markwilson.it

I just stumbled across this 10-step plan to help secure SQL Server 2000 and thought it might be useful to note…

I haven’t looked at structured query language (SQL) since I was at Uni’, back in the early 1990s, and don’t intended to start now; but with a major new SQL Server release due from Microsoft in November, I’ve been building up my knowledge of the product from an infrastructure perspective. Yesterday evening, I was at […]

I don’t know anything about enterprise resource planning (ERP) products, except that SAP are a big player in this space (and that Microsoft runs its business on SAP with a 1.7Tb SQL Server database - pretty much the only non-Microsoft product in use there). Last night, Mat Stephen mentioned the Microsoft/SAP Alliance website and, after […]

A few days back, I commented on Microsoft’s announcement of Windows Vista (formerly codenamed Longhorn), speculating as to whether this new name included the next generation Windows server product. It seems not, at least according to the Microsoft Windows Vista Beta 1 fact sheet.
I’m one of the 10,000 beta testers for Windows Vista (not […]

For a few years now, it’s been becoming increasingly difficult to buy a mobile phone handset which was both stylish and a good phone without also getting a whole load of distractions (games, camera, etc.). Now, I have a smartphone (a Nokia 6600), which is connected to my private number and my work phone (a […]

I just discovered this and think it’s really useful…
I’m in the process of documenting a client’s server configuration, using a virtual machine with a VPN connection to the client’s network and then a remote desktop protocol (RDP) connection to their servers. Because the VPN is within a virtual machine, I’m constrained by the limitations of […]

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been looking at using web proxy auto discovery (WPAD) to let a client’s PCs automatically discover the location of their Microsoft ISA Server 2000 web proxy servers through the Internet Explorer client. Note that WPAD is used by web proxy clients and firewall clients use winsock proxy auto detection […]

A couple of nights back, I was documenting the rack configuration for a client’s data centre. Easy enough using a rack configuration tool from one of the major hardware vendors, except that most of us have multi-vendor rack contents and use Microsoft Visio to record the details. Enter the index of Visio download sites. Using […]

This is a technology blog and as such, I don’t cover politics. I do sometimes work in London though. As do many of my friends and family. And I do like it when somebody uses technology to push home a message - like that WE’RE NOT AFRAID of terrorism.

Here are some of my favourites from […]

Microsoft have announced the name for the next version of Windows (formerly codenamed Longhorn) - Windows Vista.
I’m not overly impressed with the name (how about Windows 2006?) but looks like they are going with it. What’s not clear is whether this is just the client version, or the next Windows server release too. Perhaps I’ll […]