Kurt Shintaku's Blog

I have this spreadsheet that I created that thought I’d share.  Basically, it’s a simple table of all of Microsoft’s earnings across every business division we have  from year to year.  I’ve entered all of the revenue & income numbers (a.k.a. the “money coming in” vs. overall profit of each division) and graphed it out in Excel 2007. 

(Note:  You’ll need to have Office Excel 2007 installed, have the Excel 2007 Viewer installed, or if you already have Office 2003/XP/2000 installed, you’ll need to download and install the Office 2007 Compatibility Pack to allow you to read and write the  OpenXML file format for Excel 2007 (.XLSX) – which is much better than the older .XLS format for compression, reliability, and programmability.)

DEFINING THE DIVISIONS
For the uninitiated, there are 5 divisions within Microsoft and our financials are reported along these organizations:

• Client (Windows desktop & Embedded revenue)
• Server & Tools (Server products that aren’t aligned with Information Worker initiatives along with Developer Tools)
• Business (Information Worker technologies like Office, Office Servers along with Business Solutions like CRM & the Dynamics family of products)
• Online Services (Windows Live, Office Live, MSN Services, Advertising Services, etc.)
• Entertainment & Devices (Xbox, Xbox Live, Zune, & Windows Mobile)

ALSO QUARTER-TO-QUARTER NUMBERS
For the truly anal, I’ve also got all the numbers from quarter to quarter, and broken out each quarter’s earnings year over year so you can compare, for example, what the “Holiday season” was like for Microsoft’s Entertainment & Devices division (a.k.a. the Xbox guys) year over year.

Now before the more short-sighted folks scream that the sky is falling, be aware that revenue & income are not always linear:  Certain things happen – whether you hear about them or not in the press – that create irregularities in earnings & profitability in certain quarters. 

For example:

• In Q4 2007, there was a sudden & massive drop in income (profitability) in the Entertainment & Devices division.  For the informed, this was because of the $1B charge that was taken in that quarter to fund the extended 3 year warranty applied to Xbox 360’s that were having “red ring of light” failures and it was deemed necessary to take the hit for the sake of our customers.
• In Q2 2007, there was a strange drop in revenue/income in the Client division relative to Q2 earning in previous years and a sudden irregular surge in revenue/income in the same division in Q3 of the same year.  This was because we deferred revenue from Windows OEM licensed PCs from that Q2 into Q3 causing a delay in when that revenue was realized in the ol’ accounting books.
• Prior to Q2 2004, Microsoft didn’t report per division income so although I have revenue numbers for Q1 2004, I don’t have income numbers. (That’s why data points for that quarter are missing)  This incidentally is also the reason I started this chart at 2004.  Operating income (i.e. revenue less operating costs, or “profit”) is a pretty important dimension, don’t you think?

THE PRE-2007 FUDGE FACTOR
Incidentally, I had to munge some numbers in the first few years.  What I mean by that is that before 2007, in case you weren’t constantly looking at our financials back then, Microsoft used to report its revenue & income across 7 divisions instead of 5:

• Client
• Information Worker
• Server & Tools
• Business Solutions
• MSN
• Mobile & Embedded Devices
• Home & Entertainment

It’s not an exact correlation as I understand it but what I did was I merged the Office & Business Solutions numbers to create synthetic “Business Division” numbers and I merged the Home & Entertainment & Mobile devices numbers to create synthetic “Entertainment & Devices” numbers.  The end result still totals the complete revenue across all divisions but if my “inaccuracy” bothers you, simply ignore the pre-2007 numbers.

Anyway, here’s my spreadsheet.  Hope you find it interesting.

http://cid-00da410c7f7e038d.skydrive.live.com/embedrowdetail.aspx/Miscellaneous/MicrosoftRevenue-WEB.zip

The statistical results from the Mojave Experiment, a blind study of individuals who evaluated Windows Vista without knowing what it was they were using. (Taken from http://www.mojaveexperiment.com/facts/)

Microsoft Technology Center Presents…

Best of MMS 2008
Microsoft Irvine

Join the Microsoft Technology Center (MTC) for an exclusive engagement covering the Best of Microsoft Management Summit 2008. For IT Professionals unable to join MMS 2008 in Las Vegas, we are excited to announce that we are holding a special session: “Best of MMS 2008” in Irvine. This session will review the exciting announcements from MMS, along with how Microsoft solutions will enable you to proactively manage your IT environment.

Chris Tillier, Microsoft Senior Technology Specialist, will be conducting this session using Microsoft’s Envisioning Center and Hands-on labs. This workshop will provide the best way to learn how to apply Microsoft’s Management solutions in your organization, fueling productivity and building growth. Attendees will be shown demonstrations using the envisioning center and be given the opportunity to try the new products in our instructor-led hands-on lab.  

Full Day Agenda (½ day Envisioning Center and ½ day Hands-on Workshop):

Managing and Securing the Dynamic Infrastructure (morning)

Overview of MMS 2008

• Review of Microsoft’s latest System Center announcements

Envisioning Center Demonstration: Infrastructure Optimization

• Streamlining Operations.  “Day in the Life” demonstration of how automation, security, standardization, and management save the day (and time and money!).  Higher efficiency through “Better Together”

Meeting & Exceeding your service level targets

• Service Level Monitoring
• Proactive alerting
• Dynamic Allocation of resources

Lunch: Room: Technical Briefing Center (TBC)

Hands-on Workshops: (afternoon)

Room: Technical Briefing Center (TBC)

• System Center Operations Manager 2007 SP1
• System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SP1
• System Center Data Protection Manager 2007
• System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2007
• Desktop Optimization Pack

Room:
MTC Envisioning Center

Date:
August 20, 2008 – Repeated on August 21, 2008

Time:
9:00 AM – 4:30 PM
Registration begins at 8:30 AM
(Breakfast, lunch and parking included)

Location:
Microsoft Irvine
3 Park Plaza, Suite 1600
Irvine, CA 92614

Registration:
If you are a customer of mine and are interested in attending, please contact me directly for information on how to register.  Seating is limited to 25 guests, so please sign up for this informative session as soon as possible. 

Introduction to Microsoft
System Center Configuration Manager 2007
Hands-On Workshop

Irvine – October 1, 2008

You are invited to attend a 1-day seminar designed to deliver practical, hands-on information about Microsoft’s System Center Configuration Manager 2007. Attendees will learn how to manage the ongoing operations using System Center Configuration Manager. This workshop will be led by a Microsoft Senior Technology Specialist, covering the following topics:

• Introduction to System Center Configuration Manager 2007
• Managing more than Microsoft in your environment
• Lifecycle management (Asset Management)
• Microsoft System Center: Vision and Roadmap
• Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP) Overview
• Hands-on Labs

We will also share best practices, methodologies and tools that will assist in the planning and implementation of a Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager solution.

Audience:
This course is intended for System Center Administrators who are responsible for configuring and managing one or more sites and all supporting systems. This technical hands-on workshop is limited to 30 attendees.

Date/Time:
Wednesday October 1, 2008
9:00 AM – 4:30 PM
Registration begins at 8:30 AM
(Breakfast, lunch and parking included)

Location:
Microsoft Irvine
3 Park Plaza, Suite 1600
Irvine, CA 92614

Registration:
If you are a customer of mine and are interested in attending, please contact me directly for information on how to register.  There are only 30 seats available and at least check 12 were taken already.

Introduction to Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007
Hands-On Workshop
Irvine – September 30, 2008

You are invited to attend a 1-day technical introduction designed to deliver practical, hands-on information about managing your infrastructure with Microsoft’s System Center Operations Manager 2007. This workshop will be led by a Microsoft Management Technical Specialist covering the following topics:

• Introduction to System Center Operations Manager 2007
• Common Monitoring Scenarios
• Monitoring more than Microsoft
• Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP) Overview
• Hands on Labs

With this new release, Operations Manager will:

• Proactively manage business critical IT services, including distributed applications, the supporting infrastructure and hardware, and end-user service delivery.
• Reduce the complexities of managing your IT environment by providing a monitoring solution that is designed with ease of use in mind.
• Provide a highly reliable infrastructure by leveraging Windows Server and SQL 2005 clustering for high availability and through agents that automatically failover to a secondary management server if connectivity to the primary server is lost.
• Include management packs with prescriptive knowledge developed by the application and OS development teams at Microsoft and verified in production deployments to improve monitoring, troubleshooting, and problem resolution for more than 50 Microsoft applications and Windows Server components.

Audience:
This hands-on lab is for IT Professionals in job roles like infrastructure specialists, network administrators, directory administrators, management specialists, storage and data administrators and client support. This technical hands-on workshop is limited to 30 attendees.

Date/Time:
Tuesday September 30, 2008
9:00 AM – 4:30 PM
Registration begins at 8:30 AM
(Breakfast, lunch and parking included)

Location:
Microsoft Irvine
3 Park Plaza, Suite 1600
Irvine, CA 92614

Registration:
If you are a customer of mine and are interested in attending, please contact me directly for information on how to register.  There are only 30 seats available and at least check 15 were taken already.

We just released the following training course and exam for the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP):

(Note:  MDOP contains Application Virtualization (a.k.a. Softgrid), Diagnostics & Recovery Toolset, Advanced Group Policy Management, Asset Inventory Services, Desktop Error Monitoring, and soon, Enterprise Desktop Virtualization, a.k.a. the Kidaro stuff)

• Course 7197: Deploying and Managing the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack is now available.
  Read a description of the MDOP Course 7197 syllabus. Find this training in a city near you
• Exam 70-656: Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack, Configuring is now available.
  Read the preparation guide for MDOP Exam 70-656.

Both the course and exam target IT pros who focus on managing desktops. MDOP Course 7197 is eligible for SA training voucher redemption, so customers can apply their SA Benefits to reduce training costs. As an added incentive, the first 200 IT pros who pass the 70-656 certification exam become MDOP Charter Members and will receive an exclusive MDOP Charter Member jacket and award!

Learn more about the benefits of MDOP Charter membership.

This is a compilation of free training opportunities for Windows Server 2008. They consist of “Learning Snacks”, “How Do I?” video demonstrations, Virtual Labs, and Webcasts.

Windows Server 2008 Learning Snacks
Want to learn more about Windows Server 2008, but are short on time? Learning Snacks are short, interactive presentations about popular Windows Server 2008 topics and have been created by Microsoft Learning experts.

• Introducing Branch Office Server in Windows Server 2008
  This free Snack describes the benefits that Windows Server 2008 provides for installing and maintaining a branch office network. It demonstrates the installation of a branch office network by using the new server core option. It also lists the benefits of Active Directory read-only domain controllers (RODCs) and BitLocker Drive Encryption.
  http://www.microsoft.com/learning/_silverlight/learningsnacks/ws08/snack01/Default.html
• Implementing Active Directory Domain Services in Windows Server 2008
  This free Snack describes the new options available in Windows Server 2008 for installing and configuring Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) and auditing changes to it. It lists the features of read-only domain controllers (RODCs) and describes how to perform a nonauthoritative or an authoritative restore of AD DS data.
  http://www.microsoft.com/learning/_silverlight/learningsnacks/ws08/snack03/Default.html

How Do I Demo Videos

• 10 Cool Things to do with the Powershell
  This demo shows some of the neat things you can do with PowerShell with regards to server administration. There are 10 demos you can run through ranging from simple queries for services to enumerating information in Active Directory. Some of the scripts use lists of computers, some prompt for a computername. Each script shows a different thing you can do with PowerShell to quickly create administration scripts.
  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsserver/2008/cc441384.aspx
• Server Core Remote Management
  This demonstration highlights the benefits of Server Core, with its low overhead, and highlights how it is easy to manage Server Core with the new management tools and technologies included in Windows Server 2008.
  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsserver/2008/cc441379.aspx
• Securing Branch Office User Accounts
  In this demo you will see several ways that user accounts in a branch office can be secured. Branch offices traditional are a place of high risk for domain controllers. Placing domain controllers in branch offices good for functionality and productivity, but bad for security. This demo shows how you can place a domain controller in a branch office, and take measures to make those branch office accounts more secure. The demo uses a combination of BitLocker, RODC, Fine Grained Password Polices using a tool from Special Operations Software, and Admin Role Seperation to achieve this goal.
  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsserver/2008/cc441413.aspx

Virtual Labs

• TechNet Virtual Lab: Managing Active Directory – Directory Services 
  After completing this lab, you will be better able to use the new features in Active Directory. This lab has a laundry list of new features in Active Directory.  It is intended to demonstrate some of the ways that Active Directory management and operations have been improved in Windows Server 2008.  It addresses all scenario’s that Active Directory is used in, including management, security, and remote infrastructure.
  http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032380229&EventCategory=3&culture=en-US&CountryCode=US
• TechNet Virtual Lab: 10 Cool Powershell Scripts 
  After completing this lab, you will be better able to quickly create administration scripts with Windows Server 2008.
  http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032380227&EventCategory=3&culture=en-US&CountryCode=US

Webcasts

• Deep Dive into Windows Server 2008 File Services (Level 300)
  is webcast will provide an overview of the changes in Distributed File System (DFS), Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS), and storage management in Windows Server 2008. It also takes a close look at some of the most significant and valuable improvements to Windows Server 2008, including Transactional NTFS, Self-Healing NTFS, and the Server Message Block (SMB) 2.0 protocol.
  Upcoming IT Manager Webcast: Deep Dive into Windows Server 2008 File Services (Level 300)

<stolen mostly from the Application Virtualization (product-formerly-known-as-Softgrid) blog>

To simplify Application Virtualization Server management, the App-V team is excited to make available a RC version of our App-V 4.5 System Center Operations Manager 2007 Management Pack (OpsMgr 2007 MP). It has just been posted over on the Microsoft Connect site (http://connect.microsoft.com). This OpsMgr 2007 MP only supports version 4.5 servers; it does not support previous SoftGrid server versions or MOM 2005.

The Management Pack is designed to maximize Application Virtualization Server availability for handling Application Virtualization Client requests. The Application Virtualization Server health status is color-coded:

• No color indicates that the server is running without non-recoverable errors.
• Yellow indicates that one of the components is not functioning correctly. The overall functionality of the server is degraded but the server is still available.
• Red indicates that the server is not available and it cannot provide key services or it cannot communicate with external service dependencies.

Health Status change is triggered when an Application Virtualization Server logs a tracked error or warning to the local System Event Log under the Application Virtualization heading. Over 60 unique errors are tracked and these errors are mapped to information about how to fix or further troubleshoot the issue.

The Management Pack monitors the following aspects of server health:

1. Server Status—monitors server events to validate that the server is providing its expected services.
2. Data Store Access—tracks the ability of the Application Virtualization Management Server(s) to access and communicate with the Application Virtualization Data Store.
3. Content Data Access—monitors access to the Content directory, which might be a local directory or a network share, and the ability to read the requested files.
4. Security—reports errors with the Application Virtualization Server’s certificate and secure communications.
5. Client Request Handling—monitors the ability of the Application Virtualization Server(s) to handle and correctly respond to client requests. These requests include publishing configuration requests, package load requests, out of sequence requests, etc.
6. Server Configuration—checks the configuration settings of the Application Virtualization Server. These configuration settings include the settings in the Registry and in the Application Virtualization Data Store.

The following items indicate the main differences between the Application Virtualization Management Server and the Application Virtualization Streaming server areas of the Management Packs:

• Application Virtualization Management Servers can provide publishing, streaming, management, and reporting services. Therefore, the Management Pack can manage more aspects of the Management Server compared to the Streaming Server, which only provides package streaming.
• The Streaming Server does not have a Data Store, therefore, data store access is not monitored. The configuration information for the Streaming Server is managed in the registry.
• The Streaming Server does not use the Server Management Console interface; use other tools to manage the configuration.

The OpsMgr 2007 MP will be translated into all the languages supported by the Application Virtualization Server.

We hope this OpsMgr 2007 MP will make it easier to manage App-V 4.5!

This is pretty cool.  It’s the developer map of the Open XML ISO standard file format so that people can understand how to extend it or leverage it for their own business applications.

Customers can compose their own Office documents using the Open XML standard.  Because it’s well documented, basically any piece of software could leverage it and build applications based on content within a document.

DOWNLOAD:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=134bcb91-dd7b-4209-ac94-2699b9366874&DisplayLang=en

“How to improve performance quickly & easily in Windows Vista”

If you’re one of the people that still hasn’t been able to figure out how to tune an installation of Windows Vista for performance (and you call yourself an IT Professional?  <grin>) we’ve made it pretty straight forward for you with this basic guide on “Performance & Tuning” for Windows Vista.

Windows Vista and SP1 focus on delivering greater performance and overall system responsiveness. By striking a balance between speed and responsiveness, Windows Vista and SP1 deliver a level of performance that has the greatest positive impact on the system’s usability.This guide looks at the following areas of performance improvement:

• Making configuration changes that help a computer feel more responsive when you use it.
• Using hardware to boost the actual physical speed of a computer.
• Making configuration changes that help a computer to start faster.
• Making the computer more reliable may help increase performance.
• Monitoring performance occasionally so that you can stop problems before they get too big.

DOWNLOAD: 
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=ab377598-a637-432c-a3c8-1607ab629201&DisplayLang=en

The fact is, single core machines with 1GB of memory and 50GB of storage can run Windows Vista Home Basic or Business just fine.  (Home Premium & heaven forbid Ultimate have substantially higher resource needs and may require 2GB RAM)  In fact, there’s a lot that even the guide doesn’t tell you.  Here’s an example of a document that I’m writing myself about little tweaks that you can make:

Do you own a standard, conventional laptop? 
Have you installed Windows Vista Ultimate Edition?
If so, there’s a darned good chance you’ve got the Tablet Input Panel Service running in the background of your PC as a service for basically no reason at all.  Go to Start—>Run and type SERVICE.MSC.  Search for the Tablet PC Input Panel Service and disable it.  You’ll never need it and it’s basically just eating RAM and the occasional CPU cycle to iterate through another service.

WARNING:
This is by no means a blessing to “shutting down all supposedly unnecessary services” which some goombas on the Interwebs believe is the holy grail of performance tuning on Windows Vista.  Newsflash:  It’s HIGHLY unlikely you really know whether or not you need a given service, and it’s very likely that some Windows application, utility within Windows, or one of the other services requires the service you’re planning on shutting down – and it’s likely that you haven’t considered all the permutations of requirements, or even thought of what services are really impacting your system.  Just because it’s listed doesn’t mean it’s tasking your system. 

And the folks on the net that are listing out "what services to turn off in Windows Vista” are missing one very important piece of information:  The software that you run.  Because they don’t know your environment, how can they declare what services are “unnecessary to you”?