Before I begin, if you are thinking about going to the IT PRO CAMP events, I will highly recommend that you invest into a sunpass or a sunpass mini as these events are all over Florida and the turn pike is the fastest route though Florida. Remember that the turn pike is indeed a toll road and you must pay to be on this road. Investing into  sunpass or a sunpass mini to will ease your traffic anxiety and you don’t have to wait in line.

Anyways, the event started early Saturday morning at 8 am til 5 pm. A couple of my buddies and I jumped highway with from Rasmussen college (car pooling)  and headed to Orlando with a Garmin GPS  leading the way.  We passed all the toll rolls with ease thanks to my sunpass mini I purchased a day before. If you want a time, it was 55 mins from Ocala.

As we enter the event building, I notice ALOT of people all of which I thought to be the public with no relation to the IT PRO CAMP.  I was wrong as I and very soon to find out that the majority of these people were IT professionals and students. Props to Microsoft for having little to no vultures at the IT Pro Camp events.

After check in, we made our way to the lounge to find free dunkin donuts and coffee for all attendees. This was pretty awesome, free breakfast at a event that’s not cheesy, hell yeah! Without hesitation I grabbed some coffee and made my way to the first presentation  entitled “Intro to SQL Servers“.

The presentation started with Michael Walls and his Asus laptop and the montage of Microsoft stickers the session begins…

Intro to SQL Servers notes:

Microsoft owned: SQL 2008 10.5

Denali newest code name is the newest product from microsoft

Db engine – The core
Integration
Reporting
Analysis
Tcp/ip: Good for slower connections

Named pipes —FAST

Shared -local only.
Connecting to SQL server.

Microsoft SQL server 2008

Change port number 1433 not good as this is a default for everyone..

Tcp,*port number*

Security
Login
Sever role
User
Sever

——->>instance *uni name and port*

Each has own authentication

SQL authentication is public. Get away from it.

Use credentials to login with pass as application.

Kerberos is secure. Recommended.

Requires config. ^^^^

Supports multi hops.

NTLM can be captured and replayed.
PRE- defined groups. Never assign public rolls leave it alone.

Sysadmin alternatives:  db creator, security admin

Sysadmin keys of kingdom.  Keep low as possible.
Remove default permissions.

Michael walls “don’t give root.  Linux  joke

Security
Server
–> Instance
|—> Instance..

Maps are to login.
Schema introduced SQL 2005;
Grouping objects.Permissions with ease.
Db owner is default..leave alone
Similar to the micro win groups.
100′s to 1000′z on instances with SQL… good overhead (marketing business).
Give only rolls at the lowest priority its Safer in the long run
Only for the need you assign rolls as Security is greater.
Performance tools…
Activity monitor..
Allows you to see process SQL server.
Database i/o
Current wait and blocks.
Shows batch requests.
SQL profiler. Tracer.
Management data warehouse on SQL sever 2008 r2..

As you see from the the notes above they random they brief notes of what I could personally comprehend in a 1 hour time frame; as I’m not a DBA and SQL servers is a little over my head, over all the presentation was a well put together; a big thank you to micheal wells for opening my eyes to technology I should learn.

After the presentation I didn’t know what session to attend next as the event schedule all looked very interesting; one session that caught my attention a Presentation of “Office 365” with Blain Bar.  This was a very interesting presentation, for the longest time I had no idea what “Cloud Computing” was or why it was around, without any hesitation my made my way to Lab 1.

The presentation begins, Blain introduces himself and what he does at Microsoft. Then Blain goes into talking about some of the products that Microsoft products, Office, Skydrive and Hotmail. All the services listed above are now available on the cloud with Microsoft.

There are some free public offerings and some private depending on your needs are is what you will find suitable.

Office 365 offers the following:

• Exchange
• SharePoint
• Lync
• Office Professional Plus
• Domain
• Active Directory
• Email
• Office Web Apps
• High End Back ups to all 3 Microsoft’s data centers.

In other words, IF you are interested in Office 365, you can access the majority of the services that Microsoft offers businesses anytime with a monthly or annual subscription.  If your iffy about the services that Microsoft offers you can try before you buy..

I personally there are 2 benefits of Office365; that is the data back up to Microsoft’s 3 data centers and having the MS office experience online anywhere anytime.

I hate to say there are free “alike” versions of Office; like Google docs, blogger, G-Mail, G drive…
However, Microsoft Runs the majority of the businesses and their OFFICE SOFTWARE.

What I learned about cloud computing is, in someway, shape form or another Microsoft has found out how to install a virtual OS and .exe’s onto website/ servers and operate like a full blown office / work environment .

Personal View on “The Cloud”…

Cloud Computing, in a simply way being online just like running you own website. blog  and or eCommerce store . I’m heavy into web design and web programing the majority of CMS’s and web-hosts like HostGator  you can mange and operate virtual environments; open source software is really a days. Until security becomes more accurate and active I say, stay 1/2 in the cloud and 1/2 at your  stationed at your organization. (wired are real or wireless and invisible security is what matters next to up-time. )

The Advantage that Microsoft has VS DIY is (again) the backup on 3 data centers and everything Microsoft that’s hard to beat in competition. This presentations was well put together and Blain Bar; I really learned a lot from his presentation at IT PRO Camp.

After the Office 365 Presentation, there was a Powershell and Professional Development up next. I chose to check out the Professional development with a intermission in between the the last session with Office 365, I decided to walk around and see what the environment was  like at the IT PRO CAMP.

When I was walking around seeing the companies as well as the people of the IT industry interacting and exchanging business cards. I realized that Microsoft’s IT Pro Camp was very beneficial and was the real world of IT SOCL networking ;VS a book with a face on a screen, only to get a +1, to later be battled for advertisements and companies subscriptions later to be found on linkedin when all else fails looking for work. (catch the riddle?)

When I walked into the door to the Professional Development Session in Lab 2 I was shocked when I seen almost all the seats were taken I then figured this presentation was going to be good..

Check out the notes below:

Networking, Project management,Managing and leading.

Write down total package;Well rounded. What you do best..

Success track What is yours

Think of your career as business plan.

Market value.
Are my skills current and marketable.
What would you to increase your value?
Deliver value!!! More than whats expected..
What is my brand? What am I good at and how do I show that?
Hobby not a job. $$$
Analyze career position & market focus.
Identify resources
Set goals; List task to accomplish goals.
Where are you going?
You want More Money?
Stability – skills
Challenges- new skills
Responsibility- projects.
Job titles. Fight system.

 

How will you get there.
What skills do you need to be creditable.
Think of a business wanting to expand niche.
Takes work and research.
Time you work on your skills?
21 – 100 hours year.

Money resources – 250.00 – 5,000.00 to attend events.

Most importing thing; How do you learn best?

Book? $$
Video?
Short articles?
Seminar? $$$$$$$
Hands on?

what works works for you?

Fund threads.
Networking
Writing
Leadership
Formal education
Networking will help you or it.
Job is someone you know. To a degree??
Slice of time.

Writing is crucial.****
Building your brand.  PDP impacts your brand.
Treat your manager like a client.

The Professional Development presentation was probably the BEST session of the day as I learned to sell your self as more than a IT Professional; sell your self as a brand and any information that can make more money now or in the future is the best information.

After the PDP presentation was over I was extremely hungry; 3 1/2 hours of free knowledge so far had me drained.

Just, as I was about to leave to grab a bite to eat, I seen a buffet line of BBQ chicken and soft drinks I asked someone how much; expecting a 5.00 meal price, the person said its FREE.

Huh?! are you serious?.. Yes, Microsoft bought it for  all of us ..

Holy cow, FREE Breakfast and Lunch at the IT Pro Camp Event, Hell Yeah!

Without hesitation, I grabbed a plate and silverware then made my rounds on the Microsoft Offerings of lunch, a side waiting in a small line, I started texting everyone that didn’t want to come they are missing out on a good time.

The food looked and tasted amazing and not to mention it wasn’t your average seminar/event food as it wasn’t a vendor over charging you for a plate and it wasn’t cafeteria food. The lunch was southern style BBQ and toast, yum.

While eating in the main room, Blain Bar, and his crew talked in  front of everyone tshat attended and announced that there will be more events to come with the IT PRO CAMP all over Florida. (This is why I said in the beginning, get a SunPass.) The events are posted on the IT PRO CAMP website. Everyone including myself clapped for the event organizers.

I am looking forward to the future events of the IT PRO Camp and would recommend all people of IT industry to attend these events. There were way more sessions and activity’s that went on at Microsoft’s IT PRO Camp, I had to leave early; after the session of Intel’s (Wintel) presentation I cant tell you what the presentation was about, but i will say intel will run the market for the next 15 years until quantum computing picks up.

To all check out Blain Bar’s Blog and Register for the next IT PRO Camp Event!

Now that we all know that everyone is pretty much connected to the internet and that it’s a battle for the consumers business. Let’s talk about the advertisement; for the longest time advertising was suppose to bring business to businesses for whatever, a product and or service that a company provides that was exclusive with them and/or was competitively priced. Businesses paid advertisers to get them known and advertisers did just that. (Billboards, Letters, Commercials, Ect.)   It seemed to work for 100′s of years until the digital age came and forever change the method of advertising business.

Now a day’s companies have with system in place where you place your monthly budget in an online, you type keywords, which tell a bot where to place your business advertisement on a publisher’s website, search engine and social network and customers are suppose to find you. Since these bots are operated on keywords a group of keywords placed on a website will place your ad. This seems to be a practical approach to advertising your company in areas that share the same interest on cyberspace and to some people it’s cost effective.  Ha! (yeah right) probably 25% of sites are actually real and actually help with advertising with companies.

What happens, when a publisher somewhere in the world, with hot tagging knowledge is plugging in the keys and playing out the roll (of getting money& views), they are getting your advertising dollars with no relation to your industry and not effective for advertising.  They are getting paid by the view or click.   Hot Tagging is a method used by new publishers (usually) on the market. This is a method of cramming a bunch of words into a page then publishing it to World Wide Web. When people search the tags appear they click the site look around for 10 secs if they don’t see what they like they leave, end of story. The publishers have the upper hand when it comes to manipulating code and words to get paid, since the ad companies need them to advertise on their space.  Some use software for, pay per click and others just spam the crap out people and create fake traffic for pay per view. This is costing a lot of companies a lot of money and making consumers skeptical about the web and websites. Companies have banned publishers and tried to fill the loop hole in paid per click and pay per view. They will not catch up as technology always changes and code is forever changeable. Others on the other hand paying cents per click and views aren’t, but it’s not the greatest.

Not to down the new publishers or ad companies, but there needs to be a code of conduct and a guideline to follow, to better serve company’s investment in advertising. We all want a job that earns a dollar, but do your job with heart not greed.

What happen to the competitive edge advertisers use to bring to the table? Here at Planet Worldwide Productions we have a formula that advertises (connects) you to your customers in a way that works in person, on the web, at a show, in your hometown, in video and worldwide with a quick investment turn around, guaranteed.

Neat 2011 Features for the Skate The Rat Tour website:

• iPhone, iPad, and iTouch Custom Application.
• Dynamic and Powerful Photo Gallery.
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• And WAY more check out SkateTheRat.com

If you ever wanted to know where and who designed relaunch of Citystars Skateboards press release was designed. Well look no further you have arrived to your answer.

Back when I (Jacob) was on Push Distribution 5star Rob gave me the opportunity to design the relaunch/team announcement press release. I took up the opportunity and produced a press release that would forever mark the RETURN OF THE LEGENDARY Company Citystars Skateboards with help of Neftalie Williams the photographer of Kareem Campbell. This Press Release can be seen on Transworld Skateboarding Website.