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Windows Mobile 6 Customer Improvement Program

imageWhile troubleshooting Exchange Active Sync for a client today, I spun up a WM6 virtual Pocket PC to test the certificate & server settings. After troubleshooting was complete, I noticed a pop-up for the Customer Experience Improvement Program.

For most folks with WM6 this is a big ‘whoop-dee-doo’, but since I’m still on WM5 with my personal Pocket PC, I was kind of surprised to see this message.

Anyway, these pre-built Windows Mobile 6 virtual Pocket PC devices are really awesome for training and troubleshooting: 

  • Windows Mobile 6 Professional Images (USA).msi (183 MB)
  • Windows Mobile 6 Standard Images (USA).msi (73 MB)

You can download them for FREE: click here

Note: To connect the WM6 VPCs to your existing Network Interface Card, you should also download either the Virtual Machine Network Driver for Microsoft Device Emulator (1KB) or Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 (30.4 MB). Virtual PC has the VM network driver baked in.

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So Close, Yet So Far Away

UPS arrived today with a package from Redmond.  That’s always a good sign.

“What’s inside,” you say?

Is it a beta?

Perhaps a shirt?

A box of squishy stress-balls?

Vista Ultimate?

Nope, nope, nope & another nope!

2008_MVP_Welcome_Kit

Nice, and yet again you ask, “What’s inside?”

Behold…

Wow, that is totally NOT my name. Ha!!

Um, that ain’t me folks!  LOL! 🙂

So, congratulations to Richard Seroter, BizTalk Server MVP for 2008 – wherever you are… 😉

P.S. Actually, I did send Richard and my MVP Lead an email, so we’ll get things straightened out. I just had to share this humorous moment with everyone.

Looking for products to help increase your appetite? Check out this Ice Cream Cookies Weed Strain Review by Fresh Bros.

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Beta Invite – TruckFullOfNinjas

Sally Jones, my name is Haru. I believe you are looking for a beta invite, no? Tucked away in a hidden location inside the FunCave (can’t tellya, hafta killya) is a new project code named:
“TruckFullOfNinjas”

TFON (I call dibs on the acronym, Chris) has been tasked with resolving an issue known simply as; “The Biggest Problem With Windows“. 

“Sounds like hype” you say? Well, don’t be too quick to judge. After all, have I ever steered you wrong, gentle reader?  And before you say anything, “The Cave” was so a good movie, as was “Stealth“. Eh, well, there was that time I recommended “Sabrina” and I never lived that one down (I blame the Shiraz). But that was before your time, so it doesn’t count. 

Anyway, I digress.

To find out more about TruckFullOfNinjas, you *definitely* want to surf over and follow the instructions to get on the early list to get a beta invite when it’s announced.

Seating = limited. You + late = sad. You get the idea.

You can thank me later.  Dr. Codec

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Crazy Screenshots – 29 Network Icons in System Tray

Ping me if you’ve seen this one before.

29 network icons in the system tray. Machine is Windows XP, SP2, fully patched, AV & AS up to date, and is only 2 weeks old:

image

All icons point to the same NIC, and they all work (not screen artifacts).

Only client applications running are:

  • QuickBooks Premier Accountant Edition 2008 Trial Version
  • Outlook 2003 SP3 with BCM 2003 (patches up to date)
  • Lacerte updater & the other icons in the system tray.

Event logs are clean. Wow. That’s all I can say. 🙂

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MVP Profile – Now With Monkeys

Well, it’s been almost two weeks since I got the news of the SBS-MVP award for 2008 (my first).  Yeah, I was shocked too.

It’s been pretty cool so far, with lots, and lots, and LOTS of email to read. They call it ‘The Firehose’. And they’re not kidding.

In fact, here is a video of what it’s like to be a new MVP:

Seriously, I do wonder how folks keep up with this level information flow.

Anyway, tonight I got the credentials to finally upload my MVP profile.  There’s no HTML or fanciness allowed, just plain text. Hopefully the Microsoft folks have a good sense of humor and won’t veto my content.  Also, if you speak Portuguese,  I could use some help with the grammar. KTHX. 🙂

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More News on SBS Cougar

cougarToday Microsoft TS2 presenter
Charles Van Heusen tips Microsoft’s hand a bit to show a little more information about Windows Small Business Server
(Codename “Cougar”), a.k.a. SBS 2008.

What’s to know?

  • No direct upgrades
  • Migration paths
  • Details about Standard and Premium editions (big change in Premium)

Check out Charles ‘Are You Ready for SBS Cougar‘ post for the details:
Click here

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New SBS Group Launches in Lexington 01-17-2008

Great news, especially for folks in Kentucky!

Matthew Snoddy (NetworkTherapists.com) has announced the launch of a new SBS group, and the first meeting is next week after the Microsoft TS2 event in Lexington.

Here are the details:

Lexington SBS User Group
Location: Lexington, Kentucky USA
Website: http://www.lexsbs.com
Launch date: Thursday January 17, 2008

Everyone is invited, (KYSBSUG & CiNPA, that means you too) so let’s help Matthew make this launch a great event!

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You Have Exceeded Maximum Pages for Word

Ever wonder how many pages it would take to print out the Registry in Windows XP? Really? Me too.

Well, today I was talking to a customer while making some registry changes, and the topic of just how big the registry is came up. After hours I decided to export the registry of my corporate Windows XP SP2 desktop machine to a TXT file (139 MB).  Then I tried to open that registry.txt file with Microsoft Word 2007.  The result?

image

How many pages is that? 

image

32,767 pages of plain text, and it died.

Just for giggles, I decided to try and open the same 139 MB TXT file in the PortableApps version of OpenOffice.org Writer running on a USB flash drive. 

The result?

image

Windows XP was not amused.

But you know what? Writer actually got further than Word: 

image

38,306 pages. Actually, it was 38,307 pages, but when I tried to change the  3/4" margins to 1" margins to see if it would increase the number of pages, it dropped down to 38,306 and threw the fault error in the status bar.

So, if a page is 11" long / 63,360 inches in a mile = 5,750 pages per mile.
Basically, we’re at 6.6 miles long, and that’s not even the complete registry.

Update: I actually got OpenOffice Writer to reach 39,721 pages before it ran out of virtual memory. Anyway, enough fun for now.

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Invitation – Louisville Geek Dinner – 1/24/2008

Louisville Geek Dinner - Thu Jan 24, 2008 6PM EasternIn case you haven’t heard, you’re invited to the 4th ever
Louisville Geek Dinner:

  • WHAT: A social networking event for those who love technology
  • WHEN: Thursday, January 24th 2008 @ 6:00pm EST
  • VENUE: Fox and Hound Pub and Grille – Google Map
  • ADDRESS: 302 Bullitt Ln, Louisville, KY 40222
  • COST: FREE + whatever you choose to spend on food.
  • HOST: Ben Thomas
  • ATTENDEES: Mac, PC, Linux, Unix, SBS and all other manner of geeks
  • REGISTER: http://www.louisvillegeekdinner.com 

Of course, it’ll be dark by then (6:00 PM Eastern), but here’s a daylight picture of the venue. Be sure to zoom out so you can be all, “Oh, I know where that is, yeah…”:

Fox & Hound Pub,

Feel free to copy the badge above to your blog to spread the word.
Here’s another badge (not dated) that Ben prepared:

Louisville Geek Dinner

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