tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-93693622024-03-13T00:33:31.430-04:00Effective ThoughtsBusiness and technology musings with an occasional economic, political, or consumer experience teaser thrown in to keep you on your toes.Jeff Hunsakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07740484450068986098noreply@blogger.comBlogger360125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9369362.post-49175942018208420442020-07-05T13:57:00.004-04:002021-02-02T10:05:16.164-05:00Fast and Reliable Home Internet: Your Livelihood Depends on It<font face="inherit"><div style="-en-clipboard: true;">You're on yet another <a href="https://zoom.us/">Zoom</a> call and...wait what did she say? Dang it...Internet glitching again! You quickly mute your audio and video. "Kids! Get off YouTube...I'm on a call!" With everyone working and schooling from home, your Internet can't keep up. The cable company keeps claiming you're on their "super-fast Internet" but everything keeps lagging. It's all so frustrating and you just want to get your work done. </div><div><br /></div><div>It may not be the cable company's fault. Use this approach to ensure your household enjoys a super-fast, reliable Internet!</div><div><br /></div><h2 style="text-align: left;">Start with the Source</h2><div>Run a speed test. <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=speed%2Btest">Google "speed test"</a>. Run that test a few times on a given day. If you're not getting at least 50Mbps download and 10Mbps upload speeds, keep reading. </div><div><br /></div><div>Check with your Provider and do your Homework</div><div>Reach out to your Internet provider. This may be your cable company or telephone provider. Understand your current plan:</div><div><br /></div><ul><li><div>What package are you currently on? What are you being charged? </div></li><li><div>What are the expected download and upload speeds?</div></li><li><div>Do you have a phone plan? A cable plan?</div></li><li><div>What plans or bundles are available above and below your existing plan?</div></li><li><div>What competitors operate in your neighborhood? What are competitors offering? </div></li></ul><div><br /></div><h2 style="text-align: left;">Understand the Household Desires</h2><div>Now with great information in hand (current provider speeds and potential up/down-grade offers, competitor plans, etc.), map this out into a Google doc or spreadsheet. Set up a comparison between the providers, their offerings, their costs, the contract obligations, the features, and anything else you feel is relevant. </div><div><br /></div><div>Next, detail out (yes, get it out on paper) everything that's important to each member of your family. Your work and your spouse's work is paramount; your children's schooling (for now, assume virtual classrooms); streaming YouTube and iTunes; your son loves to post XBox videos and play online games with his friends; your daughter is learning how to code Python and is taking online instructor-led courses; your mother-in-law frequents your house to watch the kids and needs to keep up with her business; your oldest watches every minute of <a href="https://www.premierleague.com/">Premier League</a> throughout the world; you love to binge watch the latest from Netflix; your spouse needs to DVR shows due to shift work--detail all these needs...and wants. </div><div><br /></div><h2 style="text-align: left;">Expand your Horizons</h2><div>Now it's time to consider all the alternatives. When I was a kid and throughout much of my life, we had a phone number from the phone company, cable through the cable company, and Internet from an Internet Service Provider (ISP). Gradually, Internet folded into a single provider as has phone service. </div><div><br /></div><div>A few years ago, we collapsed our home phone service into a device that provides phone service over the Internet (Internet Protocol (IP)). I use an <a href="https://www.obitalk.com/">OBITalk</a> device that plugs into my Internet service along with an <a href="https://www.anveo.com/faq.asp?code=faq_e911">e911 service from Anveo</a> for emergency 911 calls ($15/year) that allows me to use a regular phone in my house over the Internet virtually for free. Many households just eliminate a home phone altogether in favor of an all-cellular approach. We chose not to take this route at the time as our kids didn't have cell phones and I still wanted to have a phone sitting in a consistent spot within the house for emergencies. </div><div><br /></div><div>Traditional cable is headed the same direction. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cord-cutting">Cutting the cord</a> (which is somewhat of a misnomer--you'll likely always have a wire of some sort coming into your household) has become truly viable in the past few years. As my spouse is somewhat of a <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Luddite">Luddite</a>, I didn't consider "Internet TV" a viable option--until recently. While you're improving the speed and security of your Internet, it's wise to evaluate your other communication and entertainment providers. We found that almost everything the family wanted to consume could come from streaming providers and the Internet in general.</div><div><br /></div><div>As an avid book reader, I had enjoyed Amazon Prime for some time. Oddly, I hadn't really leveraged the Prime Video subscription. I installed the app on our smart TVs and began enjoying some of the shows and movies. The family also explored Netflix and enjoyed several shows there. Last year, <a href="https://www.disneyplus.com/">Disney+</a> launched which ended up enabling this whole plan. My family enjoys a lot of Disney content as well as ESPN. The Disney bundle of Disney+, ESPN+, and Hulu fit perfectly with our needs in the household. We've kept Netflix for now but I keep nudging to ditch that now that we have all the other providers. </div><div><br /></div><div>Shortly after subscribing to Disney+, my plan hit a significant snag: our smart TVs lacked apps for either Disney+ or ESPN+. Oh no! Never fear, <a href="https://www.roku.com/">Roku</a> is here. There are lots of "streaming sticks" (Apple TV, Amazon Fire, Google Chromecast, etc.) or essentially small computers on a USB drive which you can plug in to your smart TV to stream content from the various providers. This gets you out from under the mercy of the TV manufacturer app development team onto a more agnostic solution. I chose Roku as it best matched the providers I use and thought we might use in the future. It also seemed to be the most independent. My thought was Amazon would be biased with Fire and Apple with Apple TV or potentially block other providers in the future. Unlikely but I liked Roku's seemingly independent situation. </div><div><br /></div><h2 style="text-align: left;">Negotiate with the Family</h2><div>Knowing your current situation, what everyone in your household needs (and wants) as well as some modern, viable alternatives, you can start to negotiate. Certain members of my family (who will go unnamed) went kicking and screaming while others fully embraced my Internet-only scheme. As of now, everyone enjoys a great solution to most if not all of their wants and needs. </div><div><br /></div><div>For a long time, we enjoyed phone, Internet, and cable from AT&T <a href="https://www.directv.com/" target="_blank">U-verse/DIRECTV</a>. I'm pretty sure I was the first customer in my neighborhood back in 2006. The Internet was fast (for that time), reliable, and the television offering broad. Eventually though, they kept raising prices. I would call, threaten to switch, and they would lower my bill back down or put me on some new "package"--until they wouldn't. When AT&T acquired DirectTV, they would only drop my price if I got satellite TV. Seeing the writing on the wall with streaming content, I didn't want to adopt satellite TV. Eventually, I dropped U-verse in favor of a newer cable provider <a href="https://www.wowway.com/">Wide Open West (WOW)</a>. For several years, we leveraged the phone, cable, Internet bundle from WOW without issue. Then they started the price raise game too. We went back and forth with the cancellation threats and price reduction for a few years until I decided to "cut the cord"--but I couldn't do this in a vacuum without buy-in from my family. </div><div><br /></div><div>Armed with our current costs, my families preferences and needs, along with the incredible options and flexibility available, you can now negotiate with the family. I thought about what's most important to that person and how best to sell them on my approach. </div><div><br /></div><ul><li><div><b>My wife</b>: money talks. She loves being frugal but she also loves Disney and some specific shows. I led with the cost savings (over $1,000/year!) and the Disney+ subscription. She's also a safety advocate and having the existing Internet-based phone with e911 service brought comfort</div></li><li><div><b>My oldest son</b>: lives for watching sports. Glued to ESPN. The ESPN+ subscription appealed to his sports appetite and won him over. He has an iPhone now and likes to stream ESPN--constantly</div></li><li><div><b>My youngest son</b>: plays online games with his friends, watches a lot of YouTube (much to my chagrin), and wants to upload his gaming videos fast. He plays/streams in the basement away from any wired connections so he wanted fast Wi-Fi in particular</div></li></ul><div><br /></div><div>With my approach and sales pitch, I earned buy-in from the family. Now on to implementation...</div><div><br /></div><h2 style="text-align: left;">Build it and they will Come</h2><div>I first built out a purchase list. There were a number of items I needed to buy to make this all work: </div><div><br /></div><ol><li><div><b>Satellite Wi-Fi access points</b>. After extensive evaluation (which is outside the scope of this write-up), I chose the <a href="https://www.netgear.com/support/product/RBK50.aspx">Orbi RBK50</a>. ($300) One of the access points plugs into the router while the other two act as wireless satellites. If I'm moving throughout the house and the signal decreases, it automatically moves me onto one of the other satellites. It's just like what you've grown to expect while moving around at your office with your laptop. It also eliminates the dead-spot problems in your house. If you place a single access point in a particular room in your house, the locations within your house furthest or behind thick walls (or below ground) from the device will suffer slow speeds or won't even connect. I experimented over time with the location of these devices--improving their performance leveraging the provided tools. </div></li><li><div><b>Streaming TV devices</b>. As detailed above, I purchased Roku devices for all our smart TVs. I chose the <a href="https://www.roku.com/products/streaming-stick-plus">Roku Streaming Stick+</a>. They were fairly inexpensive ($50), streamed 4k, and have a really solid on-screen user interface and remote control. They were easy to install (plugs right in to the USB and HDMI input slots) and join to my Wi-Fi. There are also no on-going costs or subscription.</div></li><li><div><b>HD Antennas</b>. These got me some of the local channels my family said were a must-have. What are they watching the local news? Heck no. Local sports. We're big Buckeye fans and often the non-conference games are shown on the local stations. Living in a major metropolitan area, we're within 30 miles of a half-dozen stations broadcasting strong HD signals. I bought two HD antennas off the shelf. ($30). You can find your <a href="https://www.fcc.gov/media/engineering/dtvmaps" target="_blank">local HD stations on the FCC site</a>. </div></li><li><div><b>Streaming providers</b>. We already had Amazon Prime and Netflix. Keeping the peace, I decided to keep those for the time being. Disney offered early subscribers the Disney+, ESPN+, Hulu bundle for around $10/month. </div></li><li><div><b>Cable modem</b>. This device takes the Internet signal from the cable coming into the house and transforms it to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethernet">Ethernet</a> (standard networking protocol/wire). I could have rented/leveraged a cable modem from WOW but I didn't want the garbage that included. Often, cable companies place a ton of garbage apps on their modems/routers causing traffic to slow. My brother-in-law tripled his Internet speed at one point by replacing his cable company provided modem/router with a store-bought one. I went with the <a href="https://www.arris.com/surfboard/products/cable-modems/sb8200/">Arris SB8200</a> cable modem ($150). Ok, why this one? Without getting into the details, it uses something called <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DOCSIS">DOCSIS 3.1</a> which enables Gigabit speeds. I didn't want my modem to be a bottleneck to the speed of the cable Internet. It would be a waste to get say 200Mbps from the cable company to a cable modem that only supported 100Mbps. More on that later. </div></li></ol><div><br /></div><div>That was it. I already had the OBITalk Internet phone device and actual physical phones, smart TVs, and other networking equipment (more on that later). Even adding the Disney+ and calculating in the Netflix costs ($13/month...I didn't account for the Prime cost as it provides other benefits...good market positioning, Amazon), we would still save over $1,000 a year!</div><div><br /></div><div>Next, I soft-launched the family. I set up my new satellite Wi-Fi access points (Orbi) and the streaming devices (Roku). Despite using the same network name of my previous Wi-Fi access points, it took a while and some effort to move our almost 20 (seriously?) Internet-enabled devices onto this new Wi-Fi network. With voice devices, smart phones, TVs, tablets, computers, and the one-off devices, we have a lot of connections. I then educated the family on using the new streaming TV devices and let them play around and get used to the new solution for a few weeks. I urged them to avoid the old cable and other systems to see what it would be like when we went Internet-only. When they encountered an issue, we worked through it. Some of these included missing apps or subscriptions as well as education opportunities. </div><div><br /></div><div>Once I was confident the Internet-only plan would succeed, I re-contacted WOW. I liked WOW, had had a good experience with them, and didn't really want to switch. I compared their just-Internet plans and found theirs to be the best in my area ($45/month for 200<a href="https://dailywireless.org/internet/what-is-mbps/">Mbps</a>). Even in 2019, Internet-only was unusual despite the WOW offering. As such, this involved some additional conversations and negotiating. Eventually, we set a date to cut over and discussed how I should return all their equipment. Incidentally, I saved a ton of monthly costs here. The cable company makes a lot of recurring revenue off monthly set-top box and router "rental" charges. </div><div><br /></div><div>The cut-over date arrived and I plugged in my cable modem. I then connected the cable modem to the existing network. We had a few snags but everything started working and seemed great. </div><div><br /></div><h2 style="text-align: left;">Slow Internet...What?</h2><div>Life went on. The family enjoyed our new streaming services and despite a few challenges, everything seemed to work just fine--until it didn't. In March of 2020, COVID-19 hit and the entire family began to operate out of the house. We relied heavily on the Internet. Blessed to be in a position to work from home, I was grateful beyond belief at putting my Internet-only plan into action just months beforehand. The kids were able to connect to their schools, my wife delivered video instruction from home, and I was able to connect and work remotely. Using Zoom extensively, I began to notice lag on some calls. I attributed it to the family and would ask the kids to stop streaming. Then it started to get worse--and at times when I knew I was the only one using the Internet. I ran a quick speed test: 45Mbps?! What? </div><div><br /></div><div>I assumed this slow Internet was my Wi-Fi connection or a cable company issue. I restarted my access points and the cable modem. No better. Next, I checked my Wi-Fi signal. I noticed my laptop was on 2.4GHz instead of 5.0GHz. For some reason, my laptop has to be right next to the access point when first connecting to get a 5.0GHz connection. Fine. I re-tested the speed. It was a little faster but not much. It should be at least 3-4x faster. On to the cable company. The cable company tested speeds to the modem claiming 200+Mbps. They could come out for a service call but it they determine the issue is mine, I would have to pay for the visit. No, I can figure this out. </div><div><br /></div><div>I updated the firmware on all my devices. No improvement. I bought a new managed switch (distributes traffic from Internet cable modem to other devices via Ethernet) for $35. Connecting this between my cable modem and devices yielded no improvement. What was going on? </div><div><br /></div><div>Finally, I plugged my laptop straight in to the switch. Jackpot. 220Mbps! Crazy fast Internet--and even more than what my cable provider guarantees. I had determined the issue was inside the home network and downstream of the cable router and the switch. I next plugged my laptop into a jack in my home office connected via Ethernet to the switch. (My home builder wired the house with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category_5_cable">CAT-5 Ethernet</a> cables.) It was the slower speed. Ok, now we were making progress. By narrowing the problem with troubleshooting, I knew the issue was somewhere between the jack and the switch. </div><div><br /></div><div>When I first moved into the house, Wi-Fi speeds and connectivity were fairly slow (in general). I decided I would split part of the Ethernet cable (it's comprised of 4 twisted pair--one pair can carry a signal...just not as fast) to create both a data and a voice jack to various points of the house. At the time, this was a great solution which enabled me to plug in phones and devices to a faster, wired connection. It also enabled me to place my previous Wi-Fi access point upstairs (my Internet/cable enters the house through the foundation in the basement) where it could enjoy improved connectivity and signal strength. The Ethernet cable twisted pairs split with one pair for voice and the other three for data. Using a networking board/panel in my basement "networking closet" (where all the cables come together) I converted those wire pairs into plugs. Those plugs connect to the switch to carry the data over the cable modem and out onto the Internet.</div><div><br /></div><div>There are two problems here (both of which were my fault): CAT-5 Ethernet cables lose speed as you repurpose the twisted pairs (I had essentially cut the horsepower by 25%) but perhaps most importantly, my converter/patch panel equipment was quite old and only supported 100Mbps (or something...not really sure...just think slow). I felt like a knucklehead. My slick home network I built 15 years earlier was stifling my Internet. As Tony Stark says, it was time to go "...back in hardware mode". </div><div><br /></div><div>On the jacks, I moved the one wire pair over to the data jack and punched down the wires. Now all four twisted pairs connected to the data jack. I did the same for the converter/patch panel in my networking closet. Bingo! Plugging my laptop into the Ethernet jack and running a speed test, I saw speeds in excess of 200Mbps! I plugged my Orbi access point into the Ethernet jack and witnessed Wi-Fi speeds almost just as high. Mystery solved! ("<a href="https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/YouMeddlingKids">I would have gotten away with it if it hadn't been for you meddling kids!</a>" -- Old-guy <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scooby-Doo">Scooby-Doo</a> 1970's cartoon reference.)</div><div><br /></div><h2 style="text-align: left;">Reliability...your Livelihood now Depends on It</h2><div>Achieving fast Internet granted me hero status with my family, I got a promotion at work, met <a href="http://markcubancompanies.com/">Mark Cuban</a>...and they all lived happily ever after. Ok, none of that happened. In truth my family stopped griping about the Internet and chose to find grief with other concerns: it's hot, I'm bored, do something useful, etc. I on the other hand recognized an immediate improvement in video calls and Internet performance. </div><div><br /></div><div>With the current and ever-changing situation, we spend a disproportionate amount of time at home. That time often involves the Internet. Connectivity and reliable connectivity has never been more important. Your career, your livelihood, the perceptions of others, and your kids' education may rely solely on your Internet connection. If, like me, you're blessed to be in a situation where you can work from home, your success and your family's success (and emotional state) may hinge on a reliable Internet connection. </div><div><br /></div><div>I helped advise a senior leader in my firm last month on improving his Zoom conferencing speed. Every time he spoke (and he's a smart guy--he usually says some really intelligent things), he cut out. I could just feel the other participants cringing. His messaging got lost and the perception of his capabilities dropped. Is this fair? Certainly not. It doesn't matter. Perception is reality. If your connection isn't performing, it's a poor reflection on you. Right or wrong (wrong...but again, it doesn't matter.)</div><div><br /></div><div>My family and coworkers didn't appreciate my fast Internet. They didn't appreciate it because it's now an expectation. They expect it to be always available, secure, and fast. I didn't get any credit for getting it all working but I certainly got grief and my colleague's perception and effectiveness suffered when the Internet was slow. </div><div><br /></div><div>If you simply use what your cable or Internet provider gave you when first starting up with them, evaluate your speed (run a speed test) and how you consume content. Do you really need cable? Is your Internet fast enough for your household? What is your current plan? Could you save money while getting superior service and content? Periodically, perform a speed test. Track your speed over time. If you witness a dip, look into it. What's changed? Are you online more often? Kids back "in school" (at home)? Neighbor stealing your Wi-Fi (don't laugh, I've seen it)? Maybe your modem or router is just acting up. Give it a restart. </div><div><br /></div><h2 style="text-align: left;">Stay Secure</h2><div>We haven't discussed security but it warrants a conversation. With the shift to work from home, nefarious actors have begun to shift their focus to consumers and those working remotely. It's a lot easier to attack your employer through a home network than directly into the company. It's always a game of cat and mouse with escalating attacks and protections. We must stay constantly vigilant in our defenses: </div><div><br /></div><ul><li><div><b>Updates</b>. Check all your networking equipment (modems, switches, Wi-Fi access points, etc.) and devices (computers, phones, etc.) at least every other month for available updates. Often, you can (and should) subscribe to manufacturer email alerts about vulnerabilities and firmware patches. If possible, set your devices to update automatically. </div></li><li><div><b>Anti-virus software and firewalls</b>. Make sure you enable and/or install anti-virus and firewall software on all your devices. If the device didn't come with this software, you need to install and configure it. </div></li><li><div><b>Backups</b>. On all devices, maintain a cloud-based, automated backup solution. This software automatically backs up your work to a cloud storage location. It should work with all your devices: computers, phones, etc. In the event your device is lost, stolen, or worse infected with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ransomware">ransomware</a> or unrecoverable <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malware">malware</a>, you could recover all your documents and photos from the cloud backup. </div></li><li><div><b>Privacy</b>. I've been considering options here lately. For all work, my company has a secure, encrypted connection. There's no reason why you can't do the same. You may want to consider a <a href="https://www.pcmag.com/picks/the-best-vpn-services">VPN solution to encrypt all your Internet traffic</a>. This may help in keeping your personal data safer. </div></li><li><div><b>Respond don't react</b>. The criminals on the Internet keep getting more and more clever. You'll get emails or even phone calls to click or call about an account issue. Don't react to these prompts. Instead of clicking, log on to your account by opening a browser and typing in the address. Get a voicemail about an account issue? Call the customer service number of the company using their web site contact or number on the back of your credit card. </div></li><li><div><b>Wi-Fi</b>. Set the security to the highest level on your Wi-Fi access point. Some devices may not function or connect as a trade-off. Make your password complicated. Change it occasionally. Don't allow anyone on your home network--or if you must, enable a Guest Wi-Fi network with a separate password (make sure your Wi-Fi access point has this feature before you buy). </div></li></ul><div><br /></div><div><b>Have a Backup Plan</b></div><div>Despite all your efforts, stuff happens. With your Internet provider, you have a single point of failure. The service can go down. Your landscaper cuts the cable. It happens. What's your backup plan? Prior to COVID-19, my backup plan was a local coffee shop or even just to go into the office. This may no longer be a viable option. Do you have a friend with a business or a family member who lives in another part of town (with an alternative Internet provider)? A co-working location? Talk to them ahead of time to work out a contingency plan. If all else fails, most cellular providers let you use your phone (or even provide separate devices) as an Internet access point / <a href="https://www.wikihow.com/Connect-a-Computer-to-a-Hotspot">mobile hotspot</a>. Until 5G proliferates, treat this solution as a temporary plan with limited bandwidth. </div><div><br /></div><div>If your work and connectivity is mission-critical, you should consider redundant Internet connections. Perhaps you have multiple Internet providers. For this to work, you would also need power-interruption solutions and a lot of practice runs. As an advanced solution, you likely would want to find a network professional in your area. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Go Forward--Bravely</b></div><div>In these new and challenging times, your family, your career, your livelihood, and your sanity may hinge on the reliability and performance of your home Internet connection. Use my experiences and the plan here to establish reliable, high-performing home Internet at a very reasonable cost. Post any questions below. I would love to help you. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAXvAcgRRW1M57dC7rhFwa3OBnZE_hXW4ouU50-Dj7WUqqnW1hJW6X4_nWabbdEaPM07OKtoXHFZGNCf256L8ZkMG0WVevnA_iSheV5DNw5xnF-c_FVt5N4QFjNWodgiw6_dl0Ew/s1920/speedometer-653246_1920.jpg" style="display: none;" /></div></div></font>Jeff Hunsakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07740484450068986098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9369362.post-41542423991189357472019-09-29T13:35:00.000-04:002019-09-29T13:35:00.625-04:00Collegiate Stadiums Projecting Pro Brands<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-attachment: scroll; background-clip: border-box; background-color: transparent; background-image: none; background-origin: padding-box; background-position-x: 0%; background-position-y: 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; border-bottom-color: currentColor; border-bottom-style: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-image-outset: 0; border-image-repeat: stretch; border-image-slice: 100%; border-image-source: none; border-image-width: 1; border-left-color: currentColor; border-left-style: none; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-color: currentColor; border-right-style: none; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-color: currentColor; border-top-style: none; border-top-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); counter-reset: list-1 list-2 list-3 list-4 list-5 list-6 list-7 list-8 list-9; cursor: text; font-family: Source Serif Pro,serif; font-size: 2rem; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 3.2rem; margin-bottom: 3.2rem; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; word-spacing: 0px;">
My son and I throughly enjoyed watching The Ohio State University Buckeyes shred the Miami of Ohio Redhawks on a recent Saturday afternoon. Following an early afternoon downpour, the humidity and recently-cleared skies brought a healthy glimmer to everyone's skin. It was hot. Which makes folks thirsty. </div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-attachment: scroll; background-clip: border-box; background-color: transparent; background-image: none; background-origin: padding-box; background-position-x: 0%; background-position-y: 0%; background-repeat: repeat; background-size: auto; border-bottom-color: currentColor; border-bottom-style: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-image-outset: 0; border-image-repeat: stretch; border-image-slice: 100%; border-image-source: none; border-image-width: 1; border-left-color: currentColor; border-left-style: none; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-color: currentColor; border-right-style: none; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-color: currentColor; border-top-style: none; border-top-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75); counter-reset: list-1 list-2 list-3 list-4 list-5 list-6 list-7 list-8 list-9; cursor: text; font-family: Source Serif Pro,serif; font-size: 2rem; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 3.2rem; margin-bottom: 3.2rem; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 3.2rem; orphans: 2; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; word-spacing: 0px;">
A few years back, Ohio State, like many other universities, began selling beer during football games. As a college student and later as an alumni, I experienced some of the greatest tailgating in the country--frequently enjoying a beverage or two. Why not bring it inside and further line the pockets of the university?
The argument at the time centered less around the fiscal and more around alleviating the need for ticketholders to drink intensely immediately before the game knowing they would need to last through a 4 hour contest. The university claimed people would enter the stadium less intoxicated knowing they could get their fill inside. I would love it if the Sociology department performed a study to judge the efficacy of this hypothesis. </div>
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Rather than debate the merits or transgressions of alcohol, I would invite Ohio State (and any other public institution) to further scruitinize and debate their position in choosing to sell alcohol at stadiums--as it relates to their brand.
We enjoyed great seats from a friend right on the north goal line. They were right on the aisle. Despite these amazing seats with an incredible view, I missed a good chunk of the game. Was my view obstructed by a support pillar? Did my son suddenly take ill? No, the constant stream of fans exiting and entering our row as well as walking up and down the nearby steps disrupted our viewing frequently if not near-consistently.
Hey, I get it. It's a venue with 103,000+ other fans. We need to be accommodating and graceful. Everyone needing into or out of the row exhibited politeness and cordiality. It was the fact that in all of these interruptions, almost everyone returned holding a beer or two in their hands.
As a fan and an alumni, I love going to Ohio State games. There's nothing like the excitement, energy, and antics. And maybe as I age, different things are important to me. I think Ohio State needs to think deeper about what sort of brand image all these people constantly wandering around getting beer (and relieving themselves) projects. Personally, I want to watch the game. I don't want to watch massive groups of people filling the aisles. If it becomes a better experience to watch at home or to even tailgate without buying tickets, how does that impact Ohio State's brand? Maybe Ohio State doesn't care--but I think it should. I always tell my kids, "pay for experiences--not stuff" but if that experience is poor, folks are unlikely to return.
The NCAA continues to try to preserve the mystique and innocence of college athletics. They're fighting the pay-the-players argument more fervently now--especially with pending legislation in California. Professional sports has long embraced alcohol and now looks certain to leverage gambling to increase the business vibrancy and lucrative opportunities. Professional sports is business though. Amateur athletics is not. For many universities, sports creates an incredible and vibrant revenue source--hundreds of millions of dollars annually. It won't be easy while treating amateur athletes fairly and providing a great in-person fan experience all while competing with everything vying for our attention.
Both the NCAA and collegiate athletic programs must constantly strive to preserve their brand. I think that brand revolves around team spirit and connect, amateurism, and academics. Perhaps it's too late to turn back but we must remember the sport is the entertainment--not the alcohol, gambling, or revenue structure. And the sport only exists because of the academic institutions.
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<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><br />Jeff Hunsakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07740484450068986098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9369362.post-3126953829848725772017-07-31T15:22:00.000-04:002017-07-31T15:22:12.028-04:00Windows 10 Creator's Update and Office ConflictsRecently, Microsoft pushed the "<a href="http://www.eweek.com/enterprise-apps/microsoft-doles-out-windows-10-creators-update-to-all">Creators Update</a>" out to Windows 10. It was available in April but it seems to have been force-pushed in the past 2 days. On my mother-in-law's computer, Creator's caused Excel to render a "Bad Image" message when attempting to start declaring "MSVCP140.dll is either not designed to run on Windows or it contains an error". I attempted the SFC and DISM repairs as advised on <a href="http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-3361580/dll-error-msvcp140-dll.html">Tom's site</a> to no avail. When I attempted an Office repair, Office disappeared completely. At this point, I definitely started to panic.<br />
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Fortunately, I noticed a pending reboot due to an install/update. Allowing Windows to install that update and rebooting twice brought Excel and Office back to life. I did have to re-register the software but all is well now. If you encounter this issue, stop what you're doing and install/restart Windows. Anecdotally, I've since hear of many folks encountering similar issues.Jeff Hunsakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07740484450068986098noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9369362.post-35829863345064099062012-07-02T14:34:00.001-04:002012-07-02T14:34:04.850-04:00Cardinal Blog: "Perfect is coming! But not 'til Tomorrow"Published on the <a href="http://www.cardinalsolutions.com/blogs.html">Cardinal Blog</a> "<a href="http://www.cardinalsolutions.com/blogs/agile/2012/07/perfect_is_comingb.html">Perfect is coming! But not 'til Tomorrow</a>"Jeff Hunsakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07740484450068986098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9369362.post-42117373356174112062012-03-11T11:08:00.000-04:002012-03-11T11:08:33.380-04:00Managing Expectations<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The touchpad on my oven at my house died about a month ago. It’s a Kenmore so I called Sears. Tough to get that first appointment so they first came out last Saturday. I was pretty sure I knew what was wrong and priced out the part alone at $200. When they offered a $275 “we’ll fix it or replace it with a warranty”, I jumped on it. (It’s worth $75 to avoid me screwing up my oven and have my wife be mad at me. Come to think of it, that’s probably worth a lot more than $75.) Upon arrival, the technician gave me a hard time about the lack of a serial number on the microwave. Huh? (It’s an oven/microwave stack combo and apparently, the serial number is a prerequisite to my service deal.) Is it my fault the serial number is a dinky sticker inside the microwave? No. We found it on the manual but nonetheless, don’t bother me with this. Just fix it.</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; tab-stops: 1363.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The technician diagnosed the bad touchpad (“control panel”) and said he would need to order the part. Fine. I then scheduled the next appointment for yesterday (1 week). The technician said UPS would ship the part directly to my house. Fine. Another 4 hour block of time wasted but whatever. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; tab-stops: 1363.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">On Thursday, I get an automated call from Sears saying to call them. I call. (BTW, their automated customer service line is annoying: it’s voice recognition that doesn’t often recognize and I can’t understand their CSRs and I’m usually good with accents.) Sears tells me the part won’t arrive until Saturday but that we’re still on. I just need to call them when the part arrives. Fine. My appointment is scheduled for 1-5pm. 1pm rolls around—no part. 1:15pm part arrives. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; tab-stops: 1363.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I call and wade through the annoying call tree. Oh, sorry, you missed the window. You’ll need to reschedule. I’m sorry, what? I said that Sears made a commitment and that the part arriving late wasn’t my fault. If it needed to arrive sooner, Sears should have shipped it in a more expedited fashion. I also said that Sears originally had me scheduled and should be able to fit me in at the end of the day. Nope, can’t do it. Big, long explanation which had nothing to do with me. I was nice and said that it wasn’t my problem. Pay the guy overtime. I have the part. Let’s get that technician out here today and meet your commitment to me. Nope, can’t do it. <o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; tab-stops: 1363.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Not getting anywhere with the CSR, I asked to speak to a supervisor. Condensing this long post, I was either disconnected or put on hold for 30+ minutes at a time 4 times (!) only to have to re-explain my issue to a non-supervisor. Throughout all this, I never lost my temper. It wasn’t the CSR or technicians fault. They were just doing their job. This was Sears fault. Their logistics and scheduling process was flawed, their call center people weren’t empowered and their call center technology was substandard. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; tab-stops: 1363.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Finally, I reached a supervisor. She told me, point blank, a technician would be out today. Great. Thanks. I’m happy. Crisis averted. Not 15 minutes later, I receive an automated call asking me to call Sears and reschedule. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; tab-stops: 1363.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Now I’m on a mission. Who can I escalate this issue to? The CEO of Sears? Ah, better yet, how about the Internet! I crack off two well-thought Twitter posts expressing my disappointment and dissatisfaction with Sears. 10 minutes later, I get a response from @searscares asking me to Direct Message my contact information. They want to help. Hmmm, ok. It can’t hurt. I get a call from Liz who is taking my case on. Fine. I explain the situation and she agrees it’s unacceptable. She sets off to work on it and will call me back. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; tab-stops: 1363.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Liz calls back about 30 minutes later with bad news. She pulled out all the stops and couldn’t make it happen. I thanked her for trying and we rescheduled. She offered me a gift card which was nice but it didn’t solve my problem. I wasn’t so much upset about my oven (it will get fixed…don’t use it all that much anyway) but disappointed in Sears. They used to be a great American company with a rich history of service. Sears and Roebuck – they were the original mass retailer for crying out loud! And then it hit me…</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; tab-stops: 1363.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I had played the role of Sears before. I had failed to manage expectations. Ouch. I suppose we all have/do but this one hurt. On past client efforts, not often, but at times, I had either failed to plan adequately or failed to provide adequate and timely communication resulting in jeopardized deliverables. I hadn’t met the expectations of my client just like Sears hadn’t met mine. It’s all about managing expectations. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; tab-stops: 1363.5pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Fortunately, I learned about managing expectations [the hard way] a while back and use several approaches to avoid mismanaged expectations: <o:p></o:p></span></div><ul><li> <span style="font-family: Calibri;">Planning. Yes, it will change but think the process through. It will identify missed elements and incongruent deliverables. “Wait, we can’t complete X before Y.”<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li> <span style="font-family: Calibri;">Contingency plans. Stuff happens. Shipping gets delayed. “If the part doesn’t make it to the house that day, is there another day we can make the repair?”<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li> <span style="font-family: Calibri;">Risk management. An experienced technician would know a week is not enough time for the part to arrive. Empower your folks to spend $15 to expedite shipping (as an example).<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li> <span style="font-family: Calibri;">Timely communication. I’m religious about weekly status reports. However, this needs to be followed up with a face-to-face meeting. There’s too much ambiguity around an email or even more formal written communication. Have a consistent, single point of contact for me. <o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li> <span style="font-family: Calibri;">Humility. If you mess up, come clean as soon as possible. If there’s a problem, I want to know about it. Stuff happens. Likely, it’s ok and I’ll respect you more for working with me rather than burying a problem that will multiply into a monster over time. <o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li> <span style="font-family: Calibri;">Respect. Don’t blame me for the problem. Own the problem. Make it right. I will contribute to the solution. Don’t use automated calls. Call me. Talk to me. If it’s just a reminder, an email is fine/perfect. Treat my situation as though it were your own. If we’re in this together, I’ll treat you like a trusted partner. <o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li> <span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Inspection. Is the process flawed? Are the right people in the wrong roles? Are our tools insufficient? How are we doing? What quantitative and qualitative metrics can we monitor over time to judge our effectiveness? <o:p></o:p></span></li>
</ul><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Managing expectations is extremely hard. I fail every day with my family and my teams. But I also succeed and improve with each mistake. That said, I know I’ll never be perfect but must continue to strive toward improvement. Sears needs to do the same. </span>Jeff Hunsakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07740484450068986098noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9369362.post-69705691618029509012011-11-13T18:57:00.000-05:002011-11-13T18:57:01.028-05:00Need Help: COALMG Leader(Cross-posted at <a href="http://www.coalmg.org/">http://www.coalmg.org/</a>)<br />
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Both Alexei and I enjoy working on the COALMG group. However, within the last few months, both of us took on new roles in our careers and struggle to find the time to line up speakers and keep things running smoothly. <br />
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To that end, we would like to open up COALMG to new leadership. Alexei and I would still remain involved (as well as Brian Prince) from a "board"/guidance perspective but we want someone to really drive: schedule strong presenters, question the current setup, drive membership, sponsors, etc. <br />
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We have a great following and there's tons of potential. COALMG is a fantastic opportunity for someone with energy, a passion for great software and a desire to get involved in the community. <br />
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We look forward to hearing from you! If you're interested, shoot me an email at jeff dot hunsaker at gmail.Jeff Hunsakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07740484450068986098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9369362.post-10490635710852441902011-06-09T09:51:00.000-04:002011-06-09T09:51:50.579-04:00TFS Error | The type initializer for 'Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Build.Server.BuildInformationNodeBinder' threw an exception.Posting this one for the search engines. If you ever receive the exception "The type initializer for 'Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Build.Server.BuildInformationNodeBinder' threw an exception.", more than likely, your drive space is at 0 on your TFS application tier box. <br />
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I encountered this at a client recently. The root cause was that IIS logs had filled up the OS drive (C:\). I switched IIS logging to the applications drive (D:\) which cleaned up the OS drive and resolved the issue. <br />
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Detailed message: <br />
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TF53010: The following error has occurred in a Team Foundation component or extension:<br />
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Date (UTC): 6/7/2011 4:18:53 PM<br />
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Machine: TFSATBOX<br />
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Application Domain: /LM/W3SVC/8080/ROOT/tfs-1-129519118182628600<br />
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Assembly: Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Framework.Server, Version=10.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a; v2.0.50727<br />
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Service Host: 7ecfbd77-b386-4d75-b038-b05474782696 (DefaultCollection)<br />
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Process Details:<br />
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Process Name: w3wp<br />
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Process Id: 3676<br />
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Thread Id: 5752<br />
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Account name: DOMAIN\SomeUser<br />
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Detailed Message: TF30065: An unhandled exception occurred.<br />
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Web Request Details<br />
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Url: http://tfs.internal.somedomain.com:8080/tfs/_tfs_resources/Build/v3.0/BuildService.asmx [method: POST]<br />
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User Agent: Team Foundation (devenv.exe, 10.0.40219.1)<br />
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Headers: Content-Length=406&Content-Type=application%2fsoap%2bxml%3b+charset%3dutf-8&Accept-Encoding=gzip&Accept-Language=en-US&Expect=100-continue&Host=tfs.internal.somedomain.com%3a8080&User-Agent=Team+Foundation+(devenv.exe%2c+10.0.40219.1)&X-TFS-Version=1.0.0.0&X-TFS-Session=7f33f7f4-765c-46fd-9f4a-bfd6dab598e7&TF-Instance=7f33f7f4-765c-46fd-9f4a-bfd6dab598e7&SOAPAction=http%3a%2f%2fschemas.microsoft.com%2fTeamFoundation%2f2005%2f06%2fBuild%2fBuildService%2f03%2fStopBuilds<br />
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Path: /tfs/_tfs_resources/Build/v3.0/BuildService.asmx<br />
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Local Request: False<br />
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Host Address: 10.10.10.10<br />
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User: DOMAIN\SomeUser [authentication type: NTLM]<br />
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Exception Message: The type initializer for 'Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Build.Server.BuildInformationNodeBinder' threw an exception. (type TypeInitializationException)<br />
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Exception Stack Trace: at Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Build.Server.BuildInformationNodeBinder.Bind()<br />
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at Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Framework.Server.ObjectBinder`1.TryMoveNext()<br />
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at Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Build.Server.TeamFoundationBuildService.UpdateBuildInformation(TeamFoundationRequestContext requestContext, IList`1 changes, IdentityDescriptor requestedFor)<br />
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at Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Build.Server.BuildController.StopBuilds(TeamFoundationRequestContext requestContext, IdentityDescriptor requestedFor, BuildServiceHost serviceHost, IList`1 builds, Boolean force)<br />
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at Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Build.Server.TeamFoundationBuildService.StopBuilds(TeamFoundationRequestContext requestContext, IList`1 uris)<br />
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at Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Build.Server.BuildWebService.StopBuilds(String[] uris)<br />
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Inner Exception Details:<br />
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Exception Message: There is not enough space on the disk.<br />
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(type IOException)<br />
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Exception Stack Trace: at System.IO.__Error.WinIOError(Int32 errorCode, String maybeFullPath)<br />
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at System.IO.FileStream.WriteCore(Byte[] buffer, Int32 offset, Int32 count)<br />
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at System.IO.FileStream.FlushWrite(Boolean calledFromFinalizer)<br />
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at System.IO.FileStream.Dispose(Boolean disposing)<br />
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at System.IO.Stream.Close()<br />
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at System.IO.StreamWriter.Dispose(Boolean disposing)<br />
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at System.IO.TextWriter.Dispose()<br />
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at Microsoft.CSharp.CSharpCodeGenerator.FromSourceBatch(CompilerParameters options, String[] sources)<br />
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at Microsoft.CSharp.CSharpCodeGenerator.System.CodeDom.Compiler.ICodeCompiler.CompileAssemblyFromSourceBatch(CompilerParameters options, String[] sources)<br />
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at System.Xml.Serialization.Compiler.Compile(Assembly parent, String ns, XmlSerializerCompilerParameters xmlParameters, Evidence evidence)<br />
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at System.Xml.Serialization.TempAssembly.GenerateAssembly(XmlMapping[] xmlMappings, Type[] types, String defaultNamespace, Evidence evidence, XmlSerializerCompilerParameters parameters, Assembly assembly, Hashtable assemblies)<br />
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at System.Xml.Serialization.TempAssembly..ctor(XmlMapping[] xmlMappings, Type[] types, String defaultNamespace, String location, Evidence evidence)<br />
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at System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer..ctor(Type type, String defaultNamespace)<br />
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at Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Build.Server.BuildSqlXmlColumnBinder`1..ctor(String columnName)<br />
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at Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Build.Server.BuildInformationNodeBinder..cctor()Jeff Hunsakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07740484450068986098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9369362.post-39872200932807948372011-01-12T11:25:00.004-05:002011-01-12T11:34:52.920-05:00TF221122: TFS Error While Processing CubeIf you're experiencing "Query execution failed for dataset 'ds[Whatever]'. ", more than likely, your warehouse processing is failing. Going into the Admin Console or invoking the <a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff400237.aspx">web service directly</a>, invoking the Start Rebuild action, I kept receiving a TF221122.<br /><br />Finally, when I added the account under "Account for accessing data sources" under the "Analysis Services" tab to the SQL Server Tfs_Warehouse database TFSEXECROLE role, processing began to succeed again. Whew.Jeff Hunsakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07740484450068986098noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9369362.post-54348284450454577702010-12-09T21:46:00.002-05:002010-12-09T21:50:52.029-05:00VS/TFS 2010 All-Up VM Refresh<a href="http://blogs.msdn.com/b/briankel/">Brian Keller</a> just updated the soon-to-expire (12/15) <a href="http://blogs.msdn.com/b/briankel/archive/2010/06/25/now-available-visual-studio-2010-rtm-virtual-machine-with-sample-data-and-hands-on-labs.aspx">all-up Visual Studio/TFS 2010 VM</a>. Make sure to download the latest refresh! From Brian:<br /><br /><br /><blockquote>What’s new in the December 2010 Refresh?<br />The version of this virtual machine<br />which was refreshed on December 9, 2010, includes the following additions:<br />·<br />Visual Studio 2010 Feature Pack 2<br />· Team Foundation Server 2010 Power Tools<br />(September 2010 Release)<br />· Visual Studio 2010 Productivity Power Tools<br />(these are disabled in VS so that the screenshots of the hands-on-labs still<br />match; you can quickly enable the Productivity Power Tools via Tools -><br />Extension Manager from within Visual Studio)<br />· Test Scribe for Microsoft<br />Test Manager<br />· Visual Studio Scrum 1.0 Process Template<br />· All Windows<br />Updates through December 8, 2010<br />· Lab Management GDR (KB983578)<br />·<br />Visual Studio 2010 Feature Pack 2 pre-requisite hotfix (KB2403277)<br />·<br />Microsoft Test Manager hotfix (KB2387011)<br />· Minor fit-and-finish fixes based<br />on customer feedback<br />· A new expiration date of June 1, 2011<br /></blockquote>Jeff Hunsakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07740484450068986098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9369362.post-44697276429128673082010-10-14T22:34:00.008-04:002010-11-03T21:19:39.168-04:00DogFood III Conference:Engaging nondevelopers in Visual Studio 2010/TFS/ALM<a href="http://www.dogfoodcon.com/"><img style="margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px; width: 320px; float: right; height: 133px;" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5528096935297170258" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv3ZdRq0BgQAdgRbYCX_SOdtJ_Qkez97N4aeS2DncZADnetqaREhkAgxXOs0JocEVfLkZrEPJtsic5TuwzlMqkqlImo3nNa6hM9Izhu6WRQf2SX-aVSk4a1MDIqbm7nzPg7i_pSg/s320/DF2010-LOGO.PNG" border="0" /></a><br /><div>I'm honored to be presenting at the <a href="http://www.dogfoodcon.com/">DogFood Conference</a> again this year. I'll be delivering a session entitled "Engaging nondevelopers in Visual Studio 2010/TFS/ALM" on Friday. Hope to see you there!<br /><br />Update (11/03/2010): I posted my deck on SkyDrive...but you still need to attend in person! (Lots of demos...)<br /></div><br /><iframe title="Preview" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" style="width: 98px; height: 115px; padding: 0pt; background-color: rgb(252, 252, 252);" src="http://cid-9d209d51996f5a60.office.live.com/embedicon.aspx/Presentations/DogFoodIII%2011-05-2010/Microsoft%20Visual%20Studio%20ALM%202010%20Engaging%20Non-Developers.pdf" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe>Jeff Hunsakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07740484450068986098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9369362.post-33619300591098286932010-09-15T12:34:00.004-04:002010-09-16T21:21:32.577-04:00Visual Studio 2010 Microsoft Scrum Process Template on SharePoint 2010I couldn't find specific reference to installing the <a href="http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/59ac03e3-df99-4776-be39-1917cbfc5d8e">Scrum template</a> onto SharePoint 2010 so I thought I would confirm that it does indeed work. A few tips:<br /><ol><br /><li>The MSI installer does not apply the process template nor install the SharePoint feature. You need to upload the template manually and run STSADM.exe commands to deploy the TFS WSP. Follow the ReadMe.txt files in the installation directories for the template and the feature, respectively.</li><br /><li>The path in the SharePoint installation ReadMe.txt file refers to the STSADM.exe path in the "12 hive" but this switches to the "14 hive" for SharePoint 2010. Just replace the paths to ../12/.. with ../14/..</li></ol><p></p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqs1_Qxv5h4hSw9l7VcZ8douGmwCrmcmW0-PEJklFQ9zqimT5ajZaJ0-5d9kUrVrIffzeMjg-zMh_QQm7Kq_wZKBNUZZ3XbwkN7TlPimg1Jn2_zfa27PTvTe82lI0CJF4EKjlEBQ/s1600/TF30177.png"></a><br /><br /><p></p>Jeff Hunsakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07740484450068986098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9369362.post-11180479472111547412010-08-25T06:43:00.005-04:002010-08-25T07:03:12.737-04:00Lab Management in Visual Studio 2010 ReleasedIn my experience, there's a lot of animosity and poor communication between Development and <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_0" class="blsp-spelling-error">QA</span>. It's not that they don't appreciate one another so much as they never seem to stay on the same page.<br /><br /><span id="SPELLING_ERROR_1" class="blsp-spelling-error">QA</span>: "What's the status on defect #4874?"<br />Dev: "Done."<br /><span id="SPELLING_ERROR_2" class="blsp-spelling-error">QA</span>: "Done?"<br />Dev: "Yeah, I fixed that Tuesday."<br /><span id="SPELLING_ERROR_3" class="blsp-spelling-error">QA</span>: "Err, <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_4" class="blsp-spelling-error">ok</span>. Well where is it? I mean where can I verify it?"<br />Dev: "No clue. I committed it Tuesday. It passed unit tests and built successfully."<br /><span id="SPELLING_ERROR_5" class="blsp-spelling-error">QA</span>: "Alright. I'll track it down."<br /><br /><span id="SPELLING_ERROR_6" class="blsp-spelling-corrected">Invariably</span>, <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_7" class="blsp-spelling-error">QA</span> speaks with the build manager (if there is one) to find the build in which that defect was repaired. After discovering the correct build, now <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_8" class="blsp-spelling-error">QA</span> needs an environment stood up to house that build. But wait, the <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_9" class="blsp-spelling-error">UAT</span> environment is currently testing the next release. It can't be disturbed for another week.<br /><br />At this point, the <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_10" class="blsp-spelling-error">QA</span> person's blood pressure heads for unsafe levels and the Dice.com browsing begins. But it doesn't have to be this way...<br /><br /><a href="http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/en-us/solutions/software-quality/lab-management">Lab Management in Visual Studio 2010</a> along with <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_11" class="blsp-spelling-error">TFS</span> solves many of these pains. Here's what the above scenario might look like with Lab Management:<br /><br /><span id="SPELLING_ERROR_12" class="blsp-spelling-error">QA</span> doesn't inquire to the Dev about #4874 because it's already marked Resolved and back in <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_13" class="blsp-spelling-error">QA's</span> list of Defect Work Items. It's associated with a Continuous Integration Team Build instance which is marked with a Build Quality of Ready for <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_14" class="blsp-spelling-error">UAT</span> (meaning all unit tests passed and the build compiled successfully). Behind the scenes, as part of the build, Lab Management spun up a virtual web server, application server and database server. Team Build deployed the solution to this virtual environment and even sent an email to the build manager and the <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_15" class="blsp-spelling-error">QA</span> person (they chose to be alerted) saying this environment was ready for testing. This shop is currently testing four pending releases along with a production <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_16" class="blsp-spelling-error">hotfix</span> that's going out later today--all at the same time in completely separate environments.<br /><br />Best of all, it's an amazing value. If you made/make the investment in Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate, you get Lab Management for free. Yes, that's right: free. That said, you will need some not insignificant hardware to serve as a host for these virtual servers...but you have that already, right?Jeff Hunsakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07740484450068986098noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9369362.post-55631463481219787712010-07-06T21:35:00.008-04:002010-07-06T21:49:14.700-04:00How I Cloned my Laptop Hard Drive or Skirting the Dreaded Hard Drive KerklunkRecently, my laptop hard drive started emitting the dreaded, "<span id="SPELLING_ERROR_0" class="blsp-spelling-error">kerklunk</span>, <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_1" class="blsp-spelling-error">rriiipppphphhhh</span>" noise. Oh yes, you've awoken in a sweat with this nightmare, haven't you? It's a sure sign of a failed drive coming down the pike. <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_2" class="blsp-spelling-corrected">Incoming</span>!<br /><br />Rather than suffering the life-shattering disruption of an unrecoverable drive, I called a Code Blue...and here's what I did:<br /><br />Background: I have Win7 64-bit running on a Dell Latitude D830 with a bay-mounted <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_3" class="blsp-spelling-error">SATA</span> external 500GB drive and an external <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_4" class="blsp-spelling-error">USB</span> 500GB drive.<br /><ol><li>Download <a href="http://www.paragon-software.com/home/db-express/download.html">Paragon Backup & Recovery Free Edition</a>; install</li><li>Use Paragon B&R to create a full backup of my existing hard drive (including <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_5" class="blsp-spelling-error">MBR</span>/Master Boot Record) onto my external <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_6" class="blsp-spelling-error">USB</span> drive (about 1/2 the size of my total hard drive)</li><li>Use <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_7" class="blsp-spelling-error">Paradon</span> B&R to restore from the external <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_8" class="blsp-spelling-error">USB</span> drive to the external bay drive</li><li>Shut down Windows7</li><li>Swap primary hard drive with external bay drive</li><li>Start up Windows7</li><li>Order new hard drive to replace old, busted, Kerklunk drive...</li></ol><p>Unbelievably, that's it. Everything (including Windows Activation) just worked. I will shout to the hills about the awesome-<span id="SPELLING_ERROR_9" class="blsp-spelling-error">ness</span> of Paragon's tools. Yea Paragon. Seriously. <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_10" class="blsp-spelling-error">Booyah</span>.</p>Jeff Hunsakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07740484450068986098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9369362.post-40237285922849196752010-06-12T13:10:00.003-04:002010-06-12T13:14:36.158-04:00Scrum for TFS Template v1.0 (Beta)In case you missed it, Brian Harry <a href="http://blogs.msdn.com/b/bharry/archive/2010/06/07/a-scrum-process-template-for-tfs.aspx">announced</a> Microsoft's <a href="http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/59ac03e3-df99-4776-be39-1917cbfc5d8e">Scrum process template</a> this week at TechEd in New Orleans. Very exciting. Great work, <a href="http://blogs.msdn.com/b/aaronbjork/">Aaron</a> and team!Jeff Hunsakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07740484450068986098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9369362.post-13940883284766496612010-05-29T13:31:00.000-04:002010-05-29T13:32:33.054-04:00Scrum for TFS 2010 at Path to AgilityThanks to all who attended <a href="http://govorin.blogspot.com/">Alexei's</a> and <a href="http://www.jeffreyhunsaker.com/">my</a> Scrum for TFS 2010 Thursday at the <a href="http://www.thepathtoagility.org/">Path to Agility</a> conference. Please contact us if you have follow-up questions. We posted the deck <a href="http://cid-bf5e5c36e45ea1bd.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/Public/Path-to-Agility/Scrum%20with%20TFS%202010%20-%20Path%20to%20Agility.pptx">here</a>.Jeff Hunsakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07740484450068986098noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9369362.post-12033621268004947802010-05-23T10:33:00.002-04:002010-05-23T10:39:47.624-04:00Path to Agility Conference: SpeakingI'll be leading a panel and presenting at the <a href="http://www.thepathtoagility.org/">Path to Agility</a> conference Thursday May 27th. The panel at 1:15PM is entitled "Attracting and Leading Agile Developers". The presentation at 3:00PM is entitled "Scrum with Team Foundation Server 2010". Hope to see you there!Jeff Hunsakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07740484450068986098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9369362.post-91923915898793612842010-05-18T18:42:00.002-04:002010-05-18T18:44:44.826-04:00TFS 2010: Check-in Policies and Power Tools<p>Recently, I had an inquiry about where the "<span id="SPELLING_ERROR_0" class="blsp-spelling-error">Changeset</span> Comments Policy" went for Check-in Policies...check the <a href="http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/3e8c9b68-6e39-4577-b9b7-78489b5cb1da">Power Tools</a>.</p><p>Before installing Power Tools…</p><p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_cAau5b05hrU/S_MXvKNE1HI/AAAAAAAAATg/u4UY3fk7sgQ/s1600-h/clip_image002%5B3%5D.jpg"><img style="BORDER-BOTTOM: 0px; BORDER-LEFT: 0px; DISPLAY: inline; BORDER-TOP: 0px; BORDER-RIGHT: 0px" title="clip_image002" border="0" alt="clip_image002" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_cAau5b05hrU/S_MXvzaNiYI/AAAAAAAAATk/TRoCh48aC8c/clip_image002_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" height="162" /></a></p><p>After installing Power Tools…</p><p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_cAau5b05hrU/S_MXwCVI_BI/AAAAAAAAATo/sWhBOsfHdyM/s1600-h/clip_image004%5B3%5D.jpg"><img style="BORDER-BOTTOM: 0px; BORDER-LEFT: 0px; DISPLAY: inline; BORDER-TOP: 0px; BORDER-RIGHT: 0px" title="clip_image004" border="0" alt="clip_image004" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_cAau5b05hrU/S_MXweVlCrI/AAAAAAAAATs/RgED0zGG2pc/clip_image004_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" height="192" /></a></p>Jeff Hunsakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07740484450068986098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9369362.post-1440890618428283652010-05-11T22:06:00.002-04:002010-05-11T22:06:56.261-04:00Visual Studio and Team Foundation Server 2010 – Starting Point<p>Congratulations to the Microsoft team for recently releasing the much anticipated Visual Studio and Team Foundation Server 2010. My firm is embarking on several roll-outs right off the bat so I wanted to capture some of our efforts. To start, lets just provide the basics: </p><p><a href="http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=2d531219-2c39-4c69-88ef-f5ae6ac18c9f&displaylang=en" target="_blank">TFS 2010 Installation Guide</a></p><p><a href="http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=07AA12E5-2ED3-4DB8-96EB-51A48DCCB35D&displaylang=en" target="_blank">TFS 2010 Administration Guide</a></p><p><a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/ee358787.aspx" target="_blank">Visual Studio Rangers Guidance</a></p><p><a href="http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=752CB725-969B-4732-A383-ED5740F02E93&displaylang=en" target="_blank">Visual Studio 2010 and .Net 4.0 Training Kit</a></p><p><a href="https://www.microsoft.com/assess/Default.aspx" target="_blank">Application Lifecycle Management Online Assessment</a></p><p><a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd380647(VS.100).aspx" target="_blank">MSF for Agile Software Development 5.0 Process Guidance</a></p><p><a href="http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/3e8c9b68-6e39-4577-b9b7-78489b5cb1da" target="_blank">Team Foundation Server Power Tools April 2010</a></p>Jeff Hunsakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07740484450068986098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9369362.post-64572559594762510462010-05-11T18:02:00.002-04:002010-05-11T18:05:00.009-04:00TFS 2010 Setup | TF255437: Access is denied.If you experience TF255437: Access is denied while installing TFS 2010 on a remote/separate data tier, likely, the setup account is not a member of the local Administrators group on that data tier machine.Jeff Hunsakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07740484450068986098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9369362.post-72741011845799229432010-04-25T21:35:00.003-04:002010-04-25T21:43:28.682-04:00The Path to a-gil-i-tyI'm excited to deliver a break-out session at <a href="http://www.thepathtoagility.org/">The Path to a-gil-i-ty</a> conference coming up May 27th. The presenter line-up looks fantastic...I'm eager to sit in on the other talks!<br /><br />I'll be speaking along with <a href="http://govorin.blogspot.com/">Alexei Govorine</a> on managing Scrum projects leveraging the recently released <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/">Visual Studio 2010</a> and Team Foundation Server 2010.<br /><br />Click here for <a href="http://www.cohaa.org/content/?q=node/38">COAAH write up</a> and <a href="http://thepathtoagility.eventbrite.com/">registration</a>. My firm, <a href="http://www.cardinalsolutions.com/">Cardinal Solutions</a> is a sponsor.Jeff Hunsakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07740484450068986098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9369362.post-67730623172255216692010-04-25T21:23:00.003-04:002010-04-25T21:27:24.124-04:00End User Improvements in SharePoint 2010Thanks to everyone who attended the Cardinal Solutions event last week when I delivered our "End User Improvements in <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_0" class="blsp-spelling-error">SharePoint</span> 2010" presentation. It was well-received and certainly fueled the excitement around empowering business users with a viable platform beyond just Office or relying on custom development.Jeff Hunsakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07740484450068986098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9369362.post-21509712197380247912010-04-25T21:16:00.004-04:002010-04-25T21:27:57.222-04:00OT: Safelite Triathlon | ResultsFollowing up on my participation in the <a href="http://www.jeffreyhunsaker.com/2010/03/ot-triathlon-for-charity-maafrika.html"><span id="SPELLING_ERROR_0" class="blsp-spelling-error">Safelite</span> Triathlon</a> to benefit <a href="http://www.safelitetri.com/maAfrika.aspx"><span id="SPELLING_ERROR_1" class="blsp-spelling-error">MaAfrika</span> <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_2" class="blsp-spelling-error">Tikkun</span></a>, I indeed finished and more importantly, raised $1000. Thank you again for your generous contributions!<br /><br />Regards to the <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_3" class="blsp-spelling-error">Safelite</span> folks who organized a safe, fun and entertaining event. Held in <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_4" class="blsp-spelling-error">Las</span> Vegas, I typically think of one (or two) things: gambling. However, out by Lake Mead is gorgeous. The event utilized the lake, trails and some serious up-and-down hills through rocky <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_5" class="blsp-spelling-corrected">terrain</span> to deliver a challenging run, swim and bike.Jeff Hunsakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07740484450068986098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9369362.post-66630831602749965472010-03-14T21:17:00.003-04:002010-03-14T21:23:24.165-04:00OT: Triathlon for Charity: MaAfrika Tikkun | SafeliteIn April, I'll be competing in the <a href="http://www.safelitetri.com/">Safelite Charity Triathlon</a> benefiting <a href="http://www.safelitetri.com/maAfrika.aspx">MaAfrika Tikkun</a>, a charity charged with reducing hunger and improving health care for children in South Africa. If you care to donate, please click on the <a href="http://www.firstgiving.com/JeffHunsaker">Donate</a> button in the right pane or visit my page at <a href="http://www.firstgiving.com/JeffHunsaker">http://www.firstgiving.com/JeffHunsaker</a>. Thank you!Jeff Hunsakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07740484450068986098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9369362.post-47270823068489531312010-03-14T21:12:00.004-04:002010-03-14T21:17:09.089-04:00Next Generation Testing with Visual Studio 2010Monday the 15th, <a href="http://www.teamsystemcafe.net">Randy Pagels</a> delivers "<a href="http://blogs.msdn.com/bharry/archive/2010/03/01/next-generation-testing-with-visual-studio-2010.aspx">Next Generation Testing with Visual Studio 2010</a>" <a href="http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032442186&Culture=en-US">in Columbus</a> at the Polaris Microsoft offices. I'll be delivering a short segment on my firm's capabilities. Hope to see you there!Jeff Hunsakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07740484450068986098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9369362.post-64160369672228503702010-03-09T06:33:00.002-05:002010-03-09T06:39:23.083-05:00Agile with TFS 2010 TalkLast Thursday, I spoke on <a href="http://www.coalmg.org/2010/03/march-meeting-recap-agile-with-tfs-2010.html">Agile (Scrum) with TFS 2010</a>. A lot of great conversation and questions came out. A few I wanted to follow up with:<br /><br />Q. Has security administration improved with 2010?<br />A. Yes, fellow MVP Paul Hacker points out the new <a href="http://phacker.wordpress.com/2010/03/07/tfs-admin-tool-v2-0/">TFSAdmin 2.0 tool</a> on <a href="http://www.codeplex.com">CodePlex</a>.<br /><br />Q. Is anyone doing hosted TFS?<br />A. Yes, again see Paul Hacker's firm <a href="http://www.saasmadeeasy.com/">SaaS Made Easy</a>.Jeff Hunsakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07740484450068986098noreply@blogger.com0