Laura's Rants and Raves

The ID Element

Laura E. Hunter — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 17:57:30 +0000

http://channel9.msdn.com/identity/

Interviews and screencasts on all things Identity, most notably AD FS, “Geneva”, and FIM.

Brought to you by MSDN and run by the brilliant Donovan and Vittorio, go check it out!

The Second Rule of Directory Data Integrity

Laura E. Hunter — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 15:21:21 +0000

(The 1st rule being, of course, that we don’t talk about it.)

The only way to correct bad data? Is to advertise the existence of bad data.

Tech Ed 2009 Edge Interview

Laura E. Hunter — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 21:14:50 +0000

http://edge.technet.com/Media/Interview-with-Laura-E-Hunter-MVP-during-Tech-Ed-2009/

God help me, I’m famous again.

Thanks Harold!

More issues with v3 Certificate Templates

Laura E. Hunter — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 12:52:16 +0000

Unrelated to the AD FS issues that he helped me nail down, related to using a v3 Cert Template to generate your token-signing cert, Brad had an “I wonder if this is being caused by the same thing?” moment while trying to encrypt/decrypt data in an XML file.

Further evidence…that it’s always PKI.

Whale Wars is back…

Laura E. Hunter — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 15:35:27 +0000

Season 2 of the well-meaning but generally incompetent antics of the Sea Shepherds in Antarctica. I can’t fault these people the courage of their convictions in any way, but it makes for “screaming at the TV screen” levels of frustration to watch how badly they run their operation.

Paul Watson, the head of Sea Shepherds, remarks in the 1st episode of this season that he doesn’t want professionals on-board, that he would rather have passionate volunteers. Which is fine in principle, I guess, but I heartily disagree with the notion that the words “professional” and “passionate” cannot co-exist in the same person – try getting into an argument with me about Identity one day if you don’t believe me. :-)

Case in point for the Sea Shepherds – they find themselves in the middle of the Southern Ocean, incapable of competently launching a Zodiac into the water to chase after one of the Japanese whalers, ostensibly the entire reason they’re there. Now, they set sail from Brisbane Australia, which means 2 full weeks in the Tasman Straits and associated waters before they hit the icy-cold. In the military, one would call this a shakedown cruise, and it’s a good and necessary thing. For as long as you have safe enough waters to do it, wake the crew up at zero-dark-thirty every day: launch the Zodiac, retrieve it, do it over and over and over and over until everyone on-board can do it without thinking. Why am I the only person who sees the wisdom of this?

Geneva Beta 2 Resource Page

Laura E. Hunter — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 22:01:41 +0000

Downloads and webcasts and blogs, oh my!

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/dd796075.aspx

BING! thoughts

Laura E. Hunter — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 02:04:30 +0000

Opening splash page with pretty graphic? Can take it or leave it – if I’m just faffing around, I’ll mouse over the hot-link spots to see what they are, but if I’m doing a work-related search it doesn’t matter to me all that much.
Search results – seems on par with Google for efficacy. I do like the mouse-over fly-out snapshot of each page in the search result, if I can start remembering to use it, might prove a net time-saver.
Image searches – interface looks pretty at first glance, but the actual browsing experience is kinda clunky. Not really my primary use case for a search engine, so not a game-stopper. (For example, was trying to find a picture of the shoes that Sienna Miller is wearing in the GI Joe trailer, not exactly the end of my world that I couldn’t find a decent shot of them. :-))

Net result? I haven’t found any compelling “Oh my God I have got to go back to Google NOW!” issues. I haven’t found any extreme differentiator in favor of BING yet, either, but I’m willing to stay on-board and see how continued usage fares.

A sword day…a red day…and the sun rises.

Laura E. Hunter — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 00:02:03 +0000

Okay, perhaps not nearly so dramatic as the title might indicate, but a cool moment in Microsoft Active Directory dog-fooding nonetheless:

http://imav8n.wordpress.com/2009/06/09/congratulations/

Stanley Cup Game 6

Laura E. Hunter — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 23:58:30 +0000

Feels like we’ve been here before:

Go Detroit!

(Stupid Sidney Crosby.)

RODC Branch Office Guide Has Shipped!

Laura E. Hunter — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 23:09:26 +0000

The Read-Only Domain Controller (RODC) Branch Office Guide is now live on TechNet and the Download Center!
·         TechNet: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd734758(WS.10).aspx
·         Download Center: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=153714
The guide covers the major considerations around deploying RODC’s in Branch Office scenarios. Specifically, the topics include:
·         Branch Office Environment Characteristics
·         Deciding Which Type of Domain Controller Meets the Needs of a Branch Office Location
·         Updates to Windows Server 2003 Branch Office Guide Recommendations
·         Planning/Deploying/Administering RODCs in Branch Offices
·         Monitoring Your Branch Office Environment

Enjoy!