Canadian IT Professionals

Patching – how do you cope?

Rick Claus — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 12:17:00 GMT

Patching is a necessary evil.

A lot of IT pros don’t like to talk about patching due to the amount of work it can generate for them in their already PACKED jobs. It came up as a heated topic of discussion at a user group event I attended a while back – so much so, I decided to produce a monthly podcast (“Security Bulletins for the Regular IT Guy” – go check it out!) to help out with “Patch Tuesday” information overload. It’s goal is to simplify the jargon and corporate speak contained in the security bulletins and give you what you need to know to get started with your patch plans. When I was editing the last episode, it got me thinking that as an IT Community – we need to start a conversation around the processes we use to handle patching in their own environments.

Back when I was jiggling cables under desks and looking after my LAN (after I ripped and replaced the arcnet) - I remember it used to be this random chaotic mess of patches that needed to be deployed and they always seemed to pop up when you absolutely did NOT have the time to look at them. I remember the time before automatic “let me check for you” services or routine/scheduled updates on a regular basis. luckily things have gotten better – but patching is something where we each have our own process and tolerance level for how long before deployment.

If you’re an old IT Hack – patching is probably second nature and ingrained in your DNA. If you are new to the game of IT – better get used to it and put in place a process to handle it. Your best bet is (to quote the boy scouts) - be prepared.

I thought I would share some things that I know have helped other IT Pros out there with their patching routines. Some of these recommendations will take time to implement, but trust me – once you do, you won’t approach patching with that feeling of nerves in your gut. you know what? Send me your ideas (rick.claus@microsoft.com) or comment below and I will expand on it so everyone can benefit from your experiences:

Awareness – what do you have to watch for?
- By this I mean – what’s your inventory like for your patch checks? If your software vendors don’t have an auto-update service or regularly scheduled update process for releases, you’re going to want to know when something new come out proactively, instead of reactively.
- Are you including driver updates, firmware updates and Bios Updates?
- what about the software that ends up on your machines, but is installed by your users and you don’t find out about until there is a problem with something?
- Don’t get overwhelmed – start small and focused so you can correctly document your process for others to follow - THEN gradually expand. Remember, to eat an elephant, you start by taking one bite at a time.
- For your Microsoft Apps and operating systems – don’t forget the free tool called MBSA (Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer). This can be run in a one off local scan, network scan or even rolled into massive reporting and monitoring solutions like System Center Operations Manager.
Automation is your friend. Look into it.
- If you work in a large organization, you probably already have an automated software distribution process in place. Check into it’s patch/update reporting capabilities and start requesting regular scans and checks on systems. The System Center family of products have you covered here.
- If you don’t have something in place – definitely look for options. Check out WSUS for your Microsoft OSs and Applications – regardless of your company size – IT’S FREE and does reporting, approvals and deployment centrally (or distributed) in your environment.
Test, Test and Test again.
- This used to be really hard and required A LOT of cycles to get a mocked up environment available. Now it is easier with the advent of Virtualization taking place all around you. Create a virtual lab of representative systems (within reason. How complex is your environment?) using Virtual PC, Hyper-V or vmware. Include your baseline of applications from your awareness phase and create a baseline test of what needs to work both before and after.
- Boot up your virtualized environment. Take a snapshot. Do your application test to validate functionality pre patch. Apply your patch. Do your application test to validate functionality post patch. Does it pass – do they match?
- Document testing results and patch approval.
Deployment – get ‘er done!
- Use your weapon of choice. At a minimum – you should ABSOLUTELY be using a WSUS implementation in your environment and configure your desktops and servers to point to it for updates. It’s free, can coexist on existing servers if required and centralizes your authorization of patches in order to prevent random downloads of patches that have not undergone testing. If you haven’t already implemented it – I strongly suggest you check it out. Main page for info can be found here. Step by Step deployment and implementation guide can be found here.
- If you are using a larger solution for software deployment already – ensure it is working correctly with your patching strategy and is used to the best of it’s abilities.
Reporting – Otherwise known as C.Y.B. (Cover Your Butt)
- It all comes full circle after a round of patching. You now have a new baseline for your systems. You will need to update your documentation and be able to provide a report on what systems have been patched, which ones have not and why they are in the state they are.

The worst possible thing you can do is to NOT patch your systems. You are exposing your organization (and your job security) at risk by not staying up to date. If you simply can not patch something – you are going to want to at least research mitigation steps to keep the system safe until such time as you can apply a patch. This is going to require further digging into patch itself and ultimately is only a Band-Aid fix for the short term.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post – this is part of a larger conversation we need to have as a community in order to help each other out. What do you do and how has it helped you cope with patching? Comment below or email me (rick.claus@microsoft.com) and I’ll make sure to include a follow up post here and quite probably create a special “out of band” podcast episode with your learnings.

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Windows 7 in Action

damirb — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 05:05:33 GMT

Yesterday, Rodney’s blog post reminding everyone that the Windows 7 Beta code will start to reboot your computer every two hours if you don’t migrate to the Release Candidate version before July 1 got me thinking about all of the great people I met during the EnergizeIT InstallFests that we held in many cities across the country. As we travelled the land, we also asked individuals who were interested in deploying Windows 7 in their environment to connect with us and we would enrol them in the IT Pro Momentum program. Many responded and there are lots of Windows 7 pilots going on across the country.

There are a lot of great stories out there and I want to share with you a couple that I found interesting. The first one takes place at a school of the arts in the Toronto area. The school uses computers to teach many artistic disciplines, including games development for the XBox 360, PC, and Zune using XNA among several tools. When the school was provided with new computer equipment for a lab, they made the decision to install Windows 7 beta because they felt it would perform better under very performance-hungry and graphical workloads then the OS shipped with the computers. They were right. The next step for them is to install Windows 7 RC for the summer term.

On the West Coast of Canada, Art Fuller helps friends, family and people in his community with their PC issues. Many of the people he deals with run Windows XP and most look to Art to provide guidance on what software they should run on their computers. As their main support vehicle, he needs to be able to reproduce the issue in Windows XP, even though he himself has been running Windows 7 since the first beta. I asked him about his installation and Windows XP Mode in Windows 7.

There is not much I can really 'discuss' about my installation of Windows 7 and XP Mode. They both are just working as expected. I do not have a real need for the XP Mode in respect to older applications that won't run on W7. My main use for it is to be able to go into XP mode when I get a call from someone that has XP and I need to follow along so I can help them troubleshoot.

I have to admit that it was an approach I had not anticipated but it helps to solve his support issue.

Want to share your Windows 7 story? Interested in piloting Windows 7 in your organization and getting free email-based tech support and additional resources to help you succeed? Drop me a line at damirb@microsoft.com and I’ll hook you up.

Damir

Reminder! Windows 7 Beta Expiration

rodney.buike — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 15:24:49 GMT

I just wanted to post a reminder that the Windows 7 Beta is set to expire on July 1st, 2009. What does that mean? Well it isn’t going to explode, eat your data or lock you out. What is going to happen is that the PC will force you to reboot every two hours. But have no fear there is a way to fix this, simply install the Windows 7 Release Candidate which you can still download.

While an upgrade isn’t supported, and I strongly recommend a clean install, you can find a workaround that will allow you to do an in place upgrade.

Grab the Release Candidate here!

Investing in ongoing Skills Training / Development.

Rick Claus — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 13:52:41 GMT

“Is it a school day tomorrow?”

I get this question almost every day from my kids. Doesn’t matter if it’s from my kindergarten aged twins or my “seasoned veteran” son who’s in grade 2. It’s on their minds as something they have to do – their task that occupies part of their day. So far – every time when I inquire why they are asking – the stock response is “just curious – I just want to know”.

So far – they love going to school. Hopefully that won’t change - learning and working with their friends on tasks they are given as part of the learning process. They get to take these skills, re-apply them again and again in different situations in order to reinforce what they have learned throughout the day. Wash, rinse, repeat.

Skills development and lifelong learning.

Wash, rinse, repeat.

When was the last time you took time to do some learning and investment in personal and technical development in your regular day to day tasks? This is something that is on top of everything else we have to do – it can be very time consuming – but a necessary evil. Let me help you out a bit with this.

I wanted to share a resource that I’ve known about for a while, but haven’t made the time to use on a regular basis. It’s an “extension” of the TechNet Virtual Lab site called Express Virtual Labs. Maybe you don’t have the time for a multi-part in depth look at technology, but you need to get up to speed quickly on the basics in order to get to the next step. You don’t have the time to invest in setting up a lab or scenario for a technology you KNOW will make my life easier at work. TechNet Virtual Labs (regular or express) takes that barrier out of the equation.

Virtually no hardware requirements (ok, you need a client system)
A reserved chunk of time for you on a sandbox virtual environment
Structured steps for lab exercises all laid out for you in a downloadable format
You can pick and choose what you would like to try

All you have to do is set aside some time at work or at home to try them out and make an investment in your skills development. I mentioned the new grouping called “Express format” – something that is more introductory based in a wide range of technologies - it should hopefully make it even easier to start the small steps required to make that investment.

Take a moment. Ask yourself - “is it a school day tomorrow"?

if it’s not, do yourself a favour and schedule a block of time to make it one – sooner, rather then later.

……you’ll thank yourself for it.

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Watch Your Inbox for TechDays Pricing

damirb — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 14:15:00 GMT

Last week when John blogged about the fact that TechDays registration was coming soon, I have received a number of emails and phone calls from folks across the country asking “When can I sign up?” and “Where can I get more details about TechDays 2009?”. I am pleased to say that we have a two part answer for you on this:

On the question on “Where can I find out more about TechDays 2009”, my answer is go to www.techdays.ca to learn about what the five TechDays 2009 tracks are all about, as well as who some of the speakers are likely to be across the country. We don’t yet have details on which sessions will be presented in each track – we are working hard on this right now – but we can share with you the track abstracts so that you can get a sense of the kind of sessions you can expect at TechDays 2009.

Regarding “When can I sign up?”, watch your mailbox for a special edition of the TechNet Flash with information on how to sign up at a very special limited time early bird price. If you are not a TechNet Flash subscriber, you want to sign up here right now to get this information to land in your Inbox.

We are at a very important milestone for TechDays 2009 so when you get the email, tell your friends and colleagues about it. The place to watch for details about TechDays 2009 is www.techdays.ca, but we’ll also post updates on this blog as we continue to drive towards Vancouver – our first stop on September 14 & 15, 2009.

Damir

Online Safety is Your Concern

rodney.buike — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 13:46:52 GMT

Are you a father, mother, brother, sister, uncle, aunt have friends, neighbors or know someone with kids? Chances are you are or do, so when I say online safety is something that should concern all of us, whether you have kids or not, it shouldn’t be a surprise. One of the challenges is with the technical savvy of today’s youth vs. that of their parents. Today’s youth have grown up with technology, IM, Facebook, MySpace are part of their culture and a lot of parents just don’t understand these technologies, the threats they can posses and more importantly how to protect their kids.

So how do we address this? While there are some great technologies, and I’ll get to those in a minute, as with anything education is key. Educating the parents on the threats and how to protect their kids is part of it as is educating kids in the realities.

There is a great Online Safety portal available with some great resources for both parents and their kids that I urge you to look at and try out the Family Safety tool from Live. There are some startling facts about the online behavior of Canadian youth…

- 88% of Canadian youth are online

- 50% of them have seen inappropriate content online

- 33% of them have been asked to share private information with someone they don’t know online

- 25% them have been asked by someone they only know online, to meet face to face.

- 15% of them said they would.

These are some numbers from a recent Ipsos Reid poll of both Canadian youth and their parents and the gap between what kids are doing, and what parents think they are doing is dramatic. While 33% of youth have been asked to share private information, when parents were asked only 25% had thought that was the case.

Get the facts, share them with the people you know and use your skills as the “IT person” for your friends and family to help keep them safe!

Mark Russinovich Chat on Application Compatibility

rodney.buike — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 15:40:00 GMT

With every new OS release comes some new features, changes to old features, fixes, kernel updates and more. While you might have read about some of these new features you probably have questions and now is your chance to find out more about Windows 7.

On Thursday, June 18, Mark Russinovich will host a virtual roundtable for IT pros worldwide to discuss Windows 7 Application Compatibility. This is a chance for IT pros to learn all about the Windows 7 Application Compatibility and answer any deployment and management questions that they may have. As part of the “virtual” experience, IT pros will be able to submit their questions about Windows 7 Application Compatibility to the panel live during the event—or submit questions in advance to vrtable@microsoft.com.

So the date and join Mark on Thursday, June 18 at: https://ms.istreamplanet.com/springboard.

“Security Bulletins for the regular IT guy” Podcast – 6/11/2009

Rick Claus — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 12:24:00 GMT

Three guys got together over pints in February 2009 and talked about how one of the issues facing Technical Professionals today is keeping their systems patched and up to date. This issue was brought up to them at a User Group meeting they were attending (Ottawa Windows Server User Group) where we were participating in an “Ask the Microsoft Guy” panel discussion.

Over pints at D’Arcy McGee’s, Pierre Roman, Bruce Cowper and I decided we would try to help solve the issue of information overload regarding patching and put together a timely podcast to go live each “Patch Tuesday”.

Goals:

Use plain English terms and every day language that any Technical professional can understand – minimize “corporate speak”.
Breakdown each Security Bulletin with summary information first followed by more details as to the impact an IT Pro would face.
Outline mitigation factors in case patches couldn’t be tested or applied in a timely fashion
Keep it top 20 minutes OR LESS. This one is critical – Keep It Simple, repeatable and get out of the IT Pros way to get on with their day.
Have fun!

Well – this is the 4th attempt and it’s 2 days after Patch Tuesday. We’re late. We got caught not being in the same city and got busy like technical professionals do and we ended up here. Sorry about that – we’ll try to not let it happen again. For the 5 of you listening – I’ll buy you a pint next time I’m in town.

Back to the update - have a listen directly from the embedded Silverlight player OR subscribe to the specific feed and download it to your iTunes / Zune software. There were a bunch of updates this month so we had lots to cover. We still ended up with some nice conversation at the end around lifecycle and patch deployment.

As always - if you have suggestions on making it better - please pass on your comments. Mail me directly – rick.claus@microsoft.com

Direct Download:

Subscribe to the podcast: (so you don't miss an episode)

Disclaimer: This podcast was produced with the best information available to us at the time of recording. Your primary source for all things Security Bulletin related should always be the Microsoft Security Response Center blog.

Bulletins discussed for June 9th, 2009:

MS09-018 - addresses a vulnerability in Microsoft Windows (KB 971055) – rated Critical
MS09-019 - addresses a vulnerability in Microsoft Internet Explorer (KB 969897) – rated critical
MS09-020 - addresses a vulnerability in Microsoft Internet Information Services (KB 970483) – rated important
MS09-021 - addresses a vulnerability in Microsoft Office (KB 969462) – rated critical
MS09-022 - addresses a vulnerability in Microsoft Windows (KB 961501) – rated Critical
MS09-023 - addresses a vulnerability in Microsoft Windows (KB 963093) – rated Moderate
MS09-024 - addresses a vulnerability in Microsoft Office (KB 957632) – rated critical
MS09-025 - addresses a vulnerability in Microsoft Windows (KB 968537) – rated important
MS09-026 - addresses a vulnerability in Microsoft Windows (KB 970238) – rated important
MS09-027 - addresses a vulnerability in Microsoft Office (KB 969514) – rated Critical

Podcast Participants: Pierre Roman, Bruce Cowper and myself.

Additional Technical Show Notes:

From Pierre:

Microsoft Support Lifecycle page: http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle

List by product families: http://support.microsoft.com/gp/lifeselect

Here is the official wording of the Security Update policy from Microsoft

Microsoft will provide security update support for a minimum of 10 years (through the Extended Support phase) for Business and Developer products. The security updates will apply only to the supported service pack level for these products.

Microsoft will provide security update support through the Mainstream Support phase for Consumer, Hardware, Multimedia products. The security updates will apply only to the supported service pack level for these products.

Both the Mainstream Support and the Extended Support phases require that the product’s supported service pack level be installed to continue to receive and install security updates.

Security updates will be available from Windows Update during the Mainstream Support phase, and the Extended Support phase (if available). Note that technical limitations in Microsoft Office 2000 require that it remain an exception to this process. Updates will be provided only through the Microsoft Download Center for the duration of its Support Lifecycle.

Microsoft advises customers to install the latest product releases, security updates, and service packs to remain as secure as possible. Older products, such as Microsoft Windows NT 4.0, may not meet today’s more demanding security requirements. Microsoft may be unable to provide security updates for older products.

PodSafe music from PodSafe Music Network @ http://music.podshow.com/. Artist: Derek K Miller, song - “You’re the Big Sky - rock guitar instrumental”

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Busy week ahead – Getting ready for Techdays 2009!

joxley — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 20:58:33 GMT

Hi Everyone,

I’m spending some time this afternoon catching up on some emails, reading planning briefs and building out our Fiscal Year 10 plan. As an FYI – we have a July to June fiscal year. Starting July 1st we are in our FY10.

If you can’t tell I’m pretty excited about this coming year and amazed by how my team, key community individuals and many others around the country are busy putting together TechDays for this coming year. I think it’s pretty special as it was your feedback that guided us to a conference that comes to you, supports the local ICT ecosystems and focuses on training and connecting each other to help grow/build our skills! I’m sure this year is going to be better and while we are still working on locking the sessions, the learning kit…etc - I thought it important to callout the great guests that attended last year that invested in an unknown conference. You not only were there at the start, you helped make this coming year better. In thanks, watch your inbox during the week of the 15th Jun for a thank you from me and the team. I don’t want to say to much more, but if you didn’t attend last year and want to this year - - it’s time to make friends with someone who has :-)

This opportunity will be sent only to last years guests, yet we won’t limit their generosity. They can take advantage themselves and share this opportunity with who they want (anyone and anyway) during a limited timeframe ~ June 15th to July 1st.

Get your approval process started, as you should get this on or just after the 15th June.

Oh, and keep an eye out for a beta of TechDays online coming soon – I know it’s a little delayed but we’ve been working closely with the TechEd team to make sure we are supporting your continuous learning…..and that’s all they’ll let me tell you. I will take a risk and share that we have Digiflare doing some work on it right now. I’m confident that it will be a great starting point to make better and can’t wait for your feedback then guidance.

Enough with the teasing and I’ll make sure while the rest of the team is busy making it happen, I’ll take the time to keep you informed.

Until next time.

John

John Oxley

Director Technical Audience Marketing and ICT Evangelism
Microsoft Canada | Direct (905) 363- 8589|Messenger joxley@microsoft.com | twitter:joxley

TechDays advance information! – because you asked!

joxley — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 19:10:00 GMT

Hi Everyone,

Thanks for your all your emails. After my announcement on Monday we’ve had many inquiries from those that need to gain approval, want to get the dates booked in their calendar or just want more information. I’m sure you understand there is a process we have to follow to get such broad announcements to you, yet from your feedback….it’s going too slow to meet your needs.. While we don’t have anything public as of yet and the plan is for that to go live on the 1st July, I I think we need to share something now. Given that there is so much interest show, and it’s no real secret - I’ve just cut and pasted our internal communication (see below) that Barnaby Jeans (TechDays overall lead) sent to our team yesterday..

Hope this helps, brings some clarity and supports you in getting to TechDays.

To make sure we keep supporting you, going forward the key individuals that are your primary contacts for TechDays are:

Rodney Buike

Damir Bersinic

John Bristowe

Please feel free to share this where you see fit.

Thanks.

John

John Oxley

Director Technical Audience Marketing and ICT Evangelism
Microsoft Canada | Direct (905) 363- 8589|Messenger joxley@microsoft.com | twitter:joxley

From: Barnaby Jeans
Sent: June-04-09 1:54 PM

Hi Everyone,

Earlier today John posted the announcement of our expanded schedule for TechDays 2009 and it’s great to see the impact that a community can have. This year’s schedule looks like the following:

Vancouver – September 14 & 15, 2009
Toronto – September 29 & 30, 2009
Halifax – November 2 & 3, 2009
Calgary – November 17 & 18, 2009
Montreal – December 2 & 3, 2009
Ottawa – December 9 & 10, 2009
Winnipeg – December 15 & 16, 2009

In addition to the dates, we want to share with you the official track names for TechDays 2009:

Developing for the Microsoft-Based Platform
Developer Fundamentals and Best Practices
Windows Client
Servers, Security, and Management
Communications and Collaboration

The community team is looking to what sessions fit the needs of the audience and are sifting through many possible session. We’ve gotten and continue to reach out across the country to build this out as we want to lock on the sessions for mid-July. It would great to get a good list and gain as much input as we can as the TechDays team puts together the tracks. If you have ideas or suggestions, please let me know.

Finally, the pricing for this year is locked and as follows:

Early bird pricing of $299.99 with the full conference price of $599.99. Early bird pricing and registration will go live on July 1st. We are also working on a pre-reg price for those that attended last year, however to show our respect to those that invested last year we will also give them the opportunity to share it with who they want (anyone and anyway) during a limited timeframe ~ June 15th to July 1st

Just want to keep everyone informed on how we are all tracking.

This is exciting - I look forward to how we are going to better serve our audience grow their skills with an awesome TechDays2009.

Regards,

Barnaby

Microsoft Fixit – Fixing Your Problems for You!

rodney.buike — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 12:59:00 GMT

Sasha Krsmanovic from the MVP team is back with another guest blog post on Microsoft Fix It. I saw this on a KB article a while ago and gave it a whirl and loved the fact that I could run a verified MSI to fix the problem I had rather than editing the registry or making other system changes.

-------------------------

Do your family, neighbors or friends consider you their unofficial IT department? I bet you just love to receive those calls, especially now that the summer has finally arrived in Canada. No worries, because help is on the way. You may be able to help them ‘learn how to fish’ and hopefully not spend a lot of time fixing their computer problems. The solution I’d like to tell you about is called “Microsoft FixIT”

You might have seen the FixIT logo in some KB articles, indicating that this KB article has been ‘automated’. What does this mean? Rather than following a long list of steps published in a KB article in order to fix a problem, a user can just “FixIT” (run a code checked MSI file). These KB instructions are often beyond average user capabilities. They may involve modifying the registry to configure Internet Explorer to download more than two files at once or modifying the registry to make sure a new USB device is recognized by Windows XP / Windows Server 2003. Or how about a user friendly error code such as “0x8007000B” when using Windows Update or fixing Runtime Errors in Internet Explorer.

Help make the world a better place. J Educate your not-so-tech-savvy friends on what Microsoft FixIT can do for them. Added bonus: this will save your time too. We’ve had amazing success in partnering with Dell, which saw a 12% increase in its online problem solving. Overall, we have had over a 1,000,000 downloads of the 100+ available FixIT solutions. Our customers are reporting a 95% success rate with these automated solutions. So, it is a safe place to send them to, and it will only get better as we provide more automated solutions.

You can find out more about FixIt solutions here. Feel free connect with me at Twitter and even suggest a KB article to automate!

Introducing Bing

rodney.buike — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 14:43:00 GMT

You may have heard about Bing, a new ~~search~~ decision engine, that was recently released. Miguel Carrasco, an MVP from my hometown of Winnipeg, got early access to Bing and wrote up this post on Bing, what it is, how it is different and I hope you give it a try. As always we appreciate your feedback so send us an email or leave a comment!

-------------------------

I’ve been following the search war for some time now and have been pretty much disappointed every time a company has come around and hyped their new search engine as the next big thing. When I first heard about Bing from Microsoft (Kumo), I was very skeptical. When I actually saw Bing, I was pumped. Pumped enough that within about 10 minutes, I switched my default search engine to Bing. The reason I was so pumped was because Microsoft listened to so much feedback from everyone, and hit a home run implementing many suggestions from users!

So if you are one of the users that have always wanted to see some major enhancements in search, and had to watch Google basically stop innovating on basic search, try out Bing! You will be pleasantly surprised to see all the little annoying things you wished were implemented in Google, are now in Bing! I realize I am really going out on limb by saying this, but Microsoft has created a search engine that is better than Google Search, and its only day one. Let’s go on a feature tour.

Feature Tour

I recently started getting into photography as a hobby and wanted a nice Digital SLR beginner camera, but didn’t want to spend a lot of money. My quest online took a while. Reading different sources to get opinions, watching videos, and reading blogs took forever until I finally settled on a Nikon D60. One of the reasons it took forever was there seemed to be no way of finding all the data I wanted easily. Let’s try a search with Bing!

One of the most powerful features in Bing is that it is not your typical search engine that always looks the same. It is in fact an awesome decision making tool that tries to lead you to the right information right away. So when I search for a Nikon D60 on Bing, you get a really powerful screen full of information.

You’ll notice in the screen below that I get a picture of the camera, rated by ease of use, and size, and an overall rating of 4.5 out of 5. This data is actually gathered and aggregated from sources all over the web!

You can then click on User Reviews, and get even more data on the camera, all from within Bing! The data that you get is awesome and allows you to make decisions on the camera very quickly.

Along the left side you can also see a quick filter screen that allows you to filter your search results on various items. For my Camera search, I can now select Videos, Images, Lenses, Repair, Manual, Accessories, and more. In this case let’s choose Videos.

Videos are awesome in Bing. You can easily navigate through the list of videos, and hover over any video, to start watching it! You can even mute the audio if you like. The video search searches pretty much every major video source on the internet, and displays them in an easy to use interface. You don’t even have to go to the web site in order to view the video! It’s pretty cool to watch videos from site like YouTube and Soapbox all from within one interface and not have to hit the back button over and over!

Why don’t we do another search now for Vancouver Olympics. A cool feature that I find really useful is the preview option. Simply hover over to the right of your search result, and a nice information bubble shows you information from the web site, without actually having to click on the listing! So for example in the case of the Vancouver Olympics, I get the official web site of the games. But maybe I want Ticket Information. Typically I would get lost on a site looking for the information. Bing has already found it for me.

By hovering over to the right, I get a quick excerpt from the web site, as well as important links on the web site itself. I can select from Accessibility, Media Centre, Athletes and Sports, Competition Schedule, and Ticketing Information.

The last two features I wanted to focus on are image searching, and the new filtering tabs. Let’s search or Vancouver this time. You’ll notice I’m presented with some filters that are specific to my search. This is what I find awesome. It knows I probably want Weather, Airport, Hotels, Map, Real Estate, or Images. I’ll choose Weather.

So looks like the weather in Vancouver is nothing to write home about. Let’s filter on Images.

The Image search is pretty awesome. It shows you all the images, as well as related searches that you might find useful. When you hover over images, they kind of pop out at you, and allow you to search similar images, or provide feedback on the image. If you were to click into an image at this point, you get a really easy to navigate screen showing you all the images in your search.

Conclusion

There are some really cool innovations in Bing. While the travel features, the product comparison features, and restaurant reviews are pretty cool, the thing I love the most has to be the overall usability of Bing. It beats Google hands down. Navigating throughout the application, you are never taken away from the familiar look and feel. You can go to videos, images, review information, and your navigation never changes! Try doing things you can do in Bing in Google, and you end up lost within a few minutes, and forced to hit the back button and praying your browser remembers what you did last.

The real innovation and magic in Bing is how Microsoft was able to apply so many seemingly little enhancements in search, provide a familiar interface to users, and also increase the relevance of the search results. The magic in creating awesome software and web applications is to solve extremely complex problems, and make things seem “simple” to the user. Microsoft has hit a home run with Bing. Bing is not simply a re-branding of Live Search, it is a huge step forward over any other search engine I have ever used.

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Miguel Carrasco runs software development and technology at Anvil Digital, a software development and marketing company in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He also writes a popular blog, Software Development in the Real World. With over 10 years experience in the IT industry, Miguel has been involved in over 100 real world projects ranging from software development, team leadership and organization, creative user experience design, and infrastructure projects.

TechDays Expands to Another city in 2009!!

joxley — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 06:46:37 GMT

TechDays 2008 was such a success that we had many comments and feedback that we should expand it to more cities. Given our goal to support your development with skills growth, connecting you with your peers and experts to share insights and lessons learned, as well as helping your continued learning journey with the learning kit, it made sense to listen to this opportunity. We have been planning TechDays 2009 since January and as part of the planning process, we also did a capacity review. Going through the capacity review we realized that we could grow and support up to 8 or 9 cites with a limit of only adding one per year. As soon as we found this out, we reviewed all your emails and comments around this area….and there were lots.

Personally, I received over 1000 emails. From the review, it was clear that the two cities with the loudest voices were Edmonton and Halifax. As an FYI other cities for which we received feedback included Quebec City, Moncton, Victoria, Saskatoon, Waterloo

and Regina. I then directed our team on two paths to find out which city was going to be added this year. Barnaby Jeans lead the data and analytics with John Bristowe, Damir Bersinic and Rick Claus leading the community outreach.

I never thought that this outreach would go to the levels that it did. From the passionate emails, support from local venues to the broad social media groundswell - it was amazing. I wish that I could choose both, yet we just can’t support adding two cities this year. There was passion from both cites and with the data and analytics correctly hitting the numbers, we needed to go forward with the only differentiator -- the community voice.

The city that won started out behind and surpassed the other with their connected community outreach. They went past the city perspective and rallied as a larger entity…..The Maritimes. Yes, I’m proud to announce that on November 2 & 3, 2009, TechDays 2009 will be in Halifax.

Both cities were represented very well! As a result of the great community response, I feel that everyone who took the time to raise their voice should be recognized for their efforts! You know who you are, and in addition to our thanks, please reach out to Rick, Damir or John and they’ll extend to you a special Directors TechDays discount offer to attend TechDays 2009. Please note the offer will be valid during the pre-registration period from June 15 until July 1.

Thanks again for all your feedback and support for TechDays. Stay tuned for more information for early bird registration coming in July! For those that attended last year watch your inbox mid to late June for a special thanks for your loyalty!

John

John Oxley

Director Technical Audience Marketing and ICT Evangelism
Microsoft Canada | Direct (905) 363- 8589|Messenger joxley@microsoft.com | twitter:joxley

Get Certified!

rodney.buike — Mon, 25 May 2009 16:31:16 GMT

With all the turmoil in the job market right now there couldn’t be a better time to get certified. Certification can be that differentiator with your boss over who stays and who goes, can help you prove your skill set with potential employers and I know of more than one HR department that scans for those letters (MCSA, MCSE, MCITP, etc…) when browsing resumes. There are a lot of options and offers when it comes to getting certified. From the Second Shot offer, which allows you to retake an exam if you happen to fail, to the Are You Certifiable challenge, and more there is no end to options.

I was talking with Brian Bourne from CMS, a Toronto based consulting and training company, about their MCITP Bootcamp. One of the big challenges I found when obtaining my Windows 2000 MCSE was getting the knowledge I needed that matched the skills and experience I already had. The other challenge I had was with time. Time is always a limiting factor and while it would be great to take two months off to prep for the exams but that never went over well with management. After talking with Brian for a while that is exactly what the MCITP Bootcamp aims to solve.

The 10 Day Boot Camp will prepare qualified Microsoft professionals to earn the Microsoft Certified IT Professional (MCITP): Server Administrator and MCITP: Enterprise Administrator certifications for Server 2008. Students will learn by doing through lectures, demos, labs and solid technical instruction that successfully reduces the 44 day certification to 10 days. The course takes place in September but space is limited.

Tuition includes:

· Pre-course reading and exercises

· Training, course content, books and hands-on labs

· 180 day access to all relevant MeasureUp exams.

· All exams needed for certification, along with free ‘Second Shot’ retake voucher for each exam if needed.

· All exams are written on-premise during the boot camp.

· All meals including breakfast, lunch & dinner

· Free Wi-Fi Internet in the training centre

I even managed to swing a $500 discount code for the bootcamp from Brian for our lucky readers, simply use the code MS09 when registering. And if you are a Software Assurance customer you can use your Software Assurance training vouchers against the cost of the course as well. Find out more here –> MCITP Certification Bootcamp

Kai Axford Canadian Security Tour

rodney.buike — Thu, 21 May 2009 15:32:17 GMT

Culminis and Microsoft’s User Group Support Services (UGSS) are pleased to announce their co-sponsorship of a 9 User Group tour of Canada, between May 26 and June 18, 2009, by world renowned security expert, Kai Axford (CISSP, MCSE-Security). Kai is a Senior Security Strategist in Microsoft’s Trustworthy Computing Group and is based in Dallas, Texas. A ten-year Microsoft veteran, Kai is responsible for discussing and recommending security solutions for both private and public sector organizations. In addition, he conducts Chief Security Officer councils worldwide, taking executive feedback and affecting change within Microsoft’s security products and processes. Kai started with Microsoft in 1999 as a Server Support Engineer and then moved on to become an IT Pro Evangelist, focusing on his peers through the Microsoft TechNet Events program. Kai has delivered more than 300 security presentations on a variety of topics, including digital forensics, security management, incident response, and computer espionage. He is a frequent speaker at security conferences, executive meetings, and business seminars around the world. He is finishing an MBA in Information Assurance and is a member of ISSA, INFRAGARD, ASIS, and the North Texas Electronic Crimes Task Force. He was the recipient of the 2006 “Rising Star” award from the Information Security Executive council. Kai is interested in security management and hopes to become a Chief Security Officer one day. Prior to Microsoft, Kai served as a leader in several real-world operations with the U.S. Army's elite 75th Ranger Regiment.

Kai is an outstanding speaker and is in constant demand around the world. So we are very fortunate indeed to be able to provide this opportunity. Following 3 hugely successful previous tours of Canada Kai is back for a 4^th time. Kai’s presentation will cover:

· Windows 7 Security Tidbits - Windows 7 is coming and the boss is asking you about all those new security features. Perhaps you've heard some buzz about AppLocker? What’s this about DirectAccess connecting securely to your corporate network without a VPN? What’s up with BitlLocker To Go? In this fun and interactive session, Kai Axford, a Microsoft Senior Security Strategist with Microsoft’s Trustworthy Computing team, will demonstrate some of the new security features in Microsoft's newest desktop operating system. Bring your questions and get the scoop on these upcoming Microsoft security technologies!

· Understanding and Preventing Insider Threat – Many analysts have stated that the Number One issue facing corporate customers today is the threat of targeted corporate espionage coming from within the organization. Join Kai Axford, a security strategist from the Microsoft Trustworthy Computing team for an entertaining and engaging session, as he shares real stories from the trenches about the risk this threat presents for both you and your customers. He’ll demo the means by which these attacks occur and discuss the mindset of the attackers. Don’t miss the chance to see how this is done!

Mississauga - May 26 - https://www.clicktoattend.com/invitation.aspx?code=138016

Toronto - May 27 - http://www.task.to/events/upcoming.php

Winnipeg - May 28 - https://www.clicktoattend.com/invitation.aspx?code=137944

Montreal - June 2 - http://www.mitpro.ca

Quebec -June 4 -http://www.gsiq.org/

Vancouver - June 16 - http://www.clicktoattend.com/?id=137335

Edmonton -June 17 - http://www.clicktoattend.com/?id=137132

Calgary – June18 - http://www.clicktoattend.com/?id=137822

For those who can’t make those events there will also be two LiveMeeting sessions where you will be able to take part in the presentations as well.

Live Meeting SESSION 1 - Windows 7 Security Tidbits (6/9/2009 12:00 PM (CDT))

June 9 6/9/2009 12:00 PM (CDT)

https://www.livemeeting.com/lrs/microsoft1/Registration.aspx?pageName=7kt1pnfszjxs6dcc

Live Meeting SESSION 2 - Understanding and Preventing Insider Threat

June 11 6/11/2009 12:00 PM (CDT)

https://www.livemeeting.com/lrs/microsoft1/Registration.aspx?pageName=82ftzmtpd8dcbwg5