Disclaimer
The opinions expressed herein are my own personal opinions and do not represent anyone else's view in any way, including those of my employer.
© Copyright 2008
The opinions expressed herein are my own personal opinions and do not represent anyone else's view in any way, including those of my employer.
© Copyright 2008
It is not often I blog about 1E, I think it has only happened once before actually. Even before I got an offer from them they told me they didn’t
want me to blog about them or their products because they didn’t want my blog to turn into PR for 1E. And over the last year I have not talked about the products at all. But as you may have noticed the number of posts I put up have also dropped dramatically. Well I spend most of my time working with the 1E products, back when I was at ESRI I spent most of my time working on SMS, so if I don’t blog about the 1E products I don’t have too much else to talk about. But I have been thinking about this over the past few weeks and I think I am going to politely ignore their request to not talk about 1E products. I think there is some extremely cool stuff that 1E offers, be it Services or products and as long as I talk about what I want and not what the Marketing guys and gals tell me I think I can keep my blog from turning into a 1E ad. I mean look at how many people at Microsoft blog, and what do they blog about? Microsoft!
If you don’t know what Nomad is, it rocks! You can get rid of those pesky, lowly, DP’s in every single remote office with Nomad. When you use Nomad only one of your SMS clients on the subnet copies the package down from the DP. It pulls it down and then lets all the other clients on that subnet copy, or better yet, streams it to them in a Multicast session. So you only have one client that makes the trip to the DP instead of each client, saving you all that bandwidth and from having to manage the DP. One of the best features is the way it handles bandwidth throttling, it does real time bandwidth throttling that you can configure. It doesn’t just use an arbitrary figure it measures the amount of time it takes for a round trip to the DP and back, and then based on what you have configured, say 20%, it will use 20% of the bandwidth that is actually available, and it does this each time it goes and grabs another piece of the package from the DP so if the user who is the one that is caching the package for that subnet fires off a copy of a huge file it will immediately notice it and remeasure the available bandwidth and only use 20% of what is left over, so the user never even notices! I told you it rocks! There are some other really cool features too, but I don’t want to steal all of Brian’s thunder. Check it out by attending the webcast and tell Brian I sent you. 
Event Title
Nomad Enterprise Solution Overview
Event Description
Nomad Enterprise enables OS releases, software applications and updates to be distributed quickly and efficiently to remote serverless branch offices and to bandwidth-challenged environments.
This 30 minute Webinar will allow you the opportunity to ask questions and learn directly from 1E Solutions Engineer, Brian Tucker.
Regards,
Anthony
Anthony Clendenen | Solutions Engineer | 1E
© Anthony Clendenen
In case you missed the news about SP1 being released here is the download location for it.
But as several people I know have experienced trouble with authoring reports and MP’s for the 07 version Microsoft has now released an authoring guide to help in their efforts. You can download it here.
Regards,
Anthony
Anthony Clendenen | Solutions Engineer | 1E
© Anthony Clendenen
Most IT related folks have an old laptop laying around that is too slow for what they need to do or they get a brand new one every six months. I know I have one that the hard drive has bad sectors on and don’t want to spend the $40-60 to get a replacement drive since I have over half a dozen computers in my house and only four people. I have used it for testing in the past, setting up Server 2003 with SMS 2003 on it for upgrade testing to CM, testing the 1E products in different configurations, as a DC, and other scenarios. LifeHacker ran an article last week on different idea on what to do with your old laptop and there are some good idea that may spark life into some of your old equipment, check the comments too for additional ideas. If you find that it doesn’t then you may want to consider recycling it or donating it since you can’t just toss it.
Like a famed race horse or a classic book, you don’t just throw away a laptop because it’s banged up a little. Even if it seems outdated and underpowered, most any laptop is still small, quiet, and relatively low on power consumption, making it a seriously valuable spare to keep handy—even without a working screen. With some free software, a little know-how and some creative thinking about your home network, nearly any old laptop can find its second wind, and today I’ll run through some of the best ways to get it there.Photo by daveynin.
Create a no-monitor, low-power spare system
So everything on your laptop runs just fine—except the screen, the most important (and expensive) part. That’s not a death knell, just a chance for re-purposing. Set your laptop up somewhere near your router, connect it with network cable, then read up on how to set up your system to run "headless" with any OS and only when you wake it up. That way, you’ve got a computer that uses a bare minimum of power and doesn’t neeed no fancy screen to convert a file, download a big file, or serve as a temporary backup box. But if your system lacks Wake on LAN abilities, or you’re just looking for more use out of that laptop, you could always …
Convert it to a home server
The idea of a "server" usually conjures images of rack-mounted, temperature-controlled boxes, or at least a desktop system, but a laptop’s power-scaling abilities, small size, and built-in screen can actually make for a quietly-great unit. You could put it next to your printer to allow printing from anywhere, use a browser to get it grabbing BitTorrents in Windows or Mac systems, or set up your own web server for grabbing files or hosting things like your personal Wiki. Oh, and don’t forget your multi-purpose media server, if you’ve got the hard drive space. Once you’re set up and have enabled outside access, the world—or at least your files at home—is at your fingertips.
Make a better digital photo frame
Unless you avoided the big stores entirely last holiday season, you’ve probably noticed the boom in digital picture frames—those small $100-and-up devices with not-so-amazing screens and a canned slideshow ability. If you know your laptop isn’t much for getting anything done these days, consider bending it over backwards to make for a sizable, attention-grabbing frame that can show whatever you want and possibly even grab photos as they’re dropped on a main computer. Instructables has a highly detailed guide to taking apart a MacBook to get started, while Popular Science shows an alternate scheme using an old ThinkPad. To keep your spare laptop from becoming a power draw (or running long and hot), consider setting up timers to run your "frame" only during your waking hours.
Make it fly again with lightweight Linux
If you’re shelfing your trusty road warrior mostly because it just runs … so … slow, consider that it’s not always the laptop’s fault. Most modern operating systems aren’t designed to give you only the web, email, document handling, and a little multimedia, but there is an entire OS realm that is that can make your old system seem new again. Here are a few free, open-source recommendations and what an old laptop might get out of them:
- Puppy Linux:
Very slim (97 MB) distribution, but retains a basically smooth and polished interface, with apps to cover common computer uses.
- Damn Small Linux: For really, really fast and light performance with a straight-up interface. A system smaller than 50 MB that can run on a machine with a minimum of 16 MB memory (assuming you can boot/load it on there).
- Xubuntu: Puts the Ubuntu methodology and software support into a lighter, XFCE-based desktop (check out its look and newest features here). For an even lighter kind of "Damn Small Ubuntu," try Fluxbuntu.
- gOS:
For those who live inside their browser, gOS isn’t so much a gimmicky "Wal-Mart OS" as a webapp-focused version of Ubuntu, with a lightweight window manager (Enlightenment) and an OS X-like bottom dock containing most of what you need
Convert its LCD into a Stand-Alone Monitor
Not for the faint of heart or unsteady of hand, this Instructables guide runs you through the basics of turning a perfectly good LCD laptop screen into a vertical-mounted monitor. Havingl pulled apart a laptop myself to replace a monitor cable, I can just tell you that you should go real slow, and make sure you have a place to put all the spare screws and parts during disassembly.
Salvage an external back up drive from it
Assuming your laptop didn’t die from hard drive failure, those little magnetic platters inside it can make for a really handy pocket-sized external drive. Follow Lifehacker alum Rick Broida’s instructions on properly enclosing a 2.5" drive, and you’ll have avoided paying a premium for a seriously useful addition to your computer inventory. Photo by Justin Ruckman.
Extend your wireless coverage
If wireless coverage throughout your house is hit or miss, your best bet is to do a little DIY router upgrading. If, however, your router can’t handle Tomato or DD-WRT boost, your trusty laptop can serve as a temporary booster.
If your trusty laptop is running OS X, Vista, or XP, you can turn on its hot spot abilities with only minor tweaking. Linux users should check out this Linux.com tutorial for general guidance, while Ubuntu fans can get more specific instructions here. Finally, those who also keep an Xbox on their network but think Microsoft’s $100 wireless adapter is a bit much can jerry-rig that shelved laptop to serve as a stand-in.
I tried to cover the basics and a few quirky ideas for an old-but-trusted laptop, but many of you have years of experience on me in this area. What’s the coolest, or most useful, thing you’ve done with an old laptop? What do you wish you could do with it? Share your tales and wishes in the comments.
Kevin Purdy, associate editor at Lifehacker, hopes he never has to part ways with his ThinkPad. His weekly feature, Open Sourcery, appears every Friday on Lifehacker.
Regards,
Anthony
Anthony Clendenen | Solutions Engineer | 1E
© Anthony Clendenen
For SQL 2000, OpsMgr, and SharePoint.
SkyDrive is part of Live and is a free service that allows you to put files online and share them with others or keep them private but have access to them from anywhere you have a Internet connection.
Regards,
Anthony
Anthony Clendenen | Solutions Engineer | 1E
© Anthony Clendenen
This is rather interesting. Apparently Microsoft is going to release Google Earth backwards on Feb 27th. Meaning that instead of zooming and panning in on Earth you will be able to do the same with cosmos! This should be quite interesting. It is reported that they will use 10 Earth bound telescopes as well as the beleaguered Hubble telescope to produce an explorable cosmos for your desktop. It will be interesting to see how they deal with distance for the stars as this is always been the major problem for astronomers. More details here.
Regards,
Anthony
Anthony Clendenen | Solutions Engineer | 1E
© Anthony Clendenen
Download details here, direct download here, prereq download here.
SCOM & SCCM Connector
In Microsoft Visio 2007® diagrams, appropriate data can be attached to the shapes depending on the nature and domain for which the diagram is created for. The VisAd framework helps to retrieve data from multiple data sources to diagrammatically represent in Visio diagrams. The framework implements a ‘Provider’ model, in which multiple heterogenous providers can be configured, while the Visio diagram uses the filter mechanism provided by VisAd to request for data. The Visio Add-In incorporates a generic filter mechanism based on custom XML schema provided as part of this framework. Any new provider can be written using the framework as well as the generic schema.
Related links and downloads:
MBSA scan tool connector for Visio
Regards,
Anthony
Anthony Clendenen | Solutions Engineer | 1E
© Anthony Clendenen
What’s coming SP1 and R2…find out Wednesday Feb. 27th by attending Jeff’s webcast. Register here.
Language(s):
English.
Product(s):
System Center.
Audience(s):
IT Professionals.
Duration:
90 Minutes
Start Date:
Wednesday, February 27, 2008 1:00 PM Pacific Time (US & Canada)
Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 shipped recently, but we are not done yet! This year, we will also release a service pack and an R2. In this session, we cover the changes we are making in the System Center Configuration Manager 2007 Service Pack 1 (SP1) timeframe, in addition to the following System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R2 release. We briefly introduce System Center Configuration Manager, but our focus is on the new elements to support Windows Vista Service Pack 1, Windows Server 2008, in addition to some additional changes for Asset Intelligence and Intel AMT Integration.
Presenter: Jeff Wettlaufer, Senior Technical Product Manager, Microsoft Corporation
Jeff Wettlaufer has been with Microsoft since 2001, where he has specialized in the deployment of enterprise infrastructure from the data center to the client. Jeff specializes in desktop deployment methodology, Windows and Microsoft Office technology, virtualization, and enterprise management. He is also involved in image strategy, maintenance, application portfolio, unattended builds, the Microsoft Office Resource Kit, and server management technologies, such as Microsoft Systems Management Server 2003, System Center Configuration Manager, and the Solution Accelerator for Business Desktop Deployment (BDD).
View other sessions from: Managing a Microsoft Infrastructure: Improve Reliability and Performance.
If you have questions or feedback, contact us.
Registration Options
Event ID:
1032369053
Regards,
Anthony
Anthony Clendenen | Solutions Engineer | 1E
© Anthony Clendenen
Posted today over the SoftGrid Team Blog, you can now get the latest updates for SoftGrid 4.1 SP1 and 4.2 HFRU2 on TechNet. There are some pretty significant additions and changes in these updates.
I am pleased to announce public availability of SoftGrid 4.1 SP1 and 4.2 HFRU2.
This cumulative update for SoftGrid v4.1 SP1 and v4.2 provides the latest updates to SoftGrid. In addition to stability improvements, this update contains the following changes:
- The log level of the "Error reading from socket" message is now Debug. Therefore, the message does not appear in the Sft-server.log and the Windows event log at the default log level when you use SoftGrid Virtual Application Servers together with a hardware load balancer.
- SoftGrid Sequencer now preserves OSD GUIDs when it opens SoftGrid v3.2 sequencings for a package upgrade.
- Intermittent "0xBE" Stop errors that occur at system start on multiprocessor computers have been addressed.
New capabilities
This update provides the following new capabilities:
- SoftGrid now supports deployment of Virtual Application .msi files that are generated by the MSI Utility for Microsoft Application Virtualization to SoftGrid clients that are running Microsoft Windows 2000 or Windows 2000 Server/Advanced Server and that have Terminal Services enabled.
- SoftGrid 4.2 HFRU2 now supports Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1).
Please Note: The 4.1 SP1 KB article incorrectly identifies Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) as a new capability of 4.1 SP1 HFRU2. We’re in the process of changing the article now so you should see it updated soon.
SoftGrid 4.1 SP1 HFRU2 Bits: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938497
SoftGrid 4.2 HFRU2 Bits: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/941408
Regards,
Anthony
Anthony Clendenen | Solutions Engineer | 1E
© Anthony Clendenen
Overview
With the ConfigMgr 2007 Advanced Client pre-requisites macro component for Windows XP Embedded, you can use ConfigMgr 2007 to manage hardware devices that are running the Windows XP Embedded operating system. These devices include, but are not restricted to, point of sale (POS) terminals, automated teller machines (ATMs) and Windows-based thin clients.
Purpose
Windows XP Embedded is the operating system and development platform that delivers the power of Windows in a componentized form for reliable and advanced embedded devices. Based on Windows XP Professional technology, Windows XP Embedded enables developers to select only the features they need to build customized, reduced-footprint software for embedded devices.
The ConfigMgr 2007 Advanced Client pre-requisites macro component for Windows XP Embedded installs components that support the ConfigMgr 2007 Advanced Client. This means you can manage Windows XP Embedded clients in the same way as you manage your desktops and servers running ConfigMgr 2007 Advanced Client.Download Contents
The ConfigMgr 2007 Advanced Client Prerequisites macro component for Windows XP Embedded will install the software necessary for installing the same ConfigMgr 2007 Advanced Client that installs on Windows XP Professional, together with the updates needed to successfully run the Inventory Tool for Microsoft Updates. After you have installed an image created with this component, you will need to deploy the ConfigMgr 2007 Advanced Client separately.
Direct download here, download details page here.
Regards,
Anthony
Anthony Clendenen | Solutions Engineer | 1E
© Anthony Clendenen
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