Tech Ed 2006: Recap

OK… So I didn't blog from Tech Ed like I was originally gooing to. A lot of it came down to time and a crappy battery in by notebook computer. The hotel I was in only offered in-room Internet access for a surcharge. I had to go down to the lobby to use the "free" wi-fi for guests. I mainly used my time on the wi-fi forkeeping up with work e-mails and checking out news sites. I was pretty much only in the hotel to sleep. During the rest of the day, I was either at Tech Ed or out doing something else.

On Monday, the Expo floor was open so I was at the convention center late. On Tuesday, we took a client out to dinner then checked out Cheers with them. On Wednesday, I turned in early. On Thursday, wehad the attendee party at Fenway. I went nuts taking pictures there. I guess I'll have to get a flickr account and put them up but that might be a while — I'll get to that on my next post.

While I was there, I attended a number of good sessions. I already posted about Longhorn. Also, let me just say it's looking like Exchange 2007 is going to be absolutely awesome.

I was able to pass 3 exams while on site. I hadn't really planned to take any. After talking with my colleagues I went with, I decided I would be stupid not to at least give one a try. They were offering the exams at 1/2 price for the first 700 taken and Microsoft is currently offering the 2nd Shot promotion (you get a free second try at an exam if you fail it the first time). I passed 70-350 on Tuesday. After I passed that, I used the same reasoning to give 70-298 a shot on Wednesday and 70-285 on Thursday. By Friday morning, my brain was mush.  But I came away with three new passed exams so I was satisfied.

One more thing:  I gained 5 lbs during the trip.  Tons of food at Tech Ed. 

Tech Ed 2006: Sustenance

I have to say, I've been rather impressed with whoever Microsoft put in charge of feeding the Tech Ed attendees.  I think I clogged an artery at breakfast on Monday but overall, the food options have been pretty good.  I'm not fond of the soft drink selection but that's not a huge deal.  The snacks have been varied and plentiful.  Snacks and drink stations are everywhere.  Bravo:  Tech Ed planners.

Tech Ed Day 1: Longhorn Chalk Talk

These are the main points I noted from the Longhorn "Chalk Talk."  These points are not organized and are little more than a transcription of the notes I took.  Keep in mind they are talking about beta software so everything is subject to change at final release.

 

Longhorn Chalk Talk

 

• Beta 3 available 1^st half of calendar year 2007
• 17 roles available in add role wizard so far – Longhorn is not feature complete yet
• The Longhorn codebase branched from Vista at Longhorn Beta 2
  • When Longhorn is released, the codebase will be re-merged
  • So… the codebase in the released Longhorn will be Vista SP1
• Longhorn R2 is slated for 2009
• Long horn is Windows Server 200x – the x will be determined at release.  It depends on which fiscal year it’s released.
• There will be an option for a read-only DC (they’re calling it a “really cool BDC”)
• It will have advancements for ADFS
  • Federated SharePoint and federated Rights Management Services planned so far
• ADAM is being called Lightweight Directory Services
• New feature:  Terminal Services Gateway à RDP over HTTPS
  • New RDP client:  RDP 6.0
• Terminal Services Remote programs – like Citrix published  applications
• Drag and Drop coming to terminal services in Beta 3
• There are no server roles installed by default with Longhorn (Beta 2 installs File Server role, though)
• A new type of installation:  Server Core
  • At this time, only includes DNS, DHAP, AD, File server services
  • No GUI
  • No .NET framework
  • 500 MB footprint
  • Being called the “perfect branch office DC”
• Longhorn will be their last server OS with a 32-bit version (they’ll also have a 64-bit version
  • Longhorn R2 will be 64-bit only
• Hypervision – this wasn’t clear to me.  It has something to do with Virtual Server
• Windows Deployment Services replaces RIS
  • Being added to Server 2003 SP2
  • SP2 for 2003 is also adding Group Policy support for WPA2
• Restartable AD –Stop AD services, repair, restart – no rebooting in another mode
• Features of Storage Server will be in Longhorn – it sounded like not until R2 of Longhorn
  • Feature like Single Instance Storage of files
• Sysvol replication will use Remote Differential Compression – like what DFS uses
• There will be USB device redirection in RDP
• Adm files will be stored as XML files and called admx files
  • You will be able to add comments to group polices and search for policies based on these comments
• Longhorn will support Exchange 2003 and SQL 2005.  It will not support SQL 2000
• Network Access protection.  It’s kind of like VPN quarantine.  You can perform a “System Health Check” to determine whether a system can have access to the network
• They’re claiming rootkits should be a thing of the past

Tech Ed 2006 Day 0: Keynote

I was rather unhappy about the Tech Ed Keynote.  They were pushing "software as a service" again.  Clien/Server/Service.  Hath we learned nothing from Divx?  What happens when a business gets totally reliant on a particular service and the provider folds or decides it's just not profitable enough anymore?  Do you really want to trust a third-party with all of your proprietary business information?
Also, Ray Ozzie told us all about the vast amounts of land both Google and Microsoft have purchased in Oregon and Washington. These are supposedly for huge datacenters to house all the data that would need to be stored along with running these services. It seems to me this is a case of everyone going backwards. What happened to the strength of the Internet being distributed and any problem just gets routed around. It seems to me they're building a humongous single point of failure. My boss pointed out that they're even near a dam — one disaster could beget another.

Tech Ed 2006: Getting there

So… I made it to Boston OK.  I had a headache before I even got on the plane.  They need to start making the seats bigger.  My legs are even with the button to recline the seat and are right up against it.  If I'm not careful, it's easy for me to accidentally push it in and surprise whoever's behind me.

The hotel isn't all that impressive for how expensive it is.  In-room Internet access is only available for a surcharge.  There's no complimentary breakfast.  The shower is made for people no taller than 5'0.  I'm 6'4.  Boston Sheraton:  It's teh suck!

What sucked even harder is my dinner on Sunday.  We went to Legal Seafoods, which several people had told me was the best seafood place in Boston.  Unfortunately, my headache got progressively worse and I could hardly eat anything.  Ugh. 

Bring on Tech Ed