In an extraordinary first, Dave Winer (pictured) - best known as editor of Scripting News, the weblog he started in 1997 and for pioneering several Internet standards in distributed computing, including SOAP, XML-RPC, RSS, OPML and podcasting - has obtained what he claims are 100% authentic copies of internal memos sent out recently to Microsoft staffers by Bill Gates and Ray Ozzie. And he has published both in full at his site. The purported memo dates from October 30 and is addressed to Microsoft's "Executive Staff and Direct Reports; Distinguished Engineers." Its subject line: "Internet Software Services" Gates notes in opening that he wrote a memo a decade ago entitled "The Internet Tidal Wave" which described how the internet was going to forever change the landscape of computing, and then 5 years ago the company "focused [its] strategy on .NET making a huge bet... (more)

How to: Debug a PowerShell Cmdlet

In sticking with our theme of debugging things from yesterday, I thought I would write up a quick post on how to debug a cmdlet.  This may be obvious to you experienced developers out there, but someone new to writing cmdlets may not be familiar with the process.  Luckily, cmdlets are easier to debug than the Custom Index Connectors I talked about yesterday.  I hope to educate people as much as I can on how to build cmdlets, so that we can get more contributions to the SharePoint PowerShell Community Toolkit.  If you haven’t checked it out yet, please do. :-) Once you have built your cmdlet, set a breakpoint in your code in Visual Studio.  Once you have done that, open a new PowerShell window (or a SharePoint Management Shell) and install your module or snapin.  The technique for debugging is the same whether you load your cmdlet with Add-PSSnapin or Import-Module.... (more)

VI's Archie Hendryx Chinwags with Mike Laverick

If you've ever been involved with VMware it's more than likely that you've heard of Mike Laverick. As well as being a VM Guru, vExpert, all-round cool guy and author of great books such as "Administering VMware Site Recovery Manager 5.0", Mike also has a popular site of blogs, info and videos, namely RTFM. Occasionally Mike invites certain vendors or tech folk for a "chinwag"and publishes this on his site and this week I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to discuss Virtual Instruments' solution and how it enables the successful virtualization of Mission Critical Apps. Here's a link to the video: I hope you enjoy it!   ... (more)

Improving .NET Application Performance Part 2: Application Engineering and Design Considerations

This is the second article in our series on improving .NET application performance and in this article we’ll focus on the upfront phase of the development process, looking at design considerations. In our introduction article we touched on setting performance objectives so you have something to measure and compare against. Ask questions like; How fast is fast enough? What are your time and throughput constraints? How much CPU, memory, disk and network I/O is acceptable for your application to utilize? These are important items that your design should be able to accommodate. In this article we’ll describe a number of design principles that will help design application that meet the performance objectives that you have defined. The design principles below are proven to work well: Design coarse-grained services to reduce the number of client-service interactions and ... (more)

The High Costs of FISMA and Google Lobbying, and More

Today’s federal cybersecurity and information technology news: The the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) of 2012 currently being debated in the House of Representatives would cost the federal government an estimated $710 million through 2017. More here. The hacktivist group UGNazi has taken the official CIA website offline with a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack. More here. Google spent $5 million on lobbying between January and March this year, more the Microsoft, Apple, and Facebook combined. More here. The Department of Defense expects to get approval from the White House within 60 days to expand its pilot cybersecurity threat information sharing program to include 200 contractors. More here. ... (more)

Windows Server 2012 Installation Options

New and flexible ways to make changes of a Windows Server 2012 installation after the fact are available. And IT pros can now convert a server from and to Server Core, and change the availability of server components that are previously committed at an installation time. This introduces new dynamics and exciting scenarios for improving supportability, efficiency, and security. This article highlights the three available installation options and some key operations based on the Release Candidate, Build 8400. There is additional information of Windows Server 2012 including: a free eBook, available editions, and a reference table summarizing the available features in each installation option available elsewhere. Server Core This is the default and preferred configuration for deploying Windows Server 2012. Server Core was introduced in Windows Server 2008 as a minimal ... (more)

Collecting Terminal Services Metrics with Monitis

Remote Desktop Services (RDS), formerly known as Terminal Services, is one of the components of Microsoft Windows (both server and client versions) that allows a user to access applications and data on a remote computer over a network, using the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP). It is generally known that RDS accelerates and extends desktop and application deployments to any device, improving remote worker efficiency, while helping to keep critical intellectual property secure and simplify regulatory compliance. RDS enables both a virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) and session-based desktops, allowing users to work anywhere. It lets you efficiently deploy and maintain software in an enterprise environment. You can easily deploy programs from a central location. Because you install the programs on the RD Session Host server and not on the client computer, programs are ... (more)

Keeping business security wrapped up this Christmas

London, 26 November 2012 - In the run up to Christmas, businesses need to ensure that they have checked their list twice when it comes to IT security. Not only do employees browse for Christmas gifts online during their lunch breaks, but an increasing number of people work remotely over the festive period. Employees can unknowingly put their business at risk from the inside by inadvertently opening the door to a virus or spyware, which can have devastating consequences to a business and its customers. Jeff Finch, head of security at Interoute, reveals some top tips to help businesses think more laterally about how to protect themselves this time of year: Shop around Whatever the size of your business; you don't have to plunder the Christmas party fund to afford proper protection during the festive season. Smaller businesses can be an easy target because they are le... (more)

Teach kids to type, not write?

Most of you that know me personally or follow me online know that I am pretty much neck deep in preschool hell.  With my three boys at the ages of 4 1/2 yrs, 3 yrs, and 4 months, it isn’t going to end anytime soon either.  Between making sure they have their backpack full of supplies for kiddie activities, packing their lunches that are required to have all 5 food groups or else we get a “you’re a terrible parent” nastygram sent home, and managing a ridiculously preventive doctor and dentist appointment schedule… you would swear I had four full time jobs (and if you saw my pre-school bill you would assume I would need 4 full time jobs to pay for it!). Lately, my 4 1/2 year old is really getting into drawing, writing, and reading, and I wouldn’t be the proud Dad that I am unless I told you that he’s pretty darn good at it!  But, more importantly than being good at i... (more)

Tool for Reverse-Engineering SharePoint 2007 / 2010 / 2013

I have upgraded the tool I created for reverse engineering SharePoint 2007 and 2010 into HTML, Text, and DGML Sitemaps to work with SharePoint 2013. The tool is now versioned at 1.5.  You have to copy the appropriate folder instead of just the file (Version 1.0 was only one file) because the tool is dependent on the WPF Toolkit. The folder includes the WPF Toolkit DLL. There are no new features with this version.  It is just an upgrade to work with SharePoint 2013. Current features include generating DGML diagrams which allow Root Sites to be put into groups, reports include information on Services running on the Server and the Farm, Database Sizes, user and group account information, and application pool information. You the option to list the users on the sites, and flag sites that have not been updated for a while to show in RED. The user's emails are listed as we... (more)

Audi Volkswagen Middle East speeds up email performance with KEMP load balancing

4 June 2013: Audi Volkswagen Middle East has installed a KEMP LM 2200 load balancer at its offices in Dubai to ensure maximum network uptime for its Microsoft Exchange email users and remove congestion problems during peak times of the day. With over 80 staff spread across three sites, the KEMP load balancer now makes sure that Audi Volkswagen Middle East email users are automatically connected to the best performing MS Exchange server and if one becomes inaccessible, the load balancer will automatically re-route users to other functioning servers. "Email communication is at the heart of everything we do, so it is vital that we don't have interruptions to our new MS Exchange 2010 service or slow performance at busy times when we are sending and receiving the most emails," said Shoeb Khan, IT Manager at Audi Volkswagen Middle East. "The KEMP LoadMaster gives us a fa... (more)