IT pros get another podcast chock full of information and irreverence, at CStechcast.com. This week we put the focus back onto the brand new Windows Server 2008 operating system with Rand Morimoto, author of Windows Server 2008 Unleashed . Tech news sees the demise of the MicroHoo merger, Windows XP Service Pack 3 gets PCs to go on endless reboots, a new security bulletin on a new Trojan infecting half a million PCs, patch Tuesday sees 4 new patches, Office 2007 SP1 is coming to automatic updates, Google sets up a new enterprise hosted security service, and we take a peek at the 10 worst workplaces in tech. A continuing trend of knocking a good app developed with Microsoft tools gets "The Worst Tech Move of the Week", fanboys get a freestyle rant in the "IT Pet Peeve", and the "Weekly Tech Tip" helps you hack the Vista experience index. Links to stories discussed during the show:
The MicroHoo Fallout (eWeek)
Trojan Infects More Than 500,000 PCs (eWeek)
Continuous Reboots Plague Windows XP SP3 Users (PC Magazine)
Four Patches Coming in May (ENT News)
Google gains on Microsoft with hosted security offering (C|Net News.com)
The 10 Worst Workspaces in Tech (ValleyWag)
Building a web app the Microsoft way (ThinkVitamin.com)
Maybe Microsoft isn't completely useless on the web, after all (C|Net Blogs) Thanks everyone for downloading and listening to the CS Techcast. Link to the episode: http://www.cstechcast.com/home.aspx?Episode=24 - Eric Beehler (consortioservices.com/blog)
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Our latest weekly podcast for IT Pros, available at CStechcast.com, is released to the world. This week we try to tap our inner CSI with Keith J. Jones, author of Real Digital Forensics, available alone or in the Computer Forensics Library Boxed Set. Find more info at realdigitalforensics.com. The news finds Windows XP Service Pack 3 and Vista Service Pack 1 pulled back from Windows Updates, the BlueHat conference exposes easy antivirus hacks, third party solutions aim to help Ruby on Rails scale, SharePoint gets a new administration toolkit, and dirty secrets of the security industry are revealed. Eric Schmidt's obsession with Microsoft gets "The Worst Tech Move of the Week", we take "A Closer Look" at the recent SQL injection attacks and what you can do about it, and joining a domain from afar using Vista is our "Weekly Tech Tip". Links to stories discussed during the show:
XP update delayed over glitch (C|Net News.com)
Vista SP1 auto updates also halted (C|Net News.com)
Antivirus holes, browser spies are highlights at Microsoft's BlueHat hacker sessions (C|Net News.com)
Making Ruby on Rails Scale (eWeek)
Twitter Said To Be Abandoning Ruby on Rails (TechCrunch)
Announcing the First Release of the Microsoft SharePoint Administration Toolkit (Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies Team Blog)
7 dirty secrets of the security industry (InfoWorld)
Schmidt in CNBC interview: We're concerned about Microhoo (C|Net News.com)
SQL Injection Attacks on IIS Web Servers (BillS IIS Blog) We love bringing you the show and hope everyone who listens appreciates the effort. Let us know what you think; post to the blog, send us an e-mail, or call us. Details for contacting us can be found at CStechcast.com. Review our show at your favorite podcast directory, including iTunes, and let everyone know how you like CS Techcast. Thanks everyone for listening. Link to the episode: http://www.cstechcast.com/home.aspx?Episode=23 - Eric Beehler (consortioservices.com/blog)
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This week's new podcast, available at CStechcast.com, gives IT pros another dose of news and expert information. Microsoft Office 2007 Servers is the topic with J. Peter Bruzzese, author of Administrator's Guide to Microsoft Office 2007 Servers and regular contributor to Infoworld.com, among his many endeavors. Find him on the web at cliptraining.com. In the news; Microsoft floods us with bad news on desktops, the Yahoo merger, and it's database share, but hey Live Mesh is cool along with Yahoo! announcing a redesign at the Web 2.0 Conference, SQL injection attacks are on the rise, and IT pay takes a depressing dip. You would think a non-profit charity like One Laptop Per Child could steer clear of making "The Worst Tech Move of the Week", the "Weekly Tech Tip" gives us a refresher about DNS on Windows with some useful tricks, and we get the "Point / Counterpoint" on system administrators specializing in more than one OS. Links to stories discussed during the show:
Microsoft Windows Sales Plunge 24% Amid Rising Competition (Information Week)
Microsoft Flexible On Windows XP End Date, Ballmer Says (Information Week)
In Database Market, Oracle Gets Bigger, Others Hang On (Information Week)
Microsoft Demos Live Mesh (eWeek)
Yahoo plans makeover with elements of social network (Washington Post)
The Web 2.0 economy hangs in limbo (C|Net News.com)
Microsoft: Web at the center, not PC (C|Net News.com)
SQL attack hits 500,000 websites (vnunet.com)
SQL Infection Hits Over 500K Webpages, Infiltrates DHS And UN (mashable.com)
Walter Bender Resigned from One Laptop Per Child!! (olpcnews.com)
OLPC CTO founds own company, aims at $75 laptop (Ars Technica)
Average Info Tech Pay Drops To $105,000 For Managers, $78,000 For Staff, Our Survey Finds (Information Week) For those looking for additional information on the SQL Injection attacks plaguing vulnerable Internet pages, please follow this link to the SANS posts: http://isc.sans.org/diary.html?storyid=4331. For anyone interested in viewing some of J. Peter Bruzzese video training material, point your browser to youtube.com/cliptraining. For anyone who enjoys our podcast through iTunes, please write up a nice note in their reviews section or on your favorite podcast directory. If you like what you hear, share it with a friend; send them to CStechcast.com. Thanks everyone for listening and, please, give us your feedback. Keep tuning in every week for a new episode of CS Techcast. Link to the episode: http://www.cstechcast.com/home.aspx?Episode=22 - Eric Beehler (consortioservices.com/blog)
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After tons of feedback from the community, MS has decided to release another Service Pack for SQL Server 2005. More information on the Data Platform Insider Blog. Of course, there's not much detail about what will be IN the SP, but I think this is a huge step in maintaining good standing with customers. While many people jumped at the chance to go from SQL Server 2000 to 2005, the jump to 2008 will be a little more hesitant, mostly because of the difficulty in moving database platforms in production environments. Hopefully, this SP will give people a "longer life" in SQL 2005, while giving them the opportunity to more carefully evaluate SQL Server 2008.
--Josh
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The latest CS Techcast podcast is here with news, views, and interviews for IT professionals at cstechcast.com. This week we discuss Microsoft Expression Web and the approach of these tools in a Web 2.0 world with Jim Cheshire, author of Using Microsoft Expression Web 2. Find Jim at www.jimcobooks.com. The news brings new web mashup design and an updated Live Maps from Microsoft's Live platform, Forrester is going against conventional wisdom with Vista in business, Citrix turns up the heat on the competition with smooth delivery of applications via virtualization on their XenDesktop beta, and an increasing zero day worry as a Microsoft vulnerability exploit is in the wild two days after the patch release. Blog aggregating gets aggravating for "The Worst Tech Move of the Week", virtual Josh gives us advice on Windows and how to avoid getting tripped up by service principle names in "The Weekly Tech Tip", and we take "A Closer Look" at the Microsoft MVP Summit. Links to stories discussed during the show: Ozzie's Mesh Mashup (eWeek Microsoft Watch)
Hands on: new Microsoft Live Maps improvements impressive (Ars Technica)
Don't Skip Vista, Forrester Study Says (PC World)
Citrix`s Smooth New XenDesktop (eWeek)
MS08-021: A Must-Patch Vulnerability (eWeek)
For Sale: 3 Blogs, Barely Used; Seller Highly Motivated (TechNewsWorld) CS Techcast is proud to bring you a quality podcast every week, without fail. If you enjoy it, share it with your friends and point them to cstechcast.com. As always, thanks for listening. Link to the episode: http://www.cstechcast.com/home.aspx?Episode=21 - Eric Beehler (consortioservices.com/blog)
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This week's podcast at cstechcast.com concentrates on technology trends that matter to IT pros. We have an extended interview with long time industry expert, PC Magazine and MarketWatch columnist, and Cranky Geeks host John C. Dvorak where we discuss Google's platform as a service, Dell's shrinking relevance, and Microsoft's apparent soft opening for Windows Server 2008. Find John C. Dvorak at dvorak.org/blog. The news brings us Gartner's top disruptive technology trends that may mean upgrades to your internal apps for multi-core and a further move towards mashup development, Gartner also stirs the pot by declaring that Windows is collapsing in the face of code bloat and web apps, and we also put forth a whole series of security updates from Oracle, Adobe, and post warning about malware on USB keys from HP that hold software for Proliant servers. Gartner's report on the untenable state of Windows is declared "The Worst Tech Move of the Week". We also give away Quest Software's Change Director for SQL Server to a lucky listener. 
Links to stories discussed during the show: Gartner: Multicore, Clouds, Social Nets Top Disruptive List (PC World)
Google Hosts Web Applications By Outside Software Developers (Wall Street Journal)
Windows is 'collapsing,' Gartner analysts warn (ComputerWorld)
Oracle Warns of Critical DB Server Vulnerabilities (eWeek)
Adobe Issues Critical Flash Player Update (eWeek)
HP ships USB sticks with malware (C|Net News.com)
What happened at Dell? (MarketWatch) We dropped a couple regular segments this week to bring you all the goodness of the Dvorak interview, but we will be back with those segments next week, including an update from the Microsoft MVP summit. After our interview with John C. Dvorak this week, we were mentioned on Dvorak's Tech 5 podcast Thursday, April 10th, 2008 entitled "Yahoo and Google both Freaked", available at tech5.podshow.com, on the discussion we had about the lack of real press and marketing surrounding the release of Windows Server 2008. We are expecting a full blown article from Dvorak based on our discussion of the subject soon. Thank you to Quest Software for providing valuable software to our listeners. Visit quest.com for information on their full suite of management products for applications, databases, and Windows. Tell your friends to visit cstechcast.com. Thanks. Link to the episode: http://www.cstechcast.com/home.aspx?Episode=20 - Eric Beehler (consortioservices.com/blog)
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We interviewed John C. Dvorak this Thursday for CS Techcast episode 20, to be release Monday, about several interesting IT trends. One topic we touch on is the seemingly soft, targeted debut of Windows Server 2008. There was almost no press about it in the general media or even the tech press except within the Microsoft-specific tech community and some enterprise IT trade papers like eWeek. My speculation is that Vista and the negative response received from its big release is causing Microsoft to be cautious about its launch so they don't attract bad press as the "Vista for servers", which is true in the same ways XP and Server 2003 share similar kernel code.
Today, the day after this discussion for the upcoming CS Techcast releasing Monday, a new Gartner report says that Windows is collapsing. They report the continuing trend towards web apps and the increasing irrelevance of Windows as reasons why Microsoft must go through with the Yahoo merger. With only a 6.3% adoption rate for Vista in business, they tell us that companies cannot make the justification for a migration to Vista when there is no obvious benefit to the new OS. They also cite the need for a new version of the client OS to mend fences, but the very large code base of Vista and the massive effort it will take to turn it into a smaller, leaner version of itself to address the many criticisms hurled at it in the past year will take a while. In the end, though, web apps may make the version of Windows you are running largely a moot point in the very near future.
Make sure you tune into the latest release of CS Techcast this Monday for our discussion of Windows Vista and Server 2008, pre-Gartner report, and more insight with John C. Dvorak. Find the CS Techcast podcast at cstechcast.com.
- Eric Beehler (consortioservices.com/blog)
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CStechcast.com brings you another information filled podcast for IT pros. This week we interview Ben Day, Microsoft MVP for C#, conference speaker, and leader of the Beantown.NET User Group to get into the benefits and how to avoid the controversy of LINQ. Find him online at Benday.com. In the news we see the nail in Windows XP sales coffin, we explore Windows 7 rumors, you get exposed to a plethora of security patches, go head first into IRS phishing, see the resurgence of backscatter spam, more DDoS traffic, get some much needed help from a honeypot client, look at VMWare's latest release to control VM's, and confirm what we already knew about the direction of IT this year. Creative shuts down helpful user written Vista drivers for "The Worst Tech Move of the Week", we show you why SPNs are important for domain accounts in IIS and SQL in the "Weekly Tech Tip", and we take "A Closer Look" at IT conferences. Quest Software is giving away a copy of Change Director for SQL Server. Enter using the "Contest" link at CStechcast.com.
Links to stories discussed during the show:
Microsoft Windows XP Dies June 30, as Planned (eWeek)
Windows 7, Successor To Vista, May Ship Next Year (Information Week)
Critical IE, Office, Windows Patches on Deck (eWeek)
Another Phishing Scam Spoofs IRS (ENT News)
Backscatter Spam Is Back (eWeek)
Internet tubes dripping with "raw sewage" of DDoS attacks (Ars Technica)
VMware Adds Control To Burgeoning Virtual Infrastructure (Information Week)
Report: IT Heads Back to Basics (eWeek)
Creative Labs Stops Guy From Making Its Technology Work Better (Techdirt)
Setspn Overview (Microsoft TechNet)
The Big Giveaway is Closing Soon!
Don't miss our big giveaway of Quest Software's Change Director for SQL Server. Change Director for SQL Server provides a powerful automated solution for managing change to SQL Server databases. Please enter using the "Contest" button on the CStechcast.com homepage.
Leave comments at the blog, on the feedback form, or at our voicemail. Thanks for listening this week and every week.
Link to the episode: http://www.cstechcast.com/home.aspx?Episode=19
- Eric Beehler (consortioservices.com/blog)
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After Microsoft’s Windows Vista went RTM last year I quickly installed in onto my desktop and then my laptop. Both were manufactured before the release of Vista. My desktop was a bit more than a year and a half old and my laptop about 8 months old and came with the ubiquitous Windows Vista Capable sticker. On the desktop, I did an upgrade, followed about a month later by a fresh install to the same partition. Recently, I bought a brand spanking new laptop for my wife, who needed to have her 8 year old Compaq laptop replaced because every time the virus signature update initiates, it locks up the whole machine. It was just getting too slow and its battery was certainly out of juice. I’m not throwing it out, but it’s just not that pleasant an experience if you need to do more than surf the web and check e-mail. So, I went high end with the processor, an HP 2700 Special Edition series Intel Penryn class 2.5 GHz beast, a nice 2GB of RAM, 120 GB hard disk, DVD writer, 14.1” Brite View screen, discrete NVidia 8400 graphics, extended life battery, HDMI port, fingerprint reader; it has the works for an everyday machine. It should last just as long as the last one did. And, it came pre-loaded with Windows Vista Home Premium, my first machine pre-loaded with the OS. The interface was smooth and functionality was without issue. The only problem I ran into was my network printer driver for the HP color laser printer 2605dtn, so I had to download the full CD. HP doesn’t provide the small driver for the network version of this printer. I noted a problem with IE after the installation of the CD where the HP Web Clips feature add on was crashing IE so I disabled it. The experience was so nice that I decided it was time to re-install Windows Vista on my other computers. My first candidate was my laptop, an HP DV 5190. It’s an early dual core Intel processor T2400. It’s sold as a budget processor today, but it was one of the best at the time. I know a reinstall won’t fix everything. It definitely runs hotter than the new model, a given with the Penryn’s advances in power consumption and my bigger 15.4” screen. It’s also been dropped once or twice going through airports, car rental buses, and sitting on hotel beds, so some cosmetic damage has been done. My biggest problems were around my upgrade path for the machine. I chose an in place upgrade to Vista at the time because of all the pre-installed software. From what I could tell, HP put many things on the machine that worked against proprietary features such as the TV tuner, DVD, function buttons, etc. and they were not available for download at the time either. The Vista driver list was very small, just a card reader driver I think. On top of that, I really didn’t have time to get my system right after a full install. I was in the middle of writing a book for goodness sakes. So, after the upgrade I had multiple conflicts with said vendor software. I ran MSconfig and disabled a bunch of startup programs, which seemed to work for some stuff, but MSconfig is not supposed to be a permanent solution so it would pop up to tell me some programs were not started. OK, so then I would go and uninstall a bunch of these programs, but some HP core program kept popping up a C++ error whenever I would resume from sleep or a reboot. It was annoying and the system just seemed slow. Other problems I had was video from DVD being jerky and the inability to run a SD card as a ReadyBoost drive, even though I bought a faster Ultra II series card. This weekend I ran a file backup using the built in File Backup in Vista to an external hard drive. I didn't want a whole image, just the important stuff. After a couple hours and a quick safety backup of some pictures to a USB key, I was ready. I popped the DVD into the drive and rebooted. No problemo. I told Vista setup to install and went to the advanced link for disk management. I deleted two partitions, one of which was the HP partition that was eating 12GB of my hard drive space. That wasn't ever a cool decision by HP in my opinion. I setup a new, single partition. I didn’t format the drive, but just told setup to proceed with the install. Vista handled the rest with no further prompting from me. After a reboot I did the regular things, such as account and time zone setup. After another reboot I was in business. A fresh install, which is the fastest this thing will ever boot with Vista. Next, I setup wireless networking by clicking on the network icon on the taskbar and entered the passphrase for my network. I connected and got an IP address, but it wouldn’t connect to the Internet. I opened the Network and Sharing Center and the graphical network map showed a disconnect to the Internet. After a click on “Diagnose and Repair” an automated repair of the network initiated, first tried an IP address refresh, but it ultimately disabled and reenabled the network adapter. I was now able to browse the web.
 The first order of business was a download of Vista Service Pack 1. It’s not showing in Windows Update yet, so I downloaded it manually without a pass through the 45 patches Windows Update identified as critical and important. Service Pack 1 took another 30 minutes more or less to install. No problems with the service pack, which I’m sure is an easy result on a machine with nothing else installed, including security software. Windows Update only needed to install a couple things after the service pack, along with optional software like my “Vista Ultimate” copy of Texas Hold’em Poker and a couple of hardware drivers. Then I went for anti-virus software. Having more than 3 computers in the house means two buys of Norton Internet Security every year. It may not be the geek's preference for AV, but it keeps all the family computers safe and secure. The only other issue was my integrated card reader. Vista didn’t have the right driver for the TI chipset, so I went over to HP’s web site, downloaded the right driver, and installed. Problem gone, but HP could have provided this driver to Microsoft for availability in Windows Update. Next were my network printers and, to my surprise, the HP Color Laser installed with no need for an external driver download which was required on the other, new laptop. I guess it was added with SP1. This keeps me away from the bloatware like HP Web Clips. Rebuilding your box is kind of like spring cleaning. When you’re done it makes you say ahhhh. All the quirky little problems seem to be cleared up, but some things still needed to be resolved. One is the video driver. Vista still installs the old WDDM version of the NVidia driver that came on the original DVD, which is a very poor performer and has major problems with video from my experience. Since NVidia laptop chipsets are considered OEM, NVidia wants you to download the driver from the manufacturer. The problem is HP hasn’t updated the driver for my laptop since March 2007 and it sucks too. I used the excellent laptopvideo2go.com package, a free download, which plugs in the OEM files to the driver so you can run the latest and greatest. Trust me, you want newer than last year’s drivers because video drivers from all the major chipset vendors were notoriously bad when Vista debuted. You also realize after a fresh install that you are missing certain programs that you don’t even think about until you realize they are gone. For me these are Nero Burning ROM, PowerISO, SnagIt, iTunes, Virtual PC, and Firefox. Microsoft Office 2007 went on too. I’m going to try to stay away from the crapware that tends to bog down your system in the first place. Vista freshly installed with SP1 on my old machine makes it feel like new, its a nice feeling.
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CStechcast.com brings you another audio podcast filled with a half hour of solid information for IT professionals. This week we interview Andy Leonard, Microsoft MVP and co-author of several books including Professional Software Testing with Visual Studio 2005 Team System: Tools for Software Developers and Test Engineers, and we talk about the importance of database testing. In the news we talk about some major security gaffs involving malware on servers that led to identity theft and rigged searches on major web sites, plus new attacks against DNS, hacking Windows Server 2008 and the MacBook Air, and EnterpriseDB's open source Postgres database gets new life with new funding and a competitive update. The "Worst Tech Move of the Week" goes to Warner's proposed music tax on ISPs, the "Weekly Tech Tip" brings you ways to improve page file performance in Windows, and disaster recovery planning gets "A Closer Look". A big giveaway for you from Quest Software for a copy of Change Director for SQL Server, so enter at our web site CStechcast.com by clicking the Contest button. Links to stories discussed during the show: Attackers booby-trap searches at top Web sites (C|Net News.com)
Malware Cited in Supermarket Data Breach (Associated Press)
EnterpriseDB Looks to Bolster Product Line (eWeek)
NIST Unveils Tool To Foil DNS Attacks (ENT Magazine)
Minimizing Information Leakage in the DNS (National Institute for Standards and Technology)
MacBook Air Hacked In Two Minutes (Information Week)
Hacker Pours Cold Water on Windows Server 2008 Security Design (eWeek)
Warner Music Pushes ISP Tax For Music Downloads (Information Week)
Jim Griffin says ISP music tax only one possibility (C|Net News.com) Don't Miss The Giveaway! Don't miss our big giveaway of Quest Software's Change Director for SQL Server. Change Director for SQL Server provides a powerful automated solution for managing change to SQL Server databases. Please enter using the "Contest" button on the CStechcast.com homepage. Leave comments at the blog, on the feedback form, or at our voicemail. Tell your friends to subscribe to CS Techcast! Thanks for listening. Link to the episode: http://www.cstechcast.com/home.aspx?Episode=18 - Eric Beehler (consortioservices.com/blog)
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Web 2.0 is all the rage, making users more productive by offering new programming methods and applications used on an Internet platform. This expanding ability for greater productivity is great, but it comes with a side effect; new security threats that were previously unheard of. New attacks require new security considerations for your environment. We cover recent threats from Web 2.0, Flash, bot-nets, and we talk about some new considerations you should think about as you move forward in protecting your network with these new threats lurking. Download the white paper from us, Eric Beehler and Eric Johnson, at http://redmondmag.com/techlibrary/resources.asp?id=621. - Eric Beehler (consortioservices.com/blog)
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The title, a play on translated Japanese advertising; the cstechcast.com podcast, real information for IT professionals. Get ready for the newly released Microsoft Windows Server 2008 operating system with our interview of Greg Shields, frequent TechMentor presenter, Redmond Magazine contributing editor, and author of the new book: Windows Server 2008: What’s New/What’s Changed. Check out the details and a free sample chapter at sapienpress.com. The news hails the coming of Windows Vista Service Pack 1 along with lingering problems and updated Microsoft Deployment tools; FireFox 3, Safari for Windows, and IE 8 are bringing back the 90's; it's Browser Wars 2: Attack of the Clones, Hyper-V may break the Microsoft release pattern with an EARLY release, and reality show "The Office" proves itself to be a self fulfilling prophecy. Comcast gets all up in the grill of the FCC for the "Worst Tech Move of the Week", the "Weekly Tech Tip" is presented by our SharePoint Zen master, and we discuss the book The Rational Guide to Building Technical User Communities in our rip off segment of Oprah's book club with "What We're Reading". Thank's to Quest Software for sponsoring the software giveaway, enter at cstechcast.com. Find them at quest.com.
Links to stories discussed during the show:
Vista SP1 Goes Live (ENT Mag)
Windows Vista SP1 Wreaks Havoc On Some PCs, Users Complain (Information Week)
Microsoft deployment tools ready as Windows Server 2008 arrives (TechTarget)
Mozilla says Firefox 3 ready for prime-time (Reuters)
Battle of the betas: Firefox 3 beats IE8 (Computer World)
Apple launches Safari for Windows (ZD Net)
Court Notes That Empty 'The Office'-Style Workplace Concepts Not Subject To Copyright (TechDirt)
Comcast Says FCC Has No Authority To Stop Traffic Shaping (TechDirt)
We metioned author Greg Low, author of The Rational Guide to Building Technical User Communities. We also wanted to provide a link to his SQL Server podcast at sqldownunder.com. Thanks Greg for keeping the spirit of real life technology communities alive.
Giveaway!
Don't miss our big giveaway of Quest Software's Change Director for SQL Server. Change Director for SQL Server provides a powerful automated solution for managing change to SQL Server databases. We appreciate your listenership, so take advantage of this attempt at buying your love. This is a great package and your chances of winning are pretty good, so don't forget to enter at cstechcast.com.
Link to the episode: http://www.cstechcast.com/home.aspx?Episode=17
- Eric Beehler (consortioservices.com/blog)
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