The SMB Nation Conference...Community to the Extreme!

I spent this weekend at the SMB Nation Conference in Toronto and boy am I tired! I just spent two days completely immersed in all things IT Small Business! For those who don't know, The SMB Nation Conference is the baby of Harry Brelsford. Harry is one of the "Who's Who" of the Small Business Server community. I just wanted to say a personal thank you to Harry for bringing this event to Canada! Here's to many more years of successful Events, both in Canada and elsewhere!

I was very impressed with the quality of speakers, including Mitch Garvis, (who most of you know from his appearance at The WWITPRO Springboard Series:Vista), Calvin McLennan (who has spoken at WWITPRO on Small Business Server) and Rex Backman, Rex Backman is a member of the Microsoft Response Point team. (If you don't know what Response Point is look it up. I will be writing a post about it shortly, so stay tuned!) There were many other quality speakers, you can find all the information here! 

The real value here was the type of information that was conveyed! There was a session by Matt Makowicz on how to sell managed services that was worth the price of the conference alone! This type of session is not available anywhere else in this country, and certainly not at any of the free conferences that we all attend from time to time! There was a hands on lab for Response Point that flat out blew me away! I considered my admission price one of the smarted investments in my IT business I have made in a long time!

I must admit, for me, the best part was the sense of community that came from being in the same room with so many people with the similar interests for two days! Everyone was very approachable, from the other summit attendees, to the speakers, and especially Harry! I have a deep love for the IT community, from the Desktop level one tech support, to the Enterprise level Systems Administrator to the small business IT service provider and attending events like this provide a boost to my belief that the IT community in Canada is getting stronger every day!

Once again, thank you Harry for bring this event to us up here in the Frozen North!

Technorati Tags: SMB Nation,Small Business Server,Response Point

PHP, Microsoft And EnergizeIT 2008???

Those of you are my age, which is in my late 30's, will remember the old children's show song, "One of these things is not like the other one!" Three weeks ago, I would have been singing this tune in reference to my title and I would have been right.

I am have been writing code since the early 80s as a hobby and as a profession from 1995 till 1999. I have been fairly Microsoft centric since I purchased my first copy of QuickBasic in 1990. . Fast forward to today...I am in a new position where, for the first time I will be spending much of my time writing code, this time with a focus on Internet programming. Due to circumstances beyond my control, I had to learn PHP.

This brings me to the purpose of this post. I have been asked by Microsoft to talk about my experiences with PHP at EnergizeIT 2008...(To hear my story as to why I had to start working with PHP, you will have to come to my session!)

It seems as if Microsoft has realized that ASP and ASP.NET might not be the only language you will need to code for the web! In fact the next version of Expression Web includes support for the language. I see this as a positive development for the language. I have fallen in love with PHP's simplicity, it's ability to run on such a large percentage of the web servers currently being used on the Internet and most importantly, the PHP community!

There are good IDEs to develop PHP sites on Windows. Personally, I use PHPED from Nusphere and love it. I fully expect Visual Studio to have support for PHP in the near future!

Technorati Tags: energizeIT,php,QuickBasic

WWITPRO Presents Vista Springboard

As many of you know, I am presenting a comprehensive overview of Microsoft Vista on the 28th of this month. I will be co-presenting with Mitch Garvis. We will be covering a wide range of topics and doing a live Bit Locker Demonstration! Visit the Waterloo-Wellington IT Professionals User Group to sign up.

Passed My MCTS: Windows Vista Client Configuration

Wrote and passed my Vista exam! This was not a very difficult exam. The questions could be answered by taking the time to think through the answers. The difficult part came from the wide range of topics you could be tested on.

Next exam, 70-290! I'll let you know how this is going!

Passed 70-282 - Whoooo Hooooo

Ok, I know, I know, my last Blog post indicated that I would likely be writing the 70-620 Vista exam. I changed my mind. I have been using Small Business Server 2003 for a couple of years now and have always loved it! In fact, I feel Small Business Server 2003 is the best product Microsoft has! I have been studying for the exam for a couple of years and started thinking, why not write the exam that I have actually been studying for!

I will keep my score to myself, after all, I passed and that's all you need to know. I don't want to violate the NDA but I will give you one big tip for this exam...experience is a must. Since this exam is heavily geared to Analyzing the existing environment and designing a business technology solution for a small or medium -sized business, you will benefit from having plenty of real-world, get your hands dirty knowledge! You might be able to pass this exam without experience, but I doubt it.

I was pleasantly surprised by this! I have always avoided certifications exams because of my prior experience with "paper" certified people! I hope my recent testing experience is the norm and Microsoft has figured out how to test people on what they know and not what they can cram into their tiny, little heads. If they have, I am starting to see the value of certifications!

My next exam is 70-620...for real. This time I'm not kidding. I have my book and everything! Stay tuned and I'll let you know how this one turns out...

Book Shopping...Then and Now!

I really, really dislike big box bookstores! As my readers know, I am looking into what my next certification exam will be. I have since decided to do the Vista Configuration exam (70-620). Anyway, I went to the local big box bookstore to find a book to supplement my training and would you believe it, nothing in stock! In fact, there are four big box bookstores within a 30 minute drive from my house and none of them had anything either!!!!! GURRRRRRR!!! This is not the first time this particular chain did not have the topic in stock I wanted! It probably happens about 80% of the time. The computer book section at this particular chain is filled with books for the home user and the hobbyist! There is only a handful of shelves set aside for the technical user! The thing that makes me most angry is this chain in particular is making the old way of shopping for books obsolete. I have been in IT since 1995 and have been using computers since the Timex Sinclar 1000 hit the market in 1982. My point is this, in the 80's and 90's there was a bookstore in Waterloo called "The Computer Bookstore", it sold books on computers! A whole store geared to the hobby and profession of IT. Whenever I had need for a book, I could go there and I would be guaranteed to find multiple books on any subject I needed. I started my IT career as a developer and often had need of books on particular programming topics such as database development and serial communications. Not only did I have no trouble finding what I was looking for at the Computer Bookstore, I was able to take it home the very same day!

I must admit, I did eventually order a book from this particular big box store. I realized that IT is all about change...that doesn't mean I have to like it!

WWITPRO Project Management Presentation

Here is the link to my presentation: PM-WWITPRO.pdf!

Thank you all for your interest! Sorry it took me so long to get it up! If you have any questions about my presentation, feel free to post them as a comment and I will give you an answer as soon as I can.