I have been doing an email newsletter for 12 months now. You can subscribe via:
http://ciaops.us1.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=e641b9327b1cf4c45ad4e593f&id=c851ddf6cf
and view previous editions at:
http://us1.campaign-archive.com/home/?u=e641b9327b1cf4c45ad4e593f&id=c851ddf6cf
but I’m now going to add something extra. Every month I am going to try to add a bit of a video summary of the newsletter so you can get a look at exactly what technologies I talk about in action.
CIAOPS January 2011 Newsletter
Having just obtained a new laptop I have been a bit pressed to get it into service for this edition so things might be a little rough around the edges. However, I hope to have all these issues smoothed out shortly and have the video optimized for YouTube viewing.
The aim will be to provide an adjunct to the email newsletter that will actually show you some of the technologies I mention in more detail. I’m also hopefully aiming to add a few ‘extras’ into the video to encourage additional viewers.
So have a look and let me (director@ciaops.com) know what you think and what you’d like to see me cover in future editions.
A new machine
I’ve recently purchased a new laptop after my old one (7 years of dedicated service) lost a portion of the LCD screen. Fear not! It has been moved onto other tasks with an external monitor but I’d though I’d take the opportunity to run your through my setup process for the new beastie.
1. Power the machine on and let it completely finish installing all its software.
2. Reboot the machine to a Storagecraft boot DVD and take an image of the machine before anything further. You can do this before the machine even powers up to Windows but as you’ll see in the next step I’ll create another backup that will allow me to return the device to delivery state.
3. I boot back into the machine and use the manufacturer supplied Recovery Manager to create a set of recovery media. In this case it meant 7 DVD’s. So now I can get it back via an image as well as back to delivery state via the recovery media.
4. I now upgrade the version of Windows from Home Premium to Ultimate to allow all the Windows professional bits needed. I’ll also uninstall all the manufacturer crap that has been installed and make the machine as lean as possible.
5. I then use Truecrypt to do a encrypt all the hard disks on the machine. Sure I could do this with Windows Bit Locker but I believe that encryption should be open source. I don’t trust an algorithm that is proprietary. This now means that if the laptop gets stolen the information on there is safe, even if the disks are removed and inserted into another machine. Be warned, full drive encryption can take a long time to complete but Truecrypt allows you to pause and restart the encryption process at any point.
6. I install the latest version of Office Professional. In this case Office 2010 Professional Plus. I also install SharePoint Designer 2010 and SharePoint Designer 2007 (which are both free downloads). SharePoint Designer 2010 will only work with the latest version of SharePoint Server. Thus you still need SharePoint Designer 2007 when working with Windows SharePoint Server v3 or Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS).
7. I do a Windows Update and change the options to check for all Microsoft updates and in future only prompt me when updates are available. I always keep running this until there are no more updates.
8. The machine came with Windows Security Essentials. Most other AV products are just too bloated and cumbersome. I also however also install Malwarebytes (another free download) and scan my system with this manually once a week at least.
9. I now install a swag of utilities including:
Skype – for free conferencing
Evernote – cloud based digital notebooks (even though I also use OneNote backed onto a hosted SharePoint site as well)
Virtualbox – this allows me to create virtual machines with 64 bit guest (i.e. for creating SharePoint 2010 test machines). I was disappointed to find that Windows XP Mode doesn’t allow 64 bit guests so this is what I now use.
Windows XP mode and Virtual PC – again for virtualization and running an virtual XP machine for backwards compatibility if required.
Window Live Essentials – I use the writer for blogging, messenger and a few other apps here. All free to download and very handy.
Audacity – For editing sound files, especially CIAOPS podcasts.
iTunes – Great for music but there are also plenty of great podcast and free training videos on all subjects here.
10. I install Firebox and Chrome browsers and set Chrome as my default (because it is the fastest). I need all these to test with SharePoint but Chrome is definitely my default browsers these days.
11. Now I install Lastpass which contains all my web site passwords via the cloud. Not only will it automatically fill them in for sites you visit regularly but it will also generate and remember secure passwords for new sites. Thus every new web site I sign up has a unique secure password. If you haven’t looked at Lastpass I recommend you do as it also integrates will all browsers and mobile devices.
12. I’ll install the Delicious browser add ons that allow me to bookmark and share my sites with the world (and any other machine I have via the cloud).
13. Next comes Camtasia Studio which allows me to create my video tutorials and presentations.
14. The Storagecraft desktop edition is install to allow me to take image backups of my whole machine for easy restoration.
15. To keep track of my time on the machine I install the Recuetime and Wakoopa agents.
16. To manage my Twitter feeds I install TwInbox.
17. To allow me to create PDF’s I’ll install PDFCreator.
18. I’ll do a defrag to line everything up that just been installed since hopefully not too much should be shifting around.
19. I’ll reboot and go into the BIOS and enable the password boot option. This means I have to put two passwords in at boot time, the BIOS password the hard disk encryption password. The BIOS password adds to security and allows me to easily shut the machine off if I turned it on by accident. It also allows me to insert a DVD if I need to boot from it rather than simply booting to the hard disk immediately.
20. I also change the boot order in the machine so it boots from the DVD first, which I’ll need if I have to do a recovery.
21. I then run Spinrite in full maintenance mode to check the hard disk and make sure there aren’t any bad sectors lurking about. Generally if a hard disk fails it is going to fail in the first few weeks so using Spinrite allows be to detect this early on the piece before I get too much further. I could do this before I start install all the above software but usually by now I am sick of computers and need a break so I leave Spinrite to do its work. Be warned that depending on the size of your hard disks this could take quite a while.
There still a few more tweaks and installs that I’ll do before I’m 100% complete but that’s the list of all the major stuff before the data even hits the machine.
When it’s all done I do a final Microsoft Update and a Storagecraft image and I’m good to go. Sure it takes a long while to set up but my last machine is still going after 7 years and I would like this one to last even longer, so I’m happy to invest the time up front getting things right.
I’d love to hear what ‘standard’ stuff you install on your machines. Let me know via (director@ciaops.com).
Queensland Flood offer
As part of the effort to assist people in the flood affected areas of Queensland and NSW the CIAOPS is offering a free hosted SharePoint site to any business or organization affected by the floods. A SharePoint site could be used for any number of tasks to assist with collaboration between groups, keeping and updating lists and contacts as well as tracking information. This offer also includes any setup, maintenance and customization required. Such a site can be accessed anywhere that Internet access is available.
To take advantage of this offer simply contact me directly (director@ciaops.com) to arrange. Likewise, if you know of any business or organization that would benefit please also let them know of this offer. Tweet far and tweet wide.
We all keep the people affected by these floods in our minds, remind to keep safe and remind them that like everyone else, we are here to help if needed.
Last minute shopping?
Looking for that last minute Christmas gift (grin)? Well here’s a list of the resources that I make available for people:
Free
Downloads – http://www.ciaops.com/downloads
Podcast – http://ciaops.podbean.com
Presentations and documents – http://www.slideshare.net/directorcia
YouTube channel – http://www.youtube.com/directorciaops
YouTube channel 2 – http://www.youtube.com/saturnalliance
Blog – http://supportweb.ciaops.net.au/blog
SharePoint site – http://supportweb.ciaops.net.au
Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/ciaops
Linkedin – http://www.linkedin.com/in/ciaops
Delicious – http://www.delicious.com/directorcia
Twitter – http://www.twitter.com/directorcia
Email newsletter – http://us1.campaign-archive.com/home/?u=e641b9327b1cf4c45ad4e593f&id=c851ddf6cf
Commercial
SharePoint Operations Guide – http://www.wssops.com
Overcoming email frustrations with Outlook 2007 – https://www.lulu.com/commerce/index.php?fBuyContent=5445421
Windows SharePoint Masterclass: Optimizing Search – http://www.lulu.com/product/ebook/windows-sharepoint-master-classoptimizing-search/13575801
Merry Christmas to all.
Robert Crane (director@ciaops.com)
Customer logic Part II
After my post yesterday on a major reason why customers will look at Office365, I received a very valid comment on the post about how if you multiply the amount out it ends up being more than the cost of Office if you simply purchased it over 1 – 2 years.
Yes, some customers will multiple that out but let me give you another example of where this ‘rational logic’ fails the customer test. Firstly, what about the way most people purchase mobile phones? They don’t buy them outright they buy them on a plan and end up generally paying many more times the value of purchasing the handset outright. Example two, many business people don’t purchase a car, they lease it. This is typically more expensive than buying it outright but they do it to receive other deductions.
I certainly agree there will be rational customers who will simply multiply the cost out but most I feel have become accustom to paying per month for many ‘business’ expenses. And here’s another reason customers will go with a subscription offering for Office. When a new version becomes available they are entitled to that version (provided their subscription is current). This is basically like volume licensing but now available to users of any size.
So add all the benefits of Office365 with the subscription to Office Professional Plus on the desktop and I still think it will ring most customers bells.
Customer logic
I’ve been pondering what the appeal might be of Office365 for customers and you know what I reckon will be the number one draw card? I reckon it’ll be that they’ll see it as a way to get Office cheap.
Office365 will offer the ability to install Office Professional Plus 2010 on the desktop (depending on which license is chosen). You can read more about this here:
http://office365.microsoft.com/en-US/office-web-apps.aspx
A few technical people I have spoken to about this have scoffed at my notion (which isn’t uncommon for one of my notions), yet I still think it may be the case. Why? May be because customers still don’t understand all this cloud stuff but they understand Office on their desktop and getting that cheaper is better in their minds.
You gotta stop thinking like a technician and start thinking like a customer I reckon if you want to sell this cloud stuff. I shouldn’t be telling you that because I plan to sell the cloud to your customers so I’d better shut up now eh?
iTunes star
I’m proud to say that my podcast series has been accepted by iTunes and now appears in their podcast directory. The web page for it can be found here:
http://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/ciaops-need-to-know-podcasts/id406891445
It is also nice to see that someone has already gone in and given it a rating (thanks VM Guru).
For all the episodes and easy ways to subscribe visit http://ciaops.podbean.com. A new episode due out next week and this one will be with noted security professional Dana Epp.
Bored with Kinect?
The latest ‘gadget’ on the market is the Kinect add on for the Microsoft Xbox. It is actually pretty cool technology as this video shows:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7nRKU0nFxA
It is actually thousands of little beams of light that record your every location and then translate that back to the XBox. So you can jump around the room and interact directly with the game.
But what happens, inevitably, a few days after Christmas when you’ve become a bit bored with it? Well if you are a geek then you hack the Kinect and make it do something like this:
Kinect Titty Tracker from Dan Wilcox on Vimeo.
(if the embedded video doesn’t show click this link – http://vimeo.com/17095170 and don’t worry it is ‘work friendly’).
Who says the Kinect was only for games?
CIAOPS 