A few concerns about this - what level of IIS is in this private plug-in? Can it provide security or does it just dish out a directory for full public content review? I prefer to keep my html and code as secure as I can. Since I am not a black ha guru, I look for the web server and the web applications I run to provide me with a level of security. AND more importantly, security updates.

Taking the hugly popular WordPress to an IIS server requires a few items. Can WordPress run on a Windows Home Server? If so, which versions?

Is there a blog software that runs on Windows Home Server? And hopefully not Community Server. A someone who wasted a lot fo time with CS in its early versions, I have a bad impression on their ability to implement features. They implemented a lot of hype and vaporware controls with nothing under the hood. Just ask any CS admin who needed to bulk delete posts using the UI.

As I continue to look for more information, I will post an update.

Microsoft Windows Home Server looks very cool for the home use of backing up video and audio files and home computers. But will it do any good for a family that has a website hosted externally already? Can Windows Home Server replace a GoDaddy hosted UNIX or Windows webserver account and save the family those recurring monthly costs?

Ask any questions, and look here for more details to be added covering each section to help you study, prepare, pass this certification, and more importantly, be successful in your career with Windows 7.

Is Microsoft AD enterprise ready?

This is a question that usually comes out from IT staff more concerned with religion then technology, cost savings and ROI. A better question is “My reuirements are A, B and C. Can Microsoft Active Directory meet the requirements for my business?” Unless you are talking requirements, you are probably in a religous discussion. Just like politics and offensive content, religion should be kept out of the workplace and especially out of IT discussions.

Do you spell requirements with an W or an N?

How do you spell requirements in your organization? With a W or an N? Is it a Want or is it a Need? I want to know your Needs and meet them as a consultant. As an employee I want to know what your Needs are and meet them. As a CIO, IT Director or manager, I want to know why my internal customers Needs are and meet them. None of us can handle someones Wants if we cannot meet your Needs. And if we meet your Needs

Do you have AD deployed today?

Then why do you have any other directories? Why are you running servers, paying for licensing, operating costs in the data center and taking up staff resource hours on duplicate technology? Can they be collapsed into using AD? If not, why do you continue to use them? Is the cost of supporting these additional directories enough to fund the effort to move towards a single directory and SIngle Sign On (SSO)?

Eliminate duplicate directories to reduce your IT costs

SUN, Novell, LDAP, LDAPS, RADIUS, and a list of other directories can all be collapsed into a single environment for your organization to work within for streamlined security, management, troubleshooting, and support costs. Why do you need to pay someone to be the Novell NDS expert when you have 5 people on the team that are AD experts? Start to take a hard look at what your people are doing in support time and also in end user complexity. A single directory makes all of that cheaper and easier.

End user training costs with multiple directories includes multiple passwords, password synchronization, what to do when your passwords are not synched up properly, and why your password can only be letters and 7 characters in length because of system omega that we have been using for the past 3 decades.

How do you reduce your IT costs today? By eliminating your duplicate costs for directory technology, reallocating staff resources, reporvisioning assets and achieving hard dollar savings on licensing and maintenance support contracts.

How do I deploy MS08-068 to my organization?

If this is an issue for your organization, you need to step back and fix a major problem outside of this patch. Applying patches, security updates and hotfixes should be a general reactive task that your IT department can do without any major concerns. Are you using Microsoft Systems Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) 2007, Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS), or Microsoft Windows Software Update Services (WSUS)? If not, how are you applying patches and hotfixes to your organization? Logon scripts alone? Or even worse, manual updates?

This update has some critical fixes in it, and that is a problem. The script kiddies are hard at work writing copycat spam emails, bogus downloads, and free office worker web based games so your employees without knowing it are going to be downloaded Trojans and viruses to target these exploits. It is a race to get to the door first. You to close it, them to sneak in through it. Don’t put your organization, or your career at risk. Make patching a business priority and one that just happens all the time without major concerns. The more severe the alert, the faster it happens.

What is your patch management SLA?

Do you have Service Level Agreements for the application owners of Microsoft Windows XP, Vista, Server 2003 and Server 2008? How soon after a Critical, Important or Advisory update comes out do you have to apply these hotfixes? Are you the application owner? That was is the timeline you have given your own team to roll out these patches and hotfixes?

Is your IT organization vulnerable to MS08-068?

Are there users who VPN in, work from home, or travel with laptops? Are they getting updated quickly? These users have access to the Internet without the benefit of your corporate firewalls. Patch them right away. Now what about the user on the road, how long can they go unpatched before they no longer are given access back onto the corporate network? Do you have a defense perimeter to quarantine out of date laptops from getting to corporate resources?

If you were looking for specific details on MS08-068, as the CIO, IT Director or manager, let me give you all the details you need to know and what you need to ask your team today:

• How many notices did Microsoft release?
• For each of them, are we impacted?
• For each that we are impacted, what is the level of the alert?
• What is the SLA for us to get the update out at that level?
• When will be get the update out?
• Does that meet or exceed the SLA?
• When will we notify our customers that we are going to be pushing this update?
• Do we need to do a change control request (CCR)?
• Do we need to do an expedited change control request (ECCR)?
• And finally, when the deadline is due, ask “Are we good?

These updates happen all of the time. It is how Microsoft and every other software developer keeps their software up to date, fixes things and adds new features and benefits. If your organization is in crisis today, fix the root problem and make your organization more efficient at handling patch updates.

Well that means I can use Groove for anything? No - do not use Groove to share large files with employees, customers or contractors. If you have 10 users connected to a shared Groove folder and you put a single 100Mb file in that folder, it is sent to all 10 users. 1Gb of data is sent around. If you then make a small change to that 100Mb file, it is sent back to the server and another 1Gb of data is sent around.

Do not use ZIP files with Groove
Due to the reasons spelled out about, when working with Microsoft Groove, list all of the documents, make your changes, and let Groove handle the compression and synchronization. Do not take groups of files, compress them into a single .ZIP and then place them in a Groove folder. If you unzip the files, make a single change, rezip the folder, and put the new .ZIP file on the server, it will replicate the entire contents. And users will not be able to easily see the changes.

The rule to remember when using Groove is let Groove so what it does best - replicate and synchronize so you can collaborate. Don’t try and over push the system by sharing out mega size documents that you are still working on. Multiple smaller documents works much better than a single large file or even worse a ZIP file

Comfort - These things sit on your head, the can make your ears comfortable or painful, fit around and over your eyeglass frames, or press them into the sides of your heads leaving marks.

Price - unless you are going to keep them at home, and you do not have any children or animals running around the house, you will be buying a new pair soon.

Durability - Unlike high quality headset microphones found in ham radio, recording or professional call centers, home consumer units break. Alot. They break with busted headpieces, mic booms, and more often then the other causes, pulled and frayed wires. Do not expect a lot of durability. And unless you are a hobby ham radio operator or electrician on the side, expect to throw the broken headsets away.

Connector - Do you want the old style RCA jacks or do you want a USB connector? I recommend the USB connector since you can use them on a computer with an open USB jack. The USB units function as a sound card, the headset and the microphone all in one unit. Of course this increases the price and weight.

Weight - You need to try these things on your head and make sure that you are comfortable with them on. Once you put them on, you will probably be leaving them on for hours at a time while on listening to music, on a Vonage call, VOIP, LiveMeeting, conference calls, TeamSpeak, Ventrillo and video gaming.

Microphone features - first does it have a mic at all? Don’t assume that it does. Many models drop the mic and are sold right next to the headset and microphone models. Don’t pick up the wrong package and find out after you drove home.

Mute button - this is a must have feature and something you should check for right away. Does it have a common blue light on, blinking light muted feature? Is there a clear switch for Mute on and Mute off? You do not want to blow your IT career by thinking you are on mute and having your sounds, jokes or remarks carried over to the other participants.

There are other features such as premium stereo sound, surround sound and a variety of other audio features. They serve to rebranda common or standard feature for marketing fluff, or add very little benefit for the average user while raising the manufactures profit margins and your costs.

The headset above were purchased at Staples in Audubon, NJ. They were $24.99. The downside? RCA jacks not USB. But since the computer on my desk has a pair of front mounted RCA jacks, and I will not be travelling with this headet, that works out fine. What were my other options? The runners-up were $39.99 and $49.99 for USB connections and USB and premium headset with extra fluff in the ear pieces. I went cheap because I know the kids will do something with them long before their normal life should have them in the trashcan.

As I took the picture above, I took them off of our three year old and told her not to play with them. My wife just laughed at me.

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Where do all of the photos come from?

• Cell phone
• Digital camera
• Digital video camera
• Video camera, now sitting on SuperVHS, VHS, 8MM, CD, DVD or other format
• Regular photos on paper of all sort of sizes
• Slides

The first step in managing your digital photos is getting them all digital. This is the hardest part and may require some cash expenditures on your part. But it will certaintly require time to gather them up. Once you have each and every source of photos, get them digitized.

How do I put my pictures into my computer?

Either purchase a scanner or a smaller photo scanner for the pictures. The benefit of a scanner is you can shop around for a photo lab quality printer. Yes, these are more expensive than the cheaper $99 printers, but starting at $300 - $400 you can get a high quality photo printer with an integrated scanner that serves as a printer, network printer, scanner, copier and fax machine. Whew. That is a lot of capability in a single machine. Yes, and if you have a lot of shoeboxes full of 3×5 photos, it may be too much. A simplier photo scanner that has an auto feeder and just sits and spits out pictures and digital files might be a better fit for your needs. Consider the options before you buy.

Can I pay someone to scan in my pictures?

Why yes you can. Just remember that this is a family project, so consider the costs before you do it. You will still have to sit in front of your computer and tag all the pictures. Don’t exect a stranger you found on craigslist to know who Uncle Joe is from Cousin Vinney.

Why do I have to tag my pictures?

Tagging your pictures helps us sort through all of these digital files, organize them, and locate that one cute picture of your little first pumpkin from a few years back when you decide to put together a Halloween collage for Grandmom. Looking through a directory of thousands of images might be fun but after a few times, it gets a bit old. The time spent now will pay for itself over and over.

Where do I put mu digitial pictures?

This is a seperate topic and requires to cover things a bit deeper, but here are the options -

• MOST IMPORTANT - BACKUP You have to make a backup of all of these nerw digital files so you dont lose all of your memories and hardwork
• Leave them on your home computer
• DVD
• Get a family website and upload them from options with GoDaddy, Google or Live., There are so many different pieces of software to use with different benefits, pros and cons. Ask questions, and do your homework before plunging into one choice. But always do the backup. Thats why you have that free safe deposit box at the bank anyway.

Step 1 - Where is you dashboard?

Dashboard? Thats in my car outside in the parking garage. Wrong, kind of dashboard. We are looking for perfrmance metrics in a simple to locate, always in front of us location. How are you tracking all of your performance metrics, and how are you doing overall?

Step 2 - Where do I look on the budget first?

Look at ever item that has gone over budget. This are areas where as an IT manager you will get roasted on. Lets take a moment and check out every major budget area that we have gone over, and determine why that happened.

Step 3 - Create a budget report

A budget report isn’t the numbers itself, it is the commentary that goes with the budget explaining every major item. What is major? If you are over budget by any amount, thats major. Put together a paragraph that is right to the point, explains the situation, and deflects any options for your companies leaership to look down on you. If you are over budget by 1% and don’t know why, you are a bigger idiot then the manager next to you who ran over by 10% but has reasons for it.

Step 4 - What are good reasons to go over budget?

The best reason is someone elses fault. If it is someone elses fault, document it. In a professional business manner so that they would agree with it and think that you were in it with them holding hands. No finger pointing here. If you fail to keep this at a high level, you most likely will get flack back at you. And then you look like an even larger idiot. Not only did you run over by 1%, but your own project co-workers still cannot agree on what happened. Who is running the show? As an IT manager we expect you to steer the ship and know where we are going. Heck, we expect you to know what the destination is, and make positive and proactive decisions and suggestions to get us there cheaper. You get bonus if you get us there on time or under time. And with all the features, or even more. But generally in that order.

Step 5 - lets work on improving what we did bad

If we dont spell them out, we can’t learn from them. Taker a moment and go over the above excerpts and ask yourself “Would I buy this if someone told me this excuse?” If not, work on it.

Step 6 - learn from what we did right

If you came in under budget, either you had a project cancel, some requirements change or you over budgeted. Or did you do a really good job all around? Lets get ready to learn from those successes.

Review your budget history and justify your errors and study your success to repeat it. Like history, if you do not learn from it, you are doomed to repeats its failures.