One nice thing about TechEd, the contents are generally recorded and made available for download. This year, there's a cool PowerShell script to help you. Find out more about the idea over on the Windows IT Pro site, and go to the TechNet gallery to download the script.
Back in February I got a challenge by Microsoft UK to help to drive up clicks on some Microsoft Sites. One of the prizes in the challenge was a free pass to TechEd, assuming I got enough clicks. Well, I’m happy to say that thanks to all you nice folks (and your friends, etc.), I WON THE PASS! A lot of you clicked a whole heck of a lot!!
So in just over a week, I’ll be heading down to Madrid. I’m going to attend the MCT Day Zero, where I’m running session on PowerShell. Then a day off, Monday, where I’ll probably just do some sightseeing followed by 4 days of hard core TechEd. I’m particularly keen to see all the new features coming in Windows 2012 R2. And of course hang out with a bunch of people!
See you there!
I’m back in the UK after a week of TechEd 2011 in Atlanta (USA). I’d been quite ill before TechEd so just getting there was some effort – but well worth it! I spent most of my time on the PowerShell product booth in the Expo hall. It was quite a privilege both to hang out with members of the product team and meeting customers who both were using PowerShell and those who were just getting into it.
Overall, TechEd for me was pretty low key. There was virtually no sex appeal (and an amusingly failed demo during the keynote). But I suppose that that is not too surprising as we’re in that quiet interim between major OS and Office waves. The Wave 14 stuff (Win7+Office 2010 et al) have all shipped and are slowly being deployed (and was the focus of TechEd by and large). But there’s still an awful lot of XP out there now wondering if they should wait for Windows 8. Sadly, thanks to the ‘Cone of Silence’ being imposed within Microsoft, details of wave 15 are very thin on the ground. Heck, last week, some folks had to keep saying “Windows V-next” (i.e. couldn’t even say “Windows 8”).
But much like super-injunctions, the word eventually will eventually get out – so at last we can talk about both there being a Windows 8 and it coming in 2012, which means we can begin formally to speculate on a PowerShell V3 (assuming there is going to be one, etc., etc.).
It would have been nice to have had the Windows 8 announcement, as well as the news of 500 new features in the next edition of Windows Phone at TechEd, rather than a more obscure Japanese developer’s conference. There sure were a lot of big companies at TechEd getting very little forward information – and that was a huge disappointment for them and me. MS’s spin doctors need to remember who their friends are and open the kimono a bit.
From the PowerShell perspective, the types of questions being asked on the stand differ from the last couple of years. I guess it was to be expected, but I got a lot of really great, depth questions – how to actually do clever stuff with PowerShell. It showed that for many, PowerShell is now a given and they are starting to leverage it. I even got a really good bug reported during the week – and that’s kind of cool (although I still need to file it) as it shows that people are pushing the product.
Having the chance to chat at some length with PowerShell team members is also very useful. First, it reinforces just how smart these guys are but second, it helps to communicate community concerns back to the folks best equipped to resolve them. That alone makes it worth coming to TechEd!
There were still a large number of PowerShell newbies, and those who kind of understand what it’s all about, but are not comfortable using it (yet). The folks I talked too walked away really understanding more (even if what they found is a bug in PowerShell!) and I hope just a little more excited about the product.
It was also great that the PowerShell team kindly gave me two minutes during a couple of breakout session talks to say a few words about PowerShell and it’s rich and diverse community. It was great to be able to evangelise the great folks out there who live and breathe this stuff – I just love sharing their passions and skills.
As ever, the social and networking side of TechEd was awesome. It was a great chance to meet up with old friends, and make some new ones. The PowerShell geek dinner, always a highlight for me of TechEd, was especially good this year with a lot more fellow PowerShell-aholics! The MCT community was very much in evidence too – it was great to meet so many old-time MCTs and meet so many new ones. The MVP community, on the other hand, seemed muted – not sure there was even an MVP event this year! The Attendee party was cool – I really enjoyed seeing the Whale Sharks. The Atlanta aquarium is a pretty impressive place. Oh – and the food (well the food I ate) was good – excellent.
All in all, it was a good week – I’m glad I went and am looking forward to next year!
Every year, like many of you, I submit proposals for TechEd. In recent years, they’ve been less than successful – the competition is very fierce and there is so much great content to choose from. I almost have to feel sorry for the Microsoft folks having to wade through hundreds of proposals.
This year, I submitted three talks, two around PowerShell and one around OCS. To my great surprise and delight, one has thus far been accepted! YEAH
The accepted break out sessions, part of the Unified Communications track, is entitled “SIP - Naked In All Its Glory”. The abstract for the talk is:
This session will look at the key protocols behind Microsoft's OCS product, in particular Session Initiaion Protocol as well as Real Time Transfer Protocol (RTP) and Session Description Protocol. A short discussion on TCP, TLS, and PSOM will also be given. The talk will focus on looking at the SIP and related protocols "on the wire". We'll dive in to using NetMon as well as OCS's Snooper tool. Troubleshooting SIP will be the final part of this talk.
I’m still waiting on the other two talk proposals. The other proposed talks are PowerShell related and are titled: “PowerShell and WMI”, and “Writing Production Quality Power Shell Scripts with PowerShell V2 and Windows Serer 2008 R2”. I await the verdict on those two talks, but would like to think that at least one will get accepted
Irrespective of the PowerShell talks, I’m really excited that I’ll be a speaker again. LA, here I come!
So here I am – in Barcelona at TechEd EMEA. I’ve enjoyed a great dinner with all the PowerShell folks and we’re walking up to a bar on the Ramblas. A chap hands me a card for a bar and suddenly does a knee dance – moving me around and making me off balance. He finished and I start to walk away and I discover my wallet is gone. The police here are a tad unhelpful – pointing me to a phone with free phone number. Amex and Master Card eventually deal but it took a long time.
Thank heavens for good friends: Dmitry from Quest went to the police with me, lent me enough cash to get to the airport, and paid for the cab home. Times like this – you know who your friends really are. Thanks to Dmitry.
Being at a PowerShell dinner with friends that matter: priceless, Being in Barcelona – it sucks.
Here’s the key points I pulled from today’s keynote at TechEd. I’ll post this as we go, with updates later!
Summary
The keynote did not have much really stunning news – most of the ‘announcements’ were well trailed and had been largely already announced. I was very dissapointed with no mention of PowerShell V2 (or announcing it’s availability!) and no mention at all of OCS 2007 R2. But hey – it’s great to see MS getting into recycling (and now recycling news).
General Stuff
Virtulisation
Green IT
Server 2008 R2
SQL Server
Security
Services (aka The Cloud)
I attended a panel session on Virtulisation - a panel discussion with Mike Neil (MS), Simon Husby (Citrix), Larry LeSueur (MS), BIll Corgan (MS).
Server virtulisation is something that's getting lots of attention - many good reasons for dong it. But Server virtulisation is only in it's infancy, and is only a part of the overall Virtulisation story. This includes presentation virtulisation (e.g. terminal server/citrix), and application virtulisation (eg SoftGrid). MS said that they've sold 3m seats of SoftGrid in past 2 quarters!
Simon made the point is that the virtulisation market is still fairly new. He also noted the importance of supporting Linux in terms of virtulisation - and management is important. He went on to discuss the integration of Xen and Citrix - and re-itereated Citrix's support of the Windows platform ("We have no OS agenda"). Interoperability continues to be a key aspect of their products.
Regarding desktop virtulisation - there are three aspects:
Mike spoke about desktop (VPC) virtulisation. He said that MS sill value VPC. I raised the issue of missing feature (e.g multiple CPUs, USB support, 64-bit support). These are very important to us. Mike acknowledged the concerns but made no commitment to providing those missing features.
Mike also discussed Hyper-V vs VMware. He talked about the benefits of open APIs, a large partner ecosystem along with the management tools. With VMware, the panel suggested, you are left with VMware and little else - there is not any sort of robust eco-system. MS, on the other hand, has a richer partner model. Simon suggested that the introduction of choice (i.e. Hyper-V) will help the market mature. Larry pointed out the importance of good management tools (i.e. System Center).
Today is the first day of TechEd-IT Form and as usual,there's a keynote. And as usual, there were loads of demos (most worked). And in a change form last year, the session finished on time!
Microsoft used the keynote to make a number of key product announcements. These include:
Windows Server 2008
System Center
SQL
Vista
PowerShell
IIS6
Centro
Community Efforts
I'm here in nearly Sunny Barcelona for TechEd-IT Forum, Microsoft's travelling technology show. I find TechEd a great time to sit back, relax and take stock of things. This is a chance to reflect on what's new and exciting and look forward to see how these technologies might unfold over the coming year(s). In the days of being a freelancer, I also used TechEd to work out what would keep me in work for the coming year.
Unlike in previous years, the Keynote is not until 14:00 on the first day. I suppose this gives folks a chance to get here from the rest of Europe and avoid the Sunday night stay, but it means not much is happening thus far. The press office is unusually quiet!
This year's keynote is being delivered by Bob Kelly, a Corporate Vice President in charge of Infrastructure Server Marketing. I've not heard him speak or seen his speech yet, but with a title like that, I suspect the talk will concentrate on Server 2008. I sure hope he keeps the talk marginally marketing free and concentrates on the IT Pro's view of the product. I also really hope he starts, and finishes on time! I'll report back after the session.
Unlike in previous years, the Keynote is not until 14:00 on the first day. I suppose this gives folks a chance to get here from the rest of Europe and avoid the Sunday night stay, but it means not much is happening thus far.
Being quoted on TechEd Bloggers home page is not quite like getting Slash-dotted, but still fun. The bit cited on the TechEd Bloggers site is not quite the full story. The build is pretty stable, and works reasonably well - this bodes well. As a consumer OS, it'll sell well (if only because any OEM version of Windows sells well). It looks pretty too.
The bit of my earlier post cited by the TechEd Bloggers site related to the "move things around because we can" problem. Here are just two examples. First, in XP, you could right click the desktop background, select properties to open up the desktop properties. There was a single tabbed dialog box with all the options. But in Vista this is all changed. Your right click on the desktop brings up a Personalise (SIC) option. This is a menu listing the individual tabs in XP's dialog box and a bit more. Clicking some of those just brings up a (single tabbed!!!) dialog box which looks much like one tab in XPs's dialog. Clicking others brings up new windows. All very confusing and to me just adds more complexity to the process. At a very minimum lose the tab in the XP-cloned dialogs. A singe dialog needs both a window title and a tab why? Oh - and by the way, the window title and tab title are not really consistent in terms of what they display anyway!
The second example is the Desktop icons. In Win2k, the default desktop had a bunch of icons (the computer, IE, etc) in a particular order. In XP this changed to nothing being displayed, but you could change to a default order by clicking down into desktop properties. In Vista, this is done a different way, and the default order displayed are different. I like the ability to display the control panel - but why did the order have to change?
Compatibility is not quite there, but that's to be expected. I'm certain this is going to get better as Vista drives towards release. Also, the UI has butchered my beloved Turnpike. Turnpike looks so awful under Vista, I'm actually considering finding a new mail and news client. After using the product for something like 10 years, I'm reluctant. I'd really like a "compatibility mode for shell extensions that looked cool in XP" feature.
Another thing that jumps out is how much bigger Vista is than XP. Vista now comes on a DVD, roughly 6 times the size XP, if I have my maths right. The Windows folder alone is just a tad under 7GB! And after a day's running, the background memory usage is 1.3GB. I'm struggling to understand this apparant bloat. While there is some really great eye-candy and the stabilty is good, Vista is going to represent a wholesale replacement of my home network. While it all works fine under XP and Win2k3, several of my machines are just too long in the tooth for Vista. I suspect this may be true of many corporate clients.
But the thing that bugs me the most is UAP. This can not have passed the Jim Alchin's Mom test, and gets me angry every time it kicks in. Trying to delete windows.old (the folder the 5365 installer created from the previous build of vista on this box) has taken hours to complete. The combination of permissions, and the need to ask for admin priveleges drives me nuts. The think that makes least sense is that Vista doesn't make me enter admin credentials, just to click twice - with a couple of 2-3 second pauses in between. Now what is the point in that?? I really hope Vista RTM will have an easy way to turn this stuff off!!
After the drummers, the room went dark, and the next speaker came onstage and started to give his talk. He said he did not care if there were lights on - because he was blind. He first threw away his mouse (what value is a mouse to someone who is blind?)then gave a short demo of a screen reader and braille bar. When you see both MS software and the web, through the 'eyes' of a blind person, it makes you realise just how much visual appeal there is. And how useless it is to the blind. It was a short, but effective reminder that the development community does need to remember all the user community, not just the sighted. The rest of the keynote was interesting and animated, but these two things did rather stand out.
CHT038 Microsoft and Open Source
Tue, Jun 29 14:45 - 16:00 Room: S
Thomas Lee , Steven Adler , Bradley Tipp
Many customers have questions about Microsoft�s view of Open Source and its ability to coexist and interoperate in a Microsoft environment. The session aims to answer your questions about Open Source and provide information and guidance on Microsoft�s position on Open Source.
This session will be repeated a total of 4 times during TechEd.
The format of this will be to get the audience to post the questions - what do YOU want to know today - and for Brad and Steven to put forward the Microsoft view of things, with me keeping score, providing a more independant view, and trying to keep the conversation on topic and flowing. If you have any specific questions you'd like to ask, or have asked, then post to me - either by email, or via a comment on this blog.
We've done these sessions in the past (at TechEd Barcelona and at IT Forum) and they were a lot of fun. Hope to see you there!
On mondy, 3 of my QA colleagues Olga Londer, Dave Wheler and Andy Thomson and I will give a pre-conference session entiitled .NET for IT Professionals .
During the week, I'll be working with Steven Adler and Bradley Tipp to discuss Microsoft and Open Source. We're giving this sessin 4 times during the conference, so please come along!
Finally, I'm going to be leading two Birds of a Feather sessions, one late on Wednesday and the other early Thursday morning. These sessions are titled "MSF and MOF - What's In It For Me?" and should be lively.
But TechEd was a heck of a lot of fun. I met a bunch of really smart people, and was able to combine a bit of business with a bit of pleasure. The RD group was invited out to the Restaurant Barcelonetta. It's in the marina, and we had a table open to the water. It was a fantastic view, and the food was excellent. I recommend it!
One of my highlights of Teched was our MS and Open Source talk. It was very interesting and it certainly was very topical. As soon as I get permission, I'll blog the comments we got.
I also spent time on the Ask the Experts stand - answering questions on Windows 2000/3 and Active Dierctory, plus fielding questions about Virtual Server. It was fun - and interesting to hear real customer feedback.
