Tech-ed SBS Preday Sydney

If you want to get up to speed with the latest SBS and EBS information from Microsoft and meet those actually using and testing the product then you really should be attending the SBS Pre-day at Teched Sydney.

 

Apart from that, for every attendee you also receive a FREE for sale copy of SBS 2008, which you can resell or use yourself. That is over $ 1,000 of value which is MORE than enough to cover the cost of entry into the SBS TechEd preday.

 

Aside from the free version of SBS 2008 and all the great information you’ll receive you’ll also get to network with the best and brightest SBS talent Australia has to offer. There’ll be MVP’s galore and a few other ‘celebrity’ SBS’ers.

 

I’ve already signed up, so if you are umming and ahhhing about attending then I can see no reason why you shouldn’t. To register go to:

 

http://www.microsoft.com.au/teched/pre_days.aspx

 

and join me in finding out what opportunities SBS 2008 and EBS 2008 will provide.

SharePoint database options for SBS 2008

So, you’re thinking that since you went out and purchased SBS 2008 Premium, which includes SQL Server 2008 on a second server, you’d like to use that to hold the content databases for Sharepoint v3. Remembering, this is all RC0,1 stuff, here’s my take.

 

After SBS 2008 is installed, SharePoint v3 will be configured to use SQL 2005 Embedded Edition on the first SBS 2008 server (no other option from what I see). Now, before you start adding data to SharePoint you can go into the SharePoint Central Administration and specify a new default database server. Next, you are going to have to migrate the existing Companyweb databases (from SQL 2005 Embedded) to the second server with SQL 2008. Alternatively, you are going to have to create new content databases for Companyweb. Why? I’ll assume you still want the SBS 2008 wizards to work and they work on http://companyweb. Thus, it is probably easier to simply shift or recreate the Companyweb databases than try and create a completely new application and make that Companyweb. Is only my guess.

 

But hang on, let’s have a think about this. You probably decided to go with SQL 2008 rather than SQL 2005 Embedded Edition for performance reasons but my guess is that any gains would be lost as you have to send and receive data between servers. Remember the Sharepoint Web site is on the first SBS 2008 box while the content database is on the second SBS 2008 box.

 

Ok, since Sharepoint is a free application you could install it on the second SBS 2008 (which has SQL 2008). That way you get the “performance” improvement of SQL 2008 and no loss of “performance” because of cross network traffic. Ah, yes but now Sharepoint won’t work with any of the inbuilt SBS 2008 wizards because it is a new instance. I’m sure you could rectify that but my guess it would be “unsupported”

 

So I question what “performance” improvement is expected from SQL 2008? I have not found anyone who can tell me whether SQL 2005 Standard is better than SQL 2005 Embedded or SQL 2008. Therefore, I’d say you are probably better staying with the standard Sharepoint v3 install on SBS 2008 using SQL 2005 Embedded Edition. So unless you are planning another use for SQL 2008 why do you need SBS 2008 Premium? There are legitimate reasons for SBS 2008 Premium but if you are just getting it for Sharepoint maybe there isn’t.

The bad guys win again!

Seems like a few people have been fleeced of their money via a bogus Olympic ticketing web site.

 As you can see www.beijingticketing.com looks very professional and there really isn’t much to give it away as being a scam. A story in the Sydney Morning Herald gives you some of the dollar figures for people who have been fleeced, and it ain’t small money!

This again demonstrates how sophisticated the bad guys are becoming in the quest to part you from your money. There is no simply solution to overcoming this issue because if you can fool the human at the keyboard you are well on your way to payday.

I know hindsight is 20/20 but if you read the About us page you do find some grammar issues like:

“We are special for providing sold out event tickets in very economical prices.”

and

“For being in the ticket market since a long time we have become very popular in football fans and music lovers”

Now I admit that bad grammar on a sophisticated web site does warrant concern but I don’t think it would have mattered in this case. Simply because most people would have been taken in by the professional look of the web site and secondly most would not have bothered to check the About page. Finally, grammar issues could have been put down to the site being converted from Chinese (maybe).

So all in all a very hard one for even the most vigilant computer user to pick. I suppose the only adage that can be applied is “if it seems to good to be true, then chances are it is”.

Bad guys 2 – Internet users 0

Do lots of emails make you feel important?

I’ve been doing some research and contemplation about emails of late. Interestingly, I came across the following article from Slate called – The E-Mail Addict. The article raises a number of issues with email that I think most people, including myself fall, into.

 

To start with, ever do this?

 

“people have a tendency to simply open their inboxes and scroll up and down for several minutes, knocking off two or three messages so they feel better”

 

It is all too easy isn’t it? Not feeling like doing anything, drifting along, what can I do you, you think? Rather than face an unpleasant or difficult task that NEEDS doing it is so much easier simply to scroll through your inbox and delete or reply to one or two emails. You now feel that you’ve done something so you drift off onto something else. Sound familiar?

 

Secondly, what about this?

 

“Lots of e-mail makes you feel important”

 

So, not only is email a good time waster for most workers but the more they get interrupted by email and the more they store in their inboxes the more “important” they feel. Silly isn’t it?

 

There was a time when emails were are real productivity improvement but sadly they have plainly become an excuse to waste time. Why? Simply, people have allowed the technology to control them. They have lost the discipline of saying enough is enough. They have become so insecure that they need emails to confirm their self worth. Ad infinitum.

 

Finally, consider:

 

Today, scholars talk of the “communication enslavement” that occurs when someone sends e-mail to someone else.

 

I had never really thought of it that way but in many cases this is right on the money. You send some an email and EXPECT a reply and EXPECT the reply instantaneously.

 

It is interesting if you take a step back and really have a look at the VALUE of Internet communications (in all their forms). Consider whether they are really improving your productivity or are they simply giving you something to do and something to feel good about. It is a brave person that can walk away from emails in today’s overloaded environment but the studies seem to indicate that unless you do you are doomed to life tethered to a machine. That certainly isn’t suppose to be the way it should be, in my my opinion.

 

I will happily admit that I fall into the same traps as well but I am trying to do something about it. My starting point? The Four Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferris (see my review, in my opinion a must read), and yes I am reading it AGAIN!   

Countering disinformation

There is plenty of unjustified negative press out there about Windows Vista but the saddest part has been how Microsoft has let these myths perpetuate. Well no more! Take a look at the Mojave Experiment.

 

The best way to prove what a ‘croc’ most of the anti-Vista propaganda has been is to bring in some people who profess a dislike for Vista (although never having seen it themselves), show them a ‘new’ version of Windows (called Mojave), then tell them they are looking at Vista.

 

The results speak for themselves.

Romeo Charlie 1

Well, I’ve just finished installing SBS 2008 RC1. Again, it is such a piece of cake I don’t see how anyone is going to make money out of installing the software myself. All you have to do basically is provide a server, domain and login name and everything else is done automatically.

 

I did however notice that with this version you MUST have at least 4GB of RAM installed to allow the installation to complete. This is a little strange since you don’t really need that amount of RAM to get it running. Because I’m running SBS 2008 RC1 on a Hyper V machine I just allocated 4GB of RAM during the install and then reverted back to 2GB once the installation was complete. Geeze, I love virtualization (as you should know by now).

 

Apart from the RAM issue the other thing I noticed was that SBS 2008 RC1 wanted to set itself to the highest screen resolution it could. Simple enough to change back after the fact but a bit of a pain during the installation. I had a quick look at Sharepoint and all that looks identical but can’t be 100% sure until I have a more in depth look shortly.

 

It hasn’t been long between RC0 and RC1 has it now, also factor that SBS 2008 isn’t due for release until November (still 4 months away) and I’ll be interested to see whether any more releases become available. I’m guessing we’ll see RC2 but probably no more. SBS 2008 is going to be the most ready to market version of SBS I reckon we’ve had.

Thanks Wayne

I recently gave our resident SBS Guru and MVP, Wayne Small, a look at my Windows Sharepoint Operations Guide so he could give me some feedback based on his own extensive experience with Sharepoint and publishing technical material. I am pleased to say that he has written a nice review in one of his recent blog posts.

 

In it he says:

 

“It gives great overview in how to perform many of the tasks that you will need to do in a SharePoint installation, along with real world experience where it varies from the official Microsoft line.  I’d suggest you check it out if you are doing work with SharePoint as it will save you time and money.”

 

I’d just like to say thanks to Wayne for taking the time to firstly have a look at what I have created and secondly to give my work such a positive wrap, I really appreciate it.