Steve Mullen’s Blog

From TechNet Edge – SP2 Customer Preview for Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista now available.



Customer Preview Program (CPP) availability for Service Pack 2 for Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista was announced today over at the Windows Client Springboard TechCenter.  MSDN and TechNet subscribers can download the SP2 CPP now, the rest of us will get access on Thursday.

On the server side there are three main features:

• Improved power savings over the RTM release of Windows Server 2008
• Integration of Hyper-V into Windows Server 2008.  SP2 includes the Hyper-V RTM Code.
• All previously released hotfixes and security updates are rolled into SP2.
• For Windows Vista IT Pros will see improvements in:
• Emerging Hardware Support such as the ability to record data on Blu-Ray media, Bluetooth 2.1 feature pack as well as support for the new VIA 64-Bit CPU.
• Improvements in performance including Windows Search 4 that enhances indexing performance and integrating Windows Search into Group Policy.
• A new Wireless Feature Pack and fixes for issues where Wi-Fi Connections were lost after resuming a PC from Sleep.
• A really cool service pack clean-up tool that restores hard disk space by deleting the previous versions of the files serviced by Windows Vista SP2.
• Of course this service pack includes all previously released updates, hotfixes, and patches since the release of Vista Service Pack 1.

Paul Thurrott chimes in with What’s new in Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 SP2?

From Springboard Series: The Resource for Windows Desktop IT Professionals – Windows Vista SP2 – What’s Inside? What’s Important?

From SharePoint Blank by John Anderson – Adding a My Links Web Part

From Realtime Nexus: IT eBook alerts – The Shortcut Guide to IT Service Management and Automation

The Shortcut Guide to IT Service Management and Automation by Rebecca Herold is available.

The Shortcut Guide to IT Service Management and Automation provides an insightful overview of IT service management and the service management life cycle. Author and compliance expert Rebecca Herold demonstrates how technology acts as a strategic differentiator by enabling business growth, driving operational efficiencies to lower maintenance costs, optimizing outcomes, and reducing IT risks.

From SharePoint Joel: Posts – Building Cloud Based Applications of the Future for SharePoint Online and Windows Azure

I think if Developers could grasp these concepts and would start thinking like this, trying to build minimal footprint apps, and where they build their apps tight and with seemless integration into SharePoint with a lightweight client side footprint leveraging a simple javascript "include" mentality with flash, a simple reference passing relevant parameters, even silverlight dropping a bot, the interaction could be as rich as the developers desire and they could manage them the way they want to manage their code… separate from SharePoint.   (Remember this is cloud not intranet.) This is particularly important in the hosted space, and now the sky is the limit when you think of who can consume your cloud service when you build your webparts and gadgets.  Now when you build your gallery, it isn’t a local consumption the world is yours.  As developers move to the hostel model way of thinking I think you’ll see less arguing about modifying custom site definitions, because you won’t be able to touch them.  You’re also much more likely to find a host that will host your aspx pages and assemblies in an isolated while still multi-tennant than you would find a hoster who wants to put your assemblies and code with your SharePoint sites.  Does it restrict what you can do?  Try to think outside the box… Think in the cloud!

Mike Rothman’s (Security Incite Rants) eBay account got compromised.

From PM Hut – How to Report Status on a Project

Your boss has asked you to take the lead on a project in your company. Maybe you are a project manager, or maybe you are not. One thing is certain. Very few people know how to report status on a project, even when they are expert project manager…

From End User SharePoint – JQuery for Everyone: Accordion Left Nav – accordion-style left navigation menu for your SharePoint site.

Richard Bejtlich (TaoSecurity) – Letters You Will Need to Know: 201 CMR 17.00. Richard follow-up on a post at SecurityCurve on 201 CMR 17.00: Standards for The Protection of Personal Information of Residents of the Commonwealth, a new Massachusetts law. Section 17.03 sets the basic tone:

Every person that owns, licenses, stores or maintains personal information about a resident of the Commonwealth shall develop, implement, maintain and monitor a comprehensive, written information security program applicable to any records containing such personal information.