A very cool blog milestone

We are not much on beating our own drums and blowing our own horns but this is really cool:

We are about to hit 3,000,000 page views.

Why that number over any other? Because it is the first time in a long while we've checked the stats. ;)

And, it just happens to tickle the kewl factor neat feeling area.

Thank you to all of our readers that have stuck it out over the years. We know there are some of you on our e-mail list that have been with us from pretty much the beginning of this blogging journey.

Thanks to all of you that have taken the time to comment, ping us with a question, and even reach out for assistance on various projects. It is very muchly appreciated.

Have a great day!

Philip Elder
Microsoft Cluster MVP
MPECS Inc.
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen ASP Project
Find out more at
Third Tier: Enterprise Solutions for Small Business

Create a Google Account Without GMail for Blogger

We are setting up a new Blogger site on behalf of a start-up business.

When we went to set up the site Google required us to set up a GMail address.

Well, we do not want a GMail address as we only want an account to access the Blogger service.

So, we go to Google Drive and sign up there using the start-up's existing blog@ address.

And, voila:

When we click the link:

We punched through and chose to receive a text message to verify that we were not a robot.

We then were able to click the More drop down and click through to the Blogger site. We were asked to sign in using the new Google Account and we were in.

Well, almost. The next series of questions about profiles and such required some Terms & Conditions reading.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen
Find out more at
www.thirdtier.net/enterprise-solutions-for-small-business/

Windows Live Writer

Last Post Title: Attach should have been Attack

A bit of the dyslexic bite there.

The title for our last blog post has been updated: Microsoft Attack Surface Analyzer 1.0 Released.

Happy Monday everyone and thanks for reading! :)

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Windows Live Writer

Been a busy time!

Between moving our residence and taking care of our clients, along with working on some prospects, things have been running at 115%.

So, blogging has been lite and may continue to be for the next week or so. At least until we settle in a bit. :)

Thanks for reading!

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Lots Going On!

We are in the process of setting up a 2 node cluster to get ready to deploy this week and into the weekend.

Posting may be a bit lite over the next few days or so.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Gearing Up – Back At It

The last three weeks have certainly had their fair share of ups and downs.

Today we are back in business, though it may take time to gain a full head of steam.

We have a lot to do to catch up with a long list of client requests that will need to be dealt with over this week and into the next.

We then have a few prospective deals that we are working on with some being close to being deals in principle.

So, posting may continue to be light over the next while as we catch up with everything and begin to work on new projects as well.

Thanks to all for your support both here and privately via e-mail and phone. We really appreciate it! :)

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Quick IE Search Tips: Blog & MSFT KB Examples

This neat tip comes originally from Mariette Knap which we have modified for our own purposes.

• Internet Explorer IE Knowledgebase Quick Search (ZIP file)
• The above file has the needed registry entry for doing a quick KB search.

After merging the above registry file we may need to restart all IE session for the change to take.

So, just what does the above do?

Well, let’s say we need to get to the Hyper-V Nehalem hotfix page really quick. Since we know the KB number off by heart we type the following in IE’s address bar:

Once we hit the Go arrow or Enter we end up at:

Okay, we now have quick access to Microsoft Knowledgebase articles that we know the article number for.

Now, we search our own blog _a lot_ as it is a knowledgebase for us too. Thus, we would love to see:

Give us:

After tweaking the registry entry a little we figured out how to get the above search results by typing the keyword “mblog” and our search terms.

The registry file can be found here:

• MPECS Inc Download: IE MPECS Inc. Blog Quick Search

Here are a couple screenshots of the registry settings:

Microsoft Knowledgebase Quick Search

MPECS Inc. Site:blog.mpecsinc.ca Search

These little IE tweaks will save us a huge chunk of time!

Susan Bradley also pointed out the following:

• Help Desk Geek: Copy Title and URL Context Menu Extension for Internet Explorer

The above would have been very handy to get that link into this blog post! :)

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Blog Template Update

Well, after close to four years of using the same template that we modified for our purposes when we first started out on this endeavour, the blog now has an updated template using one of Blogger’s defaults.

The links and such are now where they belong on the left hand side of the page and the restrictions on images seem to no longer be applied. They can actually be _seen_ at whatever size they were screenshot at.

So, enjoy the new look and feel. It should be easier to read for those of us with eyes starting to show their wear and tear too! ;)

And again, thanks to all of you for your ongoing support and contributions to this blog. Without the comments and encouragement over the years the blog would have died a death a long time ago.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Our New Web Site

We were pretty busy this week so we did not have much time to spend on getting our new site online and configured for how we want to use it.

• MPECS Inc. Web Site

We are happy to say that the site is now online and configured with the basic foundation (no pun intended) we will be building the site on.

Our plans for the site are not too monumental! :)

Though, as time permits we will be developing the following site features:

• MPECS Inc. Technical Wiki
• Since the blog has grown quite a lot since it was started we will build this Wiki up to focus in on current projects and products that we work with.
• MPECS Inc. Free Downloads
• Content from Intel server configurations that we have designed for our client deployments through to product documentation.
• MPECS Inc. Calendar
• Any public events that we will be attending or participating in.

We intend to keep the Wiki as focused as possible on current IT based solutions that we are working with at the time.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Time To Catch Up

We had a family situation that came up late last week that required me to fly out of Edmonton early Monday morning.

I am now back and looking at all of the Microsoft announcements and product news that happened while I was disconnected. It will take a bit to process all of the news bytes, but they look to be really exciting!

So, once things have settled in, there will be more to come on all of the changes coming down the pipe for us.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Have U Rebooted Yet – Comic by fellow MVP Tim Barrett

Tim Barrett has a pretty neat little comic strip he publishes on his blog NoGeekLeftBehind called Have U Rebooted Yet.

This latest one really describes a lot of the angst in the SMB/SBS community:

• Original: Have U Rebooted Yet - 018 - Windows Roadmap

Check some of the other comics as they can be both quite funny and very astute in their comment on our industry as in #18 above.

• NoGeekLeftBehind Category: Have U Rebooted Yet

Some of my favourites:

• Have U Rebooted Yet – 017 – P2V

• Have U Rebooted Yet - 015 - The Cemetery

• Have U Rebooted Yet – 010

Good job Tim! :)

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Light Posting For The Next Couple Of Weeks

Folks, we have been running at 110% for the last two years straight.

We are fortunate that we have a bit of time in between now and our next series of large projects.

So, we are going to step back a bit for the next couple of weeks.

We will be spending time with our families and enjoying some of the beautiful weather as well as some neat surprises for our kids!

Thanks for your support and for reading this blog on an ongoing basis.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Test Post from Mars Edit

This is a test post via Mars Edit to see if the signature comes out the way we expect it to. The Preview Pane in Mars Edit may not be telling us exactly how Blogger will be interpreting the code we eventually upload.

UPDATE: While the Mars Edit Preview Pane was putting all of the signature lines together on the same line despite the name, company name, and the MSBS being on separate lines within the code, Blogger interpreted things correctly and inserted a {br /}. Note that the { is a < for coding purposes.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists

Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

MacBook Blogging written from Mars Edit

SBS 2003 to SBS 2008 Migration Successes On The Canadian IT Pro Blog

I have guest posted on the Canadian IT Professionals blog here:

• SBS 2003 to SBS 2008 Migration Successes

I share some thoughts on the various SBS migrations that we have run using the Microsoft migration method.

Check it out! :)

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Blog Question E-mail Link

A while back we did a bit of a shuffle of our e-mail accounts when we jumped on the Office 2010 Beta bandwagon.

Well, in that process, it seems that I missed reconfiguring the BlogQuestion@mpecsinc.ca account.

Going through that account I see some questions in there that I have not addressed.

I do apologize for that and will correct the e-mail setup here so that I do not miss another one.

And to those that have posted a question via the e-mail address, I will be responding to them!

Thanks for reading!

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Light Blogging Lately

Things have been pretty busy for us lately, so blogging has been, and will be light for this week!

Thanks for reading. :)

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

MacBook – Blogger Blog Editing With Ecto = Fail If Using Native Picasa Web Albums

Attempt number one at finding a blog post editor for Mac OS X: Ecto.

Simple and straight forward, but unfortunately no native support for Picasa Web Albums where Blogger posts images to.

Ecto does support Flikr, but why start a whole new location for images when our Picasa Web Albums account is only 20% full after close to three years of blogging?

While the editing abilities of Ecto are pretty good, due to the incompatibility with the Blogger native image location we unfortunately have to give Ecto a fail.

On to the next editor . . .

Windows Live Writer may be a bit clunky, but at least it works with the native tools.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

LiveMeeting On Now

Please check www.mpecsinc.ca for up to date information on where and when I am going to be doing things.

The LiveMeeting link:

• LiveMeeting with Philip Elder SBS MVP

Please keep in mind that this is my first run at this so things might be a bit bumpy to start with.

Also, the LiveMeeting will be recorded and rereleased at a later date.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Home – Now Time For Catch Up

The SMB Nation Fall Conference in Las Vegas was a really good event.

Now that I am back, there is a stack of things waiting for me to attend to.

Posting may be light for the next bit until I catch up.

Thanks for reading! :)

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*All Mac on SBS posts will not be written on a Mac until we replace our now missing iMac! (previous blog post)

Windows Live Writer

SBS 2003 to 2008 Migration Guide and the SBS 2008 Setup Checklist Have Been Updated And Bumped

We will be bumping the dates on both blog posts to make it easier to open them up in Windows Live Writer as well as to update their position in the blog post stack.

• SBS 2003 to SBS 2008 Migration Guide
• Checklist - SBS 2008 Setup

Both resources will provide you with a great overview of each process but also provide an in-depth dive into each process so that either one can be accomplished with consistency and professionalism.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*All Mac on SBS posts will not be written on a Mac until we replace our now missing iMac! (previous blog post)

Windows Live Writer