All things tech

Hi IAMA Mods.

Techjunkie2 — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 22:54:07 GMT

This is me.

Virtual Team Building - Managing employees in 5 countries

Techjunkie2 — Mon, 04 May 2009 02:55:00 GMT

One of this years great challenges for me has been that my team is spread out geographically over five countries and two continents. In addition, a lot of the guys work from home and don't get the opportunity to interact face to face with other team members on a regular basis. There's of course a lot you lose when this happens, walking down the hall and asking how someone is doing and taking them to lunch is just not possible and that makes it that much harder to build the strong personal relationships that are so critical on a high functioning team. I linked to a post about managing teams across timezones a while back here but since then I've learned a lot and have had to take on the challenge myself. Compared to the team I managed earlier where most of the team happened to sit in the same hallway to where most of my team today is thousands of miles apart has indeed been a difficult task. The challenges are in fact different in some respects from what one would expect. Of course, there are the obvious issues as well. One of the critical issues is how people learn. Many people learn best when they're working on problems hands on and through mentorship; this of course becomes very difficult when there's no geographic proximity. Everyone is different and that leads me to my next insight that I've learned about: not everyone is suited to working in this type of an environment. Some people truly do thrive being on thier own and can effectively plan and execute what they need to while others need a lot more guidance and hands on interaction. Something definitely to think about when you think about a position that may involve this kind of arrangement. This past week I was able to get a lot of my Europe team together in London for a few days and it was a truly great event! Certainly a highlight for me; being able to spend some quality time with my team outside of work or projects and just being able to get together. Of course, in the current economic climate; this kind of thing becomes even more and more difficult because of cutbacks in discretionary travel budgets as we try and do the right thing for the company (which I fully agree with and support!). I've also been talking with some other managers about the challenges of effectively managing remote teams and how to deal with the various issues that can of course come up from time to time.

Context & Subtlety

I find one of the toughest things to deal with is context and subtlety. Sometimes we don't want to upset our managers so we try and hint at a problem rather than call it straight, and as managers we're also of course guilty of the same thing sometimes. This subtlety of course becomes orders of magnititude harder to decipher over a so-so VOIP phone connection for an hour a week as opposed to over coffee in the afternoon breeze. Context also is a problem because sometimes we forget that the person we're talking to doesn't have the same frame of reference when we mention something. Since we don't have the same frame of reference, we arrive at a different conclusion than you may expect. The best and simplest way I can visual this is ....say we're both standing on a game board that is numbered... you're trying to guide us both to square "15". You're standing on square "10" so you say "Ahead 5!". Well, what you forgot was that I was standing on square "5", not "10", and therefore when you expected us both to end up on "15", we actually ended up 5 squares apart, at "10" me and "15" for you. Similarly, when talking over the phone (or really any conversation I would suggest) make sure you're speaking from the right context and then proceed to guide the other person where they need to be; and then join them...rather than assuming they are thinking from the same point of view.

Personality

Another nuance to think about is personality. Of course in the tech world, coming across slightly socially awkward geek/introverted personalities is absolutely not rare :) (I'm one myself I must admit) but it can certainly complicate things on a team like ours. What it can also lead to is the individual feeling that they are not "heard" because all the hints they've been dropping aren't getting addressed when of course others on the team have no idea what hints they're talking about. In this situation, my advice is simply to speak up; hints alone are sometimes just not enough and direct/head on action is sometimes required. I find that whenever I have open, direct and straightforward discussions with someone, it seems they tend to be the most productive and rewarding ones. Of course sometimes it can take many weeks or months for some people to feel comfortable enough to speak this way, but it is worth the effort!

Culture

Taking into account culture is another subtle nuance that teams have to think about. In some cultures, its simply rude to say something bluntly and to make direct eye contact; whereas in others if precisely that is not done you may be seen as "weak" or "uninterested." I've noticed that beyond ethnic/country cultures though, a company and team culture also develops over time and that can add another layer on top that makes things even more interesting. For example, at Microsoft - we have our own culture that we like to think supersedes others, but in reality think of it more like a thread that's part of the fabric we all weave. Sometimes there can be conflicting priorities, for example where in one being direct is rewarded and expected while in another the expectation is the complete opposite. I myself have lived in four countries in my life, and all of them I would say being significantly different in many ways (Switzerland, Pakistan, Canada & the US). For the most part, it has been enriching and something I value, its given me a unique perspective I believe that is part of me, and something I can leverage and apply when working with different people from different backgrounds.

Social Networks as Advertising (click here for a free non-DRM Groove Armada Track!!)

Techjunkie2 — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 05:30:00 GMT

I'm sure you're all familiar with social networks and sure some of you may have even clicked on an ad or two (or three) on there... of course there's all kinds of intricate issues around display ad relevance to "Party at Jen's @ 7!!!!!" among other problems. However recently I saw something that, if successful could become a very powerful force.... social networks AS advertising. That's write... the entire point of the network is to advertise (its main goal is the advertising itself... not a way to pay for the useful (well, semi-useful?) stuff you do on it.

The specific example I'm talking about (although I'm sure there are others) is done by Bacardi and basically the way it works is you get to download new hot music (the new Groove Armada tracks) as you grow your social network.... that's it. So, do you want a free DRM free MP3 of Groove Armada's latest track? Click here: http://www.bliveshare.com/share/ZOcMyHMw5RH6pQ9_crOZ/hs301 If you propogate your link (through your own blog and such) then you can get up to 3 additional tracks from Groove Armada's new album... all free. Don't know who Groove Armada is? This is perhaps my fav track by these guys... genius stuff.

TechJunkie is back.

Techjunkie2 — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 05:18:00 GMT

Hello boys and girls.... yes... it has been a long time, yet I've decided to re-start blogging and this time (I hope, gulp) I can keep up with it on a continuous basis. Feeding the monster, as one colleague calls it… is tough. It requires a lot of time and effort to keep up with blogging. The toughest aspect of it is simply writing good, thought provoking/funny/interesting/useful in some way content. That takes a helluva lot of effort. Check out my team mate Jimmy for example… he’s writing some really hot blog posts on how to keep your SQL Server rocking solid from a performance standpoint… Jimmy’s got a lot of ideas and I encouraged him to start writing about them and sharing that knowledge with the world… and he’s got a killer OneNote setup that lets him keep things accessible. Me? I still have .TXT’s all over my desktop for notes and I don’t think I’ll ever twitter… :)

My friends over in CISG (Connected Information Security Group) have also launched a blog... check it out for the latest free security tools that we use internally at Microsoft.

And of course... the biggest tech story of the last year is certainly Windows 7!!! I have been using it internally for several months and all I can say is WOW! It's going to be an awesome release. The Win7 team has done a great job of blogging about what they're doing...

How are things in your neck of the woods?

Microsoft Conference Calls

Techjunkie2 — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 09:23:00 GMT

Thanks to Mark Brown for forwarding to all the bloggers :) This is hilarious, if you've ever worked for Microsoft you'll recognize the music... its awesome

~~http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUSJiI4L5lw~~ try this one instead since its still up: http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?mkt=en-us&vid=723f1933-9397-49e4-b73c-9433dfbef700

(updated URL August 29th, 08)

Managing a team acoss time zones

Techjunkie2 — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 01:36:00 GMT

Akshay, my collegue from the ACE team has written a great post about managing a team across 5 time zones. Its always a difficult challenge to manage a team of 10 regardless, but spreading them across the world definitely adds many complexity dimensions. The team I manage is spread between just two timezones, but they are 12.5 hours apart :)

The key factor, especially for directs that are not at the location where you are mostly, is that you continuously communicate and make sure you are listening for key indicators of potential problems before they crop up and become serious. Along with that of course, are all of the cultural challenges that can come into play. Microsoft does a great job in supporting their managers and we have access to a great resource that gives us the breakdown on local customs and attitudes across the world.

Attracting the twentysomething worker

Techjunkie2 — Wed, 16 May 2007 04:58:00 GMT

Attracting the Gen Y worker, I really enjoyed reading this article; if you're over 30 and wonder what the hell is going on with the new kids coming into the workforce, you might find it a bit of an eye opener :)

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007/05/28/100033934/index.htm?postversion=2007051515

Data Encryption Toolkit for Mobile PCs Now available

Techjunkie2 — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 07:57:00 GMT

The Data Encryption Toolkit for Mobile PCs has just been released by the SA-SC (Solutions Acelerators - Security & Compliance) team and I highly recommend pretty much any IT administrator that has a mobile workforce (and who doesn't these days?) to take a look and read it. XP & Vista provide some great technology that you can use (for free!) to secure corporate sensitive data but there can be some caveats, this toolkit does a great job of explaining that and giving some great implementation details. The two components now available for download are:

Executive Overview

The Executive Overview provides customers with a high-level overview of the Data Encryption Toolkit for Mobile PCs to help them understand the business and regulatory risks of losing data on mobile PCs, and how they can use the guidance in this Solution Accelerator to mitigate these risks.

Security Analysis

The Security Analysis discusses in depth a number of unique risks associated with data on mobile PCs, and analyzes how Microsoft's key encryption technologies, EFS and BitLocker, can help customers mitigate those risks. The Security Analysis now available on TechNet and the Microsoft Download Center.

The following will be released soon:

Planning and Implementation Guide

The Planning and Implementation Guide describes how to plan for, configure, deploy, and operate EFS and BitLocker in a customer’s organization. A Beta version of the Planning and Implementation Guide is currently available.

EFS Assistant

The EFS Assistant lets customers centrally control EFS settings on all their mobile PCs (and many desktop PCs, too). The EFS Assistant will help customers find all the files on their mobile PCs that need to be encrypted, regardless of where users save them. And the EFS Assistant operates transparently to end users, eliminating training issues or other impacts. A Beta version of the EFS Assistant is currently available.

Steve Ballmer is my hero.

Techjunkie2 — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 06:50:00 GMT

So on Friday I went to the Microsoft IT all hands, led by Stuart Scott our CIO. Stuart's done some amazing things in a very short amount of time in cleaning up some of chaos around here and he also did something extraordinary which I'm sure might have been tough to pull off: He got Steve to come out and talk to IT. Now you got to remember, in most organizations, IT are the techies, but in Microsoft, a company that builds a lot of what runs most IT shops, techies abound and IT isn’t the only bastion of techies, the entire company is. As an IT organization however, Microsoft IT has some unique opportunities: we dogfood like crazy nearly every single Microsoft product, waaay before we'd even put it out for beta testing (not only do we do it, we help the whole company do it, e.g. helpdesk support & bug tracking & reporting etc). Another important opportunity for IT is helping to improve Microsoft's products by providing direct feedback to the Product groups building the software. While they may sometimes get silo'ed concentrating on what they need to develop and deliver, IT has to implement it, make it all work together and support it. If we can do it; then the there's a good chance our customers can do it; so that’s a valuable source of feedback early in the cycle for the Product groups.

Anyway so Steve comes and quite literally he blew us away. Most people, even most Softies have only ever seen Steve being extremely passionate about Microsoft and pumping up the crowd (which he does a great job of, by the way!) but here we average joe's got to see another side of Steve: his reasoning, resoluteness & attention to detail which really showed us how much he cares and how much he's aware of the details around here. Steve made it clear that Microsoft has always been good at innovating, but we also need to make sure our execution is world class; we gotta make sure the trains keep running.

When I was young, I never looked up to sports stars or TV heroes; my hero's where people with power, leaders. It’s simple really, the people who have leadership abilities and the power to execute are the ones who can truly make things happen (and there's no better example than Bill Gates and his unbelievable work with the Gates Foundation).

Steve made some extraordinarily insightful comments which had people nodding their heads yes (and a friend turned to me and commented: “THAT’S why he’s the CEO!”) I think Steve's going to surprise a lot of the haters in the next 5-10 years, you ain't seen nothing yet!

LinkedIn? ;)

Techjunkie2 — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 18:42:00 GMT

I've recently started using LinkedIn and I'll tell ya; it can be addictive. Anyway so here's an open invitation; go ahead and add me to your network - I'm open to anyone adding me (as long as you are real and not a spam bot). If you're a fellow Microsoft employee then especially feel free to get in touch; I'd like to meet more of you wonderful smart folks! :)

Channel 9 video should be available soon

Techjunkie2 — Fri, 04 Aug 2006 00:57:46 GMT

As I mentioned in an earlier post, the ACE Team did a Channel 9 video with Robert Scoble (in fact, its very possible we were the last one he did before leaving Microsoft). It should be posted very soon, I'll put up the link to it here. It'll probably be divided in a few sections as it was quite lengthy, but all great stuff if you want to see how a Security team works at Microsoft!

Wow its been a while... & IE7 beta 3 thoughts

Techjunkie2 — Fri, 04 Aug 2006 00:54:00 GMT

Well I'm back. Ya, its very exciting. A lot of things have been happening around work, personal life + vacation that has held me up from posting anything new in quite some time but I'm happy to be back blogging.

I'm currently using IE7 beta 3 and I must say, bravo IE team! IE7 as its shaping up to be is definitely the best all around browser out there, hands down. Yes Firefox does give it a bit of a run for its money, but IE is slicker, has support for more sites and features (think multimedia/active-x etc.) and also its faster. The load up time is fast and the rendering engine seems to be faster as well (faster then IE6 anyway). Don't get me wrong, I like Firefox fine and support people having a choice in what platform they want to use, but my personal choice is going to be IE7.

Things I like:

Integrated search (yes its not a novel concept but good nonetheless)
Tabbed browsing (finally!!) I like the implementation better in IE ('x' to close tab on each tab)
Network Connectivity Troubleshooter (screenshot)
Easily pick and choose Search provider (screenshot)
Easily Manage IE add-ons (screenshot)
Faster
RSS Support. Its great that its supported, I don't know if I'd want to use IE as my primary feed reader but its good for people who just need the basics

Although I'm running an internal build, you can download a public version of the IE7 Beta 3 here: http://www.microsoft.com/ie

ACE Team's Channel 9 experience

Techjunkie2 — Wed, 24 May 2006 21:52:00 GMT

So, we just wrapped up our session with Robert Scoble for our team's Channel 9 video, it was a really cool experience. We had people from our team talk about security in general, our process and what we do, security code reviews and we demo'ed in depth the new RC1 version of the Threat Analysis & Modeling tool (which is available for download here, if you want to learn more about the new features in RC1, read more about it here). It makes a huge difference when the interviewer is good at pushing the conversation forward and asking the right questions, Robert's got this thing down :)

I'm not sure when it will get posted, but when it does I'll post a link here.

Ever want to open Office documents in Office instead of IE??

Techjunkie2 — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 02:13:00 GMT

This was a really annoying *feature* of Office. If I click on a link to a Word doc, it opens the document in IE. Here at Microsoft a lot of our docs are stored on internal SharePoint sites, which are webpages. When I try to open one of these docs, it'll open in IE. Or, I have to save it, find it in File Explorer and open it there to get it to show up in the Office app.

The main reason this is annoying is that you don't get the Office toolbars to show up and its nearly useless for editing (fine for reading but still annoying). Anyway there is a pretty convoluted way to fix this, so .doc, .xls, .ppt files actually open in the associated Office program instead of IE. Follow the directions in the following doc:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q162059/

The single best feature in Outlook 2007

Techjunkie2 — Thu, 13 Apr 2006 20:56:00 GMT

Although I haven't installed the latest Beta 1 refresh of Outlook 2007 yet, I've already decided what my favorite feature of Outlook 2007 is. Hands down, its the To-Do Bar. Outlook has had task integration for the longest time but it just hasn't been seamless for me (and I suspect, a lot of other people) and the end result is people use Mail and Calendaring a lot, but not much else. The To-Do Bar was the missing piece that integrates everything nicely. You can get lots of details from Melissa's blog here:

http://blogs.msdn.com/melissamacbeth/archive/2005/12/20/506047.aspx

For the latest updates in Beta 1 refresh, check out this later posting here:

http://blogs.msdn.com/melissamacbeth/archive/2006/03/16/553227.aspx

If you don't know what I'm talking about, here's what the To-Do Bar looks like:

It ties all the important elements of Outlook together like the Today page was never able to do. It forces you to be proactive and informed about what's coming up all at once. It also allows for easy prioritization and "quick view" of your next tasks immediately. I know it may sound like a small detail, but the productivity boost for Information workers is awesome and readily apparent when you start using it. Trust me, you'll love it!

Wanted: Senior Level Mentor

Techjunkie2 — Wed, 12 Apr 2006 03:25:00 GMT

Recently, I sent out an email to some folks soliciting an informal mentor here at Microsoft. Keeping in mind that many Microsoft employees also read the blogs here, I've decided to make the posting public. If you are a former Microsoft employee or retired from Microsoft, I'd love to hear from you as well. (Note: I realize Microsoft has an excellent formal mentor program, but unfortunately I don't qualify for it yet because you have to be an FTE for at least one full year before signing up). My email is posted on the right ->

I am a young, hard working, ambitious & politically astute individual who is seeking out a senior informal mentor. I wouldn’t expect you to dedicate tons of time to this project, I realize you are likely to be a very busy professional but hear me out and see if what I have to offer piques your interest:

I am aggressive and play hard
But I’m humble enough to listen to and act on good advice
I’m smarter then the average bear :)
I work harder then the average bear too
I’m part of a younger generation that brings new ideas to the table: trial by fire in the dotcom era, blogging, personal media and instant and always are second nature
Working from 6AM to 3AM is no big deal, been there, done that
I fully support Microsoft and am passionate about what we can do here
I have an extreme passion for my work related to security

What I’m looking for in you:

Have worked at Microsoft for at least a few years (or in another senior capacity at other large organizations)
Be willing to take out ½ an hour a month to a few hours a quarter
Be excited and passionate about mentoring, willing to give advice and share insights
L65+

If you happen to receive this and have some advice on who I might be able to contact, please feel free to start a conversation.

Ahmad Mahdi - CISSP
Security Technologist
Microsoft

Web Service & Web Application security becomes more and more key

Techjunkie2 — Sat, 08 Apr 2006 19:46:00 GMT

A very generic overview about yet another area to remember when thinking about Information Security: your web services. Interesting fact here was:

"Of all vulnerabilities disclosed in the last six months of 2005, nearly 70 percent were associated with Web applications, Symantec said."

http://www.cio.com/blog_view.html?CID=20038

Upgrading the Audiovox SMT5600 to Windows Mobile 5.0 (or not)

Techjunkie2 — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 00:55:00 GMT

I just got an email form someone asking me how I did this and whether I could help them also do it. Unfortunately, as far as I know, there is no easy way of doing this, unless you happen to work at Microsoft! :) And even then, its probably not easy to do anymore since the beta program is now closed. I joined the original beta program for Windows Mobile 5 and one of the supported phones was the SMT5600. I purchased it unlocked and went and upgraded it. Because the boot loader is locked (different from a SIM lock), its not an easy process and I wouldn't recommend any of the stuff floating out there as it could void your warranty, is probably illegal, not to mention "brickify" your phone.

The top 10 Information Security Myths (supposedly)

Techjunkie2 — Sat, 01 Apr 2006 01:12:00 GMT

While kind of light on depth, this article does bring up some good points. My commentary on some of these:

#3 - External consultants know more about information security then in-house personnel

This is a good one, people think they need to bring in a security company to do a couple of "pen-tests", present a thick report on how bad security is and walk away. That is not security. I'm not saying don't use external consultants at all, they definitely have their place and Microsoft uses them extensively as well, but the outside security consultant is a tool just like any other tool in the Information Security Practitioner's drawer, it can be used appropriately and wisely, or not. More often then not people spend a lot of money and get a false sense of security because they are leveraging these consultants incorrectly.

#4 - Info Sec must be a separate org to be effective

I don't think particularly that this is a myth out there people believe one way or the other? A good security organization is an important part of any large organization today but there are different approaches to security and, to a certain extent, of course security is the responsibility of all employees.

#5 - Complex Passwords make things more secure

Passwords suck. That's why Microsoft is planning on getting rid of all user passwords in 2007. I think other organizations are coming around to this as well.

#6 - Because SSL is turned on, the site is secure and so is my data

This is a personal pet peeve of mine. Sites will say they are very secure and if you click on the "more info" button, more often then not, they'll explain they're more secure because their web pages are served over SSL! What a crock. Sure SSL mitigates a specific type of threat (the man-in-the-middle attack or sniffing) but of course it doesn't do anything else like what happens after the webserver? What happens to the data in the database? What kind of ACL policy is there? What are the data transfer policies inside the corporate network? Is the data left in a flat file on a share that all authenticated users have access to?? SSL in and of itself is not everything, its just another layer.

http://www.financetech.com/feed/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=184400638

One time pad generation using Intergalactic RF signals

Techjunkie2 — Sat, 01 Apr 2006 01:07:00 GMT

This article discusses a way of generating one time pads using the frequency and strength of Quasar radio signals. Supposedly this is new but I think some government agencies are already using this or similar methods. Thanks /. for the link!

http://www.newscientistspace.com/article.ns?id=dn8913&feedId=space_rss20

Outlook Kung Fu: Mastering your Inbox - Part II

Techjunkie2 — Wed, 29 Mar 2006 00:27:00 GMT

One of the biggest features of Exchange in an enterprise environment is the shared calendering and collaboration features. I can see when other people are busy or free, and setup meetings with them and even book a conference room all right from a Meeting request.

Although these are sent to the client as “emails”, Outlook displays them differently, as Meeting requests with associated time/location/date etc. metadata. If you need the notes in the meeting request, reply to it, it then becomes a regular email. If you need someone else to attend the meeting, forward it. If you need to decline the meeting but want to let someone else know that they should attend instead, decline it, edit the response, type in your reason and cc: the other person. Now they will get the decline notice and the message. You can also just forward them the original meeting request so it shows up on their calendar.

Conference Calls

Microsoft provides conference bridge services to anyone who may need to setup a conference call. Because I do so many of them, I’ve created a separate email signature that includes my dial in information. When I’m sending out a conference call request, I flip my signature and a nice text box shows up instead that includes the call in #, the passcode and the local # to dial. Like this:

Dial In Information::
Toll Free:	866 xxx xxxx
Participant Passcode	xxxxxx

Notifications

One of the cool features I liked about Outlook 2003 when I was first dogfooding it was the small notice bar that would pop up for a few seconds every time I got an email that let me know who it was from and what the first few words of the email were… but as time went on I realized that this decreased my productivity. I’d always be looking when something popped up and would feel the urge to reply immediately, taking me away from the task I was working on. So all notifications of any kind, are now turned off. I don’t take Outlook offline like some folks do, I check occasionally to see what’s new in my inbox throughout the work day. Our team internally will generally communicate by Microsoft Office Communicator (IM for the enterprise) anyway so I don’t miss anything critical.

Knowing where to go

It was great that my Outlook always knew about all my meetings and when they were and where they were, unfortunately it’s not always convenient to check your laptop, for example, say when you’re driving. That’s why I find having a Microsoft Smartphone essential. I have my trusty Audiovox SMT5600 that I upgraded to Windows Mobile 5.0 and its still kickin’ butt over most of the phones on the market out there. I’m waiting for a while before upgrading.

I sync my phone every day or two with my Laptop, if you have a data plan and your Exchange server is setup for it, you can do it over the air as well. By default, 15 minutes before every meeting I get a beep reminding me. If it’s an in person meeting it tells me which conference room it’s in (and which building, the MS Campus is quite ginormous) or if it’s a conference call, what the dial in information is. I can’t tell you how many times its saved me!!!

If you have some deadly Outlook tips of your own, please post them below :)

A lil security history & is phishing pronounced "fizzing" or "fishing"?

Techjunkie2 — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 02:31:00 GMT

A while back I was talking to someone who was delivering a talk on security when an odd thing happened. Whenever he was talking about phishing, he kept calling it "fizzing". I spoke to him afterwards, apparently he had no idea what the significance of the "ph" in phishing is. All you old time hackers should already know this so move along, nothing to see here! But for everyone else: back when most folks didn't know what computer security was and kids were breaking into everything that had a dial tone & a modem handshake; there developed a culture of "phone phreaks" (pronounced "freaks"). Phreaking was the art and science of bending the phone system and related hardware to your will; usually this had a lot to do with hacking corporate pbx's, calling card numbers, or the actual phone system switches. Other times it was just playing around with things you found while calling random numbers, like the default passwords for cellular voicemail boxes, strange tones and screwy caller IDs. Phreaks also developed the various tone boxes. This was generally a sub-culture however, and most Americans had no idea what was going on or what level of access some of these guys were able to get. For example, this Esquire article from 1971 was really the first time anyone had heard about blueboxes and the cool things you could do with them. (By the way, most if not all of these no longer work :)

Anyway, so the "ph" comes from phone, and that's how phreaking and much later, phishing got it too. It's pronounced like a "F".

How to use your Mini SD card for Emails & Attachments with WM5

Techjunkie2 — Thu, 23 Mar 2006 02:36:00 GMT

Mike Poulson posted this quick registry hack to move your attachments and emails from your device's own memory to a storage card. A registry editor is included with some of the devices shipped out there; some not. If you know of a good (free) one that works with SmartPhone / PPC please post a comment.

https://blogs.msdn.com/mpoulson/archive/2006/01/09/510839.aspx

Microsoft to offer cheap Xbox 360 game development kit?

Techjunkie2 — Wed, 22 Mar 2006 02:06:00 GMT

I have no knowledge of this from Microsoft internally whatsoever, all i know is what is posted in this article. But if it's true, I think it's a great idea. Why not let anyone who wants to develop for your platform? It's what has made Windows so successful. There may be some concern about game quality/testing etc. but that could easily be addressed by not giving the "official stamp of approval" to games that haven't passed the required testing; everything else would still run, but they would be restricted in using Xbox logos, Live integration etc. Anyway, just some thoughts.

http://news.com.com/2061-10797_3-6052255.html

[updated] Ten hacker tricks to exploit SQL Server systems

Techjunkie2 — Tue, 21 Mar 2006 02:26:00 GMT

[Updated: 3/23/06: Welcome Digg users. If you are interested in information security, please check out the rest of this blog, as well well as my team's blog and our threat modeling blog. Happy digging :)]

This article is a good read. Generally, most of the things highlighted in the article are things that we don't run up against at Microsoft. Our default SQL Server configs in Microsoft IT are pretty solid. We do see the occaisional SQL injection bug, but usually it is fixed quickly. To address the SQL injection issue, we generally don't allow dynamic sql at all, and stored procs are the order of the day.