Kurt Shintaku's Blog

Since last June, the pre-release version of Windows Server 2008 has been running every server on microsoft.com — handling every web page, every hit, all without a glitch. Every server, except one.

More from the last Windows Server 2003 left at http://www.loneserver.com.

VIDEO:  http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?vid=6efd65d9-cf8b-464a-8f40-247044e122db 

The next generation of the Windows Server ® operating system with built-in web and virtualization technologies, is designed to help you increase the reliability and flexibility of your server infrastructure.

Register for the release candidate here:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/bb687945.aspx

One of the odder things we did at the Microsoft boot was highlight some of the more fashionable designs that our OEM partners have been building for Windows laptops.  Check out some of these ‘elite’ and ‘sleek’ portable beauties.

A SonyStyle Vaio design, this is the VAIO LT Series desktop computer for the home, with a framed monitor with a straight-lined keyboard and oval mouse makes for a very modern set up. 

And it’s not that expensive either.  Something one could have in their living room for under $1999 with a Intel Core2Duo processor, 2GB of RAM and Windows Vista Home Premium.

LINK:  SonyStyle VAIO LT

Now this is an Asus Leathertop Laptop computer design that features a dark brown tanned hide leather color and brushed steel siding.  The on display model was definitely masculine in nature in comparison to some of the more "foofy" Hello Kitty designs that I’d seen.  I’d only wished it had been a convertible tablet PC or I would have snatched it right out of it’s casing right in front of Nadine Kano, the Microsoft Director responsible for the display.

Equally famous for being the creators of both the Lamborghini & Ferrari licensed designs, the Asus designer laptops feature some of the biggest names is design

And then there’s the ever glossy ‘Ego’ clamshell, a flashy little number that’s designed to outglitter, outglam, and outshine anyone else sporting a ‘supposedly’ fashionable personal computer in that Starbucks on the corner of your street.

There’s no question that the Ego collection of laptops are the most fashionable computers on the market.  These folks know how to design great looking laptops.

Heck – maybe they should talk to HP, because my Compaq nc8430 is ugly as all hell.

LINK:  Ego Lifestyle

To be honest, I didn’t really take many pictures in Intel’s booth because… well… it was all ‘Blue’ and none of it was frankly very interesting.  (I’m sorry Intel friends… it just wasn’t.  And the representation there seemed very disinterested in engaging anyone that stopped by.  Case and point:  I LURKED around the new video editing chip technologies that Intel was purportedly hyping up – stuff that’s supposed to improve the efficiency and speed of video editing by up to 50%.  The guy there never even asked me a single question even though I was standing right next to him for a good 7-8 minutes.)

Don’t get me wrong:  There were a lot of people just wandering around the booth because hey… it’s Intel right?  But no one seemed to be concentrated on any one thing for very long.  It kind reminded me of an aquarium where people just sort of stood and looked at thing briefly and then moved on to the next aquatic animal.

Mobile Internet Devices
Fortunately, there was one group that was on their game and definitely held the attention of the CES crowd and that was the Mobile Internet Devices kiosk.  These guys had more Asian tech watchers per square foot than midtown Tokyo during Lunch hour.

They had numerous ultramobile PC formats presented there, most with Windows but a few with some distribution of Linux.  They seemed to run decently although to be honest, I was still more impressed with the OQO which I’d found at Qualcomm’s booth.  I assume that the OQO doesn’t use an Intel chip in it and that’s the reason you didn’t see it there.

Here’s a list of the free security e-learning we have available on the MS Learning site.  Some of this relates to Forefront, while a lot of it is general security guidance for their Microsoft environment as well. There’s some secure development lifecycle training as well.

Clinic 2801: Microsoft® Security Guidance Training I
Summary: This online clinic provides students with introductory knowledge and skills essential for the design and implementation of a secure computing environment. It also provides students with prescriptive guidance on security update management and best practices for implementing security on Microsoft Windows® server and client computers.
Audience: IT Pro
Available Offline: Yes
Price: FREE
Subscription: 1 year

Clinic 2802: Microsoft® Security Guidance Training II
Summary: This online clinic builds on existing knowledge of server and client security and provides students with the knowledge and skills to apply best practices to implement perimeter and network defenses and enhance security for applications and Microsoft® Windows Server System™ components. It also provides students with prescriptive guidance to enhance security for Microsoft Windows® server and client computers and practical strategies for implementing security for wireless networks.
Audience: IT Pro
Available Offline: Yes
Price: FREE
Subscription: 1 year

Clinic 2803: Microsoft® Security Guidance Training III
Summary: This online clinic builds on existing knowledge of server and client security and provides students with the knowledge and skills to apply security best practices for Microsoft® Exchange Server and to use Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server 2004 to improve security at the network perimeter. It also provides students with prescriptive guidance to implement layered defenses against malicious software and measures to increase security for Microsoft Windows NT® 4.0 and Windows® 98 network clients.
Audience: IT Pro
Available Offline: Yes
Price: FREE
Subscription: 1 year

Clinic 2804: Microsoft® Security Guidance Training IV
Summary: This online clinic provides students with prescriptive guidance that builds on their knowledge of security essentials to help them improve security for their infrastructures.
Audience: IT Pro
Available Offline: Yes
Price: FREE
Subscription: 1 year

Clinic 2806: Microsoft® Security Guidance Training for Developers
Summary: This online clinic provides students with knowledge and skills essential for the creation of applications with enhanced security. Students will learn about the need for implementing security at every stage of the development process and best practices for applying security principles. Students will also learn how to use established threat modeling methodologies and tools with other best practices to minimize vulnerabilities and limit damage from attacks. Finally, students will learn how to implement security features to enhance security for Web applications and Web services that are built by using Microsoft ASP.NET.
Audience: Developer
Available Offline: Yes
Price: FREE
Subscription: 1 year

Clinic 2807: Microsoft® Security Guidance Training for Developers II
Summary: This clinic discusses best practices for building security into the design, development, testing, and deployment phases of the software development life cycle. It is targeted towards individual with at least one to two years of programming experience. The course will provide developers with the skills and knowledge to design and develop more secure Microsoft solutions.
Audience: Developer
Available Offline: Yes
Price: FREE
Subscription: 1 year

Clinic 2808: Microsoft® Security Guidance Training V
Summary: This clinic builds on existing knowledge of server and client security and provides students with the knowledge and skills to apply best practices to securing Microsoft® Exchange Server clients, protecting e-mail and data content, securing services and critical accounts, and securing administrative accounts and remote access using smart cards.
Audience: IT Pro
Available Offline: Yes
Price: FREE
Subscription: 1 year

Clinic 2855: Managing Security Enhancements in Windows Server™ 2003 Service Pack 1
Summary: This online clinic will show systems administrators and system engineers how to implement, deploy, support, and configure Windows Server 2003 SP1 security enhancements. It will provide in-depth information on the security changes in SP1 over previous versions.
Audience: IT Pro
Available Offline: Yes
Price: FREE
Subscription: 1 year

Clinic 6078: Deploying Microsoft® Forefront™ Client Security
Summary: This online clinic will provide the knowledge necessary to understand the key features of Microsoft Forefront Client Security, as well as the considerations for deploying Forefront Client Security in a network environment.
Audience: IT Pro
Available Offline: Yes
Price: FREE
Subscription: 1 year

Clinic 6079: Managing and Troubleshooting Operations in Microsoft® Forefront™ Client Security
Summary: This online clinic will provide the knowledge necessary to manage Microsoft Forefront Client Security in a networked environment, as well as how to troubleshoot issues that may occur in a Forefront Client Security deployment.
Audience: IT Pro
Available Offline: Yes
Price: FREE
Subscription: 1 year

Clinic 6080: Deploying Microsoft® Forefront™ Server Security Products
Summary: This online clinic will provide the knowledge necessary to understand the key features of Microsoft Forefront Server Security for Exchange, and Microsoft Forefront Server Security for SharePoint.
Audience: IT Pro
Available Offline: Yes
Price: FREE
Subscription: 1 year

Creative Labs ruled South Hall.  That being said I did find a few things that caught my eye otherwise.

Plantronics Lightweight STEREO Bluetooth Headset
This is pretty sick:  It’s a traditional Bluetooth headset for your cell phone that, if you phone supports the A2DP Bluetooth stereo profile, then you can put the "other" headset in and hear everything in stereo if you have music on your Windows Mobile phone.  Perfect!

I have the "monoaural" version of this headset and it’s not just extremely light, it fits very well and it even has a boom mike I believe that "extends the microphone" away from the headset to give you better voice quality when transmitting your voice.

Most of the stereo headsets I’ve seen that were Bluetooth connected look… well… AWFUL.  It’s like because they’re Bluetooth, they have to look crummy and be way too heavy.  This is one of the few headsets I’ve seen that deviate from this.

Have you ever been concerned that you:

• …couldn’t find your car in parking lot?
• …might lose a loved senior citizen?
• …could lose track of your kid or your dog in a crowded area?

Well, on the way out, I found a gal that was walking around with a chotchkie:  A stuffed dog with a collar around it’s neck that said http://www.zoombak.com.  It turns out that Zoombak is a lightweight GPS locator device that combines both satellite & cellular technology to help people find:

• their car in a parking lot
• their dog in a neighborhood
• a family member like a lost child or a senior citizen

The pricing on the device is $199-$249 and requires a monthly subscription of $9.99-$14.99.
http://www.zoombak.com/products/pet/

Only a geek could appreciate this but the Windows Home Server group produced their own children’s book entitled "Mommy, Why is There a Server in the House?:  Helping Your Child Understand the Stay-at-home Server."

By the way, in case you’re wondering:
What it is "Windows Home Server"?

• BACKUP DISK & FILES
  Provides a automatic full & incremental backup facility for all Windows desktops/laptops in the home
• SINGLE INSTANCE STORAGE
  Maintains only a single copy of a file on a server even if it’s located multiple times on the same workstation drive or across different workstations!
• DYNAMIC DNS
  Windows Home Server comes with FREE dynamic DNS registration to facilitate easy access to the Home Server using a custom tertiary domain name.  (Something like http://shintaku1.homeserver.windowslive.com)
• REMOTE WORKSTATION ACCESS
  Gateways remote access to any workstation at home through Remote Desktop!
• PASSWORD SYNC
  Synchronizes password changes between workstation & server, bidirectionally, enabling people to change their workstation password without affecting the backup server’s permissions and vice versa
• MONITORS SECURITY STATUS
  Alerts manager of a workstation that has a non-Green security status on it by monitoring security center in XP & Vista
• WEB ADMIN ACCESS
  Backups are accessible over the Internet through a web interface; includes drag & drop access to files using an ActiveX control or straight HTML for a less rich but compatible experience

Supports up to 10 clients and costs $199 software only.  Will more than likely be purchased through OEMs.

I’d originally posted this as a South Hall discovery but I think this was actually in the Central Hall after looking at the picture description I wrote up.  Not that it really makes much of a difference but I also think that this deserves it’s own post…

…it’s just that cool.

WiiMote for Windows
It’s not exactly the same but check this out – it’s something akin to a WiiMote for Windows that enable you to control your Windows desktop when connected to a large screen TV or a projector image.

It’s called WavIt and it’s a control device that allows you to point at the screen and control the cursor/mouse pointer.  It is quite stable and works on all 3 axis, meaning when you can point up, down, left and right…

… you can also move the device farther or closer away from the screen to "zoom" in or out of the picture in a program like Internet Explorer…

… of you can "twist" the device left and right on the Z-axis to "turn down or up" the volume control of the speakers.

All in all, it’s a very impressive device and at $99, it’s a real steal.  Admittedly I was so impressed with it that I bought one right on the spot.

Rebate for CES Attendees
There’s even a Wavit CES Rebate – $10 Discount (Expires Jan 19th, 2008)
http://www.thinkoptics.com/CES.html

Here’s more stuff I found that was interesting at CES2008… this was South Hall.

Creative Labs Competitive Gaming Theatre
The winner of my attention in South Hall today was Creative Labs’ booth… hands down.  Why?  Well besides having easily the best eye-candy in the whole hall, they had a theatre with nothing but competitive gaming, featuring the famous Johnathan "Fatal1ty" Wendel and members of the Championship Gaming Series.

ABOVE:  Myself with Johnathan "Fatal1ty" Wendel (hailed by many as the best competitive first-person shooter (FPS) player in the world) and LA Complexity’s "KreeganBG" (One of the foremost players of FIFA07 on XBox 360 ) & San Francisco Optx’s "Clown" (Member for the Optx’s Counterstrike Source team) from the Championship Gaming League.

Admittedly I haven’t seriously played PC games since the days of Age of Empires.  I’ve become a whore for the Xbox 360 and really only play an occasional game on my laptop.  But I love watching these guys play competitively… it’s truly a great competitive sport.  These guys are living the dream I had back when I was a teenager.