Monday 9 November 2009

I must be doing something right

They say that imitation is the highest form of flattery. Well I don’t think that this case is too flattering. I found a copy of my series on the 70-505 objectives copied verbatim on another blog. No links back, no kudos to the original author for work, nadda! It was posted as their own work on their blog.

So lets play a game of spot the difference

Link 1: http://certsandprogs.blogspot.com/2009/11/mcts-windows-forms-35-70-505-objectives.html

Link 2: http://www.mcpd-certification.com/microsofts-70-505-ts-microsoft-net-framework-3-5-windows-forms-application-development-chapter-7.html

I have not hyperlinked the copiers site as who wants to drive some traffic to them in the first place. So lets take a quick look shall we. When I was writing that post, I found it was getting increasingly difficult to find certain MSDN articles that matched up to the objectives in the exam matrix.

So I improvised and used some common sense and gave the user links to the relevant overview pages and some other topics I thought were possibly relevant. Such as the XCOPY command as this is one that you use when you are doing deployments for ASP.NET applications sometimes. I thought some Windows Forms people may like a refresher on it.

Also in relation to permissions on the application side I added a number of links which I now realise are possibly in the wrong area of the post. But I didn’t have a chance to change this issue yet and so if it was the person’s own work they would have noticed this and changed it.

Now for some of the links, they are ordered the way that they are listed in the MSDN library but in some cases I reordered them to suit a better pattern or because (in most cases) I was tired and reordered by accident.

So in an image lets look at this (click to enlarge)

Copy work

As you can see there is quite a bit of duplication in image including the afore mentioned XCOPY and security links. Its a carbon copy in fact.

Now the copier had the common sense to not include the preamble I use to my objectives series posts and the exit text I put there as well, which means its not a automated process.

Its quite annoying when you see that amount of work passed off by someone else. You can expect a small bit of fair use copying where the person links back to the original etc but this type of blatant plagiarism can really get my back up sometimes.

This process was done for all 7 posts on 70-505 I made during October.

And I did leave a comment on the blog posts in question but for some reason they don’t seem to be published.

Wednesday 4 November 2009

Windows Server 2008 R2 x64 180 day Trial VHD

Microsoft has made a new trial VHD available for Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise Edition 64bit.

Windows Server 2008 R2 Logo

From the overview

The Microsoft VHD Test Drive Program provides customers a flexible, extensible and supported evaluation experience requiring minimal hardware and IT overhead. You can access the catalogue of pre-configured Microsoft solutions in VHD format for test, evaluation, demonstration, training & education and proof of concept from www.microsoft.com/vhd.
This download helps you evaluate the new features of Windows Server 2008 R2. You’ll have the opportunity to try new and improved features and functionality of Windows Server 2008 R2 free for 180 days. Windows Server 2008 R2 builds on the award-winning foundation of Windows Server 2008, expanding existing technology and adding new features to enable IT professionals to increase the reliability and flexibility of their server infrastructures. New virtualization tools, Web resources, management enhancements, and exciting Windows 7 integration help save time, reduce costs, and provide a platform for a dynamic and efficiently managed data centre. Powerful tools such as Internet Information Services (IIS) version 7.5, updated Server Manager and Hyper-V platforms and Windows PowerShell version 2.0 combine to give customers greater control, increased efficiency and the ability to react to front-line business needs faster than ever before. To find out more about Windows Server 2008 R2, please visit the
product homepage. Please note that this product is available for evaluation purposes only and should not be used in a production environment.
This is a preconfigured virtual machine set contained within the Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) format. Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V, Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008, or the R2 versions of these products is required to use this virtual machine. Please refer to the system requirements section for more details.

You will need Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V to run this VHD. Also because its 64bit you will need 64bit capable processors (Intel64 or AMD64 extensions) with hardware virtualisation (AMD-V or Intel-VT) and DEP.

Download from here

Tuesday 3 November 2009

MCTS Windows Forms 3.5 – 70-505 – Objectives List Part 7

This is the seventh and final post (first, second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth) in another collection of posts that have links to the different objectives covered in the 70-505 exam.

Configuring and Deploying Applications (15%)

You can also find some information on preparing for your exams here, in the actual exam for 70-505. Also errata for the MS Press training kit

Sunday 1 November 2009

MCTS Windows Forms 3.5 – 70-505 – Objectives List Part 6

This is the sixth post (first, second, third, fourth, fifth) in another collection of posts that have links to the different objectives covered in the 70-505 exam.

Deploying Windows Forms Controls (11%)

You can also find some information on preparing for your exams here, in the actual exam for 70-505. Also errata for the MS Press training kit