The World According to Mitch

On October 28 I was invited to present a STEP (Springboard Technical Experts Panel) Event for the Sarnia Computer Users Group in Sarnia, Ontario.  Steve Syfuhs and I drove out there and had a great time, even though we were in for a surprise!  I have to say that this group of retired hobbyists were…

When Microsoft announced that rather than throwing large launch events in select cities they would enable Influencers to throw ‘House Parties’ there was a lot of ridicule; many said it wouldn’t work, others poked fun and even shot mocumentaries about them.  Cameron McKay and I set out to prove that not only COULD they work,…

My wife’s 17” HP Pavillion laptop broke; when I say that it broke I do not mean that the OS crashed or that the hard disk was defective, or even that the motherboard fried, which are all legitimate reasons for computers to stop working.  It seems that a couple of people liked to carry the…

Back when I was a computer support technician I used to carry a binder of CDs and DVDs, including (but certainly not limited to!) every version and edition of Windows client and server.  This came in handy every time I replaced a hard drive because I could reinstall the OS without having to take it…

If a tool is cumbersome, unwieldy, inefficient, and difficult to use, would you use it? Would you look forward to the experience? Neither would I; so when at the end of last year my son’s Grade 5 homeroom teacher told me that the computers in the school were unreasonably slow, extremely cluttered, and that the…

This article explains how to install a new domain forest on Windows Server Core, or in the Windows Server CLI (Command Line Interpreter).  I will not discuss any other option for RODCs, existing domains, child domains, and so on… there are a plethora of articles out there that describe those already. It astounded me the…

Although I spend a lot of my ‘MVP time’ talking about other technologies the product that I am actually awarded in is Essential Business Server, a product that I have believed in strongly since the day it was announced.  The following is the text of an e-mail sent by the IT Professional at a company…

If you are a small business owner or consultant you must read this article!  http://blogs.technet.com/sbs/archive/2009/09/10/why-small-businesses-use-windows-small-business-server.aspx

I want to start this article by stating that I do feel sorry for Joel… but I have no sympathy for him. If you are unfamiliar with the case, here is the article written by none other than Joel Tenenbaum about his case: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2009/jul/27/filesharing-music-industry. To summarize: Mr. Tenenbaum downloaded music using one of the myriad…

If you either post or watch videos on-line then you know YouTube… but how about SoapBox?  A couple of years ago MSN started a competing service to YouTube which I have found very convenient.  I don’t use it often – I have posted precisely six videos on-line, and four of them were shot (and posted)…

I have noticed of late a trend… a plethora of articles listing the contents of one’s laptop bag.  Far be it from me to miss a writing bandwagon, so here it goes! Laptop Bag: Firstly I should mention that I switch laptop bags with boring frequency; at present I have the Ogio VP Messenger which…

The World According to Mitch did not start out as a blog, but as e-mail blasts.  When I decided to blog I started The President’s Blog at www.mitpro.ca.  However when I stepped down as leader of that group in January, 2007 I needed to find a new home for it.  For two years mitchgarvis.com hosted…

I am sure you (like me) spend a lot of time in e-mail threads.  Occasionally it can be embarrassing if you are not up to date.  As I was composing an e-mail to a colleague a few minutes ago I noticed the following warning bar across the top…(read more)

<Edited July 14> Since May I have been telling people that they would have to wait for details of the new Microsoft Office 2010 applications coming down the pipe.  Yesterday the veil was lifted, as the beta program was made available to a wider audience.  With that I would like to share some of my…

I can hardly believe that it has been nearly two years since my last interview with RunAs Radio… but when I sat down a few weeks with Richard Campbell and Greg Hughes I checked their Past Shows list, and sure enough the last show aired in October, 2007…(read more)