Poor neglected Blog

This poor blog has long been neglected. I'm not doing much with Novell anymore due to changes at work, but still love GroupWise and SUSE and ZENworks. I will try to do more with keeping up news on these products over the next few months.

Just to catch you all up on what's been keeping me busy, here's what's been going on.

I have several friends losing the battles to cancer, lost my sister to Pancreatic cancer as well.

I published a cookbook - all my cookie recipes, plus breads and muffins. It's on Amazon, I really need to get it over to SmashWords and B&N, but for now it's on Amazon and I'm frantically trying to do an update and reformat of the eBook version to match the print version as I work on this blogpost.  It has already been pirated to some "free" eBook posting sites, please ignore those. I'd like to at least break even on the $500 I paid for coverart and assistance with formatting for Amazon.

Not that you really need to buy it anyway as the key recipe everyone wants is on my other blog (which is posted further down).

Anyway, you can find it here:

Merry Mary's Marvelous Munchies 

Or if you prefer a spiral bound copy you can order it from my Etsy shop:

Mary's Etsy Shop 

The recipes can be found here:

Mary's Crafting Blog

At work I've been busy learning BladeLogic, NSH scripting and new compliance rules for HIPAA, SOX, DISA and PCI.

Which reminds me, if your a BMC customer who would like to present at this year's Engage conference in Vegas in October, there's a call for papers, deadline is February 28th.

Since I'm busy studying for the VCP exam, I'll have to miss this year's submission deadline and hope to make it next year instead. Still a toss-up at when I will be back at BrainShare as I'll be footing the bill and most likely will be footing the bill for this year's Engage conference due to new management stylings at my current gig.

And I've been busy teaching other people's kids to bake, working on my 4 different book series which desperately need attention and editing before I can publish them. As usual, not enough hours in the day!

Ok, enough lolly gagging about, I have studying to do!

To BrainShare or Not To Brainshare 2014

It's been forever since I posted something. I've been working in Server Automation land using BMC's Bladelogic and Microsoft OSes. While I'm still catching up on Linux, I don't get to use it at work any more, which makes me sad.

I'm debating about taking vacation and hitting BrainShare this year (done it before, why not again?). The cool part is I can get a First Class seat for less than double a SouthWest fare, but if I do that I'd no money for a hotel room.

I could just rent a trailer, haul it with my F150 "Fluffie" and camp out for the conference, but it's in November. In Utah. It will be cold and snowy all the way there and all the way back. So I've nixed that idea.

My other conference option is BMC's Engage conference, which is in Orlando. In Florida. Where it may be rainy and blustery but definitely warmer as it will be in October.

What to do? What to do? Guess I won't decide for myself today, but if you can swing it I'd suggest going.  I'm sure several friends of mine will be doing amazing presentations that you won't want to miss.

Make sure you don't leave until Thursday though or you'll miss the Conference Party on Wednesday night.  Yes, the conference is shorter now and is scheduled every 18 months. Which seems odd, but it lines up nicely for different vertical markets that are typically busy during the traditional US Spring Break times and others who are busy in the Fall.

To answer the age old question: "Does Mary work for Novell?"  Nope, I don't. I haven't even tried to mooch a pass this year. But I may have a way to get some cookies out there.

Oh, and thinking of cookies, I finally published my cookbook. If all you want is the Snickerdoodle recipe you can find that at: http://pyrhaven.blogspot.com/

Otherwise the book is here:Merry Mary's Marvelous Munchies

Sprint Samsung Tab 3 - reset using the Calculator

This doesn't exactly clear the PRL as I mentioned in my earlier post, but it does reset the device without losing data, allowing you to then re-activate the tablet.

1. On the Home screen, tap the Apps icon.
2. Tap Calculator icon.
3. On the calculator, type (+30012012732+.
4. When the Factory Mode Screen and the key pad appear, press ##72786#.
5. Device clears previous internal programming information and restarts.
6. After device reboots, the device tries Hands Free Activation

 I really do like the tablet, it's got a crisp display, it's not too big for my hands (although it doesn't fit as well as the HTC One Max), and it's got fast video streaming even on 3G speeds.  All-in-all, not too bad of a deal.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 on Sprint "Preparing Network" bug fix

Those that have known me for awhile know I have a love/hate relationship with Sprint. I've been with them for well over a decade and only stay for the unlimited data. Because, truth be told, ALL of the mobile phone providers have crappy coverage at my house. You'd think living on the top of a hill with line of sight to the various towers would make it have better coverage, but no.

I'll put the story on how I ended up with the tablet after I post what I did to fix it first.

Let me say I love, love, love the Tab 3 device. It's perfect for what I need and the screen is amazing.

Problem/Symptoms:

1. You've had the device activated at a Sprint store or you've activated it yourself.
2. It has a check mark in the upper left corner of the tablet.
3. Notification window says "Preparing Network" many minutes, hours, days, weeks later and it is not resolving.

Steps to fix:

1. First I contacted Sprint support via chat
2. Automatic go-to response for them was visit the Sprint Zone, which is NOT installed on the latest Tab 3 devices
3. Following their instructions I did a cold boot, reset the PRL using the calculator (I'll explain this later) and reset to CMA from LTE/CDMA
4. Performed a data-destroying full hard factory reset

None of those things fixed the issue.

Here's what fixed it, and I'm betting you don't have to go through the others if you try this first:

TRY THIS FIRST: 

1.      At the Home Screen, click on the Menu (it's next to the home screen button).

2.      Turn off Wi-FI

3.      Select More settings | Mobile networks | Network mode and reset it to CDMA mode. This will require a reboot of the tablet

4.      IF your device is NOT activated

a.       scroll down to Activate this device

b.      wait for it to reboot

5.      Once your device IS activated

a.       scroll down to System Update (it's right below Activate this device)

b.      tap on Update PRL, let it finish

c.       tap on Update Profile, let it finish

6.      The "Preparing Network" notification should go away if you are in normal Sprint 3G network ranges.

7.      Verify you can get to the Internet, launch a page you haven't visited in some time or launch YouTube and select a new video. If those work then you have Sprint network access and this is just a cosmetic error.

8.      Once the "Preparing Network" notification and you've verified you can access the 3G network you can switch back to LTE/CDMA mode. You will end up with the cosmetic error of the "Preparing Network" icon stuck in the upper left corner.

 
Hopefully you are now passed the never ending "Preparing Network" issue and are now on the Sprint Network.

So, here's the story of how I ended up with a Tab3, courtesy of our ever tolerant local Sprint Store rep Ash, who has had to put up with my menopausal-fueled fits of rage thru this process.

My Samsung Galaxy S2 nearly got bricked when the Jelly Bean update was installed (by me, following Sprint's instructions...I should've known better). Because my beloved BlackBerry Curve was a Nextel phone and the towers were now removed I couldn't go back to my Curve. So I rode out our contract, with a flaky phone and relying on Google Voice on my Touch or AW laptop (thank you Google!) to get through my work day.

Our renewal finally came up and my hubby talked me into the HTC One Max as my fat fingers and touch screens don't like each other. I fell in love...the HTC One Max fit my hand perfect, it's faster than my S2, love the front facing speakers and the screen is to-die-for! Unfortunately, I had nothing but call quality problems, even with a Sprint Airave (their network extender) sitting right next to it. Much frustration later, and with a heavy heart, I took the HTC One Max in to trade out for a Galaxy S5, which they didn't have thanks to the punks that broke in and stole the majority of their inventory the night before. I settled for an S4.

We gave a lot of thought to switching to Verizon, which also has the HTC One Max, but they would not provide the network extender for free and the end result would be more costly than our Sprint contract due to the way their data plans work. I also checked with AT&T, TMobile, and MetroPCs and none of them would provide the network extender for free as Sprint had because we only have 2 devices. Apparently there's some unwritten rule on minimum device counts to qualify for a free extender when the provider knows their service sucks where you live.

I like the S4, it's bigger than the S2, but still too small for my fat fingers. It's a nice device, and if the Galaxy Mega had the same specs, or matched the S5 specs I would have given serious consideration to the Mega which is fairly close in size to the HTC device.

I went back to the Samsung device lines due to the new, not widely advertised, feature that Sprint and Samsung worked out. If you have the right Samsung model(s), you can now do wi-fi calling (think VOIP) using whatever wi-fi connection you have access too. This is a HUGE help when the airave connection isn't perfect or if the towers are acting up due to weather. The call quality is amazing using wifi, and it's far more stable, so now I can work from home with a reliable, clear calling option.

Still, I really missed the Max. Sprint was running a deal of a $49 tab, with a data plan of course. My hubby decided that it might be a fun toy for my birthday and we didn't have any Android tablets yet. So we bit the bullet and got it. But then I got this annoying "Preparing Network" message and missed my 14 day return window (I was having too much fun playing with the tablet).

Sprint has yet to resolve the issue properly and train the customer service folks who are getting all the cranky customer calls. I will however, stop by the local store, say hi to Ashraf and show him what I did to fix it. And hopefully, customers needing help will find this post and be able to get their device working properly.

How to Reinstall AlienWare Respawn and use Existing Recovery partition

The Background:

I have been an AlienWare fan for quite awhile now...that loyalty is going downhill since Dell took over. It used to be that when AlienWare sent you a machine, you got FULL recovery (as in OOTB setup) discs.  Dell stopped doing that a few years ago.  Silly me didn't notice - at least not in time.

So imagine my surprise when I realize, after reinstalling Windows 7 Pro, that I not only didn't have the entire set of drivers and software packages on the provided Resource CD, but I couldn't build recovery discs even though the partition was intact and I could launch the AlienRespawn utility.  Because I'd done the install the way I did, I still had the Alienware Respawn software on the hard drive.  I had not made my recovery CDs from Alienware Respawn, at least not for this desktop. I was a "good girl" and did it for my M11x, so I tried to make a bootable USB drive off of that laptop and then copy my desktops recovery partition. No that was not successful, it would start but the BCD didn't jive with a few other files that I didn't have on hand but Alienware Respawn seems to create on the fly.

After much digging, and many internet searches I took a chance on what may/may not be a Dell-owned site, but I found the file I needed (which I later found on my M11x as well).

The Fix:

As long as your recovery partition is intact you will be able to make yourself a set of recovery disks or bootable USB/UFD (take your pick of term) and restore your system back to the original configuration. Some other posts say this will only work on laptops, but it worked just fine for my Aurora R2 desktop.

Step by Step:

1. Go to this site: AlienRespawn - The Heros! and download the AlienRespawn_Basic.exe file.
2. If you're not 100% certain about your machine's current configuration I suggest running the "Easy Step 1" on the right side of the page. Just to be certain that your machine can run the respawn utility.
3. Launch the AlienRespawn_Basic program. Follow the prompts. I went with almost all the defaults except for the Emergency Backup option - I included my "Downloads" folder so I didn't lose some of my work already done (like downloading FireFox and Kaspersky, in addition the respawn program).
4. Don't panic when it starts in on the recovery partition configuration. Mine was left intact, it didn't reformat or overwrite any of the files on that partition.
5. When the install is done you'll need to reboot.
6. AlienRespawn should show up in your All Programs list, go ahead and launch it.
7. The main screen may tell you that you need to create your recovery disks (it will be in red), pick your choice of discs or USB. 
• If you choose USB, make sure you have at least a 16GB stick around that you can afford to have reformatted and lose all data that's on it.
8. I used the USB option and it only took me an hour to restore my machine back to OOTB settings.  (I still recommend making DVDs though as you may forget and overwrite your USB stick.
9. Once the recovery set is done you can restart your machine, hit F12 to pick your boot device and start the restore process.  (The F8 option won't work here as the AlienRespawn option is not listed.)
10. When the restore is done, you'll have to set it up for it's first use, just like you did when you first got it.
11. Finally, do the Toy Story Woody "I did it! I did it!" happy dance.

And if you're like me and your machine had to be reimaged due to kids installing things they shouldn't and getting a PITA trojan, you will lock your rig down tight and not allow any kids near it ever again (especially teens!).

Big shoutout to the folks behind the AlienRespawn site, you saved my sanity (because I couldn't possibly be beaten by a stupid recovery partiion, but was too lazy to hack the .wim to get it to work with just WinPE).

GroupWise News

I meant to post these earlier but life has been getting in the way, so playing catch up now.

If you're just getting around to installing Novell Data Synchronizer Mobility Pack 1.2.5.299 that was released back in May -  it has been released in the Patch Finder with Z10 fixes and a few other bug fixes

(http://download.novell.com/patch/finder/) - and are having YaST errors when trying to install, you may want to go check the Forums for a thread that was started on 8/7/13. It's in the Data Syncronizer/DS Mobility Pack forum.  You may have a repository issue that is fairly easy to resolve yourself. So save yourself an SR.

In other GW news, if you're experiencing the deleting messages on a BlackBerry 10 device issue, Datasync has just entered into it's beta phase (which is good news) with an anticipated release date of "late 2013" to resolve the issue where when a message is deleted from the Blackberry device, it is also deleted from the server and not simply moved to trash.

VMWare News

As all Novell folks know, the vast majority of Novell admins are versed well beyond Novell products and across a multitude of technologies. A few may not realize though that VMWare started as a means for those of us going the self study route for Novell certs to use the equipment we had on hand to setup practice labs.

I've been using VMWare now for a long time, and have been tossing around the idea of getting my VCP but have been stymied by the mandate to sit the entire course before being "allowed" to sign up and take the exam. That's because there is no local center to take the $2,500 class at, so I'd have to include travel expenses, which put it out of my reach.

Not any more!  As of August 12, 2013, VMWare has made the class available via the web.  Yay!!  Now I can save up my pennies and take the course, which includes electronic version of the guides, practice tests AND an exam voucher.  Not too shabby.

Here's the link with the info on their new OnDemand training:

VCP OnDemand Course

Grudgingly accepting Apple

Don't get me wrong, I was an Apple fan way back in the MacIntosh days, but I have the same issue with them now that I did then. They are too proprietary. However, that being said, my music library is in iTunes and I'm too lazy to move it to another platform, so when Phred the cat ruined my Original iPod 20GB by peeing on it, I struggled along using my iPod Shuffle (courtesy of Novell, thank you!) for a few years.

I finally broke down and purchased an iPod Touch so I could have music and stream movies to help drown out the noise factor at my new cube location. Unfortunately, the local WAN team blocks streaming so I've only been using it for music, but it does the job. Luckily for me though, my team has been granted the ability to work from home several days a week now to allow us a quieter environment to concentrate on our tasks at hand. And to take conference calls. Lots and lots of conference calls.

One problem with that...I don't have unlimited minutes on my family cell plan, so I began using Google to make calls using my little AlienWare laptop. It works great, but I'm tied to a wired headset attached to a fairly heavy device which means I can't really do anything but sit while on conference calls. So I started researching, and found I can make my iPod Touch into a cell phone. Yep, as long as I have wireless access I can make free calls via Google Voice on my iPod Touch.

Apple did this one pretty well. I can't use my bluetooth headset that works for my Android phone however as Apple, in it's proprietariness, Applehas made that impossible. And as I found in researching potential headsets, there's a big difference between a 2nd Gen iPod Touch and a 4th Gen iPod Touch and what worked for a 4th Gen iPod Touch won't work on an Original iPad (which also will not run anything higher than iOS 5) or on a 5th or 6th Gen iPod Touch. I managed to find a Sony that fit the bill though and I am now using my iPod Touch as a phone - as long as I have wifi access where I am. Pretty cool, but still not yet enough to convince me to go to an iPhone. My Galaxy IIS has withstood many, many drops that an iPhone would probably not have survived and I'm still not thoroughly convinced that I want to "live" in any single cloud environment. If I truly had my druthers, I'd still be on my beloved BlackBerry Curve that is still running and that I still use for apps. (Always the rebel!)

The apps for using Google Voice on an iPod are free, one provided by Google and another called GV Phone which I like better (except for the annoying ads). It's only been a day so far, and I've had one misdialed number (using the Google app) but people seem to be able to hear me okay and the sound quality is really good as long as I don't get it too close to my Galaxy or my bluetooth headset.

So for now, I'll grudgingly accept that Apple has done something cool by providing a feature to access a service provided by one of their main competitors. I've been in the industry long enough to remember the days when that would never have happened, so it's nice to see, even if I have to throw a bone to Apple regarding their overpriced music box.

I'm late to the party - again!

Okay, so I've been busy helping friends and family fight cancer, deal with teen drama and aging parents, but aren't we all?

Anyway, wanted to let you all know - albeit late - that ZCM 11.2.3 was finally released, way to go Shaun and team!

Also, if you need a great resource for GroupWise 2012 Willem Bagchus' book is out and available on Danita "The GroupWise Goddess" Zanre's website:

http://www.caledonia.net

You might want to pick up her Guide to Moving GroupWise while you're at it.

GroupWise 2012 Administrator's Guide

It's finally here! Willem Bagcheus' guide to administering GroupWise 2012. For those that don't Willem, he's an amazingly talented GroupWise admin, Karoke "rock god", and former GWAVA engineer.  Best part is, his book is available over at Danita Zanre's - the GroupWise Goddess - website.

My apologies Danita for lifting this graphic off your site, it was the best one I found so far.  :)

To purchase this book go to: Caledonia Network Consulting

And don't forget to pick up Danita's GroupWise 2012 Upgrade Bundle, her guides for Novell Mobility and Moving GroupWise.  They're very reasonably priced, easy to follow, and will help layout the groundwork for your project planning.

(And no, I don't get anything from either Danita or Willem besides laughter and sanity checks).

ZCM 11.2.3a Delayed

Recent information is that during testing a new bug was discovered that could cause issues when upgrading.  The good news is this was caught in testing rather than after it was released. And while the delay may not be long, and some people may be disappointed, I am glad they caught it now and are fixing it prior to release.

Another item that was brought up is a new TID related to updating the ZENworks News Items in ZCC.  Some didn't get a hold of the original 11.2.3, but apparently there may be an issue with some folks not seeing an item regarding 11.2.3. If you're one of the people that didn't see something regarding 11.2.3 and are running on Linux, try this out:

TID 7011998

Annual Training Opporutnity for MidWest folks

This one is put on by a friend's user group and has had great reviews from those that have attended in the past. If you can make, it sounds like a great deal!

For those of you in Illinois, Wisconsin, and Iowa, there's an IT conference next month with some great Novell training. It is the Illinois Valley Network Users Association conference April 17-18. A
few Novell folk including yours truly will be there giving a few sessions on ZCM, ZMM, GroupWise, and Filr/iPrint. In addition, a trainer from Novell training will be there giving some ATT courses both days. Here are the Novell session topics.

Breakout Sessions
Novell ZenWorks Present and Future Roadmap
Embracing BYOD in the Enterprise with ZENworks Mobile Management
Novell GroupWise Windermere Deep Dive
Extending Your File and Print Services to Mobile Devices with Novell
Filr and Novell iPrint

ATT Sessions
ZenWorks Patch Management (3.5 hr)
ZenWorks Mobile Management (3.5 hr)
ZenWorks Configuration Management Essentials (1 day)

Full conference schedule
http://www.ivnua.org/training-seminars.php

Class descriptions
http://www.ivnua.org/class-descriptions.php

The conference is only $230 (after using discount code "novell"), and the ATT courses are $100 for a half day class and $200 for the full day class. This is a great learning opportunity, especially for those that did not make it to BrainShare. The conference is in Utica, IL which is about 1 hour south of Rockford / 1.5 hours west of Chicago / 1.5 hours east of Quad Cities.

BrainShare 2013 and a Cool App

So, BrainShare 2013 is over and I missed it all. Well, almost all of it, thanks to Danita Zanre, Tom Hafeman, Willem Bagchus, and Susie Winterhoff, I got to see lots of pics and a few videos so I don't feel quite so left out.

Post conference reports indicate that our "old" Novell is back and that the conference was a success. Lots of conversations about the new products, the keynotes were upbeat and useful, and Filr was in heavy use. I have yet to try to activate my Filr account, but definitely want to get my hands on it. Might be time to upgrade my internet so that I can have a dedicated IP for my play lab...that or get some cloud space somewhere.

Dates are still being discussed for BrainShare 2014, I'm saving up my pennies and vacation days to be there, whenever it is announced.

I also learned about a smartphone app that I had not been aware of previously. It's probably been out there for some time, but I'm not a huge smartphone app user. Battery life being what it is, and being spoiled by my old Blackberry, I tend to use my smartphone for as a phone.

Available for iOS and Android, search for "learningcentral", making sure you select the one made by Novell (there are more than one on the Android side at least).  Use this app to locate and download materials from ATT Live, SUSECon and BrainShare.  Pretty sweet!

Overall, it seems like Novell is set for a revival. Hopefully the Attachmate folks will have better marketing success than the Novell of the past. There's no need to repeat those mistakes!

New GroupWise Book!!

Yes, people still care about and use GroupWise enough to write a new administrator's guide for 2012. Not only does someone care, it's someone I know who wrote it, and he's an amazing Karoke singer to boot.

Willem Bagchus, of former GWAVA fame, has written the latest book to come out, Novell GroupWise 2012 Administrator's Guide. He's also offering a special on it if you pre-order before February 28, 2013.

Better yet, pick it up at BrainShare and I'm pretty sure you can talk him into autographing it for you. And if you do, please tell him hello for me.

I will miss seeing you all this year, but other duties call that also make it impractical for me to get cookies out there in time. (Actually, I don't trust UPS or USPS to get them there on time).

BrainShare Conference Party

In case you didn't see the post on the Novell forums, NetIQ and Novell have rallied to bring back the BrainShare Conference Party (a.k.a. concert).

This year it will be Sawyer Brown (yep, it's country, yep, I like them so blppptt!).  I'm a bit bummed because I won't be there this year, but other duties call.

Conference party will be on Wednesday, February 6th.  Hope you all have a blast!

I will be working on some new tech, at the current job (still love it), that will be having me travel to our corporate office. Unfortunately for you all, that means no cookies. There just isn't enough time to get the done in time to ship. Sorry folks.


If you miss my Snickerdoodles that much just wait a few months. I'm working on an cookbook that I'll self-publish in an eBook format that I hope to release by June. The receipe for them is in there. Or you can find it on my other blog: pyrhaven.blogspot.com if you desperate for them now.

One last bit of "bad" news: no BrainShare Buddies this year.

Tail Gate at BrainShare 2012

Well, someone pointed out that the start of BrainShare falls on the same day as the Super Bowl. Novell and it's partners stepped up and there will now be big screen TV's on site to provide you with your Super Bowl fix.  Check out the Facebook page on BrainShare for more details. BTW, on FB it is spelled Brainshare because FB in their infinite wisdom has decided how things are to be capitalized.

I hope you all have a blast. More urgent, and important, issues will be keeping me home this year. I had been looking forward to going and will miss catching up with everyone. Someone will have to be my mooch-replacement...at least it will save the shipping folks from some back strain.

Is it a TimeWarp?

It's beginning to feel a bit like the late 80's/early 90's to me when it comes to Microsoft and hardware vendors.  It may be time for me to Time Warp back to the olden days when I built my own desktop and moved to only the PC platform from Apple due to the OS being too locked down from my POV.

Windows 8 is here and while it may be a good "consumer" grade OS, it's not a gamer's OS (heck World of WarCraft won't run on it, but it will run on Linux), nor is it an OS-centric IT tech's OS. I can't run the vast majority of my tools on it, not to mention that color explosion makes my eyes water.

I need to be able to get to a command prompt. I need to see how my machine is performing. I need a keyboard.  What I don't need is what I consider a dumbed-down UI, that's what I have my iPad for. And I like my external mouse, my fingers are simply too fat to deal with the on-board touchpad let alone a touch screen device (have you not seen some of my text messages?) ,and don't get me started on those pencil eraser styled doo-hickeys.

HP is what's triggering this potential shift back to building my own desktops.  They've recently announced that consumer grade laptops and desktops are to be left at Windows 8 and that they are not to be back revved to Windows 7. For those of us who've been around long enough, we recognize that this latest version of Windows is nearly pre-destined to be a "bad" version, and one to be skipped in our larger environments. Makes me wonder what M$ is doing on the backside in terms of licensing with the OEM vendors. I had the "oh-so-wonderful-joy" of dealing with licensing M$ on OEM hardware when we also sold an OS2 version of our solution. 

We're just starting a big Windows 7 roll out at my new gig, I can't imagine the headache if we get forced into Windows 8.  Just thinking about it makes my head hurt! Will someone please pass the Excedrin?

ComputerWorld has a good article on this:
HP to consumer customers: don't downgrade new PCs to Windows 7

BrainShare 2012

Well, if you're not planning for it yet, you should get started on it.  Rooms tend to book fast.

At Novell's request (okay, Kim's request...might as well blame the "guilty" here), I now have a BrainShare page on my blog that is a compilation of all my tips from over the years.

Alas, do to a lackluster board WMNUG is not doing BrainShare Buddies this year, which may work out okay as it looks like I won't be making it to BrainShare this year either.  All travel has been put on hold by my employer, which includes BrainShare.

For those of you traveling from the MidWest, you might want to check out the train.  My buddy Rusty and I took the train out last year and had a wonderful trip.  Saw things we wouldn't normally see. Our standard line was "Look! Can't see that from the plane!".  It was really wonderful...much more leg room, no security pat-downs and all our luggage was accessible the entire trip.

If anyone else wants to take up the reigns of the old BrainShare Buddies program, give me a holler. I'll be happy to tell you how we've done it in the past.

Conference Reminder and Wow!

The wow is that I've got nearly 11,000 page views.  Amazing!

Now, a reminder of a local users group conference coming up in the MidWest:

Novell is sponsoring the Illinois Valley Network User's Association Fall Conference which is on October 17 in Utica, IL. This year's conference is on the topic of Mobile Device Management. I'll be
giving the keynote address in the morning and will be there all day to demo ZENworks Mobile Management.

This is a conference that's been going on for a long time now, and worth the trip if you're in any "nearby" state.  Nearby being a relative term for this native Californian.

Anyway, here's the link to get more info and/or register:

http://www.ivnua.org/training-seminars.php

BrainShare Registration Now Open!

Registration for BrainShare 2013 is now open and they're updating the web page as well.  Just a reminder that it's in February this year so if you're a skier or snowboarder plan some extra days around the trip to hit the slopes!

Also, believe it or not, my blog has surpassed 10,000 views.  Surprised the heck out of me I must say.  So perhaps it's time for a contest?  It may have to be limited to USA though as I've not had to deal with customs in forever and have forgotten all that I knew about getting stuff to other countries (other than letters that is).

Been busy in ZCM land and doing POC work lately.  I almost missed the announcement that SP1 for GroupWise 2012 is now available.