January 21, 2006
lots of interesting stuff springing up at the microsoft download center lately, with some items of particular interest for folks in sbs-land…
top of that list would prolly be service pack 2 for business contact manager update and small business accounting. the list of features and fixes it includes can be seen in knowledgebase article 913635.
also, even tho these next 2 don’t have small business server anywhere in their title, the fact that these technologies are included as part of sbs (or will be soon) means that documents like these are, for the most part, also valid for all of us in sbs-land.
of course, you should prolly just go ahead and subscribe to the handy dandy rss feed for the download center. that way, you’d already know about cool stuff like this, when it happens, automagically.
that feed, btw…is hosted by the good folks at thundermain.
and…might i just add…
thundermain has a kickass ring to it, doesn’t it?
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January 18, 2006
your friendly neighborhood happyfunboy received some pretty awesome news today.
had my 3 month assessment since starting to exercise regularly (3 times a week) last october.
since that time, yours truly has:
- lost 5 pounds
- increased lean mass (muscle) by 5 pounds
- decreased fat mass (fat, obviously) by 5 pounds
- reduced % body fat from almost 25% to less than 20%
- lost 2.5 inches at the waist
all the way around, solid progress.
now…to be sure, i may have felt this progress in other ways, or noticed anecdotal evidence of becoming more fit…like my pants constantly falling off me anymore.
but the difference is…
i not only know for sure, i also know exactly how much progress i’ve made.
and how do i know all this?
that’s simple…
before i started working out, i opted to take advantage of the free assessment offered to new members.
and as part of that assessment, one of their exercise physiologists took certain measurements of me…measurements which now serve as my starting point.
and it got me thinking about something almost no one does in sbs-land.
so…show of hands here at the funcave…
who among the folks here actually baselines their servers?
i’m betting that number is pretty low, especially if your shop isn’t running separate app servers or database servers.
heavy-duty performance tuning really requires baselining.
otherwise you risk making some change that not only could fail to increase performance, but could actually bring a system to its knees.
well, you know what?
the same goes for all the not-so-heavy-duty performance tuning you prolly should be doing.
if someone reports sluggish response, are you capturing enough data to really know what is going on with that system?
or are you just blindly fumbling in the dark, hoping to hit the switch that turns on the lights…and not the one that sets off the fire alarm?
to be honest, it doesn’t even have to be a lot of info.
for a server, the minimum items to track to get an idea of performance are:
- disk
- memory
- processor
- network/lan
but beyond just tracking…you have to know what to look for, by determining what values should be considered out of the norm.
and just what is the norm?
well, it can be…and usually is…different for every environment, based on server size, configuration, load, etc. etc. etc.
so why do this at all?
it’s not just the drastic decreases in performance that can kill you.
in fact, because those kinds of issues are normally noticed and addressed right away, i’d argue they are even less costly.
it’s the little bit here, little bit there performance hits that can one day set you back on your heels, wondering holy christmas! what fracking happened?
and that’s where the baseline matters so much.
otherwise, you might never notice your progression, or regression, as the case may be.
and even if you did…you wouldn’t be sure.
which is the difference between being a professional…or a wannabe.
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January 15, 2006
one of the changes included with microsoft partner program 2.0 that went live here in the states in november of last year was the inception of a common re-enrollment date for everybody.
so…odds are…your company’s re-enrollment date is now january 31st.
prolly a good idea to actually check your renewal date, right now.
so go ahead…use your bookmark or favorite for the partner program home page and sign in.
what’s that you say?
you don’t have a bookmark or favorite set for the partner program home page?
and the reason for that is…you don’t ever go to the partner program home page?
well, that’s a whole other blog post. for now…just click here, and then login.
right at the very top you should see your program anniversary date.
and…if you are within 90 days of expiration, there should also be a section at the top of the page that reminds you of this and suggests you renew, with included links.
as time marches on this month, more and more folks who put off renewing are going to be trying to access this website to re-enroll before the deadline.
the best advice this friendly neighborhood happyfunboy can give you?
set a reminder to complete your renewal tomorrow!
doesn’t matter when tomorrow…just that it is completed tomorrow.
then you’re done, and don’t have to worry about getting your renewal in later this month.
thankfully…the renewal process has been much simplified over previous years.
if memory serves, last year i remember it being a 6-7 screen process. but it actually seemed much longer because i kept getting timeouts while trying to finish the renewal process. in all, much more stressful than it needed to be, no doubt.
well…your friendly neighborhood happyfunboy is glad to announce to say:
that was then, this is now!
the renewal process has been chopped down to 3-4 screens of info, most of which is obviously pre-populated for you if you are renewing. and here at the funcave, the responsiveness of the site was fantastic.
also, in what i consider a major improvement, the list of supported technologies has been updated and pruned to reflect only current ms technologies. so you aren’t forced to pick and choose from a humongous list of products, 95% of which microsoft has been hounding you to get your customers to upgrade from anyway.
i ranted about this issue a good while ago.
with all the visits from blue badges over the past several months…maybe someone took notice and sent that idea up the chain.
either way…the big news about renewal this year?
it’s easier, faster, and much less hassle than in past years. so instead of worrying about sinking an hour of time into renewing…you can get it done in about 15 minutes.
yours truly completed our firm’s renewal this past thursday, while listening and watching jeff middleton’s webcast on swing migration. took me longer to get approval to use one of our firm’s credit card numbers than it did to complete the renewal.
so don’t wait.
do it!
do it now!
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January 13, 2006
the superstitious or the faint-of-heart might have thought we’d take it easy for sbs show #13.
however, the vlad and your friendly neighborhood happyfunboy spared no expense to make the first show of 2006 an amazing one!
we were joined by none other than harry brelsford…ceo of smbnation.com, author, presenter, and champion of all things smb and sbs.
i could go on and on, but suffice it to say that if you work in the smb sector, and have never heard of harry…well, let me say that i’m very glad you finally came out of your 10 year coma.
enough talk!
get to listening already!
the amount of information in show #13 is absolutely astounding!
www.sbsshow.com…click it, download it, whatever…you know the drill.
but rather than mess with all that browsing and clicking and what-have-you, it’s really way past time you subscribed to sbs show.
subscribing (which is free, in case you are wondering) involves nothing more than adding the simple url http://www.vladville.com/sbsshow/podcast.xml to your favorite audio player that supports podcast feeds.
then, when a new show is available, your player will automagically download it for you. so then when you have some free time, or take a break, or are eating lunch, or whatever…it’s there waiting for you. man…you can’t beat that!
be sure to check out vlad’s write-up explaining the magic of podcasts and subscribing to sbs show.
most of all tho… don’t forget to subscribe!
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January 10, 2006
believe it or not…c|net has raised the bar yet again for clueless tech reporting.
evidently, they’ve just become aware of…get this folks!…an amazing new technology called remote desktop, that is…can you believe it!…available in windows xp professional.
which has been out for going on what? 4 years now?
nicely done nimrods!
very surprised it wasn’t written by molly “your computers frighten and confuse me” wood.
and so now your friendly neighborhood happyfunboy wonders what would happen if someone showed them remote web workplace?
lay you 2-to-1 odds their pea brains would explode all over their hideously overpriced offices and aeron chairs.
cuz everybody knows that the only thing you need to be a super awesomely awesome tech reporter is an aeron.
morons.
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