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Registration Now Open: MONSTERS of TECH Training!
Wed, 19/11/08 – 9:13 | Comments
Concentrated Technology is ready to bring you up to speed on today's most critical new technologies and products: Windows PowerShell, Windows Server 2008, and more - all from the most experienced and popular experts in the world! We've announced our first 2009 class dates in Denver, CO, and additional dates Read the full story »
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Jack of All Tech

The minimum you need to know about the varied technologies that you support - even though they’re not really your thing.

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Musings

Our take on what’s happening in the IT world - and most importantly how we think it’ll affect you. What do YOU think?

Windows Admin

Managing (and automating) Windows servers and desktops, including scripting and Windows PowerShell

Musings »

Work Sucks: Employees Not Getting Paid for Boot-Up Times, Sue Their Employers
Wed, 19/11/08 – 15:37 | Comments

For office drones at big companies such as AT&T, United Health Group and Cigna, booting up their computers at the start of the day and waiting for them to shut down takes some decent time. Like 20 minutes at the start and end of the day. And they sure don’t like the fact that their weasely employers have decided to not pay them for that time. So, of course, they’re suing.

Work Sucks: Employees Not Getting Paid for Boot-Up Times, Sue Their Employers. [Gizmodo]

Work Sucks: Employees Not Getting Paid for Boot-Up Times, Sue Their Employers
Wed, 19/11/08 – 15:37 | Comments
For office drones at big companies such as AT&T, United Health Group and Cigna, booting up their computers at the start of the day and waiting for them to shut down takes some decent time. Like 20 minutes at the start and end of the day. And they sure don't
Don’s Hand-Me-Down Tech: CardScan Executive
Wed, 19/11/08 – 9:00 | Comments
More of Don's hand-me-down technology: A Corex CardScan Executive 700C scanner with software and license keys. Runs on USB; Windows software only (v7; upgradable from Corex if you want to buy the new version). To win, be willing to send $10 via PayPal for shipping (US; I'll need more internationally),
Terminal Services Part 8: Licensing - Per User or Per Device?
Tue, 18/11/08 – 16:59 | Comments
Later on in Parts 22 through 24 I’ll talk more about the actual installation and configuration of licenses for your Terminal Servers. However, at this point it is important to know that extra licensing will be required for you to use Terminal Services in your environment. These extra Terminal Server
PowerShell: Dates and Times
Mon, 17/11/08 – 19:16 | Comments
There's often times when you'll need to work with dates. Perhaps you're archiving information and need to establish a cutoff date, or perhaps you're examining dates from AD and need to calculate how many days it's been since a certain date. PowerShell generally makes it pretty easy to do. Need
Greg Now Moderates the Minasi Terminal Services Forum
Mon, 17/11/08 – 8:00 | Comments
If you're the papparazi and need more of your daily Greggo, you can now check him out answering questions and generally causing trouble over at the Minasi Forum, moderating the Terminal Services forum. The Minasi Forum is growing to become one of the central clearinghouses for good information needed by
Episode 5
Sat, 15/11/08 – 7:07 | Comments
In this special "FESTIVUS" edition of our podcast (yeah, we know it's a bit early - a hallmark of Festivus is flexibility) we talk about malware, Drobos, cheesy taters, and, of course, Festivus.
 
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Server Core : Server Core changes in Windows Server 2008 R2
Fri, 14/11/08 – 13:15 | Comments
From the Server Core team's blog... Now that a build of Windows Server 2008 R2 has been released, I can start talking about what we have been working on. In a Windows Server 2008 R2 Server Core installation we have: · Active Directory
Who says Microsoft doesn’t like Macs?
Thu, 13/11/08 – 10:56 | Comments
Proving that they're out to help IT professionals with all of their challenges, Microsoft TechNet Magazine this month has a special interoperability issue, which includes an Mac interop article authored by yours truly. You'll find: Mine: Managing Macs in a Windows environment Interacting with Windows from a Mac environment Authenticating
Reluctant DBA: The Transaction Log
Thu, 13/11/08 – 6:56 | Comments
The transaction log is at the heart of what SQL Server is all about. It's basically a list of changes that have been made to the database, with each change referred to as a transaction. This list is physically stored in a file with an .LDF filename extension, and in
New Blog Comment System
Wed, 12/11/08 – 7:04 | Comments
I've installed a new commenting system, powered by Intense Debate (which is now part of the company that produces our blogging software, WordPress). The new system does not require you to register (meaning you can still post ad-hoc), but does provide extra features if you do decide to register. Other
Don’t Fear the Shell (Exchange)
Wed, 12/11/08 – 6:06 | Comments
The always-super Ilse Van Criekinge, author of Managing Exchange Server with Windows PowerShell, is now appearing in a video from Tech-Ed Europe. Watch it.
Terminal Services Part 7: Positioning TS Servers
Tue, 11/11/08 – 8:00 | Comments
The positioning of your Terminal Servers is also another important consideration when planning your rollout. Client/server applications tend to assume that there is a high level of network connectivity and bandwidth between their “client” and “server” halves. When that is not the case – like what happens when users attempt
Enough Pottymouthing
Tue, 11/11/08 – 7:47 | Comments
Greg Shields has blogged about an article on InfoWorld; the basic gist of the blog post is that Vista is terrible, Windows 7 will be terrible, and only InfoWorld can provide you with "testing" software to determine if your computer can run Windows 7 (they suggest that even your "quad-core
PowerShell: Here-Strings
Mon, 10/11/08 – 19:22 | Comments
Sometimes you need to work with really long string data - and it can seem like a pain in the neck. For example, suppose you want to construct an HTML table, and you want to use a template: $template = "<tr>`n" $template += " <td>{0}</td>`n"$template += "<td>{1}</td>`n" $template += "</tr>`n"
SAPIEN Technologies prepping new tool releases
Thu, 6/11/08 – 16:21 | Comments
SAPIEN Technologies has apparently been busy, and are now prepping three new tools for beta testing - on top of the free PrimalForms GUI builder I blogged about earlier. PrimalSQL 2009 appears to draw upon the SQL query builder in PrimalScript 2007 Enterprise, adding additional features to make it a