tudy .ro - Tudor Damian

The 2010 MVP Summit experience

Tudy — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 23:23:34 +0000

I’ve just returned from this year’s MVP Summit, and it’s been quite an experience! Got the chance to talk with a few fellow MVPs, and most of all, got to spend a couple of amazing days with Ben, Mike and the rest of the Virtualization team in the Microsoft Campus over in Redmond (or the “NDA Campus”, as people ended up calling it on twitter, due to obvious reasons). We were among the few “privileged” MVPs that got a good load of “super duper secret special NDA” material. But all I can say right now (while still under NDA) is that really cool things are coming, and they’re well worth the wait!

The Sheraton in Bellevue was also a very nice location to stay in, and Bellevue in itself is quite a treat. The flight to New Jersey wasn’t as pleasant as I would have expected though, but hey – you win some, you lose some, I guess.

I’ll be staying in the US for another 2 weeks or so, getting to go to New York, Miami and Las Vegas. Should be fun!

SCE 2010 RC is out

Tudy — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 14:04:49 +0000

Yesterday, David Mills, Senior Product Manager on System Center announced that the System Center Essentials 2010 Release Candidate is available. This is from the Nexus SC blog:

Microsoft® System Center Essentials 2010 provides a unified IT management solution that enables you to simply and efficiently perform complex management tasks across virtual and physical servers, PCs, hardware, software and IT services from a single console.

Essentials 2010 -

Delivers single console monitoring and management with summary information, common tasks, alerts and reports, allowing you to quickly see and manage your IT environment.

Provides rapid provisioning, importation, management and live migration of virtual servers.

Simplifies complex management tasks like packaging and deploying software, and configuring Microsoft and third-party updates.

Helps quickly solve problems using integrated alerting, expert knowledge and troubleshooting for servers, PCs and IT services running in your IT environment.

Here is the SCE 2010 Release Candidate download link.

Microsoft launches Kodu

Tudy — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 20:32:20 +0000

If you’re into maths, design or programming, this new visual programming language called Kodu designed especially for creating games might be the thing for you. Even though it was originally released for Xbox-360 only, it’s now available on the PC as well. Here’s a list of features from the official Kodu website:

Kodu provides an end-to-end creative environment for designing, building, and playing your own new games.

High-level language incorporates real-world primitives: collision, color, vision

Runs on Xbox 360 and PC

Interactive terrain editor

Bridge and path builder

Terrain editor – create worlds of arbitrary shape and size

20 different characters with different abilities

White Hat Hacking course round-up

Tudy — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 14:06:32 +0000

Okay, now that the WHH course is over, here’s a quick link to all the presentations [in Romanian]:

www.slideshare.net/Tudy/white-hat-hacking-1 (social engineering, hacking ethics)
www.slideshare.net/Tudy/white-hat-hacking-2 (privacy, social media security, wireless networks)
www.slideshare.net/Tudy/white-hat-hacking-3 (information security, web threats, network/security best practices)

Also, for all those who attended the course, I have some extra content available for download on whh.tudy.ro. For the ones that weren’t present at the last meeting: you may contact me directly for access.

A big thanks to MAP UBB for their help in organizing this, and of course to all the attendees, along with a note that I’m still available for any questions/discussions you might want to raise on the subject.

White Hat Hacking course #3

Tudy — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 17:22:05 +0000

This Saturday I’m holding the third and last part of my White Hat Hacking course.

This one is going to address information security (malware, botnets, phishing, crimeware, scareware, ddos attacks, etc), web threats (SQLi, XSS, CSRF, RFI) and some general network/security best practices.

The time and place are the same as previously announced.

White Hat Hacking course #2

Tudy — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 13:36:18 +0000

After last week’s meeting, where we talked about hacking ethics and social engineering, tomorrow it’s time for the second part of my WHH course – this time about privacy, social media security and wireless networks.

The time and location are the same.

White Hat Hacking course

Tudy — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:28:41 +0000

Just got back from Sinergija ‘09 in Belgrade, thus the delay in announcing this: after last year’s course’s positive feedback, I’ll be holding the White Hat Hacking course again this year, starting tomorrow.

Even if it’s roughly the same outline as last year, there’s going to be some extra/updated content. To sum things up, I’ll be addressing topics such as social engineering, hacking ethics, systems security attacks, penetration testing, web and wireless security.

You can find more details on the time and place of the event on the event page.

Windows 7 – academic launch

Tudy — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:53:05 +0000

After last week’s Microsoft Academic Program opening in UBB Cluj, this week is time for the official academic launch of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. I’ll be the one talking a bit about the latter (Win 2008).

More details on the launch announcement page.

Free eBook: Deploying Windows 7

Tudy — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 11:35:25 +0000

A very useful free eBook is available on Microsoft Downloads: Deploying Windows® 7 Essential Guidance

Overview:

Microsoft’s eBook Deploying Windows® 7 Essential Guidance from the Windows 7 Resource Kit and TechNet Magazine combine selected chapters written by industry experts Mitch Tulloch, Tony Northrup, Jerry Honeycutt, Ed Wilson, and the Windows 7 Team with select Windows 7 articles from TechNet Magazine. Sample topics include: Deployment Platform, Planning Deployment, Testing Application Compatability, and 8 Common Issues in Windows 7 Migrations.

So, what’s the deal with tudy.ro?

Tudy — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 05:35:47 +0000

Since there’ve been some recent (heated, but rather missing the point) discussions about this, I’d like to set some things straight about the very purpose of this site:

tudy.ro is, and has always been, a personal blog. It’s not (I say again, NOT) a technical blog, nor does it want to be, and it’s not a method of promoting myself or my technical skills through articles of any kind. It’s just a place where I keep the texts I’ve written over the years, and where I write about (or point to) whatever else I read or find of interest. A place where I write about my life, in general. I also use it as sort of a coding playground, from time to time.

Given all the above, I don’t believe this site has *any* relevance as far as my technical skills and knowledge are concerned. It may however be relevant as far as my literary talents (if any) go. People believing otherwise are entitled to do so by their own free will…

Hopefully, this sheds some light on the matter!