It's about time that I made this announcement. I'm moving out from theSpoke to my new blog which is more travel-oriented - http://thebackpackboy.com
Aside from technology, there is this other side of me that loves travelling. In fact, I always grab the chance to travel whenever I have one. Hope you still follow me in my other blog as I explore Philippines and the world. :)
Have a meaningful Holy Week to everyone, take care, `til then, and signing off Spokedom!
For those of you coming to Tech·Ed SEA 2008, you might be interested in joining this competition. The organizer will be hosting a speaking competition and it's now your chance to speak in front hundreds or even thousands of audience.
More information can be found here http://www.microsoft.com/malaysia/techedsea2008/activities.mspx
Hi everyone,
I'm posting this for a colleague. Microsoft Philippines is looking for Student Partners around the country. If you know of people that might be interested, please direct them to this blog or have them send an email to the above-mentioned address.
Thanks! 
The Microsoft Student Partners is a programme that recognizes top young minds from around the world who are passionate about technology. It's a once in a lifetime opportunity to develop real-world skills to help students succeed in their future career, to help others learn about the technology of today and tomorrow, and to connect with other like-minded students, all whilst having a ton of fun along the way. The programme is our way of encouraging students who are interested in building a closer relationship with Microsoft, and those who are simply hooked on technology, to develop their skills further.
And as you know, school year 2008-2009 has begun and we are looking for fresh new talents who would share the same passion and interest as ours – to show the love for technology by gaining and sharing knowledge with other students.
In line with this, we are currently in the process of recruiting new members for this year’s batch. Should you be interested, please take note of the following criteria:
To be a Microsoft Student Partner, you must be:
1. A bona fide student of your college/university and presently enrolled in a computer science/IT related course
2. An active member of your school organization
3. Able to name a reference (dean/college head/organization adviser) from your school
4. A tech savvy or must be passionate about technology
5. Assertive, would love to learn more and is willing to share your knowledge to other students
If you think you have the above-mentioned qualifications, please send us a copy of your resume and a letter of recommendation from your dean and/or organization adviser. Should you pass the initial screening, we will schedule you for an interview.
For further inquiries about the program, please don’t hesitate to e-mail us at acadph@microsoft.com.
Thank you and we hope to hear from you!
Microsoft Student Partners
SearchTogether is an Internet Explorer add-on that will allow groups to collaborate and search for topics in search engine together. Talk about group work!
I came across a blog post in Jesper Johannson's blog about the endless rebooting of a number of computers after installing Windows XP Service Pack 3. It turns out that possibly a driver for Intel is being loaded from an image-based deployment even to non-AMD-based computers that causes this problem.
Thanks to Jesper Johannson and Bill Castner for this!
See http://msinfluentials.com/blogs/jesper/archive/2008/05/08/does-your-amd-based-computer-boot-after-installing-xp-sp3.aspx
The 2008 Launch Wave is happening tomorrow at SMX Convention Center!
Agenda
| 7:00 AM |
Registration |
| 9:00 AM |
Morning Plenary
Bill Hilf
General Manager
Microsoft Corporation |
| 12:00 NM |
BREAK |
| 1:30 PM |
AFTERNOON BREAKOUTS
| General |
IT Professionals |
IT Professionals |
Developers |
Windows Server 2008 Overview
Philippine Windows Users Group |
Windows Server 2008 Virtualization Technologies
Ward Ralson, Group Technical Product manager, Windows Server, Microsoft Corporation |
Run mission critical applications on SQL Server 2008
Nicholas Dritsas, Principal Program Manager, SQL Server Customer Program, Microsoft Corporation |
Breakthrough Software Development Challenges Overview
Jay Roxe, Group Product Manager, Developer Marketing, Microsoft Corporation | |
| 2:30 PM |
BREAK |
| 2:45 PM |
Visual Studio 2008 Overview
Philippine .NET Users Group |
Windows Server 2008 Security and Compliance Technologies
Deo Co, Solutions Specialist, Microsoft Philippines |
SQL Server 2008 Business Intelligence platform
Jason Carlson, Principal Product Unit Manager, SQL Reporting Services, Microsoft Corportation |
Defy Occasionally Connected Challenges Smart Client Application
Joben Rara, Account Technology Specialist, Microsoft Philippines | |
| 3:45 PM |
BREAK |
| 4:00 PM |
SQL Server 2008 Overview
Philippine SQL Server Users Group |
Windows Server 2008 Identity and Access Technologies
John Philipps, Enterprise Technology Strategist, Microsoft Asia Pacific |
SQL Server 2008 Manageability
Howard Yin, Principal Program Manager, SQL Server Services, Microsoft Corporation |
Rapidly Create Applications End Users
Tim Vergel de Dios, Academic Developer Evangelist, Microsoft Philippines | |
| 5:00 PM |
Break Outs End |
| 5:30 PM |
ATTENDEE PARTY |
See you there!
To those who cannot deploy Windows Vista just yet and are curiously waiting for Windows XP Service Pack 3, hang on for Windows XP Service Pack 3 is almost there.
If you're wondering what Windows XP Service Pack 3 has to offer, here's an official and good overview whitepaper to read. Sorry to disappoint though, but like Windows Vista Service Pack 1, Windows XP Service Pack 3 is aimed to roll up fixes, reliability, performance and security enhancements but is not an avenue for wholly new functionalities and features (though there will be a few minor ones).
Still undecided about Vista?
Microsoft Technical Fellow and desktop guru Mark Russinovich will be hosting an interactive virtual roundtable—broadcast LIVE over the Internet on Wednesday, March 5th. The subject? Windows Vista adoption and deployment. On the panel with Mark will be independent industry experts and IT pros from organizations that have already deployed Windows Vista—all openly discussing known challenges, solutions and workarounds, and sharing tips & tricks. But this event is really focused on the “virtual” participant—you!
Visit http://ms.istreamplanet.com/events at 9:00am Pacific Time on March 5th and ask your questions live during the event. Want to submit your question in advance? You can do that too by e-mailing your question to vrtable@microsoft.com anytime between now and the day of the event. The panel will answer as many questions as they can during the 60-minute event so take advantage of this opportunity to ask the experts and find out what you want to know about Windows Vista adoption. For those of you who don’t know Mark, check out his blog at http://blogs.technet.com/markrussinovich. For additional guidance, resources, tools, and straight-talk articles to help address your Windows Vista adoption questions, visit the Springboard Series for Windows Vista.
picture from http://blogs.msdn.com/iainmcdonald
One of the most frequently asked question and feedback by customers and partners alike on Windows Server 2008 is about the fact that the product states "Service Pack 1" in different locations inside the product. People thought it was a bug or maybe an oversight from Microsoft. This is actually due to an effort to combine servicing of Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 to ease the maintenance procedures. M
ore information can be found in this announcement: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2007/aug07/08-29vistasp1beta.mspx
PressPass: It sounds like a lot is changing. Is this a sizeable update for Windows Vista?
DeVaan: It’s true that at first glance it will look like a lot is changing, and it’s true that there are thousands of files being changed to varying degrees in Windows Vista SP1. However, the first measure of “size” most people will encounter will likely be the download of Windows Vista SP1 through Windows Update or Windows Server Update Services (WSUS), which we predict will be about 50 MB. The second measure of size will be the free disk space requirement for installing Windows Vista SP1, which is currently around 7 GB for the beta, although we will be working to bring this down for the final version as we optimize the servicing algorithms used.
IT Professionals not using distribution tools like WSUS will work with the “stand-alone” image of Windows Vista SP1. This image will be considerably larger than the download, at about a gigabyte in the beta, but it’s large with good reasons. This package includes all of the localized language resources for 36 languages, so that companies with worldwide install images have all the files they need in one place. Also, this image utilizes servicing algorithms that update all files of an operating system component, even if only one of the files has changed, which increases the size of the image but allows IT Pros to service their images in any order they chose without worrying about creating inconsistent system states across their organization. Finally, Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 share the same code base, and we are choosing to unify the servicing between the two in order to simplify the long-term maintenance process and lower support costs for customers. To do this, we’re changing the files necessary to align the servicing components, which contributes to the larger size of the stand-alone image
A lot of you guys know that Windows Server 2008, together with Windows Vista Service Pack 1 has been released to manufacturing (RTM) last week. A lot of testers, both from a selected few and subscribers of TechNet and MSDN Subscriptions have been downloading and testing Windows Server 2008 over the past few days. We've received a lot of good feedbacks on the performance and stability and it goes without saying that Microsoft is really happy to know that the customers loved what they are seeing now because the product really had evolved based on the feedbacks you guys have been sending to the product group.
Locally, coming from a thread started by a proprietor and developer of GSoft Solutions, a local ISV and Microsoft Partner focused on custom-developing Windows and web applications targetted to school and academic use, Glenn Gamboa shared his actual experience in using Windows Server 2008 x64 RTM. He recently have installed the product and uses it today for his various projects in development, testing, evaluation and even for demonstration purposes to customers. He feels more confident now to use Windows Server 2008 than Windows Vista for most of his tasks. He also made mention of performance improvements on the product, particularly when running his custom-developed applications and those using WPF.
Glenn Gamboa is a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional awardee for his expertise on SQL Server, currently the head of Philippine SQL Server Users Group and is part of the local community heroes, a circle composed of community leaders and experts.
More information about Windows Server 2008 can be found here.
p.s. there's also good feedback about performance improvements over Vista Service Pack 1 you guys might want to check out 
Microsoft recognizes that today, the IT organization in companies are one of the most unrecognized, yet a key asset to the business. In line with Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008 and Visual Studio 2008 launch, Microsoft came up with the theme "Heroes Happen Here" to put up awareness as how valuable the manpower and skills of the IT organization to business. See http://www.heroeshappenhere.com to find out more about this and the enabling products.
Check out also the Portrait Gallery, a collection of our IT heroes globally with their stories. If you have time, upload your own 15 minutes of fame and create your profile. 
I would like to thank those who came and listened to my session (and even those who was left with no choice but to sit on my session because other tracks were full ) on Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (commonly known as MDOP) with Chay in TechFest 2008.
Just to summarize, MDOP is a toolkit for IT managers, administrators and staff who does deployment and management of client desktops and systems. It is an add-on pack for customers who have active Software Assurance (SA) in their Windows Desktop licenses and is comprised of the following tools:
-
Advanced Group Policy Management (previously GPOVault) - for managing group policies across complex domain infrastructure
-
Application Virtualization (previously Softgrid) - for virtualizing and silo-ing applications for application compatibility and ease of management
-
Asset Inventory Service (previously AssetMetrix) - for a comprehensive view of software installed in the network
-
Desktop Error Monitoring - for monitoring application crashes and problems
-
Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset (previously ERD Commander) - a set of tools booted from CD for servicing a Windows installation
Information and whitepapers on MDOP can be found here.
If you guys have questions about MDOP, please feel free to leave a comment and I'd be happy to try to answer them.
See you in my upcoming sessions on this!
Microsoft has released a free out-of-the-box and easily configurable search engine solution for the enterprises. It's called Microsoft Search Server 2008 Express, currently in beta stage, but will also roll-out for free once it RTM's. Give it a shot today!
http://www.microsoft.com/enterprisesearch/serverproducts/searchserverexpress/download.aspx
Welcome to TechNet Edge
TechNet Edge is a place where IT professionals go to get the inside scoop on the latest and greatest technologies. You can do stuff like watch screen casts, check out interviews with people who develop the products, connect with your peers and speak what’s on your mind. It is part of the Evangelism Network and follows its doctrine, so you know we keep it real.
Sign up in Technet EDGE and introduce yourself in The Perimeter!
To those who attended my session on Windows Vista: Service Pack 1 - Enterprise Overview last October 26, I would like to thank you all for the nice and warm reception of the topic and for the interactive discussions that we had.
If you are still wondering, yes, I suggest that you deploy (or test) Windows Vista now instead of waiting for the Service Pack 1! The pack will contain a set of updates and enhancements, but only a few added functionalities are to be expected out of this. Thus, if you are thinking about how Windows XP Service Pack 2 have impacted your deployment, Windows Vista Service Pack 1 focuses more on reliability and performance rather than shipping new functionalities so it's safe to assume that you can start your Windows Vista deployment (or testing) now or if you have access to Windows Vista Service Pack 1, feel free to evaluate and test it against your environment and share to us your experience!
By the way, you can now test drive Windows Vista and 2007 Office online, meaning you don't have to install it on your machine and you just need to connect to a hosted one remotely for free! Check out this link for more details.
More Posts
Next page »