Microsoft

Am I Overdue My MCSE

Richard Green on

When I was previously working for Xerox I got into a great little routine – I would churn out an MCP exam to the tune of one every month or other month. This meant I was well on my way to achieving my MCSE, and with my MCSA already in the bag I had only two exams left:

  • 70-294: Active Directory
  • 70-298: Security for a Windows Server 2003 Network

When I moved to Vocera we all agreed that I could carry on with my training to complete my MCSE and maybe even aim to move onwards to an MCITP for Windows Server 2008 which suited me perfectly as I was planning this all along with or without backing.

It’s amazing how time blazes by you without a second thought until it dawned on me recently!

I was looking at my Microsoft Learning transcript just a week or so ago and I realised that it is now over a year since I sat my last exam – 70-350: ISA Server 2004. This made me realise how behind I have gotten, especially when you consider it may only be another year or so before the Server 2003 exam line is discontinued.

As a result I’ve got my butt into gear and this week I have taken one day’s holiday already, with another to come on Friday with the sole premise of training for the 70-294 exam. After Monday it’s all going well and I was achieving about 80% on the practice exams, so assuming all goes well after more studying on Friday I will be checking myself into the test centre on Monday afternoon to take the exam.

I think that finishing the Active Directory exam will be great weight lifted from me, because I actually started to study for this one prior to leaving Xerox, and having only one exam standing between me and MCSE, I think I should be able to master it up pretty quickly.

Windows Phone (Windows Mobile 6.5)

Richard Green on

Windows Mobile 6.5, now called Windows Phone is the latest mobile OS revision from Microsoft, and it’s a vast improvement from 6.1

I’ve been using it in Beta form on my Touch HD for about six months courtesy of the folks on XDA-Developers and Miri’s WM6.5 ROM for the Touch HD.

The first thing you notice is the Today screen, now referred to as Titanium. This has been inspired by the Zune interface. The whole thing has designed to be finger friendly and require a stylus as little as possible.

Read more…

Sprawl of Windows Phone

Richard Green on

Yesterday (if your American or today if your British) is the official launch of Windows Phone, Windows Phone Marketplace and Microsoft My Phone.

I’ve been using Windows Phone (Windows Mobile 6.5) and Microsoft My Phone for sometime now – Not the Marketplace though as this only opened today.

I’m going to review all three starting with Windows Mobile 6.5, then Marketplace and finally My Phone.

Enjoy x

Roll on the Release Candidates

Richard Green on

Well Microsoft have certainly been busy little bee’s with Windows 7 as a lot of my recent blogs show, but today is the next milestone and not just for Windows 7.

Microsoft today released Windows 7 RC, Windows Server 2008 R2 RC and also the Service Pack 2 for Windows Vista.

Vista users using RTM with the blocker tool will be disappointed to note that this tool has now been removed and will have to upgrade to SP1, however I personally think you should just go all the way to SP2.

Going along with the whole RC & SP release, last week also saw the release of Office 2007 Service Pack 2 which has a lot of stability and performance improvements, which for some will be welcome although I never really see any problems except perhaps in Outlook opening a huge attachment.

Windows 7 RC is available in x86 and x64 builds and is available currently to all TechNet and MSDN subscribers, as is Server 2008 R2 RC, however Windows 7 RC will be making it’s way to the public in the next few days.

Office 2007 Service Pack 2 and Windows Vista Service Pack 2 are both available from the the Microsoft Download Center at www.microsoft.com/downloads.

Have a great weekend.

Microsoft My Phone

Richard Green on

So Microsoft announced a new service called My Phone earlier this week at MWC although it had been floating around various tech sites for a few weeks previously. I registered for the service late last week, and look what  I found in my Inbox this morning.

My Phone is basically a cloud based phone backup application that will synchronize all of your contacts, calendar, tasks, text messages, pictures and video from your device up to the cloud. You can also login to the My Phone website and make changes to content directly on the site, like add new calendar events etc.

Whilst My Phone seems kind of an odd product with Live Mesh already in the field, the two don’t actually overlap with My Phone backing up your phone where as Live Mesh is backing up a specified directory. What would be great would be to see these two services integrated together.

All that we need now Microsoft in a new version of Windows Live Messenger for Windows Mobile that supports MPOP and maybe Windows Live Writer for Windows Mobile?

I’m a PC and I’m 4 Years Old

Richard Green on

I keep seeing this video popping up on various different sites and think it’s cute so wanted to blog it for anyone I know to see. I really need to get Maddy to record a video saying “I’m a PC and I’m 2 Years Oldâ€? 🙂

<br /><a href="http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?vid=533e05d2-9f12-4a86-bdda-efd0455fcd36" target="_new" title="Kylie uses Windows Live Photo Gallery">Video: Kylie uses Windows Live Photo Gallery</a>