Nominations Open for 2nd SMB 150 Awards

Well interestingly I heard about this through Karl Palachuk’s newsletter and not from HarryB, you can sign up for Karl’s newsletter at karlp@greatlittlebook.com I highly recommend it to stay current with industry happenings! Here is the note Karl posted in Karl’s SMB Email – Events and News

SMB Nation Announces – Nominations Open for the SMB 150

Got a memo from HarryB at SMB Nation. Once again, they’re working with SMB Technology Network to gather nominations for the SMB 150 list.

You can make nominations right now at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/W6SXLZ2.

Harry was very clear: You can nominate yourself or anyone else you wish. All you have to do is enter their name, contact info, and a reason for the nomination in that Survey Monkey form.

In early 2012, SMB Nation and SMBTN will generate a ballot with all of the nominees.

I have asked for a complete press release on this, and I’ll post it on my blog when I get it. Stay tuned there.

Thanks to Harry and SMBTN for providing this resource!

News Flash from SBSmigration.com

In Las Vegas at opening day of SMB Nation Fall 2011 conference, Jeff Middleton, Founder of SBSmigration.com announced that Andy Goodman (aka: HandyAndy) is joining the business management team with SBSmigration.com. Andy will begin immediately as Partner Program Manager, a new organizational position, with his first order of business being to develop the resources and engagement for the global network of SBSmigration.com channel professionals. Details of the Partner Program will be released later, as the new program will include components such as new products and service options which SBSmigration.com anticipates to be introduced early in 2012.

Andy is currently very much involved in the organization of events for the SMB MVP Community Roadshow, sponsored by HP, Microsoft and SBSmigration.com. Andy’s work in assisting the community in putting together events is an element of the diverse type of work that Andy will bring to the role in organizing both the conventional and unconventional communications channels that define the marketplace that SBSmigration.com spans as a business. 

Jim Locke Remembered

Jim was a good friend and one of the pioneers of our community. I will deeply miss him and wish only the best to his family.

Jim's unforgetable smile

A lot of you have been reaching out to ask what you can do to remember Jim  in his passing. Let me share this note I received from SMBTN with that info for you.

Hi Andy,

I first want to thank you for all your involvements toward Jim Locke and the community.  This was a tragedy for all us that new Jim and especially for his family.

We have continued to receive many calls, emails, IM’s etc. from the community as they express their condolences and also ask how they can help or contribute.

We have created a single page to keep the community up-to-date.  Also within this page are 3 key items:

1. Information on Jim’s Services.  Date and location
2. A link for the ability for Jim’s friends to contribute toward his son’s (Brian) college fund
3. A link for the ability for Jim’s friends to Post on Jim’s Facebook page where the family is reading them.

I would truly appreciate your help to broadcast this link on behalf of Jim’s memory.

www.SMBTN.org/JimLocke

Thanks to each of you.

___________________________________

Dave Seibert 

SMB Technology Network, Executive Vice President

SMB Nation What Does Your Inner Geek Need

After the last SMB Nation I sat in on the town hall meeting. The overwhelming request was for more technical content.

Well here is your chance to help shape the upcoming SMB Nation Fall Conference. Harry has left 5 slots open for us to to tell him what we want to see. He has put up a SURVEY to gather our (ours and mine) input and then he will go out and find people to present just what you want top hear.

Please take 3 minutes and fill out the short survey it will help shape the conference to be just what you want!

Please pay particular attention to the last question, this is were you can have the most influence!

Microsoft All-In-One Code Framework is Free

The Microsoft All-In-One Code Framework is a free, centralized code sample library driven by developers’ needs. The goal of the All-In-One Code Framework is to provide typical code samples for all Microsoft development technologies, and reduce developers’ efforts in solving typical programming tasks.

The Microsoft teams listens to developers’ pains in the MSDN forums, social media and various developer communities. They write code samples based on developers’ frequently asked programming tasks, and allow developers to download them with a short code sample publishing cycle. Additionally, their teams offers a free code sample request service. This service is a proactive way for our developer community to obtain code samples for certain programming tasks directly from Microsoft.

 For more information on the Microsoft All-In-One Code Framework, visit their YouTube channel or download at http://1code.codeplex.com/.

A Fine Day for Installing Exchange 2007 Rollup 4

A few days ago Microsoft released Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 3 Roll-up 4 and after kicking it’s tires on in my test lab, I decided today was a good day to roll it out. Thought you might like to come along on the journey.

First because it is a very good practice, reboot the server before you start any updating, it is always a great idea to start from a clean known state.

Next since there is apparently no way to tell if the Schema Update has actually been run from SP3 (remember all the trouble this caused) I thought it would be prudent to just run it again. It is a pretty simple process and won’t hurt anything if run again . Just grab a copy of Exchange 2007 SP3 and from an Administrative Command Box expand it out and run the command ”Setup.com /PrepareSchema” this is what it will look like.

Once that finishes you can go ahead and run the roll-up without rebooting again. Grab a copy of 

Update Rollup 4 for Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 3 (KB2509911)

  I had some trouble getting it to run correctly from an explorer window, so I went out to an administrative command prompt (I probably could have used an administrative explorer window also but did not try) 

Start RU4 Update

 Now the familiar GUI will start up with the proper permissions, so it does not bomb out in the middle of the process and roll back. 

The first few screens are the regular click next exercise

This next phase may take quite a while be patient

Still with me?

Several minutes that’s for sure

Now things are looking up, we are stopping the services so we can get busy

It is making sure we have a solid foundation to build on

Copying looks like it is quick, don’t be fooled

Ya I know the bar is all the way across, but it will start up a few more times

Now it will rebuild the files with the updates

It starts up the services, if everything went right

Removing backup files is usually a very good sign

How I do like a positive outcome, I have done this on a number of systems yesterday and today
and they took anywhere from 45 minutes to 2 hours, give yourself plenty of time

Yes you do have to do a final reboot, the server is not in a stable state until you do!

Hope your day and your roll-up goes smoothly!

SMB MVP Community Roadshow Triad Stop

I am excited to announce that the International SMB MVP Community Roadshow will be making a stop at my IT Pro Group “The Triad SBS Group” on August 2^nd. This is a different kind of IT event although it is sponsored by HP & Microsoft the content is totally under control of the MVP’s and SBSmigration.com who is producing the entire tour as an offshoot of their annual conference.

The content is focused on the new SMB Stack from Microsoft, but is not a bunch of marketing PowerPoint’s, it is real world content built by a team of MVP’s, presented by a rotating team of MVP’s and demo’d on current shipping HP hardware. These are all real world current solutions you can deploy today, all focused on the SMB segment. The actual presenters have the ability to adjust the presentation to the local audience at their discretion. It looks to be a great event spanning almost a year to cover some 90 cities internationally; the first wave is about 6 months and should cover some 60 cities. I look forward to attending a few of the events as the content will be a little different at each one.

You can get more info about the tour HERE and you can follow the tour by liking their Facebook Page. You can also follow the chatter on Twitter.

You can check to see if there has been a tour stop setup yet in your local area by checking HERE and if you are anywhere near the Triad Area and want to attend our event you can register HERE.

Oh Ya, there is a little gnome traveling around with the tour and you can friend him HERE to see pics and updates from local events as he travels the world.

Note: for Group Leaders, you can request a tour stop in your area HERE

Clever attempt to infect diligent tax payers

A few days ago (June 15th) was the deadline for estimated tax payments in the US.
In this mornings e-mail is see this note supposedly from the the IRS

Fortunately I had had a few cups of coffee already and did not panic but looked at the name of the report and saw it was an executable, and when hovering the mouse over the link for the report saw it did not point to anywhere at irs.gov but some other strange address at dot info.

And then just because I was curious about it I looked at the internet header and could clearly see it came from some kid at a school, probably bored in class and looking to cause some mischief.

So please as always be diligent with your e-mail and think before just clicking, all the anti-spam and anti-virus software in the world cannot over power the control your clicker finger has to allow bad things into your computer.

Please note this is not how the IRS will contact you if for some reason your payment bounces or is rejected for any reason. You will get a note in the US Postal Mail.

TechStravaganza 2011

TechStravaganza 2011

Yes that’s right happening again after a great sucess last year is TechStravaganza in Atlanta. If you are anywhere in the SouthEast Region try and make it. Mark Minasi is doing the keynote this year and the event is still FREE, so I don’t want to hear it’s not in the budget :>) More details and to register CLICK HERE

New WMS 2011 Update Released today

Update released today for Windows Multipoint Server 2011 to solve new client not displaying in the console. You can grab it at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=5a15038f-0aff-43e6-a6dd-4c22dcdc8ed3