Microsoft has a crazy product launch strategy. While it always has a monster
press conference, sometimes the launch is before the product(s) ships, sometimes
when the product(s) ships and sometimes after the product(s) ships.
In the case of Microsoft's Sept.
8 virtualization launch, it looks like all of the above.
The company already has application virtualization tools it bought from SoftGrid
(available only to those with top-tier license deals with Redmond), is currently
running Hyper-V through the manufacturing process, and is close to finishing
Virtual Machine Manager 2008.
Hopefully, there will be a few surprises for all the reporters trudging up
to Redmond for this virtual shindig.
Posted by Doug Barney on 08/14/2008 at 1:15 PM0 comments
You might think I pick on Google a lot, and I do. There's a reason, though.
Google has power, and with power comes scrutiny. Just look at what a U.S. president
goes through. Every decision is scrutinized (sometimes not scrutinized enough)
as a way of keeping this power in check.
Google is as close to a president of the Internet as you can get. So when Google
admitted that it tracks
our Web moves and sells this information to marketers, I was concerned.
In fact, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo -- the Web's Big Three -- all do this!
And using deep-packet inspection, companies can learn exactly what we
do on the Web (are you getting nervous yet?). Fortunately, the Big Three don't
do deep-packet inspection. I'd like to keep it that way.
What about you? How much should Internet companies know about you? And does
Google have too much power? Thoughts welcome at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 08/13/2008 at 1:15 PM0 comments
The Gartner Group has a
new
report that says roughly what our upcoming
Redmond magazine salary
survey says: IT is immune to our current economic malaise. Most shops plan to
add staff and, as the old laws of supply-and-demand state, this demand will
cause wages to increase.
Salaries are already going up, but for now they're roughly on a cost-of-living
basis, at an average increase of 3.6 percent. The good news? Bonuses are also
up, so get your speech ready!
Hot areas include network engineers (more on this in our next item), database
admins, Web programmers and enterprise architects.
How is your shop doing in hiring and raises? E-mail me at [email protected].
We'll post your comments (using first names only) in an upcoming newsletter.
Posted by Doug Barney on 08/13/2008 at 1:15 PM0 comments
Rod gives some advice to
another
reader who mentioned using Linux for thin clients:
For Timothy who said he would use Linux to create a thin client, check
out Thinstation. Way
back in 2003, we made a major move into server-based computing. We converted
a boatload of Win 95/98 PCs into thin clients by booting from a CD or thumb
drive that reformatted the hard disk and installed Thinstation. For the few
systems that didn't work because of driver issues or when one of the PCs died
due to old age, we didn't spend time trying to get it to work -- just replace
with a Wyse thin client and move on. It was a great way to embrace Citrix
without replacing all of our client workstations all at once.
-Rod
George chimes in on Microsoft's
Midori project, a brand-new, built-from-scratch OS:
What a concept! Building an OS from the ground up instead of three to
four retreads! When I see it, maybe I'll try it. Until then, I'm sticking
with XP, Mac OS and Fedora. Vista and its spawn are NOT going into my toolbox.
-George
Speaking of Vista, John adds fuel to the fire:
Sunday, I bought my wife a new laptop, with Vista. I spent three evenings
playing find-the-right-driver. Here is how it went. Sunday I powered up and
thought, "Maybe Vista isn't as bad as they say." This was up until
I tried to install a three-year-old application that depends on a dongle for
authentication. After installation, the screen declared: "HASP not found."
So, I went to the Internet and found stories of how others had made this software
work on Vista, after they got the "HASP not found" error. I followed
their procedures. No gain. I called, but couldn't reach a friend who used
this same application. So, I sent her an e-mail.
Monday evening after work I started on it again. My friend had sent suggestions,
which I tried, but still no success. Tuesday evening brought more of the same,
except that it appeared that Vista was seeing the dongle, even though the
application wasn't. I also succeeded in finding and installing an upgrade
to the application. The message changed, but the meaning was still the same.
More correspondence with the friend. Wednesday evening when I got home, my
e-mail had a message from my friend and an attached update to the latest driver
I had installed. When I ran the update, the application worked. The dongle
was correctly associated with the application.
That was three-and-a-half evenings lost getting Vista and my application to
play well together. From the comments I have read, this is typical of people's
experience. As long as you stick to Vista and Office 2007, your new system
runs well. Try to run old software or old hardware and, as they used to announce
in the Navy, "Stand by for heavy rolls."
-John
In celebration of Patch
Tuesday, Leo shares his patching process down to the hour:
Here is our routine following Patch Tuesday:
- Wednesday (PT+1) 0100 hrs.: Synchronize our parent WSUS with Microsoft.
- Wednesday (PT+1) 0500 hrs.: Synchronize our child WSUS servers with
our parent WSUS; hopefully, synching has completed.
- Wednesday (PT+1) 1300 hrs.: Approve patches in WSUS for installation
on test systems after child WSUSs have completed syncs.
- Thursday (PT+2) 0400 hrs.: Patches install on test systems 0400 (Thursday
is a scheduled eutage day, 0300-0600).
- Wednesday (PT+8) 0900-ish.: Approve patches in WSUS for installation
on production systems.
- Thursday (PT+9) 0400 hrs.: Patches install on production systems 0400.
Usually, a few systems don't get their patches when they are scheduled
to, so we tidy these systems up on PT+16. If all goes well, we will have a
Thursday off before the next round of patches. Somewhat time-consuming but
we have it working pretty well.
-Leo
And Eugene puts the Olympic-sized
Blue Screen of Death at the opening ceremonies in some perspective:
Whether or not it is real (looks real to me), this event is a testimony
to the skill and planning behind it. There is always going to be failures
in performances, you can count on it. What apparently happened was a solitary
failure, with a very snappy backup take-over. That is the stuff of legend.
Anyone who believes that another platform would not suffer this should
be fired. No platform under those conditions would have come through perfectly,
and any platform would have needed a backup plan. If you think that an Apple-based
performance system doesn't have backup hardware, you are fooling yourself.
I've run both Mac and PC under performance conditions and you must always
have a backup/switchover plan in place.
-Eugene
More of your letters coming tomorrow! Meanwhile, share your own thoughts about
the topics covered here by leaving a comment below or e-mailing [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 08/13/2008 at 1:15 PM0 comments
This is funny, but also speaks to whether Google is respectful of our personal
privacy.
It seems that an Aussie gent lost his bloke. To commemorate his mate's death,
the 36-year-old Bill got snockered and passed out in front of his house, just
in time for a camera-laden Google van to drive by. The photos were posted
on the 'Net, much to Bill's chagrin.
Is anything in public view fair game to be posted on the 'Net? Should people
having heart attacks, clothing malfunctions or getting mugs be put on a Web
page? And what if this happened to you? Tell us what you think by writing [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 08/13/2008 at 1:15 PM0 comments
Our previous item points out that IT has been relatively recession-proof of
late. But if you really want to avoid economic catastrophe, you might want to
go into networking. There are currently some
60,000
networking jobs unfilled, according to IDC.
I was scratching my head over this, 'til I remembered a couple of huge trends.
VoIP and unified communications both rely on powerful, efficient networks. And
as Web applications take off, the networks to access them must have enough capacity
and reliability.
Are you seeing this in your shop? Share your experiences by writing [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 08/13/2008 at 1:15 PM0 comments
Visual Studio 2008 has been out for less than a year (I'm good enough at math
to at least know that one), but it's already getting its first refresh. A
new
service pack for Visual Studio and .NET Framework 3.5 is done and is now
in the hands of those that actually manufacture this stuff.
Even if you're not a developer, there are a few things that may be handy to
know. The service pack makes software faster to develop and more data-driven.
Now you can tell your developers you want that new data-driven application,
and you want it now!
Posted by Doug Barney on 08/12/2008 at 1:15 PM0 comments
If the numbers from Janco Associates are real -- and I have my doubts -- Internet
Explorer's market share has
dropped
to 58 percent, with Firefox picking up 19 percent.
That leaves 23 percent for "other" browsers. Others like what? Safari
is on 4 to 5 percent of machines, but most Mac people I know (like my two sons
Nick and David) use Firefox.
While I always welcome competition, I'm scratching my head over this one. For
instance, Janco calls Google Desktop a browser, when it runs inside a browser.
Hmm.
Help me out. What browser besides IE and Firefox has any serious share, and
why? Answers welcome at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 08/12/2008 at 1:15 PM0 comments
Readers chime in on the
RTM
of SQL Server 2008...and why, exactly, it's taking so long to get to customers:
It might be taking so long because it relies on VS 2008 SP1.
-Daniel
You can download from MSDN five different versions of SQL 2008 RTM which
I think are pre-pidded to be non-eval/dev type installations (or you can choose
the eval install which expires after 180 days, I think). This download typically
attract developers first wanting to test things out. However, if you try to
install this on a box that already has Visual Studio 2008 installed you can
run into some problems until they release Visual Studio 2008 SP1 (the current
beta SP1 doesn't seem to help avoid the problem that prevents installation).
In my book, this is not ready for primetime, since you have to wait several
days to get a patch. I would have wanted MS to delay the SQL 2008 release
until VS 2008 SP1 is ready to help me avoid all the installation issues it
presents. Hopefully, SQL 2008 + VS 2008 SP1 patch in a few days will help
restore my confidence.
-Robert
And a few of you try to shed some light into Microsoft acronyms:
I believe an RTM to Microsoft is basically the same as "Gone Gold"
is to game developers and manufcaturers. That's how I take it and I believe
that's how others take it, as well.
-Justin
Microsoft "releasing to manufacturing" means sending a master,
making DVDs, blah, blah. There is also a RTW (Release to Web) process that
requires all of the internal stuff (URLs, GUIDs for the bits, validation of
the bits, security, Web content, etc.). This starts as soon as the master
is created for the manufacturers and takes some time. This is why there is
a lag. As a benefit to Volume License customers, they get it first.
-Grant
One reader explains why Linux has no place in her office...as much as she wants
it to:
According to our head IT guy, SAP only integrates with Microsoft Excel.
So if you use SAP, you have to use Excel. Which means you have to run Mac
or Win OS. We are an international org and we run desktops on Micro$oft (some
of our servers are Linux).
I'd love to use Linux and Open Office, but that tail is not going to wag the
dog.
-Lynn
Rich throws in his votes for best
and worst OS:
Worst: DOS 4.0/Windows ME. Best: DOS 6.2/Windows XP.
-Rich
And because today is Patch Tuesday, it's only fitting that readers opine about
their favorite thing in the world:
Patches -- more fun than a root canal. Although manageable to a large
extent, my biggest complaint is having to restart servers on a constant basis.
Servers have become so mission-critical in recent years that a reboot becomes
a PITA experience, even for a smaller shop such as mine. With all the advances
made in recent times, is there no one that can figure out how the patches
can be applied on the fly and not require reboots?
Then again, the better solution would be to develop a secure OS in the
first place.
-Scott
Someday, Microsoft will release patches that don't require a reboot, but
I don't expect that in my lifetime!
-Rusty
For Patch Tuesday bulletins, maybe Microsoft could adopt the Deptartment
of Homeland Security's methodology of color-coding severity of risk.
-Anonymous
Tell us what you think! Leave a comment below or send an e-mail to [email protected].
And don't forget to check in tomorrow for more reader letters.
Posted by Doug Barney on 08/12/2008 at 1:15 PM0 comments
The opening ceremonies of the 2008 Summer Olympics were driven by over a hundred
media servers...one of which apparently failed. Thanks to some good eyesight,
IT savvy and the miracle of digital video recorders, we now have a
recording
of a Blue Screen of Death projected onto the ceiling of the Bird's Nest
stadium in Beijing.
The image, posted
in Gizmodo, prompted a debate over whether the crash was real or faked (like
the opening singer, apparently).
Is this real or just a put-on? And what kind of error was it? Claims, suppositions
and cold, hard facts welcome at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 08/12/2008 at 1:15 PM0 comments
Microsoft has been making some decent efforts in the area of green computing.
A nearly free hypervisor is one great move.
Now Microsoft is touting the benefits of System
Center Configuration Manager, which is Energy Star-compliant by virtue of
its ability to configure hardware to hibernate, sleep and shut down when not
in use.
My only complaint? Vista is a huge hardware hog, meaning we're wasting lots
of watts running this OS -- at least, those of you that have taken the plunge.
Is your shop energy-aware? If so, what do you do to save on power? Give us
your best suggestions by writing [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 08/11/2008 at 1:15 PM0 comments
Microsoft may come clean on its security flaws each and every month, but for
Google it seems to take an outsider to point out weaknesses.
That's just what happened at the recent Black Hat conference, where security
maven Tom Stracener from Cenzic Inc. showed
how Google Gadgets can be hacked to steal passwords and personal information,
and perhaps ultimately pilfer transaction data.
These gadgets may be cool, but given their exposure, they should probably have
no place in your enterprise.
Are you taking extra steps to lock down Web services such as gadgets and IM?
If so, how do you do it? Answers should proceed directly to [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 08/11/2008 at 1:15 PM0 comments