News

TCC Configuring MOSS 2007 Certification Prep Class

Dennis Bottjer — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 04:06:37 GMT

Tomorrow I begin teaching an 8 week Configuring MOSS 2007 Certification Preparation Class at Tulsa Community College. The class will be every Thursday night at the northeast campus.

Details:

Course:	CSCI 2993-24212
Title:	SharePoint Administration in MOSS 2007
Delivery:	Blended (Class / Online)
Meeting:	Thursday
Times:	6:00p – 8:50p
Dates:	03/11/2010 – 05/06/2010
Campus:	Northeast
Room:	Academic Building, RM 2421
Book:	Click To Buy (Amazon)
Fee:	Free
Certification Exam:	Free (First Attempt)
TCC Sponsor (Please contact for enrollment assistance)	Brian Hall (918) 595-7444 Tulsa Community College bhall@tulsacc.edu

MSDN Webcast: Knee-Jerk Reactions to Proactive Solutions: Improved SharePoint Performance

dbottjer — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 21:34:18 GMT

What:	MSDN Webcast: Knee-Jerk Reactions to Proactive Solutions: Improved SharePoint Performance Attend this webcast to learn one dozen easy-to-implement performance tips for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. We discuss a wide range of topics from adjusting out-of-the-box settings to identifying memory leaks in custom code. We also describe several ways to proactively improve the user experience and squeeze more performance out of a SharePoint Server farm. Anyone currently designing a SharePoint Server implementation can benefit from this webcast.
When:	Friday, July 10, 2009 12:00 PM
Where:	MSDN Web Cast Live Meeting

Technorati Tags: Presentation,SharePoint Performance,MSDN Web Cast,ASP.NET MVP

News: Windows 7, Sharepoint Designer

dbottjer — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 22:06:34 GMT

Window 7 Release Candidate Due April 30th

Windows 7 Release Candidate is expected to be available for download through MSDN and TechNet on April 30th, 2009.

Ref: Windows Team Blog - Windows 7 Release Candidate Update

Also Of Interest:

The Windows 7 team also comment how “At the peak of the feedback cycle, we were receiving a “Send Feedback” report every 15 seconds for an entire week.”

SharePoint Designer now Free!

As SharePoint continues to increase in popularity, Microsoft announced SharePoint Designer is now available as a free download.

SharePoint Designer Free Download – Requires Live ID

Other Stuff:

Follow Me On Twitter (@dbottjer)

Technorati Tags: SharePoint Designer Free,Windows 7 RC

Event: Tulsa .NET User Group April 27th Corey Roth on Automated Web Testing

dbottjer — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 20:42:02 GMT

When: April 27th, 2009

Where:

TCC (Tulsa Community College) Northeast Campus

3727 East Apache

Tulsa, OK 74115

918-594-8000

Intro Presentation:

Geek Speak: How Geeks Can Communicate with the Rest of the Business World

Business Presentation Strategist Shari Alexander is going to share with use the secrets behind successful presentations. She will help you become more persuasive and influential in your communications and, more importantly, show you how to create a technical presentation that doesn't make your listeners' heads hurt. Come and learn the speaking skills that will help you make a positive impression on your clients and supervisors.

Shari Alexander is the founder and president of Presenting Matters, LLC, a business presentation consulting firm. She has works with executives, international speakers, along with other organizations and individuals that want results-driven business presentations.

Shari started out as an actress at a young age. She carried her passion to college, where she was a theatre major. She later gained extra training at the University of London and studied under directors from the Globe Theatre. She then ventured into an actor's life. It was then that she soon realized the term "starving actor" was meant to be taken literally.

Shari founded Presenting Matters when she discovered her unique ability to combine her theatrical background with a marketing perspective and influential communications. This is how she has helped so many organizations increase revenues, productivity, and employee morale. She is now a professional speaker, corporate communications consultant, and speech and presentation coach.

Shari has been named the 2007 Emerging High Impact Professional Speaker by the National Speakers Association-OK and one of the 2008 Tulsa Top 40 Under 40. Her articles on effective presentations and communication have been published internationally. Her clients have included an front-line sales associates and entrepreneurs to Emmy Award Winning executive and an ESPN announcer.

Main Event:

Speaker: Corey Roth , an Enterprise Consultant at Stonebridge specializing in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 in the Oil & Gas Industry. He has ten years of experience delivering solutions in the energy, travel, advertising and consumer electronics verticals. Corey has always focused on rapid adoption of new Microsoft technologies including Visual Studio 2008, .NET Framework 3.5, LINQ, and SilverLight. He also contributed greatly to the beta phases of Visual Studio 2005. For his contributions, he was awarded the Microsoft Award for Customer Excellence (ACE). Corey is a graduate of Oklahoma State University. Corey is a member of the .NET Mafia (www.dotnetmafia.com) where he blogs about the latest technology and SharePoint.

Corey will present on Automated Web Testing with Visual Studio Team System 2008 Test Edition This no slides talk will show you how to record and script testing of your web application using Visual Studio Team System 2008 Test Edition. You will learn what kind of web applications you can test and what kind of validation rules you can use. This is a great talk for any developer or tester that wants to automate everyday repetitive testing tasks.

Comments:

Shari is an amazing presenter with such passion. This session should not be missed and her tips are of value to anyone in our industry. I have seen Cory speak several times and he is the real deal. Cory has much real world industry experience and it comes through in his talks,.

-Dennis

RSVP Here

Oklahoma City SQL Server Developers Group Kick Off Meeting

dbottjer — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 09:48:38 GMT

Oklahoma City has a new user group thanks to the hard work of Kristin Ferrier. The Oklahoma City SQL Server Developers Group will meet monthly. The Group’s first meeting is Monday April 13th. See details below:

Event Details:

We are excited to invite you to the first meeting of the Oklahoma City SQL Server Developers Group! Mike Hotek, former SQL Pass speaker, has graciously agreed to be our first speaker.

Topic: Q&A with Mike Hotek (open topics are Database Administration and T-SQL in both SQL Server 2005 and 2008)

Mike will be open to questions on the topics of both database administration and T-SQL with respects to both SQL Server 2005 and 2008. This is a format that Mike has used with great success in a variety of presentation arenas, including SQL Pass.

Mike is a SQL Server specialist with three decades of experience as a developer and database professional. He is the Vice-President of FilAm Software Technology, a development company located in the Philippines as well as the Vice-President of MHS Enterprises, a development company based in the Dallas, TX area. He has deployed applications and environments spanning every feature within the SQL Server product as well as authoring/co-authoring 8 books on SQL Server.

When: Monday, April 13th
Time: 6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.
Location: Oklahoma City Downtown Library (300 Park Avenue) on the 4th Floor in the Friends of the Library Room

Socialization time will be from 6:00 p.m. - 6:20 p.m. Mike will then begin taking your questions from 6:20 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.

We would like to thank GDH Consulting for sponsoring the location.
We would, also, like to thank OakTree Software for donating a grand prize for the first meeting. OakTree will donate a 3-day SQL class (value $1,275). It must be a class that is already running. Here is a link to their schedule - http://www.oaktreesoftware.com/course_list.aspx

FYI...No food or drinks will be provided, however, you many bring your own.

Please RSVP at the following link: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=7Mh_2fXhN0wq_2fzCRnTnUGJbQ_3d_3d

Technorati Tags: Oklahoma City,SQL Developers,Oklahoma Developers,Oklahoma User Groups

ASP.NET MVP Again on April Fools… No Joke!

Dennis Bottjer — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 20:28:00 GMT

I just received notification that I am now a three time Microsoft ASP.NET MVP.

Dear Dennis Bottjer,

Congratulations! We are pleased to present you with the 2009 Microsoft® MVP Award! This award is given to exceptional technical community leaders who actively share their high quality, real world expertise with others.

Also in this email:

About your MVP Award Gift
How to access http://www.mvpaward.com to get your technical subscription benefits
Your MVP Identification Number
MVP Award Program Code of Conduct
The Microsoft MVP Award provides us the unique opportunity to celebrate and honor your significant contributions and say "Thank you for your technical leadership."

Toby Richards
General Manager
Community Support Services

Special Thanks:

My Wife Carrie, Daughter Kate, Mom & Dad, Mom and Dad R. and Extended Family (Everyone without a blog that I know and love. :-) )

Suzanna Moran – MVP Lead

Joe Healy – Microsoft DE

Chris Koenig – Microsoft DE

Shawn Weisfeld – C# MVP

Steve Walker – Microsoft MCS

David Walker – Fellow Tulsa MVP

Colin Cole – Microsoft MCS

SpringPoint Coworkers

Andrew Connell (WCM Guru)

The SharePoint Cowboy Eric Shupps

Shari Alexander - Presentation Coach

Michael Lotter – Founder SharePoint Saturday

Becky Isserman – KC Office Geeks

Joel Oleson – SharePoint Consultant

Roy Ashbrook – Friend and Colleague

David Strommer – Friend and Colleague

David McCollough – Friend and Colleague

Chris Barba – Friend and Colleague

The Tulsa .NET and Florida .NET Communities

Technorati Tags: MVP 2009,ASP.NET MVP

Upgraded Vista Business 64 to Windows 7 Ultimate 64

Dennis Bottjer — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 08:17:13 GMT

Introduction

This Sunday I upgraded my DELL Latitude | D830 from Windows Vista Business 64 bit to Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit.

The build version is Windows 7 Beta Build 7000. I ran an upgrade to test how well the setup would play with my currently installed applications and configuration settings. My expectations we met and in some cases exceeded. For example, soon after launching the setup a compatibility checker was launched. This screen scanned my current OS (Vista) to make sure all installed applications were compatible with Windows 7. Next, the upgrade checked if any updates were available and downloaded one small patch. The remaining upgrade steps were essentially automated. The upgrade was very complete but did take some time.

Experience

Reduced Annoyance – There is now a flag in the bottom of the task bar (See Screen Shot Below). Clicking this flag launches the Action Center which allows a user to review operating system issues when they choose. There is an up arrow (See Screen Shot Below) located to the left of the flag which displays a list of currently running applications that have been minimized to the task tray such as Bluetooth.

Window Manipulation – Dragging a window to the top of the screen will automatically expand the window to full screen. If several windows are open shaking the window with current focus will clear the screen.

Send Feedback

To the left of the minimize button on Explorer and Internet Explorer Windows is a Send Feedback link. The Send Feedback link opens the screen below where users can send feedback directly to Microsoft.

64 Bit Support and Application Compatibility

All my existing applications such as Firefox 3.x, Microsoft Office 2007, Mindjet Mind Manager Pro, Live Writer 2009, Live Messenger 2009, Visual Studio 2008, SQL Server 2005, News Gator Inbox, and Xobni are all running fine under Windows 7. Previous, to the upgrade I was having some compatibility issues on Vista 64 with the Windows Live Applications and News Gator Inbox.

Issues

I’ve noticed that the screen seems to not refresh sometimes. However, this could be a video card driver issue.

Note: Video Card = NVIDIA Quadro NVS 135M Driver = Prerelease WDDM 1.1

Technorati Tags: Windows 7,Vista Business Upgrade,Windows 64

Malicious Software Removal Tool Update (Win32/Conficker.b)

Dennis Bottjer — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 11:28:40 GMT

I received the following information from my MVP Lead Suzanna. She asked that we pass it on to help reduce infections.

Malicious Software Removal Tool

History: Win32/Conficker.B

Abstract:

Based on feedback from MVP's and other sources, we are concerned about the rise in reported infections due to the worm Win32/Conficker.B also known as “Downadup.” Though systems which have already applied the out-of-band released MS08-067 in October 2008 are protected, un-patched system user have experienced system lockout and other problems.
Last week, we released a version of the Malicious Software Removal tool (MSRT) that can help remove variants of Win32/Conficker and other resources. Please share this information in your communities to help address this threat.

Background:

Win32/Conficker.B exploits a vulnerability in the Windows Server service (SVCHOST.EXE) for Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003, and Windows 2008. While Microsoft addressed this issue in October with Microsoft Security Bulletin MS08-067, and Forefront antivirus and OneCare (as well as other vendor’s anti-virus products) helped protect against infections, many systems that have not been patched manually through Server Update Services and Microsoft/Windows Update or through Automatic Updates have recently come under attack by this worm. Attacked systems may lock out users, disable our update services and block access to security-related Web sites:

In response to this threat, Microsoft has:
•        Updated the January version of the MSFT to detect and remove variants of Win32/Conficker.B. You can download this version from the MSRT from either the Microsoft Update site or through its associated Knowledge Base article.
•        Created the KB article 962007 “Virus alert about the Win32/Conficker.B worm” to provide public details on the symptoms and removal methods available to address this issue.
•        Announced the release of the items and the virus threat itself on the Microsoft Malware Protection Center blog.

Technorati Tags: Malicious Software Removal Tool,Win32/Conficker.B

REGULAR EXPRESSIONS WITH EXpresso

Dennis Bottjer — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 06:09:06 GMT

Issue:

Regular Expression are quite power especially for validation purposes. Classic examples include password and email validation. However, regular expressions are usually something developers get to work then forget about. I don't work with regular expression everyday so I don't bother memorizing the syntax. So when I do need to use a regular expression in code I usually end up searching the web for an example.

Solution:

A coworker here at SpringPoint Technologies turned me on to Expresso, a free regular expressions authoring tool.

Technorati Tags: Regular Expressions,Expresso

Kansas City Sharepoint Saturday February 7th

dbottjer — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 05:51:20 GMT

Becky Isserman runs the Kansas City Office Geeks User Group and is helping to organize a FREE, all day SharePoint training event, on February 7th. The event is SharePoint Saturday and registration is still open. Several SharePoint guru's from Oklahoma and surrounding states will be in attendance.

David McCoullough and I have submitted two sessions. The first is on improving SharePoint performance and the second is about enabling variations to support Multilingual Portal Requirements.

Kansas City is that far a drive from Tulsa and this is a great opportunity to network and see how others are using SharePoint.

Technorati Tags: SharePoint Saturday,Kansas City Office Geeks,David McCoullough,Dennis Bottjer,SharePoint Presentation,SharePoint Performance Tuning,SharePoint Variations