Why We Support Communities

January 30, 2012 Leave a Comment

I wrote this article a few days ago, and decided that before I posted it here I would offer it to the CanITPro Team – IT Pro Connection.  They published it on January 31st as a guest blog post. 

I am now republishing it here, so that it can get the most exposure.  I have spoken to so many people across Canada and around the world who ask me why I spend so much time helping the IT Pro Community, and what value I see the MVP Program as having to me personally.  Sometimes it is not supposed to be about what it can do for me, but what I can do for others.  I can think of no better example of that than this article, an interview with a man who saw me speak at a user group that I founded five years ago, and whose life changed because of it.

If you are an IT Pro then you should be involved in your community.  Most of us start by attending meetings, absorbing information, and learning.  Later on you might join a committee, help run a study group or events, or join the board.  At a certain point you may realize you know something as well as or better than others, and you can put together a presentation – whether that be for an entire session or for a fifteen minute session, such as Sean Kearney’s IT Pro Toronto ‘PowerShell Snacks’.  But remember… like any other community you are responsible for giving back what you put in so that those who follow you will be able to benefit from your knowledge and experience, just as you benefited from the knowledge and experiences of others.

Last week I met a man at the Microsoft Virtualization Boot Camp who nearly made me cry.  His name is Andrew Thomas, and he is the reason I have spent the last eight years building, running, and supporting IT Pro user groups.  I asked him if he would be willing to answer a few questions for me by e-mail and he did.  For those of us who have worked for years to build the user group community in Canada, there is no more gratifying and inspiring story, because this is why we do what we do.  User groups do not build and run themselves… they require a lot of hard work and dedication from all sorts of people who seldom get any recognition for it.  That is why when I ran user groups I made a point of thanking the people who helped me, and when I speak to user groups today I try to always thanks and recognize not only the UG Leader, but those who help him along the way.

This is Andrew’s story:

Five years ago I was working as a Bench Technician with one of the large retail chains.  I had managed to work my way up to Tech Manager but was not very happy in my job.

I don’t know when I went to my first ITProToronto meeting or even how I heard of it, but I was on a number of mailing lists and would go to events when I was invited.  The first meeting I attended was held in Mississauga (which puts the timeline around early 2008).  I live in Scarborough but was working in Mississauga at the time.  I was hooked after my first user group meeting and was happy when the events were moved to Toronto because of the commute.

I went to the first few meetings thinking that I would meet people whom I could network with to try and find another job but I lost my nerve when I realized the depth of knowledge of the members.  I felt a bit out of my depth, but I kept going to the meetings because I kept learning from the presentations as well as from the other members.

The turning point for me came when we had a meeting about the then NEW HP Media Smart Home Server.  I had purchased one a month earlier and had been playing with it.  Suddenly I was having conversations with members about how the Server worked, what it did and how, and since nobody else had played with one yet I quickly realized that now *I* was one of the experts in the room!

It dawned on me that I was smarter than I thought… I had already earned a couple of certifications (including MCP and A+), and had implemented so much of the advanced technology in my basement (including Windows Server, DNS, DHCP, Exchange Server, Linux, and IIS) but it never occurred to me that I was good enough to work for a company as a systems administrator or domain admin.  I was really good as a bench technician, but did not have the confidence to turn my hobby into a career.

After that Home Server meeting I dusted off my résumé and hit the pavement looking for work.  My certifications were a little weak, but I had experience in all sorts of different technologies.  I took a job with a small financial company in Scarborough that was looking for an assistant for their system administrator.  I took the job only to find out that the sysadmin was mostly a trainer with no experience in networking, hardware or domain administration; they were having everything done by contractors and he was doing his day-to-day stuff by using search engines and the literally administering by the seat of his pants.  However he was a smart guy and did manage to keep their systems running for 2 years.

As luck would have it he got another job so I inherited the Network.  It was an opportunity for me to show what I could do on my own.  Unfortunately the company went bankrupt three months later, and I was looking again.

I decided to take a year off to travel, and was surprised when I returned to the workforce to find out that I no longer had the qualifications I needed to get the jobs that I wanted.  My Windows 2000 certifications were just not good enough, as Windows Server 2003 was the standard and Windows Server 2008 was about to be released.  I decided to invest the time to spend a year at school, where I studied all of the newest technologies, and became certified in Windows Server 2008, Exchange Server 2007, as well as Linux.

Now that I have all of the right credentials I have set a lower limit for any job I would ever accept, and that lower limit is more than twice what I was earning as a bench technician.  I am working on projects that include all of those technologies and more, including Server Virtualization (which I am now comfortable with thanks to the Microsoft Canada IT Pro Virtualization Boot Camp!), and more.  I support users and environments, and the list goes on and on.

It may look like you just go to a meeting but the user group (for me anyway) is a lot more than that.  I learned things – both about technology and about myself.  I never would have had the courage to make such drastic career changes if it was not for the user group meetings.  Now I can go out and put all my skills that I have learned over the years to work for me and I thank the group for that.

Filed under Community, IT Pro, IT Pro Toronto, Uncategorized, User Group

CanIT! (Pro)

January 30, 2012 Leave a Comment

For years I have followed, worked with, and looked to the IT Evangelism team at Microsoft Canada for guidance and direction.  My first encounter with them probably dates back to 2003 (before there was an actual team), but I really started to get to know them in 2005.  When Rick Claus came to speak to the GUMSNET user group about virtualization in November, 2004 I saw him behind the podium at Microsoft Canada as a behemoth (and he is not nearly tall enough to be that), and as I got to know the other members of the team – past, present, and future – I always admired the passion they had for what they discussed, along with (obviously) a deep knowledge of the technologies they discussed.

Last week Rick Claus, the ‘Team Elder’ as it were, announced that he has moved on.  He is still an IT Evangelist for Microsoft, but he has moved down to Redmond and is now working for Corp.  I wish him well, and know that while we will miss him in Canada he will be a great addition to the team in Redmond.

Meanwhile back in Canada I am currently doing a lot of work with the Evangelism team on their Virtualization Boot Camp tour, and was thrilled that Damir asked to re-post two of my articles from this site there.  They are:

What’s a Layer 1 or Layer 2 Hypervisor and Where Does Hyper-V Fit in?

and

Virtualization Infrastructure: Which platform is right for you?

I am currently in the process of writing another article which I hope to cross-post shortly.  Keep your eyes peeled to both these sites for great information that will help you grow as an IT Professional!  Also watch both sites for news about other cities where the Virtualization Boot Camp will be showing up… they are a great opportunity for you to learn virtualization, win cash prizes, and support your local user group community!

Filed under IT Pro, Microsoft Canada, Microsoft Virtualization, Virtualization

Hey Vancouver IT Pros!

January 26, 2012 Leave a Comment

If you are an IT Pro in Vancouver, we have an event for you!  On Friday, February 10th and again on Saturday, February 11th Microsoft Canada’s Evangelism team is bringing the IT Virtualization Boot Camp to you!

Damir Bersenic will be hosting the event, and I will be his trusty sidekick for two days of geeking out… we will be building a virtualization environment from scratch, including full failover and Live Migration capabilities, and all in one day!

The format is fun and exciting, with teams of four participants competing for cash prizes!  The cost is $25, all of which goes directly to your local user group which, in turn, helps you!

For more information and to register visit the Canadian IT Pro Connection at http://blogs.technet.com/b/canitpro/archive/2012/01/26/hey-vancouver-it-pros-it-virtualization-boot-camps-are-coming-to-your-city-feb-10-amp-11.aspx.  I look forward to seeing you in Vancouver in February!

Filed under Boot Camp, Hyper-V, Microsoft Canada, Virtualization

Cluster Issues… how to clean out cluster nodes from destroyed clusters

January 23, 2012 Leave a Comment

There are things that you just shouldn’t do in real life.  While many of them involve cold lamp posts and electric sockets, there are many in the IT field that inexperienced pros do that are avoidable, but once done seemingly impossible to recover from.

I came across one such issue some time ago when resetting my Virtual Partner Technology Advisor Toolkit (blog on this to follow).  I visited a partner with only two of my server-laptops, and they asked me to demonstrate creating a Failover Cluster.  I destroyed my existing Cluster and did just that.  Unfortunately the next day I discovered that my third server-laptop, which had been a node on the now destroyed Failover Cluster.  When I tried to join it to the new cluster I got a message that ‘This computer ‘Host1.alpineskihouse.com’ is joined to a cluster.’

image

Failover Cluster Service is so much better than its predecessor, and this is a very simple fix.  However if you don’t know it you can end up banging your head against the wall and assuming you have to reinstall your OS.  Not the case.  It is a simple command line:

cluster node <computername> /forcecleanup

so in the case of my alpineskihouse.com laptop-server, I would open a command prompt (Run As Administrator) and type:

cluster node host1.alpineskihouse.com /forcecleanup

It only takes a few seconds… it cleans out the registry and allows that server to be joined to a new cluster.

I thought of this because I encountered the situation in the Virtualization Boot Camp Challenge at Microsoft Canada on Saturday.  If I hadn’t found that link, one of the teams (the team that was until the last challenge in first place!) would not have been able to complete the challenge, and would not have finished in Second Place.

One of the teammates asked me how they could have achieved the same results using the GUI (Graphical User Interface) but you can’t… the GUI tools are great for day to day tasks, and even a lot of the more complicated stuff, but the truth is there are just some things that you have to do ‘under the hood’… in the Command Prompt.

I repeat over and over the importance of knowing the command line tools for the common tasks that we do every day.  While I always tell them that they have to know them for exams, the truth is that sometimes we need to use them in our jobs.  When they argue that they shouldn’t need to learn command line tools I tell them (and am not lying) that the command line tools often separate the ‘computer guys’ from the IT Professionals… if you are going to have the respect to learn your profession and be able to do things right, then you have to know at least some of the command line tools, and if you don’t know them then you have to at least know how to find them and use them.

Now go forth and Cluster… or I guess cluster.exe Winking smile

Filed under Clustering, Failover Cluster, Troubleshooting

Another Full House at the Microsoft Canada Virtualization Boot Camp Challenge!

January 23, 2012 1 Comment

A real full house with Ruth tweeting in the back!

Damir Bersenic is rocking the house at the second Virtualization Boot Camp Challenge…

Filed under Microsoft Canada, Microsoft Virtualization, Virtualization

An Interview with BizTech Magazine

January 23, 2012 1 Comment

biztech_badge_300In September I was honoured to discover that BizTech Magazine had recognized The World According To Mitch on their list of 50 Must-Read IT Blogs from BizTech (Sept. 7, 2011).  Several weeks ago I was contacted by Ricky Ribeiro, BizTech’s Online Content Manager asking if I would be willing to do an interview about blogging and the IT industry.  I was delighted to do so.  On Sunday the interview was published.

Must-Read IT Blogger Q&A: Mitch Garvis

Sometimes it amazes me that I have come so far… I remember when I first started blogging, and who was responsible for it (there are two people).  I saw one of them in the cafeteria this past week, and I had drinks with the other in December.  When they told me to start (and then told me to publish at my own site rather than the MITPro site) I could not see the value… but I trusted and respected both of them, so I started.  I see the value now, and every time an up-and-coming IT Professional asks me for advice on how to get noticed, I have the same advice for them that Rick and John had for me… Build your Brand.

As hard as it may be to fathom, I remember starting out wondering who would care about what I had to say.  I also remember thinking that a few little articles would not earn me a lot of credibility.  I was probably right… but I have now been blogging for seven years, and The World According to Mitch (the third incarnation of a blog that was born in 2005) will celebrate its 300th article this week (if my Editor approves the complete rewrite she assigned me on Thursday).  We have had over 100,000 visitors, and a plethora of comments and conversations (many of which, unfortunately, were lost in the numerous moves over the years).  I am amazed every time someone refers to my articles as authoritative, and appreciate every single visitor.

Last week was the first time I ever referred to myself as a professional blogger, but I suppose I am.  I do not get paid to blog, but do get paid to do what I do in part because I blog.  I love doing it, and was not surprised by the envious cries of ‘How do *I* get a job like that?’ The answer is simple… build your brand, build up your library of articles, and most of all make sure that you absolutely love writing (It helps if you are good at it)!  I do… I always have, and thank my high school English teachers for that daily,

If I am the luckiest man in the world it is because I have an amazing family, I get to work with amazing technologies, and have an amazing job that affords me the opportunity to speak to and interact with some amazing people.  If someone were to ask me what are the qualities that make my blog successful I suppose it is the combination of my vast life experience and travels, combined with a love of life, a passion for technology, and an understanding that talking about high-level subjects does not mean you have to talk over peoples’ heads.

You do not really understand something unless you can explain it to your grandmother.

If you can’t explain something simply, you don’t know enough about it.

–Albert Einstein

I often hear from people who stumble across my blog who say “Wow… I have no idea what you are talking about, but it sounds really interesting.”  I do not dumb my articles down, but I do try to explain high-level concepts in clear, concise terms.  I have been asked to explain concepts such as Server Virtualization to non-technical audiences before, and I do… however you also have to know who your intended audience is, and speak to their level.  My technical articles would be useless if I wrote them for non-technical people.

The truth is that most of my articles will be easy to understand by anyone, but without the prerequisite knowledge of the subject matter they would not be able to do anything with them.  Occasionally I hear from someone that ‘Wow, I read your article, and I was actually able to understand what you were talking about!” That is because I make things as complicated as they have to be… and no more so.

I will continue to write as I have, and will aspire to do better.  I will try to continue to write about topics that I find interesting and relevant… that goal seems to have served me well over the past seven years.  Thank you for reading. -Mitch

Filed under 50 Must Read IT Blogs, BizTech Magazine, Blog

Who Pray Tell is Jack Oprah: Missing pieces are easier to contend with than wrong ones.

January 22, 2012 Leave a Comment

Although I have of late been on another ‘digging through the archives’ kick, I was reminded of this article from 2005 by a friend of mine who occasionally refers to it to remind me that I really can write about anything when I am so inspired.  Thanks for reminding me of that Jess!  Unfortunately I am still flummoxed by the one article I am working on, but that will happen.  In the meantime, here’s Jack. –M

—

I was in my favourite cafe this evening and noticed the barista had got up from the crossword puzzle over which she had been agonizing.  I walked over for a glance, and noticed immediately that it was replete with errors. 

5 Across: Fat-Free Jack. Her answer: OPRAH.

I was amused because the middle three letters were obviously right, but instead of seeing if she could get more clues to help her, she just took any name that would fit, regardless of the consequences.

In IT we do this quite frequently.  We have a client whose systems just stopped working, and he will grab any solution that fixes his immediate problem, often to the detriment of the total final solution.  In some cases this is what the client wants – an immediate fix to the immediate problem.  The problem is that some of those filler solutions can cause greater problems later on, and if we do not take note of what we did we may find ourselves hunting for another quick fix to an immediate problem caused by these filler solutions.

I am as guilty as most, though when I get the system working I generally take the time to figure out what went wrong, and work towards a permanent (and best-practices) solution.  I admit to being quite successful with this approach… most of the time.

A colleague of mine refuses to work that way.  To him he would rather the client be down for 15-30 minutes longer, but when he is back up he can be sure that the problem is well and truly solved.  He and I have had a number of discussions on this, and it shows two different ways of looking at things: I will extend myself out on a limb, and he likes the CYA approach.  I am not saying one is more right than the other, I am only saying that different professionals can have fundamental differences in approaches and viewpoints, and respect each other without agreeing.

I suppose in a true emergency my experience has always been ‘now means now.’  It comes from my background, and it is very difficult for me to escape.  Internet is down?  Get it up.  Period.  Shortest distance is right, and smooth it out later.  I have a hard time telling clients ‘I could get to the bottom of the problem and you may be down for another 30 minutes’ when I can say ‘I’ll have you up as soon as I flick this switch, and when everyone goes home I will get to the bottom of the original problem so that it doesn’t happen again.’  Depending on the client I am sure I have gained or lost points for this approach.

The problem in IT is that when you just patch in a quick fix the real solution gets harder to see.  When I look at a crossword puzzle I look at the blank spaces and like most of us my eyes assume that the letters filled in are right.  Those wrong letters are not just missing pieces, they are bread crumbs leading down the wrong path in the forest.  We see them there, and if they are there then there’s a reason.  Unfortunately they are like a magician’s misdirection, designed to draw your eyes from the real issue at hand.

My advice to aspiring crossword puzzle solvers?  Use a fine pencil with a good eraser.  If you aspire to solving network connectivity issues, I suggest practice, training, and before you can take leaps to fill in the blanks, make sure you have the experience you need to un-leap yourself… a neat trick indeed until the client and his fifty employees who are all off-line and lurking over your shoulder learn to be patient with IT problems that they will probably never understand.

I am sure that someone out there knows someone whose name really is Jack Oprah, and I apologize to you.  For Jack Sprat, you will have to chase down my barista, and forgive her youth and inexperience.  I did when my cappuccino came with cinnamon instead of chocolate!

Filed under archive, IT Pro

Virtualization Lessons–Both Positive and Negative!

January 21, 2012 Leave a Comment

As I sit in the back of the room for Microsoft Canada’s Virtualization Boot Camp Challenge today I see that the lab environments that we are providing to the attendees actually mimics the setup I use for my Virtual Partner Technology Advisor (vPTA) sessions.  As such, I am seeing a lot of potential for attendees to learn a lot of great technologies, but there are a few lessons that they should know.  I outlined these in an article last year called ‘vPTA: What NOT to take away from my 1-day virtualization training.’  I will urge all of the attendees (as well as all of you!) to click on the link and read the article. While a lot of the practices we use are fine for a test/lab environment, you should be aware of them before you try to implement them in your production environment!

I have written a bunch of other articles that are pertinent to the discussion… here are just some of those links:

How to get a head start on the NEW Management and Virtualization Competency

Layer 1 or Layer 2 Hypervisor? A common misconception of Hyper-V, and a brief explanation of the Parent Partition

Virtualization Infrastructure: Which platform is right for you?

Microsoft Virtualization Learning Resources

Hyper-V Training – 10215AE is now available in E-Learning!

Real Help in A Virtual World

Busting the Myth: You cannot cluster Windows Small Business Server

A follow-up to my article on configuring iSCSI initiator in Server Core & Hyper-V Server

A brief response to the vSphere 5 vs. Hyper-V question…

Gartner agrees with me… Hyper-V is for real!

Do you have your Virtcerts?

MCITP: Virtualization Administrator 2008 R2 (and other R2 Virt Certs)

Filed under Microsoft Canada, Microsoft Virtualization, Virtualization Tagged with , , , , , , ,

Moving Forward at the Speed of Life: Where we are is only interesting in relation to where we came from!

January 20, 2012 Leave a Comment

Here is another article from the archives that I came across this morning while procrastinating.  Judging by the laptop I discuss I wrote it in early 2006, although the exact date is harder to pin down.  Like the last one it is a glimpse into the past from the past, and I love those articles.  I hope you like it too! –M

—

Let’s face it… we do not work in an easy industry.  Technology changes so fast and if we want to stay current we have to spend a lot of time running to keep up.

I do not pretend to remember the good old days of IBM’s guaranteed seven year life cycle, but I do remember my first three computers.

My Atari 800 was probably obsolete before I bought it but I enjoyed it and did more programming on it than I would on any subsequent machine – games, utilities, hacks, whatever I could think of.  It lived in my basement for three years from the time I was ten until shortly after my thirteenth birthday.

In October of 1985 I bought an Apple //e clone and I literally ran it into the ground – it lasted until I my last year of high school and was a combination of word-processor, dumb-terminal (the dawn of my BBSing days), and game box, even though from day one to day last the only two colours it would produce were black and amber.

My first Intel-based system was my pride and joy – an 8088 system which my buddy claims made me avant-garde, the first in our circle to have a 3.5″ drive as my primary device – even though the 40 Meg hard drive did most of the storage work for me.  I remember the day I bought it from Steve and was secretly intimidated by it – here I was, a kid, buying a system that was not really meant for games.  I had been playing with PCs for a year or two at the various computer stores where I worked, but could always go home to the safety of my amber Apple.

What set these three systems apart from every other computer I have had since is the length of their tenure in my life – I have probably had thirty computers since and only two – my first Pentium 180 and then my trusted Gateway – can measure their usefulness in years rather than months or weeks.

Of course it is different for children and teenagers – especially when they are earning their purchases at minimum wage.  Today I regularly have meals that cost more than my average weekly income through high school, which is probably normal because firstly the dollar is not what it once was and frankly if you have seen me you cannot suspect me of starvation.  What was once the most important and expensive purchase of my young life is now almost a commodity – a fact I realized one day recently when I realized that the systems littering the floor of my den are on the one hand junk, on the other they would have been silicon gold to the boy I once was.  Perhaps that is why I was so eager to help the now defunct ReBoot Montreal to put machines like those into the hands of kids who would not otherwise have computers.

Between my server, my laptop, my Media Center PC, and a smattering of portable hard drives my personal storage capacity recently exceeded a terabyte (steadily) for the first time.  I routinely work with files that would not live on the 40 meg MFM drive that ran my first PC.  My cell phone (not a smart phone or mobile PC) has a capacity over five times the RAM of my Atari’s once astounding 48K.  We transmit wirelessly hundreds of times the speed of my original 300 baud modem.  I think of where we came from and wonder if we’re there – or if in another twenty years I will ponder with fondness my first x64 machine that was once the forefront but would not today be powerful enough to do the most routine daily tasks.

Ferris Bueller (another fond memory of the 80s) said that ‘Life moves pretty fast… if you don’t stop to look around, you might miss it.’  I wonder if that is good advice in this day of light speed leaps and bounds.  Regardless, I am happy with what I have now and think I will stick with it a while.  Will my (Acer) Ferrari (4005) outlast my Atari?  Probably not… but you can be sure that it will give me a good ride along the Information Superhighway into the future!

Have a great week.

Filed under archive, Speed of Life, technology

Advances in Technology: It is vital to stay current, even when remembering the past.

January 20, 2012 2 Comments

I guess I am on another one of these kicks… traveling back down memory lane.  I dug up this article from the archives, and I remember sitting down to write it the first time I ever checked into a hotel in Redmond, Washington.  What is more fun about this article is that it took me down memory lane back in 2006, and then discusses (briefly) my first forays into Server Virtualization, a technology that I could not have known then would not only change the industry, but my life and career.  I made a few minor corrections for style and grammar, but the message is intact, down to the invitation to my first ever User Group presentation on Virtualization!  I hope you enjoy it too.

—

As I settled into my hotel last night I could not help but think back on my travel experiences of the past few years, especially as pertains to Information Technology.

I have done a bit of traveling since I moved to Montreal (nearly ten years ago!).  The first thing that I notice is the power of the computers.  I remember the Gateway 80486/66 laptop that I brought with me in 1996 which, at the time, I thought was quite powerful.  Although I had eventually upgraded it to Windows 95, when I bought it second-hand it came equipped with Windows 3.1, and when I wanted to get onto the Internet I had to either wait a week for my ISP (Actcom) to mail me three floppy disks to configure TCP/IP with Trumpet Winsock, or I could connect to their server (with a 33,600bps modem) and download the three disks.  Of course I had to wait for them to send me the disks with Mosaic before I could surf the net.  In the interim I sufficed with chatting… which consisted of using Internet Relay Chat (IRC) in a text window.

So let’s review… in 1996 it took about six hours of downloading and then a week of waiting before I could actually connect to the Internet, for about the equivalent of $40 per month.  Because of the local phone company rules it cost me about five cents per minute to stay connected.  If I left the city in which I lived and wanted to connect it would cost me long distance charges… plus the nickel per minute.  This was all for the privilege of connecting at 33,600bps.

Last night I checked into my hotel after a long flight.  I was in a city I had never been to (Redmond, WA) in a state I was last in when I was a teenager.  I was tired and jet-lagged, and anticipated the backlog of new e-mails that awaited me since my layover in Toronto (there were 27).  I got into my hotel room, opened my computer into Windows Vista, and within about a minute I was connected to the net at speeds that could not be achieved in 1996 if we connected two computers to each other via a cable.  Without any configuration (save for the Marriott home page asking if I wanted a firewalled or non-firewalled link) I was on-line, and my e-mails were happily downloading.

As IT Professionals it is our job to stay up to date with the newest technologies.  It is not sufficient for us to be working on five year old technology when we are trying to service our clients and their needs.  It is not good enough for us to read up on a technology in order to sell it and maintain it, it is vital that we use it on a day-to-day basis so that we can get to know the ins and outs of them.  That goes equally for desktop operating systems and servers.

Of course we cannot all afford the latest technology, and running multiple servers to run each version of Server would take up too much space.  That is why I am proud to be presenting Virtual Server 2005 R2 at our meeting on April 20th.  I will go through the steps to plan and configure it not only for production environments, but for your test labs too.  Come on down, meet your peers, have a doughnut, and learn what’s new in virtual technology.  You’ll be glad you did!

See you in April!

Filed under archive, IT Pro, Virtualization

Thank G-D it’s Friday: The end of the week brings new hope.

January 20, 2012 Leave a Comment

Here is another article from the Archives file… I wrote it in October, 2006, but as I looked at my alarm with disgust this morning I thought of it.  I did not get nearly enough sleep last night but hey’… it IS Friday, so that is something to celebrate! –M

—

There is a long-standing debate in some circles about one seemingly insignificant advancement in technology.  It has been waging for at least as long as I can remember – nearly thirty years since my first exposure to the battle.

I have heard people refer to the snooze button on alarm clocks as devil-spawned.  An old comedy routine joked that there were Japanese businessmen looking through a pin-hole camera claiming ‘There’s another American worker who will not make his quota this week!’  At the same time I have heard people thanking the inventors of the snooze button for allowing them a few more minutes of sleep without really worrying about sleeping through the day.

…and then there are those of us who have taken to hitting the snooze button multiple times.  Personally I have taken to setting the alarm up to an hour before I really have to get out of bed because I know that those four or five whacks of the snoozer would otherwise cost me real productivity.

And then there’s Friday.  Of course the alarm goes off as it does Monday through Thursday, but on Friday I am afforded an extra pleasure that would not do the other days of the week… After my duel with the snooze button I can then turn to the other switch on the clock: the off button.  Every other day when I am ready to go about my day I will switch the button to off, but then right back to the on position so I can go through the same routine the following day.  Friday however the switch takes a one-way trip, to stay in the off position for a delicious two days.  I know that I have to get out of bed this day, but have the week-end to look forward to in a scant twelve hours time.

Happy Friday everybody, and remember to enjoy your week-end… It will be shorter than you like, but at least your alarm clock can take a rest too!

Filed under Alarm Clocks, archive, Friday Funny, Snooze Button

IT Virtualization Boot Camp

January 20, 2012 2 Comments

Hey folks!  The IT Professionals Community of Greater Toronto and Microsoft Canada are getting together to bring you this amazing opportunity!  This Saturday (January 21st) and next Monday (January 23rd) we are doing a full-day Virtualization Boot Camp!  The cost is only $25, with Damir Bersenic (Senior IT Pro Advisor, Microsoft Canada) leading the way with a lot of input and guidance from yours truly.  It is really an event that you should NOT miss… come learn how to make Hyper-V work for you, along with all of the components of Windows 2008 R2 and the System Center family!  Don’t miss it… sign up today, and come say hi to me when you are there! -M

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Want to get hands-on with Microsoft’s Virtualization technologies including Hyper-V?  Interested in configuring a highly-available virtualization infrastructure?  Have you wondered how to configure and use an iSCSI-based storage server?  Curious how Windows Failover Clustering can help you get a good night’s sleep?  If you answered yes to any or all of these questions, you need to be at the IT Virtualization Boot Camp.

The IT Virtualization Boot Camp provides a fun and collaborative environment where you will get hands-on experience to:

  • Prepare your Windows Server-based computers for virtualization
  • Configure iSCSI storage targets
  • Create Windows Failover Clusters
  • Make virtual machines highly available with Hyper-V and enable Live Migration to hot-migrate running workloads between hosts with no loss in client connectivity
  • Integrate non-Microsoft virtual machines into your cluster
  • See how Windows Failover Clustering can help to make dealing with hardware failure easier

When: Saturday January 21, 2012 http://itvbc20120121.eventbrite.ca

Monday January 23, 2012.  http://itvbc20120123.eventbrite.ca

Session starts at 10am and ends at 4pm.

Registration and snacks begin at 9:30am.  Lunch will be provided.

Where: Microsoft Canada, 1950 Meadowvale Blvd, Mississauga, ON

Please park in the event parking lot and enter through the Event entrance.

Cost:                $25. Proceeds from this event will help benefit your user group.

Filed under IT Pro, IT Pro Toronto, Microsoft Canada, Microsoft Virtualization, Virtualization

This Is A Scam!

January 18, 2012 6 Comments

I knew something was fishy when the phone rang and the Call Display showed a call-back number of 666-035-3612 because, as we all know, 666 is the area code of the beast.  I waited the five seconds for the auto-dialer system to connect me to a real operator. 

‘Hello, my name is Gary from the Windows Technical Department.  I am phoning you because we have been receiving a series of errors from your computer this week indicating several vulnerabilities, and I am calling to help you to fix them.  Do you have a few minutes?  It is very important.’

Try as I might, I couldn’t help myself from bursting out laughing, but after a few seconds I answered ‘Ok, how are you going to help me to fix them?’ 

Gary was put off by my laughing and asked why, emphasizing that this was a very serious matter, and that I could be facing serious financial and legal repercussions if I took it lightly.  ‘Computer Security is very important and if you do not take it seriously by following my instructions it will cost you.  So why are you laughing?’

I couldn’t help myself.  Now, remember… the following statement is not true, but I assumed that for the sake of this conversation my MVP Lead and Managers will forgive me for saying ‘Because I work for Microsoft with the Windows Product Team.’  I did not feel it would have helped at all to explain about the Springboard Technical Experts Panel, and how I write courseware and give presentations and that I am not actually an employee, even though I have a title.  However I do not think he would have been so interested in the answer due to his obviously well-thought response of: ‘Well then &^$# you then.’ and he hung up.

Of course I knew in advance that this was a scam, because one of my sisters-in-law was caught unawares by this, and it ended up costing her hundreds of dollars and no end of headaches.  Remember folks, Microsoft will help you in all sorts of ways, but always passively… YOU have to come to THEM.  They will NEVER initiate a conversation, either by phone or e-mail or pop-up, saying you are compromised now we can help you. 

Lesson over… I’m going to Tae Kwon Do!

Filed under Article, Scams

Day 4: Wednesday Morning, 3AM

January 18, 2012 2 Comments

I have not been sleeping very well during the cruise.  I don’t know if that is because I am relaxing so much during the day, or what else it might be.  I certainly have not been lying awake worrying about… well, anything.  The cruise has been a nearly stress-free time, and I have always been able to sleep at sea before.  Weird.

Wednesday Morning we went ashore in Grand Cayman, and the sea around the island is truly magnificent.  I actually found myself taking pictures of water… see?

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What you are seeing in the blue is actually coral reefs that are thirty feet underwater.  Yes, the water is that clear.  Theresa signed us up for a shore excursion called a Sea Walk.  It was absolutely incredible – they picked us up from the dock at Hammerhead’s Bar & Grill, and took us out to the dive boat.  There we climbed into the water where they put a helmet on us that weighs seventy pounds (32kg) which above water is HEAVY on your shoulders, but underwater is quite manageable.  The helmet is attached by a hose to an air compressor that made sure that we were always able to breathe.  The weight of the helmet kept us on the sea floor, and we were able to walk about the coral reefs and play with the gorgeous tropical fish (primarily Sergeant-Major Fish, so named I am told because of their stripes).  It was amazing to be able to walk around on the sea floor, examine the coral reefs and the fish, and although we could only communicate with hand-signals, we even threw a ball around for a little while!

The picture below is of people far more attractive than our group (excepting my wife, who looks better than any of them in her bikini!) doing this activity, but as my camera is not waterproof (let alone at 30’) I had to take a stock photo from their website, and apologize for the theft… hopefully the huge thumbs-up I give them will appease them, and if you are in the Grand Cayman area check them out at http://www.seatrekcayman.com/.

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Theresa and I had lunch at Hammerheads, but then headed back to the ship and enjoyed the hot tub on the Lido deck.  We may have had a bit too much to drink, so Theresa went back to the cabin to rest.  I stayed in (or around) the hot tub until it was time for dinner, and had a great night… just talking to people, smoking a cigar or two, and decompressing.  I really think that is the keyword for the week… I have been so wound up with work and all that I needed to decompress, and while I generally only smoke a cigar every month, this week is a huge exception.  With every puff of smoke I exhale I can feel the stress leaving my body.

I should mention that we met some great people in the hot tub yesterday, but that is a bit untrue.  We had met them on an on-line forum before getting onto the ship, and spent two days playing telephone/message tag with them.  What are the odds that we would then get into the hot tub and POOF – they are there.  Jenna and Nick seem like the kind of people we can be friends with beyond the six days at sea.  The last time we cruised we did meet a nice couple who were much older than we were, but we spent a lot of time with them, under no delusion that we would become friends on shore.  Jenna is younger than we are, Nick is our age, and they are just the sweetest people you will ever meet.  They are engaged, living in Pittsburgh, and I wouldn’t be surprised if our friendship outlasted this voyage.  On vera.

It is strange what kinds of propositions you get at sea.  This afternoon I was in the hot tub with a group of kids – maybe 20-24 years old – and we were all joking around, when one of them asked me ‘So do you know Mary Jane?’  Now, while I am familiar with the codes I am absolutely against any form of illegal drugs (as so deemed by North American laws).  I thought it shocking that a teenager would see if I could ‘score some weed’ for her.  I asked her about it, and said that it was probably a bad idea to ask men twice her age if they could get drugs, to which she responded ‘What do you mean?  I am NOT fifteen years old!’  While I give her zero points for brains, I was quite flattered that she thought I was only thirty… of course, it is possible she was just REALLY bad at math.

It’s time to sleep but tomorrow we are waking up docked in sunny Jamaica where I will climb Dunn’s River Falls (and Theresa and her bad knees will not).  After that we’ll head to Paradise Beach, where I am told we will never want to leave!  Jenna and Nick are going to do some shopping and hit the beach, but we’ll see them back at Table 324 for dinner… I wonder who will have the most fun in Ocho Rios? :)

Filed under Article, Cruise, Vacation Tagged with , , , , , ,

Why I Will Not Help You With Your Computer, or ‘Are you kidding me?’

January 18, 2012 1 Comment

A friend of a friend asked me for help with her computer the other day.  I was still on vacation, but my understanding was that she had a reasonably simply question.  I took the call.

Let me preface this by saying that I really respect her honesty.  She was upfront with me, and I appreciated that.  It changes nothing, but I appreciate the honesty nonetheless.

Here’s the gist:

…so I seem to have to roll back a patch or something, and cannot figure out how to do this.  My copy of Windows 7 is pirated so I can’t call Microsoft.

STOP.

Are you kidding me?  She really thought that it wouldn’t be a big deal for me to help her.  Here’s what the big deal is:

  1. I am a Microsoft MVP, a Microsoft Certified Trainer (as well as a plethora of other certs), and a Virtual Partner Technology Advisor for Microsoft Canada.  In short, I work closely enough with Microsoft that if you cannot call Microsoft for help, you cannot call me either.  I have too much to lose – working on pirated software can have all of those titles and awards and designations stripped from me, and it is just not worth it.  Frankly, if she had wanted to pay me $10,000 for the advice it still would not have been worth it.
  2. Software Piracy Hurts Us All.  I wrote an article by that name in October of 2006, and I believe it as much today as I did then.  If you cannot afford the software, use cheaper software.  However stealing software is never the answer.

Now the good news is that I told her that I could try to help her to get an inexpensive yet legitimate license for Windows 7 – and I might even install it for her and get it working properly for nothing.  I was willing to do this because she told me that she wanted to be legitimate.  At least with that attitude we can help her to go forth and sin no more.  However when people take the attitude that ‘Well, the company makes so much money, I deserve it’ or whatever else, I just end the conversation.  Yes, it costs money… but it cost money to develop and to support, and if you don’t want to pay for it, go Open Source.

Filed under Software Piracy, Windows 7

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