Technology | Todd's Blog

TechDays Canada 2009

posted on October 1, 2009

TechDays is now in full swing. Vancouver and Toronto have both been completed and have gone well. The remaining cities are coming along in November and December.

I will be presenting three sessions in Ottawa this year. Two sessions are part of the Windows Client track on Day 1 and one is in the Servers, Security and Management track on Day 2.

Windows Client Track

Session 1: Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010: The Next Generation
Windows 7 is finally out and the wait to deploy is over. Now what? How do you get Windows installed on 10 or 100 or 1000 desktops with all the drivers and applications required? Attend this session and get ahead of the curve and be prepared to walk through installation, image creation, and deployment scenarios.

Session 2: A Geek’s Guide to Windows User State Migration Tool 4.0
Maintaining user profiles and data is critical to a successful deployment of Windows. This session shows how Windows User State Migration Tool (USMT) 4.0 can be used as an integral part of a fully automated deployment environment. The session covers advanced techniques for migrating user files and settings, including modifying and troubleshooting user state migration.

Servers, Security and Management

Session 4: Best Practices in Architecting and Implementing Windows Server Update Services (WSUS)
You’re using WSUS, but are you using it to its fullest extent? In this tips and tricks session, learn the best ways to architect and implement WSUS for the improved security of your organization. Learn the best ways to manage your updates on both servers and clients for high-reliability application. Plus, learn a few tricks to speed up the update installation process, as well as ways to enforce that updates are installed to computers in your environment.

Be sure to sign up and come out to the TechDays event in your area. I think you will find the information being presented useful, and you will be able to take what you have learned at TechDays and use it back in your own environment.

Microsoft Project 2010

posted on September 18, 2009

I had a chance earlier in the week to hear about the upcoming release of Microsoft Project.

Some of the major changes included the Office Ribbon interface is included for a common look and feel with the existing Microsoft Office applications. Microsoft Project Server will sit upon Microsoft Sharepoint Server and will integrate with Microsoft Exchange. The look and feel will be more like Microsoft Excel which should help people get going quicker with it.

I haven’t had a chance to see the new version in action yet, but first chance I get I will have a look. I use Microsoft Project 2007 to manage some of my projects around the office here. I have been using Microsoft Project since I worked in the automotive industry.

Bing Search – An Improvement From Live

posted on July 9, 2009

I used to use Google exclusively. Sometimes I would search from Internet Explorer and it defaulted to Live Search. I would get my list of results and I would wonder what the heck is this, it isn’t close to what I was looking for. Then I’d realize my error (“Oops, used Live Search”), try to wipe the icky feeling I would have off and then I would search on Google and get the results I was looking for.

When Bing was released, the results that came back were much better. The difference between Bing and Live Search was like HDTV vs Black and White with a coat hanger antenna. I find the results that much better with Bing. If I am using Bing, I almost never have to switch to Google to find what I am looking for. I could not say that for Live Search. I bought a new house recently and I am looking at water softeners. Searching for information on them was a great experience.

That being said, yesterday I found myself searching for information the Hyper-V exam, 70-652 – TS: Windows Server Virtualization, Configuring. I did my search using the term 70-652 exam using Bing and looked at the list of results. Testking, pass4sure, braindumps etc (You get in big trouble for using these). The link to Microsoft Learning’s page for the exam is on page 4. That is not so good. Pop over to Google, do the same search and the first result for 70-652 exam is the Microsoft learning link to the exam. Obviously, the “spammy” type sites are still managing to game the search results on Bing.

Microsoft has really improved their search engine with Bing. I think they have some work to do to get it fine tuned.

PS – Here is Monty Python’s skit “The Machine that goes Bing”