Category Microsoft

I was talking with a friend of mine tonight asking him what he used to do his blog writing, and he said he used the WordPress editor.  I was shocked, awed, even amazed.

He is a perfect candidate for using LiveWriter, if not for the simple reason that you can put words NEXT to text without having to do all forms of magic to get it done.

There is however one amazing feature of LiveWriter which not enough people realize.

If you go into the Help, you’ll find the Writer Team Blog!

That simple little action lead me to find (because I wondered if there was an update) That indeed there is an update! The RC for LiveWriter 2009 is out! I didn’t even know it was coming!

What’s new in 2009?

Well, you can go to the Writer Blog and find out more like here or here.

But I’ll cover a few of the things which I find particularly amazing and I think you’ll agree!

Oh my god! Word Count! What a simple yet elegant function! And here it is!

(These number of words are ofcourse, up until this point!)

That’s also Sweet! (found in options!)

Some of the new plug-ins seem pretty sweet!

FLICKR UPLOAD
Uploads an image to your Flickr account and inserts an inline picture into your post.

DIGG THIS
Automatically adds a DiggThis badge to your blog post after you publish it from Writer.

TWITTER NOTIFY
Automatically generates a TinyURL and sends a Tweet about your blog post after you publish it from Writer.

Speaking of images! (Like that one above) Your image manipulation options have gone through the roof!

Check out our ability to do text wrapping! Though a major pet peeve of mine is when I click “next” to an image after selecting Left, it keeps bringing me to the top! (hint hint) It’d really be nice for it to select the area next to the text so I can start typing there!

With the introduction of Center, it guarantees our place with the position of the text after an image.  It’d be nice to have some kind of universal everything I post should default to ‘x’ though I’ve yet to find these defaults/options to manage.

Check out those borders baby! Wow that is a lot of options to choose from and I’m not complaining!

Infact, I opt’d to give “reflection” a try here, looks pretty sweet!

But nothing can really compete with… a Watermark embedded into your image?!

You can manipulate the text, the font type and size, and especially the position.  Seriously, Wow, this is cool!

Let me say this again.  This is really cool!

Oh, did I mention how fricking cool TILT is?!

Some of the new Photo Album and other settings will be pretty sweet, but managing text, writing it, manipulating images and getting content into some usable fashion are my major deals with this as are a majority of folks I know who use LiveWriter.  Everything else is just CAKE!   I suggest you go out there and download this RC now! Get it out there, because is this pretty sweet, and will continue to be sweet!

Windows Live Writer 2009 (Release Candidate)
Version 14.0.8050.1202

Go, get your Live on!

Every so often I get asked by people for help improving their skills, making them more marketable as well as ways to get access to training and resources.

And more often than not, I lead them in directions with the huge cost of $0.00 associated with it.    Whether you’re looking for Certification, access to Labs, E-Books, or Training information.

I’m a BIG fan of Free!

So, can you afford freE-Learning?

Thanks to our friends at Microsoft, here is another resource available to you!

By visiting this lovely site, it will display all of the available courses being offered by Microsoft Learning for Free!

What relevant topics are available on there at the moment:

1. SQL 2008
2. Application Virtualization
3. Terminal Services in Server 2008
4. Virtual Machine Manager for 2008
5. Hyper-V
6. ASP.NET
7. .NET Framework
8. Windows Security
9. Microsoft Security Guidance I-IV

…And more!

Seriously, there is a motherload of information here, so much training to wrap your teeth into!

If you saw my previous post about the voucher to get the Hyper-V training for free, this training is very complimentary to that and more! (Especially since that voucher seems to be faulty at the moment)

So get out there, get yourself something Free for this season.  It’s your education, do something about it!

For those of you who have not seen this newly released Out of Band Critical Security Update, you should check out MS08-078 What does this mean exactly? Here is Microsoft’s Take:

Executive Summary

This security update resolves a publicly disclosed vulnerability. The vulnerability could allow remote code execution if a user views a specially crafted Web page using Internet Explorer. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights.

This security update is rated Critical for Internet Explorer 5.01, Internet Explorer 6, Internet Explorer 6 Service Pack 1, and Internet Explorer 7. For information about Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2, please see the section, Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) Related to This Security Update. For more information, see the subsection, Affected and Non-Affected Software, in this section.

The security update addresses the vulnerability by modifying the way Internet Explorer validates data binding parameters and handles the error resulting in the exploitable condition. For more information about the vulnerability, see the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) subsection under the next section, Vulnerability Information.

This security update also addresses the vulnerability first described in Microsoft Security Advisory 961051.

Recommendation. Microsoft recommends that customers apply the update immediately.

What does this really mean?

Update any and all machines which have Internet Explorer installed on them, in order to prevent the Remote Code Execution attacks from being successful against your machines.

Just because you don’t use IE does not limit your vulnerability, so DO Upgrade!

This applies to all versions of windows (2000, XP, Vista, 2003, 2008) So get that update!

Thanks Kurt Shintaku for the heads up!

Code should be valid now!

Also be sure to check out – Microsoft Learning Free stuff! How much does Free Microsoft Learning Cost? (Hint: Free!)

TRAINING: FREE Microsoft Virtualization Courses – “Configuring Hyper-V in Windows Server 2008”

Are you interested in learning Microsoft’s Virtualization technologies… for free?

Prepare for Exam 70-652 for Free (US$159.99 value)
This collection of five 2-hour online courses helps you develop the skills necessary for implementing and managing Hyper-V in an IT environment, as well as, creating and managing virtual machines and hosts in a virtual environment.

The courses within the collection include the following topics:

• An overview of the Hyper-V technology
• Creating a virtual environment
• Deploying systems in a virtual environment
• Configuring high availability in a virtual environment
• Administering a virtual environment with SCVMM

This collection helps you prepare for exam 70-652 TS: Windows Server Virtualization, Configuring
This collection requires that students meet the following prerequisites:

• At least a year and a half of experience working in Windows Server 2003 or Windows Server 2008 environments as system administrators
• Familiarity with virtualization products and technologies

The package includes all the content from the following 5 online virtualization training courses:

• Course 6320: Introducing the Hyper-V Technology
• Course 6321: Configuring a Virtual Environment
• Course 6322: Deploying Systems in a Virtual Environment
• Course 6323: Optimizing a Virtual Environment
• Course 6324: Managing a Virtual Environment by using SCVMM

How to register for free:

1. Go to the following site:
   Collection 6319: Configuring Hyper-V in Windows Server 2008
   http://co1piltwb.partners.extranet.microsoft.com/mcoeredir/mcoeredirect.aspx?linkId=11062521&s1=3b30899e-0181-e332-5c10-46f4e257ae4a
2. Register using the following promo code:
   9350-Y2W6-3676
3. The course may be revisited for a period of 18 months after registration.

Well, Better late than never (Lots of traffic, didn’t get home until really late last night!)

It’s been two months since we’ve met for an in person meeting.  The Chicago office work continues and we’ll provide more information on our February return to downtown Chicago after the new year.  To wrap up 2008, our final in person event is happening this Wednesday evening in Downers Grove.  Come out and get your first glimpse of Windows 7 as well as many other great technologies.

DATE:  WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 17TH

TIME:  5:00 – 9:00 PM

WHERE:  IN PERSON! – MICROSOFT OFFICE, DOWNERS GROVE

SIGN UP:  http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032398171&Culture=en-US

First 50 registered attendees that attend the meeting will receive a Microsoft Press Book!  Don’t miss out!

AGENDA: 

5:00 – 5:30 DINNER

5:30 – 6:00 ROOM INTRODUCTIONS

6:00 – 6:15 MEETING BEGINS

6:15 – 7:30 SPRINGBOARD IT PRO SERIES PRESENTATION

6:15 – 8:30 HOME TECHNOLOGY TRENDS/CONFIGURATIONS TRACK

7:30 – 7:45 BREAK

7:45 – 8:30 HOLIDAY GADGETS

8:30 – 9:00 WRAP UP

“Springboard IT Pro Series Topic:  Advancing desktop management – Windows Vista and the Road to Windows 7”

Our speaker this month is Microsoft’s Stephen Rose.  Stephen joined Celine Allee’s Springboard team in Redmond and is a former MVP – he was on the last Springboard Series Virtual Round Table on Performance.

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CWUG Portal:  http://portal.cwug.net

The CWUG Crew