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Dean Andrews posted over on the TechNet Webcast Weblog about the Bluecast feature at TechEd and some of the issues they’ve had. The idea is you set your Bluetooth-enabled phones and other devices to be discoverable, and content will be made available that you can download and use. Some of the stations offered an opportunity to get a free e-book or a video that you can show to get a free t-shirt.

I tried and tried and had absolutely no luck. All I managed to do was help run my battery down more than normal. According to Dean, I wasn’t alone. Apparently we overwhelmed their systems, so they regrouped and reduced the number of Bluecast locations and beefed up their infrastructure. I didn’t have any more luck yesterday but didn’t try today. I’ll give it one more try tomorrow, and if I still don’t get anything, then I give up. My PPC-6700 must be one of the devices they mentioned that have beenbdisabled by the manufacturers from receiving Bluetooth published content.

On day three, I attended the following sessions:

• CLI418 Microsoft Solution Accelerator for Business Desktop Deployment (BDD) 2007: Advanced Zero Touch Installation with Microsoft Systems Management Server 2003 (whew, that’s a long title!)
• MGT234 Deploying Microsoft Windows Update Services 3.0
• CLI305 Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack: Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset (DaRT) and Asset Inventory Services (AIS) (title corrected from what was listed in the program)
• UNC307 Microsoft Exchange Server 2007: Tips and Tricks

UNC307 was a disappointment. the session was very short, only 30-45 minutes, and the content was more like a 200-level session than 300-level. Most of the tips were fairly standard and in some cases not really tips. Knowing that you can use /fp instead of /forestprep isn’t much a tip or track in my opinion. Plus the speaker never engaged the audience. Delivery was very plodding and in a monotone. Reading the slide deck for this presentation is a perfectly adequate substitute for having been there in person. Saving grace was I left right afterwards to head back to the hotel and get some rest, so finishing early wasn’t so bad. There were no sessions at 5:30 that interested me, so I had a couple hours to nap.

The DaRT session was OK. We have been using the Administrator Toolkit from Winternals for some time, so there wasn’t much there that was new. The other two components look to be useful, but nothing earth-shattering.

The other sessions were excellent, especially the BDD 2007 session. This was a follow-on to the session the day before that introduced BDD 2007 LTI and ZTI. I definitely plan to make use of this when I get back to the office to use as our reference build as well as possibly using for deployment in conjunction with SMS 2003 OSD and WDS.

For the evening, I wasn’t able to get an invite to the Influencer Party, so I was on my own for dinner. Turned out to be quite an odyssey. First, the weather hear turned in the afternoon, with thunderstorms moving into the area resulting in loud thunder and pouring rain. Looked like a monsoon at times. One especially loud thunderclap came at a perfect time in the demo, such that you’d almost think the gods were weighing in on what they thought about the Desktop Optimization Pack.

I expected the rain to move through as it usually does in Orlando, but it kept raining and raining and raining. I took the bus to the convention center, then hopped on the I-drive trolley to head up to a Mexican restaurant hat had ranked highly in area polls. Unfortunately the traffic was horrible and we crawled the whole way there. When I finally arrived at the stop for the restaurant, it was nowhere to be found. I guess it either didn’t last or it was well-hidden. So I walked back, not wanting to site in traffic to another restaurant on my list. The rain was light at this point, but still enough to need the umbrella. Turned out the wait was 45 minutes at the next restaurant so I kept walking and finally wound up at Don Pablo’s, a chain restaurant, but good enough to satisfy my taste for Mexican food. The rain had really picked up, so by the time I sat down I was soaked. Must have looked like a drowned rat. The food was good, though, and I dried off a little while I ate. By the time I left, the rain had tapered off, and I managed to catch the trolley within a couple minutes. So my luck finally turned; better late than never.

Swag tally for day 3:

• Microsoft System Center Slinky
• Source Fource character: Windows Vista Sensei
• Redmond Magazine cover photo courtesy of ScriptLogic and Redmond Magazine

Quick note on the Source Fource characters. First, the spelling is correct. The name is Source Fource, not Source Force as I had been using previously. They added three new characters this year, ISV Super Gal, Windows Vista Sensei, and Master Office. they gave out Windows Vista Sensei today and Master Office will be tomorrow. ISV Super Gal was supposed to be distributed on Friday, but someone had staff walk around and hand them out during the reception at the Partner Expo on Monday Night. Oops! Luckily I managed to snag one that evening. Would have been ticked to have missed completing the collection to go with last year’s characters.

Day two was a long day. Sessions all day and a fairly late and long dinner. Have to get to sleep earlier tonight, especially with the night at Islands of Adventure tomorrow.

Yesterday’s focus was mostly Systems Management Server v4…. I mean System Center Configuration Manager 2007. If there was a sure thing at any SCCM session, it was that everyone keeps calling it SMS v4. I understand the idea behind the System Center family brand, but it will be a long time before people get used to calling SMS by its new name.

Tuesday’s sessions were:

• MGT305 Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007: What’s New in Software Distribution
• MBL11-TLC Top 10 features in Microsoft Windows Mobile 6
• MGT3130 Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007: Deployment
• MGT307 Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007: Deploying Software Updates
• CLI334 Microsoft Solution Accelerator for Business Desktop Deployment (BDD) 2007: Microsoft Windows Vista Deployment Walkthrough

All of the SCCM sessions were good, all thorough in-depth looks at getting SCCM installed, deployed to clients, and installing software. The addition of Wake On LAN (WOL) functionality alone will be worth the upgrade. The integration of WSUS into SCCM for deploying patches and updates is a welcome move as well. It should make for a more consistent approach to patching and make it easier to manage. We’re still on WSUS v2 in our environment, but plan on moving to v3 when I get back.

Another new feature we plan to make extensive use of is the ability of SCCM to manage Internet clients. We have manay systems that rarely connect to our network, both home systems provided by the school as well as laptops that never come back to the office. Most people don’t have need to use the VPN on a daily basis, so the opportunity to communicate with these systems that would be available with the VPN rarely happens. Unfortunately to manage Internet clients, SCCM has to run in native mode, and to use native mode, I found out today, you need PKI. I’ve avoided setting up a PKI solution internally, but looks like I have to now. Wish Microsoft had provided some other option to get around deploying PKI. Add that to the to-do list.

The Windows Mobile 6 session was a bit of a disappointment. It started late, ended early, and they didn’t go over that many features. Unfortunately, I skipped a session about developing a universal image for loading systems that everyone raved about to attend the WM6 session. They are going to offer it again on Friday morning, so I’ll be able to catch it then.

Had a bit of a scare after lunch. I walked into one of the bathrooms on the main floor and after taking a couple steps into the room, I slipped on a water-covered floor and wound flat on my back. Ouch! That tile is hard, and I’m still a bit sore. Nothing permanently damaged though that I can tell. I’m thankful I didn’t smack my head on the floor because if I had, I’d have been on my way to the hospital for sure. Afterwards I noticed the big blue signs at the entrance of the bathrooms that warns the floors are slippery. I’d rather they took the money they spent for the signs and used it to keep the floors dry or use a different floor surface that isn’t like ice when it gets wet.

Yesterday I ran into a couple guys from the medical school at the University, so I joined them for dinner last night. We ate at Charley’s Steak House which was a great meal, althoguh a bit pricey. I need to check the travel guidelines, but I think we exceeded the limits by just a tad. If you’re looking for a good steak in Orlando, give this place a try. You won’t be disappointed.

Swag levels are falling, simply because I’ve grabbed most of what I’m going to get this trip. Here’s the list for the day:

• Source Force figure: Virtual Labs
• Dr. Scripto’s Fun Book and Crayons
• Two autographed books for a co-worker: Writing Secure Code for Windows Vista and The Security Development Lifecycle
• TechNet Magazine t-shirt
• Microsoft Online Communities t-shirt