Ladewig.com » Technology

Twikini Fan

Ladewig — Thu, 21 May 2009 03:24:28 +0000

One of the best things to happen at TechEd had absolutely nothing to do with Microsoft. Someone twittered on the first day of the conference that they were trying out a Twitter client for Windows Mobile called Twikini. I had just been complaining about some of the shortcomings in the client I was using at the time, so I quickly downloaded and installed the new app. Needless to say, it was love at first sight, and the old app was uninstalled and gone for good.

Twikini actually feels like it was designed by someone who uses Twitter on a Windows Mobile phone. Selecting a post takes you to a well-laid out display and even contains actual clickable URLs. Nor more having to hit the number 1 on the keypad like the old software. You can follow and unfollow people. You can pull up timelines from anyone you want. You can even integrate with the GPS built into the phone (although the beta version I’m using now does require that I start Google Maps first to turn on the GPS). Here’s a quick look at a tweet:

If you’re using Twitter on a Windows Mobile device, give Twikini a try. You can download it from the Trinket Software web site

In the interest of disclosure, the makers of Twikini are offering free licenses to people who blog about the software, positive or negative. I’d gladly pay for it, but if someone wants to give it to me for free, I’m not going to turn it down.

TechEd 2009 – Day 4 – Swag Tally

Ladewig — Fri, 15 May 2009 04:55:29 +0000

Day 4… Vendors are throwing swag at people left and right. No one wants to drag anything back with them. Unfortunately the list for today should have one more item on it. I was informed that my name was called at a drawing for an Xbox 360. Probably one that required you to be present. Sigh… Wait… Just received email that I won a BlackJack II!

Angry Fun Ball – Microsoft IIS
Can Cozy – Bomgar
Earbuds – PreEmptive Solutions
Failove Clustering with Windows Server 2008 for Dummies book – Microsoft
Flash Drive, 1 GB – Microsoft Exchange Server 2010
Flashing Guitar pin – INETA
Foam Sumo Wrestler – Hitachi
Luggage Tag – Microsoft Business Intelligence
Stress Ball – Clarit Connect
T-shirt – Microsoft Exchange Server 2010

USB Mini vacuum – Symantec

A few items were added for Day 4 at the Jam on IT event.
Egg-shaped Maracas – Microsoft Regional Director Program
Leis

Plastic Mug – Microsoft Windows 7

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TechEd 2009 – Day 3 – Swag Tally

Ladewig — Thu, 14 May 2009 04:55:19 +0000

Day 3 was mostly about things that bounce or light up.

Flash Drive, 1 GB – Microsoft Exchange Server 2010
Flashlight – Scriptlogic
Frisbee – Diskeeper
Happy Fun Ball – Compellent
Leather Passport Portfolio – Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007
Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 book – Red Gate Software
Mouse Pad – HP
Foam Square Earth – Syntergy
Stress Ball – F5
Stress Ball – Microsoft SQL Server

T-shirt – VMware vSphere 4

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TechEd 2009 Day 1 Summary

Ladewig — Tue, 12 May 2009 17:00:05 +0000

Some quick thoughts about Day 1 at TechEd yesterday.

Breakfast

Not bad. Pretty typical for convention center food.

Keynote

Kudos for leaving out the audience participation Lion King performance from last year.
Too much time spent on marketing videos. Would prefer to use that time for demos and product announcements.

Take back kudos for going over schedule by half an hour. If you schedule a keynote to run for 90 minutes, then make sure people stay on time and rehearse to make sure you stay on time.
Lunch

Fair to poor. Chicken was really dry. Really dry. Dessert was excellent however. Almost went back for seconds, but resisted the temptation.

MGT312 – Native Mode in Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager

We’re still on SMS, but really want to migrate over to SCCM this summer. I know long term we want to be on native mode since so many of our clients are off-site and our only communication with them is over the Internet. Requirement for PKI to be in place to go to native mode has been a big impediment to getting started.

Presentation was pretty dry, but not sure how anyone can make PKI sound exciting. Was a good overview of what is needed and some good tips to avoid. At least now I feel like we can move forward in mixed mode and bring up native mode as we’re ready to do so.

UNC316 – Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 Architecture

Felt like I fell down the rabbit hole after this session. Exchange 2010 is obviously going to be a major step forward for Exchange and one of those releases that change everything.

Trying to wrap my head around throwing out years of best practices and doing things like using JBOD with SATA (no RAID!), mixing data and log files, not using clusters. Amazing to think what we will be able to do with Exchange on cheaper and simpler hardware. Now I understand how Microsoft can offer Outlook Live to Universities with 10 GB mailboxes at no cost.

MGT302 – Application Virtualization with Microsoft System Center

A little disappointing. Good content, but would have liked to see more demos. Too much time talking about how the product came to where it is now. Still, very excited to move forward with App-V in our environment. Another summer priority.

Partner Expo Reception

The usual. Decent food. Big fail on soft drinks though. They apparently ran out of Diet Coke fairly early in the evening.

Springboard Party at the Standard

Awesome venue. Screamed L.A. from every angle. Crowd probably wasn’t as hip and beautiful as is usually there, but probably smarter. Great place to hang out. Appetizers were tasty too. The fried macaroni cheese balls were wonderful. Unfortunately only saw them come around once.

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TechEd 2009 – Day 2 – Swag Tally

Ladewig — Tue, 12 May 2009 16:55:46 +0000

Day 2 was pretty quiet as usual. I wasn’t in the Expo area much, and what time I was there was spent in the TLC area talking to Microsoft folks.

Baseball Cap – Microsoft Windows Mobile
Baseball Cap – Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2
Baseball Cap – Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007
Chinese Puzzle – Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2
Desktop Sculpture/Toy – Microsoft .Net Services
Flash Drive, 1 GB – Mirosoft Windows Server 2008 R2
Happy Fun Ball – Windows Embedded
Pen – Microsoft Exchange Server
Planning Poker – Microsoft Visual Studio Team System 2008

Plush Giraffe – Windows Vista Enterprise Centralized Desktop

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TechEd 2009 – Day 1 – Swag Tally

Ladewig — Tue, 12 May 2009 04:55:13 +0000

Good day for swag. Visiting the Microsoft Learning swag bus was a huge win this morning. Snagged Fable II for Xbox 360 as well as a webcam for my netbook.

Baseball Cap – Microsoft Certified PC
Baseball Cap – Microsoft SQL Server 2008
Button with Blinking Light – Microsoft Springboard Series
Cozy – Boson
Cozy – Microsoft & Dell
Fable II for Xbox 360 – Microsoft
Flashlight – Cisco
Inside Sharepoint 2007 Administration (autographed) book – Idera
Keychain w/Intel Bunnysuit – Intel
LifeCam NX-6000 – Microsoft
Luggage Tag – Microsoft Business Intelligence
Note Cube – Microsoft and Dell
Pen – Dell & AMD
Pen – f5
Pen – KnowledgeLake
Pen – Microsoft Business Intelligence
Pen – Microsoft I’m a PC
Plastic Glass with Lighted Bottom – Axceler ControlPoint
Rubber Ducky – Fujitsu
Screaming Flying Monkey – Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007
SQL Girl – Microsoft SQL Server 2008
Stuffed Toy Dog – AppAssure MailRetriever
Sunglasses – Intel
Tote Bag – Dell
T-Shirt – Double-Take
T-Shirt – NEC
T-Shirt – NetApp
T-Shirt – New Horizons
T-Shirt – Microsoft Learning

Toy Car – Mimecast

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TechEd 2009 – Day 0

Ladewig — Mon, 11 May 2009 04:50:37 +0000

TechEd 2009 started out for me with a 9 AM flight to LAX. I had enough time for the traditional Wolfgang Puck smoked salmon pizza (yum!) before boarding started, a good way to start the day. The flight was full, so there was someone sitting next to me. She had a Bichon puppy in a carrier under the seat which raised all sorts of red flags in my mind as she sat down, but my fears were unfounded. The dog never made a peep.

We arrived on time, and my checked bag showed up (albeit after a long wait). Rather than take the bus to Union Station and take the Metro to my hotel, I wound up going with the shared van service.

Checked in at the Omni and whipped out my Select Guest number thereby ensuring I get my free LA Times, complimentary morning beverage, and most importantly… free wireless Internet! My room is nice enough but not quite the palatial rooms I keep reading about on Twitter from some other Krewe members. Plus this year I have a roommate; first time for me. I offered to share my room with Ben Geers from the School of Social Work in the interest of saving money and all that. I can’t just throw my stuff all over the room like I normally would.

All settled in, I took the shuttle down to the Convention Center and finished checking in. I really like the new bag. I prefer the messenger bag style over as backpack, and this one seems fairly sturdy. Not a big fan of the TechEd t-shirt this year. I just don’t see myself writing on the shirt with a permanent marker.

I wandered around the convention center, seeing where the rooms were located, tested out the CommNet machines, and did some shopping at the TechEd store. They’ve really hidden the store this year, tucking it into a side room, 405. Much smaller than previous years. Bought some trinkets to take back to the team and a mini plasma orb for my desk. Always wanted one and $12 for a little one seemed a fair price. On my way out I was able to spin the prize wheel for a shot at various, wonderful prizes. Unfortunately I didn’t win one of those; instead I won a luggage tag. At least it is something I can use.

Took the bus back to the hotel then walked over to the Pershing Square Metro station and hopped the red line for Hollywood. Noted the changes and development around the El Capitan and Mann’s Chinese Theater, then walked down to Sunset for lunch at… In-n-Out! I hadn’t had a Double Double in several years, and it tasted every bit as good as I remembered. Really wish we had them back in St. Louis.

Metro back to the hotel, then worked on email and sorting through the materials in the bag until Ben arrived. By the time he landed, and made his way via the shuttle service, it was around 9 PM. Not knowing what was still open for dinner, we asked the concierge and he recommended a place called Pete’s Cafe. The Omni has a free towncar service within a three mile radius, so we made use of this perk to get there and back. Sure beats a taxi. Had a very good macaroni and cheese entree. Place was pretty busy considering the late hour.

Reviewed the schedule for a bit, but since I’m 2 hours ahead, I’m pretty wiped out. Time to turn in. We’re planning to get there early so Ben can check in, and we can get our bearings straight.

Microsoft Source Fource Videos for TechEd 2009

Ladewig — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 21:25:47 +0000

Cute videos showing the Microsoft Source Fource on its way to TechEd 2009.

Time to look for a new web host

Ladewig — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 04:48:49 +0000

I’ve been using Micfo as my web host for several years, suffering through some very uneven service the first few years. Things have been good the last few years, however, and the price is very reasonable. Unfortunately tonight they suspended my account for a few hours due to a “complaint” from AOL about my “mailing list”.

No notification that they were doing this, mind you, just up and suspended the account. Noticed it when I came upstairs to check mail and saw that every email account was rejecting my logon. Started a chat with tech support and it took them several minutes before they noticed what they had done to my account. When I asked why they said AOL complained about my mailing list. Mailing list? What mailing list?

When they finally emailed the complaint to me at another address, it turns out AOL complained about a message I sent to someone who provided an email address to get updates about the Dingler Family Reunion which we attend every year. Did I mention it was an email I sent back in March? Apparently no one at Micfo actually reads the complaints because it was obviously not spam, not unsolicited, and not a mass mailing list.

How did Micfo’s abuse person respond? They were quite helpful, telling me “You have to be careful while sending emails at aol.com and comcast.net.” and “Please get back to us if in case you have any more questions. We will be glad to assist you further.” Yes, you can assist me further. How about restoring my account?!?!?

They finally did. If I could get some credible assurance that this won’t happen again I’d probably leave things as they are, but that doesn’t seem to be forthcoming, so I’m going to take my business elsewhere.

Upgraded to WordPress 2.7

Ladewig — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 23:38:07 +0000

I upgraded the site to WordPress 2.7 today. While checking everything after the upgrade I discovered that my feed links weren’t working anymore. Not sure if that happened with this upgrade or some previous one. Took a few hours to get everything straightened out. Ran into the recurring problem of the feed files having a blank line at the start of the file. Finally found some commands to check the php files for leading and trailing spaces and removed them. Huge waste of time and incredibly annoying.