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October 2008 Entries
Masters update: short form

I have gotten a lot of email from people who wished me well and wanted to find out the status of my recent Masters rotation. I'm working on a bigger write-up, but here's the short form:

  1. It was intense. I had a ton of fun, I learned more than I thought I could, and I met a lot of great people who are scary smart. I was also exhausted after it was all said and done.
  2. It was worth the money. Paul breaks it down for you here, and I agree with every data point. I think it's fair to ignore the cost of travel, because no matter where you go for training, you'd have to pay it.
  3. I'm not yet a Master. There's four tests you have to pass, and I only nailed three of them. I'm now patiently waiting word for retests, as are several of my classmates, and then we'll knock 'em dead.

Thank you, everyone, for your well-wishes and questions. As I said, I'm working on a longer post or series of posts, but those will be a bit delayed in coming because I want to run them by the folks at the MCM/MCA program to make sure that I'm not talking about stuff I shouldn't be.

posted @ Friday, October 31, 2008 6:43 PM | Feedback (0)
...does this mean I'll get an apprentice?

For the next three weeks, I'll be squirreled away in a hidden location, having my brains surgically removed and replaced with a quantum-computing device filled with Exchange knowledge. Good times!

Seriously, though, I'll be off to the October rotation of the three-week Microsoft Certified Master: Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 program. The Master certification is a new certification that Microsoft is rolling out, placed between the MCITP and MCA certifications. It's so new, in fact, that it doesn't yet appear on the Find a Microsoft Certification by Technology page.

So, newness established, what does this Master certification entail? First, it's not your typical Microsoft certification.

To ensure that people going through this experience are ready for it, they're actually screening candidates. For the Exchange Master program, the published criteria are:

  • 5+ years Exchange 2003
  • 1+ years Exchange 2007
  • Thorough understanding of Exchange design/architecture, AD, DNS, and core network services
  • Certification as a MCITP: Enterprise Messaging (Exchange 2007 exams 70-236, 70-237, and 70-238)
  • Certification as a MCSE Windows 2003 or MCTS: Windows Server 2008 Active Directory Configuration (exam 70-640)

Scrape all that together, and what do you get?

  • Three weeks of "highly intensive classroom training" -- and by all reports, they're not kidding when they say that. I've been through plenty of Microsoft classes, and for this one, my corporate lords have completely cleared the decks for me.
  • Three computerized written tests (I assume one per week). I have no idea what these are going to be like, but after having done three exams in the past month, I really hope they're a notch above the standard Microsoft certification exam.
  • One lab-based exam (administered at the end). Now, I really like the thought of hands-on tests; one of the best job interviews I ever went through included a hands-on test. However, they're a lot more stressful precisely because you can't fake things or puzzle out the the right answer through careful elimination. You have to know your stuff.

Assuming I survive and my head doesn't asplode, in a month I'll get to call myself an Exchange Master. This, of course, leads to the obvious question: do I get an apprentice? If so, I have a suggestion:

The determined apprentice

I really want an apprentice. I think I deserve one. You listening, 3Sharp?

posted @ Friday, October 03, 2008 7:22 PM | Feedback (3)
Some nifty Windows Mobile tools

One of the projects I've been working on recently involves managing Windows Mobile devices; Tim and I have gotten to spend a bit of time playing with some very cool software. However, we both noticed that Windows Mobile makes some tasks unnecessarily complicated, such as verifying basic network connectivity. For example, can you tell me how to do any of the following under WM 6.0:

  1. Determine which network interfaces you have running at any given moment
  2. Determine the actual IP address configuration a network interface has
  3. Run basic connectivity tools such as ping and traceroute to validate that your device can talk to other network devices

Thanks to a tip from someone at Microsoft, I was introduced to the lovely free tools provided by Enterprise Mobile, including the spiffy Windows Mobile IP Utility. This lovely tool gives you a great view of what's going on network-wise with your device...including see the pseudo-devices that are created when you cradle your device (and the funky networking that goes on there).

They also make the GUI CAB Signing Utility, which is especially useful if you're pushing software applications out to your Windows Mobile device and want them signed. It's basically a GUI wrapper around the .NET Framework's signtool.exe binary, allowing you to easilly select one or more .CAB files, pick an appropriate certificate from your Personal certificate store (must have the Code Signing capability), select the output directory, and let it rip. I've got a screenshot of it in action in this separate picture over here. For some reason, my computer keeps giving me a signtool error, but the folks at Enterprise Mobile have contacted me and are going to help me troubleshoot this issue over the next few days. Very cool for them!

posted @ Friday, October 03, 2008 6:23 PM | Feedback (0)
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