The Energized Tech

Let’s get a quick run down of Microsoft Techdays Canada 2009.  What is it?

Two Days, Five Tracks, Seven Venues, THIRTY SESSIONS and infinite Wisdom!  Sessions brought forth by over FOURTY of the top people in their field.

In short a massive barrage of well formed and tight knit training targeting what YOU need to know.  Created from suggestions and input from the IT and Development Community.   Microsoft Canada brings forth Techdays, but you helped create the input for the content desired.

The tracks available are covering so MUCH information.  Just look!

And where and when is Microsoft Techdays Canada 2009 being held?

Didn’t I say SEVEN LOCATIONS? YEP.  One near you.  Clicking on the hyperlinks to the right of each city will bring you DIRECTLY to the Microsoft Techdays Canada 2009 Registration page with the SPECIAL LOWER THAN EARLY BIRD Discount code already keyed in.    That code, in case you’re stuck is TDUGVID

There you have it.  Microsoft Canada Techdays 2009.   The Greatest Cornucopia of Information!  Use the Special registration discount code of TDUGVIP to get the low low price of $249 vs the regular price of $599 or Early Bird price of $299.

If you click on any of the above links for registration, you will find the code pre-populated for your purchasing convenience.

You're hearing it here first.   Hot off the presses.    So hot I had to shut my system down twice from overheating.

This is something you must take advantage of *NOW*.  The pricing for Microsoft Techdays Canada has been pulled out for you my friends.

Even venue will hold a TWO DAY session jam picked with the greatest mass amount of training you can cram into your brain.

Training covering areas from the Client end to the Backend for both Infrastructure IT Pro type guys like me andf Stuff that will keep the Developers in your company drooling and too busy to ask for more ram. 

$599 is the full price for Two JAM PACKED days of training. 

BUT WAIT! You'd like to save money right?

Well Guess What I've Got?

Something you can use right now and share.

A Major discount! 

Not a little $2 coin either.

How about "HALF OFF!".

That's right.  Early registrations get in at $299!  Just use this discount code TDUGVIP Put that in perspective.   Try to get training at ANY center for that price at a private course.   This is up to *30* available sessions across FIVE DIFFERENT TRACKS! Developing for the Microsoft Based Platform, Developer Fundamentals and Best Practices, Windows Client, Servers Security and Management and even Communications and Collaborations!

Just WHERE are you going to be able to dive into THAT much available training at that price?

So what are you waiting for ?

Seize the OPPORTUNITY of a lifetime!  Get the EARLY BIRD REGISTRATION price right now!  USE Access code TDUGVIP .  That's right TDUGVIP.  Just think "THAT DOGGONE UNBELIEVABLE GIVEN VERY IMPORTANT PROFESSIONAL" Price!

And it's for you!  You if you jump on the opportunity now.  

REGISTER ONLINE NOW and seize the opportunity before all is booked up.   Seven locations this year all across Canada.  Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Winnipeg, Vancouver, Calgary and THIS YEAR!  For all of you on the east Coast!  HALIFAX.

One in a Major Metropolitan area near *YOU*

So no excuses. 

That that Early bird code TDUGVIP register online RIGHT NOW at www.techdays.ca before Registrations are full

Your brain will thank you later :)

Shhhhh….

I’ve got a secret that I’m going to share.

Details will be here tomorrow morning, if you’re reading this Blog if you read this post.  Echo it.  Retweet it.  Share it with all your friends here in Canada and anybody else who might be interested.

I’ll have full details tomorrow morning.   There’s a little discount code you’re going to see.  You’ll want this.

Grab it.  Share it with your boss.  Share it with your neighbour.  Seize the opportunity of a lifetime for TWO SOLID DAYS of INTENSE TRAINING with Industry Specialists.  Two days of raw uninhibited Technology.   A PERFECT excuse to get away from WORK for TWO DAYS!

And I promise you… 

This will be worth it

Microsoft Canada Techdays 2009

It’s RETURNING!  And Special Pricing will be available tomorrow!  Watch and don’t miss it!

Microsoft Canada Techdays 2009

Details tomorrow… Don’t Miss it!

I have nothing against Sony or their products but if you have a Sony Playstation 3, avoid the update to 2.76.  Apparently there have been quite a few issues as evidenced by this YouTube video reporting on the issue.

Now In my opinion, any manufacturer, no matter who, can mess up.  People are imperfect.

But in the industry it’s important on how you resolve the issue.

Sony will charge you money to fix your system after an automatic Sony firmware update disables or cripples the unit.

I love the comments from these guys.   Everybody knocks Microsoft.   But what was interesting was this simple statement.

“At least when my Xbox gets the Red Ring of Death, Microsoft fixes it for free…”

That’s important statement made by a customer.  It’s not just always about the product, it’s how support that product both when the good and the bad happens.   Microsoft seems to be willing to take the loss for their customers in order to retain them long term.

I think Sony could take a page from this regarding their automatic Firmware updates killing off a system or crippling it.

Before they stop me.  I wasn’t supposed to let you know but this is so unstoppably amazing you’ll flip

If you went to Techdays_CA 2008 last year you’ll be getting an e-Mail Tuesday.   Whatever you do, make sure you use it and take advantage of it!

Hurry quick.  I wasn’t supposed to let anybody know about this but it’s too late!  So seize the opportunity.   It may never happen twice in your life!

WATCH THE EMAILS TUESDAY! IT’S WORTH YOUR WHILE!

Signing off!

Sean
The Energized Tech

It’s coming.

Riding almost on top of the Launch of Windows 7!

Microsoft Techdays 2009, right here in Canada.

And guess what?

If you keep your eyes open on Monday, a little thing might be here for you to take away.  

Maybe save some money?  Never a bad idea.

Watch here and find out how.

Ok here’s the thing.

You’re a tech like me, you don’t carry a bag full of DVD’s to get scratched.  You have an army of ISO files.  Backup media, potential Boot media.  Perhaps even downloads from Technet.

So if you have Windows 7 and you need to make a DVD of that or CD? 

Done.  Built into the O/S and life is good!

But what if you have Vista, Windows XP?  Or what if (just if) that silly ISO file won’t burn to the DVD?

Here you are not dead in the water.

I’ve run into a few good programs (most good techs will know about them, it’s nothing new) that provide a good solid alternate ISO burning capability to you.

Cost? Nil.  Nada.

But you should chip in to the developer, they’re worthy every penny.

The most common one, dead simple and almost never ever fails is the ISO Recorder made by Alex Feinman.  It’s saved my Bacon more than once with an older laptop.

Another good one I ran into recently (because for whatever reason my brain shutoff and I couldn’t find Mr. Feinman’s excellent program) is IMGBURN.  It seems to be a little more powerful than the previous ISO Burner and has a bigger fancier wizard.   But like it’s the previous one, dead simple just install and away you go.

The end result in both cases is the ability to burn ISO file’s to CD / DVD on the fly.  Handy in situations where you’ve got a burner and no ISO burning software.  (more common than you think)

And of course if you’d like to be friendly to the environment, I like to just mount those suckers and save the DVD or CD whenever possible.   The Virtual CloneDrive from SlySoft is another “Free yet great to use” utility.  Install it and you can mount those ISO files like just another CDrom, without having an actual CD rom part :)

Oh and didn’t I mention the best part?

As of this writing, No spyware, malware, infectware, bugware, pestware, lieware, uselessasanythingware stuck in ANY of these programs.

Sean
The Energized Tech

Microsoft is one big company.  One of the reasons I like dealing with them and their people is they do give back to the community daily.

Including providing some free resources.  

Sometimes even just slicing the cost of those resources down.   I mean if you don’t have the training, you can’t use the technology effectively right?

I was poking about on the E-learning catalogs last night when I noticed some feeds down the side I thought I would share with the rest of you.  Their not “deep dark and hidden” but it’s something we can all share.

The two I thought you might all want to share in are particularly the Free Products feed and Special Offers.  If you subscribe to these RSS feeds you might find all sorts of stuff available for online training, some free books from time to time or other specials offered by Microsoft.   The free courses are sometimes normally $350 when taken online, so this isn’t something that should just be ignored.

It’s an opportunity you shouldn’t miss!

Another opportunity to seize is the Career Assist Package and Second Shot Offer.   Hurry on this.  The Career Assist Package ends June 30th 2009!

What the career assist package *IS* is 90% of a Microsoft E-Learning course.  So instead of paying $350 for one of those courses that aren’t free?  $35! 

And the second Shot is simple.  If you write a certification exam and fail, (because these things are expensive) You you RE-Take it one more time for free!  

Because it’s all about community.

Take advantage of these offers and follow those RSS feeds.  There’s almost always some free things in there for both Developers AND ItPros alike.

Sean
The Energized Tech

Had one I got to stumble over a few times.

A misbehaving Blackberry. 

Now before the diehards come out of the crevices, I work with Technology.  Not just Microsoft, not just Apple or Linux.  Technology.

And I don't care *WHO* you talk to, I've spent enough time on enough devices to create one Truth.

THEY ALL BREAK.  That's the nature of the beast.  Sometimes big, sometimes small. 

But they all fail.

In the past 6 months I've seen Blackberry's

*** Fail from a damaged USB connector

*** Unit completely Give and die

*** Weird email things

*** DOA

But in all fairness sometimes they are fixable for stupid reasons.  In the case of the Blackberries it's the infamous "Service Books".  Service books are their lifeline, their configuration about various aspects of the unit.

Think of a service book as a file.   Ever seen a file go bad?  I have.  It's digital.  It's run off power.  Power fails.  Batteries get weak.   Information gets corrupted.

So in my case I had a couple of Blackberries (including my Boss') go bad.   They would either send email but not receive or receive but not send.

I went to one extreme (Complete format because it was the boss' Blackberry and it had to be 100% perfect) to actually digging for an answer (because time was not on my hands to do a proper fix)

Turns out in both cases (thanks to a little search in some Blackberry forums) you needed to delete a Service Book called "Desktop(Cmime)" who's job it is to deal with Email flow (or at least part of it).

Now normally you just "Resend the Service books" and life gets good.   *RIGHT*

But I tried that and “NOTHING WORKED” even after deleting the “DESKTOP(Cmime)” Service book and resending it.  It just wouldn’t appear.

But it turns out that if you tether (Plug in the USB cable and try to sync), sometimes that’s what needed to get the service book to “load” 

Well son of a gun.   Once it was tethered, it began to pull down the service book via USB! Bing!  Unit was running again.

But the other extreme is an apparent "Dead" Blackberry.  I say apparent because there is a Base boot code on them.  Very base.   So apparently the other trick if you're REALLY dead in the water is to charge the bebingers out of it, download an updated firmware for the Blackberry from your local provider for that model, Install the firmware update on the PC, and then apply that firmware to the Unit via the Blackberry desktop Manager.

Here's the catch.   If the unit is "mostly dead" (as opposed to an actual "BRICKED") unit You can go into Desktop Manager, choose "Application Loader", Select "Update Software" WHILE THE BLACKBERRY IS *NOT* Attached.

When you see the slightly grey box that says

Follow this sequence EXACTLY

1) Connect USB cable to Blackberry with Battery removed and *IMMEDIATELY* click “OK” when the ok Button lights up.  IGNORE ANY WEIRD INFORMATION UNDER “PIN” like UNIDENTIFIED.  THIS IS NORMAL

Apply the software update.   Once the procedure begins, connect the battery and cross your fingers.  This process can take quite a while.  It will fail if you have a bad battery.   Get a Charged battery or at least a CHARGEABLE battery.  

But if you’re dead in the water on the Blackberry this could breathe life into it.  Please note.  Oddly enough the firmware update process works on Windows Vista but NOT on Windows 7.  The procedure does detect but somewhere it hangs on Windows 7.

So just in case you’re stuck, before you launch that Blackberry into the middle of a major Highway, here’s a failsafe.   I’ve successfully revived about 5 “Mostly Bricked” units this way.  

But sometimes they are just toast, and if that’s the case?  Personally go by a nice new Smartphone and give up on the Blackberry :)

Sean
The Energized Tech