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September 2007 - David Overton's Blog
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  • David and others, slightly drunk, speaking poetry on the South Bank

    This is just a silly post, but thought I would share: Of course, not wanting to do it alone, many others also joined in. Did I mention that we were standing on our chairs at a bar under the bridge with a lot of confused people around us? - Matt Brady was very animated in his performance - Stephie shows us that the Scottish have romantic hearts - Danny picked the shortest poem. but picked on people as "characters" - Steve Clayton decided to do a duet with Stephanie who found it all a bit too much
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  • SQL Security and SQL on Vista / Windows Server 2008

    Security Tip of the Month: User Account Control and SQL Server http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=7243604 By Devendra Tiwari, Microsoft SQL Server Product Team User Account Control (UAC), a new feature in Windows Vista that helps administrators manage their use of elevated privileges, affects Microsoft SQL Server in terms of connectivity (SQL Server login) and in limiting access to resources on the administrators' access control list (ACL). This article discusses the impact of UAC on SQL Server and presents tips on how to run SQL Server applications securely in Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. SQL Server 2005 Security Overview for Database Administrators http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=7243606 This paper covers some of the most important new security features in SQL Server 2005. It tells you how, as an administrator, you can install SQL Server securely and keep it that way even as applications and users make use of the data stored within. Security Considerations for SQL Server http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid...

  • SharePoint Webcasts and info for developers and implementers

    Announcing the Microsoft Business Data Catalog Definition Editor for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Summary The Business Data Catalog Definition Editor tool (or "BDC tool") is now available in the latest (August 2007) version of the downloadable MOSS 2007 SDK, which was just posted at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=6d94e307-67d9-41ac-b2d6-0074d6286fa9&displaylang=en http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2007/08/22/announcing-the-microsoft-business-data-catalog-definition-editor-for-microsoft-office-sharepoint-server-2007.aspx Just Published: Major Update to the MOSS and WSS Downloadable SDKs [Cross-posted from Randall Isenhour's blog ] Hello SharePoint Developers! We are very proud to announce a major update to the MOSS and WSS Software Development Kit (SDK) downloads. http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2007/08/22/just-published-major-update-to-the-moss-and-wss-downloadable-sdks-8-22-2007.aspx Creating a Custom User Site Provisioning Solution with Microsoft...

  • SBSC members now able to sell Educational licenses once changes come in on 1st November

    Grumblings about this started on the Yahoo groups and a few people e-mailed me saying that they did not like the proposed changes coming in under the Authorised Education Reseller programme which required them to be a certified partner or above. After much time, but before the changes come in, we are delighted to be able to announce that being a SBSC partner will also qualify you. Below is the announcement that Jen has asked me to forward. Microsoft Authorised Education Reseller Announcement of UK Programme Changes Overview From November 1 2007 the renewal process for Authorised Education Resellers (AERs) will change. The main requirement, in order to sell academic FPP, Open and School Agreement licensing programmes, will be either ‘Certified’ or ‘Gold Certified’ status. However I have some great news, we have managed to ensure that SBSC partners will not be affected by this change and you do not have to be ‘Certified’ or ‘Gold Certified’ so the SBSC registered partner base can still benefit. Renewal Process From...

  • Securing ASP.Net applications

    Building Secure ASP.NET Applications: Data Access Security http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=7243611 This MSDN article presents recommendations and guidance that will help you develop a secure data access strategy. Topics covered include using Windows authentication from ASP.NET to the database, securing connection strings, storing credentials securely in a database, protecting against SQL injection attacks, and using database roles. just a short one :-) David
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  • Do you want to write code for Windows Home Server? Do you want intellisense to make it easier?

    I came across this and thought I would share it. Microsoft have released the SDK for Windows Home Server, but you don't get intellisense with it. The SDK can be found at http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa496121.aspx . HomeServerControls Documentation for Developers If intellisense, public classes and methods mean absolutely anything to you, then Brendan Grant is your man. Due to the lack of intellisense documentation, he has compiled an XML file and an accompanying help file explaining what some of the public classes and methods exposed by HomeServerControls do. More information and the downloads are on Brendan’s blog and also on the accompanying thread on the Windows Home Server forums. HomeServerControls Documentation for Developers « MS Windows Home Server ttfn David Technorati Tags: Developer , Windows Home Server , Intellisense

  • Vista whitepapers on implementation, Bitlocker, Application Compatibility

    Documentation Windows Vista Step-by-Step Guides for IT Professionals These step-by-step guides provide instructions for deploying or migrating to Windows Vista, and various management tasks, including configuring security, monitoring performance, and managing printers. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=22&p=21&SrcDisplayLang=en&SrcCategoryId=&SrcFamilyId=&u=%2fdownloads%2fdetails.aspx%3fFamilyID%3d311f4be8-9983-4ab0-9685-f1bfec1e7d62%26DisplayLang%3den App Compat Prep and Implementation http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=22&p=24&SrcDisplayLang=en&SrcCategoryId=&SrcFamilyId=&u=%2fdownloads%2fdetails.aspx%3fFamilyID%3d02e01c4d-49a2-43e6-a9c5-8b174d1f089a%26DisplayLang%3den ACT 5 Step by Step Guides http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=22&p=25&SrcDisplayLang=en&SrcCategoryId=&SrcFamilyId=&u=%2fdownloads%2fdetails.aspx%3fFamilyID%3dbc931bfd-d279-4060-b370-08fa52f97a8d%26DisplayLang%3den BitLocker Design and Deployment...

  • Bad anniversary - 25 years of viruses and malware

    According to the article at MSNBC, 25 years ago a 9th grader let loose a virus on his friends because they didn't like his practical jokes. It was the 1st wild boot sector virus and started a whole industry of security watching. The whole article is worth reading as it discusses the whole business and how it has moved from people wanting to be discovered as the malware was originally designed for notoriety, while now it is more for stealing cash or launching attacks and the writers would rather remain unknown. School prank starts 25 years of security woes First person to ever let loose a personal computer virus was a ninth grader Marcio Jose Sanchez / AP Rich Skrenta poses for a portrait in front of his first personal computer, the Apple II Plus, at home in San Carlos, Calif. Skrenta set loose the first computer virus in 1982 — when he was in ninth grade. NEW YORK - What began as a ninth-grade prank, a way to trick already-suspicious friends who had fallen for his earlier practical jokes, has earned Rich Skrenta...
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  • MSDN free events for September 2007 (.Net 3.0 & 3.5 and Visual Studio 2008)

    I just saw these in my inbox (post holiday processing) and thought I would pass them on. 19 September, Edinburgh : MSDN - Introduction to .NET Framework V3.0 (& sneak preview of v3.5 changes) 20 Sept 07, Bradford : Introduction to .Net Framework V3.0 (& sneak preview of v3.5 changes) 25 Sept 07, Reading : Building Dynamic Web Applications with Microsoft Silverlight 26 Sept 07, Birmingham : OVERVIEW OF VISUAL STUDIO 2008 AND .NET FRAMEWORK 3.5 27 Sept 07, Bristol : OVERVIEW OF VISUAL STUDIO 2008 AND .NET FRAMEWORK 3.5 ttfn David Technorati Tags: MSDN Events , .Net 3.0 , .Net 3.5 , Visual Studio 2008 , Developers
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  • How to submit your templates to Microsoft for inclusion in the Office Template site

    I saw this and thought it was amazing. If you have a template that is good and you want to make it available to others, simply package it up (save it without personal information in it) and pop along to this site ( https://services.office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/submission.aspx ) to post it. I like this - power to the people!! ttfn David Technorati Tags: Office 2007 , Templates , Community

  • VoIP and Unified Communications may be the future, but it has plenty of pitfalls for networks, phone systems and vendors alike

    In many ways I am a traditionalist. I wasn't the 1st to embrace the UC/VoIP and I have to admit that my personal commercial foray into this has so far left me turning off this technology as the sound quality was not there. Apparently my 20mb/768kb line is not good enough with my website on the same line :-( So that is me, but what about others. Information Week showed that network congestion is a growing problem - most of us don't carefully budget network traffic and while we are aware of "slow" internet connections etc, the impact on internal and external network connection is sometime something left to experimentation rather than science. A survey of 576 unified communications users found that 75% said one-quarter of their network traffic in the last three months consisted of UC applications like VoIP, unified messaging, and instant messaging. The survey was conducted by Network General Corp., which polled its worldwide customers. "The ramp-up in unified communications is already taking...

  • SQL 2005 - BI, Search, Samples, Tuning and Virtual Labs

    Extending Enterprise Search Capabilities to your BI Applications Quickly get up and running on the key concepts of delivering business intelligence search using features in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and SQL Server 2005. As an added bonus download the sample content below and walk through the process step-by-step with the whitepaper. http://www.microsoft.com/bi/resources/whitepapers.aspx http://download.microsoft.com/download/7/2/a/72ae11fe-564d-4756-a878-eccb2e0692d7/BI%20Search%20Technical%20White%20Paper.doc ETL Performance: Unisys and Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Speed Up the Process Unisys and Microsoft prove SQL Server 2005 supports 64-bit parallel processing and delivers high levels of Extraction, Transformation and Loading (ETL) performance on Unisys ES7000 servers. This white paper summarizes the results of collaborative testing between Microsoft and Unisys running ETL processes on Intel® Xeon® (32-bit) and Intel® Itanium® 2 (64-bit) based ES7000 servers. http://www.unisys.com/eprise/main/admin...

  • Will Halo 3 take over the world.... someone thinks so...

    http://www.loadingreadyrun.com/videos/view/228 Made me smile :-) ttfn David Technorati Tags: Halo 3 , fun
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  • Windows Server 2003 Information updates (Group Policy, Federation, Virtual Machine Manager, Physical Security, Improving Performance)

    Group Policy Diagnostic Best Practice Analyzer for Windows Server 2003 x64 Edition (KB940122) The Microsoft Group Policy Diagnostic Best Practice Analyzer (GPDBPA) for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 is designed to help you identify Group Policy configuration errors or other dependency failures that may prevent settings or features from functioning as expected. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=70e0edec-66f7-4499-83b7-4f2009df2314&DisplayLang=en Group Policy Diagnostic Best Practice Analyzer for Windows Server 2003 (KB940122) The Microsoft Group Policy Diagnostic Best Practice Analyzer (GPDBPA) for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 is designed to help you identify Group Policy configuration errors or other dependency failures that may prevent settings or features from functioning as expected. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=22&p=3&SrcDisplayLang=en&SrcCategoryId=&SrcFamilyId=&u=%2fdownloads%2fdetails.aspx%3fFamilyID%3d47f11b02-8ee4-450b-bf13-880b91ba4566...

  • Comically bad 24 hours in the Overton household ... how you know Monday was a bad day

    I just had to share with you the back end of my weekend and why it made Monday such a disaster. All was well on Sunday, I went sailing, then about 4pm my back decided to jump back into the land of extreme pain. OK, so 1 member of the household down. About 8pm Lizzy, my 1 year old, started throwing up... not good... and it carried on through the night. One rug in the bin, 5+ changes of night clothes for her and more. All with me unable to do much due to back pain and my wife phobic about people being sick. Two members of the household down. Next morning, we get some quality sleep from about 6am until about 7:30am when Molly, my eldest, tells us she is not feeling well and she has an upset tummy and a temperature. We decide that she is not faking it, so off from school for her and now food for a while. Three members down and one left standing. About 7pm Mel, my wife, goes to put something in the bin, trips over the rug and slips. "Ouch" she said (and a few more colourful words too), took off her rings...
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  • How to read UKSBSGUY (or any other web site) in another language (German, French, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Chinese, Portuguese and Arabic)

    I saw this and think it is amazing - I know there are already lots of translation services out there, but I like the way things are presented at this site. If you want to do free text or web site translation, have a look at http://translator.live.com/ . Once I'd tested translating a phrase or two (why do I always translate to Arabic??) I thought I would run UKSBSGUY through it. To see the site with just a toolbar to select the language - go to http://translator.start.com//BV.aspx?&MKT=en-GB#http://uksbsguy.com/ . You have a choice of several views - side by side top and bottom original with tooltip translation translated with original text in a tooltip I really like the last option, but play around with them yourself. - translated with English tooltips - English with translated tooltips - Top and bottom - Side by side ttfn David Technorati Tags: Translation , Live
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  • SQL Development with LINQ and .Net

    MSDN Webcast: Framework Masterclass: LINQ to SQL (Level 200) – Recorded Microsoft .NET Language Integrated Query (LINQ) provides a common way to work with data in your applications. In this session, we dive into how LINQ provides methods to work with Structured Query Language (SQL) databases, including how to query, insert, and manage data using the LINQ framework. MSDN Webcast: Framework Masterclass: LINQ to SQL (Level 200) MSDN Webcast: Framework Masterclass: LINQ to XML (Level 200) – Monday, September 17, 2007 12:00 PM Pacific Time (US & Canada) In other sessions, we have already seen how Microsoft .NET Language Integrated Query (LINQ) works with relational databases. In this webcast, we explore how LINQ can help you develop XML applications. We cover the basics of the XML helper functions, and we also dive into deeper topics. MSDN Webcast: Framework Masterclass: LINQ to XML (Level 200) MSDN Webcast: Programming SQL Server 2008 (Level 300) – Monday, September 17, 2007 1:00 PM Pacific Time (US & Canada...
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  • Things they said would never happen - Sun becoming a Windows OEM and Microsoft and Novell open Windows and Linux interop Labs

    I saw this and thought I would publish this to show that businesses will always put differences behind them if they think there is a buck to be made: Sun to Install Windows Server on Its Hardware Sun Microsystems will start selling its lineup of 64-bit, x86-based servers preinstalled with the Windows Server operating system within 90 days. and Microsoft/Novell Open Windows/Linux Interop Lab The initial focus will be around three projects involving virtualization, management, and identity federation. This just proves that all firms are commercial! Don't believe the religious hype! Of course, competition will still be just as fierce. ttfn David Technorati Tags: Sun , Windows , Novell

  • Is Google evil and so what if they are?

    I saw these two web pages and just found them too compelling. I can tell you more than you might imagine about people who come to my site, but it pales into comparison when you see what Google can store and some of the conditions. Anyone who says "they won't use it" needs to rethink the demands of shareholders to maximise revenue and profit. I would suggest looking at: Google Docs and Spreadsheets clause gives pause For a company whose motto is "Do no evil," it's interesting how often Google's customers suspect them of it http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/09/14/Google-clause-gives-pause_1.html and then the "story" at Radar Fiction - "Scroogled" Google controls your e-mail, your videos, your calendar, your searches… What if it controlled your life? By Cory Doctorow http://www.radaronline.com/from-the-magazine/2007/09/google_fiction_evil_dangerous_surveillance_control_1.php I then clicked on the I-Spy link on the last page of the Radaronline fiction and was able...
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  • SQL 2008 Information, documents and more

    SQL Server 2008 Solutions – Your Data, Any Place, Any Time SQL Server 2008, the next release of Microsoft SQL Server, will provide a comprehensive data platform that is more secure, reliable, manageable and scalable for your mission critical applications, while enabling developers to create new applications that can store and consume any type of data on any device, and enabling all your users to make informed decisions with relevant insights. http://www.microsoft.com/sql/prodinfo/futureversion/default.mspx http://www.microsoft.com/sql/prodinfo/futureversion/bi/default.mspx SQL Server 2008 Books Online – Overview (SQL Server 2008) Microsoft SQL Server is a database platform for large-scale online transaction processing (OLTP), data warehousing, and e-commerce applications; it is also a business intelligence platform for data integration, analysis, and reporting solutions. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms166352(SQL.100).aspx http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb510421(SQL.100).aspx Online Transaction...

  • Want to know what one of my accounts looks like - have a look at Microsoft Case Studies: Corporate Modelling

    I'm enjoying being an ISV PAM (Independent Software Vendor Partner Account Manager) and while I miss my small business role, the new job has me looking after accounts that are small and big. One such account already has a case study up. To improve ease of use for its business customers, Corporate Modelling decided to develop its business process management solutions using Microsoft® products. The company also joined the Microsoft Partner Program, which has not only provided guidance for long-term development but also strategic sales leads and connections with other vendors. Corporate Modelling expects to double its revenue every nine months. Microsoft Case Studies: Corporate Modelling This is not my work, I'm just carrying on the great work of others, but it is nice to work with such people. ttfn David Technorati Tags: ISVs , Corporate Modelling
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  • SQL 2000 Performance Tuning and Optimization Datasheet

    SQL Server 2000: Performance Tuning and Optimization Datasheet This 4-day workshop provides information on SQL 2000 index and page structures, performance troubleshooting tools, memory architecture, programming efficiency, and optimization techniques. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=0556317d-66c3-4a6d-a128-4d6f873a28b3&DisplayLang=en ttfn David Technorati Tags: SQL 2000 Performance Tuning

  • test post - ignore as it will be deleted

    foo bar baz - now to be entered as HTML foo bar baz ttfn David
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(c)David Overton 2006-23