Paul's Down-Home Page: Exchange, security, and more

• I'm more than halfway done with the technical editing pass on Tony Redmond's new Exchange 2010 SP1 book. Those of you who want to know more about Exchange are really going to like it.
• Apropos of SP1: when I installed it, one of my servers failed to start the MS Exchange Forms-Based Authentication service. This caused all OWA logons to the server to fail, and it took me a few minutes to figure out why. Luckily I'd performed the upgrade at night and done a DAG switchover, so no harm done. Apart from that, it's been flawless.
• When the State Department says it takes four to six weeks for passport issuance or renewal, apparently they mean it. I mailed my renewal in on July 15th and just got the new passport yesterday.
• I love having a Trader Joe's near my house. If you're not familiar with them, check out this article and you'll see some of the reasons why I like them so much.
• Three firms control 89+% of the US soft drink market. Here's a cool graph showing which firm makes which drinks.
• My co-worker Shelby is running her first 5K, a benefit for lung cancer research called "Jog for Jill." Feel free to drop by and throw a few charitable bucks her way. I know she'd appreciate it.
• Speaking of 5Ks: yeah, I need to run another one soon, but that would require me to actually prepare for it. There's one coming in in San Jose on Halloween; maybe that'll be next.
• Next weekend the boys and I are going salmon fishing in Alaska. How much fun is that going to be? (Plus: we all looove salmon, so it's kind of like going grocery shopping.)

Mark Smith, founder of the magazine that became Windows IT Pro, has a great article today looking back on the 15 years since he started it. The first issue went out on August 24, 1995.

I didn't start writing for them until about three years later, as I mentioned in my earlier post about how I got started writing. (I guess this post is part 3, more or less, of that series.)

At the time, the Windows NT juggernaut had a separate print newsletter that covered Outlook and Exchange, called Exchange & Outlook Administrator. They were looking for someone to write a Q&A column, which I was happy to do because answering reader questions meant that I didn't have to come up with column topics all by myself (at least not most of the time.) Interacting with readers is really my favorite part about writing for the magazine, actually, but more on that in a minute.

I wrote for E&O for a couple of years, then took over the Exchange UPDATE column from Jerry Cochran in 2002 when he joined Microsoft. Writing a weekly column was quite a bit different than my previous work; coming up with something to write about every single WEEK turned out to be tough for the first, oh, seven years or so; now that the column is bi-weekly it's much easier. The Exchange world is dynamic enough that there's always something interesting to talk about.

Along with the UPDATE column, I've written dozens of feature articles for Windows IT Pro itself, plus a few reviews, buyers' guides, and other ancillary materials. I really enjoy the people I work with; they are a first-class group of professionals and have, for the most part, a great sense of humor. I've learned a lot from them, too. A good editor can make a large difference in the finished quality of any writing, this not excepted.The same core group of editors works across multiple publications, and that continuity has been quite helpful. Thanks to Amy, Peg, Karen, Karen, Karen, Jason, Zac, Lisa, and the many other people I've been privileged to work with.

Of course, I would be remiss if I didn't give a shout out to Dave Bernard, Dan Blunk, and the many other people who work for the Penton custom media team. They're the ones responsible for foisting my webcasts and seminars off on a largely unsuspecting public. (Actually I've been doing this long enough that I think the bees are beginning to S-U-S-P-E-C-T something, if you know what I mean and I think that you do.)

We've just been working on the editorial calendar for 2011, and I'm pleased to say that we'll be covering some really interesting topics... but you'll have to subscribe to find out what they are!

Happy anniversary, Windows IT Pro. Here's wishing you many more.

Long week! Arlene's out of town so I have been playing single dad all week; last week I was teaching in Pensacola and didn't have five minutes to throw an update together at all.

• David seems to have more summer English homework than I remember having. Back in the day, I had to read several books but I don't remember getting ancillary assignments like he has.


• The boys and I went to see Rush on Monday night at Shoreline. It was a terrific show. Expect a full(er) review later.


• Our Scoutmaster and his family just came back from climbing Mt Kilimanjaro, but not like these men did it. Well done.


• These sound like a lot of oil bidness people I heard about in Louisiana during the 70s and 80s. I laughed and laughed.


• I thought about subscribing to the Marine Corps Times, but for $70/year? No thanks.


• Somewhere in my garage is a set of new rotors and pads for my car. It's about to the point where I'll have to dig them out and get busy.


• I had a delicious biscuit at Copeland's while watching my Uncle Ray perform with his band. They put on a great show-- I don't think I'd ever seen them perform before. Suddenly, though, seeing that movie makes me wish I had a biscuit right now. It must be getting on towards lunchtime or something.

In this video from TechEd 2010 (as opposed to the other one), Paul Thurrott and I talk about Windows Phone 7 and the smartphone market wars.

One of the fun things I got to do at TechEd this year was shoot a couple of short video segments with Paul Thurrott. Despite the fact that he and I have worked for Windows IT Pro for years and years, we'd never met face to face before. The first of the videos, in which we talk about Exchange 2010 and Communications Server "14", is now available here.

• Devin said it on Twitter before I could post it here: if you don't like gay marriage, then don't have one. Otherwise, mind your own business.
• Today would have been my dad's 65th birthday. I imagine he would have celebrated with a big steak and a long motorcycle ride. In his honor, tonight I'm going to eat a big steak.
• I love it that Nolan Ryan is going to own the Texas Rangers. I'm not a huge baseball fan but this might be enough to make me pay more than casual attention to the Rangers.
• Google Wave: the latest punchline. (I won't even tell you how bad I've heard the current incarnation of GoogleTV is so far. Lots of work to do there.)
• This is enough to get me to the dealership. And I'm not the only one who loves cars, either.
• I think next year's big summer trip for me and the boys will be to Oshkosh. Phil and Bo both seemed to like it quite a bit. (Second choice: white water rafting in Utah.)

OK, I skipped a week. Feel free to cancel your subscription for a money-back refund if you mind.

• How did I not know that Kevin Miller had a blog? Subscribed.
• If you need to build a fast wireless link across a 20-mile gap, it turns out to be easier than you might think, as well as a great way to learn about some interesting technology.
• My MacBook Pro is so old that you can't add Bluetooth or wifi inside the case. This makes me sad, but not sad enough to buy a new one. Yet.
• Have you ever heard of "Lightning" Lee Murray? Interesting guy.
• Here's a great photo gallery from this year's Oshkosh EAA show. I'm going next year for sure. Who wants to come?
• Have you ever heard of wheat rust? You will.
• I still can't believe that AT&T wants people to pay money for their MicroCell. I wrote them a strong letter; we'll see whether they give in and give me one at no charge or whether I have to hassle them some more.
• Some day I too will be in the market for vacation properties in France. Until then, read Tony's take and get a good laugh.

This is pretty cool: the paper that Devin and I wrote about phishing detection actually got cited as a reference in a computer science research book.

• I just discovered Pandora's QuickMix channel. Heaven help me; I can't see how I missed it.
• At the end of May, I was down a little over 10lbs. I've dropped 6 more since then.
• For the last couple of weeks I've spent my evenings contributing to an as-yet-unreleased iPhone app for the church. If you want to see what kinds of bugs I've been fixing, see the public list. Rest assured that I'll be posting a link to the app once it hits the App Store, hopefully in a week or so.
• It's that time of year. What time, you say? Time to order The Year's Best Science Fiction, of course. Every July, like clockwork.
• Also, I'll be ordering this bio of Robert A. Heinlein.
• I have a huge backlog of blog posts on various topics. Perhaps I'll get to some of them in the next couple of months. Perhaps I'll need a gentle reminder.
• Tomorrow I should be picking up an Xbox 360 slim. Gamestop has a great trade-in deal running until Sunday, so I'm just getting in under the wire.
• This blog post is now diamonds.

At the risk of being a one-note wonder, I've complained before about not having a good way to tell what Exchange ActiveSync (EAS) features a given mobile device (or device family) supports. At TechEd this year, Microsoft's Adam Glick told me that the Exchange team was working on a solution.

I'm delighted to point to the fruits of their labor: a Microsoft-hosted wiki page that shows what features different Exchange ActiveSync clients support. I'd like to say it makes for fascinating reading but that would be a lie. It is, however, useful, and that's even better.

Now all we need to do is get the vendors who implement EAS to do it properly and we'll be golden.

• So the NSA is going to do critical infrastructure protection (CIP). Good. Someone needs to be doing it; the agency that's supposed to do so has been asleep at the switch.
• Krispy Kreme for breakfast and a bison burger at The Counter for lunch. At least I'll die full.
• The rental market in Morgan Hill is hot, hot, hot. It's a great time to be a landlord, which is good 'cause it's still a terrible time to sell a house. (It could be worse; we could be in Santa Barbara.)
• I am loving Stuff No One Told Me, but be forewarned; it's not really kid-friendly.
• If your company offers online signup for a service, and you can't find my address in your mapping system, it's not my fault, and you'd better not expect me to call you about it. I'll just find another service provider.
• Wayne Hale is retiring from NASA. Good luck and Godspeed, sir.

Matt wants to be a marine biologist, so for Christmas we gave him a trip to dive the Great Tide Pool at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Today was the big day. We headed south about 0800 for a 1000 program and made it there with no problem; it was chilly and a bit foggy, as forecast. Unfortunately, I didn't have an inhaler for him but had (stupidly) written down on the medical form that he required one. Arlene went to our local CVS and got them to fax a prescription down to the CVS right near the aquarium. Inhaler in hand, we got into the 1130 program without incident.

After a short safety briefing, the guides (one for every 3 kids) helped Matt and his teammate suit up. First came a layer of fleece, followed by a dry suit and booties, then a balaclava, then a mask, tank, BC, and regulator. Once the kids were all fully suited, they got into the tide pool for a good 40 minutes of swimming around and observing. He had a blast (as these pictures clearly show), and he pretty much hasn't stopped talking about it since. Well worth the $59.