Category: Uncategorized
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MVP? Martial Artist? Read on!
Over the eight years I spent as a Microsoft MVP I was honoured to meet so many wonderful people, fellow MVPs and Microsoft employees alike. While we are usually viewed as IT Pros, Developers, experts in our field, I have learned that none of us is one-dimensional, and often have a lot of other interests…
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My parting words as a Microsoft MVP
I want to thank all of you who commented – both publicly and privately – on my losing my status as a Microsoft MVP. Let me sum it all up, and hopefully answer all of your questions. 1) I was informed on Monday that I was not being renewed. However this was several weeks after…
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Cloud-Based VDI!!! No.
I was having a conversation this week with a colleague about his plans to create a hybrid-cloud environment by moving many of his datacenter workloads onto Windows Azure. After all, it makes plenty of sense – eliminating new capital expenses and reducing ongoing operational expenses just makes sense. “And once we have tested it, we…
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Another One Down: Happy New Year!
This Wednesday evening we, the Jewish people, will celebrate Rosh Hashanah. It is the Jewish New Year, and we are ringing in Year 5775. As is customary, I have spent some time over the past few days reflecting on the joys and sadness of the past year. The year 5774 started out tremendously for me. I…
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More Free EBooks from Microsoft Press
You have to give Microsoft Learning (and Microsoft Press) credit… they have finally figured out that their parent company will make more money if they help people to learn their products, rather than charging them for the privilege. When the Microsoft Virtual Academy went on-line we were all thrilled, and continue to be so as…
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How do YOU manage?
A year ago I left the world of technology evangelism and became, once again, a full time consultant. It’s true… up until that point a great deal of my recent experience has been in training and talking, rather than hands-on doing. While that is certainly how a lot of people still see me, I can…
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Communications – I’m talking to you, IT guy!
Let’s face it… most technical people did not get into their fields because of their love of communicating. It is not uncommon to see IT pros (and developers) avoid communications with non-technical people, often shying away from any human contact whatsoever. The ultimate portrayal of this was Sandra Bullock’s character in the 1995 movie The Net. …
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WSUS: Watch out!
Here’s a great way to waste time, network bandwidth, and storage space: download excess patches that you do not need. For bonus points, download languages you don’t support. Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) is a great solution that has come a long way since it was introduced. However it gives a lot of us functionality…
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Cloning with Customization Specifications
Being back in a VMware environment, there are a few differences I need to remember from Hyper-V and System Center. It is not that one is better or worse than the other, but they are certainly different. Customization Specifications are a great addition in vCenter to Cloning virtual machines. They allow you to name the VM,…
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Back to … here.
I’ve been with Yakidoo for a little over a week, and it is great to be back in charge of a datacentre… albeit a smaller one. One thing that I think surprised me though was, after all my time as a Microsoft Virtual Evangelist, I was so happy to be back in a VMware environment. …
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Another Easily Averted Tragedy…
This morning we all woke up to the terrible and shocking news that a shooting instructor (I refuse to call him a Range Master) was shot and killed by a nine year old girl with an Uzi sub-machine gun (SMG). It is a tragedy on two fronts – of course it is a tragedy for…
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DNS Gotchas in vSphere
As I once again immerse myself in a VMware environment as System Administrator, I am getting to do all sorts of fun stuff that I haven’t done in a while. However there is one gotcha that I encountered that I know, I knew, and have even taught on countless occasions. VMware does not do Dynamic…
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DHCP on Server Core
I am loving being back in charge of a proper IT Infrastructure, and of course every admin is going to want to put his own touches on their servers. One of the things I did in my first week was create a couple of new domain controllers running Windows Server Core. Of course, when you…
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I’m Afraid. You should be too.
This weekend throughout Canada there are demonstrations going on that are billed as being against the Israeli action in the Gaza Strip. Some people are going so far as to call them anti-Israel. While I find it distressful that there are demonstrations across one of the countries where I am a citizen that are specifically…
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An Open Letter to Those Who Posted on my Facebook Wall Berating Israel
It is amazing that people who are otherwise intelligent can be so gullible and ignorant. In 2005 Israel left Gaza completely. Not only did the IDF withdraw, they pulled out all settlers (often at gunpoint, kicking and screaming). They left behind factories, farms, and the world community committed a boatload of money for them to…
The World According to Mitch 