Tech∙Ed Europe 2009: Don’t get mad, get drunk

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According to my schedule, Tech∙Ed Berlin today offered a lot of interesting and deep diving sessions. Paul Cooke was in my 9 AM session slot, Joachim Nässlanders demo was on my shortlist and John Craddock featured with two consecutive sessions on DirectAccess on my schedule. Also, our own Dutch Country Drinks were scheduled for today.

 

Tech∙Ed Technical, Day 4

The interactive session on BitLocker in the Enterprise was good fun. I somehow hauled myself out of bed and snuck in around 9:15 AM in Paul Cooke’s session. You might expect me to not get anything, because I probably had so much to drink I’d still be drunk by 9AM. But actually, I discussed security around BitLocker Group ID restrictions in Group Policy with Paul. After the session Raymond Comvalius and me discussed the topic at length with Paul. This resulted in missing the start of the second session slot, but according to my schedule that wasn’t a major problem anyway.

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During lunch Joachim did his demo on Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 and free live migration. His demo was flawless. Good fun, because in under thirty minutes, Joachim bundled two Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 boxes, a Domain Controller, an iSCSI target and a VHD stored on a disk, into a fully functional Live Migration platform. Also Joachim gave us some ideas what to do with the amount of money saved when not spending it on VMware licenses.

After his demo, Joachim and I grabbed lunch and some fresh air.

John Craddocks sessions were nice and deep. The various ways tunneling and encryption work together within DirectAccess was very enlightening and cleared up some of the clouds in my mind surrounding this topic. I now have a clear understanding of what (Active Directory) boxes and configuration steps are needed.

Country Drinks, part 2

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I must admit I can’t really remember everything about our own Dutch Country Drinks. I found a photograph of Matthijs Kerssemakers, Marien and me in one of my pockets. I can remember that part of the evening. Also, I remember Peter Beense, having beers with the Swedes, telling off some drug dealer and the place running out of Heineken.

I had to ask Marien how we got to the hotel from Dante, though He actually remembered quite well. We, apparently, took a cab to the hotel. The cab driver wasn’t too sure whether he’d have to get the cab to the cleaner afterwards. , apparently, I had some trouble getting my shoes off and keep my balance at the same time, which resulted in Marien needing to help me get to bed.

This is why I’m always glad one of our company policies is to share hotel rooms. The policy is in place, of course, to save costs. But I always remember the part where I get really drunk and actually reaching a bed with some help. Next time your boss tells you to share a room, don’t get mad. Get drunk. 😉

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