Tim Long

Forever in Electric Dreams
The life and times of a Small Business Server MVP and all-round technology enthusiast. Tim is founder of TiGra Networks, a company based in South Wales UK specialising in small business IT. This blog is aimed at Microsoft Small Business Specialists, IT professionals, Astronomers and anyone interested in science and technology.

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Tim Long said:

Was Sony BMG justified in deplying copy protection based on root-kit stealth technology?
# November 17, 2005 12:18 PM

Tim Long said:

Was Sony BMG justified in deplying copy protection based on root-kit stealth technology?
# November 17, 2005 12:20 PM

TiGra Networks - The Small Business IT Specialists said:

After a storm of criticism and several lawsuits being filed, Sony BMG has finally suspended production...
# November 17, 2005 12:43 PM

Tim Long said:

If you like Office 2007, send a smile. If you find something you don’t like, send a frown. After complaining...
# May 28, 2006 11:06 PM

Tim Long said:

A few days ago I blogged about the Office 2007 beta feedback tool. I have to agree with David Overton...
# June 2, 2006 2:25 PM

doverton said:

Tim, You need to tell us more things you like :-) You can always just tell us what you do not like, but then we will focus on changing things rather tban keeping things you like. Obviously you can change the icons so they are not hidden in the notification area - good point though - we don't want people frowning all the time :-) Try posting back to justins blog. ttfn David
# June 2, 2006 2:44 PM

Tim Long said:

Well, 15 views so far. I think we might have disproved a theory.
# June 16, 2006 9:19 PM

Tim Long said:

That has to be a fairly un-original title for a post about Windows Vista. Ah well, it's appropriate....
# June 28, 2006 1:55 AM

Tim Long said:

That has to be a fairly un-original title for a post about Windows Vista. Ah well, it's appropriate....
# June 28, 2006 1:55 AM

Tim Long said:

I declare this experiment a failure. The post has attracted below average hits, weighing in at just 36 views as of now. I'm actually somewhat encouraged by that.
# June 28, 2006 1:58 AM

E-Bitz - SBS MVP the Official Blog of the SBS "Diva" said:

Since I can't post comments to Tim's post about how he's given up on beta testing Vista.. I'll leave...
# June 28, 2006 5:54 AM

E-Bitz - SBS MVP the Official Blog of the SBS "Diva" said:

Since I can't post comments to Tim's post about how he's given up on beta testing Vista.. I'll leave...
# June 28, 2006 5:59 AM

David Overton's Blog said:

Tim, one of the community leads has a blog that I recommend people to subscribe too.  He has...
# June 29, 2006 1:32 AM

David Overton's Blog said:

Tim, one of the community leads has a blog that I recommend people to subscribe too.  He has...
# June 29, 2006 1:32 AM

Tim Long said:

I’m really on my soapbox today. I was prompted by someone in a mailing list who posted the following:...
# July 4, 2006 3:29 PM

Tim Long said:

I’m really on my soapbox today. I was prompted by someone in a mailing list who posted the following:...
# July 4, 2006 3:29 PM

Community Server Daily News said:

news of the day a grab bag for what's happening in Community Server Announcing Port 25 : From the
# July 25, 2006 8:50 PM

Tim Long said:

Life with Windows Vista beta 2 - third time's a charm.
# July 31, 2006 10:17 PM

Tim Long said:

With the release of IE7 Release Candidate 1, it is interesting to read this article that suggests Microsoft...
# August 25, 2006 12:18 PM

Ajai Sehgal said:

Tim, this is an excellent white paper. I agree with the need and the path that you propose. Elminating COM should be a goal. It is sloppy enough that it causes no end of installation and interoperability grief. The idea of a DriverFactory (much like a Class Factory?) is a good one but as for everything else the devil is in the details. How would we work it out so that new drivers could be added without a complete redistribution of the ASCOM release? It is important that we maintain the ability to call ASCOM objects via a common script language as this is used extensively by current users. I am not a fan of late binding but it does have its uses....
# September 6, 2006 11:17 PM

Tim Long said:

I don't have all the details worked out yet, but I would imagine that installing a new driver would be as simple as copying it to the appropriate folder ("XCopy deployment"). The chooser would be responsible for enumerating the "installed" drivers at runtime. It would have to use .NET Refelction to look into the assemblies and see what interfaces they implement - or attributes could be used to distinguish ASCOM drivers from other assemblies. It should not be necessary to "register" a driver as it is now. COM Interop ensures that any new drivers would be backward compatible with scripting languages in the short term. Over time, scripting languages will evolve and COM Interop should slowly become unnecessary. I acknowledge that this paper is only a starting point. There are lots of details to be thrashed out and I've already had a bash at tackling some of them in the "ASCOM .Net SDK" that I did a while back. That SDK defines most of the interfaces and has wrapper classes that can form the basis of a backward compatibility layer. It also has a chooser control that looks and works exactly like the existing chooser, except it is a user control that can be embedded directly into a form.
# September 7, 2006 2:35 AM

Jim Harrison said:

This isn't the script we initially shipped; much less the updated one. I don't know where you got it, but the one we have on isatools.org runs perfectly well on ISA 2004/6 SE versions. In particular, the line you call out: If (oData.fEntEd And (oFpcRef.Scope = fpcEnterpriseScope)) ..actually appears in the script as: If oData.fEntEd And oFpcRef.Scope = fpcEnterpriseScope The lack of parentheses is the critical point; if you group this "IF" statement as shown in your example, you force the scripting engine to evaluate the entire statement before making a decision. With the "IF" statement as shown in the script *we actually shipped*, the scripting engine will evaluate "oData.fEntEd" to "false" on an SE server and skip the rest of the statement. PLease d/l the one from isatools.org if it doesn't operate as expected, then email me; don't change the script. We can't and won't support any actions taken by a script that has been modified by anyone else.
# September 25, 2006 8:03 PM

ISA Server Product Team Blog said:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/advisory/925568.mspx discusses a vulnerability in the...
# September 25, 2006 8:21 PM

Tim Long said:

I've just re-downloaded the script from the IsaTools.org link above to verify and in fact I did paste the wrong code snippet into my blog entry (now corrected, apologies for the confusion). The content was substantially correct and the addition of parenthesis was my first stab at troubleshooting the script. I understand and support the statement that people should only use the "official" script - the changes I made are documented in my blog entry for anyone who wants to do likewise.
# September 25, 2006 9:15 PM

E-Bitz - SBS MVP the Official Blog of the SBS "Diva" said:

Thanks Tim! Tim reported earlier a bug in the " how to block VML using ISA 2004/2006 " and
# September 26, 2006 3:46 AM

Tim Long said:

Just for the record, I did a little bit of research and VBScript does not and never has allowed shortcuts in boolean expressions, so this was a plain bug.
# October 6, 2006 6:02 PM

benjaminhawkeslewis said:

Okay, first I agree comments on the IEBlog could be better — though that goes for the cheerleaders as well as the naysayers. But I think you misquoted Jens Meiert's comment. English isn't his first language, and his comment isn't that clear, but I don't think he's saying that IE7 in general sets back web standards. What I believe he means is that IE7's weird UI will provoke many users who would otherwise have upgraded to stay with IE6, so that web standards will remain in the rut they've been in since IE6's release in 2001. Have another read of his comment, and see what you think. "Have you guys all taken part in the beta programme and given your feedback to Microsoft through the proper channels?" I find this question bizarre. For all you know, the commentators you quote have done this. Of course, it's difficult to tell which bugs have or have not been reported, since Microsoft have taken down the bug tracker. As it happens, I remember problems with the UI being reported there. For my part, I reported standards and accessibility issues. "If not, then you only have yourself to blame." I agree that developers and end-users could have been even more proactive in standing up against Microsoft on behalf of a better UI and better standards support. But I think it's absurd to blame them for the end result: 1) Nobody but Microsoft bears ultimate responsibility for the quality of Microsoft products. This is true of any company, but it's especially true of a company with Microsoft's nigh inexhaustible resources. In terms of UI, they can afford the market research. As for web standards: Microsoft is a W3C member (unlike most web developers), Chris Wilson helped edit some of the specs that IE7 hasn't implemented (like XHTML), the standards have publicly available specifications, and the flaws in IE's support have been documented by the web development community for years. Microsoft can't plead ignorance, and I haven't yet seen them do so. What the IE Team have blamed for continuing impoverished standards support is limited "platform resources", which I can only interpret as meaning that the higher-ups don't take web standards as seriously as Chris Wilson. (This is obvious when you look at other Microsoft productions, like their non-validating homepage.) 2) Microsoft did not make it easy to take part in the beta programme, because they did not suggest any way to run IE7 on the same Windows installation as IE6. (There is a way to do this, but far from publicising it or working out how to make it more effective, the IE Team insisted it doesn't work reliably and proposed people try Virtual PC 2004. But $200 is a lot of money to spend on a limited version of an outdated OS you don't like in order to run a browser you wouldn't use by choice.) By contrast, it's trivial (and free!) to run, say a Firefox 2 Beta, on the same Windows installation as Firefox 1.5. Most web designers and developers needed to keep a fully working copy of IE6, but even those happy to replace IE6 with beta software may have been deterred by frequent reports of broken installations and failed uninstallations. I know it made me think twice. I have one of those horrible OEM recovery setups, so reinstalling my system would have been a real chore. 3) Microsoft's attempts to encourage feedback were somewhat ham-fisted. I participated in the last Expert Chat, and it was basically a waste of time compared to the IEBlog and a decent FAQ, because it was impossible to get a decent conversation going. The IEBlog not only requires plain text comments, but has spam software that will chew on posts with several hyperlinks in for days on end, which discourages high-information posts. Overworked IE Team members sometimes miss comments, even on their own posts. I read designer blogs, W3C mailing lists, and even installed the first public beta in January 2006, but by the time I heard about Microsoft's bona fide bug tracker the features of IE7 were already locked down. The Connect bug tracker had a broken file upload that didn't work in my browser of choice, while the MSDN forums didn't seem to work properly in IE7. To even see the bug tracker you had to get yourself a Windows Live account. Contrast this with the freely browseable Mozilla bugzilla. Most infuriatingly of all, once IE7 Final was released Microsoft shut down the Feedback site, which was a bit of a punch in the face for those of us naive enough to have submitted bugs and suggestions. 4) Developers and designers not only have other jobs than improving products Microsoft can't be bothered to deploy sufficient resources to fix, but have other more deserving hobby projects, not least free browsers whose source code belongs to the world, build on all modern platforms, integrate with free screen readers, support old web technologies with fewer bugs, and are leading the field in supporting new ones! And there is some reason to think that only the competition posed by those superior browsers has forced Microsoft to pay renewed attention to IE in the first place. On balance, I think it's probably still worth submitting bugs and suggestions and creating add-ons, but I am on knife-edge about it. 5) IE7 was simply too unambitious to excite would-be testers much. I was disappointed that they didn't work on XHTML parsing; but it was pitiful that they couldn't even aim for HTML 4 support comparable with Lynx or CSS 2.1 support comparable with Opera. Were we talking about a multinational company or three men in a garage? 6) The overall game-plan was (and remains) unclear. Right from the start, there has been a lot of scepticism that once Vista was successfully launched with a new "secure" browser, standards support would again be left on the backburner. Microsoft's failure to eat humble pie over past transgressions, and publish a clear roadmap of exactly what standards they aimed to support and when, all but guaranteed that the IE Team's call for developers to test their websites to see if the worked with IE7 would be met with confusion and cynicism. "Instead of taking pot shots every time MS releases a new product" I don't think you understand the source of people's anger about IE7. Sure, some people just dislike change. Sure, some people just hate Microsoft. But there are issues here specific to IE. Developers encouraged by Microsoft to code for IE6 alone feel betrayed because IE7's slightly improved standards support breaks their non-standard code. And standardistas have a grudge against IE in particular because they've had to spend hours working around its tedious bugs and soul-destroying lack of standards support, or worse yet, abandoning better technologies and sinking down to IE6's lowest common denominator. (And now you're blaming them for not spending further, unpaid hours to do more work on Microsoft's behalf!) Second, they're angry because MS didn't release a new IE for such a long time, and now the new IE is deeply disappointing. "I've found no compatibility problems since RC2" Perhaps not least because of the hard work of the same IE-loathing web developers and designers you're criticizing for being glib?
# October 23, 2006 3:58 PM

Tim Long said:

Just one administrative point I'd like to answer: "The IEBlog not only requires plain text comments, but has spam software that will chew on posts with several hyperlinks in for days on end, which discourages high-information posts". I've just had to enable comment moderation on my own blog because of spammer activity - there's no happy solution to blog spam at the moment. We have to deal with the worst of it automatically and hand-moderate the corner cases (like I did with your comment above). One solution to both text-only comments and moderation is to get your own blog, post your thoughts there where you have full permissions and can format the text how you like and track-back to the original post by hyperlinking it.
# October 24, 2006 12:49 PM

benjaminhawkeslewis said:

Oh, I'm not objecting to comment moderation at all - I'd recommend it for most blogs actually. I just wish the IEBlog's moderation was as efficient as your own. As it is, Eric Lawrence on the IE Team said: "There's a problem with the spam flagger for blog comments, and I suspect that excessive direct hyperlinks are to blame" ( http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2006/10/06/IE7-Is-Coming-This-Month_2E002E002E00_Are-you-Ready_3F00_.aspx#806569 ). Incidentally, how do you insert successfully new paragraphs in the comment system here? As if my previous comment wasn't rant-like enough already, all the paragraphs have been jumpled together to make it look like a rabid stream of consciousness.
# October 24, 2006 1:40 PM

Mister said:

This information is useful, thanks. See you around!

# November 1, 2006 9:56 PM

Jerry said:

Tim,

Thanks for your post. I'm a long-time MS server analyst & Compaq ASE with varied experience with overseas support.  Truely depends on contract on the other side of pond.

 Loaded IE7 production to my personal/company laptop & had issues w/another product (my bad for not checking ALL compatibility issues).  Used Add/Remove to uninstall IE7.  Things still hanging around.  (almost spyware-ish)  Are you aware of any MS checklist which Uninstall might use?  (ie: reg mods, etc.)

Thanks. jls

Proprietor, Narrow Gate Systems

# November 7, 2006 3:45 AM

Tim Long said:

Jerry, when I uninstalled IE7 (with help from Microsoft support) it put back IE6 exactly as it was before. What is it you still have hanging around after uninstalling?

# November 8, 2006 12:19 AM

Richard said:

Well said Tim.  My expeeriences of Microsoft support from the sub-continent is exactly the same, professional courtious and friendly.  I once had four support people on the same connection working through a problem with one of my customer's servers.  they got the whole thing resolved, whereas I would have needed to go for a complete re-install (which would not have been pretty) without them.

# November 11, 2006 10:24 AM

Richard said:

The best use of Coke I have ever seen.  Brilliant!

# November 11, 2006 10:25 AM

Tim Long said:

In my post Software Piracy: Carrot or Stick? a few days ago I discussed the ways that Microsoft is tackling

# November 16, 2006 11:04 PM

TiGra Networks - The Small Business IT Specialists said:

In my post Software Piracy: Carrot or Stick?

# November 16, 2006 11:04 PM

Vijay Singh Riyait said:

Hi Tim,

I'm not denying the power of Windows Powershell and to be fair I have only briefly used it on the Exchange Server 2007 course. The point is a generic one about how systems are managed and the difference always used to be that Unix/Linux had a shell environment and Windows had a GUI. Microsoft themselves in the Exchange Server 2007 course compare it against ksh. I don't quite agree with you that the ability to pipe the output of one command/application to another is not a powerful feature! This makes for being able to write some really flexible stuff and the number of commands and applications you can do this with is huge. However, it's not about the technical details but how the Administrator perceives it and at the end of the day you are left with a bunch of "scripts" to run! If that was so bad in Unix/Linux, then why is it so good on Windows apart from the fact that it runs on the .NET framework? Can I SSH in to a Windows box and just have access to this Shell environment?

# November 17, 2006 11:28 AM

Tim Long said:

I didn't mean to imply piping was not powerful. Piping is powerful allright - but reducing everything to text is the weakness. Piping objects is much more powerful. This is the true differentce - it's not whether text or GUI is better, it's whether working on text or objects makes more sense. GUIs have always worked at the object level, but now that PowerShell does too, you can have a sensible choice between GUI and command line. Windows Powershell is a revolution in the way command lines work. Microsoft may have been guilty of pointing out the opposition's weaknesses -  that's standard marketing. Now that they've re-invented the command line, why not trumpet it?

Why would you SSH when you can RDP?

# November 19, 2006 11:17 PM

Tim Long said:

(sentiment mine). With Windows Powershell finally released, I hope I never have to use VBScript ever

# November 30, 2006 11:45 PM

TrackBack said:

# December 8, 2006 2:46 AM

Tim Long said:

If it sounds too good to be true, then it is! I've been receiving emails offering me a download-only

# December 8, 2006 6:09 PM

TiGra Networks - The Small Business IT Specialists said:

If it sounds too good to be true, then it is! I've been receiving emails offering me a download-only

# December 8, 2006 6:10 PM

Tim Long said:

This cute little demo of Windows Powershell provides a spoken weather forecast. I found this thread on

# December 14, 2006 12:19 AM

Ying Jin said:

I try to run it, but get this error:

The term '.\GetWeather.ps1' is not recognized as a cmdlet, function, operable program, or script file. Verify the term

and try again.

At line:1 char:16

+ .\GetWeather.ps1 <<<<

Any idea?

# December 21, 2006 2:54 AM

Tim Long said:

The only thing I can think of is that if you saved the file from notepad, then a .txt extension may have been added (notepad does this by default). So you may actually have a file called GetWeather.ps1.txt. To make matters worse, Explorer hides file extensions by default, so it can be confusing.

My original blog post has an attachment - try downloading the attachment by right-clicking on it and selecting Save Target As...

# December 21, 2006 3:02 AM

Tim Long said:

I stole the title of this post from Jeffrey Snover, architect of Windows Powershell. Jeffrey has a post

# December 27, 2006 5:48 AM

Windows PowerShell said:

In response to my entry Philosophy of Automation , Tim Long blogged a response where he advanced the

# December 27, 2006 4:54 PM

Tim Long said:

I owe Rob Howard an apology. A while back just prior to the official launch I tried his BlogMailr service

# December 30, 2006 11:52 PM

Susanne said:

Ever since you showed me the function many months ago I have made sure that my LiveMeeting profile is on view!

It's quite useful to have so I know which of the multiple Tims, Johns, and Gareths I'm typing to to avoid confusion!

# January 4, 2007 9:48 AM

Mario said:

I am taking you up on this by making my blog a higher priority on my life.

Since I already have the blog up and running, I just have to concentrate on writing the darn posts.

http://openelements.info/

happy blogging

# January 5, 2007 6:36 AM

Grace S Long said:

My husband, Tim , has mentioned this quiz and here are my results. Your results: You are Supergirl Supergirl

# January 17, 2007 5:12 PM

Uncle John said:

 Tim,

    I read your comments about Uncle Micheal,with

 interest and i thought it was nice of you to remember him in a nice way,the more i think of what he did to emigrate to, as was then a very under developed country on his own and so young was a very brave adventure, but he made it succesfully,and made a life of it i have my thoughts of him and think of him daily.

 All the best to you both.

                 J.E.

# January 18, 2007 8:51 AM

David Overton said:

Tim,

The statement about clean installs is wrong - you can and I have.  The statement about using XP is misleading and we are working on a legally correct clarification - however even the current wording says that until you have to buy your next action pack, you can continue to use your XP & 2003 licenses.

There appears to be a huge amount of crap being talked about this at the moment - give me a few days and I hope to have nice, clear, simple and fully "i've done it so I know it works" information for you all.

The one thing that will not change is the upgrade media - and the media is produced by the windows team and the upgrade process and requirement is the same for everyone one - Certified, Gold, Volume License customers and now Action Pack subscribers too.

ttfn

David

P.S.  I'm not looking forward to trying 15 different ways of loading Vista and doing upgrades just because so many people have blogged saying you can't do X.  Does it show in my tone ;-)

# January 25, 2007 10:35 PM

Tim Long said:

OK - I made a mistake in that statement. I have subsequently done a clean install on my tablet starting from the OEM image of XP Tablet edition. But, to do a clean install, I still have to have XP installed. If I trash my hard drive, now I have to install the O.S. twice.

l am in a situation where I am essentially starting with a brand new action pack subscription - I let my subscription lapse so I have completely lost all rights to use any XP media I previously received. Fortunately, most of my XP installs are either OEM or were purchased separately, so my workstations are covered. I'm not sure now if I can use my Action Pack Vista licenses to install Virtual PC images for testing.

# January 26, 2007 12:15 AM

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# February 1, 2007 12:20 AM

Tim Long said:

After some initial disillusionment with the January Action Pack shipment, reality has set in and I've

# February 4, 2007 5:26 PM

Vijay Singh Riyait said:

Does that mean we have to wait another 3 months? If that's the case then that's very disappointing!

# February 4, 2007 8:26 PM

Tim Long said:

I'm not sure. Chris wasn't exactly sure what was happening. My understanding was that the showcase was going to be sent out as a supplement and was not tied to the Action Pack shipment, so maybe we will not have to wait too long. I tracked back to Chris' blog, so maybe he will see this and clarify the situation.

# February 4, 2007 8:43 PM

Tim Long said:

There is a lot of "me too" journalism going around at the moment where the reporter will show off all

# February 6, 2007 11:11 AM

Tim Long said:

Vijay linked to this article where the BBC's business editor has written an open letter to Bill Gates

# February 6, 2007 3:37 PM

Tim Long said:

I just announced on the TiGra company blog that our new web site, based on MOSS 2007, has gone live.

# February 13, 2007 8:41 PM

Chris Parkes said:

Finally, some clarity from the upper echelons :)  And it's good news, the Demo Showcase Small Business DVD should be delivered in the MAPS Special Edition for SBSC's mid-March!!!

# February 14, 2007 6:29 PM

Tim Long said:

In a previous blog post I mentioned that the demo showcase for SBSCs had been delayed. Chris Parkes promised

# February 14, 2007 11:55 PM

UK SMB Girl » Microsoft Business & Technology Assessment Toolkit said:

PingBack from http://www.uksmbgirl.co.uk/blog/archives/133

# February 15, 2007 9:52 AM

Leen Kleijwegt said:

Dear Tim, Dear Viay,

Microsoft is betting on many horses and SBSC is one of them. If SBSC wins, they like it but if Home Depot wins or their own direct sales and support (Office 2007), they are just as happy.

The problem with each individual Small Business Specialist: they cannot sell big numbers. It is that point where Microsoft and Small Business Specialists travel and will travel on different roads.

Microsoft partners with Gold Partners.

We are to small.... The brand is really smart but we have it now for over almost two years and there is no real content for this program/brand.

Microsoft uses it as a marketing shout: they care about Small Businesses (not the specialists).

Yes, I am a Small Business Specialist since august 2005 and yes this branding and certification brought me 0 new clients !!!!

Regards,

Leen KLeijwegt

Netherlands

CORBUS

http://www.corbus.nl

lkleijwegt@corbus.nl

# February 19, 2007 12:34 PM

Susanne said:

Hi Tim,

I am guessing that you are questioning the SBSC programme and I wanted to make a few comments based on your post. These are my views based on my experiences of the programme right from the pilot days and are not aimed at you personally.

Viral marketing is very powerful if used correctly. Before you can do that, you have to make sure that the mechanisms behind the messages are lock-tight and meet the needs of the audience (the end-user). So if you are in the North of England at the moment and looking for a SBSC partner then there isn't at the moment the choice that I assume Microsoft want to offer through the partner channel. The low numbers were reflected at the Manchester SBSC Symposium. Until they reach THEIR goals for THEIR programme (we have to get on with ours in the meantime) then we have to remember that everyone is in business for a reason and that's to make money. Get the message wrong first time round and you have to work twice as hard to rebuild any bridges you burn in the process.

From the very beginning of their SBSC programme, Microsoft said that the budgets needed to do the mass marketing we would like to see could only be justified when they have the minimum number of partners (currently 700 but looking for 1000). Vlad recently posted on this and you can catch it here if you haven't read it yet: http://www.vladville.com/2007/02/reality-check-why-is-microsoft-unfriendly-all-of-a-sudden.html

However, so far, there have been many advantages to the programme which I hope partners have received. Granted, they may not all be customer facing but I'm sure there have been tools and connections made with those at the MotherShip that would otherwise be missed if it weren't for the programme giving us a platform to make them i.e. DemoShowcase

When I have seen Microsoft in the public forum they push bCentral like crazy, and whilst I may not push my existing clients there, I appreciate that the content of that site and the partner directory goes someway towards promoting the message of Small Business in IT and the importance of a partner.

What has been listed as your promotion of the SBSC badge is great and I would suggest you use the Campaign Builder (available to SBSC partners) to print off collateral that you can take to your local industrial estates and shout about not only that you are an SBSC partner (most won't know the difference between a CCNA, MCP, HP Cert. Engineer etc... anyway) but put the personality of your company in front of them.

I only talk about what it is to be an SBSC once we have the attention of a prospect. If I walked in and they didn't like me then it's not going to make a difference if I'm SBSC or not.

Maybe using the local regional group is a way of advertising in the local paper to promote the badge, your group, and your company. The Devon and Cornwall Group have done this successfully and they talked about this at the SBSC Symposium in Reading.

Don't forget that Microsoft need to make this programme generate ROI for them and have already invested so much. What they have done has worked but we need to realise that we may not be the biggest money spinner for MS and therefore not a priority over another partner (maybe in the Cert. or Gold partner pool) who is being successful in this arena.

I understand there may be disappointment that MS haven't mass-marketed the SBSC brand but I think Robbie, Aileen, and David were, and have always been, very honest about why the programme is, where it is going, and how it is getting there.

My advice would be don't expect a blue badge to be the automatic hand up to business success. The programme should benefit partners both from and internal and external perspective but no-one (not even Microsoft) should depend on the programme to achieve more sales (both tin and services).

At least the SBSC programme listens, responds, and tries its best to respond to feedback. This is the first time I have seen MS respond to small biz partners and many have been encouraged to grow (and are now Cert. and Gold) so at least its going in the right direction.

I blog all the time about ways to market and as you know I am always chatting to partners to help talk about ways of getting the business out there. There is so much already out there that can help us do better business but like I said before, you have to make sure the mechanisms are in place internally before you can go forth and conquer.

# February 20, 2007 5:59 PM

David Overton's Blog said:

I'm going to start with a contentious statement "The Blue Badge is the best scheme in the world for IT

# February 21, 2007 7:49 PM

Tim Long said:

Answering my own question , " I do ". And I hope you do too. Here's why. I have received feedback through

# February 26, 2007 5:54 PM

Tim Long said:

In response to Susanne's comment above, while I agree with much of what she says, the opening line of the comment makes a false assertion. I'm not questioning the value of the SBSC programme. However, Susanne is not alone in thinking I'm criticising the programme, so I've created another post making that explicit. The title was deliberately contentious because I was hoping to provoke people into action. It has worked to some extent but a few people didn't read beyond the title and so misunderstood the thrust of what I was saying.

The point of my post is that, good though it is, there are ways that I think the SBSC programme could be better. I'm always being told that the community should take ownership of this, so that's why my call to action is to promote the blue badge as much as possible - far from being critical of the programme, I am saying that SBSC partners can do more to promote it. Hopefully I've explained that better in my follow-up post.

# February 26, 2007 6:35 PM

iQubed Blog » Blog Archive » I’m with Tim Long on this one! said:

PingBack from http://www.iqubed.biz/blog/?p=267

# February 26, 2007 8:41 PM

Susanne said:

Great follow up post Tim. Let's hope that any SBSC doubting Thomas' read both parts of your post and realise that without the type of passion and commitment you show that they will miss out on all you have achieved through the programme.

Nice SmartArt diagram too ;)

# February 27, 2007 9:25 AM

Paul Murana said:

Good post Tim, the backup method is still something I debate over every time I specify a system.

It took me a long time to actually sell a system with a rotation of hard drives, but for those customers I have sold it to, I have to admit it is working well.

Tapes do give me a nice warm feeling though, I haven't seen anything like an 80% failure rate on restores.  Last week I restored a system for a customer from a backup made in 1999 on a DDS2.  I reckon a significant number of hard drives would have failed in that time.

Software innovation can work around the time needed to perform tape backups.  On the IBM AIX systems I sell occasionally, the system will be "backing up"(unavailable to users) for about 5 seconds on a system with 200gb of data(Server splits the mirrors and then backs up the mirror).

I try not to factor cost too much into the argument, in the instance of a disaster, a working backup is priceless.

I'm still undecided, but I use disk backup on my own servers.

# March 2, 2007 9:10 AM

Vijay Singh Riyait said:

I agree with missing Search, although you could install this on XP, but the fact that it's integrated into applications such as Outlook is great. Although not directly related to Vista, I would miss the RSS reader in Outlook 2007. It's not the greatest RSS reader in the world but it's right there where I need it and of course search works on it. Also, I would miss the Preview Pane in Explorer when working on Office documents. I would also miss the Sleep functionality on Vista, being able to start up the laptop so quickly is great.

# March 6, 2007 12:00 AM

Tim Long said:

I have Windows Desktop Search 3.0 installed on my XP station, but 2 things make it not-as-nice as the Vista search:

1. I can't search My Documents because the folder is redirected to my server. WDS 3.0 doesn't let you index a network path - Vista doesn't either but it supports indexing of 'offline files' so in effect that covers My Documents.

2. WDS 3.0 doesn't allow you to (easily) search the start menu like Vista does. I've begun to lauch all my apps using the keyboard instead of the mouse and that is specifically what I can't do in XP.

# March 6, 2007 12:11 AM

Susanne said:

I would miss the Search function and I would also miss the way that Vista allows you to flick through the installed programs. Rather than XP which opens up panel after panel to eventually cover your screen you can scroll through tidily in Vista.

I also like the simplicity Vista offers when connecting to a network - makes my life a lot easier!

There are heaps of other things I like but they are not all because of Vista (Media Player 11, IE7). Whilst there are third party alternatives out there, having it all under the Vista umbrella makes it a lot easier i.e. Meeting Space, Reliability Monitor, SideBar etc...

# March 6, 2007 9:32 AM

Richard Tubb said:

Hi Tim - really interesting post.

I tend to use Remote Backups (via the Internet) to backup my own critical data, with monthly media (DVD-R) jobs because my volumes of data are less than 10GB (good housekeeping helps!). Same goes for many of my small business customers.

For those with larger backup requirements, I've settled on something half-way between tapes and HDD's though - Iomega REV drives. The technology is HDD based, with the benefits this brings, but there is a "tape like" resilience to the media itself.

Costs aren't too high, with drives costing between £150-£250 apiece, and media is around £30 for a 35GB/70GB "tape".

Iomega also produce an Autoloader for larger jobs that spill over more than one tape - and the latest versions of Backup Exec and Arcserve support REV drives out-of-the-box.

Some people prefer the "feel" of tapes, but personally I'm sold on Remote Backups and REV technology.

# March 8, 2007 8:47 AM

Dale Unroe said:

Hi Tim, don't know why you've had such bad luck but I've been running a single tape AIT-1 SCSI 160 drive for three years and never had a verify failure.  That would be 100% success.  The owner even insists on putting his offsite tape in his glovebox despite my objections and still no problems.  Test recoveries have always succeeded and I've actually done a full recovery once (it was a planned event) with the tape method no problems.  I'm using an Adaptec 29160 card with only the Tape Drive off it.  The Dell motherboard has an onboard PERC SCSI 320 RAID inteface for the server drives.

I'm interested in seeing if the USB solution is viable as there is obvious cost savings there.  Also I'm wondering if putting an eSATA solution could also behave in the same "removable device" methodology?

Thanks for writing about this important topic.

# March 9, 2007 4:15 AM

Tim Long said:

Well that just goes to show that this is a very subjective thing. I have a very similar setup to what you described: Adaptec 29160 controller, no hard drives attached to it, Sony TSL-SA300C 4-tape changer (AIT-1). You've seen my experience. It does work and I have used it in anger, but I'm increasingly convinced that tape has had its day.

# March 9, 2007 11:38 PM

Seareach said:

I don't know why more people don't mark their IT equipment with a security tag? They are not expensive and in 78% of cases, get the PC/PDA/Laptop back to the owner.

# March 10, 2007 2:52 PM

Tim Long said: