Announcement: Exchange 2013 sp1 will support running from removable media such as “flash drives”

Through a trusted resource at the product group, we got the information that sp1 of Exchange 2013 will support running from removable media such as flash drives, dvd drives and blue ray disks, this will allow greater flexibility and decouples the sw layer from hw layer allowing exxhamge to be delivered as remote application over terminal service session or running it as
portable app over linux machines

What a great news, can’t for service pack 1….

شرح العلاقة بين مصر ،و هارفارد و اليابان و الثورة و الاخوان و ال ITIL

الاسبوع الماضي حضرت كورس ال ITIL foundation لا  أدري هذه هي المرة الكم التي احضر فيها هذا الكورس و لكن هذه المرة هي المرة الاخيرة لانه انا اخدت الامتحان فور الانتهاء من الكورس الخميس الماضي.

الجديد في الكورس المرة دي انه وجدت الخيط اللي استطعت الربط به بين العديد من المواضيع الغير مترابطة و التي تشمل مصر ، اليابان و هارفارد و احداث الثورة، استمر بالقراءة اكي تفهم اكثر.

خلال الكورس تم عرض مفهوم Deming لتطوير النوعية ، المدرب قام بعرض نبذة اعتبرها مذهلة (و هي الحل لكل مشاكلنا الحالية) عن Deming هو قام بعرض النبذة عن دكتور Deming و لكن في رأسي تكون الرابط

يعتبر دكتور Deming من ابرز مؤسسين علم الجودة Quality improvement و بدأ هذا بعد ضرب اليابان بالقنبلة الذرية و انهيارها ابان الحرب العالمية الثانية ، قبل هذا التاريخ لم يكن لدى البشرية مفهوم واضح للجودة و تحسين الجودة ، حيث كانت البشرية عموما تتقبل المنتجات كما هي بدون جودة او غير ، حيث ذهب دكتور Deming المحاضر في هارفارد لكي يدرس اليابان بعد انهيارها و يرى كيف ستتطور.

وجد دكتور Deming انه اليابان في فترة 10 سنوات استطاعت النهوض من الانهيار التام الى التفوق الاقتصادي و الصناعي مرة أخرى و استطاع من خلال دراسة ما حدث ان يطور مفهوم و مبدأDeming في تطوير الجودة (Plan , do , check , act)

ديمينج وجد انه في امريكا و بريطانيا يتم تقبل المنتج او الوضع عموما كما هو ، فمثلا اذا ذهبت لشراء البيض من المحل و لم تجد البيض عنده فستقول للمحل متى ساجد البيض فيقول لك صاحب المحل اننا طلبناه و سيتم توصيله في غضون اسبوعين ، فانت كزبون ستذهب و انت سعيد لانه الان اتفقت و سيصلك البيض بعد اسبوعين.

في اليابان كان الوضع مختلف، فاذا ذهبت و طلبت البيض و جاءك الرد بان المحل يحتاج اسبوعين لتوصيل البيض ، فيمكنك السؤال لماذا ، فيرد عليك لانه نحتاج للذهاب للمزرعة لاحضار البيض ، فسترد لماذا لا تأخذ دراجة ، فيقوم صاحب المحل بأخذ دراجة و توصيل البيض في اسبوع مثلا.

المرة التي تليها عندما تطلب البيض و تجد انه يستلزم اسبوع لاحضار البيض فيمكنك ان تقترح ان يقوم صحب المحل بوضع الدجاج خلف المحل مثلا او استخدام سيارة و هكذا تستمر العملية ذاتيا الى ان تذهب و تجد البيض حيث تنتقل الى مرحلة اخرى لتطوير جودة البيض و هكذا…

وجد ديمينج انه هذا المفهوم قوي جدا ، و من خلاله تمكن اليابانيين من العودة و بقوة من الصفر الى المقدمة مرة أخرى.

و انا اتابع هذه المقدمة في الكورس تكونت في ذهني بعض النقاط التي اعتبرها اساسا لكل المشاكل السياسية و المجتمعية التي نمر بها الان ، اسردها في النقاط التالية:

• ديمينج ، الدكتور في هارفارد، اراد البحث و التدليل في الاعماق اليابانية و استكشاف شئ جديد ، لم يكتف بانه دكتور في هارفارد بل ذهب لابعد مما هو ذلك ليكتشف علم جديد تماما.
• الرغبة في التطوير و التحسين و تقبل النقد من الاخرين ، اليابانيين لم يكتفوا بانتاج البيض (مثلا) بعد الهزيمة فانت كمواطن في بلد منهار قد تكون سعيد جدا لوجود منتج ما اساسا ، لم يتقبل اليابانيين هذا الوضع و بدؤوا في تحسينه و هو ما اوصلهم لما هم فيه الان.
• العالم لم يرفض دراسات و ابحاث ديمينج ، بل اصبحت علما الان.

اعتقد انه الثلاث نقاط بالاعلى هي اساس كل المشاكل في مصر ، فنحن لا نتيح للنخبة الحقيقية البحث و تنفيذ ابحاثها بل نظل نختار اهل الخبرة و الثقة و ليسوا اهل العلم في اتخاذ كل قراراتنا.

ثانيا ، ليس لدينا رغبة في التطور او القدرة النقد الذاتي البناء ، و لدينا قبول ليس بالوضع الموجود حاليا ، بل قبول برفض الاخر و عدم القدرة على التغيير ، فهذا سلفي انا ارفضه و سأظل هكذا فهو كذلك  و ان أتغير و هو لن يتغير و هذا ليبرالي او اخواني او…الخ الخ ارفضه و ان اتغير و هو لن يتغير ، اضف النقد الهدام و النقد للنقد.

ربما اكون مخطئا او مصيبا ، و لكنها استقراءات لواقع الحال ….المرير

The UC Architects is online #mvpbuzz

It’s my pleasure to let you know thatlast week, the UC architects community is launches, we will do regular Podcasts, you can download the first regular instalment of The UC Architects, a regular bi-weekly podcast focusing on Exchange and Lync including:

• Exchange and Lync tips and tricks
• Deep dives into new features and products
• Round ups of the Exchange and Lync news so you don’t miss an interesting new tool made available by the community.

In this week’s episode, I talk to Dave Stork, John A Cook, Michael Van Horenbeek andSerkan Varoglu about Exchange 2010 SP2 Update Rollup 3 and why you should take notice, we chat about Exchange 15 (or is it 2013?) rumours and then chat about TechEd, MEC and what’s new this week around Lync and Exchange.

In future episodes you’ll also get to hear from the rest of the team, including Exchange and Lync MVPs Pat Richard,Mahmoud Magdy, Johan Veldhuis, Tom Arbuthnot and Ståle Hansen – along with Exchange and Lync bloggers Michel De Rooij, Paul Cunningham and Andrew Price. As you can see we’ve got quite a line-up – and we also hope to have some other guests in from the community and Exchange and Lync product teams too.

The UC Architects is available as an RSS feed you can subscribe to, and over the next couple of days will be available in the iTunes and Zune stores for free download too. Find out more by clicking the link below!

Download the podcast!

By the way – if you’re interested in getting involved or have any feedback, as well as our website we’ve got Facebook andLinkedIn groups along with our Twitter account, @TheUCArchitects

The definite solution for Hotmail error “your account has been blocked” #hotmail #microsoft #msn

Last Thursday I tried to login to my Hotmail account, I logged in but I got the famous error message “your account has been blocked”, the error indicated that my account has been used to send spam email and Hotmail team decided to block my account.

I was so shocked as I am using a very solid and complex password and I am so fanatic when it comes to my own security.

I tried to recover the account using the available method by sending the verification code to my alternate email account, I got the code successfully on my alternate email account, verified my account but when I login I get the same error.

I searched on the internet and found that I must go through the recovery process, same as forgotten password, I tried but that didn’t work although I passed the process successfully by sending the password recovery link to my alternate account.

the last resort was to shoot an email on the MVP private DL asking for the help, and I didn’t get disappointed as I got the instructions that helped me to recover my account from “David Bjurman-Birr – MCA Sn. Program Manager” so all of the credit goes to him.

to restore your account, and from what I understood from his email and my experience that it looks that account verification using the code will not work with most of the cases it might work but this will not work with most of the users, additionally the code must be sent using a carrier that is located in the US so you cannot use this method if you are located outside the US.

To recover your account, you have to go through the account recover process “as if you lost the password” but don’t use the answer the security question method or send recovery link, you will need to use the customer support method:

in the above screen you will have to use the “reset your password method” , then enter your email and the verification code that you will get then you will get the following screen:

once you get the above screen, don’t use the email me a reset link, or answer the security question, you MUST go to the customer support option.

when you choose the customer support option you will get a form that asks you for the blocked email account and to enter an additional email account where the reset link will be sent. enter your blocked hotmail account and another valid email to get the reset link on it and clock next.

in the next form you will get a lengthy form that asks you a lot of questions that validate your ownership of the account, before answering the form get prepared by reading more information below:

——-

<snip>

Please note that this flow asks for a lot of detailed information so that even if a hacker has changed the password, alternate email address, information to validate your family member as the account owner. For example: ISP, IP addresses for each computer that has been used to access the account, date/time of last successful log-in, folder names, contact names, mail subjects, etc. will help Support establish your friend as the account owner.

Here is some helpful information that may help you and your friend:

We take account security seriously and passing the validation process can be difficult but agents have to be very strict in the information they accept. They cannot tell you which items you may have answered correctly or missed, they only respond with a pass or fail. This is done to prevent hackers from using support to socially engineer their way into access.

The secret to passing the validation process is to provide as much information as possible. For questions that have multiple answers, like names of Hotmail folders, Hotmail and Messenger contacts, subjects of old e-mails, etc. provide 3 to 5 answers instead of 1. If the postal code could be one of 2 or 3, provide all of them. Provide precise information. Don’t say you have Facebook e-mail give the exact text ‘Facebook Notification – Friend request from John Doe.’ The more information and the more accurate you are with it the more likely you are to pass validation.

If the account has been hacked and information changed then agents validate the account based on the information associated with the account prior to the compromise so customers should use the information they believe they had associated with the account even if they know it has been changed.

Finally, if an agents responds that validation failed then add more information to the existing thread instead of creating a new one, this will allow agents to aggregate the provided data, which they can’t do across multiple threads.

</snip>

you will be asked about your first name, last name, ZIP or postal address, country and city, additionaly you will be asked to provide 5 folders names that you created inside your account, and enter the subject of 5 emails you recently sent, and 5 contacts you recently contacted and Xbox purchase information if you used your hotmail account in Xbox purchases.

please note that answering the form accurately and correctly is very essential to successfully unblock your account otherwise you will be able to do it.

once customer support receive your request, they will validate it and if it is correctly answered you will receive a link to reset your password, enter a new password and once done login and your account will be activated again…..

again, this is what have worked for me, please note that this might not work with you for various reasons, and if something worked with you please share it here for the benefit of the community.

My gift to you in my Birthday–Why you feel unhappy in your current job #Egypt #IT #Jobs #careers

Today is my Birthday, I will start my first day in my 29th tomorrow finishing my twenties, it was an era for my started in Libya and ending in Egypt.

my gift back to you in by BD will be my own finding for why people are not happy in their current jobs not only IT but any job.

During the past years I found and met a lot of people who working in great companies (big ones also), getting huge pay checks and yet are not happy.

I involved in a lot of discussions during the past month with a lot of my friends and colleagues about the source of happiness and satisfaction in their current role and career path and how to find it.

my finding that a lot of people (specially in Egypt) believe that happiness in career will be gained with high salaries and career satisfaction achieved by working in bigger companies, but of course I can say and declare that this is a big fat mistake.

how I can be so sure, I found the answer 3 years ago when I was involved in Time Effectiveness training, that program lasted for 3 days that changed my life.

the Coach’s idea was to effectively manage your time, you have to love what you do, and to know what you love to do, take that very simple test:

assume that starting tomorrow money will not be used, what ever you want in your life will be given to you for free, you want a house here is a house, you want a car here is a one, no more bills or payments, no money is needed thus you don’t have to pursuit a career or a job anymore (if you work for the sake of money).

so going along with that assumption, if you decided to work (remember that in this job you will not be given a salary there are no need for money) so if you will work in a job where you will never be paid a salary or given a money what you will work?!!!

In the training and until that moment I wasn’t impressed, so I went with the coach and took the test (for the sake of not being a silly boy), and I gave it a thought and came back with the job that I will love to work for free, I will be a military sniper.

The coach then asked me, list 3 things you love about your new career that made you choose it over your current one and will make you happy working it for free, so I chose:

• Support, I love to provide support to my team and working with them in complex and adventurous plans.
• Accuracy, planning associated with the military sniper role.
• Knowledge, training required to be skillful in that role.

Then, The Coach asked the following question : Do you find the above 3 things in your current role?!

The question was shocking to me , I spent days thinking about my current role at that time (of course that was after the training completed) and if I can find any amusement in it and if it fits with the things I wish to have and willing to have and work for free for them.

at that time I found that my role has nothing to do with the above features ,benefits or items that thrills me and one month later I left that role pursuing a job that had those in it, leaving my role in that big company and sacrificing a salary that is double my current salary to find  happiness and satisfaction in career and life.

In our life, we used to have a compass that guide us when we were child, our parents were assisting and guiding us toward solutions for our simple problems like which sport shall we play, which school we should go to…etc, however when we grow up and our problems became a hell more complex we lose this compass and sometimes we lose or mix our dreams with needs and tend to ignore what amuses us and targeting the values of our society which encourages us to have the fanciest houses, the largest cars and biggest salaries which doesn’t bring happiness nor satisfaction to our career or life.

I hope that you will get the message, take the test and apply it to your current career or role and see if you can find happiness or satisfaction in it. if not I highly encourage you to pursuit another career or job that will make you more satisfied and happier because money will not bring any of them.

 

Thanks for reading my post and until next time.

#Exchange #Exchange2010 2nd #webinar by me at 5/2/2011 #Egypt #arabic #Microsoft community #mvpbuzz register here http://tinyurl.com/4a7uhjp

This is the second webinar, we will continue speaking about DAG and site resiliency, install Exchange 2010 and starting transitioning from Exchange 2003.

the registration is

https://www.livemeeting.com/lrs/8000684734/Registration.aspx?pageName=bvhps14h4sfbxfhs

See you then.

Mahmoud

Link to the first #session recording for #Exchange #arabic meeting #mvbuzz

In this session we talked about Exchange 2010 installation and DAG benefit and design, we didn’t have the enough time to talk about site resiliency, we will continue it in the next session.

to download the session here is the link:

http://casts.ipility.com/casts/First-meeting-1-1-2010.rar

follow us for the next upcoming session isA.

Mahmoud

#Exchange #Outlook Create a Local Distribution List from Email using script

Nice Script I found on EE thought that I would share, the script reads the recipients from an email message and then prompts you add CC guys to the DL and create the DL.

Sub MakeDistListFromMsg()
    Const MACRONAME = "Make Distribution List from Message"
    Dim olkItem As Object, _
        olkDistList As Outlook.DistListItem, _
        olkRecipient As Outlook.Recipient, _
        olkFolder As Outlook.MAPIFolder, _
        bolCC As Boolean, _
        bolBCC As Boolean
    Select Case TypeName(Application.ActiveWindow)
        Case "Explorer"
            Set olkItem = Application.ActiveExplorer.Selection(1)
        Case "Inspector"
            Set olkItem = Application.ActiveInspector.CurrentItem
    End Select
    Set olkDistList = Application.CreateItem(olDistributionListItem)
    If MsgBox("Do you want to include CC addressees?", vbQuestion + vbYesNo, MACRONAME) = vbYes Then bolCC = True
    If MsgBox("Do you want to include BCC addressees?", vbQuestion + vbYesNo, MACRONAME) = vbYes Then bolBCC = True
    For Each olkRecipient In olkItem.Recipients
        Select Case olkRecipient.Type
            Case olTo
                olkDistList.AddMember olkRecipient
            Case olCC
                If bolCC Then olkDistList.AddMember olkRecipient
            Case olBCC
                If bolBCC Then olkDistList.AddMember olkRecipient
        End Select
    Next
    Do While olkDistList.Subject = ""
        olkDistList.Subject = InputBox("You must give the distribution list a name.", "Make Distribution List from Message")
    Loop
    olkDistList.Save
    Set olkFolder = Session.PickFolder
    If olkFolder.DefaultItemType = olContactItem Then
        olkDistList.Move olkFolder
    Else
        MsgBox "You didn't pick a Contacts folder.  The list was saved in your default Contacts folder instead.", vbExclamation + vbOKOnly, MACRONAME
    End If
    Set olkItem = Nothing
    Set olkDistList = Nothing
    Set olkRecipient = Nothing
    Set olkFolder = Nothing
End Sub

How to configure the WNLB Multicast IP to be routable

as you all know when you configure microsoft WNLB in multicast mode, the IP is not routable from anotehr segments or VLANs thus cannot be reached residing in different VLANs trying to access the IP directly.

some of you might have to run Multicast NLB for one reason or another, to make it routable you will have to be pretty advanced network guys, but not so fancy gears, but here ae the general steps:
1- You need to be running PIM routing
2- Configure an ARP entry for the “unicast ip to multicast mac” 3- relationship on your layer 3 devices.
4- Configure static mac-address-table command that is on the interfaces where servers are conneccted.
5- Disable-snooping.

Check Point replaced by a Forefront TMG 2010 appliance – solution by a Forefront TMG business partner

Industry Oilfield Services The Solution SecureGUARD TMG950 appliance based on Microsoft Forefront Threat Management Gateway 2010 (TMG) The Microsoft security solution has been expanded by adding the partner’s convenient management and support functionalities and deeply integrating them into the customer’s Microsoft infrastructure. The Challenge VAOS Ltd. is a company which specializes in oilfield projects in the inaccessible desert regions of the Sahara. The company headquarters are in Malta and there are branch offices in Linz (Austria) and Libya. A number of smaller branches are also connected. These are mainly located in the middle of the desert, so extreme demands are made on the IT infrastructure too: besides the high temperatures of up to 58° C, there are long distances of hundreds of kilometres between branches and there is no reliable electricity supply or telephone or Internet connection. At all locations, the old solution was to be completely replaced on the basis of Check Point. The small locations were to be connected by satellite. The central administration of the entire solution from the technical location Linz was a very important focus, i.e. implementation of access to distributed Microsoft systems, a distributed Active Directory with 4 domain controllers at four different locations, a distributed Microsoft Exchange mail system with four mail servers, distributed update (Microsoft WSUS) and client deployment (Microsoft Windows Deployment Server) infrastructure at four locations. A VoIP telephone connection to all branches via site-to-site VPN was also asked for, as well as access to the SAP applications (including access from the outside). Of course, IT security had to be guaranteed throughout all connections at all locations. The Technical Solution The technical solution was implemented via the security software Forefront Threat Management Gateway 2010 (TMG) from Microsoft integrated into a SecureGUARD TMG950 appliance, which supplements and expands the former by adding management and support functionalities. At the IT headquarters in Linz, a virtualized Microsoft Enterprise Management Server (EMS) has now been installed in addition to a cluster with two nodes. Two SecureGUARD TMG950 appliances are used for the two nodes. The other two large locations at Portomaso and Tripoli are both connected via a TMG950 appliance. The SecureGUARD Starter Edition was sufficient for the smaller locations with their small numbers of users: this is an economical alternative allowing locations with only a few users to be connected as it uses a modified version of the TMG Workgroup Edition. The price is very reasonable due to the limitation to 25 simultaneous users. All branches are connected via site-to-site VPN and are administered centrally from Linz. This is made possible by the “Branch Office Deployment” function of SecureGUARD appliance management in conjunction with the new functionality of the Microsoft Enterprise Management Server in Linz, which permits the central administration of the Standard or Workgroup Edition. The SecureGUARD programmers ensured the communication of customers and suppliers via the enterprise software SAP by using a self-developed NAT driver specially designed for the Microsoft TGM 2010. Comprehensive enterprise security is provided for by the functionalities of the new Microsoft Threat Management Gateway 2010: firewall, antivirus scanning, URL filtering and HTTPS inspection protect all branches. The Result The new security functions of the TMG allow the entire administration of the customer to be carried out from one location. Downtimes are minimized as a result of the improved disaster recovery, in which Microsoft integrates a firewall as well as malware and content protection into one unit. On the part of VAOS, this saves personnel resources and a considerable amount of time during operation, thus reducing the costs required for implementing IT security. The functionalities of the SecureGUARD Appliance Management System and of the wizards such as the Branch Office Deployment Wizard guarantee faster software roll-out. Company Profile SecureGUARD GmbH has its headquarters in Linz and is a leading Austrian manufacturer of high-quality integrated security solutions. All units, from small low-maintenance and low-noise branch office units to redundantly equipped high-performance units with 8 CPU kernels, have the same SecureGUARD functionality. As a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, SecureGUARD is intensively involved in the development of the Microsoft Forefront Threat Management Gateway (TMG) and the Microsoft Forefront Unified Access Gateway (UAG). With the Microsoft-certified SecureGUARD appliance for Microsoft TMG 2010 and UAG 2010, SecureGUARD combines hardware, software and support to form a high-quality security solution which can be used in particular in homogeneous Microsoft environments with central authentication. For more information, please go to:  http://www.secureguard.at Author: : Helmut Otto, CEO SecureGUARD GmbH

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