NEBytes September Event: Windows Server 2012

For our free event in Newcastle on the 19th September I'm teaming up with my NEBytes collaborator Ben Lee to cover Microsoft's new Server release.

Windows Server 2012 is a huge release for Microsoft. Almost everything is new or improved, so don’t worry we're not going to try to cram it all into a one hour session; Instead we're giving the whole of September's NEBytes over to it!

Some of the questions thrown up by the new OS we’ll look to help answer are:

• Server 2012 utilises the same new UI as Windows 8 and defaults to a core install, does it matter and do we need the UI anymore?
• Microsoft say that this has been designed as a Cloud OS, what does that actually mean?
• Server Manager is radically different, can you really manage all of your servers with a single pane of glass?
• We've got improvements around continuous availability, Direct Access, VDI, new Dynamic Access Controls and many more features but what do these really mean to me?

In this full length Server 2012 special Ben and Jonathan will take you on a tour of the main highlights from the new OS and share some of their personal favourites. We're going to be talking storage, networking, Hyper-V and as many many more things so bring your curiosity and your propeller hat and we’ll see you there.

If you're going to be attending, please register on Eventbrite so that we can keep track of numbers.

NEBytes: Windows 8 and Imagine Cup North East

If you're in the North East of England, get yourself along to NEBytes tomorrow evening (Wednesday 21st March). I'm collaborating with Ben Lee and Ross Dargan to give you as much depth as you can handle on Windows 8, and we're getting to see what some of the student teams have been doing for the Imagine Cup.

There's plenty space, so come and join us at Newcastle University (Claremont Tower, room 1.02) from 18:30 - please register at Eventbrite if you're coming.

Imagine Cup North East

For the last couple of weeks I've been helping behind the scenes with Imagine Cup North East. If you've never heard of the Imagine Cup it's an annual student competition run by Microsoft to build technology solutions to address real-world problems, and this year two great local organisations promoting digital industries, Codeworks and Sunderland Software City, have teamed up to run a regional heat.

This week students from Newcastle, Northumbria, Sunderland, Durham and Teesside universities and local colleges will be attending taster and information events (in Newcastle and Middlesbrough), where Microsoft's Ben Nunney will be on hand to discuss the finer points of the competiton.

The competition is a great opportunity for students to work on a project outside of their studies (looks good on the CV, etc) and it should be good fun too, with a 36 hour hack event later in the month. Of course there's also the possibility of a trip to the global finals in Australia to aim for too!

If you're a current student (or graduated in the last year) there's still time to get involved, and if you aren't eligible to take part, you should still be able to support the teams at a future NEBytes event. Head to the Imagine Cup North East site, the Facebook page, and follow @ImagineCupNE on Twitter to keep up with all the goings-on.

What's New in PowerShell v3 - the slides

This is the deck that I used at my presentation to the NEBytes user group last night. The audience was mixed IT pro/developer; 1/4 people who have used PowerShell to some degree; 2/3 had at least some awareness. The aim of the presentation was to show existing PowerShell users some of the exciting new features/directions, and persuade the rest that PowerShell has come of age and is a technology that they should be exploring.

What’s New in PowerShell v3 and Introducing Script Explorer

At the end there was a discussion about books to help you get started with PowerShell. There are some really good books out there, but to reduce the cost of entry, I'd suggest you start with some free ebooks. You can check out this post which links to some resources, and you may also find PowerShell cheat sheets useful (I did when I was getting used to the syntax). Also, look out for announcements around the public availability of the Microsoft Script Explorer for Windows PowerShell.

I also asked whether anyone would be interested in a North East (England) PowerShell Script Club? I want to discuss with those who might want to take part about how they'd like it to work for them, but one idea is to meet for half an hour before the normal NEBytes meetings so that we can share challenges we've faced or successes we've had, with the aim that we all get better through sharing our experiences. If that's of interest to you, drop me an email to jonathan at nebytes.net or @jonoble on Twitter.

IE6 Migration Roadshow touring England

Please stop using IE6.

If you haven't yet, then you might want to attend one of these events. This comes direct from Microsoft...

We are thrilled to extend the invitation to you to attend our series of Internet Explorer 6 Migration Roadshow events!

With support for Windows XP coming to an end on the 8^th April 2014 and IE6 standing in so many people’s way of migration, what better time to start taking the leap to a more modern browser? Problem applications are all too often the blocker, so Microsoft have teamed up with Camwood, Citrix Systems and Quest Software, all application compatibility experts, to help jump-start your move.

Join us at a date below for a packed agenda discussing the technical challenges faced by IT departments when migrating their users off of IE6. We will establish:

·         Why you should go through the trouble of migrating;

·         How you go about identifying those problem applications;

·         What you can do about them.

There are a range of dates to choose from, each offering a slightly different spin and all promising to be thoroughly informative! Take your pick and use the links below to register with our partners.

Who, Where & When?
Tues 21^st February
Microsoft & Quest Software 
Manchester United Football Ground (Old Trafford) 
09:30 – 14:00 (+Stadium Tour!)
More Information & Registration

Thurs 22^nd March 
Microsoft & Citrix Systems (Including newly acquired AppDNA)
Chalfont St. Peter (Easy access via the M40 & M25 as well as rail)
09:00 – 16:00
More Information & Registration

Tues 3^rd April 
Microsoft & Camwood 
London, Cardinal Place 
More Information & Registration TBC

Thurs 19^th April 
Microsoft & Quest Software 
Reading Football Ground (Madejski Stadium) 
09:30 – 14:00 (+Stadium Tour!)
More Information & Registration

On behalf of all the team at Microsoft, we hope to see you there!

In case you're wondering, I'm usually a Chrome user myself. I'm not one for adding multiple extensions to a browser, so I like the way that Chrome natively syncs my bookmarks, etc, and has Flash and PDF reading funtionality built right in. So that's IE6 and Adobe's Flash and Reader that I no longer use. Three birds, one stone.