In my last post, we started down the path of reviewing parts of the discussion I had with FullArmor's CTO Danny Kim. Throughout that post Danny was talking about FullArmor's background and how their Azure based solutions: AppPortal and PolicyPortal came into existence. In this post, we continue to dive further into the really great background story that Danny was telling and learn about how FullArmor's solutions are actually be put to use to solve some very real problems in an emerging market. Read more
A couple of weeks ago, I learned about a very interesting technology project that was going on in Africa. In short, the Ethiopian government was trying to improve the quality of life for their citizens by advancing the effectiveness of their education system. One of the paths they had chosen was to deploy laptops to all of their primary and secondary school teachers and to find a means to both centrally manage those laptops and to distribute applications and information to the teachers. Read more
I do not know about you, but for the past couple of days my inbox has received several emails claiming to be from Microsoft while touting links to updates for Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express. :>) Naturally, I clicked on those links right-away and installed me some updates (not).
However, in all honesty, I was surprised at the level of effort that the sender went through in making this phishing email look more "authentic". For example: Read more
For some time now there has been a really great security feature that was introduced in Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP. This feature was designed primarily to help administrators keep unwanted programs (like malware) off of their systems. No, this feature is not called AppLocker. :>) Instead, it was called: "Software Restriction Policies (SRPs)". Read more
Considering that PSH v2.0 is slowly making its way down the aisle it is fast becoming time that we started looking towards updating the 2nd edition of the Unleashed book. However, a lot has changed not only with PSH itself, but with many of the "things" that now rely upon it. So, it might be in the best interest of everyone if (the authors included) we ensure that changes to the book address of need. Read more
Yup, this is why I stopped throwing up Windows 7 postings. For the past two to three weeks, I have been testing and deploying an Exchange 2010 environment. Sadly, while doing this the RC came out. Yet, another thing I need to circle around to.
Anyhow, because I like sharing. I wanted to make a couple comments about the deployment: Read more
It seems like the chatter around some impending Windows 7 vs. Linux faceoff has been exponentially increasing these past couple of weeks. I do not know about you, but I find it somewhat humorous. After all, the fan boys are getting widely excited. And, from reading all of the comments flying around one might think this is some kind of no holds bar, dirt encrusted, choose your own weapon, cage match of death.
In fact, let's just call this Thunderdome! Read more
The other day, I saw this really cool blog posting by the Directory Servers team titled: Read more
Configuring an Authoritative Time Server with Group Policy Using WMI Filtering. Basically, in our every ending quest to ensure time is sync'ed the posting show how to use WMI Filtering to force certain GPO settings upon the PDC emulator. :>)
I'm not sure if everyone saw this announcement on the PowerShell blog, but sharing and sharing again is always a good practice. Basically, the PowerShell Summer Scripting Games of 2009 have been officially announced. But... what is really great about this announcement is the fact that the games is being held in collaboration with PowerShellCommunity.org and PoshCode.org. Read more
Over the past couple of months I have been working a lot with CLM 2007. During this time, I wrote a bunch of custom reports, built a notifications module, and tweaked a number of other things to get CLM kinda of the way it should have been (out of the box). Naturally, while doing all of this I have gotten to know the structure of the CLM database a bit better. And, considering that there is very little documentation about CLM and how to customize it. I figured that some sharing of my notes from the notifications module I developed might be in order. Read more
Ok, I'm back from Ishigaki and its time to try and wrap up this BranchCache stuff. Once this is done, my plan is to then move on to other Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 features. But, for this post let's focus on the remaining BranchCache topics.
As I hinted in my last post, BranchCache is kind of a BlackBox. When it's working, users shouldn't notice anything. On the flip side, when BranchCache is not working, users will still probably not really notice anything (besides a performance hit). Read more
Hurray! Odd title, but I'm getting ready to head down to Ishigaki for Golden Week. So, I wanted to share a couple of things before I headed out the door. Read more
In my last post, I started down the path of explaining how to setup and configure BranchCache in Distributed Cache mode. In this posting, I will finish up explaining how to configure Distributed Cache mode, and then talk how you test, verify, and troubleshoot the configuration if need be. Read more
Yes… I keep getting yelled at. Post your results, talk about more details… So, as promised this is the first post in a series of posts that will dive into the technical details about Windows 7 BranchCache. Once you have all been satisfied, I plan on discussing other subjects/features from Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. Read more
A couple weeks ago, I quietly posted the beginnings of a SharpSSH module on Read more
PoshCode: Link This module was based on
Joel’s functions (Link), and for the most
part kinda works. However, the underlying SharpSSH assembly has some issues
with it, as mention by Joel in his post about his functions, and through my
experience from scrapping together this very basic module. Thus, this assembly
needs some work, or something better needs to be put together.
Name one thing better than spending the late afternoon looking at Terminator exoskeletons?
The other day, I was able to make my way down to Odaiba (Tokyo Teleport Town, a showcase for futuristic living, with new residential and commercial development housing a population of over 100,000). It just happened that at the Miraikan science museum they were having a Terminator 4 show. Read more
A couple of people were wondering why my last post didn't include actual results from my Branch Cache testing. Well... my last post wasn't meant to actually talk about the results from my testing (thus the lack of results). Instead, I was trying to share something. That being said, I figured I would start sharing some of my results... I seemed only fair. Read more
Unless you have been in a closet for the past couple of months, one of the new features in Windows 7 is called Branch Cache. For some time now, I've been meaning to test this feature, and over the past couple of weeks I managed to squeeze in time to take a closer look.
First off, for those not familiar with what Branch Cache does here is how Microsoft defines it: Read more
Oddly enough, I've been spending a lot of time explaining what cloud computing is. So considering that there are some really good explanations out there... I decided to share two of my favorite. The first one is from salesforce.com, and is pretty good:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ae_DKNwK_ms
The second one is made by... well, I'm not really sure, but I think this one is pretty cool:
A very good question is posed in this article: Top 10 technology skills
Why yes... it all depends. How about that for an answer? Given, I could have also answered the question with another question. For example, "What necessity are you referring to?" or "What would the person be doing?" and so on. Read more
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With more than ten years of experience in IT, Tyson Kopczynski has become a specialist in Active Directory, Information Assurance, Windows automation, PKI, and IT security practices. Tyson is also the founding author of the Windows PowerShell Unleashed series and has been a contributing author for such books as Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server 2006 Unleashed and Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Unleashed. He has also written many detailed technical papers and guides covering various technologies. As a consultant at Convergent Computing, Tyson works with and provides feedback for next generation Microsoft technologies since their inception and has also played a key role in expanding the automation and security practices at CCO. Tyson also holds such certifications as the Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), the SANS Security Essentials Certification (GSEC) and SANS Certified Incident Handler (GCIH), and the MCTS (Application Platform, Active Directory, and Network Infrastructure).
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