Kurt Shintaku's Blog

Again… no joke.

Here’s a little known fact:  Aisha Tyler – the same one that you’ve seen on Fox’s "24", CBS’s "CSI", and "Ghost Whisperer", is a Xbox 360 fiend and she’ll beat you like a dog on Xbox Live. 

She’s not only an avid XBox360 player but she’s also religious about "Gears of War".  She’s completed the whole game on the "Insane" level and the Gears of War sound effects are her actual cellular phone ringtone.

Oh yeah.  And she’s a Windows Vista user.

No joke.  Eva Longoria, the same one from Desperate Housewives fam, is a serious Windows user and now a serious Windows Vista user. 

God bless her.

It sounds like she had her laptop installed with the release bits prior the to the Lounge gig, and did a demo for Access Hollywood on TV… and she’s darned good demo’er too apparently!  (Well, she’s an actor so that makes sense…)

Besides my wife liking the show and Eva being hotter than lava, I now have one more reason to watch Desperate Housewives… looks like Ms. Longoria’s an honorary Microsoftie!

VIDEO:  http://video.accesshollywood.com/player/?id=58238

Wondering what Windows Vista looks like and how it’s different?  Check out http://www.vistatestdrive.com!

As one of my co-workers said:  "<This> is just about the coolest thing ever… but I’m dying to know the back-end specs on how we pulled this off?  I logged in and the VM I was using was configured with 1GB of RAM!"

The answer to his question is that it’s all based on Microsoft Virtual Server R2 in Microsoft’s Datacenter.

This morning Bill Gates was on NBC’s Today Show.  In an interview with Meredith Vieira, Bill answers such questions as:

• Why should the average user care? 
• How do you know when to upgrade?
• Do you need a new computer or new hardware for Windows Vista?
• How much is it?
• How much pressure has Microsoft felt to compete with Apple?
• Why do people use Windows instead of Macs?
• How has Microsoft addressed security issues in Windows Vista?
• Why not wait a while to work the bugs out of it?
• How has Windows Vista provided unique parental controls?
• How will the Internet revolutionize TV?

VIDEO:  Bill Gates on the Today Show
http://video.msn.com/v/us/msnbc.htm?g=b5db07a2-d6e5-4b98-8a3b-3f6652565079&f=05&fg=rss

Y’know how Outlook will automatically "resolve" the names you type into the To: or Cc: field?  Have you ever found that it’s resolved to an old address or an old Exchange directory pointer?

If you want to clear out your cache to eliminate some of these older pointers, simply follow the instructions below:

Use the steps in the following section to reset the Outlook nickname cache for Microsoft Windows XP.

• Quit Outlook.
• Start Microsoft Windows Explorer.
• On the Tools menu, click Folder Options, and then click the View tab.
• Under Advanced Settings, click to select the Show hidden files and folders check box.
• Click OK.
• Click Start, point to Search, and then click All files or folders.
• In the Search Companion box, type *.NK2 in the All or part of the file name box: box.
• In the Look In box, click to select your local hard disk.
• Click Search.
• Right-click the .NK2 file with the name of the profile that you want to reset, and then click Rename.
• Rename the file to profilename.bak, and then press ENTER.
• Quit Windows Explorer.
• Restart Outlook.

Outlook will generate a new nickname cache.

<taken from http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=287623>

Forget Flip3D.  That’s old hat.  Here’s a list of of 100 reasons why Windows Vista will leave you speechless.  http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/100reasons.mspx

Whaddya mean "Forget Flip3d"? 
Where’s the love, dude?

We have information about VPN clients for Windows Vista for the following manufacturers:

• AT&T – IPSec VPN (x86,x64)
• Aventail – SSL VPN (x86,x64)
• Checkpoint – IPSec VPN (x86,x64)
• Cisco – IPSec VPN (x86,x64)
• Citrix – SSL VPN (x86,x64)
• F5 Networks – SSL VPN (x86,x64)
• Juniper Networks – SSL VPN (x86,x64)
• NCP – SSL VPN (x86,x64)
• Nortel – IPSec VPN (x86,x64)
  Nortel – SSL VPN (x86,x64)
• Safenet – IPSec VPN (x86,x64)

If your products not on this list, I don’t have any information on it.  If you’re my customer and you’re interested in more information, contact me directly.

We released Business Desktop Deployment 2007 a.k.a. BDD 3.0.  Business Desktop Deployment (BDD) 2007 is a best practice set of instructions, guidance and tools to deploy workstations running Windows Vista, Microsoft Windows XP, the 2007 Microsoft Office system, or Microsoft Office 2003.

It among other things, allows you to quickly setup a given image of a Windows OS & it’s accompanying deployment of Office for a particular department’s needs from a web-based form and generate a bootable WinPE CDROM that installs the entire operating system and it’s applications with the configuration you specified.

Most importantly, it creates an architecture to enable something we call "Zero Touch Installation" which enables the complete:
– Backup of a workstation’s user data, Internet favorites, configuration settings, and custom attributes
– Imaging of the hard drive using Windows Imaging tools
– Installation of new applications
– Restoration of the end user’s settings, data, etc.
… all while being remote to the workstation.  All operations are done without ever physically touching the workstation.

Cool ‘eh?

INFORMATION:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/desktopdeployment/bdd/2007/default.mspx

DOWNLOAD HERE:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=13F05BE2-FD0E-4620-8CA6-1AAD6FC54741&displaylang=en

Everyone knows that one of the primary reasons Windows Vista is a compelling upgrade for many organizations is it’s focus on security.  Here’s an interesting article by Robert McMillian at Infoworld about how the National Security Agency provided guidance in the creation of Windows Vista to ensure that it was more secure:

NSA helped Microsoft make Vista secure

http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/01/10/HNnsamadevistasecure_1.html

And despite all the hullabaloo about certain security firms complaining that they "didn’t have access to Windows Vista’s kernel" and thus couldn’t do a good job in providing security solutions (Note:  Kaspersky & CA were two companies stating that no such access should be necessary to provide good security for an operating system and that providing open programmatic access to the kernel would actually harm the security of the OS by ultimately enabling "black hat" hackers to follow the same paths as these supposed security "white hat" software developers.) everyone seems to have settled their differences and come together to commit to making Windows Vista the most secure operating system it can be:

Security Firms Commit to Vista

http://www.betanews.com/article/Security_Firms_Commit_to_Vista/1169056057

In fact, Businessweek also wrote up an article about the strengthening & out-of-the-box hardening of Windows Vista’s defenses in a recent article entitled "Burglar-Proof Windows?  Vista’s new security features may be annoying, but they’re good for you".  In fact, the author even goes so far as to explain how we came to arrive at the point we’re at today with multi-attack vector prone Windows XP and security software from every Tom, Dick, and Harry to protect users.

Burglar-Proof Windows?
Vista’s new security features may be annoying, but they’re good for you
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/jan2007/tc20070111_523048.htm?sub=techmaven

So you saw some of the photos I posted from the Windows Vista Lounge… but in case you doubt how big a deal the Windows Vista launch is, Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer will kick off a celebration in New York tonight. 

Then around the world, over 45 launch events will commence, including:

• a televised extravaganza and celebration at the Taj Mahal
• a public concert at the British Library
• fireworks at the Eiffel tower
• celebrity-studded retail events in Rio De Janeiro
• huge pop concert in Taipei
• a big party in Milan, at the Mazda Palace, featuring famous Italian star, Fiorello

And that’s just the announced stuff.  Stay tuned for more!