Conference call covering Shockey Monkey tomorrow (Thursday, 5/17), just in case it missed some of you on the official mailing list.

Dear Shocked Monkeys,

We’ll be holding our usual conference call tomorrow night at 7 PM EST (thats roughly midnight London, 9 AM Sydney, 4 PM Los Angeles, etc); The purpose of this call is to discuss the Shockey Monkey feature set and evaluate what needs to be bumped up on the priority list. The roadmap is now published at www.shockeymonkey.com but since so many of you are using Shockey Monkey in production already I am willing to be respectful of that and prioritize development on things that are really painful right now instead of 6 months from now. The benefit of a rapidly deployable infrastructure

The dialin numbers for this conference call are:

The conference will be recorded and available as an MP3 on our portal later this weekend. Please keep the phone numbers in confidence, Shockey Monkey is seriously denting the competitions sales in our sector and little birdie told me today that I’m starting to piss them off so please keep the details under wraps for now.

–
-Vlad

When my partners buy virtual servers I rarely ask what they are for. Not only is it none of my business but I am sometimes afraid of the answers. Because virtual SBS servers are so damn affordable (thing just a small multiple of what you’re paying for web hosting) people use them for all sorts of experiments, promotions, demos, proof of concept and generally any other go-to-market campaign.

But earlier tonight Dave Sobel from EvolveTech was pinging me about some Exchange issues so I finally broke down and asked – what is Dave up to?

Turns out, something very, very cool. Talk about a creative way of offering your solutions! I guess thats why Dave was a runner up for a SBSC Marketing Partner of the Year award in 2006.

And why did Dave pick OWN for a virtual SBS box that he’ll get rid of in less than two weeks? Because I’m such a nice guy? Nope, because he got a fully functional and licensed SBS box on the net, completely patched and configured with all the bells and whistles and his time investment – 0 hours. 

Talked with my contact at T-Mobile today and they told me that a new T-Mobile Wing (HTC Atlas) will be on it’s way to me next week, it gets released on Tuesday! Full review over at mymobile911.com

Looks pretty nice. Unfortunately, same old slow processor as T-Mobile MDA but from all the reviews so far it appears to have much better look/feel to it as well as a 2 Mpix camera and comes loaded with Windows Mobile 6. Here are further specs:

Specifications
CPU: OMAP850
RAM Size: 64MB
Flash Size: 128MB
Databus: 16bits
Storage Size: 41.42MB
Display resolution: 240×320
Colors: 65k
Audio/Data Connector: HTC (Enhanced 11pin USB)
Battery Capacity: 1130mAh

Thanks T-Mobile!

My buddy Karl has been through a lot with SBS support over the years. He writes that the death of SBS will come from the lack of support.

The last year of Microsoft patch QA has been painful, for a lot of us that are in charge of supporting it. It’s hard to talk to an IT partner and have them say that their “SBS has been rock solid since we turned off Windows Update stuff.” You hear the same from the customers still using Windows NT4, Windows 2000 and so on – It just works. And it works great if you turn your blind eye to the fact that you’re exposing yourself and your customers to the Internet at large but those are just details I suppose.

SBS support for us has been fairly good but I’d be lying to you if I said that we think we can support it in the future. If I ever get a callback/email from Greg Boyd, Rene Alamo or Jessica Emmons my organization will be going to the Premier Support with Microsoft for the SBS product because the complexity is clearly way over our head.

What Karl is coming to realize, as I’ve written in my “I’m no longer an SBSer” blog post, is that sometimes the cost of complexity with SBS cannot be justified for a small business that has complex requirements. I’m not suggesting that SBS is not the best platform for small business at all, I’m just saying that if you don’t have the expertise, standardization and “all Microsoft apps” in your deck you’re going to have a lot more pain managing it than a standalone server. And please don’t troll about virtualization, you’re not getting E12 to work in a VM reliably no matter how much RAM you throw at it.

Got something to say?

I have yet again caught up with all the activations and put some more time into perfecting the process here. One of the realities of a hugely popular project is the technical support that comes with it. Unfortunately, until Shockey Monkey goes commercial (at a whopping $50 a month this fall) I have a tradeoff to consider: spend time on development or spend time on technical support?

To that end I have setup two mailing lists, one for development and another for announcements. Here is an email I just sent to the Shockey Monkey users:

Welcome to the Shockey Monkey help list.

First of all, thank you for using Shockey Monkey. I look forward to your feedback and feature recommendations so I can continue to evolve the monkey towards something that truely runs your business.

To that end, this project has grown significantly over the past year, as have its support demands. I am sure you will all agree that it is a far better use of my time to work harder on development than on support. I hope you’re willing to offer some assistance on this front, or at the very least ask questions through this list so I can answer them in public and point people to it in the future.

You’re more than welcome to unsubscribe from this list if you already get enough list clutter in your inbox, however, my future support until this project goes commercial will be restricted to official bugs/wishlist and this mailing list.

Thank you in advance for anything you may be able to take off my plate so I can dedicate more time to development.

Sincerely,
Vlad Mazek

Sounds fair, doesn’t it? I think this move will allow me to spend more time on whats really important and let users help one another until I get my foot on the ground. There are already so many people using Shockey Monkey in production to do some really awesome things and the tradeoff I had to make was whether I close the project or smash the roadmap deadlines and I think I chose what was in the best interest of all parties interested in Shockey Monkey. I just hope it works out!

(thats a remix of Queen’s “I Want To Break Free” and “I Want It All”; also known as the VAR anthem)

JJ Antequino, our local TS2 guy is handing out free exam vouchers you can use to pass Microsoft Technology Specialist (what used to be Microsoft Certified Professional) exams:

- .NET Framework 2.0 Web Applications
- .NET Framework 2.0 Windows Applications
- .NET Framework 2.0 Distributed Applications
- SQL Server 2005
- SQL Server 2005 Business Intelligence
- BizTalk Server 2006
- Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2005
- Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, Configuration
- Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, Configuration
- Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, Application Development
- Windows Mobile 5.0, Applications
- Windows Mobile 5.0, Implementing and Managing
- Windows Server 2003 Hosted Environments, Configuration, and Management
- Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, Application Development
- Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, Configuration
- Windows Vista and 2007 Microsoft Office System Desktops, Deploying and Maintaining
- Windows Vista, Configuration

Got a new cell phone for development, as usual, part metalic part plastic. I have a few issues I was hoping someone out there might have a few tips to share with me:

There are a few scratches on it and I was wondering if there was any way to “buff” those out. They are quite superficial but I’m not looking forward to having them tear a hole in my pocket or something.

Second, I’d like to paint the device. Don’t ask why. Any ideas, aside from “try a sharpie”?

The phone in question is a T-Mobile SDA (HTC Hurricane).

Great find by David, Microsoft Technet has a few new Longhorn virtual labs. These labs are free and are a great way to explore the new technology that you may not be familiar with. For the low low price of $0 you get to download a Word document that serves as your guide through the lab. It tells you what to click on, what to do, what different things mean and you can follow them point by point or go exploring on your own.

Note: Toy labs are not a good substitute for deploying, configuring and managing a proper lab network. However, for the first look and specific task training, they are more than enough.

Managing Windows Longhorn Server and Windows Vista using Group Policy

Managing Windows Vista and Windows Server Longhorn Network Bandwidth with Policy-based Quality of Service

Windows Server Longhorn Beta 2 Server Core

Windows Server Longhorn Beta 2 Server Manager

Microsoft Windows Server “Longhorn” Beta 2 Terminal Services Gateway and Remote Programs/p>

If you’re in the MonkeyForce check out the IIS 7 virtual labs as well.

(not a rant, hey there is first time for everything)

By now you’ve surely seen at least a dozen articles on how, depending on the source, Microsoft is ready to eliminate Linux from existence or collect royalties or sue “them” into oblivion. It’s a juicy topic because it’s about a lot of money, emotion, business with a great protagonist and so on. Everyone from Scoble down to the guy with a rock standing in front of a copyright billboard has chimed in. What’s it really about and why will it never happen?

It’s about Microsoft trying to put the Interop picture together for Longhorn.

Because nobody likes Microsoft already, and suing will only make it worse while admitting failure.

Point 1: It’s not about Linux.

Many bloggers will pull stories and anecdotes about how this is about a huge company that is seemingly falling apart (while making 14 billion dollars a quarter) exerting it’s power to eliminate competition. They then transition to the conspiracy theories that SCO lawsuits were funded by Microsoft. Then they support that by a dozen or so articles in which Microsoft lost the patent lawsuit and had to part with a mountain of cash. And, for the cherry on top, they sprinkle something about Microsoft stealing from Apple for 25 years, how any offending code would be rewritten/removed within hours, etc. But in a nutshell, the take of nearly every article is about an evil Microsoft trying to kill off the little Linux.

Meanwhile at the ranch Microsoft is working at perhaps the most significant software release in it’s history, Longhorn Server, which will set it miles apart from any other server suite available just like it’s done with it’s Office suite. And if you see where Microsoft actually makes money you realize that selling Microsoft’s next server into the enterprise involves having a decent interop story for the customer. Whether Microsoft likes it or not, the business reality is that more and more ISV’s are writing software and delivering it on Linux servers – so for Longhorn to be a sell it has to be able to prove it can play nicely. Thats all there is to all this: Microsoft is trying to build up it’s glossy orange flyer with Linux distribution vendors who have signed interoperability agreements so Microsoft can go to the customer and say “Look, you run Redhat, Novell, Ubuntu and Debian and we have interop agreements with those folks to make sure the application you just purchased will be compatible with the middleware you have running on Windows Server” – and how do you coerce the distribution vendors into siding with you and working on Interop? By sprinkling a little patent doubt in the air which you (Microsoft) know full well you won’t be pursuing.

Point 2: Enough people already hate Microsoft

There are 800 lawyers at Microsoft, likely 780 of them are there to deal with continuous lawsuits stemming from inappropriate behavior that happened ten years ago. But read the blogs and you’re left with the impression that those 800 lawyers are just there to do recruiting to get more lawyers to sue FOSS out of existence.

It’s not difficult to find people that hate Microsoft, be it a developer a customer or partner. When you’re big you’re bound to screw people. Heck, even a one man shop has managed to make enemies for itself. Just the nature of business.

So let me clue you in to a little thing about Microsoft that I’ve learned about their culture through working with them for the past 10 years or so. Microsoft guys, be it in sales, development, even executive levels truly believe, beyond a shadow of doubt, that they are the best. Absolutely, without question, Microsoft BOB in one hand and Windows ME in the other, 640K ought to be enough for everyone – the best. Whether they are right or not, Microsoft, by culture, believes they are the best, with the best value, best technology. How? Through innovation.

Going into extended patent lawsuits would make it pretty clear to its shareholders and employees that Microsoft is no longer a business built on innovation and expertise, but one that barely survives on the very thing they have been widely accused for years – FUD. Which is why you’ll never see the lawsuits. It would be ridiculously expensive and highly demotivating for the company culture and what Microsoft stands for.

Microsoft doing a patent suit over innovation is similar in experience to the blind test of which soda you prefer. If you don’t win do you turn around and say “Wow, I’ve been a jackass for 20 years, thank you, thank you for pointing out what I’d like drinking better” or do you walk away in resentment that you picked incorrectly?

Same for the Microsoft customers. Their customers already dislike the business practices that Microsoft has. They outright hate the licensing. Developers and partners aren’t far behind. And we’re ALL buying software and hardware from other companies. So is Microsoft going to pour gasoline on that fire by telling us, to our face, that we’re thieves as we have already purchased solutions based on non-Microsoft products? Or will they just try to build a better story about how this new thing they have coming will play nicely with that third party stuff we already bought?

Personal note:

As you’ve seen on this blog, I talk a fair amount of smack against Microsoft. Yes, they deserve it. I also run more Microsoft software than any sane person ought to be allowed to. I’ve been awarded a Microsoft MVP award for two years in a row. I send large checks to Microsoft, on monthly basis, all while bitching about how Microsoft is putting me in the early grave with lack of patch QC. I write about problems and solutions for Microsoft software, all while leading ITPRO groups focusing on Microsoft software. I develop software for the Microsoft platform. And on daily basis I am asked if I love or hate Microsoft, if I’m pro or con Microsoft, if, if if. Everyone wants a fanboy.

The key thing to understand here is that when it comes to business there are many shades of grey, many circumstances, many compromises that have to be made as you go on. Thats what makes people successful, realizing that there are tradeoffs to every position. The alternative, as you’ve seen in the blog posts on this subject, is to take black vs. white approach to it all, cite historical references and dollar figures and adopt a faith-based view on business management by which you accept a single fundamental truth while ignoring every shred of concrete evidence that smashes it to pieces. Try to see the bigger picture here or come to terms with having to move to rural Mississippi.