January 2006 - Posts

OWSUG.ca Study Group
Saturday, January 28, 2006 4:38 PM

This is a chance for the IT Pro community in Ottawa to come together and help each other in a common goal.  It is also an excellent opportunity to network and build up those contacts for future opportunities

As mentioned in some of the previous the meetings, we are investigating starting an MCSE study group. What better way to reinforce key topics important to the success in passing these exams than review with your peers, those actually living the exam situations…

We will be modeling in part after a very successful initiative from the Montreal IT Pro users group. We are looking for your input into this initiative. As was learned from our neighbors in Montreal, the centralized facilities should be paid by the user group, however the OWSUG budget is insufficient to cover this cost.

We are proposing to follow a track which will allow for the group to first receive their MCP, then move on to MCSA, and finally on to the MCSE.

MCP

70-290 Managing and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Environment
 
MCSA
70-291 Implementing, Managing, and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Network Infrastructure
70-270 Installing, Configuring, and Administering Microsoft Windows XP Professional
70-299 Implementing and Administering Security in a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Network
 
MCSE
70-293 Planning and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Network Infrastructure
70-294 Planning, Implementing, and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Active Directory Infrastructure
70-297 Designing a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Active Directory and Network Infrastructure
 
We are working to have a Microsoft Certified Trainer available to answer questions as needed. Forum, blogs and mailing list will be made available to the group for their use. Before we can go any father we need to get an idea of how many people would be interested in starting a study group.
 
A few important questions:
Would you be interested to participate in such a group?
What would you consider as a reasonable membership fee?
What frequency would you like to see these meetings?
How long should each meeting be?
Where should the meeting be held and what time?
 
Please POST your replies to the Study Group Forum on the OWSUG site.

by gjones | with no comments
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Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Service Pack 4
Friday, January 20, 2006 3:12 PM

SQL 2000 SP 4 has been release today.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=8E2DFC8D-C20E-4446-99A9-B7F0213F8BC5&displaylang=en

by gjones | with no comments
Tuning Virtual PC Performance tips
Wednesday, January 18, 2006 4:46 PM

Tuning Virtual PC Performance

http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles_tutorials/Tuning-Virtual-PC-Performance.html

 

This tip is very true from my experience you can gain 10% or better just be doing this on thing…

 

Regularly defragment your hard drive volumes. You should defragment both the physical drive your host OS is located on and the virtual drives within the VM for each guest OS running on your machine. I also defragment the physical volume where I store my VHDs as I’ve found that if this volume becomes fragmented it takes longer for VMs to start up and they probably run more slowly also. If you’re short on disk space on the drive where your VHDs are stored, you can compress this drive to gain more room. From newsgroup discussions it appears that storing VHDs on a compressed drive usually doesn’t have a negative effect on VPC performance, so NTFS compression of the volume you store your VHDs on is another option to consider if needed.

by gjones | with no comments
www.SMSug.ca
Tuesday, January 10, 2006 1:43 PM

I must thank Marc & Mark for all of thier hard work on the new SMSUG.ca site. They have done a great job on the site. Please check it out his email below and the new site.

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Hurley, Marc [mailto:mhurley@hydro.mb.ca]
Sent: January 10, 2006 1:23 PM
Subject: Canadian SMS User Group Website

 

Hi everyone,

A new website has been started up that is going to be another location to obtain and share SMS info.

Hopefully this community will allow the SMS users across Canada to discuss issues that might have a Canadian spin to them.

This an excerpt from the main page that gives a little rundown on the site

        "SMSUG.ca is your virtual SMS user group, dedicated to all things related to Systems Management Server (SMS).
        SMSUG.ca includes an event calendar (local and global user group events, Technet Webcasts, and other events you'd like to be made aware of), blogs, and forums all provided for and powered by  you.

        Being a Microsoft SMS-MVP, I'll also be monitoring, and forwarding problems, comments, and suggestions to the Microsoft SMS Product team in order to keep SMS as a valuable management  tool.

        For any SMSUG.ca site suggestions, or Event Calendar additions, please contact US
        Mark Carriere, Microsoft MVP-SMS"
Please go take a look and pass the URL around to other SMS users.
http://smsug.ca/cs/default.aspx

by gjones | with no comments
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January 25, 2006 Ottawa Windows Server User Group Meeting
Monday, January 09, 2006 7:52 PM

Upcoming event

January 25, 2006 User Group Meeting

Topic: The Exchange SP2 and Windows Mobile 5 Deployment Reality Story 3

Description: Rick Claus, IT Pro Advisor from Microsoft TechNet, in an up close and personal session about how to deploy and implement Exchange SP2 to support Mobile 5 devices in your environment. Rick will take a bare bones Exchange environment and walk you through exactly what it takes to get it done. This will appeal to both small business environments as well as large enterprises. Certificates, web server configuration and of course – Mobile 5 devices will be shown, demonstrated and touchable for those who wish to go to the next level of mobility.

Location:    Microsoft Canada Co.

100 Queen Street Suite 500

Ottawa, Ontario

Agenda:       6:00 p.m. event registration

6:30 p.m. Presentation

8:00 p.m. Q & A

8:30 p.m. Door Prizes

Notes:         Pizza and Pop will be served, Please RSVP to help us order enough of both.

RSVP:           http://www.microsoft.com/canada/events/event_details.aspx?event_id=1032288792

Links

OWSUG.ca We Site http://www.owsug.ca/cs/

OWSUG.ca Mailing http://lists.listleague.com/mailman/listinfo/owsug.ca

OWSUG.ca Forums http://www.owsug.ca/cs/forums/

 

Other Local User Groups

Ottawa Storage Networking User Group http://www.storagenetworking.org/User_Groups/snug_profile.asp?id=169

Ottawa .NET Community http://www.ottawacommunity.net/Home/tabid/36/Default.aspx

Ottawa PC User Group http://opcug.ca/public/index.htm

 

by gjones | with no comments
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Up coming Nerd Dinners
Monday, January 09, 2006 10:48 AM

I found this link a while back and I though that I would post it. http://www.nerddinner.com/blogs/

 

Portland Nerd Dinner

Thursday, January 12, starting around 6:30 PM

http://nerddinner.com/blogs/portland/archive/2006/01/08/15973.aspx

 

Boston Area Geek Dinner

Tuesday, January 17, 2005

http://nerddinner.com/blogs/boston/archive/2005/12/31/15528.aspx

 

Atlanta Nerd Dinner

Jan 19 2006

http://nerddinner.com/blogs/atlanta/archive/2006/01/04/15682.aspx

by gjones | with no comments
Day -1 / 0 / 1 (Saturday / Sunday / Monday)
Sunday, January 08, 2006 1:47 PM

Day -1 / 0 / 1 (Saturday / Sunday / Monday)

 

After many discussions with my wife (Ellen), I have resigned from my old job with the Canadian Government as of Friday January 6 2006 exactly 3 years after I joined the national team.

 

I have been trying to work on a few “pet projects” for more than a year now and I just could not find the time to work on any of them. I plan on focusing on these pet projects, and I will post more about them as each one is completed. I hope to have a majority done before MMS 2006. I will try to keep the scope creep to a minimum.  

 

I have made myself available to a number of local head hunters for SMS / MOM projects only. I will only accept projects of interest to me as I would like to focus on my pet projects however a dollar is a dollar.

 

This is good news for community as it means that I can re-join all the mailing lists, forums, user groups (www.owsug.ca and www.smsug.ca ), etc. to help-out again.  I might pop my head into the Off-topic list but I will most likely not be active on that mailing list.

 

I plan on seeing all of you at MMS 2006 this year.  My boss (Ellen) has already approved (in principle) me going to MMS 2006. With any luck I will be in San Diego on the 22nd and leave on the 29-30th.

 

Now I’m off to buy a new cellphone and laptop.

by gjones | 1 comment(s)
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2006 Salary Guide
Saturday, January 07, 2006 12:04 PM

2006 Salary Guide

 

I ran across this 2006 Salary Guide the other day. This is a small exert from the guide.

 

TECHNICAL SERVICES, HELP DESK & TECHNICAL SUPPORT (US $)

Manager                                     $ 59,000 - $ 85,500        $ 61,500 - $ 87,000        2.8%

Desktop Support Analyst       $ 44,500 - $ 63,250        $ 45,000 - $ 63,500        0.7%

Systems Administrator            $ 47,250 - $ 70,500        $ 49,000 - $ 72,500        3.2%

Help Desk Level 3                     $ 41,000 - $ 53,750        $ 41,750 - $ 53,750        0.8%

Help Desk Level 2                     $ 32,500 - $ 42,750        $ 32,750 - $ 43,000        0.7%

Help Desk Level 1                     $ 26,250 - $ 36,750        $ 27,250 - $ 36,750        1.6%

Instructor/Trainer                     $ 43,250 - $ 65,500        $ 43,500 - $ 66,500        1.1%

PC Technician                           $ 27,750 - $ 40,750        $ 28,250 - $ 41,250        1.5%

Business Continuity Analyst $ 60,500 - $ 90,750        $ 62,500 - $ 93,500        3.1%

ARIES – UNITED STATES

 

TECHNICAL SERVICES, HELP DESK & TECHNICAL SUPPORT (CND $)

Manager                                     $ 68,000 - $ 84,750        $ 67,750 - $ 86,250        0.8%

Desktop Support Analyst        $ 51,250 - $ 65,250        $ 51,750 - $ 65,250        0.4%

Systems Administrator             $ 43,500 - $ 66,250        $ 46,000 - $ 66,750        2.7%

Help Desk Level 3                      $ 47,750 - $ 61,500        $ 49,250 - $ 62,750        2.1%

Help Desk Level 2                      $ 36,250 - $ 47,250        $ 36,500 - $ 48,250        2.4%

Help Desk Level 1                      $ 29,500 - $ 38,250        $ 30,250 - $ 38,750        1.8%

Instructor/Trainer                      $ 46,000 - $ 63,250        $ 47,750 - $ 65,500        3.7%

PC Technician                            $ 46,500 - $ 57,250        $ 46,000 - $ 58,250        0.5%

Business Continuity Analyst  $ 51,250 - $ 85,000        $ 57,000 - $ 87,250        5.9%

 

What title is on your business card?

 

To see the whole guide with all the regional variation and all salary listed for other job titles. http://www.roberthalftechnology.com/html/downloads/rht2006sg.pdf

 

 

by gjones | with no comments
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