I took this picture about a month ago, but kept forgetting to share it.  I was walking through an outdoor mall with my daughter. We had stopped near a fountain to take a few pictures and then I saw it.  I immediately found some humor in the image of this lady with her little baby “computer “seated safely in a baby stroller.  We were nearby for a good 30 minutes and never saw any kids in tow, and truly she looked more likely to be a grandparent than a parent.  Truly seemed an instance where a picture was worth a thousand words, at least for the geek in me.

Off to DeKalb, Illinois with my friend Jeff to tackle the Bike MS this weekend.  Our initial goal was to complete the century on Saturday, but time will tell if our legs are truly ready for 100 miles.  I sincerely appreciate the donations from everyone who has been able to help out a great cause. 

I had always wanted to make this ride, but it became an unfortunate reality last year when Jeff asked me to ride with him after the diagnosis of his family member.  Nothing gives quite the energy boost as seeing some of the folks affected by MS waiting to cheer at the finish line each day.  Hats off to them for winning their battles on a daily basis.

I scoped out the course with a site that helps you get a look at the climbs in store for us this weekend, feel free to take a look and be sure to choose the elevation option.  Thanks to Reed for pointing me in the direction of MapMyRide.

http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/ks/lockport/979996795324

 And for anyone still interested in donating:

http://www.msillinois.org/goto/mikeschorr

Caveat Emptor!

I've looked into them before, but never dropped the cash.  Apparently I should avoid Best Buy's shelves when i finally make a purchase.

 Best (not to) Buy infected picture frames

http://www.sophos.com/security/blog/2008/01/1012.html

Two years ago when we announced the birth of our daughter (AKA: SMS 2005) I got plenty of ribbing about her initialls, SMS.  Simply an ironic side effect of the names we chose, our last name and the product I spend most of my time working with. The coincidence deffinitely resulted in plenty of good jokes.

The irony two years later?  Config Manager 2007 is scheduled to be fully available from Microsoft on November 7th, my daughter's 2nd birthday.

•          >300,000 beta seats deployed

•          20 Tap and 33 RDP Customers World Wide

•          Over 20,000 downloads of beta 2 and RC

•          Over 6,000 RTM evaluations downloaded since August

A cool site that came out of one of the presentations at the SCCM Partner Airlift today.  This was from a presentation by Jeff Wettlaufer.

http://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/designedforbig/

Has videos and whitepapers on the scalability of the System Center products.

The MMS site has been updated with a lot more information.   Useful data for getting those requests in to your manager.

Looks like we will be at the Venetian this time around.

 www.mms-2008.com

This may have already been covered, but SP 1 for the SoftGrid 4.1 was released late last week.  The link below is for the product details and also has the download links.  Key changes with SP1 is improved support for applications such as Office 2007.

Details: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938497/en-us

As I previously mentioned I will be riding in the MS150 in a few weeks.  Amazing how quickly the time has passed.  If you can assist my fundraising in any way I truly appreciate it. I have included a link at the bottom.

http://www.msillinois.org/site/TR?px=1588093&pg=personal&fr_id=1160

At least when I go cycling I won't leave home without it.  Last year I came across an add for a product that sounded pretty cool and figured it was worth sharing with others.  I came across RoadID last year and finally just got around to ordering one.  Pretty simple idea actually, an ID band or tag with critical information in the event something bad happens while you are out exercising.  We like to think nothing will happen to us, but the reality is we don’t have a lot of control over the other people out there rushing from point A to B in their cars.  I’ve had my fair share of close passes from cars and trucks, each time thankful they just missed me.  I always carry my cell phone and drivers license with me, but there is no guarantee those would help in an accident.

So my advice if you are an avid runner, cyclist, %INSERT ACTIVITY HERE% give some thought to a RoadID.

http://roadid.com/

You know that feeling when someone says something you thought you had always hoped you would hear them say, but never thought you would?  I had a case of that this weekend with my parents.  While talking about an upcoming trip to visit my parents they mentioned they had both quit smoking and were going strong since February.  I’m sure my chin dropped when I heard it, I know I was not expecting to hear that. 

I’ve done the Hustle up the Hancock 3 times now and have always been glad to be part of something to help so many afflicted by lung disease.  To see my parents take a big step in possibly averting further health issues definitely means a lot to me.  My 23 minute climb up a seemingly never ending staircase is a walk in the park compared to the staircase they are now climbing and I wish them the best.

I also know there are a few myIT folks who have taken this plunge in the last year or so and I wish you the best also.

-Mike Schorr

It took a few weeks, but I finally hit 150 miles for the season on my bike.   Squeezing the time in for rides has been the biggest challenge and the weather was not helping early in the Spring.  Why is 150 such an important number?  I thought it was a cool milestone since I will be riding my first MS150 in June.  I will be teaming up with a group of guys, among them being a friend whose sister was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis last Summer. 

What is an MS150?  It is a 150 mile bike ride to benefit the Multiple Sclerosis Society.  The ride is spread over two days, so 2 – 75 mile rides.  I will try and post more as I gear up for this and have intentions of dropping some updates throughout the weekend as we ride. 

I enjoyed reading Bill Anderson's response to concerns about the release date of SCCM 07 as seen in Rod Trent's blog

 http://myitforum.com/cs2/blogs/rtrent/archive/2007/04/10/sccm07-release-when.aspx

I completely respect where Bill is coming from on this.  We have all had that experience where your boss stops by your desk and asks for a status update on a project and wants to know when it will be ready.  Maybe there have been some delays and you are trying to decide between:

1. Tell the manager it will be ready earlier than is possible with the chance you will provide a substandard product OR delay it at the last minute.

2. Tell the manager it will be delayed, explain why and that it will meet what they are looking for even though it is late. 

Personally, choice 2 is the way to go.  Nobody likes delivering their work late, but I think most managers would rather see a completed project show up late as opposed to an incomplete project early.  You can deal with the grumbling of things being late while you are working to finish your work, but once it is delivered that should subside.  If you deliver a substandard project on time, you will be hearing grumbling for quite some time and will instantly lose the confidence of others.  Kudos to SCCM Product Team for aiming to deliver quality.

 As has long been the case, the connection we at myITforum have to Microsoft is awesome. To have follow up from folks like Bill Anderson and Tev Sanders on this topic is very extremely helpful.  The technical support that comes with our Microsoft relationship is truly priceless when you add the backgrounds of the many SMS\SCCM Microsoft folks who frequently post information in the forums and email list. Thanks to them all.

What better way to spend a Holy Day then with some time alone with your thoughts? Right?  I’m okay with that, but not when it is forced on you by the car stereo gods.

Raise your hand if you have ever made your 45 minute commute with the stereo off by choice?  Bueller….Bueller? 

You sir, in the back with your hand up?  Yes, the Amish gentleman!  Sorry, your vote does not count since you shouldn’t have a car stereo.

My Friday was rolling along great until I turned the key in the ignition and the stereo did not bring me my usual sound.  No ESPN to listen to and get annoyed with the non-sports talk of Mike and Mike.  No lousy DJ’s to listen to.  No CD’s to listen to. NOTHING

I thought it might have a chance since the lights were on, just no sound or display.  So, I did the next logical thing in my troubleshooting. Beat the living crap out of it.  My dad used to do that in his 1978 Toyota Carolla and it seemed to work just fine.  The dashboard had a big crack down the middle, but it was an effective way to negotiate with the stereo from what I saw.

About ten minutes from the office I stopped at a light and decided to try pushing the buttons again in hopes it would magically wake up.  I noticed the lights were now off, it had drifted off and was gone.  I would ask for a moment of silence, but I have already had 45 minutes of silence today.

Off to do some car stereo shopping.

Have a good weekend.

It's been over a year, but I figure I need to get back to updating this occasionally.  A fair amount has changed in the past year.  Among the large changes is that I am at a new job with Berbee- A CDW Company.  http://www.berbee.com  This has become a great opportunity to work with others as they implement SMS.