AuTechHeads Forums

Mining Jobs

Gregtca — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 03:00:07 GMT

So where are all these big paying jobs at the mines, i recently went looking for them , but basically got told you are not in W.A , not qualified , to qualified, to old , dont get any email replys , unless you know some one there in a mine you wont get in, have to have OH& S quals , dont have to have any quals at all we will train you , no IT jobs onsite , done by the sparky,

So all in all , i dont think im going to get a foot in the door , or in most cases an email reply at all , so they can give the overseas workers the jobs , as im obvisly not qualifed to even FIND ONE !!!

Regards

Greg

A Security Distributor

Peter — Tue, 01 May 2012 18:42:21 GMT

I ran a post for research to see whether several of the brands I will be selling were known to the community. The reason for this research is that I had never heard of most of the brands and wanted to know if others had.

I work for a distributor. I deal with resellers. I don't sell directly to end users and discussions I have with them can be as open as I like, and my opinion only. I can facilitate discussions with resellers and end users, but my main priority is the sales of products for the company.

The My Company is forum is a bit of an interesting one for me, as it would be for others in the industry - you see, many of us don't last in a position past 3 years, we move on as is the nature of the business. Sales people particularly.

There are other members here who are record holders, who have been with the same organisation for years, but it is my experience that there are less and less these days as the market changes every day and seemingly safe jobs become risky.

If you want to see what my company does, search for M.Tech Products Australia.

Far too much info to fill a post with...

have you ever heard of....

Peter — Tue, 01 May 2012 10:38:22 GMT

Has anyone heard of the following vendors and what they sell?

Imperva

Credant

BackBox

LanDesk

BT Diamond

Tufin

Riverbed

Solarwinds

just a bit of research for me. Trying to see if anyone knows these brands.

Melbourne Meet Up - 21st to 23rd May

Adam Fowler — Tue, 01 May 2012 03:57:24 GMT

Hi,

Just like my other post, I'll be in Melbourne from 21st to 24th May, and hoping to do a catch up with any AuTechHeads for a dinner.

I can do Monday 21st to Wednesday 23rd, preferrable the Tues/Wed.

Who's keen to come along, where and when?

I don't mind if it's only 1 or 2 that turn up

Sydney Meetup 7th May - 10th May?

Adam Fowler — Tue, 01 May 2012 03:45:04 GMT

Hi everyone,

I'm over in Sydney from on the week starting 7th May and keen to have a small catch up with fellow AuTechHeads I believe Luke Notley / @macdaddycloud will be over too.

I'm free from the Mon > Thurs, although would prefer Tues/Wed/Thurs night for something. I'll also be staying in the CBD with no transport of my own.

Who's in, when are you free and do you have any food recommendations?

Party 2012

Matt Marlor — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 06:22:50 GMT

Okey dokey, it's a good time to start thinking about the Party this year. It's the most visible thing that we've done, and last year definitely turned out more impressively than the 1st. I'm certainly keen to see it continued. I believe we have a decent set of sponsors who are interested in coming back, and one or two extras who would like to be included.

I think it's clear that the party needs organisers, fundraisers, and promoters. I've been happy to fill in for a lot of this, but the help of each and everyone one of you who've kicked in towards making it happen has been invaluable, and it could not have happened without being a team effort.

I'm really, really dubious about making it to Tech.Ed 2012. Last year I was a full time employee, and managed to use some influence to get to Tech.Ed when work wouldn't go for it. I would love to speak again, and felt I gained a lot from the opportunity, but I also have to consider that that could be several days without pay if I'm still contracting.

I think that this presents the perfect opportunity for others in the team to take the lead on organising. I'm not dismissing in any way the level to which any of you have contributed. I just think that having shown that we could repeat and improve on the success of the Party, we can now demonstrate that it can happen again and again, regardless of who's holding the reins.

I would still be involved - I will introduce you to and help with existing sponsors, organise website stuff, help promote, etc. I just know from experience that the people taking the lead should be reasonably sure of being on the ground at the party

I think this year, we really could outdo ourselves. Last year, my conversation with Waxy's was ridiculously positive - they basically said that if we wanted the whole place to ourselves, we could have it. Equally, Microsoft were floored by our success. Hitting 300 people was certainly unexpected, but we made it look easy. Imagine if we could do 500 or more this time!

I can't emphasise enough that this has benefits to both organisers and to the group itself. You get some amazingly useful contacts and opportunities from just the fundraising aspects, and I know that for 2 years running, the excess from fundraising has helped pay out of pocket costs around the site and other logistics. I can also point to the Ivy Worldwide opportunities among others as indirect results.

I think that the organisers would look for both existing and new sponsorships - you'd actively seek opportunities from vendors you know or deal with, and pimp for sponsors via teh soshuls, etc. A lot of the actual party tends to fall into place itself, and with help from the group mind we have

I can't say it's terribly onerous, unless left to the last minute. I would say that 2 or 3 people could nail it with a minimum of effort on each person's part. We have some fairly standardised offerings now for sponsors, and I think we've learnt what we will and won't do for sponsors (one opportunity last year wanted a dump of attendees emails, which is just not gonna happen ). If we can get sponsorships underway now, I bet we can double (or better) the budget. July/August is the wrong time to seek sponsors, they want to plan their marketing earlier.

Anyway, I think I've said enough for now. I'm hoping we can get a few people stepping up, so I'll leave it here and hope to hear from you soon.

Sydney event opportunity

Matt Marlor — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 06:07:51 GMT

Hey guys,

So I have an opportunity for an Ivy Worldwide / HP event in Sydney this time around, on 12th April.

Unfortunately with my current contract I don't think I can justify time off to go to it. This is an event about the cloud - hybrid, public, private. Some good speakers, solution center tour, and information targeted toward bloggers, and of course some freebies. They tend to do decent food and drinks too.

Generally it's expected that these events are live tweeted and they'd expect some level of blogging is done, even if after the event. They're not concerned about making you be positive or anything - you can express your opinions freely.

This is a 1 day event but they can probably pay for airfare and accomodation as necessary, and they're also flexible about allowing you to stay longer. It's worth noting that going to one tends to open you up to going to the next one, which is why this one's come up.

If interested please let me know by tomorrow morning so I can get back to them.

Matt

Building a Physical DPM 2010 Server

Nigel Wadsworth — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 04:04:38 GMT

Hi all,

I'm about to repurpose an ESXi server as a dedicated DPM 2010 server, and am after some possible configuration options.

Server Hardware

Dell PowerEdge R710

- Xeon blah blah

- 8Gb RAM

- 6 x 3.5" 1Tb Nearline (7200rpm) SAS drives

Dell PowerVault Direct Attached Unit

- SAS connected

- 4 x 3.5" 1Tb Nearline (7200rpm) SAS drives

- 6 x 3.5" 2Tb Nearline (7200rpm) SAS drives

Apart from Windows Server 2008R2 and DPM 2010 (of course) what configurations and sizes should I:

a) Create as logical volumes in the RAID controller? ; and

b) Create as discs in Windows?

I was thinking 1 x 2 drive mirror for OS/Apps, 1 RAID5 with 4 internal drives, 1 external RAID5 with 4 x 1Tb drives, 1 external RAID5 with 6 x 2Tb drives.

Options?

Thanks,

Nigel

Side Business / Contracting type work charge method

Nathan F — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 10:02:23 GMT

Gday All,

I, like many of the people in IT i know, do some form of outside work consulting/sysadmin type gigs to earn a bit of extra pocket money. Im a systems administrator/engineer by day, and often do some work for small companies after hours, or during hours if really required and my day job lets me have time off.

Not having ever worked for a IT as a Service type company, Im unsure/unaware how other company's typically charge for hiring out sysadmins to do contract work, or be available for support etc.

Do people charge a monthly retainer to be available in a crisis? what is reasonable?

If so, do you provide a minimum hours that you will perform that month as part of those costs?

Or do you do everything at a hourly rate, with a best effort service whereby you agree to help out if you can, and just charge a minimum for any call out?

I'm just interested to see how other people contract out, as I dont really have much in sight into it.

Appreciate any feedback!

Nathan "internat" Frankish

Group Moderation

Matt Marlor — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 22:16:34 GMT

So I just noticed that there was no easy way to approve posts in group discussion forums within the standard page. I need to tinker with this a bit, probably after I upgrade the site to the latest DNN.

For now, here's an easy link to the moderation for group forums (separate forums instance):

http://www.autechheads.com/social/group-discussions/afv/modtopics

Camtasia Licence

JodieM — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 23:45:27 GMT

Hi all, I just wanted to say how thankful I am for my Camtasia licence.
I've used it about 4 times now to produce videos for clients. It is
fantastic that I can store the videos in my Screencast account with
password protection (you can't do that with Jing - they are all public).

Now I just need to get better at editing the videos.

Matt, please pass on my thanks to Betsy.

Jodie Miners
jminers@gmail.com
http://www.jodiem.com.au
+61 408 560 840

Nomination for new member: Chris Brown

Hayden McManus — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 21:55:41 GMT

Hi Guys,

I have had various chats with most of you regarding Melbourne Meetups and generally getting the Melbourne people a bit more revved up, but to be honest, since Tech Ed I have been slammed both at work and in my personal life, which has resulted in a fair bit of 'meh as far as efforts on the AuTechHeads side of things.

That said, I have hung out with Chris Brown and also spent a lot of time with him via twitter and email on various topics. His enthusiasm for all things tech and his expertise in a few areas (Exchange and Powershell to name a couple) are great, and I think he'd make an excellent addtion to the Core Team.

Therefore, I nominate Chris Brown for membership to the AUTechHeads Core Team.

Do I have a second? Any dissenters?

Regards,

Hayden.

Animation work

Matt Marlor — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 08:24:03 GMT

Hey guys,

Just wondering if any of you might have a need for some animation work. Guy in Haiti desperately needs work, he's a pretty good guy, on the level and apparently very good at what he does. He was actually going to be evicted and has a young baby - I was able to help him out to a small extent.

It's only a temp fix though, and of course the best way is if he can get some paying work. Would love to help him more myself- I was tempted to do something for AuTechHeads- but of course I'm on a budget now till I get a job. Of course if people wanted to put in for it, that could be an idea.

I helped him out because someone I know vouched for him, so I'm prepared to do the same - he's been honest and upfront with me and it's clear that he's serious about finding work. I can't say I have seen his work myself, but I'm positive he can provide samples.

Realistically, this is an opportunity to get some inexpensive animation / graphics work done in exchange for helping someone out who needs it. Let me know if you have any interest and I can put you in touch. Naturally there's no obligations *at all* but I thought it's worth running past you.

Matt

Singapore 17/11 - 20/11

Matt Marlor — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 02:17:34 GMT

Hey guys,

I had an opportunity come up to fly to Singapore for a HP cloud event, which is on the 18th and 19th October. Travel and accomodation is on HP. This came up via the guys who organised the iPad 2 giveaway.

Naturally I plan to write about it as it's a blogger/press event. I *may* see if I can get someone to pay for an article or two given that I'm not employed, but needless to say that AuTechHeads will be the main beneficiary. Overall quite excited since it's my first trip abroad!

Cheers

Matt

Web and Desktop App - Suggestions Please

JodieM — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 07:01:59 GMT

A friend has an app that is in a very niche market and has done quite well. It is a windows desktop app, that has been built in VB with an Access Database. Currently the App has no online/web component, it is fully stand alone.

However, times have changed and people have much more access to 3g connections and internet wherever they are. Plus she has had a number of queries about a Mac version of her product.

So, the ideal scenario would be, from the same code-base to have:

* A standalone windows version

* A standalone mac version

* An app or web-based version that runs on the iPad and Android Tablets (with cloud storage and a subscription model)

However, I'm very very confused as to which technology to start looking at, and if we are just a bit too early to be thinking that this can be done with the same codebase.

Here are the options that I have looked at:

Visual Studio Lightswitch

Advantages:

* Can run on Windows and Mac Locally.

* Easy to develop, and an easy upgrade path from the current codebase.

* Can deploy to Azure for a cloud storage based app.

* Click once install for local install.

Disadvantages:

* Silverlight, therefore no iPad (even web based) or Android (yet) - appartenly android may be available in the future via moonlight.

HTML 5 App

I think we are just a little too early for this. Gmail or Kindle are the only HTML5 apps that I know that do offline, and persistent storage (for the desktop app). However, it seems that HTML 5 storage is only via name / value key pairs and Chrome is limited to 5MB. So it's not really feasible or ready for database storage offline. Have a look at http://grinninggecko.com/developing...ine-app-1/ and http://www.webdirections.org/blog/get-offline/.

Plus it seems that this would involve a complex hosting setup for the web apps (eg Amazon ec2 instances).

Adobe Air

Adobe Air is meant to be able to create a desktop app, plus an Android App, plus an iOS app from the same code base. See http://blogs.adobe.com/cantrell/arc...reens.html.

However, I can not find an example of one app that does anything like this, and most Air Apps, except for maybe Balsamic or Tweetdeck don't seem to have been updated in a while (and neither of them have much local storage in a database, and they certainly don't package up the app for the iPad). (Balsamiq does have a Web based app coming soon, but it does not seem to be a re-packaged version of their Air App - it is something entirely new).

Again hosting for the web apps seems to be daunting.

Javascript App Platforms

There seems to be many Javascript app platforms like http://www.cappuccino.org/, Phone Gap etc see http://gigaom.com/apple/iphone-deve...jective-c/, that promise to make nice easy iPhone and iPad apps. They all seem a little too good to be true.

So, I'm very confused. Where should I start? If we were going to start with the Windows and Mac stand alone versions right now, and not do iPhone or Android apps, then I would go straight to Lightswitch, but I don't want to lock us into a platform or development framework that leads nowhere, and we have to start again in 12 months time.

I like the idea of building a quality HTML 5 app from the ground up, but it seems that it's just not a good enough platform just yet to replace the existing standalone Windows app. I've never really liked Adobe products, so don't really trust them enough until I could see an Air App that was already doing what we want to do.

Any suggestions on where to start, and what path to go down?

SQL Server Replication/Logshipping/Something over the Wan

Nathan F — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 05:49:01 GMT

Gday All,

Im in a bit of a pickle. Ive been asked by a client that wants to setup some form of redundancy/replication between two of their sql servers. Both are COLO boxes hosted in different datacentres, and both are currently on Windows 2008 Server R2, with SQL Sever 2008 Workplace Edition.

Now my understanding is that SQL Server 2008 Workplace edition does not support database mirroring, which is unfortunate but not directly an issue.

The client has no major requirement about recovery point objective. Theyd be happy to have their data back an hour or so. Which means that log shipping is a viable option, and one id be happy with. Except for the fact that these boxes are in completely different data centres so therefor i only have connection over the wan.

My basic understanding about logshipping is that the logs get written to a network share (either locally or elsewhere) and are then played back every x period by the other server. Obviously presenting network shares to the wan is a bad BAD idea so i dont want to do that.

The only way i can think of to come arround that is to make a vpn tunnel between the servers and put the shares over the vpn, but im not sure if thats the best way to do things, as then i have to deal with the vpn falling over etc.

So im going to ask the masses, what would you do here?

Thanks!

Nathan Frankish

Change to some site permissions

Matt Marlor — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 09:10:29 GMT

Hi all,

As the site has grown in popularity, we've started to attract some spammy registrations. In a couple of instances they've posted things on the site. I pretty much expected this to happen eventually, so I have initiated moderation for the majority of the site. I held off on it for as long as I could, but it was inevitable that we'd need to take action sometime.

Basically, all this means is that we hold off on allowing new posters to automatically put stuff live until we're sure they're real people who are actually taking part in the group. At that point, we can remove moderation for that member, so they're trusted to post new articles/posts/etc.

We'll most likely refine this over time, and I know there's some plans to improve registrations down the line, on the part of the developers. We've also got Cloudflare helping to reduce bots and similar, but that can't do everything! In short, this is purely done to keep things spam free. We don't want to deter any real members from posting, but it's naturally better for all members if we can avoid having to remove things after the fact.

Comments are different since they use Disqus, which has some great spam capabilities.

Obviously from our perspective, the best way to avoid these restrictions is to get involved and post in the discussions forums, write blog posts, add events, add videos that members will like - you can embed Youtube and other videos in the site - and network with others. Then it becomes a non-issue.

And of course, always keen to hear feedback and suggestions.

We totally understand that some prefer to 'lurk' and just read what others contribute That's cool, but of course it's our goal to get people involved for the benefit of all!

Thanks,

Matt
Group Lead

TechEd and AuTechHeads Party photos / video

Matt Marlor — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 02:17:27 GMT

I posted a bunch of TechEd and AuTechHeads Party photos collected from various people and places (including Betsy from TechSmith), and shared them publicly on Google Plus.

https://plus.google.com/photos/115357009080182853879/albums/5647793159172116225

These are largely AuTechHeads oriented. Happy to add any more.

I also have a bunch of video from Tech.Ed - I posted one from the party already, including the hilarious StorageCraft demo (Paul was such a good sport ). We're moving away from hosting videos directly on the site as it never worked that well; I've setup an AuTechHeads Youtube channel instead at http://youtube.com/AuTechHeads, but all of it will still be added to AuTechHeads webcasts section via embed, and allow commenting.

I will upload the other video (some requires a bit of editing) when I get a chance.

Thanks to everyone I saw and met at Tech.Ed - had a great time this year!

Some quiet changes

Matt Marlor — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 12:19:41 GMT

The blogs were changed a while back to default to requiring approval for new members - I bump them up to be able to post without approval once it's clear they are legit.

I have now made some extra changes. Events are moderated so we can approve first. I will probably add a new role to allow us to move people to auto-allow.

Equally, Forums are moderated for first 5 posts - but we can set users to "Trusted" at any time.

Videos are again the same, and I'll probably do a role for this too. I have abandoned the video upload/conversion in favour of embedding Youtube. Frankly it's more efficient and gives us extra social medianess. We still get the benefit of having a local embed with comments, not that it's been used a lot

Core Team can still upload and convert, but this is really for the benefit of Coalface Tech. We now have an AuTechHeads YouTube channel - if I can figure out a way to manage this between us, I will, or if not, I might set it up as a shared account with a known password.

Finally, I reset all user profiles to default to Friends - so only people that friend one another can post to their journal.

These of course are to reduce spam capabilities on the site. Disqus does a great job with the comments side of things, and is so easy to manage with the mobile app. I'm hoping to reduce spam registrations too, but this addresses a few gaps upfront.

I also added a Nyan Cat game for fun

I'd love any ideas to increase engagement on the site, and maybe discoverability. We can't force people, of course, and it's always a thrill when we do get a new post from someone, but perhaps there's some ideas out there we can use.

I had an odd discussion a little while back with someone who was convinced that the blue of the site, amongst other things, made it "obviously" Microsoft focused. I don't totally buy that - I'll freely admit our posts and the podcast have tended to default to Microsoft, but even looking at the core team with Alison as a Red Hatter, Nigel as an Apple fan, and Peter as relative agnostic through being sales-oriented and using Mac at home... it's hard to swallow. Even without considering myself as a happy VMWare stroke Linux stroke Android stroke (etc, etc) user, or Mick in his dealing with many and varied techs at NBNCo, or Nick as a project manager, and so on, and so on.

I always believe we need more non-MS content, without a doubt, but I don't think the site speaks MS in itself. That said, the static content has been in place for some time, and the design hasn't dramatically changed for a while. Would be more than happy to hear ideas. Not keen on popups etc - those are a massive turnoff to me in visiting tech sites - but I'm sure there's some ways we could improve and evolve.

Not that we aren't doing well on traffic or memberships (and if you want access to the Analytics, just let me know)! But improving engagement, particularly contributions, would be a good goal for the next 12 months. I love doing my own, and reading your, blog posts, and this group really has a surprisingly large influence for its relatively short lifespan .. but more voices would be terrific, of course

OHAI FREEBIES!!!!

Matt Marlor — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 08:17:04 GMT

So Betsy from TechSmith has offered all of the core team licenses for Snagit and Camtasia!

All you need to do is ... let me know if you want Windows or Mac versions!

Please get back to me ASAP

If I don't hear from you in a day or two, I'll default you to Windows. Also let me know if, for some strange reason, you don't want a license

Now with Added IPv6, DNN6 coming soonish

Matt Marlor — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 08:32:11 GMT

It's funny not to be able to announce this just yet.

We got into a Cloudflare beta for "cool features" which came through today. The cool feature is that they can IPv6-ify any website protected by Cloudflare - even if the site only has IPv4 IPs like we do atm.

This is strictly on the qt for now, they'll be releasing the feature publicly around September 20.

Pretty awesome though. We got a CDN, reverse proxy cache, and comprehensive security service for free. I upgraded us from Free to Pro plan to take advantage of the app firewall and preloader, and the $1 per month SSL. The total cost? $22 per month, since I put SSL on www.autechheads.com and autechheads.com. No contracts, but for that price I'm happy to keep us going on it. Cheapest SSL around for starters!

The SSL protects us from user passwords being transmitted in the clear, although to work around some of the 3rd party scripts (Twitter being particularly notable) only the essential pages are SSL enabled for now. I managed to get rid of the SSL errors (eg. some parts of the page not being encrypted, etc) on the signup, login, profile, and inbox pages .. and that's a massive part of the security taken care of.

Meanwhile, the IPv6 feature will also be free for all Cloudflare users. It *may* be a little slower connecting via IPv6 at the moment, since they haven't rolled out to all data centres. I am actively discussing with them just in case.

There was a lot of rapidfire change in the leadup to Tech.Ed, especially when I hit some serious performance problem with the Timeline, but I've raised this with the developer and we should hopefully have a solution soon enough.

Also, I've successfully run up the test copy so I could test the upgrade to DNN 6. Generally the upgrade works well - however there is an issue with some scripts and with the Events module that I need to work out before it'll be good for primetime.

I've also raised suggestions to improve the antispam features for the website's signup process, per http://www.activemodules.com/activesocial/general/anti-spam-needed ... I'm having to clean up spam registrations regularly enough for it to be a concern.

Just want to keep you all in the loop. No action required, although I always welcome feedback and suggestions

Here come the new mob, same as the old ones

Matt Marlor — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 21:34:42 GMT

Feel free to ignore this guys. Just putting down my thoughts/feelings because I can't really talk publicly on it.

Another Department of Premier and Cabinet review.
Another shared corporate services initiative for whole of government.
Another bunch of idiot treasury bureaucrats who can't read the quarterly report about the arbitrarily mandated 15% budget grab
Another arbitrary job freeze for "back office" staff, oh, and we're taking one of your best staff for something which probably won't get off the ground
Another reversal of the whole of govt Microsoft licensing - no we won't, yes we will ...

There's so much I could say about it, and stories I could tell. 3 years of back and forth, agency and jobs threatened, by misguided bureaucrats who really don't care about delivering on promises. We've so far survived because our systems, policy, and practice are so good and we really deliver. But I don't think we'll survive this one. When the VR offers come around, I'll put my hand up.

I can't really say anthing publicly about it at present, so I'm just getting it off my chest here. It's definitely time for a change. I've thought about it several times before, as some of you know, but I'm worn out and it's been a factor in my health. The new IT agency/board is little more than a front for consolidation government wide. Sadly, this almost definitely entails a significant reduction in standards and service levels from the high standards I maintain.

Maybe I can get something doing what I love again... I lost the love for this job, sadly, when it became a political minefield. Perhaps someone out there might want a DPM evangelist, or a greenfields site wanting an IT manager to get it done right first time. Or community work. Maybe.

Inbox, Alerts and Confirm friends buttons not working

ShaunO — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 04:06:34 GMT

Hi,
As a very recently joined member, I have tried to clean up inbox messages and alerts, plus Confirm Friends. Unfortunately the function does not appear to be working correctly.

When attempting to delete an alert using the x, I get the confirm deletion window, say ok, and nothing else happens.
On the Confirm for a friends request, click the button and get not response at all from the system.

I have tried this on a number of different computers and tablets, on IE8, IE9, Firefox and Chrome with the same result.

As well, the internet security settings have been modified to wide open in case of a security block, to no avail.

Anyone got any ideas?

Thanks!
Shauno

Infrastructure SaturdayAfter Party/ AuTechHeads Meetup - Dec 3, 7 PM

Simone — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 09:32:36 GMT

Hi All,

I'm going to organise an AuTechHeads social on December 3. Few questions:

1. Who out there is coming up to Bris for Infrastructure Saturday?
2. If you're going or are in Brisbane are you keen for meetup drinks?
2. Do any of you want to be involved in organising the meetup/ MC'ing or whatever else needs doing?

Matt, for sponsors.. how do i go about getting that started?

Talk soon

Brisbane (or just west of) Junior/Intermediate DBA

Simone — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 23:49:50 GMT

Hi All,

We have a position that we're looking to fill asap for a Junior/Intermediate DBA. Working with SQL 200, 2005, 2008 & Progress. It's a large environment and woudl be perfect for someone looking to make the next move up in thier career.

Let me know if you're interested and i'll put you in touch.
(im not hiring, the position is in my team)

Tiwtter @kittenstix
Email - Simone_bennettt@hotmail.com

To avoid wasting my or anyone else's time ...

Matt Marlor — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 20:33:02 GMT

if anyone else wants out of the Core Team and/or site, please let me know here, or via email. And please do it now, while I'm already removing people at their request. Please at least do me the courtesy of not doing it in public.

#auteched #scavengerhunt #9

shiftkey — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 23:16:34 GMT

Mojitos - the new black

Someone enjoying a mojito at the pre-conference reception.

#auteched #scavengerhunt #8

shiftkey — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 23:04:57 GMT

Meet the Press

Get a photo with @longzheng.

Bonus point for suggesting a feature for MetroTwit that he hasn't already thought of.

#auteched #scavengerhunt #7

shiftkey — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 23:01:34 GMT

We were all newbies once

Photo with an #auteched newbie

1 Bonus point if they're on twitter.

#auteched #scavengerhunt #6

shiftkey — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 23:00:13 GMT

Everyone's a comedian

Photo of a "dad joke" in a session

Definition of "dad joke" open to debate.

#auteched #scavengerhunt #5

shiftkey — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 22:54:31 GMT

Because safety can be sexy

Photo of @NickHodgeMSFT in hi-vis gear.

Bonus point for driving #forklift

#auteched #scavengerhunt #4

shiftkey — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 22:52:19 GMT

Hug a 'Softie

A photo with your favourite @MSAU staffer.

#auteched #scavengerhunt #3

shiftkey — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 22:50:45 GMT

Forty Winks

A photo of someone asleep in a session.

Bonus point if they are an AuTechHeads member.

#auteched #scavengerhunt #2

shiftkey — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 22:49:17 GMT

Bust a Move

A photo of you with one of the exhibitors pulling a gangster sign.

1 bonus point for gangster-themed gear.

#auteched #scavengerhunt #1

shiftkey — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 22:46:51 GMT

A photo of your tweet on the big wall of tweets ("The Information Radiator" is another name I've heard mentioned) in the exhibitor hall.

Entries for AuTechHeads Pre-Party Competition - Win an iPad 2

Matt Marlor — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 07:54:20 GMT

AuTechHeads, in association with Vonage TimeToCall, is giving away an iPad 2! The winner will be selected at the AuTechHeads Party 2011 by Thycotic!

See the blog post here for details: http://www.autechheads.com/blogs/entryid/390/autechheads-pre-party-competition-win-an-ipad-2

Please post your best (maximum M rated) party jokes here!
You may enter multiple times, with your best joke being your final entry.

You must be an AuTechHeads member. Core Team members are not eligible to win. Competition closes 29th August 2011, 5:00pm AEST. Winner will be selected by popular vote at the AuTechHeads Party. Have you RSVP'd yet? http://www.autechheads.com/party-2011

Presented with thanks to Vonage Time to Call: http://www.callsfromsmartphone.com/

Comments Plus, other site updates

Matt Marlor — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 23:01:26 GMT

I am in the process of rolling out a new module, Comments Plus, throughout the site.

This module is free to us as SunBlogNuke customers, and integrates with Disqus with all the benefits that entails. It syncs comments with Disqus, which is good for SEO and also means that comments posted by members will still show in the timeline (one very good reason to roll it out in place of other comments modules, as only SunBlogNuke did this before). I'm particularly happy about Akismet integration as the comment spam has been on the rise.

I helped them quite a bit with getting this new module off the ground, so it's quite cool to see it working nicely. It's already applied to the Webcasts and Events sections. Coalface Tech doesn't have a Comments at this stage, although I'm considering creating a new page for this purpose for current and old episodes.

The Core Team, as always, holds moderation rights against comments. To allow this, though, I'll need your Disqus account name so I can add you. If you don't have one, it's free to sign up at http://disqus.com - you're not obligated to do moderation, but it's certainly helpful if you see something out of place.

As another note, I took the Core Team out of notifications for new events. You still get notifications via the webmaster group that includes all Core Team email acounts created as @autechheads.com, but this avoids double emails and allows you to keep it in the AuTechheads email acount.

AuTechHeads traffic and interest is certainly picking up as we head toward Tech.Ed, so I'm keen to keep this happening, and sustain it. To this end, I've been putting a lot of behind the scenes improvements in place - I don't think the site has ever performed this well consistently before, for one thing. I've also cured a number of bugs and made a few usability improvements. Hell, I even got the CSS working properly under Chrome. "Web standards compliant" my ass.

Hoping to upgrade to DotNetNuke 6 before Tech.Ed - just waiting on the move of our vm database, and higher access privileges to SQL so I can do test database, backup and restore, etc. Naturally Alan has had a lot on his plate with bubs and returning to work, but I'm sure we'll get there soon. I'll also be doing an update to user accounts before then, which will just improve security - just waiting on a module update for this as I'd encountered a bug.

I like hearing feedback from you - I know generally you seem to be happy with the site as a whole, and you tend to be happy to let me run with it, but so much of what we have has been as a result of feedback. The Core Team's weighting on feedback is of course quite huge, so please do give me any comments or suggestions you have!

Also, if anyone's interested in taking a stab at creating CSS stylesheets that'd make the site more mobile friendly, I would love you and hug you and call you George. Would be happy to work in with you!

Brisbane opportunities aplenty!

Alison Young — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 02:41:32 GMT

Some of you may know that around 11 months ago I moved from Sydney to Brisbane to join Red Hat as a technical writer. I wanted to drop a post in here to inform those who are in Brisbane and looking for something a little different.

Red Hat is currently hiring for quite a lot of positions, including jobs such as:
* technical support engineer
* information security analyst
* Java web penetration tester
* engineering program manager
* senior web developer
* technical writers (lots of technical writers!)
* quality engineers for documentation

If anything on there strikes your fancy and you'd like to apply or want more info I'm happy to pass along your resume and details. You can either contact me here or email me at alison dot redhat dot com

Another New Canberra Job Opp

Peter — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 00:10:14 GMT

ASI is looking for a new Network Systems Engineer based in our Bruce, ACT Office.

The info has already gone to seek (that was quick) as they are looking to fill the position quickly.

here is the link: http://www.seek.com.au/Job/network-systems-engineer/in/act-act/20373739

if you are looking for work, or a change of scenery, this may well be the step for you.

(And you get to work with me)

Par-tay 2011!

Hayden McManus — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 02:07:31 GMT

Hi Guys,

Have sent a few DMs on twitter between Steve and Matt, but have not heard too much other than "Steve is looking into it". Whats the happity-hap, peeps? Can I be of assistance?

Cheers,

Hayden

sharepoint 2010 with other web browsers

Gregtca — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 01:15:13 GMT

Hi , well i got sharepoint up and running , but i have a "mac user " with safari, which cant access the site , he has to log into windows 7 & use IE, now he does not like this at all - being a mac user ,& keeps telling me to ~!@#$%^&*()_+ fix microsoft cr_p , so does anyone know how to fix this issue please ?

Also it doesnt remeber username / passwords , we all have to log on in the mornings as well ??

Thanks

Greg

Greetings from new member Sheeds

WPDownUnder — Sun, 29 May 2011 22:27:43 GMT

Hi AuTechHeads,

Just thought I'd do the right thing and drop in a quick welcome note....

I am a new blogger (<2months) on my pet subject of WP7 and MS: www.sheeds.com.au and have been trying to find all the WP7 events scheduled in Austrlalia to put up a specific calendar on my bog. This is my first ever website, and I'm running it outside work hours in my own time (when my family let me) - and loving it.

I Look forward to having a look round the site, getting to know the locals and hopefully over time contributing something to the site. I really want to get out and about and attend some of the Aussie WP7 events over the next 12m or so.....

My Whirlpool userid (where I am pretty active) is Strider. I'm just starting to learn code (C#) as I hope to one day make my own apps for WP7. Pretty much complete noob here however!

Cheers,

Sheeds.

(PS any constructive criticism or feedback on my blog from fellow techheads - esp. those with a WP7 interest - is always welcome)

Computer clean up immenant

H0110wPeTaL — Tue, 17 May 2011 12:58:08 GMT

My 2tb - intel-i7 machine if really slow and needs re organization, and and good scrub, any geeks have any tips for things they do to get the full potential from their machines. any organization tips that you guys find makes stuff easier to find/index but doesn't take too much effort also appreciated.
good replies are rewarded with happiness!

Guided Walkthrough for Office 2010 Product Key Activation

Microsoftkb — Fri, 13 May 2011 23:55:43 GMT

The Guided Walkthrough for Office 2010 Product Key Activation Guided Walkthrough http://bit.ly/mJxiEm

MS Showcase Videos

Office 2010: How to Enter a Product Key – Upgrade Office Starter http://bit.ly/officestarter
Office 2010: How to Enter a Product Key – Upgrade Trial Suite http://bit.ly/trialsuite
Office 2010: How to Enter a Product Key- Upgrade from Office 2007 http://bit.ly/upgradefromoffice2007
Office 2010: How to Find the Product Key Sticker http://bit.ly/findthesticker

The Official Microsoft Knowledge Base YouTube Channel

Video: Intro to Office 2010 Product Key Activation Guided Walkthrough http://bit.ly/MSKB60GWT

Peter

Canberra Job Opp

Peter — Tue, 10 May 2011 23:56:13 GMT

A full-time role for a Desktop Support Officer is available in Canberra, ACT. The role would suit someone who has worked on a Service/Help Desk and would like to progress to Desktop Support or who has completed an IT course and has Customer Service experience.

Selection Criteria

Essential

Experience in &/or knowledge of hardware & software fault diagnosis, repair and installation.

Capable of lifting & relocating PCs, monitors & printers.

Excellent communication skills.

High Customer Focus.

Ability to manage & prioritise tasks.

Resident of Canberra.

Australian Citizen.

Highly motivated.

Desirable

Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) or equivalent experience.

Completion of a computer related course or certificate.

Knowledge of Lotus Notes.

Knowledge of a call management system.

this position will be advertised on seek if we get no interest. send me a message if you are interested or know of someone who is interested.
This is being advertised by ASI Solutions, Canberra.

Change to blog permissions

Matt Marlor — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 07:40:42 GMT

I've made a change to the ability for new users to contribute blog posts. These will now require approval until the user is added to the Authors role.

I have limited the change only to Blogs at this stage. Forums and other features have very low use at the moment (although hopefully this will change in time!)

This should not affect existing authors as a rule.

sharepoint server 2010

Gregtca — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 02:49:56 GMT

Ok , the boss came back from from a conference , wants to have "sharepoint 2010" running so we can all be informed and up to date with jobs etc.

1. we have 4 users, i have had a play with the software on server foundation 2008, it seems to run ok, looks alot like the SBS 2003 / 2008 web interface , but since i dont really want to install sbs 2008 - to big for us - remember only 4 users, i thinking of just installing BCM in outlook , but its not quite the right thing we need, so do any small companyies out there run some sort of sharepoint to manage things or have you got some thing else that we might use instead, should tell you all that i dont have much time to learn anything advanced - like sharepoint / exchange / sever 2008 r2 ,

Greg

I'm a geek - get me outta here improvement

Peter — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 06:55:03 GMT

is there a way we can add a radio button that says "closed" when opps for jobs have lapsed and closed?

Being heard on the world wide social network...

Dave_Beer — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 01:38:52 GMT

Social networking is the rage, and to me it's hard to know where to start when you want to be heard. From sites that share your favourite bookmarks, pics and videos, to those that allow you to share your thoughts and experiences - in great detail, or in 160 characters or less.

I very much aspire to become an expert in my field, and would like to be able to share my thoughts and start some discussions on the topics I care about. I like the ideas and the ways some of our Micrososft MVP s and evangelists portray themselves and share their knowledge, and aspire to follow their lead.

So I am trying to work out where I should go and which tools should I use. And how do I do it for free... Do I try my own website, or is a wordpress or other blogging site enough? I look at Seesmic and Ping.fm and see the multitude of feeds and sites they link in to - it's all too much.

So - here is what I am thinking, but I would love your comments on whether you think I am on the right track, and what other suggestions you might have. I want to maintain a fairly professional look, and my topic of interest is Enterprise Desktop Management - so all aspects of SOE deployment, desktop management, vritual desktop etc I have spent a great deal of time getting all my contacts together in one place, and I have linked up with as many of them as I could in Facebook and Linked-in. (That dreaded facebook thing is a recent undertaking).
SO, I am thiinking that I start with Wordpress, and probably will have a couple of blogs, my main professional one, and then another less frequently updated one that is for my non-professional related ramblings. I then aim to have these blogs auto update both my facebook and linked in profile, and an auto-tweet with a summary of my blog.

Probably a reasonable start, but then there are tags and keyword searches to think about, and what else can I do to be heard? Is it just a matter of joining communities like auTech.Heads and venting, and hope that my conversations are worth listening too?

AuTechHeads Weekly Digest

James Bannan — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 19:26:03 GMT

Hi all,

One of the ideas floated recently was that of a weekyl digest, to get what's happening at AuTechHeads out there to our members. Certainly I think that after TechEd 2010, the site became a bit "out of sight, out of mind".

I'm happy to put together a weekly digest. My thoughts were of something similar to TechNet Flash - a very brief editorial and then links/summaries of the previous week's content, plus maybe dates of upcoming events. I thought that it would be better to send this out on Mondays, summarising the previous week.

Any thoughts on this?

I just need a way to send the digest out, whether that's a specific mailing list or some sort of module thingie within the site itself.