Karl, Invites a nice thought topic…Picking you partners…View article...

Review and discuss amongst yourselves.

Me? Well, I face this all the time. Having been exposed as a sys admin to the other side, *nix, I am quite well aware of what's out there. I keep up with Novell, Sun, IBM, Red Hat, etc. Microsoft keeps itself relavant. How and why, I don't care about that. I know my customers are on it. Those that get to the onramp via Apple, or Linux or BSD, good for them, I'll work with them, but when it comes right down to it, Microsoft is the 800 Pound Gorilla. Are they the only game in town? No, are they always the best game in town, your mileage may vary. Level 2 Technology Consulting is a Microsoft Shop. Where another solution fits, OK, we're open, but our Microsoft Partnership could not be stronger. They listen; they work with us, and for us. Likewise we listen; we work with them, and for them. It keeps the lights on and gas in the cars. As long as they continue to be relevant, we'll continue to work with them.

Got registered for the exam 71-653 TS: Windows Small Business Server 2008, Configuring…

I guess I better hit the documentation. I have not loaded up even a beta copy since one of the VERY EARLY releases…we'll see how I do. From here, I think I have a pretty good handle on it, but want to cram the documentation into my brain!!!

The Console interface looks an aweful lot like WHS…imagine that!

Feed: MSNBC.com: Top MSNBC Headlines
Posted on: Thursday, August 21, 2008 2:43 PM
Author: MSNBC.com: Top MSNBC Headlines
Subject: Microsoft enlists Seinfeld for ad campaign

View article...

It's about darn time Microsoft stand up for itself!

Ever been away but needed to work with ResponsePoint Administrator remotely.

With the Windows Home Server and the Advanced Administration Add-in this is simple to do. I added a shortcut to the advanced admin tab to launch the RP Administrator and viola there it is…

As WHS is built atop SBS 2003 it makes more and more sense. And given it's out-of-the-box functionality, both WHS and RP make big sense for the home of the future… I setup the RP extensions to ring our cells directly. This makes sense, as if someone is actually calling us, they want to speak to us, and if it's an automaton, then well our automaton will screen it for us. In the future we may add desk phones or wall phones or cordless phones. But to get this thing started, it's simple and easy. No extra voice mail extensions, nothing like that…

So here's what I see in the near future for advanced families and homes…In a connected closet…fiber/DSL/Cable, patch panel, firewall, switch and Wireless Access Point, Windows Vista Media Center, Windows Home Server, TV Converter box and distribution panel, Home Automation Control. In each room, xbox and flat panel, telecom.

Zunes/iPods, Windows Mobile Smart Phones / iPhones on each person…

Next is to tackle the Automobile. Currently, Microsoft is partnered up with Ford for some distribution, but I am thinking about tackling this in the near future. Add a simple PC with a Cellular uplink into the trunk, and add displays in the dash, the headrests, and more. Tie the whole thing together with software. You could upload your music/content over the internet to your car or WLAN while in the garage or via USB and away you go. Add-in a GPS/nav link, Live Search add-ins, voice recognition and text to voice for reading inbound email, work content, your kids paper, or whatever.

This is VERY cool stuff. And as I said to a partner, add-in auto-dimming of sound when a siren is approaching and/or a heads up display to PULL OVER. Likewise when change in speed limit or approaching a School Zone or Construction Zone…

This could go in so many directions, and really, actually help us in our daily lives, rather than make it more complicated or difficult.

What's your idea of the future technology?

http://www.vladville.com/2008/08/drm-because-someone-has-to-pay-for-it.html

from the comments…

This is about more than some slick recording industry execs trying to make another buck…

This is about defending Intellectual Property. Some people use their Intellectual property to build widgets. Some people become Doctors. Some people create art or software or music or…whatever. It's pretty simple the person who creates has the right to sell the product of their intellectual property, lawyers do so by the hour, mechanics by the job, the people who run the Doggie Hotel by the night…The person creating the IP also has the right to give away or sell the right to resell or re-give away the fruits of the original labor.

In the case of the musician and the record label. Record label may pay up front large sums of money for the rights to resell said musician's music for a given period or even eternity. And based on a contract they can control the distribution and consumption of the music. When I buy Music, I do not own Music, I buy the right to consume music. When I buy software, I buy the right to use the software. When I by a TV I buy the right to consume a TV feed. When you pay +/- $10 for a movie ticket, you do not buy the movie, you buy the right to consume the fruits of someone else's labors…

As a consumer, it sucks, wanting something, but not being able to have it. So people being who they are, naturally tending toward sin, we have come up with ways around these rules…We RIP the CD onto our iPod or rip a DVD onto our Media Server, and in the best of times, it is for our re-consumption, but…there are people who recognize that if it costs $15 for a DVD, and a couple hundred to get a computer that can functionally copy the DVD and maybe a little more $ to bust the copyright protection, they can turn that $15 investment into cold hard cash, again and again and again. Pretty soon that minor investment for 'personal use' becomes a lucrative endeavor, and now they can redistribute content that they don't own, don't have the right to redistribute and make large piles of dough in the process.

Yes, that's a bit extreme, and the number of people who actually do it are very small compared to the people who follow the rules…BUT the fact is they don't OWN the right to do this, somebody else does. So, back to the Olympics and the right to distribute that content, Vlad addresses that pretty wholly. Does it suck that Microsoft did not 'include' the disenfranchised in their distribution model? Perhaps, but they paid for the right to distribute it. Welcome to the free-market. The Government could act a s a watch dog to protect the rights of the disenfranchised, but..well the American Public has spoken repeatedly, that they want less government oversight…something about a Nanny-state or something? And lest you think it's a function of America…The Olympic Committee made the agreement with Microsoft to distribute the content over the net. I believe the Olympics is run by a Corporate entity, whose purpose is to promote sport. They sold the right to distribute to Microsoft, not to the US Government, or the Government of India or the Government of the Intertubes. They have a contract with Microsoft, for which they got bucket loads of money. If the Olympics wanted to protect the rights of the disenfranchised Net population, they should have gone elsewhere, or written such language into the contract. It would appear that they chose not to do that. They took the wheelbarrows full of coin and said thank you, and have a nice day.