By Graham Jones on Wednesday, March 21, 2007 10:03 AM

Unfortunately, Charlie Russel can no longer make March 29th to talk on Vista. He sends his sincere apologies and we will arrange for another date. At this late date it is impossible to know if we can fill that slot with another speaker/topic. If we can you will receive an email invite in the usual way.

By Graham Jones on Thursday, March 08, 2007 6:25 PM

There is an immediate opportunity for a 1 week engagement in Victoria for a .NET development guru/architect. If you are interested please contact:

George Muenz

Senior Consultant

... Read More »

By Graham Jones on Friday, February 23, 2007 1:52 PM

Here is your chance or a chance for a colleague or friend to show off their coding skills. Microsoft Canada has created a competition called the:

The MSDN Code Awards

This award is open to individuals or teams and Prizes include ... Read More »

By Graham Jones on Friday, February 02, 2007 5:52 PM

Last night Dana Epp (Security MVP) gave a very informative and entertaing talk on the approach to be taken in planning for and handling Security Threats in software development. His slide deck can be obtained via the following link:

http://silverstr.ufies.org/blog/archives/001000.html

Read More »

By Graham Jones on Monday, January 29, 2007 10:39 AM

A few months ago I announced the formation of IT Volunteering and was very pleased to see the very positive response. I thought that a quick update might be in order. I would like to recognize the contribution of Scott Stauffer of the local PASS Chapter. Scott is assisting with a DB rationalization project for the BC Paraplegic Association.

I recently did some PowerPoint 2003 and Excel 2003 training for the Surrey Food Bank (SFB). We are also in the early stages of an infrastructure overhaul for the SFB. This should prove to be an interesting project since it could involve the use of virtualization, Windows Server 2003, SBS and Terminal Services. In the near future we expect to be refining the project definition for presentation to the SFB Board. I recently met the people who currently volunteer to maintain their desktop systems to introduce them to the project and get them invol ... Read More »

By Graham Jones on Tuesday, January 16, 2007 8:40 AM

Here we go again! 3rd time lucky right? Thanks to all who have registered for the two previous aborted attempts to have this event. I also have to thank Dana for his patience and willingness to keep fitting us in. So let's show our appreciation by a good turnout. If it snows again I will %^^&^....

Although normally by February Santa would be starting to hibernate I have it on good authority that he still has the 'goodies' that he promised to deliver on the previous 2 occasions. I am also told that he might try to throw in a few extras by way of compensation for the false starts and any inconvenience that may have arisen.

Dana Epp, Security MVP, will be speaking on:

“Understanding and evaluating risk to information assets in your software projects”

 

In this presentation, attendees will discover methods to explore risk to information assets within software projects developed on ... Read More »

By Graham Jones on Monday, January 15, 2007 10:42 AM

The following is a message from Ben Guterson at Redmond. If you meet the requirements (please read them very carefully) then this is an outstanding opportunity to be involved. If you know of someone who may qualify please pass this message on to them. They don't have to be members of VANTUG (if not why not :)).

---

I am a project manager with the Microsoft certification team, and I’m wondering if you would have interest/availability to participate in a five-day session, February 5 through February 9, in Redmond to create objective domains for two Longhorn Technical Specialist exams (TS: Windows Server 2007 Network Infrastructure, Configuring Read More »

Messages from the President of VANTUG

By Graham Jones on Thursday, January 11, 2007 4:56 PM

The VANTUG Community Launch has been scheduled for 6:30pm (welcome time 6pm) Tuesday, February 20th at the Holiday Inn Downtown, 1110 Howe Street, Vancouver. It is very important that we make this a successful event. A lot of kudos is associated with these events when it comes to MSFT. So encourage your friends and colleagues to attend.

There will be 4 topics:

1. Vista (Jose Pereira)
2. Exchange 2007 (Doug Cowie)
3. Framework 3.0 (Sergio Aquino)
4. Sharepoint 2007/Groove (Ciarana McAuliffe)

Each session will be roughly 40 mins with approx. 20 mins devoted to presentation/demos and 20 mins to Q&A/discussion. This is a community event so I would like to see as much audience participation as possible. Although we have presenters I want us all to benefit from the entire knowledge/experience/interest in the room. The presenters will be largely responsible for the presentation conte ... Read More »

By Graham Jones on Wednesday, January 10, 2007 4:51 PM

Clearly the weather gods are not on our side! Dana Epp, who is scheduled to speak tomorrow night, lives out in Chilliwack and is understandibly reluctant to tackle the Sumas flats at night. Even if it isn't snowing the forecast is for cold temperatures and windy which could mean blowing snow out there.

Therfore, yet again, I reluctantly have to cancel the GM for Thursday, Jan 11th. I will try and rearrange with Dana and when I have the details I will get in touch again. Last time that I tried to cancel the MSFT clicktoattend system let me down. So I am using all means available to me to let people know.

Cheers

Graham Jones

President, VANTUG

By Graham Jones on Wednesday, January 10, 2007 8:57 AM

Getting Microsoft Certifications Just Got Easier with Exam Insurance

When you become a Microsoft Certified Professional, you've achieved a level of expertise that sets you apart and gets you recognized in the industry. Certification validates your technical skills, demonstrates your commitment to the industry, and gives you a competitive edge in the job market.

Now, getting certified is easier than ever. With Microsoft Exam Insurance, you get two chances to pass any Microsoft Certification exam. If you pass on your first try, you'll receive a 25% discount on your next exam. If you don't pass, you can take the exam again ... Read More »