Passed 70-341 Core Solutions of Microsoft Exchange Server 2013

This examination was comparatively difficult because of the scarcity of targeted certification study materials and administrators coming from any of the prior versions of Exchange properly got shocked by architectural changes made in 2013 and not many have the opportunity to really hands-on that long to prepare for this examination. Well, since my learning is to equip one-self by the knowledge needed to withstand technological environment risks and integration hassles, I guess it should be even harder for me, right? LOL

Anyway, behold while I list down my study materials.

* Virtual Lab
* Mastering Microsoft Exchange Server 2010
* Exchange Server 2013 Unleashed
* TechNet
* Articles


I need to admit that some of the books are not for the light-hearted whom sole purpose is just to get the certification or simply looking for introductory materials but having read through any of the books will set you the right expectation about the product and administration role of managing the product infrastructure.
Oh well, passing it with 899 is not so bad for me I think. :)




And by the way, Prometric website nowadays seems unreliable. Page error popped up after I made payment and no email notification on anything even though the support replied and said they did, Grrr. And yes, I did check my spam folder. LOL

More exams to come :)

MCTS 70-178 Microsoft Project 2010, Managing Projects

Suddenly I became nostalgic.

You know, Microsoft Project is one of some early batch of software that I used during tertiary education time besides the obvious DOS, Windows operating system, VB (Not .NET you young people!) and et cetera.

I remembered times when being instructed to present my project schedules which ended up with printing of few ten pages of "partial" gantt charts and stitched them together using double sided tapes or glues. Guess not easy to be a project manager during those times. :D

Anyway, transition from the yawning old version of Microsoft Project to the state of the art version of 2010 (2013 on its way) is phenomenal. Number of users grow into millions and with some quarter of them with a chartered PMP qualification. Still, more projects failed in this decade than the total of few previous decades added up. Microsoft Project is just a tool, and it really can't help if you don't understand the essential of managing a project.

Anyway, back to the story of 70-178.

You see, to me, this examination is nothing but just a milestome to tell people that I'm more proficient in using this tool than others. Technically, it's not a tough one either. I have passed various other exams, which I personally think at a different playing field than this exam.

So, don't worry too much if you are taking this exam anytime soon.

What you really need to prepare are:

• Download the trial version/buy the licensed copy of Microsoft Project 2010
• Use the software alot, and explore various of its features
• Understand the basics of project management (If you are a PMP, congrats that you are on a faster track to pass this)
• Read one or more books on Microsoft Project 2010. I scanned through most of them and I think "Microsoft Project" title from Sybex is short and concise (about 400 pages) whereby "Microsoft Project In Depth" from QuantumPM is indeed, in depth (about 1000 pages).

Well, my passing rate of 962/1000 should indicate to you that the preparation materials above are sufficient. Right?

Can't get the damned "Gangnam style" out from my head. Geez.

83-640 TS Windows Server 2008 Active Directory, Configuring

This test is the first virtual lab based certification exam from Microsoft, therefore Nerdy Eddy must go and try it out. That's reason #1. Reason #2 is the demand for me to acquire the proper overall understanding about Active Directory and its configuration thingy and thus to be able to talk to those nasty IT Administrators, especially those bank customers of ours. You might be a vendor like us and if you're dealing with enough customers with relatively large directory-based network infrastructure, you do understand the fact that without a knowledge of the standard operating procedures and configurations (hardening and stuffs) of IT systems, your project might get into troubles, well "preferably" at the end of the testing phase and the start of migration phase. Surprises such as services suddenly went down, network became inaccessible and some weird blockage of program execution can turn your world upside down and when you found out the root of cause, most of the time it's all about subtle policy settings. Lolx. If you're telling me that all these hassles form the experiences of a seasoned technical person, well, wake up and tell yourself that it is all caused by your incapability, insufficient knowledge, unwillingness to learn formally and unable to read a book from cover to index. LOLX.

About 83-640. It's quite a fun testing experience. The test program started one or more virtual machines for you and ask you to perform a series of tasks within timed duration. I guess the step by step process is not important but the end result. You can do the entire tasks in command prompt if you're well verse in it than GUI based tools. Of course, some tasks must be perform using GUI tools.

For my case, there were so called performance labs, each one must be completd within 65 minutes and consists of roughly 7 to 9 tasks. Nonetheless, my task scopes are quite limited to the use of ntdsutil, dnsmgmt.msc, dsa.msc, domain.msc and schmmgmt. I didn't use compmgmtlauncher.exe at all. No tasks for me that're related to monitoring and ADCS, ADFS, ADLDS, ADRMS.

Then after completed the labs, you need to settle a traditional question-based test (30 questions).

I've passed the test with 933 score, not sure it is a good score or not because this is my first MS certification exposure :p

My preparation materials were:


Que MCTS: 70-640 Exam Cram (As main study material)
Windows 2008 Bible (As ad-hoc reference book)
Microsoft Site and TechNet
Some Windows 2008 VM to play with

I'm not sure I want to proceed now to complete MCITP track, unless my work desires more knowledge on network and more MS environment stuffs.

Bill Gates Has Started a New Company, bgC3

Bill Gates has started a mysterious new company, called bgC3, possibly to be focused on creating catalyst business ideas to spin off to Microsoft, the Gates Foundation or elsewhere. Little is known about the company, which doesn't appear to have a public web page, but a fair number of details have been ferreted out by the Seattle area tech reporters Todd Bishop, Eric Engleman and John Cook.

The three well-known tech and venture capital writers posted the story to launch their new tech blog TechFlash. It's a sweet scoop by a group of former mainstream reporters bravely striking out into the blogosphere.

TechFlash says that "whatever the ultimate role of the company, the circumstances surrounding its creation provide a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the new era of Gates' life." The company has a federal trademark as a think-tank and is classified under broad terms that include "scientific and technological services," "industrial analysis and research," and "design and development of computer hardware and software."

Sources told Bishop that the small office near Gates' home is filled with high-tech Microsoft paraphernalia, including one of the touch-screen tables used as a guest book.

We're excited to see what Gates does with the company and we'll be watching these top-notch reporters' coverage as it unfolds on their new site.

IBM bumps Microsoft from second place on brand-value list

IBM has moved past Microsoft to claim the title of second most valuable brand in the world, according to the annual Global Brand List.

Interbrand, a global brand management firm, reported Thursday that IBM’s brand value has increased 3 percent, to $59.03 billion, in 2008. That was enough to push it above Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT), which was assigned a brand value of $59 billion and fell to No. 3.

Coca-Cola, with a brand value of $66.67 billion, claimed the top spot on the list for the eighth year in a row.

In addition to IBM, which has 11,000 employees in Research Triangle Park, several other businesses with significant presences in the Raleigh-Durham area made the list, including: Hewlett-Packard (No. 12, $23.5 billion), Cisco (No. 17, $21.3 billion), Sony (No. 25, $13.6 billion), Caterpillar (No. 66, $5.3 billion) and Johnson & Johnson (No. 90, $3.6 billion).

Changes in the global economy have had a major impact over the years, Jez Frampton, Interbrand’s CEO, said in a statement.

Merrill Lynch, for example, fell from 22nd in 2007 to 34th this year, and AIG fell from 47th to 54th. Bank of America, which has agreed to buy Merrill Lynch for $50 billion, was not among the 100 companies listed. The U.S. government agreed this week to an $85 billion bailout of AIG.

Using Microsoft Active Directory to Store DB2 Catalog Information

Another way to catalog many remote databases automatically is through using LDAP as the storage repository to distribute the catalog information.

In DB2 V8, there are 3 LDAP directory servers supported: IBM SecureWay Directory, Netscape LDAP Server and Microsoft Active Directory. Of these, I will briefly talking about some crucial steps to perform to eliminate obstacles as you trying to use Microsoft Active Directory to publish, store and distribute the node and database catalog information.

Assuming your domain is ibm.com and the machine host name is nerdyeddy. IP Address is 10.10.10.1 and LDAP port is listening at 389.

Firstly, fire up a DB2 Command Line Windows (db2cmd).

Execute the following commands:

db2set DB2_ENABLE_LDAP=yes
db2set DB2LDAPHOST=10.10.10.1:389
db2set DB2LDAP_BASEDN=CN=nerdyeddy,DC=ibm,DC=com
db2stop force
db2start

The above commands are to configure the LDAP connectivity to AD.

Then to register your DB2 Server into AD, do this:

db2 register ldap as MYDB2 protocol tcpip

or if you need to register a remote DB2 server, do this:

db2 register db2 server in ldap as
protocol tcpip
hostname <168.168.168.2>
svcename <50000>
remote
instance

Note: You shall need to replace the command parameters, these enclosed with square brackets accordingly.

If you was unable to run any or all of the above commands due to maybe SQL3276N eror, SQL3278N error or other funny problems, most probably you haven't run the secret setup yet, :p.

Assumining your DB2 is installed at C:\IBM\SQLLIB

Do this in the command prompt:

regsvr32 C:\IBM\SQLLIB\bin\db2ads.dll
db2schex

Basically, the db2ads.dll and db2schex are to properly configure the schema, metadata and other settings in AD to accomodate for DB2 related object classes and properties.

Ok. If your DB2 server is successfully registered in AD, then for now onwards the new databases that you created will be auto published the catalog information in AD for distribution.

If you need to catalogue previously created databases,
use command

Other related commands include:
REGISTER LDAP AS
REGISTER DB2 SERVER IN LDAP AS
CATALOG LDAP NODE
CATALOG LDAP DATABASE
UNCATALOG LDAP DATABASE
UNCATALOG LDAP NODE
DEREGISTER DB2 SERVER IN LDAP NODE
REFRESH LDAP NODE DIRECTORY
REFRESH LDAP DB DIRECTORY
ATTACH TO

Good luck.

Microsoft after Gates, Bill without Microsoft

Posted by Steven Musil

As Bill Gates prepares to walk away from Microsoft, both the man and the company he founded will face challenges getting along without each other, according to the new issue of Newsweek magazine.

Gates, who is stepping down from his full-time role at Microsoft this week to focus on his $37 billion charitable foundation, is the subject of an article that profiles Microsoft's successes and failures during his tenure, as well as the difficult transition the company and its founder will likely face. (CNET News.com plans to publish its own retrospective on Gates' departure, but in the meantime, you might want to refresh yourself with some stories from when the transition was announced.)

We will likely be seeing more of Bill Gates with people such as U2 front man Bono (like in this video), working on famine relief and education.

(Credit: Corinne Schulze/CNET News.com)While the Newsweek story mentions Microsoft's challenges in antitrust probes, Windows Vista versus Windows XP, and the Internet search arena, the story also offers intimate perspectives from the people who know him the best, as well as Gates himself.

"He's not just Bill Gates, he's the Bill Gates," Steve Ballmer, Microsoft's CEO and Gates' right-hand man for decades:


He founded the company, he's accumulated this wealth, he's got this foundation, he's got this fame. That's irreplaceable. Also, Bill grew up with every one of the technologies in this company. He's got more capacity to remember things than anybody I've ever known. It's unlikely we'll have anybody again who has that breadth.

Gates was also responsible for stoking the fires of urgency at the software giant, said Ray Ozzie, who took over Gates' job as chief software architect:

A lot of the company's strength is that Bill created a culture of crisis--if there weren't a Google, we'd have to make one. This is a period of unprecedented strength for the company. If there had to be a time when Bill transitioned out, we couldn't have set it up better than it is right now.

Paul Allen, who co-founded the company with Gates, remarked from the perspective of his own departure from the company in 1983:


You don't always realize how dramatic that transition is going to be when people aren't depending on your decisions day by day.

So how about Bill? Is he going to miss being in the trenches, slugging it out with Apple, Google, and Mozilla? It doesn't sound like it from what he told the magazine:


This whole thing about which operating system somebody uses is a pretty silly thing versus issues involving starvation or death.

Rupert Dumps Jerry, Going to Prom with Steve

Rupert Dumps Jerry, Going to Prom with Steve

Posted Apr 10, 2008 12:20pm EDT by Aaron Task in Investing, Internet, Media, Newsmakers

Related: MSFT, YHOO, GOOG, NWS, TWX
Depending on your perspective, Rupert Murdoch is either a shameless cad or brilliant tactician.

Shortly after Microsoft's unsolicited bid, Murdoch approached Yahoo's Jerry Yang to offer News Corp.'s support in fending off Redmond's advance, The Times reports. Now, two months later, Murdoch's firm is talking with Microsoft about aiding its effort to acquire Yahoo.

Playing both sides of the deal may look unsavory, but it's a prudent business strategy, says Robert Cyran of Breakingviews.com.

Indeed, it is the "outsiders" like News Corp. and Google who have benefited the most from the Microsoft-Yahoo saga. The former is positioned to play a role with either firm on the most favorable terms, while the latter is benefiting from its rivals' distraction.

Google seems poised to win no matter what the outcome, but it rarely pays to underestimate Rupert Murdoch: A successful three-way deal is difficult to pull off, but a MySpace-MSN-Yahoo combination would be a formidable competitor even Google could not easily defeat.

I-POWER and Microsoft? A better couple than with IBM?

LOCAL PARTNERSHIPS KEY TO SUCCESS IN BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE (BI) SPACE, SAYS MICROSOFT





Fostering local partnerships key to success in Business Intelligence space Representing the two companies are (L-R) Chin Jun Fwu – Product Marketing Manager, Application Platform, Microsoft Malaysia, Ng Wai Mun, Director of Server and Tools, Business Marketing Organisation, Microsoft Malaysia, Gorman Siah - Director of Software Solutions, I-Power Berhad and Peter Tam, Senior ISV Manager, Microsoft Malaysia.

Wednesday, September 26, 2007 – The decision-making process is critical to organisations seeking to improve competitiveness and profitability. But with recurring types of problems, this process can often lead to automation, which can be detrimental when it involves processes that touch on suspicious transactions, setting prices, recommending products and services, extending credit or monitoring product quality.

Business intelligence (BI) is no longer a luxury for a few large companies, and is an essential part of the IT portfolio used across the world to help understand the health of the organization, said Chin Jun Fwu, Product Marketing Manager for Application Platform, Microsoft Malaysia Sdn Bhd. “At its core, BI is all about collaborating on a shared view of business drivers and to reduce the time spent on decision-making.”

“Business intelligence is not a new technology - it has been around for over 10 years - and remains a top spending priority for foresighted organisations. IDC reports that the market for business intelligence is worth over US$13 billion worldwide, and forecasts an 8% year-on-year growth over the next three to five years.

“However, given these points of optimism and recent customer surveys which have shown the tremendous returns on investment for business intelligence, industry reports tell us that business intelligence has only reached close to 20-30% of its potential in organizations,” Chin added.

Toward this end, Microsoft SQL Server Business Intelligence provides end users with software support that matches their natural decision-making processes rather than simply receiving reports without any context – enabling greater consistency in the way business decisions are made.

Some of its key benefits to organisations include:
§ Capturing the decision-making processes of the best performers, thus improving the overall quality and consistency of your decision-making process.
§ Providing support for collaboration, since decision-making is most often a collaborative process.
§ Providing forward-looking insights by integrating planned and forecasted information with actual historical facts and allowing changes to future plans and forecasts to facilitate what-if solutions for future events.
§ Providing rule management capabilities or integrate with a rules engine in order to make decisions actionable. Translate a policy or rule into the specific form required by each relevant operational system.
§ Capable of capturing what decisions were made and why. The resulting repository of decisions (the decision base or knowledge base) anchors a learning environment and provides a persistent record to address compliance demands.

“We believe that Microsoft SQL Server provides an ideal solution to this situation, and makes the barrier to entry to the business intelligence club so low that there is no reason not to make business intelligence systems a core part of the corporate infrastructure of even the smallest companies,” Chin added.

Business Intelligence unearths the inside story
Microsoft Malaysia had earlier hosted an event with their independent software vendor (ISV) partners to help customers understand how they can put the effects of business intelligence into their organizations.

The event saw six key ISVs showcase their respective business intelligence solutions. Among them was I-Power Berhad who spoke about the value of business intelligence, and the strength of Microsoft’s SQL Server as the platform of choice.

“We believe that Microsoft’s next generation of data management and analysis solutions will deliver increased security, scalability and availability to enterprise data and analytical applications while making them easier to create, deploy and manage. This is the heart of the business intelligence challenge, and we believe Microsoft – through SQL Server – has the best platform to help ISVs meet them,” said Gorman Siah, Director of Software Solutions, I-Power Berhad.

“Microsoft provides the best platforms for local ISVs to innovate and create new IP – as testified by I-Powers commitment to choosing Microsoft as the platform of choice for the development of their business intelligence suit of services. We have a larger partner ecosystem comprising some 5,000 partners and 800 ISVs such as I-Power, and we believe that it is the strength of such partnerships that will prove crucial in driving the success of business intelligence in Malaysia and around the world,” said Peter Tam, Senior ISV Manager, Microsoft Malaysia.