CS Techcast: The Technology Information IT Professionals Need to Succeed

CS Techcast 82: All About Site Design

Eric Johnson, Eric Beehler, Josh Jones, and Dana Warren — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 03:00:00 -0600

CStechcast.com is the podcast for IT pros. This week we have Zee Kane, Principal at WeDoCreative and Editor in Chief at The Next Web, who joins us from UK to talk about proper site design and what companies should be thinking about to move their web designs forward. Find more from Zee's web design and marketing company at WeDoCreative.com. In the news, Software as a Service sees reluctant adoption, IBM gets patents for image based data masking, Microsoft registers C# and Common Language Infrastructure specifications under their "Community Promise", new remote-code execution flaw in the Microsoft Video Active-X control causes concern, and Google Apps and other Google projects gets their beta tag removed. Comcast's unwanted DNS redirection gets "The Worst Tech Move of the Week", we take "A Closer Look" at the newly announced Google Chrome OS, and we explore firewall settings for Windows 7 in "The Weekly Tech Tip".

This week's episode is sponsored by: Consortio Services, a quality partner that can help you manage your IT.

CS Techcast 81: Finding the Holes in Privileged Accounts

Eric Johnson, Eric Beehler, Josh Jones, and Dana Warren — Mon, 6 Jul 2009 03:00:00 -0600

Welcome to another episode of the podcast for IT Pros, only at CStechcast.com. This week we are exploring privileged account management and how to reduce the attack surface of that powerful access with Phil Lieberman, President and CEO of Lieberman Software. Find more information at http://www.liebsoft.com. In the news Google Apps continues to add features useful for business environments with a new API for contacts, Cisco and VMWare find better ways to VMotion a VM across data centers, AMD's newest Opteron makes it's debut in new HP servers and workstations, Adobe's employees gets an involuntary week off, and new evidence that IT spending may be on an uptick. Facebook's attempt to get you comfy and open up to the world gets "The Worst Tech move of the Week", we take "A Closer Look" at the challenges of backing up virtualized servers, and we review the gotchas of upgrading Small Business Server in "The Weekly Tech Tip".

This week's episode is sponsored by: Consortio Services, a quality partner that can help you manage your IT.

CS Techcast 80: Open Source Infrastructure

Eric Johnson, Eric Beehler, Josh Jones, and Dana Warren — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 03:00:00 -0600

We are back with another episode of the podcast for IT pros at CStechcast.com. This week the topic is open source infrastructure and how it applies in the enterprise with Frank Wiles of Revolution Systems. Find more information on Frank and his company at revsys.com. In the news, Microsoft announces pricing for Windows 7, Intel puts out updated compilers, bad hiring is losing money, and Bing still can't compete with Google. MySpace takes the social out of their business with their treatment of layed-off employees making "The Worst Tech Move of the Week", we take "A Closer Look" at how you can bridge into the cloud from traditional applications, and get guidance on which Windows Perfmon counters to use when troubleshooting memory problems with "The Weekly Tech Tip".

This week's episode is sponsored by: Consortio Services, a quality partner that can help you manage your IT.

CS Techcast 79: Finding Community About the Cloud at Building43

Eric Johnson, Eric Beehler, Josh Jones, and Dana Warren — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 03:00:00 -0600

Welcome to the podcast for IT pros at CSTechcast.com. This week we are with Robert Scoble, Rob La Gesse, and Rocky Barbanica of Rackspace at the launch of Building43 to discover why business needs to pay attention to The 2010 Web and how IT professionals need to approach the cloud. Find more information at http://building43.com. In the news; Microsoft gets set to launch a free anti-virus program, Symbian unveils it's developer site to the public for it's open source phone OS, Juniper Networks shows off a 100GB Ethernet adapter, and many admit in a new survey to abusing privileged accounts to gain access to private information. AT&T's lack of support for the new iPhone 3Gs features and the charges for upgrades to loyal Apple fans gets "The Worst Tech Move of the Week", we riff on the interview and talk about getting started with the cloud for small and medium business in "A Closer Look", and "The Weekly Tech Tip" covers multi-server queries and the Object Explorer in SQL Server 2008.

CS Techcast 78: Bringing VMWare to Your Windows Servers

Eric Johnson, Eric Beehler, Josh Jones, and Dana Warren — Mon, 8 Jun 2009 03:00:00 -0600

CSTechcast.com has the podcast for IT pros. This week we talk with about the future of the Windows Server platform on VMWare and how to get a virtualized infrastructure right with Darren Duke, founder of Simplified Technology Solutions. Find more on Darren and his company at http://simplified-tech.com and the blog http://blog.darrenduke.net. In the news; Bing sees some success overtaking the number 2 search spot, IBM challenges Microsoft over a website claiming love of Windows from Websphere, HP goes after those loyal to their mainframes, Verizon brings its own computing as a service offering, and Windows 7 gets a release date. Hulu's thought that they can play for pay gets "The Worst Tech Move of the Week", we take "A Closer Look" at why small and medium business should consider monitoring and automation, and slow IE8 tabs may not be the fault of the browser; find out how to investigate with "The Weekly Tech Tip".

CS Techcast 77: Open Source When Times are Tough

Eric Johnson, Eric Beehler, Josh Jones, and Dana Warren — Mon, 1 Jun 2009 03:00:00 -0600

The place for the IT professional's podcast, CSTechcast.com. This week, the effect of the economy on open source and how you could help your IT organization by going open. We get the answers and the approach from Ned Lilly, president and CEO of xTuple and an open source ERP guru. Find information on Ned at nedscape.com and his company at xtuple.com. In the news; the US Department of Interior admits a major security breach reporting 18% of computers missing, IBM announces new incentives to stay on old mainframes, Dell takes a big hit in revenues for the quarter, EMC buys up Configursoft, and Microsoft gets a new look and a new name: Bing! Newspapers planning to charge for online content race to the grave in "The Worst Tech Move of the Week", the hard to explain Google Wave gets "A Closer Look", and Terminal Server gets a quick security sweep in "The Weekly Tech Tip".

CS Techcast 76: The Future of Health Care IT

Eric Johnson, Eric Beehler, Josh Jones, and Dana Warren — Mon, 25 May 2009 03:00:00 -0600

The podcast for IT professionals, and CIOs, is new every week at CSTechcast.com. This week we cover information technology in health care with Ron Lindsay of Emtec about what the future holds as health care enters an era of change. Find more information at http://emtecinc.com. In the news, all those still running Office 2000 have hit the end of the line for support, HP announces anther drop in revenue as well as more job cuts, Microsoft begins support of SQL Server clusters on virtual machines, Intel delays the release of it’s newest Itanium process until next year, and Microsoft is set to debut their updated "Kumo" search engine this week. Apple's refusal to admit it has a security problem gets "The Worst Tech Move of the Week", we take "A Closer Look" at how business laptops are different, and we tell you how to access virtual hard drive files directly from Windows 7 without starting the virtual machine in "The Weekly Tech Tip".

CS Techcast 75: What do you know, CIO?

Eric Johnson, Eric Beehler, Josh Jones, and Dana Warren — Mon, 18 May 2009 03:00:00 -0600

Welcome to the podcast for IT pros, available at CSTechcast.com. This week, we talk about the realities of managing an IT organization from the top in this battered economy with Christopher Reichert, Executive Chair of the 6th Annual MIT Sloan CIO Symposium. Find additional information at mitcio.com. In the news; HP issues a major battery recall, a group of Sun shareholders try to block its sale to Oracle, a Google outage of some services raises questions about the cloud, new research reveals major malware on many web sites, and Microsoft announces support and tools for PHP on the Windows Azure cloud services platform. A best of "Worst Tech Move of the Week", we take "A Closer Look" at new software coming from the Microsoft TechEd conference, and a little help to get a lock down on security for your Sharepoint servers in "The Weekly Tech Tip".

CS Techcast 74: The Challenge of Getting Control of IT with ITIL

Eric Johnson, Eric Beehler, Josh Jones, and Dana Warren — Wed, 13 May 2009 03:00:00 -0600

Welcome to CSTechcast.com, the podcast for IT professionals. ITIL is the standard for IT governance, but challenges of implementation and understanding still remain. We talk to Matthew Schvimmer, the head of products for IT Service Management and Project Portfolio Management at HP, to discuss what ITIL version 3 brings to the table, how it's not a magic bullet, and the work it takes to realize the benefits. For more information, go to hp.com. In the news, Polycom adds to the small business VoIP mix with a new PBX and wireless phones, Sun's StorageTek reports big sales of the high end 17 petabyte capable system, Oracle's Larry Ellison states that they will retail Sun's storage division, and Microsoft offers up Azure cloud computing solutions to government. Microsoft's rename of the very annoying Windows Genuine Advantage to Windows Activation Technologies is just lipstick on the pig of "The Worst Tech Move of the Week", we take "A Closer Look" at the good and the bad of the Windows 7 release candidate, and "The Weekly Tech Tip" is for SQL Server admin with advice on getting that data fitting into your query results inside SQL Server Management Studio.

CS Techcast 73: A Virtuilized Infrastructure without Tools

Eric Johnson, Eric Beehler, Josh Jones, and Dana Warren — Mon, 4 May 2009 03:00:00 -0600

CSTechcast.com, the source of the podcast for IT pros. This week we discuss the utter lack of visibility into virtualized infrastructure with Charles Thompson, product manager for Network Instruments, who discusses a new survey that shows 75% of organizations lack tools to monitor their virtual environments. Find The State of the Network Global Study at http://www.networkinstruments.com. In the news, Twitter gets hacked again giving us pause when envisioning private business use in a professional model, Seagate announces Replica to easily backup computers, Sun releases the latest update to Solaris the week after the Oracle takeover of Sun was announced, Windows 7 gets it’s Release Candidate released, and Office 2007 Service Pack 2 adds ODF edit and PDF save support. Minnesota's hops into the slippery slope with its requirement of ISP’s to filter gambling web sites to earn "The Worst Tech Move of the Week", we take "A Closer Look" at the Kindle as a replacement for your tech library, and a quick way to get a desktop moved with all of user’s documents and settings is "The Weekly Tech Tip".

CS Techcast 72: How To Find SharePoint Implementation Success

Eric Johnson, Eric Beehler, Josh Jones, and Dana Warren — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 03:00:00 -0600

Welcome to CSTechcast.com, the podcast for IT pros. This week Erica Toelle, Sharepoint project implementation expert, gives us the scoop on Sharepoint project success. Find her insight at ericatoelle.com. In the news; the Sun-Oracle merger brings complications and an uncertain future for several Sun side solutions, uneven financial results mark the quarter for tech companies, Linux distro Ubuntu sees a major new release, and the RSA conference gets word of a major new botnet in force. IBM's attitude towards the Sun deal turns into a loss earning "The Worst Tech Move of the Week", we take "A Closer Look" at sys admin tools for your iPhone, and Sharepoint admins get some help in "The Weekly Tech Tip".

CS Techcast 71: Virtual Conferences: Everything but the Handshake

Eric Johnson, Eric Beehler, Josh Jones, and Dana Warren — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 03:00:00 -0600

CSTechcast.com, the home of the podcast for IT professionals released every week. This week we talk to Stephen Wynkoop, founder and editor of SSWUG.org, about virtualized conferences and how it can get your tech skills sharp. Find more info at www.vconferenceonline.com/upcoming.asp. In the news, more mess for Microsoft from the DOJ, Sun gets Nehalemized with new Intel Xeon processors and a network switch addition much like Cisco's new server solution, IBM aims to have 28-nanometer chip manufacturing next year, Intel dips its profits but sees a bottom, and Verizon Business Security reports security breaches of 285 million records last year and the problem is still most common from servers and applications. Twitter's spotlight on Entertainment Tonight gets "The Worst Tech Move of the Week", we take "A Closer Look" at the new Exchange 2010 beta, and we give you some tools for your malware tool belt in "The Weekly Tech Tip".

CS Techcast 70: Why Going Green Makes You Green

Eric Johnson, Eric Beehler, Josh Jones, and Dana Warren — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 03:00:00 -0600

CSTechcast.com is your source to get the podcast for IT professionals. This week we talk to Toby J. Velte, author of Green IT: Reduce Your Information System's Environmental Impact While Adding to the Bottom Line, about the hard facts you can use to get buy-in to green your data centers. Find more info at Velte.com. In the news, the Confiker worm continues it's appetite for destruction by charging you for fake anti-virus software, Microsoft says Happy Easter with a basket-full of new patches, Google gives up some detail on data center efficiencies they have developed, spies are apparently successfully hacking US infrastructure interests, and Sun wins a big contract from the US Health and Human Services to build open source apps for health care. The media's reporting of recent technology trends gets "The Worst Tech Move of the Week", we take "A Closer Look" at our experience implementing open source solutions, and we give you some group policy goodness with Windows 7's AppLocker which you can use to control programs in "The Weekly Tech Tip".

CS Techcast 69: Collaborating with SaaS

Eric Johnson, Eric Beehler, Josh Jones, and Dana Warren — Mon, 6 Apr 2009 03:00:00 -0600

Welcome to the podcast for IT pros, available at CSTechcast.com. This week we talk to Avinoam Nowogrodski, co-founder and CEO of Clarizen, about collaboration using SaaS applications and what benefit the SaaS platform serves a business over traditional internal applications. Find more information at clarizen.com. In the news, the Conficker worm comes in with a whimper on April 1st but is still considered a threat, all major server manufacturers get online with the latest Intel Nehalem-based Xeon processors, Intel keeps taking share away from AMD, IBM is getting closer to swallowing Sun, and Microsoft debuts Windows Server 2008 Foundation for small business. Mac fans who can't leave that Microsoft price commercial alone make "The Worst Tech Move of the Week", we take "A Closer Look" at spear phishing, and a little application called PRTG Network Monitor helps you monitor and report on network devices, workstations, and servers in "The Weekly Tech Tip".

CS Techcast 68: Server Side Solutions

Eric Johnson, Eric Beehler, Josh Jones, and Dana Warren — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 12:00:00 -0600

CSTechcast.com brings you another podcast for IT pros. This week we talk about innovations in the server space and what to consider for the modern data center and cash strapped businesses with HP Vice-President of Industry Standard Servers, Paul Gottsegan. In the news, Conficker is ticking down to April 1st, HP releases an analysis tool for Adobe Flash code to look for security holes, Sun releases it's latest Virtual Desktop Infrastructure Software 3, and Red Hat beats Wall Street expectation giving good news to the tech economy and open source. Complexity on network equipment updates to protect against security holes gets "The Worst Tech Move of the Week", we take "A Closer Look" at the need for standards in the cloud, and we show you some tricks to get Linux setup in Hyper-V in "The Weekly Tech Tip".

CS Techcast 67: Measuring and Monitoring Real-time Transactions

Eric Johnson, Eric Beehler, Josh Jones, and Dana Warren — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 03:00:00 -0600

Once again, CSTechcast.com brings you another podcast for IT pros. This week we talk to Marc Borbas, Vice President at INETCO, about how the approach to measuring and monitoring real-time applications that often leave your sphere of control. Find more information at INETCO.com. In the news, Internet Explorer 8 is officially release and gets a cool reception, IBM is looking to swoop in on Sun with a takeover bid, the FTC looking into privacy concerns around Google cloud applications like Apps and GMail, EMC pushing bigger and faster solid state drive technology into the data center, and Microsoft aims to make it easier to find bugs in your code with Crash Analyzer. Quick hacks at a contest of the top 3 browser's security gets "The Worst tech Move of the Week", small and mid-size business security options gets "A Closer Look", and new features of DHCP server in Windows Server 2008 R2 and a new tool are covered in "The Weekly Tech Tip".

CS Techcast 66: PaaS Your Applications to the Cloud

Eric Johnson, Eric Beehler, Josh Jones, and Dana Warren — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 03:00:00 -0600

Welcome to another podcast for IT pros always available at CSTechcast.com. This week we talk about Platform as a Service and get the scoop on cloud computing trends for business with the CEO of LongJump, Pankaj Malviya. Find more information at longjump.com. In the news, Amazon launches their Reserved Instances service for EC2, open source is steadily gaining in IT shops, Linux gets a boast in use in server rooms and may be the future on the desktops of businesses, AT&T boosts capital spending and hiring, and the Confiker worm continues it's attack with a new variant and threat of massive DDoS attacks. Twitter's strange approach to it's own influence gets "The Worst Tech Move of the Week", we take "A Closer Look" at new features and fixed bugs coming for the Windows 7 release candidate, and a story to keep you on the a logical troubleshooting path is "The Weekly Tech Tip".

CS Techcast 65: The Challenge of Application Testing

Eric Johnson, Eric Beehler, Josh Jones, and Dana Warren — Mon, 9 Mar 2009 03:00:00 -0600

Announcing another podcast for IT pros, straight from CSTechcast.com. This week we talk about what approach you should take to application testing and the tools to help you get there with HP Senior Director of Products Mark Sarbiewski. Find complete information at hp.com. In the news, IE8 will get a sort of on-off switch in Windows 7, new critical updates for Microsoft Patch Tuesday, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is forced to defend Windows Mobile at the CIO Summit, virtualization and cloud service continue to gain acceptance in business, and the general economy continues to dive but IT consulting jobs are trending up. Tech companies sitting on cash instead of investing for the future get "The Worst Tech Move of the Week", we take "A Closer Look" at alternative tech training, and understand network teaming in Hyper-V with "The Weekly Tech Tip".

CS Techcast 64: The Vulnerable Network

Eric Johnson, Eric Beehler, Josh Jones, and Dana Warren — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 03:00:00 -0700

CSTechcast.com brings you the podcast for IT Pros; a "Top 10" according to CIO Insight. This week we talk hacking and vulnerabilities with Joel Scambray, CISSP, co-founder and CEO of Consciere, and co-author of Hacking Exposed. Find more info from Joel at webhackingexposed.com. This week, Microsoft stays steady on custom support pricing, HP earnings result in job cuts, Sun likes its encryption open source, IBM wants in on the broadband stimulus money, and Microsoft gets cozy with Red Hat with an interoperability pact. Facebook's ToS meltdown gets "The Worst Tech Move of the Week", we take "A Closer Look" at some utility cloud options, and DHCP migration to Server 2008 is "The Weekly Tech Tip.

CS Techcast 63: What It Takes to Get VoIP Right

Eric Johnson, Eric Beehler, Josh Jones, and Dana Warren — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 03:00:00 -0700

CSTechcast.com brings you the podcast for IT Pros; a "Top 10" according to CIO Insight. This week we talk with Jim Thor, network engineer for Wild Packets, about VoIP in the enterprise and how to identify the pitfalls and get a successful system in place. Find more on their solutions at WildPackets.com. In the news, IT sees a slight uptick in jobs, Ruby is becoming the programming language of choice for techies in emerging markets, not all is well at the Sun acquired MySQL with David Axmark and Michael Widenius resigning, IBM will be providing core IBM software such as DB2 and WebSphere from Amazon's Web Services cloud platform, and Microsoft puts a $250,000 bounty on the head of the Conficker Worm's author. A Canadian court's ruling that ISP logs are fair game for authorities gets "The Worst Tech Move of the Week", we take "A Closer Look" at hiring a consultant versus hiring an employee, and we help you protect against the Conficker Worm in "The Weekly Tech Tip".

CS Techcast 62: Going Green Through De-Duplication

Eric Johnson, Eric Beehler, Josh Jones, and Dana Warren — Mon, 9 Feb 2009 03:00:00 -0700

CSTechcast.com, where you can find the podcast for IT professionals. This week we have Chris Poelker, VP of Enterprise Solutions at FalconStor and author of "Storage Area Networks for Dummies", to talk about data de-duplication as a solution for greening your data center. Find more on the topic at his blog http://blog.falconstor.com/ChrisPoelker/. In the news, the downturn in the global economy has NEC possibly pulling out of PC market in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, Lenovo replaces their CEO after a bad quarter, Oracle is still making acquisitions with it's purchase of mValent, VMWare adds a free open-source virtualization client, and MS Patch Tuesday comes to us with 2 critical and 2 important updates. Human error in IT by those who don't really care gets "The Worst Tech Move of the Week", worst practices in insecure code get the wrath of "The IT Pet Peeve", and find out how to get your Windows 2008 Servers network load balancing working outside of a domain in "The Weekly Tech Tip".

CS Techcast 61: Virtualizing The Desktop

Eric Johnson, Eric Beehler, Josh Jones, and Dana Warren — Mon, 2 Feb 2009 03:00:00 -0700

The podcast for IT pros at CSTechcast.com. This week we discuss the benefits of moving your desktops off the desk and into the data center with Mike Fodor, VP at Pano Logic. Find more information on their desktop virtualization solutions at panologic.com. In the news, Toshiba and NEC are merging chip operations, high-speed broadband goes to Washington, government employment program E-Verify gets postponed, and a fired employee is indicted for planting a logic bomb in Fannie Mae computers. School officials pouty about criticism from students on the Internet gets "The Worst Tech Move of the Week", we take "A Closer Look" at the top 5 areas to consider when introducing new technology, and we try to help out when Windows 2008 DNS can't resolve some top level domains in "The Weekly Tech Tip".

CS Techcast 60: The Google Spam Report

Eric Johnson, Eric Beehler, Josh Jones, and Dana Warren — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 08:00:00 -0700

CSTechcast.com brings you the podcast for IT pros. This week we talk with Adam Swidler of Google's Enterprise Division about their new report on the state of spam. Find the report at googleenterprise.blogspot.com and more information on the products at www.google.com/a/security. In the news, Intel drops chip prices up to 40%, Qualcomm buys AMD's mobile chip division, top web site spread malware, Seagate post a fix for a hard drive problem that just causes more problems, and despite the economy tech paychecks take a tick up. The White House's state of tech shines a light on out of date government systems in "The Worst Tech Move of the Week", we discuss the need for high-ranking official to carries devices like a Blackberry in "Point/CounterPoint", and we give you an old school tip on email troubleshooting in "The Weekly Tech Tip".

CS Techcast 59: Common Security Threats

Eric Johnson, Eric Beehler, Josh Jones, and Dana Warren — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 03:00:00 -0700

CSTechcast has yet another information filled podcast for IT pros. This week we consult Alex Scoble, a CISSP certified security consultant and risk analyst, about the common security threats to your network and what you can do about it. Find Alex's blog at itmanager.blogs.com. In the news Steve Jobs is taking a leave of absence from Apple CEO duties, 1TB Seagate drives are seeing an abnormal level of failures, The "Downadup" virus infected about 6.5 million PCs in 4 days, the inauguration may prove challenging to Internet bandwidth, and United Airlines offers up Wi-Fi on some planes with some limitations, of course. The lack of hard nose reporting from the traditional media on Steve Jobs over the past few weeks has garnered "The Worst Tech Move of the Week", we take "A Closer Look" at the common problem of weak passwords, and multi-monitor support comes to Remote Desktop Connections in Windows 7 and we show you how to get at it in "The Weekly Tech Tip".

CS Techcast 58: Tech for SMB in the Real World

Eric Johnson, Eric Beehler, Josh Jones, and Dana Warren — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 03:00:00 -0700

CSTechcast.com brings you the weekly podcast for IT pros. This week we talk about the challenges of delivering as an IT pro to the small and mid-sized business with Art Hollingsworth and Mike Scott of the Two Guys Tech podcast. Find them at Twoguystech.com. In the news: MacWorld excitement comes not from Apple hardware but from third party software, Palm tries to makes a comeback with the Pre smartphone, HP reports six hour battery life for their new netbook, and Windows 7 beta is brought to the public with much fanfare. The bungled digital TV transition gets "The Worst Tech Move of the Week", we talk about the common security breaches made by employees in "A Closer Look", and we get you going dual-booting Windows 7 in "The Weekly Tech Tip".

Our sponsor this week: Admin Script Editor by iTripoli.

CS Techcast 57: SQL Server Community Service

Eric Johnson, Eric Beehler, Josh Jones, and Dana Warren — Mon, 5 Jan 2009 03:00:00 -0700

CSTechcast.com brings you the weekly podcast for IT pros. This week we talk about technology communities and SQL Server in particular with Andy Warren, President of End to End Training. Find him blogging at http://www.sqlservercentral.com/blogs/andy_warren. In the news, we cover the coming USB 3.0 devices, Microsoft tries to patent pay as you go computing, Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager gets an update with service pack 1, SSL certificates gets compromised by a bunch of PS3s game consoles, and Windows experiences the largest usage drop in 4 years. The cable box method of pay as you go computing gets "The Worst Tech Move of the Week", we take "A Closer Look" at the most in demand skills for the new year, and when you migrate an Outlook user make sure they get their nicknames in "The Weekly Tech Tip".

Our sponsor this week: Admin Script Editor by iTripoli.

CS Techcast 56: The Myths and Realities of Encryption

Eric Johnson, Eric Beehler, Josh Jones, and Dana Warren — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 03:00:00 -0700

3, 2, 1, CSTechcast.com for IT pro podcasts in the new year! This week we discuss encryption solutions, why it matters and separate the press hype and reality with John Callas, CTO of PGP Inc. Find their solutions at PGP.com. In the news we discuss the effect the economy is having on data centers, Microsoft working on a fix for a SQL vulnerability since April, notebook sales steadily outstripping desktops, and Citrix is giving you a way to get Windows on your iPhone, sort of. Michael Arrington trying to police how Robert Scoble uses the Internet gets "The Worst Tech Move of the Week", we take the bandwagon on a left turn and give you the top 5 tech predictions for 2010, and we give you a couple points of note when using Windows authentication for your websites in "The Weekly Tech Tip".

Our sponsor this week: Admin Script Editor by iTripoli.

CS Techcast 55: Database Trends

Eric Johnson, Eric Beehler, Josh Jones, and Dana Warren — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 03:00:00 -0700

CSTechcast.com welcomes you to another episode of the podcast for IT pros. Today we talk the trends in the database space with Billy Bosworth, SQL Server VP & GM of Quest Software. Find their solutions at Quest.com. In the news Cisco announces a full rack solution for the data center including a complete set of servers, Toshiba announces their 512GB flash-based SSD drive for notebooks, the SEC requires ZBRL on financial documents as soon as mid next year, Sun’s open source VirtualBox VM solution gets popular, and IE7 gets a shiny new out-of-band patch for the holiday. The hoopla over breaking embargos by the need-to-be-first blogger set gets "The Worst Tech Move of the Week", we take "A Closer Look" at netbooks for the corporate folks, and we give some advice when you encounter the Cannot Open User Default Database SQL Server error in "The Weekly Tech Tip".

Our sponsor this week: Admin Script Editor by iTripoli.

CS Techcast 54: The Open Source Option

Eric Johnson, Eric Beehler, Josh Jones, and Dana Warren — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 03:00:00 -0700

The weather outside is frightful, so if you’ve no place to go, download the latest podcast from CSTechcast.com. This week we talk the open source option and why it makes sense for you operations with Curt Finch, CEO of JournyX and author of All Your Money Won't Another Minute Buy: Valuing Time as a Business Resource. In the news, IE8 is winning the war to have the least bugs, new patches for critical vulnerabilities released after Patch Tuesday, the .tel domain aims to make it easy to share contact information, Sun retires Network.com and launches a new cloud initiative, and version 5.1 of MySQL is released debuting several new features. Sony and Facebook get dissed for their collection of private data in "The Worst Tech Move of the Week", people who put desktop in service as servers get the wrath of "The IT Pet Peeve", and a little tip to help get your Hyper-V machines shut down cleanly in "The Weekly Tech Tip".

Our sponsor this week: Admin Script Editor by iTripoli.

CS Techcast 53: Branding Yourself Online

Eric Johnson, Eric Beehler, Josh Jones, and Dana Warren — Mon, 8 Dec 2008 03:00:00 -0700

CSTechcast.com brings you good cheer in another podcast for IT pros. This week we talk about your online brand and why it's important with the co-founder and editor of SQLServerCentral.com Steve Jones. In the news, IBM unveils the Open Collaboration Client open source desktop system, Microsoft and RSA get cozy with security integration, Amazon announces a free tier of access to SimpleDB, Windows 7 beta gets an official date, and patch Tuesday plays the Grinch with six critical updates to keep you up late. The irrational logic that keep people hanging onto Windows XP, making some a tidy profit, gets "The Worst Tech of of the Week", we take "A Closer Look" at what to do with the firesale deals caused by the bad economy on enterprise tech equipment, and "The Weekly Tech Tip" is a simple quick fix to SQL Server database orphaned users.

Our sponsor this week: Admin Script Editor by iTripoli.

CS Techcast 52: Controlling VM Sprawl

Eric Johnson, Eric Beehler, Josh Jones, and Dana Warren — Mon, 1 Dec 2008 03:00:00 -0700

A full year of shows at CSTechcast.com, and here's another for the IT pro. This week the topic is VM sprawl and how to control it with guest David Lynch, VP of Marketing at Embotics. In the news, the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India bring up the question of stability for IT companies in the region, spammers get their mojo back despite the shutdown of spam hoster McColo, a seemingly ignored Microsoft patch is seeing exploits in the wild, new Lenovo laptops can foil thieves with a text message, and IBM announces consulting services in for cloud computing. The Blu-ray consortium's seeming ignorance of it's real competition gets "The Worst Tech Move of the Week", we take "A Closer Look" at the upcoming service pack 2 for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, and find out how to extend your play time beyond 60 days with the evaluation copy of Windows Server 2008 in "The Weekly Tech Tip".

Our sponsor this week: Admin Script Editor by iTripoli.

CS Techcast 51: How to be Layoff Proof

Eric Johnson, Eric Beehler, Josh Jones, and Dana Warren — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 03:00:00 -0700

CSTechcast.com is the source for our weekly podcast for tech pros. This week we discuss ways to keep your job in a bad economy with Bruce Culbert, CEO of iSymmetry and myCRMcareer.com. In the news Microsoft takes Exchange and SharePoint to the cloud, CA aims to help manage cloud services, OOXML gets finalized but the controversy remains, USB devices threaten network security, and Internet Explorer 8 gets a ship date, or at least a ship quarter. Seagate's being incommunicado about hard drive problems while pushing themselves on the chattiest services in social networking gets "The Worst Tech Move of the Week", we take "A Closer Look" at remote desktop tools, and we bring you tips on handling the bandwidth issues of WSUS in "The Weekly Tech Tip".

Our sponsor this week: Admin Script Editor by iTripoli.

CS Techcast 50: Getting Voice and Data Together

Eric Johnson, Eric Beehler, Josh Jones, and Dana Warren — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 03:00:00 -0700

Download the podcast for IT pros at CSTechcast.com. This week Barry Phillips, Vice President and Group Manager at Citrix, talks about the continued convergence of voice and data and what that means for IT. In the news Citrix gets serious on the iPhone with Xen, Office makes a push onto the web with support for Mac and Linux, AMD tries to mount a comeback with it's quad-core Shanghai processors, Sun and others get layoff fever, and spammer centric ISP's get taken down. AVG's crippling false positive gets "The Worst Tech Move of the Week", we talk about the next four years of technology and government in "A Closer Look", and we provide some Group Policy troubleshooting pointers in "The Weekly Tech Tip".

Our sponsor this week: Admin Script Editor by iTripoli.

CS Techcast 49: Finding BI Data in a Haystack

Eric Johnson, Eric Beehler, Josh Jones, and Dana Warren — Mon, 3 Nov 2008 03:00:00 -0700

STechcast.com has the latest podcast for IT professionals. This week Tableau CEO Christian Chabot talks to us about techniques for exploring new and unfamiliar data using business intelligence tools. Find out more about Tableau at tableausoftware.com. In the news, Microsoft's PDC show saw the unveiling of Windows 7 and Azure cloud services, Sony recalls another 100,000 laptop batteries, Linux is getting popular as a utility OS when you don't want to wait for Windows to boot, Informatica and Salesforce.com team to sync data between internal apps and SaaS software, and the Google-Yahoo deal sees scrutiny from the US Department of Justice. Shortchanging a tech policy debate by a certain presidential candidate's policy wonk gets "The Worst Tech Move of the Week", we take "A Closer Look" at Windows 7, and we tell you how to find a successful DFS sync in "The Weekly Tech Tip".

Our sponsor this week: Admin Script Editor by iTripoli.

CS Techcast 48: Who Writes This Stuff

Eric Johnson, Eric Beehler, Josh Jones, and Dana Warren — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 03:00:00 -0600

Welcome to another episode of the podcast for IT professionals always available at CSTechcast.com. This week we talk what it takes to be a tech book author, the publishing game, and what it's like to go independent with Julie Yack, editor of the new book CRM as a Rapid Development Platform. Find more info at thecrmbook.com and use discount code "cstechcast" for 10% off the purchase price of the book. The news bring an out of cycle Microsoft patch for Windows, Intel announces next-gen cooling for laptops, Amazon's EC2 goes production for virtualization in the cloud, new service packs announced for Vista and Office, and HP brings the thin-client back, again. Tech companies getting scarred and laying off top talent instead of using them to innovate gets "The Worst Tech Move of the Week", we argue employers using social networking to hire and fire in "Point/Counterpoint", and "The Weekly Tech Tip" shows you how to track down your domain on email blacklists.

Our sponsor this week: Admin Script Editor by iTripoli.

CS Techcast 47: Getting the Scoop on Content Management Systems

Eric Johnson, Eric Beehler, Josh Jones, and Dana Warren — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 03:00:00 -0600

Thanks for tuning in to another episode of the podcast for IT pros always available at CSTechcast.com. This week we detail what's involved in Content Management Systems with Gerardo Dada, Senior Director of Product Marketing at Vignette. Find more information at vignette.com. In the news, HP debuts their data center in a box called POD, Google Apps unexpected upgrade causes problems for business clients, a new MacBook ditches the Firewire port, and outsourcing business is good in a down economy. The pains with Google Apps gets "The Worst tech Move of the Week", we take "A Closer Look" at the first Google Android phone the T-Mobile G1, and we take a look at some basic image deployment details in "The Weekly Tech Tip".

Our sponsor this week: Admin Script Editor by iTripoli

CS Techcast 46: Putting A Limit on Web Video

Eric Johnson, Eric Beehler, Josh Jones, and Dana Warren — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 03:00:00 -0600

A new full-length podcast for IT pros is ready for consumption at CSTechcast.com. This week we talk about the bandwidth hog that is web-based video and how network admins can control it with E-telemetry's CTO Alan Schunemann. Find more information about his company at etelemetry.com. The news brings a mess of Microsoft patches, also word that UAC is being refashioned in Windows 7, AMD spinning off The Foundry Company for chip manufacturing, Oracle acquiring Primavera, and IBM furthers its cloud computing ambitions with Bluehouse. Telecom companies trying to stop widespread municipal Internet get "The Worst Tech Move of the Week", we talk physical to virtual migration tools in "A Closer Look", and when you get a HAL mismatch migrating server to a virtual world we give you some relief in "The Weekly Tech Tip".

Sponsors this week:
Admin Script Editor by iTripoli

CS Techcast 45: Webcasting Your Business

Eric Johnson, Eric Beehler, Josh Jones, and Dana Warren — Mon, 6 Oct 2008 03:00:00 -0600

The newest episode is available at CSTechcast.com, a full podcast for IT professionals. This week, CEO of Brighttalk.com Paul Heald talks about how webcasts are helping business reach other businesses and the technology behind it. In the news Microsoft is set to release the cloud computing OS Red Dog, the Windows XP downgrade gets six more months of life, web sites get their credentials ripped off, AMD swings at Intel with the Shanghai server CPUs, and Steve Jobs IS alive even after a rumored health crisis. Credit card companies lack of concern for bad wireless security gets "The Worst Tech Move of the Week", we take "A Closer Look" at the fork in the road upgrading to Windows Vista or Windows 7, and the new Hyper-V Server's HVCONFIG is detailed in "The Weekly Tech Tip". This episode of CS Techcast is sponsored by: vConferenceOnline. Use the discount code CSTECH at vConferenceOnline.com for a 10% discount on a virtual conference. Don't miss the SSWUG Ultimate Virtual Conference coming up soon.

CS Techcast 44: Get Back to Security Essentials

Eric Johnson, Eric Beehler, Josh Jones, and Dana Warren — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 03:00:00 -0600

Welcome to another CSTechcast.com podcast for IT professionals. This week we interview Adam Shostack, author of The New School of Information Security about the essentials IT organizations need to establish to really do security right. In the news, PDF security holes are under increasing attack, Cisco is busy applying patches to its IOS software, solid state drives from Toshiba hit 256GB for netbooks, and Microsoft announces RTM status for Essential Business Server aimed at the mid-sized market and Windows HPC Server for the super high-end. A lack of great new business apps for smart phones and an overabundance of one-trick ponies gets "The Worst Tech Move of the Week", we take "A Closer Look" at areas of unnecessary tech spending, and blocking access to USB drives from Windows is "The Weekly Tech Tip".

CS Techcast 43: Being Social With Your Customers

Eric Johnson, Eric Beehler, Josh Jones, and Dana Warren — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 03:00:00 -0600

Check out another podcast for IT pros at CSTechcast.com. This week John Kembel, CEO of HiveLive, gets us familiar with the ins and outs of getting a business to engage with customers through new social networks. Find more information on them at HiveLive.com. The news brings us a read on IT jobs during an uncertain economy, the hacking of Sarah Palin's e-mail, Apple finally addressing the DNS vulnerability, VMWare Virtual Center coming to the iPhone, and announcements from VMWorld on how to extend virtualization beyond the operating system. Investment bank's lack of real information in a world of technology gets "The Worst Tech Move of the Week", those who undervalue their IT staff get ripped six ways from Sunday in "The IT Pet Peeve", and "The Weekly Tech Tip" reviews the snapshot feature in Hyper-V.

CS Techcast 42: Getting Social in the Enterprise

Eric Johnson, Eric Beehler, Josh Jones, and Dana Warren — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 03:00:00 -0600

Another fine podcast for IT professionals found here at CSTechcast.com. This week we talk enterprise 2.0 with Ross Mayfield, social networking extraordinaire and Chairman, President, and co-founder of Socialtext. Find Ross' blog at ross.typepad.com and SocialText's offerings at Socialtext.com. In the news, possible privacy issues with the IE8 beta phoning home, Dell's pushing into the VM space with new blade servers and storage, the DOJ is questioning the Google-Yahoo ad deal, HP's building an OS of their own, and the LHC gets hacked. Apple's new BSOD causing iTunes 8 gets "The Worst Tech Move of the Week", we take "A Closer Look" at Yammer and the benefits and drawbacks of micro-blogging in the enterprise, and "The Weekly Tech Tip" talks about Core Config, a new utility for Windows Server 2008 Server Core configuration.

CS Techcast 41: Secure Your Mobility

Eric Johnson, Eric Beehler, Josh Jones, and Dana Warren — Mon, 8 Sep 2008 09:00:00 -0600

A new interview, tech news, and insight from the podcast for IT pros at CSTechcast.com. This week we talk about smartphone and mobile device security with Dan Dearing, Vice President of marketing at Trust Digital. Find out more about Trust Digital at trustdigital.com. In the news, we discuss a kaleidoscope of a patch from Microsoft, social networking for G Men, Dell shutting down factories of their once high-flying made-to-order operations, a six-core server chip from Intel, and a recall of overheating Sony Vaio laptops. Comcast's FCC countersuit gets "The Worst Tech Move of the Week", Chrome, Firefox, and IE8 start up the browser wars once again when we take "A Closer Look", and "The Weekly Tech Tip" delves into the NETSH command.

CS Techcast 40: How To Be A Consultant (Repost)

Eric Johnson, Eric Beehler, Josh Jones, and Dana Warren — Mon, 1 Sep 2008 03:00:00 -0600

A new podcast for IT pros at CSTechcast.com is ready for you to download. Anil Desai, respected author, Microsoft MVP, and consultant, talks about the journey of being an independent technology consultant and the lessons learned. Find more on his web site anildesai.net. In the news, we talk the IT disaster recovery efforts in effect prompted by Hurricane Gustav, what jobs are more at risk to being outsourced, Google Apps are not getting much adoption in the enterprise, we discuss the new Cellular Seizure Investigation Stick, and the latest beta of Internet Explorer 8. Comcast's bit cap gets "The Worst Tech Move of the Week", hit the buzzer for our less than 5 minute game show "Know Your Tech", and check out SharePoint wiki permissions in "The Weekly Tech Tip".

CS Techcast 39: The Changing Landscape of Digital Privacy

Eric Johnson, Eric Beehler, Josh Jones, and Dana Warren — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 03:00:00 -0600

CSTechcast.com has a great show available for subscription and download this week. We interview Ken Ledeen, author of Blown to Bits: Your Life, Liberty, and Happiness After the Digital Explosion, about the current status of privacy in the digital domain and how you can steer your IT organization around these new privacy pitfalls. The news brings stats of Vista service pack 1 adoption, a new massive Microsoft data center, a lawsuit for Apple and their 3G iPhone, DNS continues to be exposed, and Apache Tomcat faces a new security vulnerability. ISP who haven't patched their DNS servers get "The Worst Tech Move of the Week", we argue the confusion around SSL certificates in "Point/Counterpoint", and Active Directory logon problems give fodder for "The Weekly Tech Tip".

CS Techcast 38: IPv6 - Strategies For The New Network

Eric Johnson, Eric Beehler, Josh Jones, and Dana Warren — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 03:00:00 -0600

CSTechcast.com brings you another episode of the podcast for IT professionals. Today, we talk about the future of IPv6 for business with Fred Wettling, author of Global IPv6 Strategies from Cisco Press. In the news, solid state drives are looking to replace spinning disks for enterprise applications, AMD is introducing new processors, a court ruling on model trains impacts free software, Windows 7 starts to get real, and iPhone gets Gartner's nod for use in business. VMWare's servers have fallen and they can't get up in "The Worst tech Move of the Week", greening servers gets "A Closer Look", and a quick FTP server setup is "The Weekly Tech Tip".

CS Techcast 37: Take Me Phishing

Eric Johnson, Eric Beehler, Josh Jones, and Dana Warren — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 03:00:00 -0600

Let's do it again, another IT pro podcast posted at CSTechcast.com. This week we talk phishing threats and how to keep your users safe with Rohyt Belani, CEO of Intrepidus Group. See their new technology online at phishme.com. The news brings twelve new Microsoft updates for patch Tuesday, but Microsoft also tries harder with three new security programs, security concerns around the march towards virtualization, cloud entries from AT&T, others bring forth virtualization for small business, and economic woes hit IT jobs hard. Apple's iPhone kill switch gets "The Worst Tech Move of the Week", we take "A Closer Look" at the forthcoming Microsoft Essential Business Server 2008, and a strange hibernation feature in Windows Server 2008 brings us "The Weekly Tech Tip".

CS Techcast 36: SQL Server Predictions

Eric Johnson, Eric Beehler, Josh Jones, and Dana Warren — Wed, 6 Aug 2008 03:00:00 -0600

Welcome to the podcast for IT pros at CSTechcast.com. This week we look at the coming trends for the SQL Server database platform with our friend Paul Nielsen, author of SQL Server 2005 Bible. Find Paul and his books at sqlserverbible.com. In the news; Apple's DNS patch fails to randomize ports plus other DNS patches show new flaws, IBM commits to the cloud with a heavy investment in data centers, Microsoft is set to deliver Small Business Server 2008 for mom and pops and Essential Business Server 2008 for the mid-market this year, the Storm worm pops back onto the radar with an FBI spoof, and Sun debuts JavaFX to compete with Adobe. Plus, Apple's culture of secrecy gets "The Worst Tech Move of the Week", and we put mobile security in our crosshairs for "A Closer Look".

CS Techcast 35: Working Those Deployment Tools

Eric Johnson, Eric Beehler, Josh Jones, and Dana Warren — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 03:00:00 -0600

CSTechcast.com, your weekly source for tech, trends, news, and reviews for IT pros presents the latest episode of our podcast. Rhonda Layfield joins the fray to update us on the extensive deployment tools available for the Microsoft Windows platform. Find Rhonda contributing to the web site Minasi.com. Tech news brings everyone early exposure to the DNS flaw, VMWare decides to give away the ESXi hypervisor, Drizzle aims to slim down MySQL, the Brocade-Foundry marriage merges Fibre-SAN switching with 10G Ethernet expertise, and Terry Childs finally gives up the goods. Quick selling VC's are investing in "The Worst Tech Move of the Week", we take "A Closer Look" at virtualization sprawl, and we look at SharePoint disaster recovery in "The Weekly Tech Tip".

CS Techcast 34: Get Connected with Office Communication Server

Eric Johnson, Eric Beehler, Josh Jones, and Dana Warren — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 03:00:00 -0600

Hello again from CSTechcast.com, the latest in our weekly podcast series for IT professionals is online. This week we discuss the unifying potential of Office Communication Server with Ron Barrett, author of How to Cheat at Administering Office Communications Server 2007 . Find Ron at networkworld.com/community/barrett. The news brings us Intel launching the Centrino 2 laptop chipset with vPro features for enterprise management, an insider admin locked out the San Francisco network with a password change, a major spike in malware due mainly to SQL injection attacks, new terabyte tape backup capacity, and some users get locked out of validating their Office installations. Big media going after moms gets "The Worst Tech Move of the Week", IT managers strike a nerve in "The IT Pet Peeve", and "The Weekly Tech Tip" gets you straight when accessing JET with 64-bit SSIS.

CS Techcast 33: To The Edge and Back of Cisco Wide Area Application Services

Eric Johnson, Eric Beehler, Josh Jones, and Dana Warren — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 03:00:00 -0600

No need to wait in line for our newest podcast; all the week's tech news and insight for IT Pros is here at CSTechcast.com. We explore the latest in delivering applications to remote and global networks with Zach Seils, author of Deploying Cisco Wide Area Application Services. This week, Microsoft lobs another offer at Yahoo, DNS gets patched across all vendors, NVidia slowly reveals more about their overheating laptop chips, cloud apps have downtime woes, SQL Server will be out in August, and a new Microsoft push for software plus services. Overreacting tech bloggers make "The Worst tech Move of the Week", we take "A Closer Look" at the new Microsoft Certified Master program, and "The Weekly Tech Tip" covers WSUS troubleshooting.

CS Techcast 32: All About IT Compliance

Eric Johnson, Eric Beehler, Josh Jones, and Dana Warren — Mon, 7 Jul 2008 03:00:00 -0600

Come and get it, CSTechcast.com has the latest podcast for IT professionals posted for download. This week we get an IT compliance education with Don Jones. Find Don's vast expertise at his website concentratedtech.com. The news brings enhanced search for Adobe Flash on the web, no critical Microsoft patches this Tuesday, the VLC Player has buffer overflow security problem, Google gives away Rat Proxy to check for security on your websites, the Coreflood Trojan is waiting for an admin to logon, NVidia has heat problems with laptop chips, and Microsoft gets serious with a new yearly subscription model for Office. Twitter downtime gets "The Worst Tech Move of the Week", we take "A Closer Look" at cloud computing security, and "The Weekly Tech Tip" is all about SQL auditing.

CS Techcast 31: Social Networking 101

Eric Johnson, Eric Beehler, Josh Jones, and Dana Warren — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 03:00:00 -0600

The latest CSTechcast.com podcast is up. This week we discuss social networking and how we take it into business and gain personally with Patrice-Anne Rutledge, author of The Truth About Profiting from Social Networking . Be social and visit patricerutledge.com. In the news; Microsoft stops selling Windows XP, but keeps a loophole for business and extends support, Hyper-V goes RTM, Cisco updates its edge network solution with VMWare support, new tools are released to deal with recent SQL injection attacks, database market share shows Oracle in the clear lead, and IT spending is not reducing security threats. Suing web sites over negative comments gets "The Worst Tech Move of the Week", we take "A Look Back" at Bill Gates' time at Microsoft, and we give SQL Server admins plenty of detail to avoid worst practices in "The Weekly Tech Tip".

CS Techcast 30: Go Go Vista Gadget

Eric Johnson, Eric Beehler, Josh Jones, and Dana Warren — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 03:00:00 -0600

Get informed and entertained, the CSTechcast.com podcast is up and online. Today we see why the little Vista Gadget can be so useful with Rajesh Lal, author of Creating Vista Gadgets. You can find him and his gadgets at innovatewithgadgets.com. The news brings the latest release of Oracle Retail version 13, deduplication features added to HP SANs, security issues with Mac, Firefox 3, and the Microsoft Bluetooth patch, but a fix for Safari on Windows, an update for Google Trends, and we are all apparently guilty of using our admin power for the evils of spying. The Associated Press puts the screws to bloggers for "The Worst Tech Move of the Week" and we take "A Closer Look" at social networking inside the company.

CS Techcast 29: Get Deeper Into Vista

Eric Johnson, Eric Beehler, Josh Jones, and Dana Warren — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 03:00:00 -0600

We even podcast on vacation, bringing you the latest tech information for IT professionals at CStechcast.com from fabulous Las Vegas. This week, we delve into Vista with authors of Using Microsoft Windows Vista Robert Cowart and Brian Knittel. In the news, Firefox gets it's 3.0 on while Microsoft previews more IE8 features, the new iPhone gets some enterprise functionality while hopefully not tarnishing its cool factor, Oracle adds social networking to CRM, Microhoo finally break up (could Bradgalena be next?) while Yahoo gets on the rebound with Google, and PC shipments stay healthy in Asia. Short sighted middle management gets our "Worst Tech Move of the Week" and "The Weekly Tech Tip" presents the incredible, shrinking partition.

CS Techcast 28: Take A Bite Out of Crimeware

Eric Johnson, Eric Beehler, Josh Jones, and Dana Warren — Mon, 9 Jun 2008 03:00:00 -0600

Info for IT pros, get ready to download the latest audio at CStechcast.com. Crimeware is the focus this week, as we interview expert Markus Jakobsson, author of Crimeware: Understanding New Attacks and Defenses. In the news; Adobe gives a preview of the new Acrobat 9 integrated with the new acrobat.com web site, Microsoft warns on the monthly round of patches, spear phishing catches 15,000 big fish, AMD starts to make a serious notebook push with Puma, Opera one ups the browser competition in the fight against malware, and we review the latest rumor mill around the next generation Apple iPhone. Spying end users for targeted ads is first place in "The Worst Tech Move of the Week" and "The Weekly Tech Tip" gives the accidental SQL DBA some great pointers.

CS Techcast 27: Taking You to Network School

Eric Johnson, Eric Beehler, Josh Jones, and Dana Warren — Mon, 2 Jun 2008 03:00:00 -0600

Another podcast is up and available at CStechcast.com, the podcast for IT professionals. This week we talk about the history and the future of networks with John Day, author of Patterns in Network Architecture . The news brings cloud computing to your data center with a new product from HP, easier Web 2.0 APIs from Google, details on Windows 7 and Ruby on .NET, and a warning on Apple Safari on Windows. Lack of data breach disclosure "The Worst Tech Move of the Week", getting Vista's search to work right in the "Weekly Tech Tip", and we take "A Closer Look" at smartphone security in your network.

CS Techcast 26: VMware Aware

Eric Johnson, Eric Beehler, Josh Jones, and Dana Warren — Mon, 26 May 2008 03:00:00 -0600

This week we explore VMware ESX virtualization with Edward L. Haletky, author of VMware ESX Server in the Enterprise. Find information from the author at http://astroarch.com/wiki/index.php/Virtualization. In the news; Microsoft announces support for ODF and PDF in an upcoming Office service pack, Citrix debuts its Branch Repeater for remote office support over the WAN, Google gives us the Safe Browsing Diagnostic Tool to check web sites for malware, jobs openings involving virtualization skills are up 40 percent, and some companies look to allow employees to use their own laptops on the corporate network. Microsoft gets rid of their academic search tools for the "Worst Tech Move of the Week", we take "A Closer Look" at how to get started with virtualization, and a quick "Weekly Tech Tip" on how to make a shortcut in Vista with admin privs to help save you some time.

CS Techcast 25: Get Proactive with Microsoft System Center

Eric Johnson, Eric Beehler, Josh Jones, and Dana Warren — Mon, 19 May 2008 03:00:00 -0600

IT professionals get another great podcast; a weekly dose of great content at CStechcast.com. We get into the latest enterprise management tools with Kerrie Meyler, author of System Center Operations Manager 2007 Unleashed. She can be found at the blogs: ops-mgr.spaces.live.com and www.networkworld.com/community/meyler/. The news brings more undying news from Yahoo and Microsoft, an HP buyout of EDS, another standard arriving soon for financial data, the rollout of updated rich media platforms from Sun JavaFX and Adobe Flash, and an ongoing SSL threat to Paypal. Constant bickering over Open XML formats gets "The Worst Tech Move of the Week", we give our "Point/Counterpoint" on Web 2.0 in the enterprise, and we put out another great "Weekly Tech Tip" on SQL tools.

CS Techcast 24: Windows Server 2008 Unleashed

Eric Johnson, Eric Beehler, Josh Jones, and Dana Warren — Mon, 12 May 2008 03:00:00 -0600

IT pros get another podcast chock full of information and irreverence, at CStechcast.com. This week we put the focus back onto the brand new Windows Server 2008 operating system with Rand Morimoto, author of Windows Server 2008 Unleashed. Tech news sees the demise of the MicroHoo merger, Windows XP Service Pack 3 gets PCs to go on endless reboots, a new security bulletin on a new Trojan infecting half a million PCs, patch Tuesday sees 4 new patches, Office 2007 SP1 is coming to automatic updates, Google sets up a new enterprise hosted security service, and we take a peek at the 10 worst workplaces in tech. A continuing trend of knocking a good app developed with Microsoft tools gets "The Worst Tech Move of the Week", fanboys get a freestyle rant in the "IT Pet Peeve", and the "Weekly Tech Tip" helps you hack the Vista experience index.

CS Techcast 23: Tap Your Inner CSI Using Digital Forensics

Eric Johnson, Eric Beehler, Josh Jones, and Dana Warren — Mon, 5 May 2008 03:00:00 -0600

Our latest weekly podcast for IT Pros, available at CStechcast.com, is released to the world. This week we try to tap our inner CSI with Keith J. Jones, author of Real Digital Forensics, available alone or in the Computer Forensics Library Boxed Set. Find more info at realdigitalforensics.com. The news finds Windows XP Service Pack 3 and Vista Service Pack 1 pulled back from Windows Updates, the BlueHat conference exposes easy antivirus hacks, third party solutions aim to help Ruby on Rails scale, SharePoint gets a new administration toolkit, and dirty secrets of the security industry are revealed. Eric Schmidt's obsession with Microsoft gets "The Worst Tech Move of the Week", we take "A Closer Look" at the recent SQL injection attacks and what you can do about it, and joining a domain from afar using Vista is our "Weekly Tech Tip".

CS Techcast 22: Office 2007 Servers, Many Pieces to a Whole

Eric Johnson, Eric Beehler, Josh Jones, and Dana Warren — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 03:00:00 -0600

This week's new podcast, available at CStechcast.com, gives IT pros another dose of news and expert information. Microsoft Office 2007 Servers is the topic with J. Peter Bruzzese, author of Administrator's Guide to Microsoft Office 2007 Servers and regular contributor to Infoworld.com, among his many endeavors. Find him on the web at cliptraining.com. In the news; Microsoft floods us with bad news on desktops, the Yahoo merger, and it's database share, but hey Live Mesh is cool along with Yahoo! announcing a redesign at the Web 2.0 Conference, SQL injection attacks are on the rise, and IT pay takes a depressing dip. You would think a non-profit charity like One Laptop Per Child could steer clear of making "The Worst Tech Move of the Week", the "Weekly Tech Tip" gives us a refresher about DNS on Windows with some useful tricks, and we get the "Point / Counterpoint" on system administrators specializing in more than one OS.

CS Techcast 21: New Expressions in Web Design

Eric Johnson, Eric Beehler, Josh Jones, and Dana Warren — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 03:00:00 -0600

The latest CS Techcast podcast is here with news, views, and interviews for IT professionals at cstechcast.com. This week we discuss Microsoft Expression Web and the approach of these tools in a Web 2.0 world with Jim Cheshire, author of Using Microsoft Expression Web 2. Find Jim at www.jimcobooks.com. The news brings new web mashup design and an updated Live Maps from Microsoft's Live platform, Forrester is going against conventional wisdom with Vista in business, Citrix turns up the heat on the competition with smooth delivery of applications via virtualization on their XenDesktop beta, and an increasing zero day worry as a Microsoft vulnerability exploit is in the wild two days after the patch release. Blog aggregating gets aggravating for "The Worst Tech Move of the Week", virtual Josh gives us advice on Windows and how to avoid getting tripped up by service principle names in "The Weekly Tech Tip", and we take "A Closer Look" at the Microsoft MVP Summit.

CS Techcast 20: Walk The Trend Line with guest John C. Dvorak

Eric Johnson, Eric Beehler, Josh Jones, and Dana Warren — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 03:00:00 -0600

This week's podcast at cstechcast.com concentrates on technology trends that matter to IT pros. We have an extended interview with long time industry expert, PC Magazine and MarketWatch columnist, and Cranky Geeks host John C. Dvorak where we discuss Google's platform as a service, Dell's shrinking relevance, and Microsoft's apparent soft opening for Windows Server 2008. Find John C. Dvorak at dvorak.org/blog. The news brings us Gartner's top disruptive technology trends that may mean upgrades to your internal apps for multi-core and a further move towards mashup development, Gartner also stirs the pot by declaring that Windows is collapsing in the face of code bloat and web apps, and we also put forth a whole series of security updates from Oracle, Adobe, and post warning about malware on USB keys from HP that hold software for Proliant servers. Gartner's report on the untenable state of Windows is declared "The Worst Tech Move of the Week". We also give away Quest Software's Change Director for SQL Server to a lucky listener.

CS Techcast 19: Building a LINQ to SQL Server

Eric Johnson, Eric Beehler, Josh Jones, and Dana Warren — Mon, 7 Apr 2008 03:00:00 -0600

CStechcast.com brings you another information filled podcast for IT pros. This week we interview Ben Day, Microsoft MVP for C#, conference speaker, and leader of the Beantown.NET User Group to get into the benefits and how to avoid the controversy of LINQ. Find him online at Benday.com. In the news we see the nail in Windows XP sales coffin, we explore Windows 7 rumors, you get exposed to a plethora of security patches, go head first into IRS phishing, see the resurgence of backscatter spam, more DDoS traffic, get some much needed help from a honeypot client, look at VMWare's latest release to control VM's, and confirm what we already knew about the direction of IT this year. Creative shuts down helpful user written Vista drivers for "The Worst Tech Move of the Week", we show you why SPNs are important for domain accounts in IIS and SQL in the "Weekly Tech Tip", and we take "A Closer Look" at IT conferences. Quest Software is giving away a copy of Change Director for SQL Server. Enter using the "Contest" link at CStechcast.com.

CS Techcast 18: Database Testing for the Developer's Soul

Eric Johnson, Eric Beehler, Josh Jones, and Dana Warren — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 03:00:00 -0600

CStechcast.com brings you another audio podcast filled with a half hour of solid information for IT professionals. This week we interview Andy Leonard, Microsoft MVP and co-author of several books including Professional Software Testing with Visual Studio 2005 Team System: Tools for Software Developers and Test Engineers, and we talk about the importance of database testing. In the news we talk about some major security gaffs involving malware on servers that led to identity theft and rigged searches on major web sites, plus new attacks against DNS, hacking Windows Server 2008 and the MacBook Air, and EnterpriseDB's open source Postgres database gets new life with new funding and a competitive update. The "Worst Tech Move of the Week" goes to Warner's proposed music tax on ISPs, the "Weekly Tech Tip" brings you ways to improve page file performance in Windows, and disaster recovery planning gets "A Closer Look". A big giveaway for you from Quest Software for a copy of Change Director for SQL Server, so enter at our web site CStechcast.com by clicking the Contest button.

CS Techcast 17: Super Fantastic Windows Server 2008 Amazing Information

Eric Johnson, Eric Beehler, Josh Jones, and Dana Warren — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 03:00:00 -0600

The title, a play on translated Japanese advertising; the cstechcast.com podcast, real information for IT professionals. Get ready for the newly released Microsoft Windows Server 2008 operating system with our interview of Greg Shields, frequent TechMentor presenter, Redmond Magazine contributing editor, and author of the new book: Windows Server 2008: What’s New/What’s Changed. Check out the details and a free sample chapter at sapienpress.com. The news hails the coming of Windows Vista Service Pack 1 along with lingering problems and updated Microsoft Deployment tools; FireFox 3, Safari for Windows, and IE 8 are bringing back the 90's; it's Browser Wars 2: Attack of the Clones, Hyper-V may break the Microsoft release pattern with an EARLY release, and reality show "The Office" proves itself to be a self fulfilling prophecy. Comcast gets all up in the grill of the FCC for the "Worst Tech Move of the Week", the "Weekly Tech Tip" is presented by our SharePoint Zen master, and we discuss the book The Rational Guide to Building Technical User Communities in our rip off segment of Oprah's book club with "What We're Reading". Thank's to Quest Software for sponsoring the software giveaway, enter at cstechcast.com. Find them at quest.com.

CS Techcast 16: Revving Up SQL Server 2008

Eric Johnson, Eric Beehler, Josh Jones, and Dana Warren — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 02:00:00 -0600

CStechcast.com brings another podcast episode to the starting line with guest Kalen Delaney. This SQL Server expert and authoritative author of the Inside SQL Server series gives us her take on SQL Server 2008. Find the latest from Kalen Delaney at insidesqlserver.com and SQLCommunity.com. In the news; 10,000 legitimate sites were hit by a SQL injection to deliver malware, Microsoft get their Dynamics apps revved up for the enterprise, Apple makes the iPhone business savvy, and the NCAA gets set to dunk on your network bandwidth. The "Worst Tech Move of the Week" is pre-installed with viruses courtesy of bad Q.C. at Chinese factories, we reach back in our storied histories for our favorite "Data Center Disasters", and the "Tech Tip" exposes easy to use shortcut keys in SQL Server Management Studio.

CS Techcast 15: What’s Up with SQL Server 2008 (iPod)

Eric Johnson, Eric Beehler, Josh Jones, and Dana Warren — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 02:00:00 -0700

A special episode at cstechcast.com this week as we record our podcast live from PASS Camp. This keynote address features an expert panel to explore the upcoming SQL Server 2008 database release with questions on features, technology, and strategy for our panel. Featured on our panel are Paul Nielsen - Microsoft SQL Server MVP and author of the “SQL Server Bible” book series (SqlServerBible.com), Kevin Cox – member of the SQL Server Product Group in the Customer Advisory Team at Microsoft (sqlcat.com), and Ben Hoelting - a .NET developer with Colorado Technology Consultants (benhblog.com). Of course, we also have our own co-hosts contribute; Eric Johnson, Microsoft SQL Server MVP, and Josh Jones, published author on many SQL topics. Author and co-host of the podcast Eric Beehler moderates the discussion. We are offering a video version of this episode as well; check it out at cstechcast.com. Detailed topics include the delay of the official launch and it's effect on the market and its supporters. We also discuss SQL Server 2008 in the enterprise and how it takes on its biggest competitors, IBM and Oracle. On the flip side, we discuss perhaps the smallest competitor, mySQL, and what SQL Server is doing to stay small business friendly. Attendees bring up questions on horizontal scalability and data modeling tools. We get into it with new developer feature LINQ and the possible consequences to proper database management. We also get a read on the panelist's favorite new features of SQL 2008.

CS Techcast 15: What’s Up with SQL Server 2008 (WMV)

Eric Johnson, Eric Beehler, Josh Jones, and Dana Warren — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 02:00:00 -0700

CS Techcast 15: What’s Up with SQL Server 2008 (MP3)

Eric Johnson, Eric Beehler, Josh Jones, and Dana Warren — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 02:00:00 -0700

CS Techcast 14: Get Your SaaS On

Eric Johnson, Eric Beehler, Josh Jones, and Dana Warren — Mon, 3 Mar 2008 02:00:00 -0700

CStechcast.com brings you the expertise of Michael Stiefel, a Microsoft MVP in Connected Systems Development, to explain the concepts behind Software as a Service (SaaS). Michael can be found at reliablesoftware.com. News on deck: Windows Vista takes price cuts and more lumps from Dell, Google says to Microsoft "Do you want a piece of me?" and releases Google Sites, sliding skills found in the security field, and the Cobra language goes open source. In our segments; Network Solutions steals our domain so we can't register "The Worst Tech Move of the Week", we take a trip down memory lane with "This Month in Tech History", and we talk about SQL Server 2005 and the BUILTIN\administrators group in the "Weekly Tech Tip".

CS Techcast 13: Smarten Up

Eric Johnson, Eric Beehler, Josh Jones, and Dana Warren — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 02:00:00 -0700

We are back for another week, and talking with James Taylor and Neil Raden, the authors of Smart (Enough) Systems. The details on the book can be found at www.smartenoughsystems.com. In the news this week, BitLocker exploited, 10 disruptive technologies, Windows Vista cripples some apps, and broadband in the sticks. The nod for "The Worst Tech Move of the Week" goes to the Veteran’s Administration, this week's "Tech Tip" helps you find the command-line, and Johnson blows a vein over developers in the "IT Pet Peeve".

CS Techcast 12: De-Bugging Out

Eric Johnson, Eric Beehler, Josh Jones, and Dana Warren — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 02:00:00 -0700

The latest podcast available at cstechcast.com is now offering free stuff, check it out. This week we discuss the methods behind debugging the Windows operating system with Mario Hewardt and Daniel Pravat. Read the book Advanced Windows Debugging for all the in-depth information and check out advancedwindowsdebugging.com. News brings us a drop in spending, a potpourri of security issues, Blackberry leaves executives stranded on the island, and Starbucks is hooking us up with free Wi-Fi. The Microsoft-Yahoo merger gets "The Worst Tech Move of the Week" and not why you think, our "Tech Tip" imparts experience about SQL Server I/O performance, and we take "A Closer Look" at Windows Vista Service Pack 1.

CS Techcast 11: Lock Down

Eric Johnson, Eric Beehler, Josh Jones, and Dana Warren — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 02:00:00 -0700

We're moving our podcast to an earlier Monday release to make sure our information is super fresh, available at cstechcast.com. This week, the second part of our chat with the authors of The Craft of System Security, Sean Smith and John Marchesini. The news gives us Google Apps for enterprise, malware slips into popular sites, a roadblock from Yahoo for Microsoft, security patches from MS and Apple, and Vista SP1 is RTM, but no one can find it. Plus the RIAA gets a nod for "Worst Tech Move of the Week", the "Weekly Tech Tip" helps out you SharePoint administrators, and we "Tech It Old School".

CS Techcast 10: Practice Secur'craft

Eric Johnson, Eric Beehler, Josh Jones, and Dana Warren — Wed, 6 Feb 2008 02:00:00 -0700

We turn the big 1-0 with our latest episode. This week we talk to the authors of The Craft of System Security, Sean Smith and John Marchesini, the first of a 2 part interview. The news brings the ginormous Yahoo-Microsoft merger, cable cuts in the Med makes the Internet vulnerable, Cisco manages the data center from the switch, VMWare moves beyond the hypervisor, and your boss is prepping for a recession. Plus, "The Worst Tech Move of the Week" and "A Closer Look" at tech certifications.

CS Techcast 9: Go Towards the Silverlight

Eric Johnson, Eric Beehler, Josh Jones, and Dana Warren — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 02:00:00 -0700

Hitting our stride with a new episode of CS Techcast. We bring you a discussion on Silverlight technology with Microsoft MVP Shawn Wildermuth. Find him at the adoguy.com blog and the silverlight-tour.com web site. In the news; Microsoft on a virtualization kick, tech earnings show a little light, Vista actually sells, and offshoring not all that in smaller companies. Also, find out the "Worst Tech Move of the Week", get a "Weekly Tech Tip", "Meet You Local User Group", and we share our "Helpdesk Horror" stories.

CS Techcast 8: The Power of the Shell

Eric Johnson, Eric Beehler, Josh Jones, and Dana Warren — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 23:18:00 -0700

We talk with Microsoft MVP Brandon Shell this week, about the PowerShell scripting tool. You can find his blog at bsonposh.com. In the news, MySQL claimed by Sun and Oracle brings home BEA, Oracle security patches, EMC goes SSD, and a Macbook out of thin Air. The "Worst Tech Move of the Week", "Weekly Tech Tip", and "Meet Your Local User Group" segments round out the half hour.

CS Techcast 7: Super Sized SQL

Eric Johnson, Eric Beehler, Josh Jones, and Dana Warren — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 12:03:00 -0700

This week we chat with John Viescas, one of the authors of "SQL Queries for Mere Mortals". In the news, new chips from Intel, Microsoft SMB leases, SkyDrive being used by spammers, a new-old MBR threat, and the end of the IT department? Plus, "The Worst Tech Move of the Week", "Meet your Local User Group", "A Closer Look", and "The Weekly Tech Tip".

CS Techcast 6: Let There be Gantt Charts

Eric Johnson, Eric Beehler, Josh Jones, and Dana Warren — Tue, 8 Jan 2008 09:32:00 -0700

This week we chat with Claudia Baca author of "Project Management for Mere Mortals". In the news, Firefox vuluerability, Dell and Sun team up, Office 2008 for Mac, and Hitachi drops 1.8 inch and smaller hard drive lines. Plus, "The Worst Tech Move of the Week", "Meet your Local User Group", "The Tech News Flash Forward", and "The Weekly Tech Tip".

CS Techcast 5: Are You Feeling Lucky

Eric Johnson, Eric Beehler, Josh Jones, and Dana Warren — Wed, 2 Jan 2008 11:41:00 -0700

This week we chat with Michael Miller author of "Googlepedia: The Ultimate Google Resource". In the news, a new Microsoft Security Blog, Security Breaches are up, and a Bad Santa Virus. Plus, "The Worst Tech Move of the Week", "Meet your Local User Group", and "The Weekly Tech Tip".

CS Techcast 4: Hoppy Holidays and a Barley New Year

Eric Johnson, Eric Beehler, Josh Jones, and Dana Warren — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 12:06:00 -0700

This week we chat with Steve Jones from SQLServerCentral.com about the new compression features in SQL Server 2008. In the news, Google not as cool as we thought, IE 6 security hole, new releases, and malware is becoming harder to deal with. Plus, "The Worst Tech Move of the Week", "Meet your Local User Group", and "The IT Pet Peeve".

CS Techcast 3: Catching Flies with Honey

Eric Johnson, Eric Beehler, Josh Jones, and Dana Warren — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 09:35:00 -0700

This week we chat with the authors of "Virtual Honeypots", Niels Provos and Thorsten Holz, about using honeypots to help learn more about Internet attackers. In the news, going off the Rails, exploiting the JET engine, and the early release of Hyper-V. Plus, "The Worst Tech Move of the Week", "Meet your Local User Group", and "The Tech Tip of the Week".

CS Techcast 2: A Chat with the Godfather

Eric Johnson, Eric Beehler, Josh Jones, and Dana Warren — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 12:24:00 -0700

This week we talk with Bill Inmon, the Father of Data Warehousing, about his now book "Tapping into Unstructured Data". In the news, new stuff from Microsoft, a new old DNS flaw, Sun goes virtual, compliance audits, and IT spending. Plus, "The Worst Tech Move of the Week", "IT Shout Out", and "The Tech Tip of the Week".

CS Techcast 1: Going Virtual

Eric Johnson, Eric Beehler, Josh Jones, and Dana Warren — Wed, 5 Dec 2007 04:13:00 -0700

This week our guest is Anil Desai, who we talk with about virtualization best practices. In the news, detecting wireless intruders, HP buys up more companies, Quicktime exploit, Exchange Server 2007 SP1, and how to keep your IT staff happy. Plus, "The Worst Tech Move of the Week", "IT Pet Peeve", and "The Tech Tip of the Week".