March 2007 - Posts

Yet another IT Forum...
31 March 07 06:48 PM | rodtrent | with no comments

Microsoft has IT Forum in the UK, and now Forrester has their own IT Forum…

http://www.forrester.com/events/eventdetail?eventID=1633

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Shatner talks about inducting Jerry -the king- Lawler into the Wrestling Hall of Fame
31 March 07 02:52 PM | rodtrent | with no comments

Yet another Shatner “believe it or not” moment…

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Is Live.com search worthless?
31 March 07 02:42 PM | rodtrent | with no comments
It could be.  I was chatting with some MS folks (who will remain unnamed) at MMS and they tend to agree that Live.com’s search engine is broken. 
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A list of the best Kung Fu movies -- from Intellinet's Sebastian Baboolal
31 March 07 01:16 PM | rodtrent | 1 comment(s)

One of the booths right next to ours this year was Intellinet.  These folks were great and really helped us out.  They loaned us a TV stand that didn’t work out for them and we used it in our booth.  We directed folks to their booth as much as we could, but they did a great job on their own.

They have a great set of products you should check out when you get a chance:

http://www.intellinet.com/

One of the SWAG items they passed out was a beverage sleeve with their name on it.  Very cool and a great idea.  We helped them out as much as possible and distributed their beverage sleeves at the myITforum.com party.  I also noticed these sleeves at the Microsoft party at the ‘W’ on Tuesday night.

Anyway — back to the blog post Title.

Sebastian works for Intellinet and we got to be good friends this week.  He’s a super nice fellow.  Meg and I were trying to figure out the best gifts to get the kids in San Diego and Sebastian helped out with our oldests’ who loves Kung Fu movies.  We ended up purchasing a Jet Li duo-DVD pack.  But, Sebastian also gave us a list of the best Kung Fu movies for those martial arts buffs out there.  From Sebastian:

It was great meeting you guys. Your definitely on my top list..I don’t come across folks that are into the kung-fu movies.

 

When I was a kid they used to show these types of movies on a Sat afternoon from about 1PM-5PM.

My dad used to make homemade tacos for us while we all watched.

 

Let just say it was fun for the entire family

 

These need to be watched  by any kung fu fans:

Jet Li, and Tony Jaa are the new school. The following are all old school.

 

Five deadly venoms

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUBF3bsQBws

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsXsCb8X2B4&mode=related&search=

 

Kid with the Golden arm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6v2cz6jEnI

 

36th Chambers of Shaolin

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwszzPghsFc

 

Jackie Chan Drunken Master

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ijbax3CxoQ

 

As a side note, what would you folks think about having a Kung Fu movie night at next year’s MMS hosted by Intellinet and myITforum.com?  Drinks, food, fellowship, and Kung Fu.

List of SWAG items - win a myITforum.com T-shirt
31 March 07 01:04 PM | rodtrent | 1 comment(s)

Besides great technical content at MMS, what else did you get?  What SWAG made it back with you?  Did you get your hands on the red Systems Center backpack?  Is your SMS Expert button still flashing or is it time for a new battery?

Drop me a list of your SWAG and we’ll post it here and on the MMS Wiki.  We’ll set up a poll here in the next few days and have folks vote on the most unique or most complete list of SWAG items.  The winner will receive a myITforum.com T-shirt.

What is SWAG?

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Going through my bag for the next couple days
31 March 07 12:54 PM | rodtrent | 1 comment(s)

I have lots and lots of stuff to post — so prepare yourself.  For the next couple days I’m just going through my laptop and SWAG bags, pulling items out that bring up memories from the past week.  You should do the same.  It really gets the creative blogging juices flowing.

Oh, and BTW…if you don’t have a blog on myITforum.com — now’s the time!  Attending MMS 2007 surely gives you a lot of information to share.  I love to see MMS from everyone’s perspective, because it differs so greatly.  Pulling all of it together here in the blogs is a great way to tell the whole story and build the entire picture.

If you want to start your blog now, drop me a note. I can have it setup in a matter of minutes and you’ll be well on your way to being a “blogger” within the hour.  Who knows?  Your blogging could get you a speaking spot at next year’s MMS.  I know people.

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The selections and winners of the Windows IT Pro Best of MMS 2007 awards are live...
31 March 07 12:44 PM | rodtrent | 1 comment(s)

Windows IT Pro held a contest where each vendor nominated themselves to win an award in the Expo area of the conference.  I wanted to attend the announcement, but was unable to do so because of being busy at the booth.  Apparently, a lot of other people were busy, too, because I could see the crowd gathered at the Windows IT Pro booth from my vantage point.  There was, maybe, 15–20 people standing to hear the announcement of the awards, and I believe all of them were just vendors who had nominated themselves to win.  The myITforum booth had nearly 3 times that when we were just giving away T-shirts.  Funny stuff.

Anyway, Windows IT Pro has posted the winners on their web site.  You might want to check it out when you get a chance:

http://www.windowsitpro.com/Articles/Index.cfm?ArticleID=95616

Our buddies at SMS Expert were nominated for their SMS Companion product, and I can tell you there were more people stopping at the SMS Expert booth than the KACE booth (who won the Most Innovative Product award).

After reading the post on the site about the winners, I’m immediately left questioning how the winners were actually decided because the following paragraph from the article leaves some unanswered questions…

Karen and I met with each of the finalists here at MMS to learn more about the products, then spent a long evening reviewing our conversations with the finalists and choosing one overall Best Management Product by a Microsoft partner, two runners-up, and one Most Innovative Product, and designating one Special Achievement Award.

So – does this mean you simply needed the best marketing staff to win the award?  I can sell you a mud pie from the banks of the Ohio river and make your mouth water in the process.  Does that mean it could have won an award for Best of MMS 2007?

I ask that because, earlier in the article it says…

“These finalists were selected for their  …  value to the customer…”

How can the value to the customer be understood unless they actually talk to the customer?  Who then decides customer value?  And, doesn’t customer value actually differ based on the environment and the environment needs?  Or, did the winners succeed because they had the shiniest something-or-another?

Methinks there should have been a voting booth set up where the actual customers and attendees could vote to provide real-world, community results.  They could have done it both in the Expo and also on their web site.  Someday, yes, someday, folks will “get” community like we do.

An individual from the Windows IT Pro booth stopped by our booth on Tuesday to get a better “understanding” of myITforum.  They were one of the booths I approached on Monday night with a business card who indicated they had no idea who we are.  The person asked me how we attracted so many people to the booth.  I explained myITforum to him and he still left looking like he didn’t quite understand — just that we were attracting folks even during the supposed “dead” times of the Expo and they had no way of comprehending why and how.  If Windows IT Pro were thinking outside the box, they would have held attendee votes at their booth to keep people coming back, instead of deciding who had the prettiest, shiniest products all on their own.  Just a thought…

Anthony Clendenen's MMS 2007 photos...
31 March 07 11:39 AM | rodtrent | 1 comment(s)

Wow!…these are great photos.

Start here and keep going through page 9…

Where was the press at MMS...?
31 March 07 11:35 AM | rodtrent | 1 comment(s)

I had conversations with TechTarget prior to MMS and I even saw the Press rooms at MMS, yet, where were the individuals reporting the news for MMS?

There was a lot to report on, yet, no one approached the community to get a real-world take on things.

I guess that’s why Microsoft was interested enough to hold a special blogger’s meeting during MMS.  Could the industry media as we know it be silently, waning away and bloggers replace them?  I can see it happening.  I really can.  What a year this could be…reporting for next year’s MMS 2008 could be a totally different situation.

Stay tuned…

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Information Week thinks Microsoft may eventually be able to compete with Tivoli...
31 March 07 11:31 AM | rodtrent | with no comments

What a hoot.  Reed Porter passed this article link my way…

Microsoft Challenges IT Systems Management Leaders

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MMS 2007 photos from Jeremy Gillean
31 March 07 11:26 AM | rodtrent | 1 comment(s)
Check them out…
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Some 1E news from MMS...
31 March 07 11:22 AM | rodtrent | 1 comment(s)

Provided by Ed Aldrich…

Take a look at the new 1E Web Site at http://www.1e.com/

 

And while there note the new released product SystemForge, announced and demo’d on Monday.

Stefan Stranger's photos from MMS 2007...
31 March 07 11:22 AM | rodtrent | 1 comment(s)
http://fotolog.buit.org/displayimage.php?album=3&pos=1
MMS story -- you're like your father
31 March 07 11:20 AM | rodtrent | 1 comment(s)

From Paul Gonzalez…

So Saturday night I went out to Henry's to have a few pops and ended up an Irish pub for a night cap.   I was with someone that I'm not going to Rat out because it's a huge part of the story. If he wants to chime in, he will. Think about it. It will hit you. For now, we'll call him "Rod"

 

As we decide to leave we hear some drunk little bitty say "Hey, remember me? It's ASHLEY." To some Dude she must have known. Rod tucks this nugget away and saves it for later.

 

We see them leave when the pub closes and we follow. At the moment I didn't know why but I was soon to find out. Rod yells out "Ashley, remember me?" She looks at him inquisitively and says "kind of." At this point I'm beside myself. I can't believe this is working. The other chick she was with says "you can't let her leave without telling her how you know her." Rod says "come on, don't you remember me?"

 

So the one with her arm around Rod screams out for everyone to hear,

"YOU'RE LIKE HER FATHER!"  Now I have to walk away because I'm laughing hysterically…..

 

You just can't make this stuff up…..

 

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Interesting comment from MMS conversations...
31 March 07 11:16 AM | rodtrent | 1 comment(s)

I saw a long-time friend at MMS who works for a company recently acquired by Symantec.  I stopped to shake hands and see how the person was doing.  I hold this person in high regard.

During our quick conversation, I asked if the person was planning to attend MMS 2008.  The comment?

‘I will, as long as Symatec doesn’t fire me before then…’

Take into account that this person is pretty high up in the acquired company’s organization and you’ll realize that statement is huge.  There’s more industry news in that one statement than all of MMS.

BTW: I noticed that the individual was using a “Mac” book.  NTTAWWT

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