Kurt Shintaku's Blog

Starting March 15th with the NCAA Selection Show… NCAA Men’s Basketball March Madness will be broadcast live and on-demand using Microsoft Silverlight and Windows Media streaming!

• NCAA March Madness On-Demand
  http://mmod.ncaa.com/

Visit the link above to see whether or not your system is ready to be used with the CBS Sports HQ Media player, powered by Silverlight.

Why do you care?  Well, HD STREAMING is one reason.  Silverlight provides full 1980x1080p streaming directly to your desktop over 1.5Mbps connection.  Or less if you don’t have that kind of bandwidth.  Not to mention also that Windows Media is great for fast action live broadcasting. Being able to watch the movement of a basketball game with an uninterrupted 30fps is the best way to enjoy a tournament game over the Internet.

Not bad for a platform that Adobe CFO Mark Garrett claimed, “…has really fizzled out in the last 6-9 months.” (http://www.betanews.com/article/Adobe-Microsofts-Silverlight-has-really-fizzled/1234310146)

Other news articles:

• http://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/article/61563
• http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2009/02/silverlight-to-power-2009-ncaa-march-madness.ars

WINDOWS MOBILE USERS:
…may want to read this article about getting March Madness news on their device.
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/en-us/totalaccess/columns/windows-mobile-march-madness.mspx

Oh and by the way… go UCLA Bruins!

Interested in moving your Exchange Server messaging environment into the “cloud”?  Want to maintain an experience that’s seamless to your end users, allowing them to continue to use Outlook, while leveraging an automatically maintained Exchange environment in our datacenters?

Microsoft Online Services is very likely your easiest, most secure, & cost-effective answer.  Here’s a document that goes through the process of migrating existing on-premise Exchange mailboxes to Microsoft’s Exchange Online Services in “the cloud”.

Contents

1. Introduction
2. Understand Migration   
   1. Simple Microsoft Online Services   
   2. Microsoft Online Services Using Your E-Mail Domain   
   3. E-Mail Coexistence   
   4. Directory Synchronization   
   5. Mailbox Migration   
   6. Migration Tools   
3. Plan Your Migration   
   1. Type of E-Mail Environment   
   2. Mailbox Information   
   3. E-Mail Client Software   
   4. E-Mail–Enabled Applications   
   5. Number of Objects to Be Synchronized   
   6. Network Bandwidth   
   7. Help Desk Resources   
   8. Required Permissions   
   9. Complex Environments   
4. Prepare For Migration   
5. Establish E-Mail Coexistence   
   1. Add Your Organization’s Domain to Microsoft Online Services   
   2. Enable Transport Layer Security (TLS)   
   3. Verify Your E-Mail Traffic Flow   
   4. Enable Directory Synchronization   
   5. Install and Configure the Microsoft Online Services Directory Synchronization Tool   
   6. Verify Directory Synchronization   
6. Migrate Your Mailboxes   
   1. Install the Microsoft Online Services Migration Tools   
   2. Migrate Local Exchange Server Mailboxes   
   3. Migrate POP3 and IMAP4 Mailboxes   
7. Complete Your Migration   
   1. Delete Mailboxes   
   2. Reroute Incoming ail   
   3. Decommission Your Local Exchange Server Environment   
   4. Other Migration Considerations   
8. Advanced Topics  
   1. E-Mail Coexistence and E-Mail Migration   
   2. Directory Synchronization   
   3. E-Mail Migration   
   4. Migration CmdLet Reference   
9. Appendix A: Sample Planning Documents

DOWNLOAD:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=25350815-5c57-441a-b7fb-329ff5fe14b3

Be among the first to use Microsoft Recite! This new, free application makes it simple to use your mobile phone to record and retrieve voice notes.

Recite can help you remember driving directions, restaurant recommendations, exactly where you parked your car, and if you’re quick enough, even promises from your spouse. After you record a note, finding it is a snap: Press “Search,” say what you’d like to recall, and Recite will retrieve your thoughts!

• Remember
  To start recording a remembrance, press the ‘Remember’ button, then say what you would like to record. Press ‘Finished’ to complete the recording and store the remembrance.
• Search
  To search for a remembrance, click the ‘Search’ button and say what you would like to recall. Press ‘Finished’ to begin the search.
• Results
  To scroll through your retrieval results, use your phone’s up and down arrow buttons. Results are ordered by match score. The darkness of the blue color and the score bars indicate the match score.

DOWNLOAD:
http://recite.microsoft.com/Pages/ReciteVideo.aspx

I just got through reading Brian Madden’s blog entry about the unsaid, unmentioned, and unseen cost that Enterprise’s incur by going down the path of VDI.  Here’s a really good article he wrote about the things “folks don’t tell you about VDI costs”.

<taken from Brian Madden’s blog>

How VMware is misleading everyone about the cost savings of VDI

I just got out of my first breakout session here at VMworld Europe 2009. It was a session about the cost savings of VDI. The presenter was good and the content was basically good. In the session, the presenter walked step-by-step through a comparison of a traditional fat-client desktop computing model with a VMware View 3-based VDI model. She covered capex and opex expenses and looked at all the reasons customers could save money (both hard and soft costs) by going with VDI.

I agreed with MOST of the content of the session. However, I think VMware left out two very, very important things. In fact these omissions are so great that they would "break" VMware’s VDI cost savings model. But instead of addressing them, VMware just ignored them. (They weren’t even mentioned!) Most of the audience was new to VDI (as evidenced by the number of hands that went up when the presenter asked how many people had heard of VECD and who had used ThinApp.)

This is a big problem. After this presentation was over, 200 people walked out of that room thinking that VDI is great and provides great savings, but VMware mislead them all by not providing the complete picture.

…

Read more at:
http://www.brianmadden.com/blogs/brianmadden/archive/2009/02/23/how-vmware-is-misleading-everyone-about-the-cost-savings-of-vdi.aspx

This is a series of five videos about how to deploy the 2007 Microsoft Office system. These videos are designed to help you understand the benefits of the 2007 Office system and the ways in which you can deploy the 2007 Office system.

• Video 1, Introduction to Microsoft Office 2007 Deployment, introduces you to the 2007 Office 2007 system and describes the benefits and changes that have occurred since Office 2003 and previous versions of Office.
• Video 2, Introducing Microsoft Office 2007, looks into benefits for both the end user and the IT administrator.
• Video 3, Microsoft Office 2007 Deployment, provides an in-depth look into deployment management for the 2007 Office system, including how to deploy, how to manage, how you can make the best use of all the new Office features within your organization.
• Video 4, Migrating to Microsoft Office 2007, describes the things you need to consider with the new file formats, the new user interface, whether you need to focus on document migration, macros, or add ins and solutions.
• Video 5, Introduction to Microsoft Office 2007 and Virtualization, introduces you to new virtualization technologies and how they can be used to deploy and manage the 2007 Office system.

LINK:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=8f3c4db6-4091-4c1d-a728-47f917fefbc6

Published: January 2009

At Microsoft, server virtualization has become a primary way to address data-center power consumption, to address space issues, and to rationalize server utilization. To optimize deployment and management of thousands of virtual machines, Microsoft Information Technology (Microsoft IT) has developed standards and best practices for configuring host servers, storage, and network infrastructure.

Microsoft IT has adopted a very aggressive approach for implementing virtualization on the Windows Server® 2008 operating system with Hyper-V� technology.

This case study describes the standards and best practices that Microsoft IT developed for configuring host computers, storage, and network infrastructure. This case study provides IT professionals and technical decision makers working in large enterprises with the information they need to plan and deploy server virtualization by using Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V.

Note: This case study assumes that readers have a good understanding of server virtualization and Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V. Readers who do not have this prerequisite knowledge should refer to Virtualization with Hyper-V, located at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/en/us/hyperv.aspx.

WHITEPAPER:
http://download.microsoft.com/download/8/B/6/8B6BB81E-BAD4-45D1-8E1E-FEFFB6084A7D/0616HyperVHostInfrastructureTCS.doc

VIDEO/POWERPOINT:
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032399927&Culture=en-US

TECHNET:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc974012.aspx

Upgrading Your Windows Media Player Online Experiences

For the past decade Windows Media technologies have been used for delivery of video and audio content over the Internet and within enterprise networks. The Windows Media-based ecosystem core advantages – low cost and scalable streaming servers, industry approved DRM protection, and high quality audio and video delivery – have ensured its continued popularity in the ever competing marketplace.

As the Internet has continued to evolve, we have seen higher demands placed on not just the core delivery of media content, but also on the quality of the user experience. This has in turn led to an evolution of web media players into Rich Interactive Applications (RIA). Microsoft Silverlight, a technology based on the eXtensible Application Markup Language (XAML) and .NET, provides a powerful development platform for building these modern, rich, interactive media experiences on the Web.

One of Silverlight’s core features is its support for the Windows Media ecosystem. Silverlight envelops the core technologies that make up Windows Media: the Advanced Systems Format (ASF) file specification, Windows Media Video (WMV) and Windows Media Audio (WMA) codecs, Windows Media Services (WMS) streaming, and Windows Media Digital Rights Management (WM DRM). In addition, Silverlight also embraces Windows Media-related technologies such as the SMPTE VC-1 video codec (based on WMV9) and PlayReady Digital Rights Management (DRM), an evolution of Windows Media DRM (WMDRM) 10.

With a strong emphasis on backwards compatibility, Silverlight is the logical choice for content providers, web application developers, designers and service providers with existing Windows Media infrastructures who wish to create rich, interactive media experiences on the Web. New capabilities such as support for cross-platform experiences, adaptive streaming for the highest quality delivery with the lowest cost of ownership, and protected advertising-based scenarios provide additional incentive to upgrade to Silverlight.

DOWNLOAD:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=98bde5f5-d331-4337-9ce3-4c46867bc1b0

The Security Compliance Management Toolkit series builds on previous Solution Accelerators to provide you with expanded best practices and additional automation tools to help configure and deploy security settings for the following operating systems and applications: Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 (SP2), Windows Vista SP1, Windows XP Professional SP3, and 2007 Microsoft Office SP1.

After deploying the security settings, you can verify the accuracy of the setting policies and monitor policy changes by applying one or more of 26 Configuration Packs using the desired configuration management (DCM) feature of Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SP1. This series includes the following toolkits:

• Windows Server 2008 Security Compliance Management Toolkit
• Windows Server 2003 Security Compliance Management Toolkit
• Windows Vista Security Compliance Management Toolkit
• Windows XP Security Compliance Management Toolkit
• 2007 Microsoft Office Security Compliance Management Toolkit

Note: The GPOAccelerator tool is included with each toolkit download package.

Toolkit Components
Each of the Security Compliance Management Toolkits includes the following components:

• Security guide. Each toolkit includes an updated version of a previously released security guides for either Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003, or 2007 Microsoft Office. The guidance provides you with best practices and automated tools to help you plan and deploy your security baselines.
• Attack Surface Reference workbook. A resource that lists the changes introduced as server roles are installed on computers running Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008, for the toolkits specific to these operating systems.
• Security Baseline Settings workbook. A resource that lists all of the prescribed settings for each of the preconfigured security baselines that the security guides recommend.
• Security Baseline XML. XML files that allow your organization to consume the data defined in the security baseline settings workbooks.
• GPOAccelerator tool. A tool that you can use to create all the Group Policy objects (GPOs) you need to deploy your chosen security configuration. This release also supports Windows Server 2003, and creating security configurations on machines not joined to a domain.
• INF Files. INF files for Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008.
• Baseline Compliance Management Overview. The overview discusses best practices on how to monitor security baselines for Windows operating systems and Office applications.
• DCM Configuration Pack User Guide. A step-by-step prescriptive user guide about how to use the Configurations Packs with the DCM feature in Configuration Manager 2007 SP1.
• DCM Configuration Packs. The toolkit series includes 26 Configuration Packs.

DOWNLOAD:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=5534bee1-3cad-4bf0-b92b-a8e545573a3e

The Microsoft SharePoint Administration Toolkit contains functionality to help manage Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Windows SharePoint Services version 3.0.

This toolkit contains the ability to diagnose performance issues, perform bulk operations on site collections, an Stsadm operation to update alert e-mails after the URL for a Web application has been changed, and a User Profile Replication Engine tool.

New Features:

• The SharePoint Diagnostics tool provides administrators with a unified interface for troubleshooting SharePoint Server performance issues. Use the tool to collect data from performance counters, ULS log files, IIS log files, event logs, and WMI (Windows Management Instrumentation), and then display and analyze the data in snapshots and custom reports.
• The setup program is updated to work gracefully with User Access Control. You no longer need to manually run as administrator.

See the following documentation on TechNet regarding use of the toolkit:

• SharePoint Administration Toolkit: SPDiag Tool (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=141204)
• Information for farm administrators about Batch Site Manager, User Profile Replication Engine, and the updatealert operation for the Stsadm command-line tool can be found in SharePoint Administration Toolkit (Office SharePoint Server) and SharePoint Administration Toolkit (Windows SharePoint Services).

DOWNLOAD:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=412a9ef1-3358-4420-b820-0ca3f4641651

Microsoft Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT) enables IT administrators to remotely manage roles and features in Windows Server 2008 from a computer that is running Windows Vista with Service Pack 1 (SP1). It includes support for remote management of computers that are running either a Server Core installation option or a full installation option of Windows Server 2008. It provides similar functionality to the Windows Server 2003 Administration Tools Pack.

System Requirements:

• RSAT can be installed on 32-bit and 64-bit editions of the following configurations:
  • Windows Vista Ultimate with SP1
  • Windows Vista Enterprise with SP1
  • Windows Vista Business with SP1
• RSAT can be used to manage 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows Server 2008.
• RSAT should not be installed on a computer that is running the Windows Server 2003 Administration Tools Pack or the Windows 2000 Server Administration Tools Pack. Please remove all Administration Tools Pack versions from the computer before you install RSAT.
• Only one copy of RSAT can be installed on a computer at one time. Before you install a new package, remove any existing versions of RSAT. This includes any copies that are in different languages.

Windows Server 2008 Administration Tools

• Active Directory Certificate Services Tools
• Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) Tools
• Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services (AD LDS) Tools
• DHCP Server Tools
• DNS Server Tools
• File Services Tools
• Network Policy and Access Services Tools
• Terminal Services Tools
• Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration (UDDI) Services Tools

DOWNLOAD:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=9ff6e897-23ce-4a36-b7fc-d52065de9960

INSTRUCTIONS:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/941314