Kurt Shintaku's Blog

Discover the best Optimized Desktop Delivery Solutions!
Attend a half-day seminar hosted by Microsoft, Citrix and HP.

In today’s economy, IT budgets are leaner, and adopting a green VDI solution is a great way to choose the client computing scenarios that best meet the unique needs of your business, while making a positive impact on the environment. That’s why Citrix^® and Microsoft^® have joined forces to offer one of the best Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) solutions for companies looking to take desktop management to the next level.

Are you interested in significantly increasing security, simplifying management, lowering cost of ownership – and reaping the green benefits of lower power and cooling, flexible work scenarios, and extended desktop life cycles?

Join us to hear more about the joint solution that virtualizes Windows^® desktops and applications in the datacenter and delivers them as a service, while consolidating servers and reducing energy requirements. This solution runs Citrix XenDesktop™ with Windows Server^® 2008
Hyper-V™, Microsoft Application Virtualization 4.5, and Microsoft Systems Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) on HP’s Thin Clients, Blade PCs and Servers.

Can you afford not to attend?

• Increase data security and address regulatory compliance requirements
• Energy-saving & flexible desktop configurations
• Best possible desktop & application performance in a VDI scenario
• Easily manage physical & virtual environments through world-class infrastructure management solutions
• Dynamic provisioning delivers desktops & applications on demand

Register Now!   Seating is limited.

Agenda

• 08:30 a.m – 09:00 a.m    Registration
• 09:00 a.m – 09:40 a.m    Virtualization 360 – From the Desktop to the Datacenter (Microsoft)
• 09:40 a.m – 10:20 a.m    Introduction to Microsoft Optimized Desktop and Virtualized Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) (Microsoft)
• 10:20 a.m – 10:35 a.m    Break
• 10:35 a.m – 11:30 a.m    Citrix Dynamic Desktop Delivery, Much More than VDI (XenDesktop) (Citrix)
• 11:30 a.m – 12:10 p.m    Complete the Client Virtualization Solution with HP’s Innovative Hardware & Services (Thin Clients Blade PCs & Servers, and Services)(HP)
• 12:10 p.m – 12:30 p.m    Q&A, Evaluations & Drawing

Attendees Receive

• Entry to win a Powermonkey eXplorer solar-powered mobile charger
• Cool organic cotton Lean & Green t-shirt & tote bag
• 90-day XenDesktop evaluation license

Dates:

• Los Angeles – Wednesday, March 18^th
• Phoenix – Tuesday, March 24^th

Registration:
Please contact me for registration information if you are a customer of mine.

In Windows Server 2008 R2 (“R2”) we are introducing PowerShell as the new scripting language for clustering technologies. 

PowerShell with Network Load Balancing (NLB) will replace NLB.exe and WLBS.exe.  The Windows Server 2008 R2 release is the last release for NLB.exe and WLBS.exe.  This means it will still be available for use so it doesn’t break legacy scripts, but no improvements have been made so NLB.exe and WLBS.exe will be completely removed in the next release of Windows Server.  Do not worry – you will love PowerShell with its numerous benefits over standard command line interfaces, including easily customizable scripts and the dynamic use of variables. 

In Windows Server 2008 R2, PowerShell can also be run on Server Core machines.  Using PowerShell on a Core NLB cluster, you can directly create and manage your NLB cluster, without needing to manage the Core node through a UI-based remote machine.

How do I get R2 Beta?
The Windows Server 2008 R2 Beta build will be available shortly for deployment and testing.  There are numerous ways to get the Windows Server 2008 R2 Beta build which includes Network Load Balancing.  If you work for an organization which partners with Microsoft, try contacting your Technology Account Manager (TAM) to see if they can provide you with access.  If your organization is enrolled in the Technology Adoption Program (TAP) you may also have access through this channel.  Others may enroll in the Microsoft Connect program (http://connect.microsoft.com/) to receive access to major builds.

——
For more information:
http://blogs.msdn.com/clustering/archive/2008/12/26/9253786.aspx

Yeah.  You read that right.   Nine of out 10 critical bugs reported by Microsoft last year could have been made moot, or at least made less dangerous, if people ran Windows without administrative rights.

And yet, people insist that “we can’t lock down your desktops because your end users would never stand for it.”

<taken from the article below>

The vast majority of critical Microsoft vulnerabilities — 92% of them — could have been mitigated by stripping users of administrative rights, said John Moyer, the CEO of BeyondTrust. "This speaks to what enterprises should be doing," Moyer said. "Clearly, eliminating administrative rights can close the window of opportunity of attack."

Of the 154 bugs published and patched by Microsoft in 2008, critical or not, 69% would have been blocked or their impact reduced by configuring users to run without administrative rights, said the company.

When BeyondTrust looked at the vulnerabilities patched for Microsoft’s browser, Internet Explorer (IE), and its application suite, Office, it found that 89% of the former and 94% of the latter could have been stymied by denying users administrative privileges.

"We were surprised to see how large the number was," said Scott McCarley, the company’s director of marketing. "It really drives home how critical a role [rights] play."

Need help with certain applications that “have to have admin rights to execute”?  Look to BeyondTrust’s Privilege Manager which allows locking down the workstation while still providing the appropriate privileges to select applications. 

Begin planning to eliminate end user Administrative rights:  It’s not an impossibility, folks.

ARTICLE:  http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/
article/275445/removing_admin_rights_stymies_92_microsoft_bugs?fp=2&fpid=1

A long time ago, I wrote about the effects of email on the human intellect.  For those that never saw that post, in 2005, a study was commissioned by Hewlett Packard in Cambridge that concluded that email usage on a daily basis over a year’s span can retard one’s intellect as badly as frequent marijuana usage. 

The effect is staggering:  The average worker that attempts to handle incoming email, phone calls, text messages, and instant messages has his or her IQ drop by 10 points, greater than the 4 points that someone loses by smoking cannibis. (http://kurtsh.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!DA410C7F7E038D!753.entry)

Well, not much has changed since then.  People are still constantly checking mail and worse yet, the emergence of desktop instant messaging, SMS text messaging, and mobile phones with the power of computers has scattered people’s attention even worse than before.

MORE EVIDENCE OF THE KEYS TO PEAK PRODUCTIVITY
An interesting paper was written for the IEEE publication that goes deeper into this topic.  Productivity is under attack by the constant stream of interruptions that people have in today’s world.  While this paper is written with a focus on the computer programmer it’s recommendations can ultimately can be applied to any profession.

Several suggestions are made on how to reduce the number of interruptions that one has:

• Disseminate information. Generate your own FAQ document, and get others to use it. I created an HTML page titled "README_if_SBJ_is_ Away" and placed it on an internal Web server. Given my use of the other techniques I’ve described, people tend to go to that page even when I’m not away.
• Educate your coworkers. Be sure to let people know not only how harmful interruptions are, but also which times are the best and worst for you to be disturbed.
• Communicate using e-mail. Rather than using the telephone or talking face to face, encourage people to contact you via e-mail. This lets you choose the best time to read and respond. E-mail also tends to be more succinct and less prone to vague, rambling interactions. Further, the extra work required to write an e-mail will filter out many interruptions; people will opt to read the manual or search the Web instead.
• Isolate yourself physically. If your office has a door, close it. If you’re not allowed to close it, use a signal of some kind—a sign or a hat over the doorknob—to let people know that they’re not welcome. Door-deprived cubicle occupants still have options such as moving partitions around or changing their orientation relative to the cube opening, especially if doing so reduces the number of passers-by that decide to drop in.
• Isolate yourself electronically. Get Caller ID and voice mail and use them. Resist the urge to pick up the telephone merely because it’s ringing. Disable e-mail notifiers. Wear headphones—even if you don’t listen to music. Force people to work hard to interrupt you.
• Deviate from normal work hours. Modifying your hours will let you do the things most sensitive to interruptions when others are not around. I suspect this is one reason so many programmers prefer to work odd hours. While the stereotype is to come in late—at the crack of noon—and leave very late, I personally prefer to arrive at the office early: typically 6:00 a.m.
• Remonstrate against interruptions. Practice forming a nasty scowl and use it whenever anyone comes into your workspace. Cultivate a reputation as a curmudgeon. If being nasty isn’t in keeping with your character, try a pained, exasperated look accompanied by a heavy sigh. Or, try rolling your eyes toward the heavens while muttering to emphasize your exasperation. If you’re interrupted to deal with something that is in your FAQ, be sure to let the person know, in some unsubtle manner, that you have been bothered needlessly.

This list is taken from an abridged version of the original paper.  The abridged version is available here:
http://www.computer.org/portal/site/computer/menuitem.5d61c1d591162e4b0ef1bd108bcd45f3/index.jsp?&pName=computer_level1_article&TheCat=1015&path=computer/homepage/1106&file=profession.xml&xsl=article.xsl&

If you are interested in the complete article:

• DOWNLOAD:  “Concerning Interruptions”, IEEE 2006 Unabridged Article
  http://www.erudil.com/pdf/ieee2006-unabridged.pdf 

The new Beta of the Microsoft Malware Protection Center has been put up for people to visit and research.

It’s a web site focusing on malware that includes:

1. Published analyses of Active Threats (Trojabs, Worms, Viruses, Backdoors, etc.)
2. Access to the Microsoft Security Intelligence Report which gives perspective on software vulnerabilities and threats during the first & second half of the year
3. Downloads of the latest virus definitions and updates from Microsoft’s malware prevention products such as:
   1. Windows Defender (Anti-spyware)
   2. Windows Live OneCare
   3. Forefront Client Security
   4. Forefornt Server Security
   5. Microsoft DaRT
4. Online sample submissions of potential threats along with the ability to track a given submission through the eval process

LINK:
http://www.microsoft.com/security/portal/beta/

BLOG:
http://blogs.technet.com/mmpc/

It has been officially announced that support for the VB6 runtime will be extended through the lifecycle of Windows 7. 

For more information you can check out the “Support Statement for Visual Basic 6.0 on Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008 and Windows 7” on MSDN at

• http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vbrun/ms788708.aspx.   

(NOTE:  This does not in any way change the fact that extended support for the VB6 development environment has been retired (http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/?p1=2971) and that support is now only available through a custom support agreement.)

A cumulative update for Outlook 2007 which covers performance and calendar improvements has been released. The Outlook February Cumulative Update contains a large set of the fixes that release as part of the 2007 Microsoft Office suite Service Pack 2 (SP2), a full description of the Outlook 2007 improvements in the cumulative updates is here:
LINK:  http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=968009

• DOWNLOAD:   Outlook 2007 hotfix package (Outlook.msp): February 24, 2009
  http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=961752.

After reviewing the article click the link at the top of the page, you will need to enter your email address, you will then receive an email with the download link and the password for extracting the update.

Please Note:  After you successfully install the update, the first time you run Outlook there will be a slight one-time delay as Outlook reprocesses your data files. After this initial process, performance will improve as described in this article.

More Information: There is an Outlook Team Blog and the link to the article for this fix is:
http://blogs.msdn.com/outlook/archive/2009/02/25/announcing-the-february-cumulative-update-for-outlook-2007.aspx

Learn how MOSS 2007 with PerformancePoint Services supports a collaborative dashboarding environment while working in teams to utilize the Dashboard Designer to build out a scalable-interactive “Dashboard in a Day”.

By attending this FREE Hands-On Lab, you will:

• Use what you own:  Learn how your investment in Microsoft SharePoint now also gives you PerformancePoint Services for free.
• Learn how to build end-to-end dashboard and scorecards that are centrally defined and deployed for the organization to consume corporate data.
• Become familiar with how PerformancePoint Services can bring together the power of the Microsoft Business Intelligence stack to your corporate portal
• Leverage your experience and collaborate with your peers to build out an interactive corporate dashboard

Who Should Attend:
This is an hands-on lab provides both hands on learning lab and a team collaboration environment for business analysts, report authors, financial analysts, and financial controllers who are:

• possess a basic understanding of dashboarding and scorecarding
• are interested in creating scalable portals in a team environment
• are considering or planning to deploy KPI’s for scorecarding with contextual analytical reports for an interactive dashboard experience

Prerequisites:
To get the most from this course, you will need an understanding of reporting, dashboarding and scorecarding.

Date/Time:
Monday, March 16, 2009 9:00 AM – Monday, March 16, 2009 3:30 PM Pacific Time (US & Canada)
Welcome Time: 8:30 AM

Location:
Microsoft Office – Irvine
3 Park Plaza
Suite 1600 Irvine California 92614
United States

Registration: 
If you are interested in attending and are a customer of mine, please contact me for registration information – there is a password that is required.  Only registered individuals will be allowed into the lab:  NO WALK INS WILL BE ALLOWED.