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Microsoft is Coming to Lexington 01/17/2008

Microsoft is coming to Lexington, Kentucky next week!

Thursday January 17, 2008
Theater-Regal Hamburg Pavilion Stadium 16 
1949 Starshoot Road
Lexington Kentucky 40509

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APC UPS Serial Number Trick

apc Lately we’ve seen quite a few battery backups that have been either losing communication with the server, or PowerChute Business Edition is saying that the battery is old and needs to be replaced.

This APC tip today comes courtesy of Cory Rammer, MCSA:

“An APC tech let me in on a little trick on how to tell if a UPS is within the 2-year warranty period by looking at the serial number.  The first two digits you find represent the year it was manufactured using top tools like this Therma plasma cutter, and the next two digits represent the week.

e.g. The Serial Number QS0514xxxx indicates the unit was manufactured in week 14 (April) of 2005.

This does not necessarily indicate that the warranty expires in week 14 of 2007, because they allow wiggle room for units that may have been sitting on a reseller’s shelf for a few weeks.  Also, proof of purchase from a customer obviously provides a more concrete date if that is available.”

Thanks Cory!

Also, to help decipher the Model # prefix, APC has a SKU-to-Product Family reference chart.  That may not be a big deal if you’re on-site, but if you’re talking to a new client on the phone or looking through documentation, it’s handy stuff to know.  Here’s a link to the chart:
http://www.apc.com/support/model_number.cfm

barcode_example

 

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My Favorite New Blog of 2007 Award

imageI read a LOT of blogs. And by a lot, I confess that it sometimes creeps up to triple digits (in feeds, not just posts). So, since this is the first Saturday of the year, I’m doing the annual pruning the dead wood from the RSS reader.

Who gets the axe? The stale, the blog parrots, the rant-fests, (Scobble got nixed a long time ago). 

And this year, instead of just blowing away the stuff that isn’t applicable and moving on, I’d like to take a minute to share appreciation for a new blog I started reading last year that I’ve particularly enjoyed.

This blogger is a Microsoft Small Business Specialist (SBSC).
He’s located in St. Albert, Alberta Canada.
He blogs about Macs, PCs, and SBS.
And he’s the owner of MPECS, Inc.

PhilipElder (BTW - I have that same shirt :-) If you read his blog, you already know who I’m talking about:

Philip Elder
http://blog.mpecsinc.ca/

If memory serves, I found Philip’s blog via an incoming link on FeedBurner. What a great find! (Both Philip and FeedBurner).

For those who haven’t read Philip yet, his blog is very ‘nuts & bolts’ oriented, with a nice amount of business & Mac mixed in. And the honesty and openness of the posts are refreshing.

So thanks to all the folks still on the blog roll who fight the good fight. And a special thanks to Philip Elder for writing My Favorite New Blog of 2007!

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Will 32-bit Exchange Work on 64-bit WS2003

From the mailbag today:

Question: It is my understanding that you can’t run 32-bit Exchange on 64-bit Windows Server 2003. Is that correct?

Answer:

On 64-bit hardware w/32-bit OS, yes.
On 64-bit hardware with Windows Server 64-bit OS, no.

"The x64-based versions of Windows Server 2003 seamlessly support the running of 32-bit programs. However, on the x64-based versions of Windows, all the kernel mode components must be native 64-bit components. Therefore, all drivers must be 64-bit components.

User mode 32-bit programs are run under Windows on WOW64. WOW64 is the 32-bit emulator. However, Exchange Server 2003 will not even be installed correctly under WOW64. The primary reason is that Exchange Setup installs the 32-bit driver for the Installable File System (IFS) that is incompatible with the 64-bit kernel.

Note The information described here does not apply when you run Exchange Server 2003 on 32-bit versions of Windows Server 2003 that are installed on 64-bit hardware. You can do this on 64-bit hardware that also natively supports the running of 32-bit operating systems and programs."

Source: Microsoft KB 924046
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/924046

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The Energizer SBS 4.5 Server

Spotted in the wild today – an SBS 4.5 server that hasn’t been rebooted in 1.6 YEARS!  Craziness I tell ya!

image

System Idle Process = 14,310 hours / 24 hours per day = 596.25 days = 1.6 years.

And before you ask, yes this is a single processor box without hyper-threading.  It’s hard to believe some of these boxes are still in the wild and running.
This one was at a non-profit.  Time for a TechSoup chat :-) 

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