Has Microsoft figured out Beta testing?

Posted: 12:37 pm
July 27, 2006
Misc
8 Comments

Worth1000One of the most frustrating experiences of working with Microsoft as a partner, selling aside, is the process of being prepared for their next product wave. You’ve read the hardships I’ve experienced with it here from the very start of the Longhorn/Vista process and you’ve also probably noticed that things are looking up lately. The closer the product gets to release the stronger and more complete it feels (go figure) and despite the questionable direction there is something more in the air when it comes to Microsoft lately.

Maybe it was the change in management, maybe it was just learning to open up more, maybe it was the dire need to convince customers that Vista will not be a failure. Whatever the cause was, the effect has been really nice.

You see, about a decade ago things like Technet and Beta were not a common place. If you wanted to test drive software you were on irc.efnet.net #warez5 waiting in a dcc queue hoping to avoid a netsplit. Back then there was no MS Connect. There was pWa.

The effect? Vista beta is perhaps the best managed beta project with near-TAP-like handling. You are in the same process from start to completion. There are extensive and active newsgroups that surround it and are Microsoft supported. There are numerous LiveMeetings covering every aspect of Vista you can possibly imagine. Multiple mirrors, notifications of new builds, active boards, transcripts, etc. Make no mistake, a lot of money seems to be going into the testing and evaluation of this product before it even launches. I applaud Microsoft on this one, I really do. So they probably cut the cost of one extra PR firm generating buzz, skipped about 20,000 crappy tshirts for the launch party and will end up with a better product as a result of it.

Now if they could get a sense of humor and actually get the guy to shoot the Mac user

Blogging in My Swamp!

Posted: 11:30 pm
July 25, 2006
Vladville
12 Comments

I have to admit I’m more than slightly jealous of all the social opportunities on the west coast as I see Scoble going from one conference to another. NY has quite a scene as well. Well, Josh is putting Orlando on that map too with BlogOrlando.

BlogorlandologoHyku, in partnership with Rollins College will host this FREE event that is open to bloggers and non-bloggers alike from Florida and anywhere else (so far we have one international attendee). We hope to bring together a good cross-section of folks to discuss blogging, podcasting, public relations, social media, citizen’s journalism and other related topics. In addition to the Friday event we are planning some outings at the local theme parks over the weekend. This event is as much a social/family gathering as it is a ‘work’ gathering, so bring the family (kids included).

So if you’re a blogger come out and join us. You can’t beat the price (free!) and you can’t beat the heat. Friday, September, get the details here.

Vladire Episode 4: Community & Your Business with Susanne Dansey

Posted: 3:23 pm
July 25, 2006
Vladfire
47 Comments

Untitled document

Welcome to the second coming of Susanne Dansey. You can read (and watch) more of Susanne here on how the community she participates/builds helps her business. This second “in-the-dark” part of her presentation from Microsoft WWPC talks at great length how to establish relationships with the community members, how to leverage that against major vendors, how to be comfortable about doing business with your peers and a lot more.

Vladfire4

Download a WMV (Microsoft Windows Movie) (73Mb)

Stream Quicktime (Fast, Streaming, Requires Quicktime) (21Mb)

Note: Shot in near complete darkness. Just experimenting with video. I know a few of you are going to SMB Nation to network and participate in SBS groups so its only fair that you learn how to do it from the very best. Oh, and you might want to watch all the way to the end to see what she is really like. Queenie rules with an iron fist. 

Exchange 2007 Beta 2 Released

Posted: 2:57 pm
July 24, 2006
Exchange
5 Comments

Exchange 2007 Beta 2 has just been posted on the web.
Exch07_licenseplate_hero
Click here to download

Exchange 2007 upgrade is a massive change from 2003, almost to the same degree Exchange 2000 changed from 5.5 days. It is a central point of storage for all the future communications – phone, voice, mail, mobility and then some. It is almost imperative you start testing, learning and experimenting with Exchange 2007 now so you’re up to speed when the release does come out later this year.

Remember that Exchange 2007 will be in 64bit flavor only so you will likely need to upgrade your test gear (HP has a dual core 64bit laptop for less than $700).

I was going to do it but you beat me to it

Posted: 8:09 am
July 22, 2006
Vladfire
7 Comments

Untitled document

Ah, the tireless excuse of the slow and lazy. If I had a penny every time someone said the above to me about the SBS Show I would be bigger than Time Warner. I'm gonna try that line with Steve Ballmer next time we talk "Hey, I was going to build a multi-billion dollar conglomerate but you beat me to it"

But this is not a rant. Quite the contrary. My PR Agency, Tim Barrett & Associates is going to be vlogging concurrently with me. He's serious about it too, he even bought a Mac. He showed me his first episode last night, far more impressive than what I have in terms of production quality but he is not sexy enough for a widescreen yet. Great audio too, I am not brave enough to stand that close to the camera. According to his blog he will be focusing more on screencasts and helping people with the bits on pieces of SBS and related technologies.

I will hopefully remain the Paris Hilton of the tech conference scene and focus on the IT Pro lifestyle. It's a great source of entertainment for me – I get to talk to some amazing people, find out what drives them and what makes them successful. Let's face it, you can always buy a book to figure out Exchange, well over a 100 options. But you will lilkely never sit down with the guy that owns the entire SMTP stack and see the excitement about what he is working on now. Sometimes its more fun to find out why things are the way they are instead of how they are put together and sprinkled with marketing. I've been fortunate to meet some remarkable people in this business and it has changed the very core of what I believe as the definition of success, hopefully I can bring the same to you. Then Tim will show you how 🙂

I'm very happy to see this. The response to the two episodes on Vladfire has been amazing so far and it is empowering people in a whole new way. No, we have not forgotten about the SBS Show, this is just a whole new way to tell a story. Both will continue. At the end of the day it feels great to know that even your hobby can make a positive difference in someone elses life. Thank you, thank you, thank you for hundreds of emails and comments on just the first 3 episodes. I think I got more feedback than downloads, I am very happy you like them so much.

This is the fish calling from Microsoft (Case No :- SRX060721605399)

Posted: 4:49 pm
July 21, 2006
Microsoft
4 Comments

Untitled document

Well now that SBS R2 is out there is really little to liven up Friday’s around Vladville. And since Susan went Unibomber I don’t get the daily dose of argument.. so this is what I get for entertainment. Check it out, guaranteed to crack you up.

Emu_huh

In case you have an open Monday you can hear Fish live over at Inside SBS. They are back in the studio talking about R2 and WSUS.

Anyhow, enjoy the support call: http://www.thatvideosite.com/view/2868.html

Warning: Free video site so its embedded in advertising, mostly porn. Don’t view at work.

Warning 2: Ok, don’t view the porn at home either, it’s really not very good.

Vladfire Episode 3: Jump into the community & SBSC with Susanne Dansey

Posted: 4:55 pm
July 20, 2006
Vladville
42 Comments

Untitled document

Vladfire Episode #3 with Susanne Dansey. Susanne works as a Business Development Manager for ReadyCrest Ltd, leads the Kent SBS group, moderates SBSBPI.co.uk, co-hosts the SBS Show and does a ton of work for the SMB community in general. As one of the most outspoken leaders she constantly promotes the concept of partnerships, understanding the clients IT needs, explains how to position products and services sensibly and hopefully motivates you to run your business in a whole new way.

Vladfire3

Download a wmv (Microsoft Windows Movie) (89Mb)

Stream Quicktime (Fast, Streaming, Requires Quicktime) (30Mb)

Note: This is the first part of her speech, she went on for close to an hour. Over the next week I hope to bring you her presentation as well as two other partners in UK that excelled with SBSC. Susanne can't pronounce ship properly so if you find yourself rewinding to hear what she actually said.. it's ship. And no, she is not a ghost – this was shot in a dark conference room.

Vladfire 2: H.264 encoding mov

Posted: 4:35 pm
July 19, 2006
Vladfire
6 Comments

Untitled document

Ok, so I succumbed to presure to try and release the vlog in a .mov format. Let me know what you think, it is encoded as streaming with Fast Start so it should play almost immediately. The downside? It takes quite a bit of horse power to encode, this almost ran for two hours on a 3.0 GHz PC with 2GB ram. Also, not compatible with the old versions of Quicktime so hopefully you have a new one. On the bright side, it is almost the third of the wmv file.

Click here to start streaming

By the way, still going through the emails. I really did not expect this level of response to the first two videos. So far the favourite word seems to be "You made my day" 🙂 Thank you, thank you, thank you. As for the tilted head – The camera itself is tilted so I try to compensate for it (unintentionally) and even seem to talk out of one side of my mouth more than the other. I've never really paid much attention to my mug until now, it's interesting to be self-conscious about the way I am at home. Should I shave? Do I need a haircut? Does this shirt look dirty? Weird.

Anyhow, the biggest complaint so far – enclosures. Considering that I haven't picked the default format yet doing enclosures would have been difficult. I create the enclosure feed for the SBS Show by hand so I am not 100% sure how to do this yet. Learning process folks, takes a while to nail down the distribution end of things but as usual, its all about the message.

By the way, set this beast up on the vlogmap . I'm node #1314 🙂

Vladfire Episode 2: SBS Show — True Hollywood Story

Posted: 5:25 pm
July 18, 2006
Vladfire
23 Comments

Untitled document

Vladfire2

Hit the image above to download the movie or click here.

Susanne, Chris and I wanted to give you an idea of what it’s like to put together the most successful SMB podcast. Enjoy.

Update: Sorry about having to download these, I’ll publish the .mov/Quicktime later tonight to enable streaming – not 100% sure how to embed wmv (Windows Movie) into a player against WordPress but I’ll do the Quicktime.

The Suicide Note

Posted: 9:36 pm
July 15, 2006
Vladville
34 Comments

Some of you read way too much into what I say. Still here, still perfectly fine, relax. They say a picture is worth a thousand words so hope this one helps:

Vladsusannedave

Sometimes it takes a stroll in the park, a chat by the pond, a gay pose by the historic statue to take you out of your element. For me, the best thing that ever happened was a dead cell phone battery with Robbie and Susanne entertaining me and taking me to one party, concert, pub and event after another. That is not who I am, it is not what I do and it was… comfortably different.

I got taken out the role I live in, disconnected from the empire I have built, separated from the life-as-usual and I realized just what direction things were going and just how happy I was with everything. It was, quite honestly, the most liberating experience to step away from the common negativity, pressure, stress and unwanted insomnia. Don’t get me wrong, I take breaks and I do have a lot of fun in my life but they are always planned and thought through. This was different, I have never been this out of reach and it showed me whats truely important in life.

Everyone goes to these conferences to learn something about business, about technology, about partnership. I walked away learning a lot about myself, about what I’ve done so far, what I hope to do next and just how satisfying everything in life really is even without me IDDQD-ing it all the time. If you understand what I just said you’re far too big of a geek, sorry

Thank you Robbie, thank you Mark, thank you David, thank you Chris for everything man. Thank you Susanne for showing me all I didn’t know and thank you Tmobile for making this happen.  

Asses

Everyone wanted to know about WWPC, everyone wanted a blog,  pics, video, swag… Honestly, the most beneficial message I can offer you on the whole experience is quite simply in the picture above:

Sometimes it is a lot more fun to make an ass out of yourself.