Paul Woods

Windows Vista, and the friendly backup reminder

Just turned on my machine (running Windows Vista 5381) (yeah I need to upgrade to the real beta 2 some time soon!) and I noticed a yellow bubble appear in the bottom right hand corner of the screen.  Being a curious kind of fellow, I clicked.  The screen shot to the left is what appeared.

I must admit that I have been burned by my very lax backup routine in the past (ie backup before upgrading the OS, and thats it)... and you know what, even after two failed hard disk drives in the past, I still have not learnt!  But it is refreshing to have an alert when there is a hard disk drive error detected. 

In my opinion, this is one of those features that will not get much press coverage, but will deliver enormous business value (especially if your organisation can not justify having RAID configurations on the desktop).  Having an early warning of any potential problem, and being able to lessen the risk of that problem (by in this case taking a backup) is gold, in any situation!

... better start the backup then!

Resources from my BizTalk 2006 Best Practices Analyser Presentation @ the BrizTalk User Group

Good to see a great turn out at the month's 'BrizTalk' Brisbane BizTalk User Group.  You will be able to download my PowerPoint deck once Dan adds it as a resource on the BrizTalk portal.

If you can't wait and need to start using the BizTalk Best Practices Analyser today, then you can download it from http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/biztalk/downloads/bpa.mspx

If you are interested in the BizTalk Server 2006 R2 TAP (Technology Adoption Program), then you can find more information by going to http://connect.microsoft.com

Finally, If you are interested in more information about the Business Process Management and Integration Conference being held in Redmond in the first week of October this year, then go to http://www.impactevents.com/biztalkconference/

Resources from my Office 2007 Client Presentation @ the Brisbane Innovation Community Event

I mentioned a couple of great Office 2007 deployment resources in my presentation this evening (with Jeff Alexander, and Kyle Rosenthal).  You can find most of them here -

IT Content for 2007 Office System Beta 2

Get in there, start using the Beta, and get your organisation ready for the next wave of Innovation. By the way, if you missed out on picking up your copy of Vista Beta 2, or Office 2007 Beta 2, you can download them from the Microsoft Australia Innovation page

Palm Island Technology Boot Camp

I am currently sitting in a make shift laptop lab at the Cairns School of Distance Education.  Today marks the start of an intense week for 16 great kids from Palm Island (just off the coast of Townsville)... totally focused on technology, healthy living, and teamwork.

I have taken quite a few photos which I will share once back in Brisbane tomorrow.  The highlight for me so far have been seeing the kids really get passionate about technology.  Whilst I am typing this blog entry, we have 9 students sitting on similar laptops writing their daily diary, and saving it to their brand new USB Thumbdrives.

It is great to see both students and teachers from Palm Island learning about new technology, working as a team, and having some fun... especially considering some of the problems the island has been having recently (for example, one of their school blocks was burnt down only recently).

It is a pity I have to be back in Brisbane tomorrow afternoon... but I am sure that everyone else will have a fantastic week here.    I must make a big shout out to Theresa and the team at the School of Distance Education... the Technology Boot Camp is a great concept and from what I have seen, I hope that it can be replicated in other regions around Australia in the future!

Business Process Management and Integration Conference Registrations Now Open!

Registrations for the Microsoft Business Process Management and Integration Conference, in Redmond during the first week of October... are now open!  Go to http://www.impactevents.com/biztalkconference/ before July 21 to get the early bird rate.

This should be a great conference... plenty of BizTalk Server 2006, and BizTalk Server 2006 R2 goodness! (who knows, maybe even some BizTalk Server v.Next talk)

Aussie, Aussie, Aussie!!!!

Ohhhh yeah Socceroos! SECOND ROUND!... bring on Italy

But seriously... 3 yellow cards, and two very obvious spot kicks.  That referee just lost all chance of an appointment for the rest of the cup!

I will be in Cairns for the Italy game (Tuesday Morning, 12.30AM for us on AEST)... anyone know where the soccer action will be?  It would be a shame to watch it in my hotel room.

Building the Pipeline of Information Technology Talent

One of the discussion points at the National ICT Skills Summit over the past two days was the fact that there are chronic pipeline issues when it comes to bright and talented people entering Information Technology (for the record, I think that Information Technology is a much better descriptor than ICT - Information Communications Technology... lay people understand that IT is, they have no idea what ICT stands for).

It was identified (well I actually raised the point on the discussion panel yesterday) that children are getting passionate about technology well before there is any formalised educational offering for them.  Kids at age 10 are at home spending hours building both technical skills (and without even knowing it, building other soft skills like networking, strategy, collaboration etc. which come in very handy later in life).  We all recognised that we need to capture and nurture their passion earlier in their school lives.  When students are getting to grade 11 and encountering a 'part-time' IT teacher (ie the old Physics teacher, or even worse... the librarian!!) and realising they know 50x as much as the teacher... the flame dies very quickly, and students run for engineering, accounting, science and law.

A project to fix this (and one of the cooler projects I have worked on recently) was announced at the National ICT Skills Summit today.  'Take IT On' is a project where the AIIA, with lots of industry partners (like Microsoft) will engage with students in grades 8-10 and share their passion about our industry.  Nice and relaxed environment... passionate role models... and to top it off some hands on Xbox!

What do I have to do with the program?  I just developed it from a simple idea to a marketable offering.  Yeah, you can blame me for the name too :)    (honestly, you should have seen some of the earlier names that they came up with... they were utterly disgusting.  At least this one is simple!)

The National ICT Skills Summit

Tomorrow and Thursday I will be pretty heavily involved with The National ICT Skills Summit, here in Brisbane.  The Skills Summit was called by Premier Beattie to talk about the looming 'Skills Crisis' that our industry faces. 

I must admit I do feel a little daunted by the summit, which is being attended by some of the heavy hitters in the industry.  I am 'token' the graduate/intern/young ICT professional, and will be sitting on  the 'expert' panel during discussions on Wednesday afternoon (which includes the State's Chief Scientist, Managing Directors, and CEO's), and participating in the workgroups as well.

I know it is late notice... but if anyone has any views on ICT careers here in Australia, and the impending (if any) skills crisis... post a comment and let me know!

Presentations, conferences, and me

Where you can catch me over the next 4 weeks.. apart from stalking me at the supermarket, and or visiting me at work :)

• Microsoft Innovation 2006 Tour - Brisbane Community Event (Sold Out!)
  Date: Tuesday 27 June 2006
  Location: Microsoft Brisbane
  My presentation: "Microsoft Office System 2007 Client - First Look (Level 200)"
• "BrizTalk" - Brisbane BizTalk User Group
  Date: Wednesday 28 June 2006
  Location: Microsoft Brisbane
  My presentation(s): "BizTalk Server Best Practices Analyzer (Level 200)" and "First Look at BizTalk Server 2006 R2 (Level 200)"
• Brisbane Infrastructure Group
  Date: Wednesday 4 July 2006
  Location: Microsoft Brisbane
  My presentation: "Microsoft Office System 2007 Client - Migration and Deployment (Level 300)"
• Australian Computer Society (ACS) 2006 National Young IT Professional Conference
  Date(s): Thursday 6 and Friday 7 July 2006
  Location: Mecure Hotel, Brisbane
  My role:  Manning the Microsoft booth, networking (social, not Cisco) extraordinaire on Thursday night at Strike Bowling Bar (very much Level 100 or below... however Blood Alcohol Level may be elevated), and to heckle Jeff Alexander during his presentation on Vista :)

Your chance to win a prize!  Snap a (good) photo of me at one of the events above, and I will give you something... probably a geeky t-shirt with BizTalk on it or something like that (I think I have some floating around).  Email the photo to [email protected], and tell me the time and place in the comments section of this post, by COB Monday 10 July 2006 :)

Product storytelling (the wrong way)

Every time I go shopping at the local supermarket, there is one product that always seems to catch my eye.  It is in a category which includes products which are incredibly cheap to manufacture (with an abundance of raw materials (well maybe not here in Brisbane**)), sell at prices far exceeding what you would pay for fuel at the bowser, and realistically probably the most basic product in the market.  That's right, it is bottled water.

But we are not talking about any Bottled Water... we are talking about bottled water, with EXTRA OXYGEN!

Does the extra oxygen actually increase your performance, brainpower, or endurance? Not really... in-fact the human body generally takes on oxygen using the organs we call the 'lungs'.  In fact, if you think about it, if we could effectively use oxygen from water, you wouldn't need a SCUBA tank when you go diving!.  Apart from that, there are a few physiological road blocks regarding oxygen saturation in red blood cells etc. (Read more here.)

The best part is... if you want your bottled water with extra oxygen, you are looking at paying a premium of about 30-40% over standard bottled water.  From a marketing point of view, that is great... as a consumer however, if I were to purchase the product I think I would feel just a little ripped off.  Of course that would be the case if my purchase decision was based on the extra qualities that the oxygen bought to the water.. then again if you are simply buying it to be cool, fit in, or buying it as a luxury, then power to you (and let me know your details so I can sell some luxuries to you too!)

All this is that extra oxygen (even though in some forms it is toxic) makes a great story.  And great stories are what Sales and Marketing are all about (well a good part of it anyways).  I am just assuming here but this might be the way people interpret the story:

"I need oxygen to breath.. it keeps me alive... If that is the case, then more oxygen must make me feel more alive!"

However... telling a good story is one thing... treating your customers like idiots is another.  In the case of bottled water with extra oxygen, I think that the manufacturers, and their marketing departments have lost their integrity.  It reminds me of snake oil peddlers from back in the day.

Integrity (and openness) in marketing should be applauded, pulling the wool over the consumer, should be discouraged!

Let me know what you think?  Are there any products that you can think of where you feel that the story is blatantly not living up to what the product actually delivers?  Please leave a comment with your thoughts.

** For the out of towner's... we are in the grips of a very severe drought here in South East Queensland.. therefore a severe lack of water for anyone getting into the bottled water business