!

Together with some other Microsofties I went to a cinema earlier this evening to see The Simpsons Movie - I really enjoyed the show. We went to a cinema that I've only been to once before and that was years ago. Upon booking online I was pleasently surprised
Posted by Steve Lamb | 2 Comments
Tuesday, August 14, 2007 2:20 PM

System Center Configuration Manager is now at Release Candidate 1(RC1) (not RTM as previously stated) - it's effectively SMS v4

Note: This post has been amended as I originally stated that SCCM was at RTM - apologies for the confusion As Rob Marshall mentions , System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) is now in the Release Candidate 1 (RC1) state - it's the replacement for Software
Posted by Steve Lamb | 0 Comments
Friday, August 10, 2007 4:38 PM

Spoof hacker message circulating on Facebook

I received the following message from a friend on Facebook earlier: "Not sure this is true but.....If somebody called bum_tnoo7@hotmail.com adds you DON'T accept it because it's a hacker. Tell everyone on your list because if somebody on your list adds
Posted by Steve Lamb | 3 Comments
Friday, August 10, 2007 4:24 PM

Poor wireless signal? - how to improve the range of your wireless network

I recently set up a new wireless router at home and was disappointed to find that I couldn't connect to the network whilst upstairs. This didn't make a great deal of sense as I live in a house that's only ten years old so it's pretty much made of cardboard
Posted by Steve Lamb | 6 Comments
Thursday, August 09, 2007 11:10 AM

Dell's built-in Smartcard Reader - I didn't know it was there

I'm a muppet! I've been using a Dell 820 laptop (other machines are available) as my main machine for six months and yet hadn't realised that it had a built-in smartcard reader. I've been using a PCMCIA smartcard reader instead. While I helped James debug
Posted by Steve Lamb | 5 Comments
Thursday, August 09, 2007 9:01 AM

Bluetooth mobile phone security/spam - how many people remain discoverable?

A UK nightclub made the morning news today as they are about to start broadcasting sexual advice messages via bluetooth. Their stated aim is to remind drunken clubbers that their should keep safe if they go off piste - in principle this sounds like a
Posted by Steve Lamb | 3 Comments
Thursday, August 09, 2007 8:51 AM

NASA Photosynth collection makes the most of navigation

James wrote about the new NASA Photosynth collections a couple of days ago. I really like the way the descriptive text includes links to areas of the Photosynth image. Here's a case in point - click on the "struts" link whilst viewing the collection navigates
Posted by Steve Lamb | 0 Comments
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Wednesday, August 08, 2007 2:19 PM

SATA versus PATA - which to use for my Home Server / Vista Media Centre?

Back in "the old days" I used to build hardware on a regular basis hence was intimately familiar with the various standards and terminology. These days it's pretty rare for me to dabble in hardware hence when friends have asked me "should I get a SATA
Posted by Steve Lamb | 1 Comments
Tuesday, August 07, 2007 6:19 PM

Twitter, Facebook and Social Media discussion in a PR context by Robert Scoble

The Brian Solis's PR 2.0 blog has an interesting interview with Robert Scoble titled " PR is about relationships " I'm not a Sycophantic Scoble fan though I really enjoyed reading the transcript. The following quote sets the scene: "As much as we talk
Posted by Steve Lamb | 2 Comments
Tuesday, August 07, 2007 5:49 PM

Here's how to solve the Facebook messaging problem

* Don't take the post as an endorsement of "Email Me Instead" or of it being fit for purpose - it seems to work for me but could have untold effects on your system, your privacy and the security of your personal information * I love blogging. Helpful
Posted by Steve Lamb | 2 Comments
Tuesday, August 07, 2007 10:30 AM

Facebook email client for Windows Mobile - where can I find one?

Some of you may be getting bored of me talking about Facebook - apologies if that's the case. I'll be posting about other topics today too! I'm finding that as I use Facebook more many of my friends are using the built in email feature to contact me in
Posted by Steve Lamb | 2 Comments
Tuesday, August 07, 2007 9:24 AM

Channel 8 - a blog for Students to interact with Microsoft

Channel 8 Beta site was launched a couple of weeks ago following hints from Mark Johnston - it was interesting to see just how many people started talking about it after his post . The site includes a wealth of information about the Imagine cup which
Posted by Steve Lamb | 0 Comments
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Monday, August 06, 2007 9:42 AM

Facebook security: I like the "add application" interface

I like the "add application" interface in Facebook as it asks meaningful questions in everyday English that a non-security professional would have a chance of making sense of - I suspect that most people still hit "OK just do it" though. I suspect that
Posted by Steve Lamb | 0 Comments
Friday, August 03, 2007 6:31 PM

Ooops - "secret" nuclear sub caught on Google Earth

Thanks to Kai Axford for his post Wow! I wonder who's going to take the heat for this? which linked to the following image from the Strategic Security Blog The Strategic Security Blog post titled New Chinese Ballistic Missile Submarine Spotted goes into
Posted by Steve Lamb | 0 Comments
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Friday, August 03, 2007 3:26 PM

What do you get if you cross beer with a skateboard and a big hill? Do not drink and ride!

James eluded to my visit to the hospital in his Pigs Drugs and Naked Dwarves post . Thanks to everyone who asked after me when they heard that I'd wiped out on my skateboard. Going to the conference the next day with bandages on certainly led to lots
Posted by Steve Lamb | 4 Comments
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Friday, August 03, 2007 2:36 PM

I'd like to change my Mother's maiden name please

In the UK a common "authentication" question used by banks and many other institutions is "what is your Mother's maiden name?". The idea is that it's supposedly difficult to find out what someone else's Mother's surname was before she was married. It's
Posted by Steve Lamb | 6 Comments
Friday, August 03, 2007 2:18 PM

Facebook: Will you be my friend?

This is a question many of you will be asked if you know people who use Facebook. For some requests it's really straight forward as they are someone you socialise with and regard as a friend. What about if a work colleague asks to be your friend? What's
Posted by Steve Lamb | 1 Comments
Friday, August 03, 2007 1:58 PM

Facebook, myspace and other social networking sites - whatever happened to Privacy?

I've been slow to adopt Facebook. Perhaps I'm a luddite. Perhaps I'm too paraniod. There's an article titled Facebook users open to cyber attacks, ID theft? on News.com which discusses many of my concerns. Rick Howard (Director of intelligence at VeriSign's
Posted by Steve Lamb | 1 Comments
 
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