Brad Bird at myITforum.com

OWSUG February Event: Lync Server 2010 - One year after unleashing the LYNCs

Rantings of an IT Pirate — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 23:47:00 GMT

David Marks shares his experiences from the past year with his project to introduce Microsoft Lync Server 2010 at one Government of Canada department. A demonstration of the tools available for the planning and deployment of a Microsoft Lync environment...(read more)

OWSUG and Microsoft sponsored IT Virtualization Boot Camp in Ottawa

Rantings of an IT Pirate — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 19:49:59 GMT

These events are live and they’re HOT. 40 seats per event but they’re not free. The event cost is $25/person and registration is NOT optional. 40 seats is a HARD limit because that is the number of computers. Payments are collected via...(read more)

STEP Event from January OWSUG meeting Deploying Windows 7 for Enterprises of ANY size–Still waiting?

Rantings of an IT Pirate — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 03:18:10 GMT

This presentation was popular and very well received. Members asked me to post the slides so here they are! Right Click link and Choose Save As to download Windows 7 for Enterprises of ANY size–Still waiting?...(read more)

Weird Bug/Limitation in the SCOM 2007 R2 Maintenance Mode Scheduler from the Administration Toolkit

Rantings of an IT Pirate — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 20:34:39 GMT

I have been fighting with the maintenance mode scheduler for a fair bit of time at this customer of mine. They have a significant challenge. They have pods of web and DB servers with F5 load balancers which they rotate on a schedule to synchronize...(read more)

New SCOM AD MP guide references the wrong MP version

Rantings of an IT Pirate — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 19:46:58 GMT

The Active Directory Management Pack was just updated to version 6.0.7670 in September 2011. The last time this MP was updated was October 2009. I am very glad to see that the MP has been re-released and that it comes with guidance as to the monitoring...(read more)

Ottawa IT Community speakers Idol Nov. 2nd at DevTeach Ottawa

Rantings of an IT Pirate — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 12:31:29 GMT

Do you like to share your IT knowledge with others? Do you know a tip, trick or a feature that can save time for others and you would like to share it? Well, Ottawa Speaker Idol is your solution and there is still time to submit your session proposal...(read more)

I truly value the help that Microsoft gives to Partners to help them succeed

Rantings of an IT Pirate — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 15:01:21 GMT

I work mainly with Microsoft technologies and I find that as an organization, they truly help to empower us to find the information and get the help we need. Now I know online resources have been done to death, actually I recently watched a really...(read more)

Drastic Changes to the F5 Management Pack for SCOM 2007 R2

Rantings of an IT Pirate — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 17:55:27 GMT

I just received this alert from the SCOM MP Group on DevCentral that I am following: Subject: F5 Management Pack is ready to be ordered We are pleased to announce that we have converted the F5 Management Pack for Microsoft System Center Operations Manager...(read more)

No Images Display in Scheduled Reports Once Deployed

Rantings of an IT Pirate — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 18:59:13 GMT

Using SCOM 2007 R2 once a SQL Reporting Services report is deployed using Scheduled Reports when a report is deployed, there are no images: If this report is run manually, all data shows up just fine: The error is reported in the SQL ReportServer Application...(read more)

Some nice Globe and Mail press coverage for User Groups

Rantings of an IT Pirate — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 17:51:58 GMT

I was interviewed a couple of weeks ago by the Globe and Mail in Ottawa. Here is the published article: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/small-business/business-categories/biz-categories-technology/get-plugged-in-with-an-it-user...(read more)

The Annual Ottawa IT Community Social Night

Rantings of an IT Pirate — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 13:20:40 GMT

Register to attend! The Annual Ottawa IT Community Social Night Mon June 27th 2011 on Elgin Street (new location!) Free food • Prizes • Celebration Registration from 5:30pm – Event starts at 6:00pm Hosted by With summer...(read more)

OWSUG Event June 16, 2011 - Virtual Reality: The truth about Microsoft’s Interoperable Virtualization Stack

Rantings of an IT Pirate — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 16:04:52 GMT

There are lots of players out there in the Virtualization Market. All of them have options to help you build a highly available solution to virtualize and protect your servers all with varying costs associated with them. Did you know Microsoft has a solution...(read more)

ITPRO Toronto User Group Presents: Windows STEP Event – Virtualize the Barriers!

Rantings of an IT Pirate — Wed, 25 May 2011 16:06:17 GMT

The ITPro Toronto User Group is proud to sponsor a special event to be held Thursday night May 26th, 2011 at 7PM (doors open 6:30PM). Due to the late notice of the event we appreciate you sharing the invitation with as many friends and associates as possible...(read more)

Ask the Microsoft Experts

Rantings of an IT Pirate — Thu, 12 May 2011 17:41:23 GMT

There is nothing soft about these Microsofties! On May 25th, we are going to have an informal User Group session. This will include Microsoft ITPRO evangelist Rick Claus, and Technical Account Manager Pierre Roman. We may also see guest appearances...(read more)

Double Bill for the April OWSUG Meeting

Rantings of an IT Pirate — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 13:34:58 GMT

Sharepoint 2010 publication using UAG SP1 In the first session we will be reviewing the Publishing options in UAG (Unified Access Gateway) sp1 and how one can leverage UAG for sharepoint portal application publishing. We will review the basic setup...(read more)