This is the replacement for SMS 2003 and is used to comprehensively assess, deploy, and update your servers, clients, and devices, across physical and virtual machines as well as mobile devices. Config. Manager provides Asset Intelligence giving organizations continuous visibility of their hardware/software assets, where they are and who's using them.

It can show how many copies of a particular program have been deployed, which machines they're on and which people actually use the software. This information can then be used at renewal time to help decide how many copies are needed for the next year etc.

Software Update Management is often the main reason that people look at System Center Config Manager. Keeping all the various bits of software in an Enterprise fully up to date with patches is very important and also very difficult! Using SCCM you can deploy patches & updates for Microsoft products, 3rd party applications, custom LOB (Line of Business) applications, hardware drivers and more to servers, desktops, laptops and mobile devices.

The new feature of Desired Configuration Management enables organization to increase desktop stability and security by assessing the compliance of computers with regards to things such as "whether the correct Microsoft Windows operating system versions are installed and configured appropriately, all required applications are installed and configured correctly, optional applications are configured appropriately, and whether prohibited applications are installed."

Using SCCM for Software Package Deployment can make things a lot easier! This simplifies the task of distributing software packages to physical and virtual machines (servers, desktops, laptops and mobile devices). You can centrally define how and when these packages will run on client machines, installing the software with no user intervention.

Next Steps:

Now you're got an idea of what it can do, I'm sure you can't wait to get it set up in your Test & Development system so:

Online Virtual Labs

Download Trial Software

Pricing & Licensing:

There is a single licence for System Center Config Manager Server, Management Licence (ML) for Servers (Std and Enterprise) and a Management Licence for Clients.

An Enterprise Server ML is required for full application and server desired configuration management, including the proactive management of systems for configuration settings that follow an industry-leading framework for managing information in changing regulatory and business environments, while a Standard Server ML is limited to operating system and basic workload desired configuration management.

Create a post about the following:

What are your favorite two new features of live? How do you plan on using them?

Using Photoshop, crop a screenshot of one of the features and upload it to your post. (Alt and Print Screen)

This assignment will be due by the end of class on Thursday, Oct. 9.

API, for the non-technical crowd, means Application Programming Interface - a way to talk to the data stored in Billing Manager without using a web browser.  If you're a software developer, you'll be able to write applications that talk to Billing Manager in cool new ways.  If you're just a regular Billing Manager user, you'll be able to use applications and plug-ins others have built on top of the API.  We've already got some ideas kicking around internally, like a native iPhone app, Blackberry app, and export-to-Excel capabilities.  The API will open the doors for these and lots of other things we haven't even thought of yet.  In addition to our own add-ons, we're looking forward to seeing some creative software built by the community that will make everyone's Billing Manager experience better.  We'll keep you posted on the API's progress and official release date as we flesh everything out in the coming weeks.

And, just in case you're worried about security, know that using the API or applications built on top of the API will require authentication just like Billing Manager does today.  You can't see anyone else's data, and no one else can see yours.

Developers: the default API interface will likely be RESTful XML.  Are there other formats you'd like to see (JSON, etc.)?  Any features beyond the obvious ones like creating an invoice that are absolute must-haves in the API (e.g. getting invoice history information)?  We really would like input from our users, since this feature is for you!

Microsoft have already stated that deep-level changes between Vista & Windows 7 will be get to a minimum as a way to ensure driver and application compatibiity; and if they pull it off,  Windows 7 will have a much better start to life than poor old Vista :-)

The downside to this is that they can't play around with Win32 (Windows Core) too much, and that is going to limit what can be down with regards to Parallel Processing. However, at this year's PDC (Professional Developers Conference), there is a session entitled "Parallel Symposium: Addressing the Hard Problems with Concurrency" and the session decription contains the phrase "Hear about the key architectural changes Microsoft is making to Windows to enable the efficient execution of parallel software.", which shows the Redmond giant has clearly got something up it's sleeve.

Many thanks to Mary Jo Foley over at ZDNet for this info. She's also got some words from Craig Mundie, Microsoft’s Chief Research and Strategy Officer as to what's on the drawing board.

Again, anyone attending the PDC please feel free to leave some comments if you hear anything blog worthy!

How does it work? It's very simple: every time 2 people that you refer become Premium members we will give you a 1-month Premium membership for free.

Note that if you already are a Premium member:
-if you have paid upfront for 6 or 12 months, your current membership will be extended by one month.
-if you pay monthly, the last month you paid will be reimbursed.

You can refer as many people as you like. For example:
-if you refer 2 friends and they become Premium members, we will give you a free Premium membership valid for 1 month.
-if you refer 4 friends and they become Premium members, we will give you a free Premium membership valid for 2 months.
etc.

On this page, you will be able to get your referral link and see the list of people you have referred.

Give your referral link to anyone who might be interested in Europlayers. For example, put it in your email signature, or on your web site, or just send it to friends by email. If a person clicks on your link and joins Europlayers, you are automatically marked as his referrer!

New login page in Neopets! Pretty, eh?

The new PureDisk DeDuplication Option enables data deduplication across Veritas NetBackup clients and allows you to backup only the unique data.

When it came to improving it's recovery capabilities, NetBackup looked to Backup Exec and "borrowed" it's Granular Recovery Technology (GTR) which allows for quick recovery of entire systems/individual files, e-mails, documents, and virtual machines from single-pass image backups of Windows Server 2008, Exchange Server 2007, SharePoint Server 2007, and VMware servers...nice! The Granular Recovery Technology also eliminates duplicate block-level backups, thus reducing storage requirements.

Similar to Backup Exec 12.5, NetBackup now supports VMware Consolidated Backups (VCB) and snap-shot client support in VM's.

A number of datsheets on the different optiopns for NetBackup can be download here.

New added updates this month:

• New support notecard
• New TSL Links notecard
• New October TSL Popular Places notecard

You rock, help the TSL community to grow! :)

Please give me response if you would like to exhange some of the news sources. Any idea of better news sources to let newspopl aggregate from?

Yes! It's OCTOBER!! That means it's time to collect your Monthly Freebies!

How They Dress will take an inside look into the tastes of some of our friends and fans. Each feature will include one individual and his 5 favorite t-shirts on PleaseDressMe.

Here is where all of the features will be indexed: How They Dress Archives

We kicked it off yesterday with Jim Louderback and today we keep it going with Ryan Carson

So as it says, check out the Sneak Peaks coming on http://clubpenguin.com/sneakpeak. Also credit given to Watex, heres the link to download those two posters,  http://clubpenguin.com/sneakposters . Keep Going on the Sneak Peak website to see what toys come, two have already been revealed, the first ones the ''Cheerleader'' and the Orange ones the ''Construction Worker''. Download them now, heres the two posters on the Sneak Peak website..................

If you can see theres the two Toys coming soon, and on the corner you can see the contest coming which you can take part in starting from October 3rd, and win a Limited Edition Viking Penguin!!! I know im going to enter, the link to join will be availble on that day! ALSO TOMORROW (WEDNESDAY), I AM NOT GOING SCHOOL BECAUSE I AM CELEBRATING EID! EID MUBARAK EVERYONE!

Recognizing the originality of our real estate approach, Zillow Inc. has listed OptimalHomeLocation in the Resources For Buyers section of their site.

Quick Update: BTW, i actually prefer the 'only 1 thing at a time' interface the mobile version has. I need to rethink the main page of the web version of booksummit, and the plethora of options (which i suspect are a bit confusing).

First is the default view you get at booksummit.com/m/ -

Next, you can click on the Forum button, and look at the latest Forum Discussions -

And you can even click on the Add button and then add photos or discussions right from your phone.

First, Click on Add to get options -

Then click on Start a Discussion to get this straigthforward page -

I'll add more on the details. The feature is now so please bear with any initial bugs. And do let me know how it appears on your Kindle and whether it works for you.

We are planning to charge $1 for the processing fee and $1 for shipping. Normal raw cards will stay $0.20 for processing and $0.20 for shipping, but we will also bump the maximum shipping fee from $20 up to $30.

Let me know what you think about these proposed fees.

• Support for hi-resolution contact pictures (HTC Diamond)
• UI enhancements, including multiple rows of photos and support for hi-res & wide screen phones
• Photo strip images cached on storage card by default (if available)
• Scattered bug fixes on random WM 6.1 phones (client popping in front, content upload failures, unable to connect, etc)

The update was built for Windows Mobile 6.x phones, though anybody with .NET CF 2.0 or higher can install it.

Check it out by visiting http://m.dashwire.com on your mobile phone web browser!

Finally, we've been a bit quiet lately because we've been cranking behind the scenes for our upcoming holiday launch.  Stay tuned!

We've heard from MANY of our users that they would like us to support other currencies. We understand, Billing Manager after all is a web app, and with that comes the fact that anyone in the world can use us, no matter which country they are in. This is great news, because we feel that we have the best invoicing app on the web, so we'd like everyone out there to give us a shot.

Yes, we did indeed initially build the app to support the United States, but we are super excited to start working on developing support for currencies outside the US, and along with that foreign addresses, date and currency formats. Specific currencies we've gotten a lot of requests for include pounds, euros, rupees, and rand. We've heard a lot of feedback from users asking for those, but is there anything else you'd like to see? To be honest we've received fewer requests for multi-language support, but people have definitely been interested in customizing the text of an invoice to their local language. If you have any opinions or requests on any of the above, leave a comment!

The Teen Grid now has a new TG Development website page, thanks to Totem Gufler and everyone else who helped with it.

Check it out: http://tgdevelopment.wikidot.com/

Introduction about TG Development Home

"This wiki is meant to be a resource for developers on the Teen Grid of Linden Lab's Second Life. The Teen Grid is a budding environment. This wiki serves as a way for teens to hone their skills, get useful tips on creating objects and scripts, and just a way to spread your ideas with other developers. We are not directly affiliated to any in-world group such as Mentors 2.0 or TSL Welcomers."

How to join

"Any valid Teen Grid resident can join and modify this wiki. However, we reserve the power to revoke any user's membership for any reason."

"Please use your full TSL name or just your first name. If we find that you have used a name that can not be verified as part of the TG, we will ask you to change it." You should have a valid Wikidot.com account and be logged in order to apply for membership.

Another step forward for the Teen Grid

This means that if you live in an area that doesn't have much information on Eat.fi yet, but wish it would get more visibility, you can do something about it. If we notice a lot of activity in a certain city, with most of the information (opening times, categories, and contact information for restaurants) filled in, we'll display that city on the front page. Since Porvoo now has a lot of information on it, we gave Porvoo some of that front-page love.

What wiki-like editing tools?

On every restaurant page, at the top right, there is now a link that says "Update information."

If you're logged in as a registered user, you'll find all the tools you need to change opening times, contact info, etc. in this menu. In order to prevent vandalism, we log all user changes in a public "history" log, which can also be found at the bottom of this menu.

If a restaurant owner has "claimed" their restaurant, ie has logged in and indicated that he or she is in charge of this restaurant's information from now on, you won't see these tools, but rather a message field which will allow you to report wrong information directly to the restaurant owner.

We believe that by giving users and owners direct and free access to restaurant information, the site will stay far more accurate than if we tried to centralize upkeep. No one knows better(or sooner) than the restaurant owners or local customers themselves when a restaurant is undergoing renovations, or has changed its opening times. Try it out and let us know what you think!