Ever seen the error below when trying to access an SMS Status Message via your SMS Reporting Point?

The fix for this is to grant the Reporting Point user "Read" access on the "Status Messages" class. This can be done via the "Security Rights" node in the SMS Administrator Console. 

Google Talk

Google Talk has released. I've been running it since last week and to be honest I'm not really sure what I think. It's a very simple UI, which in some respects is nice, but it's definately a beta product. In fact, I'd say this is by far the most beta of any Google beta thus far. I'm impressed at the call quality, but haven't had the opportunity to test it out with someone oversees. I'll post back my findings once I know more.

On the heels of MBSA 2.0....

Looks like the SMS 2003 Inventory Tool for Microsoft Updates RC has been released. This likely means that RTM will be out within a month or so.

MBSA 2.0 released

For those that don't know...MBSA 2.0 was officially released July 1st. Go to http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/tools/mbsa2/default.mspx for more info.

The Rising Threat from Bad Data

The Rising Threat from Bad Data

This is rather scary and likely going to become an even hotter topic with the growing information age.

Microsoft announces Windows Mobile Push Technology

Blackberry Cool � Microsoft announces Windows Mobile Push Technology

Finally, Microsoft will be offering some real competition for Blackberry. Having been investigating PDA/Phone/Mobile devices for the last month, I'm most impressed with the Blackberry. Though I would love the increased functionality of a PocketPC device. It looks like this will get us closer to having it all.

Some thoughts on Cingular customer service

As you may have noticed, I'm not a huge fan of Cingular. Here's an email that I received recently from my friend Billy Bambrey regarding his experience with them.

"Finally!!! I have made the switch to Verizon wireless and it has been terrific. Even more exciting was getting to call and cancel my service with the evil US cell phone empire of Cingular. I was very mixed about having to call and do this. On one hand I was exciting because I knew they were going to screw up and provide their standard customer service (atrocious) and I could rip somebody for it. On the other hand I really didn't want to have put up with them, get transferred to a retention and hear the blah, blah, blah, lie, lie, lie and so on. But what happens.... I received the absolute best customer service from Cingular ever!!! In fact I would say it was outstanding in general. I find this ironic considering I had already switched providers and was cancelling my service, which put Cingular to late in the game to save me as a customer (and they had several chances prior to this). Just something funny and interesting to share. It sounds like Cingular needs to reorganize some things."

Hackers, Spammers Partner Up To Wreak Havoc > June 2, 2005

Hackers, Spammers Partner Up To Wreak Havoc > June 2, 2005

This is certainly disheartening to say the least. I can only hope that our legal system begins imposing stiffer penalties on this type of activity.

PDA Cell Phones...

So myself and my good friend Billy Bambrey have both spent numerous hours over the last week trying to find the best PDA/cell phone available. What we've found is that you can't have the best of both worlds. If it's a great PDA, it's usually a weak phone and vice versa. Add to this varying degrees of customer service (or lack thereof) from the service providers and it makes for some tough decisions.

Bambrey made the decision this weekend to switch from Cingular to Verizon after what I can only describe as a huge display of some of the worst customer service I've seen from any company. From what we can both tell, Verizon actually has an understanding of customer service unlike Cingular. Bambrey chose the Treo 650, but we'll see how long he ends up keeping it. 3 days in and 4 reboots later, he's far from satisfied. At this point, he's considering the Blackberry. Having said that, we're both waiting for the Samsung I-730 sometime this summer with hopes that it will have all the features each of us are looking for and a good phone too. Is that too much to ask for?

Gartner Weighs In on Linux's Desktop Prospects

Gartner Weighs In on Linux's Desktop Prospects

Interesting article on Microsoft vs. Linux on corporate desktops. The Gartner analsyst makes some very good points that any IT department should consider before making a push to Linux.

SMS reporting import error

I just finished importing around 75 custom reports from my old SMS 2003 site to my new SMS 2003 SP1 site. As I'm checking through the reports I noticed that one of the reports generates this error:

Microsoft VBScript runtime error '800a0005'
Invalid procedure call or argument

/SMSReporting_NIC/Report.asp, line 689

Puzzled, I googled the error to quickly see if I got any hits. Next, I tried the report in my dev SMS environment. Oddly the report worked fine there. At that point I'm thinking that I've got something bad on my reporting point or with the SQL DB. Just for fun, I decided to verify that the views that my SQL report referenced did exist. As expected, they were there. Still scratching my head, I decided to begin removing items out of my SQL statement to see if through process of elimination, the report could be fixed. After getting down to a bare "SELECT DISTINCT SYS.Netbios_Name0 FROM v_R_System SYS", the report still generated the same error. Realizing how strange this was, I decided to create a whole new report and copy the same SQL statement into it. Guess what? That actually worked. I'm still not sure exactly what happened, but it appears that the export of the report from my old SMS site to my new SMS site contained corrupt data somewhere. I do know that the corruption wasn't in the SQL, as I'm now using the original SQL statement in an entirely new report without any issues at all.

Lesson learned...In the future, I'll be sure to copy the SQL to a new report first when troubleshooting imported reports.

Microsoft Anti-Virus?

Microsoft Anti-Virus? | The Register

Interesting article on Microsoft's endeavor in to A/V.

Yep...I've got a case of the Mondays.

Looks like today is going to be rather long. On the bright side I re-imaged my Notebook yesterday, so it's a fresh, clean start. Now I just need to clean out all of the junk in My Documents...fun stuff.

I've been doing more research into Windows Mobile Smart Phones and to be honest I'm not all that impressed. Unfortunately, I'm stuck with Cingular until the middle of next year and the only viable option they have is the Siemens SX66. It looks like a great phone/PDA, but the lack of an upgraded path to Windows Mobile 5 certainly lessons the appeal.

OK, back to work. I've got a new SMS secondary to bring up to day.

XBOX 360 unveiled tonight on MTV

If you haven't already heard, Microsoft is officially unveiling the new XBOX 360 tonight on MTV. Rumors have been circulating that there will be two versions released this year, one with a hard drive and one without. It is also rumored another more MediaPC-like version will be released late next year.

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/news/2005/0411-mtv.htm

Systems Management Server 2003 Inventory Tool for Microsoft Updates (Beta)

If you're interested in getting involved with the Microsoft Update beta for SMS 2003, the link below will get you started. For those who don't know, this tool will replace the Software Update Scanning Tools for SMS 2003 and will utilize the scanning technologies used in WSUS. Finally, all the MS tools will be working from the same catalog.

Systems Management Server: Systems Management Server 2003 Inventory Tool for Microsoft Updates (Beta)

Global is good

Very interesting article on Dell Computer Corp. It's no wonder they have been so successful.

Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | Global is good

MS SMS 2003 Webcast: Apply SMS Updates to An Advanced Client

Great webcast from Wally Mead. If you are going to be installing the Dell Update Tool or the upcoming Microsoft Update Tool I'd recommend watching this webcast. Wally goes through the entire install process of KB886658 which is required for the Dell and upcoming MS Update tool. Furthermore he goes over what takes place during a site reset, outlining the log files and services to monitor.

View the Webcast here.

This is my first blog ever...

So exactly what will kgportal.blogspot.com be......

Hmmm, for now it's going to be a repository for everyday life events (mine, not yours). This includes work (SMS, Windows Server Technologies, Enterprise Security) and play.