Houston IT Professionals (HIP)

Post Meeting Summary

The HIP Group met in November to talk about how to tackle 2009 for the group. The first request was a request to move the meeting to the 2nd Tuesday of the Month. So the first meeting of HIP in 2009 will be the second Tuesday of January!

The next debate was where to meet! If anyone has any suggestions definitely speak up as this can be a difficult logistic. Ideally the new meeting location will have a phone and some quiet and potentially offer some ability for the sharing of food.

Other key items. The group is going to retain a similar format to the past HIP Meetings which includes industry professionals presenting on areas of expertise with a Round Table discussion to follow.  

 

Don't Forget

Tonight is the meeting of the Houston IT Professionals at Bubba's Sports Bar and Grill!

Come help kick off the after the Hurricane meetings

Next Meeting - November 25th!

Are you ready to help reenergizing the Houston IT Professionals group?

WHEN: LAST TUESDAY of the month  - November 25, 2008

Time: 6:00pm

 

WHERE:  BUBBAS SPORTS BAR & GRILL

Bubba's Sports Bar & Grill  

www.bubbassportsbarandgrill.com

6223 Washington Ave
Houston, TX 77007
(713) 861-7161

 

RSVP to MATHEW MARCINEK so he knows how many to look for!

mmarcinek@smbology.com

Work: 713-739-7774

 

TOPIC: Roundtable discussion, logistics and kicking off

 

Changes

I have moved from Houston, TX to Tampa, FL just hours before Hurricane Ike (it was definitely an interesting two day drive)

Stephen Johnson, has been empowered to be the primary leader of the HIP group and I hope that the entire initiative is not side tracked by either my leaving or Hurricane IKE. After just a few short months the mailing list of people interested in HIP has reached 100 IT Technology professionals. If you have not looked at the LinkedIN group take a peek!

I don't plan on being a stranger and if you end up visiting Tampa drop me a note or better yet come visit the Tampa Technology Peer Group. A similar group of IT pros who meet once a month to share technical knowledge.

A New Must Read from MSPU!

Eric Simpson and his team at Managed Services Partner University have done it again - Their newest book is ready for pre-orders! If you have not read Eric's books you are definitely missing out. They are easy to read, bundled and immediately useful given the templates and included CDs. 

Following in the footsteps of their last 2 books in the Managed Services Series: The Guide to a Successful Managed Services Practice, and The Best I.T. Sales & Marketing book ever!, this new publication continues the goal of documenting best practices for each and every area of a successful I.T. and Managed Service Provider's practice.

Ship date for The Best I.T. Service Delivery Book Ever! is October 6th, 2008, but if you order early there is a discount .

Pictures from the Meeting

I keep forgetting to get pictures at the meetings so this time I took out my cell phone and grabbed a couple of shots. In this first shot John Paul Cook brought up Hyper-V on his laptop and the group gravitated to the screen.

Hyper-V Meeting

The Houston IT Professionals group met on Tuesday night, under the fans and stars at a restaurant close to downtown called Open City. The topic for the night was Hyper-V and we were privledged to have two great speakers on the subject.

Nate Shea-han is a Microsoft Sr. Technology Specialist who works with Enterprise accounts on Virtualization. This includes not only all things Microsoft Hyper-V, but also many of the management tools created and releasing to support the more complex enterprise environments.   

John Paul Cook is a Microsoft MVP on Virtualization and an active community member. John Paul also spends a great deal of time with the Enterprise accounts and is a well recognized author in multiple industry specific magazines. John Paul is a specialist on Microsoft SQL 2008 and contributes to the increased technical knowledge of all through his contributions to the SQL blog and other writings.

A major thanks to both John Paul Cook and Nate Shea-han from the entire group!

Please RSVP for August

If you have not already done so please RSVP for the August 26th Meeting by sending me an e-mail

Anne Stanton - astanton2008 @ gmail.com

THANKS!

August HIP Meeting - August 26th

Come join a room of your peers for an evening of technology discussion and roundtable on virtualization. A rare appearance by Nate Shea-han, a Sr. Technology Specialist with Microsoft on MS Hyper-V solutions is included. Nate will offer a level 200 technical presentation to kick off the meeting and will be available for questions as our discussions expand.  Differences between Hyper-V and VMWARE will be open for debate. Bring your questions, experiences, field insights and open mind! Notice: HIP is meeting at a NEW LOCATION this month to accomodate a wider selection of food and drink - Come experience "Open City" with us! (see below) Sincerely, Anne Stanton Leader Houston IT Professionals and The CRMLady at www.crmlady.com

WHERE: Open City, 2416 Brazos St, Houston, TX 77006 (www.ochouston.com) WHEN: Tuesday - AUGUST 26, 2008 TIME: 6:30 - 8pm COST: 0 (food and drink available for purchase) RSVP (we want to insure enough chairs and space): astanton2008@gmail.com HIP is a peer group of  information technology professionals and consultants who make an extended effort to share information, organize study groups and overall improve the usage and depth of understanding of the Microsoft application and operating system stack.

DNS Forwarders and Root Hints

The Diva has a fairly comprehensive piece, published over the weekend, that goes over DNS forwarders and root hints in light of the recent DNS vulnerability. Which are better to use? Well, if were using root hints instead of forwarders lo these past years, you were more safe from the vulnerability!

July's Meeting Summary

Tim has a new hat (happens at Microsoft every July 1) and is commissioned with diving into Software PLUS Services. Tim is our Microsoft Sponsor and Champion for the Houston IT Professionals group. For this month it was a perfect fit for our subject for discussion is both S+S and SaaS.

We roundtable discussed all the different variables of Software plus Services, from running everything OnPremise to the mix of some OnPremise and some in the cloud, to totally ramped in the cloud.

Tim filled us in on the newest terminology in the Software PLUS services world. Finished Services (including windows Live, CRM Online, SharePoint Online and Exchange Online), Attached Services (XBox Live, windows Live OneCare, Exchange Hosted Services and Forefront) and the core Building Blocks (LiveMesh, Virtual Earth, Silverlight Streaming, SQL Server Data Services and BizTalk Services). 

Just a ton coming and what are partners suppose to do? Be Agile, Be Open and Be Diligent in ramping up, bundling and partnering!

A moment of silence

But not for Windows XP. For Windows 3.11.

- Mike

More on the Texas Private Eye Law

Network Performance Daily has published an extensive investigation (that word again) on the law that reportedly requires Texas computer professionals to acquire a Private Investigator's license. If there's a point to be had from the three-part piece, it's that the recent hoopla is mostly hoopla. Mostly.

Both the bill's initial author and the Texas Private Security Bureau clearly wrote the bill without a full understanding of what terms like "investigation" might mean to an administrator or technician. What you or I might consider "investigative work," may or may not fall under the scope of the law. The language, indeed the answers given in interviews NPD conducted, is fuzzy.

What's worse is the Institute for Justice's lawsuit is likely to fail, according to NPD.

Network Performance is very cautious in their summary to say there's some smoke/little fire, instead opting to comment that the law is sloppy and will probably not mean much to anyone until some unsuspecting technician runs afoul.

-Mike

Death and Patches

As always, there is some fallout from Patch Tuesday.

The biggest to-do has to do with ZoneAlarm and MS08-037. In essence, install that patch and ZoneAlarm stops working and your Internet go buh-bye.

Here's the fix.

- Mike Whalen

Coordinated DNS Patch and more...

So, you may have heard about the DNS patch that was rolled out yesterday (Tuesday 7/8/08). This was an effort, kept fairly hush-hush, that patched up a problem in most DNS servers which would allow a website to pose as another. This is apparently a problem with the protocol itself. Microsoft and over 81 other vendors patched yesterday. You can find most of the technical details in a CERT advisory published in a Word document here.

But *you* need to make sure you apply MS08-037 on your servers. If you simply want to check your name servers, you can run a tool here. Please note that this will use whatever nameserver you have set up in your current configuration will be tested.

--

In other patch news...

MS08-038 Vulnerability in Windows Explorer Could Allow Remote Code Execution (950582)

MS08-039 Vulnerabilities in Outlook Web Access for Exchange Server Could Allow Elevation of Privilege (953747)

MS08-040 Vulnerabilities in Microsoft SQL Server Could Allow Elevation of Privilege (941203)

Fuller details at the MSRC.

- Mike

Hold off on 948110

Apparently, there are reports of trouble...

Take my Vista, please!

Disk thrashing be darned, Microsoft wants you to know that you can move from XP to Vista with CONFIDENCE! (And, yes, the capital letters are apt.) You can have CONFIDENCE that your Vista machine is going to fit nicely into your SMB environment. CONFIDENCE that workers will see an increase in their productivity. CONFIDENCE that the new graphics will mesmerize CEOs into a catatonic state from which they may NEVER recover!

Ok, I made up the last. Still, Microsoft really wants you to buy Vista. Please? Details on what YOU get should you take the CONFIDENCE-inspired plung are here...

The Schlog
Partner Blog

- Mike Whalen

Forecast for SMB: Cloudy

More and more announcements are coming out of Houston this week. For one, MS has introduced its pricing schedule for the upcoming Microsoft Online Services. There are several tiers and, of course, pricing to go along with them. (I love the so-called "Deskless Worker Suite!" "Hey, where's my desk?" "Why, it's in the clouds!"

ReadWriteWeb is a full write-up.

TrueCrypt 6.0

If you have no fear -- and you shouldn't -- of open source products and projects, then you just might thrill to the news that TrueCrypt 6.0 is out.

TrueCrypt, for those of you who do not know, does an awful lot of things, many of which can be found in commercial packages. It can encrypt virtual disks, whole partitions, and even full drives (pre-boot). The new version includes improved multi-core performance, the ability to use a hidden operating system, and new support for Mac OS X and Linux.

- Mike

SSDs drink less milkshake? On diet?

Oh HERE WE GO!

Now Laptopmag says that SSD drives actually do offer better battery life, albeit only a small amount. Is 30 minutes more on your battery (and faster access times) worth the extra costs?

I don't know who to believe now.

via Gizmodo

- Mike