MSOZACADEMICSo as Microsoft was kind enough to give delegates to the Heroes Happen {2008} events a copy of Windows Server 2008 and I have been in the market to build a new server, I figured this is the perfect oppurtunity.
I’ve decided to log my progress here, including getting some feedback as the best way to go.
I personally manage between 5-15 WordPress sites depending on clients needs at the time.
One of the biggest issues for me is keeping track of each site. Stuff like:
In addition, updating each site to the latest versions of first WordPress and then each plugin is a huge time eater.
What multiple site Admins such as myself need is a single, simple management interface that remotely retrieves information from each site and displays it in a dashboard style interface. In addition, the ability to push out changes, such as updates would really be the peak of multiple site management.
After some thought, I believe wordpress.org would be the best place to host this utility. Admins could login to wordpress.org with their wordpress login, and immediately see aggregate information of their wordpress hosted blogs. In addition, they would be able to add non-hosted blogs, and includes those in the aggregate.
Each blog information could be collected via a password protected RSS style feed. This feed could be turned on or off (default as off) in the options section of each blog.
The simpler the better. Eg. It could be as simple as a table such as:
| Blog | Address | Version | Status |
You could click on each blog to drill down or update, etc.
Rather than actually write the update module, the application could be set to simply “trigger” backups, updates, that were included in plugins, or if wordpress release official modules.
This idea could be extended to no end. Features such as the ability to write a single post and have it published to each of your sites would be good. Perhaps for events such as server maintenance.
Any thoughts? Please comment!
Luke
MSP (UWA)
So it’s on again this year! You can get the full version of Office 2007 Ultimate for only $75 or $25/year by clicking on the banner above if you are a TAFE or Uni student or staff.
You just have to register with your TAFE or Uni E-mail address.
The entire program is available from the site for instant download, or you can opt to have a DVD sent to you for a small fee.
If you go to Curtin or UWA you can also see your MSP who has free DVDs you can use. You just have to go online to get your license key.
Any questions, please see the forums at http://forum.wamsp.com.au
Luke
MSP (UWA)
Weird tributes to the original HoTMaiL way of spelling things aside, how many of you have ever tried to send a somewhat complex html email that needs to be read in clients other than Outlook? One of the best ways to achieve this is to write out the HTML yourself, but there seems to be next to no support for this in Outloook and meagre support in Thunderbird (an old extension).
If you’ve installed Vista or Server 2008 and you happen to be wanting to write HTML email – then your in luck! The new “Windows Mail” client (which replaced Outlook Express) comes with a convenient “Source Edit” mode that lets you view and edit the source of your email on the fly:
Things to Note:
So it’s official. Windows Vista Service Pack 1 has been released to end users for download.
We at WAMSP have been using SP1 for awhile now, and I can honestly say, it makes Vista the Windows OS you want on your desktop. Faster file copies, less UAC prompts and other good stuff.
Read all about it on the Vista SP1 Overview page.
Or just Download it from these links:
Microsoft Downloads: Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (x32)
Microsoft Downloads: Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (x64)
Remember, most Computer Science students have access to Windows Vista completely free of charge via the MSDNAA program. So if you haven’t already loaded it, or you were waiting for SP1, now is a great time to try it out.
Luke
MSP (UWA)
WA MSPs Oren, Daniel and Luke joined the Microsoft Crew for Heroes Happen {2008} at the Perth Convention Centre today!
The event was to launch three major Microsoft products, Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008 and Visual Studio 2008.
Following the Keynote were individual tracks for each product detailing the new features and technical aspects of each. It was very informative, and the new features look awesome.
Each delegate got a pack of goodies, including a full version of Windows Server 2008 Enterprise.
If you go to Curtin or UWA and would like a free 90-day trial DVD of Visual Studio 2008 Team Suite please contact us and we’ll organise you a copy.
More pictures of the event can be found on flickr.
If you want to register or be notified of Microsoft events like this in the future checkout this link.
I came across an interesting thing today while wandering around the web (as you do…).
Firstly, the new version of Silverlight, as well as the announcement and release of Silverlight for Series 60 Symbian phones. Even though the Silverlight site claims that Silverlight is “cross-device” the only devices it is being offered on is PC and Symbian phones – what happened to PDA’s? Why would Microsoft release Silverlight to a competitor (ie the Symbian developers) when they haven’t released it on their own devices?
To solve this conundrum, I decided to visit the Windows Mobile Developer Centre to see if there was a beta of Silverlight or, in the least, some sort of announcement. Then I noticed the kicker: there is a RSS Feed collator box on the homepage entitled “Rich Internet Applications” that is pulling no feeds, though it has the cryptic message of “The ability to create Rich Internet Applications on the Windows Mobile platform is coming soon. Stay tuned…”.
Silverlight on Windows Mobile; it would defiantly bring both of these platforms to the next level – and make it that much better for developers.
- Daniel
Curtin MSP
UPDATE:
It appears that Microsoft did announce Silverlight 1 for Windows Mobile: http://silverlight.net/learn/mobile.aspx
Still, this doesn’t decrease the prospect of how cool it will be.
Thanks to Jim Wilson (http://www.pluralsight.com/blogs/jimw/) for pointing this out.
The Disclaimer:
The following tip is a small no-no on a development / home machine but a huge one on, say, a production server.
Some Background:
In Vista and up (Server 2008 etc) there are three desktops available at any one time:
Funnily enough it is quite easy (given administrator permissions) to launch windows on both the System and the Login desktop, but more on that in a later post.
The Problem
The UAC (User Account Control) prompt actually launches on the System desktop for security reasons (programs running on one desktop can’t interact with programs on another desktop, thus reducing the chances of a program that automatically clicks “Allow” on UAC prompts). It firsts grabs a screen shot of the current desktop, applies the grey alpha and then pops up the window – all of which can take a bit of time, depending on the available resources on your computer.
The Workaround
Luckily there is a handy way to tell Windows to launch UAC prompts on the current desktop, meaning it only pops up the UAC prompt, without incurring extra penalties. Here’s how:
Why Not Just Disable UAC?
Let’s face it – UAC under Vista was in your face annoying. Now that SP1 is out in the wild though, the amount of prompts has been drastically reduced (just try creating a directory in an area requiring elevation and notice that there is only one dialog, down from three!) and UAC can get on doing what it does best – protecting you from malware.
On a single person machine, where you don’t have to worry about multiple users accessing things they shouldn’t touch, the main concern is malware. A malicious piece of software will not be able to execute anything requiring elevation without your say so – and with the lower amount of prompts, if Word suddenly starts requiring elevation you know something is wrong.
As Above, but for the Anti-UAC *nix Geek
UAC is sudo. You would never run your *nix box as root so why run your Win* box as administrator?
Does This Disable UAC?
No. It may seem as though this makes it way easier for any malware to click a button, but the UAC prompt is still a secure UI element. For an automated piece of software to click on it, it requires UI access via the exe’s embedded manifest (more on that later when we tackle writing UI Automation which needs to handle UAC) and a valid digital signature. To run, the automated software itself would require elevation – and you have already elevated a piece of malware, then it already has full access to the system anyway (it can just load a kernel driver and start mucking around in kernel space which you have no control over but has full control over you).
So to keep it basic: this will still give you 99% of the security that the previous UAC prompt gave you (just without the pretty graphics) and if you make sure to never elevate a process you aren’t sure requires elevation you will be fine.
Notes
Unlike fully disabling UAC, there will be no security centre warning messages when you disable this prompt – just a speed up.
What better way to start a first post but with the news that Microsoft is releasing some source code (albeit under an Academic license)?
Singularity is a Microsoft Research project involving the creation of a new Operating System based on an abstract instruction set and type safe languages (i.e. it’s based on .NET). The OS uses a concept of SIPs (Software-Isolated Processes) to load and control processes which are limited into their own address space. Due to the managed nature of the running code, programs can be verified by the OS at install time, runtime or during any other controlled interaction.
The source code download weighs in at 61MB (it’s a zip file with all of the sources and build scripts) – small enough to warrant a quick look. Check it out – you never know, your next OS course may just happen to be based on Singularity!
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I am very pleased to announce the MSPs at UWA have teamed up with the UWA IEEE Student Branch to bring bigger and better services and events to UWA for the students.
As many of you know, the IEEE has a arm called the IEEE Computer Society, who also have access to MSDNAA along with Computer Science students.
The UWA IEEE Student arm will be sending out Welcome Packs to their members shortly. Be sure to look out for some extra goodies provided by the UWA Microsoft Student Partners.
Any IEEE Student member can also register on our forums at http://forum.wamsp.com.au/ with any queries they may have!
Luke
MSP (UWA)
Many of you may have heard the recent announcements regarding Internet Explorer 8 and it’s change to now render in Standards Mode by default.
Well here is your chance to get a preview at that, and start seeing how this is going to impact your development in the futre. When Microsoft released Internet Explorer 7, it broke a lot of sites, simply because the developers were too lazy to test beta versions with their products. Make sure you test it out before it is released.
Apart from rendering in standards mode by default, IE8 includes some new features that are:
Activities
WebSlices
Favorites Bar
Automatic Crash Recovery
Improved Phishing Filter
You can download the beta at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/ie/ie8/readiness/Install.htm
Luke
MSP (UWA)
Natively these two products don’t work together very easily, but MySQL has since released a set of standard .NET data access objects including a MySqlConnection, MySqlCommand, MySqlDataAdapter and MySqlDataReader. These are just a few of many types and classes included in the MySql.Data namespace and here I will show you how easy it is to create code that you can quickly switch between Microsoft SQL Server 2005 (or above) and MySQL using our generic System.Data.Common classes.
Goto to our forum to post more questions here.
If you have been thinking of entering into the Imagine Cup then get registered now! The date of submission for Software Design is fast approaching, so you really need to get registered and start building awesome software solutions! If you need help getting a team together, please Contact Us.
Visit www.imaginecup.com today!
For those who know a bit about my ASP .NET development, they know I am an avid fan of the AJAX Control Toolkit.
The AJAX Control Toolkit is the fastest way to produce awesome AJAX styled website in ASP .NET. It’s as simple as drag and drop the control on the webform, wire it up in properties and you have AJAX functionality.
If you haven’t already checked it out I suggest you have a look asap.
The team have released a new version, which adds two new controls ListSearch and Slideshow and numerous bug fixes.
You can get the update from http://www.codeplex.com/AtlasControlToolkit/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=1425
Luke
MSP (UWA)
