Argh, where have all my blog posts gone?! (and other things)

So things have been busy at casa Callahan, and I have been writing blog entries using live writer, and posting them up to this blog with a scheduled publish date. I have been bad in that, after uploading, I didn't check the blog to make sure they took.

And now I've gotten my comeuppance, when coming to the blog and seeing that at least six blog entries have not actually been publish.

Argh!

Okay, so there should have been a detailed blog entry about how to enable PDF ifiltering and associating the correct PDF icon to PDFs in SharePoint Foundation 2010 (there was some confusion that it couldn't be done. Ppfftt). There was an entry following TechEd about the hands-on labs that were available to TechEd attendees (with one I wrote for multi-tenancy), my wanting to go to SharePoint Conference 2011 and what an "Unsung Hero" is, then an entry about me actually winning a slot at SPC as an "Unsung Hero". There was also a post about my upcoming events, such as the wonderfully fun User Group Meeting in Cleveland (those folks are great!), and SharePoint Saturday Columbus (well, I was afraid that Multi-Tenancy session might not be popular (I had one student)). Things happened, I chased storms and attended SharePints. Much fun was had by all.

Now what I have going on is this:

SharePoint TechDay, San Francisco
Organized by: PAC IT Pro
Date (currently scheduled): September, 23rd, 2011
Time: 10am-5pm (apx)
Speaker: Me
Cost: $99

Pac IT Pro is sponsoring a SharePoint TechDay featuring Me as the speaker. The session is currently listed at the incredibly low price (for a custom, 6 hour, essentially day long class) of $99, and scheduled for September 23rd (rain date of October 18th, if necessary). It's going to be a "Kitchen Sink" session, covering as many topics as I can fit in 6 hours (and those who know me, know I can pack six hours with a lot of info). The main point of the class is going to be "say you inherited an existing SharePoint Foundation installation-- what would an admin do to get up to speed that first day?" or "a day in the life of an SPF admin". The content is going to include everything from, "how can you tell what type of installation this is", "what kind of permission/group/user structure does it have", to managed paths, web application security, monitoring the server, what's it's disaster recovery look like, and more. In addition, at each point, I'll cover what these things are, why you need them, and some pros and cons on how they *should* be set up in most situations. I'll also be hitting some basic points, for better understanding overall, on common things like the difference between web applications, site collections and sites- for those not sure which they should really use, when. The session is going to be a practical, almost entirely demo experience, where the attendees can walk away with a real sense that they saw real work be done and with a good set of tools to better understand what they have, and what they might need to do when they get back to the office.

The session is primarily for SharePoint administrators who are relatively new, or have been around for a while (maybe they were thrown in the deep end of an implementation) and need a clearer understanding of the full picture of how to administer SharePoint, what it is, what it does (and doesn't do), and other essentials. Advanced administrators (particularly those advanced in a large enterprise environment) and Developers are welcome, but the content is geared to an audience of IT pro admins that need a more solid grip on the ins and outs of SharePoint.


The catch to the event is I needed at least 30 people to register before the event could be held (they pay for my travel and hotel from the attendee fee, not enough attendees, no me). Right now there are about 28 people registered. So, really I need two more people to reach my 30 person goal. However, keep in mind that the room can hold more than 60 people (or so I am told), so there will absolutely be no cut off concerning registering. Register right up to the day of the event, I'd be happy to have you there. Remember that the fee for the event is $99-- cheaper than even some of the other, shorter TechDays that have been held this year.

After the TechDay in San Francisco on the 23rd, I will then be preparing to go to Anaheim California to work the Hands-On Labs at the SharePoint Conference 2011. I am really psyched about going, because there was no way I could afford to simply pay to attend. I lost my MVP just at the time they were doing the call for speakers, so I couldn't even apply to speak at the event. If I did not volunteer for the event, I would definitely not get to go. But the volunteering process just didn't seem to be open to people like TechEd is, so I could not figure out how to get in. Then I got told about the "Unsung Hero" contest. It sounded "interesting"-- and the reason I put that in quotes is, the unsung heroes would not simply win a pass to the event, no. They would win an opportunity to work at the event for free in exchange for a conference pass. So that was how to volunteer for the event.

There was no guarantee that I would get in, competition was pretty fierce, but I managed to win a slot as an Unsung Hero, and although the hotels are ridiculously expensive out there (my credit card is groaning), I am going to SPC 2011. Woo hoo! I will be working the SharePoint Hands-On Labs, and proctoring the post-conference administrator's deep dive session. So I hope to see you all there.

Finally, to top off the year, I am going to do my first speaking engagement in a country whose natives don't speak English as their first language-- Sweden. I am pretty nervous about it. For those who know me, you know I have food allergies that are kind of specific-- namely gluten and corn. In the US, those are two things that are in everything. But it turns out that Sweden is very gluten-free friendly. Especially the city I'll be in, Stockholm. The McDonalds there even offers gluten free burgers and fries. They don't even have that in the US (but they should).

So the event I'll be working is the SharePoint and Exchange Forum 2011 (known as SEF 2011, which seems to be a very popular acronym in Sweden). I'll be doing two sessions, chosen by the organizers: SharePoint Design Fundamentals, and Monitoring your SharePoint Foundation server at no extra cost. The first session's title worries me-- because it's not necessarily only about design. It's really about what you are designing, and suggestions on how to design it. Like what kind of implementation should you do (given your situation), then what kind of namespace, permissions, comparing web apps, to site collections, to subsites for organizing people and content. Using AAM, managed paths, and more. All in an hour of course, so it won't be as deep as a six hour course (like the one I'm doing to the TechDay in San Francisco). I hope that my title is okay on that. If you have any suggestions for a better title, please let me know as soon as you can. Maybe I can ask the organizers to tweak it on the website.

So that should catch us up. I'll be churning out the PDF iFilter article in a few days, I may post it to it's original date though-- but I'll also give you all a heads up on it in case it slips out of your RSS because of the date. Other things I am looking into, besides all of the travel I am doing these days: I put in proposals for speaker sessions for the Cincinnati SharePoint Saturday. It'll be a long drive for me, but I had to cancel on a user group meeting I was supposed to speak at, and I'd like to make it up to them. In addition, I'd like to get back to doing live (then recording) sessions online again. Freebinar, now called AnyMeeting, didn't really work that well for me, so I am considering livestream. It doesn't have all the tools that AnyMeeting does, and I could go back to that in the future if necessary, but at least the livestream records well and does do live chat during the event (just like anymeeting).

Thanks to all for your patience. I'm still here, chugging along, believe it or not...