Post TechEd stuff

Howdy all!

My apologies for not posting sooner, but once again, my life has gotten busier than a fox in a crowded hen house. Since January, I've been travelling to conferences and summits every month (sometimes, several times a month). Recently I did SharePoint Saturday in DC, May 2nd. Then, two weeks later, went to LA for TechEd, then a week and a half after that, I went to London for two weeks. So I have been busy, away from my computer, and distracted. My apologies, gentle reader, if you felt neglected. I've been thinking of you, when I had the rare moment available for contemplation.

To start-- TechEd.

Well, I got some training on Sunday, the day before the event actually started (although there were some pre-conference sessions going on). I had to register to get a conference pass to be allowed into all the rooms I needed to access.

Normally, during registration, the attendees (and volunteer staff) get their goodies for the event; t-shirt, bag, pen, etc. This year, for some reason, the staff were given the bag, with the event catalog, some junk mail type stuff, advertisements for exhibitors, exhibitor contest stuff, etc., but no event T-shirt. Yeah, expensive bag, but no collectible Tee. Supposedly they did that to save money, but I'm not seeing it.

I also got to go to the pre-event MVP stuff. I didn't know that MVPs got a little extra training, like MCTs, during the event. That was really nice. Thanks guys.

Now, for those of you that had been following my story, getting to go to TechEd was a bit of a rollercoaster ride for me. I had originally applied to work the event as an MCT, as I have been doing for years. Last year I had been assigned to work in the Certification area of the conference (both weeks, whew). I'd had misgivings because I had dedicated so much time to Windows SharePoint Services (both 2.0 and 3.0) in the past years that I'd fallen behind on the Certification front. I did some work prior to the event to learn how certifications had changed in the interim, what they meant, etc. It turned out that I *loved* the certification area. The attendees were really cool, and I really felt like I was truly being helpful. It made the time I was working fly by. So this year, on the application, I flatly requested to be assigned to Certification. I'd also worked the MCT booth, but I just didn't feel as helpful there and were prefer to do Certification again.

Well, guess what? They cut the entire certification part of the conference for "budgetary reasons." Thus, my application was rejected. Maybe I shouldn't have been so adamant about really only wanting to work in that area, lol.

For the first time in years, I wasn't going to qualify to go to TechEd (and no, I really couldn't afford to simply go out of pocket).

Then I got an opportunity to apply as an MVP. I'd never done that before (obviously, since I was awarded for the first time this year), and had assumed that, since I was applying as an MVP, I'd be assigned work that applied to my area of expertise. I was really looking forward to it, if I was accepted, because I'd be able to talk to people all day for five days about SharePoint.

And, surprise, surprise, I was accepted! Yay!

Then I read the fine print. It appeared that I was chosen (rather late in the game as well, maybe I was a third round pick?) based on some secondary stuff I could do with the server (I had coauthored some Server stuff for Mark Minasi, Vista with David Pogue, travelled around the US doing presentations on server security and deployment for years, and beta tested all the server OS's since 2003).

So I wasn't going to be talking about SharePoint Services with anyone at TechEd, officially. Apparently, they didn't need me for that. Instead, I was going to be working a booth the Windows Server area.

I, of course, needed some additional information, as I've never done that particular job at TechEd before, concerning what exactly I'd need to do; responsibilities, expectations of the attendees concerning the booth's content, etc.,. It turned out that, out of all the booths there, I had to pick which one I was qualified for-- of course, that means I needed to know what all the booths were about. Unfortunately (and those of you who attended know what I'm talking about), the titles of the booths didn't really tell me what they specifically were going to cover, and I couldn't seem to find anyone who could give me any help in that regard.

Even more unfortunately, during the time in which I was trying to get this information, was also the time of the big layoff of Microsoft employees before TechEd (very bad timing in my opinion). The long and short of that story being, I ended up at a booth that required me to know everything new about Windows Server 2008 R2, but I really didn't know that until I showed up.

**Did I mention that all I've been doing since the summer of 2006 was SharePoint Services? I mean, yeah, I had beta'd 2008 (I was on the 2008 R2 beta, but couldn't spend a lot of time on it), and could install WSS on it, but really I was doing SharePoint all the time.**

So there I was, Monday morning, bright and early, standing at my booth, desperately learning everything I could about 2008 R2 (Huge shout out to Joey Snow, who wasted his valuable time loading demos on my booth computer and giving me content to learn), and, because it'd been a pet peeve of mine before the event even started, what each booth on the conference floor did.

It turned out that most of the Server booths at the conference covered most of what you needed to know about 2008 R2 (except security, because, strangely, the security people kept sending attendees to my booth), but there seemed to be no coherent idea as to where all that knowledge was actually located. There was no map of what topic was covered where for the sake of the attendees or staff, until I made one (hand scrawled on some sheets of notebook paper). So my booth ended up covering the following information:

-- Windows SharePoint Services administration (yes, attendees, despite my incognito location, still found me to ask questions, bless their hearts. Big thank you to them for making my week)
-- Active Directory Recycle Bin (my fave!)
-- Power Management (cool, Mark Minasi mentioned some things that you can do at the command line that are nifty)
-- Directions to the correct booth when attendees where led to my booth with questions no one else seemed able answer (the answer is out there, it's just a matter of finding the expert in the sea of people).

I did a lot of directing. I also had particular moments of fun, like when an attendee, who wandered by the first day, ended up helping me read the several pages of directions when I went through the Active Directory Recycle bin demo for the first time. We learned together, and that was fun. Every time after that that I did the demo, I thought of him. Thanks, whoever you were, for your patience and support.

Needless to say, I spent a lot of time that week doing nothing but server 2008 R2. It was fun. It gave me something to think about besides SharePoint. It also gave me ideas about SharePoint on 2008 R2 (okay, I really couldn't completely stop thinking about SharePoint). It also gave me a real, in the trenches, look at R2's Hyper-V.

Also, during the conference, thanks to meeting Joey Snow, I got exposed to something called "Firestarter events." Firestarter events are community focused (meaning free, and underfunded, think user group), driven by the speaker, who wants to present, essentially first look content, to the people in their area. The speaker, such as myself, would have to find a venue, get the word out to the community, maybe some sponsors, etc., as well as have the equipment to run the demonstrations.

I really want to do a Firestarter event in my area on 2008 R2 using the demos I had at my booth. I think it'd be fun, interesting, and really educational for my neighbors. My hometown isn't what you'd call tier one in Microsoft's eyes, and because of that we tend not to get the big launch events here. It'd be nice to do something for my peers that feels like an important pre-release event just for them.

Mind you, it's not SharePoint, but while I am waiting to get my hands on the beta for the next SharePoint release (yes, sadly, I still have bupkiss in terms of a beta look, and I'm a SharePoint Services MVP), I could be doing something else for the community. You know, still keep my fingers in the pie, technology and community-wise, in the interim.

One of the big things that would make or break my being able to do a Firestarter event, is if I have equipment that can run the pre-made, Microsoft official, Virtual Machines set up specifically for the Firestarter demos. If I can't run them on anything I own (and I am not ready to buy anything else this year), then I can't do the event.

That's why I've spent the last week installing Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 on my Macbook Pro. I needed to see if I could do it, how it ran, and if I could run Hyper-V well enough to do the Firestarter demos.

And of course, being me, I documented everything I did in my other blog, Adventures of a Servergrrl-- the Server Edition, over at msn spaces (or is called Live Spaces now, I can't keep track). So if you want to see what I've been so busy with that I wasn't writing here, or if you'd really like to see what it's like to install Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 straight up on a Macbook Pro, check it out there.

** I decided to put all that elsewhere, since it's not really a SharePoint thing. I used to have one blog with everything in it, but it got kind of unwieldy, containing virtualization, server, SharePoint, and miscellaneous stuff. So I broke it out, for the sake of the audience, into topics. Thus there's a WSS blog, a Server blog, and a miscellaneous, personal stuff blog.**

Bottom line, Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 do support EFI, meaning it will load and boot on an intel based Mac. There is a trick to getting the Windows 7 64bit or Server 2008 R2 disc to boot on the mac (it's a bug in the way the iso was made, not a flaw in the OS itself), but it all works... well except for some 64 bit drivers, but that's to be expected. Hyper-V is also easily supported as well.

I'll let you know if I do get to do any firestarter stuff (and let me know if you're local Microsoft office or user group might want me to travel to your area to do demos).

Now, on to SharePoint stuff.

I will be in Baltimore on July 25th (well, I'll actually be getting there the 24th, and leaving the 26th, but anywho) to do a SharePoint Saturday event. I'll be doing an hour long, basically standalone version of the "How to create your own dashboards," which is the second session in of the Frugal Admin series. I did the third session "How to create your own custom site template" in DC in May, so if you caught that and wanted to see the drill down as to some of how the site got to be customized before you made the site template, stop on by.

Check the "Happenin' Things" widget on the right side of this blog for details about the event as I get them (like exact times, address of venue, etc.).

After that I am hoping to have some downtime to catch up on doing blog things (I have so much stuff to podcast, vcast, and blog about that's WSS related it's not funny). I am also working on the next three sessions in the Frugal Admin series.

So please stay tuned, as I continue my servergrrl adventures.

TechEd 2009

So I made it to TechEd this year. It was touch and go up to the last moment, so my apologies for not telling you I was going sooner.

Nonetheless, I'm here. I'll be working in the Windows Server area if you'd like to stop by.

Los Angelos, so far, is pretty cloudy, kind of cool (temps in the 60's) and ironically not that much different, except for the smog, than when I visited Seattle last March. The event is supposed to be smaller this year, according to rumor, reflecting the current economy, but I can't wonder if it's also because of the location of the venue. Nothing against LA, but for those who were hoping for New Orleans, well, it's hard to compare.

If there are any SharePoint related adventures to be had, I'll keep you all posted.

Happy Earth Day!

Howdy everyone!

It's Earth Day today, http://www.earthday.gov/, and in a bit of interesting timing, it's also the first day of the SharePoint VConference (virtual conference) over at the SSWUG site: https://www.vconferenceonline.com/shows/spring09/sharepoint/.

Participating in virtual events are a great way to be green, as you save money on travel, hotel, wear and tear on your luggage, clothing, you, etc.

This time, for this vconference, I did sessions concerning getting the most out of WSS, seeing as many of us (all of us?) need to be able to stretch our time and dollars as far as we can. The sessions start with exploring the built-in web parts available with WSS. The point of the session, for me, was to give you an idea as to what's available in order to have you consider how useful they can be for you. Exploring, very, very quickly, the settings, views, zones, and configuration of the web parts. In addition, I have to admit that I was also focusing on getting the audience to understand web parts so they can use them for dashboards.

Why? Because the second session took those web parts, well at least the list view and content editor web parts, and make them into dashboards. I created two dashboards, one for users and one for management, during the session, securing them as well, then added them to the quick launch. Part of what I was doing with the dashboards was preparing you for the idea of having the resources of a site self-contained in that site.

Why? Because the final session was how, after setting up nice web parts and good dashboards, you can create a template out of the site itself. So it helps to show you how and why, first hand, centralized resources are useful in a site.

The final session, of course, covers how to create a site template out of the site used in the previous two sessions. It starts with what to consider, self-references, how to maximize the size limit for templates, how to create the site template, how to apply a site template, and then how to check to see if it really works and how to tweak it to be appropriate in the new place. I focus in particular as to what you might want to do with a site template, and what to worry about.

(and, because I had one minute and thirty seconds left, I tossed in a "contact us" page and showed an example of using google maps in the content editor web part by using the source editor-- just for those who stuck it out for all three sessions)

Now, for you, my dear readers, I will give you some insights into the sessions from my view, behind the scenes. Last time I recorded vconference sessions, I was really, really nervous and was suffering from a bit of food poisoning (had to eat at an airport on the way there...). This time, I had some real problems on the flight there (lost luggage, delayed flights, then cancelled flights, then a really, really late arrival-- 3 am my time), didn't get to sleep until 5am my time.

Needless to say, I was pretty groggy while at the studio. Sigh.

For the session slides, I was torn. I could have a few graphic filled slides and all demos, or I could have text that could be used as notes so attendees could use them later and a lot of demos. I went for word filled slides, and simply stated that I wouldn't be reading them all during the session, just hitting the highlights. I did try to go over as many as I could to a certain extent, but I also did simply do much of the content, then just gave some slides a mention.

Also, I was really afraid, because I was going to be going so fast to build web parts, dashboards, then site templates, that I was going to lose the more inexperienced viewers. So I might've gone too slow during the explanation portion of the session (tell them what you're going to do, tell them/show them how to do it, tell them what you did). If so, please forgive me, dear readers, I meant well. ; P

Finally, my big issue is, I am used to presenting exactly 1, 1.5, 3, or 6 hour sessions. For this vconference, I had fifty minutes. That's it. I lost ten minutes out of my carefully crafted Frugal Admin content.

And it did kick my butt a little. But, I tried to avoid compromising the content as much as I could.

So now you know, this is where I was while doing my sessions for this conference. I was exhausted, distracted by the truncated time, worried about not giving enough backstory so the attendees could follow along, worried about pacing (because of the loss of the ten minutes and my exhausted habit of rambling-- made worse when I am alone in a room instead of having a live audience), and determined to give you as much hands on proof of what works and what it looks like as I could.

If you want to see what I am talking about, my session are going to be broadcast tomorrow, Weds., April 23rd, 2009. If you are interested, feel free to register (not free, but pretty cheap) for the vconference at http://www.vconferenceonline.com/shows/spring09/sharepoint/. Feel free to use my tell-a-friend code VCTAF502105-0, or the discount code SPVCCASP09. Keep in mind that you can also sign up for the on-demand feature, meaning you can download the videos to see review later.

Another thing to keep in mind concerning sessions you've downloaded, is you can pause and rewind the video so if, during the live session, there was a bit that went too fast, with the on-demand version, download it, and rerun the session, pause where you need it.

Just a thought. : )

Happy Earth Day everybody!!

Okay, NOW the book is on Safari

I've been recovering from the flu for the last several weeks (man, that fatigue never seems to go away...), so I've been a bit behind in keeping up with my emails.

Imagine my surprise when I received an email from Safari Books Online saying that my book is live on their site.

So, with great fanfare I would like to report that my book, "Mastering Windows SharePoint Services 3.0" has been available on Safari Online, http://www.safaribooksonline.com/, since the 26th of March (meaning it's definitely there now).

If you've been looking for it, feel free to use this link: http://techbus.safaribooksonline.com/9780470127285.

Safari books online offers digitized versions of technical books for use as part of a subscription service. In some cases, depending on the publisher, the books can be downloaded in part or whole.

So for those of you looking for a digital version of the book, this might be the place for you.

As for those of you that simply wanted to buy my book in PDF format directly from Amazon or Wiley-- well, the publisher still can't seem to figure out what happened with the digital version of the book...

...Meanwhile, the people over at Safari books online went out of their way to laboriously digitize 1100 pages of WSS goodness themselves. I am grateful. : )

Let me know what you think of the digitized version by the way. I for one would simply be glad for an easier way to search for content than what's available in the hard copy book now.

I'd also like to give a shout out to Yolanda and Asif, who both pinged me with updates concerning my book's digital debut delays. I bet your help, especially Yolanda's, were essential for the eventual availability of my book online. Thanks.

More things for the Frugal Admin to talk about-- SharePoint Designer is now free

Howdy everybody.

As of today, SharePoint Designer is available as a download for anyone to install-- for free. That's right, free. Download it here (http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointdesigner/FX100487631033.aspx).

And because it's free, I can add it to my Frugal Admin series.

So far the series currently consists of sessions that focus on getting the most out of Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 for free. Some of the sessions build, such as how to get the most out of the built-in web parts, then how to make dashboards out of those web parts, and then how to create a site template out of the site you just set up with all those nifty web parts and dashboards.

I also had standalone sessions, like how to exploit the internet for great, free WSS related stuff, how to setup Active Directory Account Creation Mode, and tips and tricks concerning setting up external access, portals, etc.

Now I can also add the icing to the cake to get more out of WSS-- using SharePoint Designer 2007. I hope to have sessions up for the last two quarters of 2009 concerning using SPD to customize WSS (branding, master pages, etc), increase the usefulness of lists, web parts, workflows, and more. Stay tuned for more info on these sessions and were to see them later in the year.

Darned docx and other trials and tribulations...

I have been doing a lot of beta testing in an attempt to get on top of the new OS versions coming out (Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2). I am going to have to do a lot of work in them once they release, so I felt it important to work on the different features while they were in beta, so if I needed support there'd be lots of it.

And I know that once WSS goes into beta, I will be very distracted with testing that and no longer spending time on the OS's.

When I beta test an OS, I spend a lot of time building various iterations of virtual machines containing different types of installs and configurations. Also, I tend to spend a lot of time on the desktop of said OS, installing things, doing work, trying to see what works, what breaks, and what's significantly changed.

This also means that, while I am on these desktops, life goes on. I get emails with attachments, read the newsgroups, etc.

But, because those test machines, no matter what I do on them, can be wiped at any time and reloaded, I need to avoid installing anything that takes a lot of time, or requires a lot of licensing.

This means that I tend to avoid installing Office, because of the need to activate. Even Word Viewer is rather annoying because I have to install it, then the darned file converter-- and still it can't seem to open all docx files cleanly.

So what happens when I am working on one of those test machines and I receive an email with a docx attachment?

Well, I can pay for, download, and install a docx converter. That works pretty well. But that means that the file is now a .doc file, and I can't save it as a docx file to send it back (like the case of an application-- in docx of course-- that I had to fill out and send back, pronto).

I tried open office, I tried star office, abiword, and google apps. No such luck.

Then I stumbled upon a simple online word processor that I'd tested years and years ago, along side Writely (which was bought by Google)-- Zoho Writer.

Simple, innocent Zoho Writer, not fast, not elegant, can easily open and save docx files without fuss. Yes, some of the formatting is lost, but most of it, the parts that count, stay.

So if you absolutely, positively have to open that file and read it (and even edit it) right away-- then zoho writer (http://www.zohowriter.com/) might be the choice for you.

((and it's also nice because I don't need to install anything, anywhere. it's all online, so if I can activate the machine, I can read those pesky attachments))

It's those little things we find that become the most useful. Especially if those things are free, which zohowriter is.

Speaking of free, and things that can be installed easily on machines that may be wiped and reinstalled at will-- I also have been messing with portable apps (http://portableapps.com/). I've known about them for a while, but really didn't get into them that much because I often work with virtual machines that don't support removable USB drives and the like. But Windows 7 has driven me to it.

I am not really against IE8, but it is really, really slow to download anything. And, in their infinite wisdom, MS has removed the built-in email, calendar, and newsgroups client from Windows 7. So if I want to have those things to use, I am encouraged to install Windows Live, which I really don't like.

So Windows 7 doesn't have email, calendar, contacts, or newsgroups capability. And IE8 is an okay browser, but really bites for download management.

What's a grrl to do?

Why download the portableapps suite of course. It contains, among other things, a portable version of Abiword (a simple word processor), Mozilla Firefox (which has a download manager), Thunderbird (email), Sunbird (calendar), as well as a Sumatra the PDF reader, Clamwin (a simple antivirus program- no realtime protection though), CoolPlayer + (a media player), and even some games.

The point of portable apps is they are to be installed and run from an external drive or USB stick. That way you can save stuff, pop out the stick (or detach the drive), go to the next machine, and use it from there. Nothing left behind on the other machine except the portableapps menu app.

You can also add a bunch of other apps to the menu for your use-- all open source of course. I personally love and use Audacity, as well as VLC media player. There are literally dozens of useful, small, free apps that you can have access to at a moments notice from any machine running Windows.

For those of you who work with VMs that don't support USB devices, I just created a vhd file as a "second drive." I add it to the machine I need for, and remove it when I am done. Then, if I need it for a different machine, I add it before booting up. I can't hot swap, it's true, but it still works as far as not losing anything. Just remember to save files to the portable apps drive, not to the local "My Documents" (why is the "My" back with Windows 7? Who wanted that?). That way they go with you to the other machine when you move the drive.

Now I know that none of this has anything directly to do with WSS, but they're still nifty things that I thought I might share, for those of you who might find them handy.

Woo hoo! My book's going on Safari!

Howdy,

I know that there have been requests made on this blog, and sent to me directly, requesting a digital form of the "Mastering Windows SharePoint Services 3.0" book. And on that front I have no news.

My editor is working on it...

Meanwhile, I got a request from someone concerning Safari Books Online (http://safaribooksonline.com). They wanted to know why my book wasn't available there.

So being a good girl, I called Safari Books Online to find out. After a few messages and callbacks, I am happy to announce:

Mastering Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 will be available on Safari Books Online as of the end of February!

So for those of you who have a subscription, or would like to get one, my book will be available through them very soon.

I consider this a step in the right direction concerning those of you who want my book in digital form.

((please make note, I have no control over how the book is digitized or displayed by the safaribookslonline people. I have no idea what it'll look like, but I'm sure it'll be nice to be able to do a search for terms, rather than thumb through the index.))