Microsoft Learning will always recommend taking training from a Microsoft Certified Trainer. Why? Well because we know they know their stuff . We require MCTs to be trained and certified on the topics that they train you on. In fact, most MCTs by far exceed those requirements.
Let s have a competition, GUESS:
1. How many exams, on average, have our MCTs taken throughout their careers?
2. How many of our 15.000 MCTs have taken more than 50 Microsoft Certification exams?
Take a guess and perhaps you will win a Microsoft Learning branded watch. I ll send it to the one that sends in the best estimate. Send in your response by Thursday April 2nd by commenting on this post, I ll announce the winner and the actual numbers on April 3rd.
You ll be amazed by the numbers!
Posted by Tjeerd Veninga
Comments
Saturday, March 28, 2009 1:55 AM by Shivam Guness
Hi;
I would ay that on avaerage an MCT would have done about 25 certifications in their career. And that about 75% of MCTs have done mere then 50 certification exams(including upgrade exams)
am I close??
Regards
Shivam
Saturday, March 28, 2009 7:36 AM by Zee
I think only 1 MCT have taken more than 50 exams.
Best Regards
Zee
Saturday, March 28, 2009 7:53 AM by SACHIN BP SHETTY
Hi Team,
I can confidently say 85 % of MCT will have completed more than 50 exams.
Sachin BP Shetty
MCTS and MCP ID : 6668395
Saturday, March 28, 2009 12:42 PM by Jim Goodwin
I will go with 55 exams and 60 percent doing more than 50
Saturday, March 28, 2009 1:23 PM by Shajahan
1. ave. exam count would be 30-35
2. lessthan 1000 mct would have 50+ exams
mcp id:2038994
Saturday, March 28, 2009 1:34 PM by Edward Laverick
Average Exam count: 25 exams
>50 Exams: 700
Saturday, March 28, 2009 2:01 PM by Feras Mustafa
Just wanted to mention that a lot of MCTs did the fast track upgrades(2000,2003,2008) and some others are Early Achievers for those tracks!!
I would say MCTs already did at least 30 exams.
Saturday, March 28, 2009 2:53 PM by Thiago Cavalcante
answer 1: 16484
answer 2: 1856.
that s all.
:)
Saturday, March 28, 2009 3:03 PM by Glebe Júnior
Hi,
Answer 1. 12 exams
Answer 2. 800
Saturday, March 28, 2009 3:03 PM by Fernando Peralta
Answer 1 : 44
Answer 2 : 12500
Saturday, March 28, 2009 3:13 PM by Raphael
Answer 1: 20
Answer 2: 1250
mcpid: 3043555
Saturday, March 28, 2009 3:18 PM by Agnaldo Diogo dos Santos
answer 1: 15
answer 2: 200
mcpid 2303151
Saturday, March 28, 2009 3:31 PM by Tibi
Hi Tjeerd,
Here are my guesses
Answer 1: 11,5
Answer 2: 80
Best regards,
Tibi
P.S. No need for more
Saturday, March 28, 2009 3:53 PM by Marcell Borges
1 - 22 exams
2 - 42 MCTs
MCP ID: 3307048
Saturday, March 28, 2009 4:17 PM by Jackson
1 - 14 exams
MCP ID: 6030056
Saturday, March 28, 2009 4:29 PM by Breiner Queiroz
2 - 80 MCTs
Breiner Queiroz
MCP ID 2749639
Saturday, March 28, 2009 6:00 PM by ecmansur
=> 23
=> 75
Saturday, March 28, 2009 6:05 PM by Fabio dos Santos Oliveira
Answer of question 1:
In my opinion was more or less about 37 tests.
Answer the 2 questions:
In my opnião on average about 2900
Microsoft in the vein.
MCT Brazil
Saturday, March 28, 2009 6:15 PM by Daniel Donda
10 exams
30%
MCP ID 2180858
Saturday, March 28, 2009 6:17 PM by Dalton Gerth
=> 20
Zee says :
"I think only 1 MCT have taken more than 50 exams."
Well..., I have 88 Exams.
Transcript ID : 655986
Access code : Swordfish
daltongerth2001@hotmail.com
Saturday, March 28, 2009 6:18 PM by Dalton Gerth
Saturday, March 28, 2009 6:28 PM by Jorge Barata
1 - 21 exams
2 - 74 MCTs
Jorge Barata
Saturday, March 28, 2009 9:16 PM by Egan Hadsell
18
256
Saturday, March 28, 2009 9:58 PM by Ciro Machado
15 exams
20%
MCPID 2909878
Saturday, March 28, 2009 11:15 PM by Thiago Pereira
Question:
Answer : 18 Exams
2. 2. How many of our 15.000 MCTs have taken more than 50 Microsoft Certification exams?
Answer : 13% of the MCTs
Sunday, March 29, 2009 7:25 PM by Nicola Parodi
avg: 30
Less then 20%
Sunday, March 29, 2009 7:56 PM by Geyson Magalhaes
avg: 37
86%
Sunday, March 29, 2009 9:13 PM by Lucas Souza
1 - 25 exams
2 - 85 MCTs
Lucas Souza
Sunday, March 29, 2009 9:21 PM by Landry
23 exams
10%
Sunday, March 29, 2009 11:04 PM by Paulo Furtado
12 exams
7%
MCPID 3610891
Monday, March 30, 2009 12:38 AM by matifhussain
Answer: 10
Answers: 500
MCP ID: 2789979
Email: matifhussain@hotmail.com
Monday, March 30, 2009 1:11 AM by Miklos C
I think:
1. 30
2. Around 5000
Monday, March 30, 2009 1:20 AM by Osvaldo Braga Neto
Answer : 23 Exams
Answer : 78% of the MCTs
I’ve had some comments to the previous “parts” of this blog post that required answers longer than a comment should be (although I’ve broken that rule more than once). Will this be the last blog post of this series? Hard to tell… Depends on what other questions I get and what I’ve forgotten to tell you.
Industry Standards for Exam Development: Microsoft develops all MCP exams according to the standards described in the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing. This is the industry recognized source for exam development and was co-written by a number of well recognized associations, including the American Psychological Association. I think a more descriptive resource for developing personnel selection tests (and certification exams that are developed for use by hiring managers are selection tests) was written by the Society of Industrial/Organizational psychologists--Principles for the Validation and Use of Personnel Selection Procedures. But I’m an I/O psychologist by education so I might be a little biased.
Industry Standards for Psychometrics:The standards that define a good, bad, and questionable item depend on the purpose of the exam, which is why it’s difficult to find specific guidance online (psychometric consulting companies will provide this guidance for a fee, of course, and as a result, are the most likely results when you do an online search for “psychometric standards”). In high stakes testing programs designed to screen out the majority of candidates (or applicants), the guidelines defining good, bad, and questionable items will be different, usually more stringent, than for classroom exams. In the former, these programs may choose to keep items that <10% of candidates answer correctly where most other programs would remove those items because they are too difficult. In academic programs, professors may choose to keep items that >90% of students answer correctly, assuming (perhaps incorrectly) that this means that the content is well covered during the course rather than the item being easily guessed because it’s poorly written.
So, what’s a good item at Microsoft? Good items are those that 25%-90% of candidates answer correctly. Items that fall outside that range are reviewed by SMEs and retained if they cover new functionality that candidates will become familiar with over time (in the case of overly difficult items) or if they are needed for face validity (items that are needed because their exclusion would lead to questions about the quality of the exam although nearly everyone answers them correctly) AND they discriminate between high and low performers. In today’s world of political correctness, “discriminate” is a bad word; in the world of psychometrics, it’s a very good thing.
So, good items also discriminate between high and low performers. This is determined by a statistic called the point biserial correlation. This is the correlation between how candidates perform on that item in relation to how they perform on the overall exam. This correlation should be moderate or strong, and it must be positive (>.20; remember that correlations range from –1 to +1), meaning that candidates who answer the question correctly are doing well on the exam and those that answer it incorrectly are doing poorly on the exam. Negative correlations are bad—basically, negative correlations mean that someone who answers the question correctly is doing poorly on the exam and someone who’s answering it incorrectly is doing well. For some reason, the item is rewarding poor performers and penalizing high performers. Even if SMEs tell me it’s a great question, I cannot keep items that perform like this on the exam…it’s clearly unfair to high performers to have items that are essentially penalizing them on the exam.
Occasionally, additional digging into the option analysis for items with negative correlations suggests a “psychometric miskey.” This means that an option that was not keyed as the correct answer (known as a distractor) is performing as if it should be the correct answer (a high proportion of candidates is selecting it; it’s discriminating between high and low performers better than the keyed correct answer). In these cases, we ask SMEs to verify the correct answer, and change it if the SMEs tell us that we had it keyed incorrectly. This doesn’t happen very often (less than once per exam), beta candidates are not scored on those items, and it is corrected before the exam is published.
This is just the tip of the iceberg, but I’m starting to get into the minutia of statistics. For those of you who stuck with this post this far—you probably know more than you ever wanted to about item selection, but please let me know if you have questions...I’m happy to answer them or extend this series into another post. Thanks for hanging in there!
Posted by libertymunson
We’re happy to announce that Microsoft .NET and SAP (Microsoft Press, 2009; ISBN: 9780735625686; 480 pages), authored by Juergen Daiberl, Steve Fox, Scott Adams, and Thomas Reimer, is available now. This book shows .NET developers how to use familiar skills and tools to connect with and customize SAP applications.
Let’s begin with book’s Foreword, by Microsoft’s Neil Leslie:
Foreword
Like many of you, my experiences working in and around software for the last 19 years have left me with many lasting impressions. One of those, as the senior engineering leader in Microsoft’s Internal IT organization, brought me insight and inspired passion for the power businesses can derive from a well-managed approach to Microsoft and SAP technology in the enterprise.
As you undoubtedly know, Microsoft and SAP have a long-standing partnership, reaching back to an agreement between the companies in 1994 to support SAP applications running on Microsoft’s SQL Server and Windows Server platforms. Since then, Microsoft has become a significant platform for SAP installations, with the majority of all new SAP Business Suite systems today running on Microsoft Windows Server.
Beyond the partnership at the operating system and database layer, Microsoft and SAP also offer a deep integration on the application level. This integration is demonstrated by the joint commitment to Web Services for interoperability between both application stacks, as well as with the first joint product named Duet, which bridges Microsoft Office and the SAP Business Suite.
Although these days I spend my time evangelizing about Microsoft technology to the external world, my time in IT made real for me the importance of bringing both Microsoft and SAP stacks together to get the best out of both worlds and enable business to be more efficient.
It is in that vein I highly recommend this book. It covers application-level interoperability topics in depth, spanning topics such as:
Developers and architects who work in a Microsoft-SAP environment and who are looking for best practices and guidance about how to bring both application stacks together in a productive way should consider this a must-read.
Neil Leslie Microsoft General Manager Platform Evangelism
The book’s Introduction describes its goals and intended audiences:
Introduction
During the time we spent in the Microsoft–SAP area as Technical Evangelists for Microsoft and as specialists in the field, we recognized that a lot of people have the same questions:
We tried to answer some of the questions by publishing white papers at http://www.microsoft.com/sap, but we also recognized that no book was available that described some basic scenarios in detail so that a developer could use such a book as a starting point for this complex topic. Therefore, the scenarios covered in this book try to answer the most frequently asked questions we’ve heard. As you can imagine, though, the possible integration scenarios between Microsoft and SAP far exceed the number of scenarios described here.
Another topic that is not discussed in this book is the use of the Microsoft platform (Microsoft Windows Server and Microsoft SQL Server) for SAP. Our colleague Josef Stelzel wrote a book about SAP on Windows (which you can see details about at http://www.sappress.com/product.cfmaccount=&product=H2902). For SAP on SQL Server, you can find good resources at http://www.microsoft.com/isv/sap/technology/platform/sql.aspx.
Who This Book Is For
This book is written for developers who want to integrate SAP applications such as mySAP Business Suite or the SAP NetWeaver Portal into a Microsoft-based solution like Microsoft Office, Microsoft Office SharePoint Server, or a Microsoft .NET–based solution. The samples you will find in the various chapters should give you a starting point for your own solutions, and they explain the integration between Microsoft and SAP in detail.
What This Book Is About
This book starts by giving you a short overview of the history between Microsoft and SAP and then follows with an overview of SAP and Microsoft. The discussion then moves into integration scenarios, and the samples provided will enable you to start developing your own solutions. Following is an overview of chapter content.
Chapter 1, “SAP: Company Overview, Development Tools, and Microsoft .NET Interoperability” Here you’ll find an overview of SAP, the product offering from SAP, and the development tools available for the SAP environment. We also give a brief overview of the historical relationship between both companies.
Chapter 2, “Microsoft .NET Development Environment and Tools” The chapter introduces the development environments offered by Microsoft that are used for the scenarios described in the book. You will find an overview of Microsoft Visual Studio, Microsoft Visual Studio Tools for Office, and the Microsoft BizTalk Server.
Chapter 3, “Connectivity Between Microsoft .NET and SAP” This chapter covers basic integration scenarios between Microsoft and SAP, such as the SAP Connector for Microsoft .NET, Web service integration, the .NET Data Provider for NetWeaver BI, or the integration between Microsoft .NET and SAP Enterprise Services by using the Enterprise Service Explorer from SAP. Most of the scenarios described in the later chapters are based on one of these integration techniques, and further integration scenarios are based on the topics described here.
Chapter 4, “Microsoft Business Intelligence” In this chapter, you will find different integration scenarios and technologies that can be used to implement a Microsoft BI solution for SAP.
Chapter 5, “Microsoft Office SharePoint Server: UI Integration” The integration of the SAP UI into SharePoint Server is covered in this chapter. You will find information and samples of how to display an iView from the SAP NetWeaver Portal in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server Portal, as well as information about WSRP (Web Service for Remote Portlets), a standard that allows you to display iViews in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server Portal. The chapter also describes how to display BSP (Business Server Page) applications and Web Dynpro applications in the Microsoft Office SharePoint Server Portal.
Chapter 6, “SharePoint Business Data Catalog and SAP” With Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, the Business Data Catalog was introduced. This chapter describes the use of the Business Data Catalog with SAP for displaying and searching SAP content.
Chapter 7, “Office Business Applications” Duet, the first joint product from Microsoft and SAP, was introduced in 2005 and is likely the most well-known Office Business Application. This chapter provides an overview of Duet as well as samples of how to develop your own Office business applications.
Chapter 8, “Custom Development” In this chapter, we covered some typical integration scenarios, such as the use of Microsoft InfoPath, the portal Development Kit for Microsoft .NET, and the integration of Microsoft Office Communication Server into the SAP NetWeaver portal.
Chapter 9, “Identity and Security Management” The chapter gives you an overview of Identity Management in a Microsoft/SAP landscape and introduces various ways of achieving a single sign-on solution between Microsoft and SAP.
And meet the book’s authors:
Juergen Daiberl is a Senior Technical Evangelist on the Developer and Platform Evangelism Team in Redmond, Washington. He has more than 10 years of industry experience and has worked for Microsoft since 2005. Prior to his role in Redmond, he worked at the Collaboration Technical Support Center (CTSC) in Walldorf, Germany, which is a joint-staffed team between Microsoft and SAP. In his current role, he is responsible for the interoperability between Microsoft .NET and SAP NetWeaver on the application level. Before joining Microsoft, Juergen worked as a Senior Consultant and Architect in the EAI Space for Softlab (a BMW Group Company) and for Compaq Professional Service.
Steve Fox
Steve has worked in the IT industry for almost 15 years, 10 of which has been spent with Microsoft and with technologies such as search, natural language, developer tools, and Microsoft Office and SharePoint development. When not working, Steve plays hockey, writes and reads, and watches movies.
Scott Adams
Scott Adams is a Business Intelligence and Performance Management Specialist at Microsoft. Scott helps enterprise customers and partners adopt Microsoft Business Intelligence and Performance Management solutions and is recognized as an expert in delivering solutions on SAP. Prior to working at Microsoft, Scott spent five years at Business Objects (an SAP company) in various senior engineering management roles. Scott has more than 15 years of experience in developing and deploying Business Intelligence solutions.
Thomas Reimer
Thomas Reimer works at Microsoft as a Regional Business Development Manager in the EMEA SAP alliance team. Thomas joined Microsoft as an enterprise technology strategist in January 2007, focusing on service-oriented architecture, business process management, and SAP interoperability. Prior to joining Microsoft, Thomas held a management position at Resco (Acando Group), a European systems integrator, where he was responsible for a consulting unit focusing on Microsoft and SAP technologies. Thomas is based in Munich, Germany, and holds a Master of Business Administration degree.
We’re pretty sure you won’t find another book like this that’s not written in German. Use it and interoperate!
Here’s to Darren Neimke, of gorgeous Adelaide (where my brother and I were paraded in suits in front of distant relatives once upon a time), who was generous enough to post a positive comment on Twitter about the book and then to respond to our idea of reviewing the book more fully. Thank you, Darren!
Darren here. I recently finished reading the latest Microsoft Press book for managing the development process titled Solid Code. Reading this book was a very enjoyable and thought-provoking journey, which covered the major aspects of what I believe it takes to produce quality software.
A Manual for the Lead Developer
A few years ago I had a dream of writing a book which was targeted at the Lead Developer (or developers who aspired to that role). The intent of such a book was to provide a thorough manual of what it takes to produce quality software. As anyone who has done this role before will know, it takes much more than just writing optimal code – although that is certainly a part of it! And anyway, the manual for writing optimal code was produced a long time ago… it is called Code Complete.
Producing quality software requires a broader understanding; it’s about understanding what makes up quality processes, team development, stakeholder engagement, leadership, good management, and of course code quality. And at the environmental level, it’s about balancing the effect that each of these have on the development process. It requires a broader view. I believe that Solid Code is the type of book that I had envisaged for this purpose.
Creative Dreaming
The book itself is well organized and walks us through the design –> code –> test –> improve mindset that exists in the modern world of development. The mindset of the book is continuous improvement and looks at the typical development tasks through broader topics such as Performance, Scalability, Security, and Process Improvement.
This book is extremely pragmatic and approaches its topic from a cultural angle that is needed to have a true impact on the mental models and assumptions of those who wish to drive the engineering process and to develop better teams around them. For example, it takes the time to explain in good detail the effect of memory management on performance and scalability and gives the reader a clear understanding of how to implement best practice solutions with this in mind.
Solid Code is modern and gives attention to important topics such as automation and build processes. It also gives credence to the fact that programming is as much a creative exercise as it is analytical and provides the reader with the creative space to explore the role of modeling and prototyping in the design phase, topics that will surely come under greater scrutiny as the trend towards greater design and analysis time for software increases. During this section of the book I found my mind opening to the real possibilities for things such as combining Oslo modeling tools, Sketch View prototyping tools, and Visual Studio’s code design tooling. One of many creative dreaming excursions that I wandered into during my reading of the book!
Through all of this, Solid Code speaks to the soul of the developer, right down to providing an abundance of great quotes that link abstract topics to real world feelings and emotions…a la Code Complete!
Conclusion
If you are a software developer and you believe in continuous improvement, then there is a great deal for you in this book. It’s one of those manuals that I believe you will pick up many times as you strive to find ways to improve various aspects of what you do.
As Krista mentioned in her original blog post, we wanted to focus our blogs on your questions. We promised to take what we can out of the magician’s hat and tell you how exam development works at Microsoft (some restrictions apply, of course).
Well, the first question to her post asked how we determine which items will appear on the live exam. In my opinion, this is the best part of the exam development process. We call this phase ‘item selection,’ and it occurs after beta and prior to standard setting (the process used to set the cut score—more on this in a future blog).
Why do I love this phase of exam development so much? First and foremost, our decisions to keep (could appear on the live exam) or kill (will not appear on the live exam) an item are based on how items perform statistically during beta, and I love statistics. What’s not too love? The numbers obtained from the statistical analysis are what they are, and we have very specific guidelines that tell us what makes an item psychometrically good, bad, or questionable. These guidelines are not something that we thought up on our own in our cubicles or are unique to Microsoft; rather they are based on industry standards and best practices.
It’s amazing what we can tell about the quality of the item simply by looking at the percent of respondents who answered it correctly (p-value), how well candidate performance on a particular item relates to his/her overall performance on the exam (point biserial correlation), and some other, more sophisticated statistics based on item response theory (Rasch for those of you who care but this is way too complicated to explain in a blog).
Second, we review every beta comment to evaluate the technical accuracy of the items. But, this blog is starting to run long, so more on this later…
As I mentioned, I love this stuff, and it’s really hard to turn off the spigot once I get started. What I’ve shared here is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to item selection. Because I can feel myself getting long winded, I’m stopping for now. I don’t know how many posts I’ll make on this topic, but I guarantee all of them will be interesting (at least to weirdoes who appreciate the wonder of numbers like me). So, stay tuned.
Sunday, March 15, 2009 4:47 AM by Orin
Is there anything you could link to on the net to the industry standard guidelines about what makes items good/bad/questionable psychometrically?
Sunday, March 15, 2009 12:06 PM by Matt Barney
I was pleased to find another Rasch Measurement fan. There are a bunch of us on the Rasch Measurement forum on LinkedIn, and I d be happy to include you if you d like
Matt
Sunday, March 15, 2009 4:46 PM by Wayne Anderson
Mmmmmm. Rasch.
Sounds like a country dish with pork and corn!
(Kidding.)
More seriously, I would love to see some more of these kinds of behind-the-scenes kinds of blog posts, including from other functions within the department as well.
I think folks understanding how much thought and work goes into an exam as a whole and the process from start to finish can only be a good thing.
Even the support side of things.
Process. Volumes. Good stuff :)
Monday, March 16, 2009 12:02 PM by libertymunson
Hi Orin--I will see if I can find something online that includes the industry best practices around the psychometrics of good, bad, and questionable items. It s probably out there somewhere, but it s something that I learned in graduate school, not online, so it may take some time to find it. If not, I ll provide more details in a future blog.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009 12:42 PM by libertymunson
I ve always thought Rasch was more of a beef and potatoes kind of dish. :)
I was waiting to respond to the Rasch comments to see if anyone else came out of the wood work. I m glad there s at least one other numbers geek checking out this blog besides me. I don t know anything about this online social networking thing, but I m curious about the LinkedIn site dedicated to Rasch. How do I get signed up?
Microsoft Press recently released a book on Mac Office 2008. The book is Microsoft® Office 2008 for Mac Step by Step. Part of the popular Step by Step series and based on the Home and Student Edition, this book covers
Author, Joan Preppernau, also includes coverage of features new to 2008, such as
It’s been a couple of years since we had a book on Mac Office, so we’re very excited about this release and also want to hear what you think! Feel free to drop a line.
Posted by Sandra Haynes
Learning Snacks are short, interactive presentations about popular topics created by Microsoft Learning (our mother org) experts. Each Snack is delivered by using Microsoft Silverlight technology and includes various media, such as animations and recorded demos.
Check out this new snack on Windows 7: http://www.microsoft.com/learning/_silverlight/learningsnacks/win7/snack01/Default.html
I like to push my PC to the max, so I always go for the monitor s maximum resolution. At the end of a long day, I admit I find the font a little too small at times.
Today I discovered High DPI , which lets me drive the monitor at maximum resolution, so great photographs and video, but the text is now really easy to read.
If you re on the Windows 7 beta, give this a try:
1) Open the Start Menu
2) Type “dpi” into the search window
3) Click on the Control Panel item make text and other items larger or smaller
4) Select the DPI setting that looks best on your display
(see table below for recommended settings)
5) Log off and Log in to apply the DPI setting change
Here are the recommended DPI settings based on your display’s native resolution:
Native Resolution
DPI Setting
>= 1024x768
Smaller - 100% (96 DPI)
>= 1280x960
Medium - 125% (120 DPI)
>= 1600x1200
Larger – 150% (144 DPI)
Hometown: Philadelphia, PA Current Home: Bothell, WA Alma Mater: Drew University Microsoft Certifications: MCT, MCITP, MCTS, MCSE, MCSA, MCDST Favorite Road Food: Philly cheesesteaks Most Likely to Get Kicked Off the Bus for: Playing Bruce Springsteen CDs over and over and over…
You know me as one of Born to Learn’s most prolific bloggers—now meet me out on the street as I join the crew of the Career Express on our tour across the USA!
I’m a long-time MCT (since 1993) and MCSE (since 1995), and a proud MCITP: Enterprise Administrator. I also lead Microsoft Learning’s Community team, which means I’m all about you guys!
Come join us on the Career Express!
Shannon Bray, Microsoft Certified Trainer, will present an online exam coaching session next Thursday (April 2nd) to help ensure that nothing gets in your way.
Preparing for your Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, Configuring Exam (70-631) April 2: Register Now: 7:30 A.M. Pacific Time (What time is this in my region?)
Check the schedule for the full coaching session calendar.
Posted by DeborahG
Microsoft Press is on Twitter: http://twitter.com/MicrosoftPress.
Thanks to the Computer
you write a bad poem and you just press the "delete" key and watch the lines vanish as if they had never been, no ripping pages out of the typer, balling them up and tossing them into the wastebasket.
the older I get the more I delete. I mean, if I see nothing in a work, what will the reader see?
and the computer screen is a tough judge, the words sit back and look at you, with the typewriter you don t see them until you pull out the page.
also, the keyboard on a computer is more efficient than that on the typer, with the computer the thoughts leap more quickly from your mind to your fingers, to the screen.
is this boring? probably.
but I won t delete it because it isn t boring me.
I am in love with THIS MACHINE
see what it can do
now let s get back to work.
Charles Bukowski
I can just hear you now. “Why should I enter? I never win anything.”
Well, this could be your chance to change your luck. If you’ve been thinking it’d be nice to win a FREE TRIP TO TECHED, let me say that again, A…FREE…TRIP…TO…TECHED, now is the time.
It’s Friday. We’re heading into the weekend (or Spring Break for some) and I’ve got a homework assignment for you. Enter Get on the Bus! To enter, you’ve got to:
Easy-peasy. You might want to add a fourth step though – pack your bags because you might win!
Think about it.
You know who’s left? YOU! Well, you and that geek you know from the Windows Server user group, but you’ll cream him in the head-to-head competition.
Don’t miss the bus! You have to enter by 9:00 am Pacific time on April 6th!
Posted by Dana
Note: My name is Bob Caswell, and I am the product manager of distance learning stuff like V-Class, MODL, and Digital MOC (some of which don't exist yet but coming soon!). You can check out my pre-Microsoft bio here (my Born to Learn bio page will be updated shortly). The post below is also posted on my personal blog. Looking forward to more blogging! So Microsoft put together an ad (embedded below with more to come apparently) that does what Apple started (comparing PCs and Macs) only from Microsoft's perspective. That is, when either side plays this game, they focus on the pros of their team while pointing out the cons of the other side all while conveniently forgetting to mention their own cons.
That's how commercials work, you see. By and large, Apple and Microsoft are playing the same game. A game that Apple started, I might add. And kudos to Apple for starting it; it seems to have worked well for them.
But now that a strong response is out by Microsoft (a separate tangential conversation is whether Microsoft should be throwing so much money at a "response" campaign; that's debatable), the Apple fanboys are restless (this topic was at the top of Techmeme earlier today) and feel the need to point out the "offense," "pointlessness," and "inaccuracies."
Wow. Talk about a classic case of dishing out but not being able to take it. Case in point, what was the first point of the author who wanted to explain why this was so offensive? In his own words, "...she goes into the “Mac store” — red flag here already, anyone who is even remotely interested in a Mac knows it’s the Apple Store..."
I can't even begin to understand what that has to do with anything remotely relevant to being offensive, but to each his own, I suppose. Anyway, back to my original point: When Apple ran their commercials, I didn't feel the need to take offense or complain about inaccuracies and onesidedness. It was a pretty good campaign. And now Microsoft has put together a decent response by using a similar formula.
Why can't we just leave it at that? Do we really need to get out the fine tooth comb and go through all Apple's ads and all Microsoft's ads and benchmark them against some universal neutral fairness system (which doesn't exist)?
Laptop Hunters #1 - Lauren
If you're a Developer and you've ever wondered "Why should I get Certified?", Gerry O'Brien has the answer for you. He'll be discussing the value of certification for Developers as well as how to select a credential, how to prepare for your exam and what the next steps are during his Microsoft Virtual TechDays 2009 presentation.
Have you registered for this event yet? You should.
Its 24 hours of content just for developers. Its online. Its free. Its in your region (no matter where you live around the world.)
And when you register, make sure you add Gerry's session to your Schedule Builder. Just search for keyword "certification."
Microsoft Certification: Why and How Wednesday, April 1st 2:30 AM - 3:30 AM GMT (what time is this in my region) Wednesday, April 1st 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM GMT (what time is this in my region)
Steven St Jean just posted a review of Inside the Microsoft Build Engine: Using MSBuild and Team Foundation Build (Microsoft Press, 2009; ISBN: 9780735626287) on his blog. It joins the stellar reviews on Amazon.
Steven’s review is the most detailed yet. He has put a lot of work into the review, so please be sure to read it.
Here is Steven’s opening:
Quote for the Media ;-) “Wow! This is the book that I wish I had written. Sayed and William have covered the topic’s depth and breadth with enough illustrations and code examples to make any developer productive with MSBuild and Team Build. No Experience Required.”
“Wow! This is the book that I wish I had written. Sayed and William have covered the topic’s depth and breadth with enough illustrations and code examples to make any developer productive with MSBuild and Team Build. No Experience Required.”
And here’s his close:
While I may sound like a shill for the authors and publisher, I really do believe what I’ve written. In fact, I bring the book with me to most of my consulting engagements and recommend it to my clients. It’s useful when read from cover-to-cover or when used as a reference. So go out and buy a bunch of copies and make Sayed and William the first technical authors to get rich off writing a book.
While I may sound like a shill for the authors and publisher, I really do believe what I’ve written. In fact, I bring the book with me to most of my consulting engagements and recommend it to my clients. It’s useful when read from cover-to-cover or when used as a reference.
So go out and buy a bunch of copies and make Sayed and William the first technical authors to get rich off writing a book.
Steven, thanks very much! We’re glad you find the book so useful.
With my last post I was (and still am) incredibly sad that my hometown is having record flooding. My personal connections run high. The MS campus has been closed for 2 days and will remain closed until it is safe to return. Right now, that could be a week. Microsoft Learning has 20 some people in that office.
In my previous life with the Dynamics group, and with my current MCP role, I am very cognizant that our earth is fragile and between fires in Australia, snowstorms, volcanoes rumbling, just to say the very least ---
I wanted to at least try to say is some odd connection that Microsoft is trying to reduce how our carbon footprint. Not only reduce it but to quote “we are committed to software and technology innovation that helps people and organizations around the world improve the environment”.
So, for those of you who are interested in an ERP solution and want to measure your company’s carbon footprint – Check this out. Plus, I have to give a bit of shout out for Dynamics…
What would you like to see from the MCP group to help reduce or carbon footprint? All Ears. This I always see in tough times is how communities come together. We, too, can help.
The NoDak MCP gal -- Sarah
Hometown: Santa Clarita, CA Current Home: Issaquah, WA Alma Mater: California State University, Northridge Microsoft Certifications: MCAS Favorite Road Food: In-N-Out Cheeseburger Animal style with fries well done Most Likely to Get Kicked Off the Bus for: Under appreciation of my “kicking it old school” dance moves
“I enjoyed meeting so many of you at the Redmond and EMEA MCT Summits; I'm thrilled to meet even more of you at each of the stops on the Career Express tour across the USA!
After more than five years in Customer Service and Operations, I am proud to be supporting the MCTs and MCPs Worldwide Operations. In a nutshell, I make sure you get your Welcome Kits and support questions answered!”
The authors are making sure Chapter 9, “Memory Management,” is just right, so we’ve had to slip the book a bit. Our ship date (files to printer date) is now in May, and our availability date is June 17. Shipping via online retailers follows that date by roughly a week.
Mark and David and Alex, and Microsoft Press, hope you agree this wait is worth it. Hang in there just a bit longer!
Do you know a high school or college kid who loves technology? Is your son or daughter interested in becoming the next super-developer in your family? Microsoft wants to help.
Through Microsoft DreamSpark, high school and college students around the world* can download Microsoft Developer tools and also get discounts on learning and certification products. Notify your child’s high school administrators and once they sign up with the program, students will be able to start getting hands-on with the latest tools from Microsoft. Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition? Got it. Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Developer? Got that too. Windows Server 2008? Of course! Go to the website and take a look – there are currently 16 products listed for download.
While you’re there, click on the Get Training link.
You’ll see free eBooks, Learning Snacks and exam discounts. As part of the DreamSpark initiative, Microsoft Learning will be distributing up to 150,000 MCTS exam vouchers good until June 30, 2009. Students must redeem the voucher and schedule their exam online at the Prometric website by June 30, 2009, so don’t hesitate. Contact your local high school or college administrators today – I did.
*(except China, India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Vietnam)
Friday, March 27, 2009 7:36 AM by Peter Read
I can see some merit to the software side of this (particularly commercially for MS, get 'em while they're young...), but doesn't distributing exam vouchers like this devalue these as professional certifications underpinning real experience if it's being marketed to high school kids?
Friday, March 27, 2009 9:35 AM by Charles Hyman
In response to Peter's Comment:
The exams can be taken today by High School students today, if they want. Most of the institutions on the list are higher education institutions. Anything that can give people a sense of accomplishment for learning something new that is of value, is a good thing in my opinion. The vouchers will make this possible, by allowing students to give it a tray without having to outlay the dollars. I dont feel that any of my certifications would be "devalued" by this in any way. Certification and Experience are two separate items in a persons career toolbox.
Friday, March 27, 2009 2:59 PM by Kevin
I'm a bit torn on the certifications going to high school students. On one hand, I've always believed that you get a certification to demonstrate your knowledge and experience with a technolohy. On the other hand, I have taken certification exams the week that they came out of beta (some Windows 2008 exams, for example) or immediately after a product was released.
At any rate, I don't think that high school students getting certs is any "more wrong" than people who go to a weeklong training class where they take the exam on the last day.
Looking for a great training provider in your area?
We’ve always enabled you to find *a* training provider: our Class Locator tool has referred hundreds of thousands of customers to Certified Partners for Learning Solutions over the years.
Today, however, we’re pleased to announce a new Class Locator feature:
You can now see what our customers think of the training providers featured in Class Locator!
How it works:
At the end of every Microsoft Official course taught at or by a CPLS, the MCT who teaches the class asks the students to complete an on-line course evaluation.
Those evaluations are stored in an on-line database, indexed to the CPLS that offered the class.
When you search for a class in Class Locator, the search results now include a Customer rating, showing the number of surveys we have on file for that center from the previous twelve months, and a “star” rating indicating how satisfied those customers were with the training they received.
You can also view the detailed breakdown for the scores for a particular class.
Let’s take an example… here I search for a CPLS offering a particular Windows Server 2008 course (6421, Configuring and Troubleshooting a Windows Server 2008 Network Infrastructure) within 100 miles of Philadelphia. My results look like this:
All three of top matches have the same star rating, but Solartech’s New Jersey office has the most evaluations collected. So I’ll take a closer look there, clicking on “View course results…”
Those are some pretty satisfied customers!
So the next time you’re looking for a place to take a Microsoft Official course, consider using our Class Locator to find a provider evaluated by other students like you!
Posted by Krosen
I first posted a few weeks ago to solicit questions about certification exam development. At the time I neglected to introduce myself. I m Krista Wall, one of seven Content Development Managers (CDMs) on the certification development team. The CDM role is responsible for managing the design and development of Microsoft Certification exams. We facilitate the OD sessions that Shon Hong was talking about in his post earlier today, as well as item writing and technical review (alpha) sessions. We review items to ensure that they meet content specifications, assemble the forms for the exams, and hand them off for publishing. Along with a lot of other assorted duties, which you ll hear about from other team members in later posts.
In that first post, I mentioned the fact that some things are just plain secret. So here s the part where we tell you what we can t tell you. Please note that this is not necessarily an exhaustive list of everything we can t tell you—I m leaving it open for a "Some more things we can t tell you" post at some later date. But I d like to get these out in the open earlier rather than later. Drum roll, please....
In no particular order, we can t tell you:
1. Which items you got right.
2. Which items you got wrong.
3. Which answer is correct.
4. Which answers are incorrect.
5. How many items you need to answer correctly to pass the exam.
6. What percentage of people have passed a particular exam.
7. The text of an item. (And yes, I have had requests from candidates to "just send me a copy of the items I got wrong so I can study.")
8. Whether or not a particular item was scored or unscored.
9. Which testing technologies are going to be on the exam you ll be taking.
10. When we re going to add new items to the exam.
We can t tell you any of these things, not even if you ve already passed the exam. The primary reason for these "we-can t-tell-you s" is that we have to protect the integrity of the exam content. In some cases, the “we-can’t-tell-you” could jeopardize the integrity of the exam by messing up the statistics that we use to judge the validity of each item. In other cases, it would provide an unfair advantage to you or someone else taking the exam.
One other thing I can t tell you is when the Windows 7 exams will be released. That s because we don t know for sure yet. I can tell you, however, that we are working on them right now. More on Windows 7 exams in a later post. Until then, keep the great questions coming!
Posted by Krista
Friday, March 06, 2009 4:07 PM by becn
Interesting list. Most make sense - but I don t see the need, or sense, in items 5,6, and 9.
What s wrong with publishing the success rates? In fact, what s wrong with publishing the success rates per region/nation?
Why keep secret the pass/fail mark?
I m sure you USED to publicize whether something was adaptive or not (I might be confusing with novell), but it seems a little nasty to surprise test-takers with different technology. What s the harm/risk in being up-front about that? Word gets out anyway, and I don t believe that it s breaking nda to mention the technologies involved.
The "protect the validity" argument really doesn t hold for those items. And there s no "unfair advantage" if information is public.
I suspect the real reason for those secrets is that there really isn t a great deal of consistency in things like pass-rate between exams such as XP-Pro vs Vista.
Saturday, March 07, 2009 7:01 PM by Peter Read
I d say 9 s actually valid to withhold (who cares the format, you know the technology right? ;) ) - it s 6 that strikes me as odd. Either a flat "taken x times in all, passed y times" or even something more interesting like a histogram of %age of tests taken vs score (omitting pass mark or whatever). I think it d be interesting as an MCP and exam taker myself, but even more interesting as a hiring manager/interviewer to know that this person with an obscure cert must be great as only 3 people passed it out of 300 takers. if only 3 people passed but only 3 people bothered to take it that s perhaps less impressive (although statistically dodgy at that sample level I ll admit)
Sunday, March 08, 2009 10:35 AM by Cathy P.
Instead of giving me this bullsh*t, why don t you do something about the BRAINDUMPS that anyone can buy or download for free on eMule?
Howcome TestKing (www.testking.com) is kept on-line all these years???
Why don t you do something about it, in order to REALLY protect the exam integrity?
Sunday, March 08, 2009 7:59 PM by Claudia Woods
Hi Krista,
Thanks for the list. Is it possible to become a volunteer member of the exam writing team? If so, please advise how to apply for such membership.
Monday, March 09, 2009 10:28 AM by Kevin
Well, #5 makes perfect sense to me, because there s probably no hard number for how many items you need to get correct to pass. Think about it for a minute. If you have a 43 question exam and need 700/1000 to pass, does that mean that you need to get 70% of the questions correct (31, rounded up to the nearest whole number)? If it did then you should be able to do that math on your own.
On the other hand, if different types of questions are worth more or fewer points based on their complexity, or their difficulty (as demonstrated by the percentage of people who got it correct in beta or in subsequent tests), then you can t really give a hard number of "you must get X number correct". Also, if you throw into the mix the possibility that there are non-scored questions then that also affects the count.
Number 6 is a fairly useless stat (for us who aren t creating the exams, anyway). You could say that 95% of the people who attempt an exam pass...eventually. Of course if it takes 3 tries per person to pass, you might have a 33% pass rate. One stat makes the exam look easy, the other makes it look much harder. But I think that the "difficulty" of the tests should all be roughly equal for someone who meets the recommended experience level with the subject matter. But since the exams (at least as I understand it) are not identical for every tester, it s hard to get particularly useful numbers without knowing exactly the makeup of the exam taken.
Monday, March 09, 2009 1:30 PM by libertymunson
Great comments (and of course, great resource for ideas for future blogs)! Let’s see if I can shed some light on the whys and why nots to the bullets that seem to be of most concern so far.
•Q: Why don’t we tell you how many items you need to answer correctly to pass an exam?
A: Because the number of items that you need to answer correctly to pass a particular exam is based on two key pieces of information: 1) the level of competency that SMEs tell us candidates must have to be considered minimally qualified in that content area and 2) the difficulty of the items on the exam. Both of these vary from exam to exam and can vary from one version to another for the same exam. As a result, this number will be different from exam to exam and possibly version to version within the same exam. Providing this information will lead to more questions than it answers. Additionally, from a business perspective, we consider this bit of information to be proprietary; this is less important to me from a psychometric perspective but understandable why our business partners take this position. By the way, scoring, including the misperception that 700=70%, is clearly a complicated issue that will be discussed in more detail in a future blog.
•Q: Why don’t we tell you the passing rates for exams?
A: I think the comments that have been posted on this issue shed some light on the answer that question. Passing rate is a very poor indicator of the quality of the exam and is very easily misinterpreted. For example, a high passing rate could mean that nearly everyone who takes the exam is at least minimally qualified (which is good), the cut score is too low (which is usually more bad than good but it depends on factors that aren t immediately obvious), or that exam content is too easy, meaning that unqualified candidates are passing (which is bad); a low passing rate could mean that those taking the exam are not minimally qualified, the cut score is too high, or that the exam content is too difficult. The passing rate in and of itself is more of a source of disinformation than it is of actual information. People draw the wrong conclusions from passing rates, and we don’t want to perpetuate that problem.
•Q: Why don’t we tell you testing technologies that will appear on an exam?
A: As Peter pointed out, if you’re at least minimally qualified, you should be able to pass the exam regardless of the testing technology is used. More practically, we don’t publish this information because the technologies used can and do change at any time.
•Regarding exam piracy, we have someone in our organization that works on this full time. She’s a bit shy, but I promise we will have a future blog on this topic.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009 3:25 PM by Michael Dragone
I have a question that you might not be able to answer. :)
Is Service Pack content introduced into exams if the SP changes the product s functionality? Example: Exchange 2007 came out, exams and TKs were published. SP1 is released and adds/changes functionality (take the additional of Public Folder management to the GUI). The TK doesn t get republished. Do "SP1 questions" get added to the exam? What about exam questions/answers that would change based on the application of a Service Pack?
Wednesday, March 11, 2009 5:28 PM by Krista
Hi Michael,
When a product update is released that changes functionality, we review the changes against the items in the pool, and determine if any items become technically inaccurate because of the changes. If items become technically inaccurate, we’ll remove them. If the change adds functionality that maps to an existing objective, then that functionality would be fair game for any new items written for that exam. Service packs rarely, if ever, have changes significant enough to require even the most minor of changes to the exam’s preparation guide. However, if/when service packs do require major changes to the content area, we create a new exam/certification rather than incorporating those changes into the current version of the exam. This ensures that people who hold the credential have demonstrated competency in the same content area.
The training kit may or may not get revised, depending on the scope of changes. I m not an expert on how those decisions get made, but I will pass on your question to someone else who is.
For items where the answer would be different depending on the service pack, we would specify the service pack in the stem of the item.
Over the last few months, Microsoft has introduced Career Assist, Elevate America, and Thrive—great opportunities and resources, each designed to help you get a job, keep a job, or accelerate you toward your next job.
Our Learning Solutions Partners in the U.S. joined us in holding hundreds of events during Microsoft Skills Week to help raise awareness of our certifications, and of the people who hold them (that’d be you guys).
Here on Born to Learn, we amped up our publishing, bringing you more information and more opportunities; more insights and more answers, all as it happened (and sometimes before!)
In other words: we been busy.
You’d think we’d be ready to take a break, right?
Heck no: We’re fired up! Ready to go!
…go on the road, that is:
Today, we’re announcing Get on the Bus! – an eleven-day odyssey across America aboard the Career Express bus beginning May 1st in Tampa, Florida and ending May 11th at TechEd 2009 in Los Angeles, California!
If you’re along our route, stay tuned for information about MCP and MCT meet-ups, special offers, giveaways and opportunities. If you’re not on our route, follow our trip here as we visit and profile MCPs and MCTs, CPLS partners and IT Academies, authors and user groups, and more—live blogging all the way on the new Born to Learn (more on that next week).
Who would be crazy dedicated enough to live on a bus for eleven days? (and I’m not exaggerating that much: the Career Express is a rock band-style touring bus, complete with bunks, a kitchenette, and workspace… all of which I suspect will come in handy).
That’d be us: your Microsoft Learning Community team and Born to Learn bloggers, and we’re excited to have the opportunity to come to your town!
And because we’re so committed to helping you advance your career; because we’re not about to let a tough economy get in the way of a great opportunity; and because we just love spending time with you guys:
We want to take you with us!
We’re reserving six seats on the Career Express for MCPs and MCTs (U.S. residents only)—you can join us in one of six cities, and we’ll take you to TechEd! You’ll enjoy our scintillatingly geeky conversation on the bus; represent the MCP and MCT communities as we meet lots of Microsoft customers, partners, and community members; be a featured blogger on the new Born to Learn; see America at ground level; and, of course, enjoy our premier technical education (and IMHO professional networking) event of the year: TechEd 2009 – without having to buy a $2,000 show pass!
With such a cool opportunity on the line, though, we need to make sure that only outstanding community representatives join us. How are we going to do that?
We’re going to ask you to decide who comes with us!
How’s that going to work?
Stay tuned… all will be revealed here over the next week, with the full Official Rules and registration site available on Monday, March 23rd.
Want to watch the itinerary develop and see who else will be attending in your town? Join our Facebook event page!
And considering that we’re putting this all together in real time, and there are bound to be frequent updates and limited-time opportunities leading up to and during our tour… follow us on Twitter (@MSLearning) to stay up-to-date.
If you’re in the Tampa, Atlanta, Charlotte, Philadelphia, Columbus, Indianapolis, St. Louis, Kansas City, Denver, Albuquerque, Phoenix, or Las Vegas metro areas—we’re coming to a town near you. And when we do:
Get on the Bus!
Tuesday, March 17, 2009 1:09 PM by Dana
WHEW! Glad we can finally talk about it! I m going to need some good diner recommendations between ATL and IND!
Tuesday, March 17, 2009 3:22 PM by Mitch Garvis
Sounds like a hoot! Too bad it s only open to US residents... We Canucks would love to get on the bus too, eh!? :)
Tuesday, March 17, 2009 4:00 PM by scott
Would love to see that bus stop by Detroit.. Ah well..
Tuesday, March 17, 2009 4:16 PM by Jim Goodwin
I work for a CPLS in Indy and look forward to the visit. If you need any help or recommendation...drop me a note
Tuesday, March 17, 2009 4:19 PM by Krosen
We certainly will, Jim!
Tuesday, March 17, 2009 4:21 PM by Kevin
Dana,
You can make it like a Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives tour! There s plenty of good eating to be had between Atlanta and Indy.
If you re stopping by Columbus, Ohio, I highly recommend the Starliner Diner on Cemetary road in Hilliard. Excellent food with a bit of a Tex/Mex/Cuban/eclectic theme.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009 5:02 PM by Stefnie Davies
Real pity I can t come on the bus. I am in New Zealand and the only MCT for Dynamics NAV. Man, I love it! I know its a long shot but... is there just no way you can let me on the bus?
Tuesday, March 17, 2009 5:25 PM by Tom Swanson
Just one question - Is this a one way trip? :-)
Tuesday, March 17, 2009 5:26 PM by steve Mabelane
I m in ZA, cannnot to be on the tour for Teched 2009 USA
Tuesday, March 17, 2009 5:27 PM by Michael D. Alligood
So you can t stop in Jacksonville on your way from Tampa to Atlanta (assuming you take I-4 to I-95 then I-10 to I-75... ok, yeah it s the long way.)
Hopefully I will see you in Tampa!
Tuesday, March 17, 2009 5:36 PM by Hardy Utley
It s nice to see something planned to help some of us out with learning and networking in 2009.
I m sure a lot of people are like my team and have had to drop their normal convention and training schedule because of the recession.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009 5:37 PM by Krosen
Tom: We ll fly you home! :-)
Tuesday, March 17, 2009 5:42 PM by Mark H
::sigh::
I live in Tampa, but I will be at MMS in Vegas on 5/1.
Oh well.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009 6:08 PM by Ben
What an awesome opportunity. I ll see you in Charlotte!
Tuesday, March 17, 2009 6:43 PM by Mattias Lind
Well... how do I become an US resident? I like the idea, to bad I m in Sweden.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009 6:44 PM by Krosen
Looking forward to it, Ben!
Tuesday, March 17, 2009 6:50 PM by Krosen
Mattias, I guess we ll just have to hope for a Season Two in November. :-)
Tuesday, March 17, 2009 7:01 PM by Patrick
Magical Tech Bus Tour - sounds cool to me.
Whats the movie on this flight
Tuesday, March 17, 2009 7:36 PM by Dusan J. Jovanovic
So, that s must be something, eating and drinking for free...2 bad i m in Serbia...Lepo je sto mislite na nas...Samo, davno smo zaboravili Boga...a tako daleko ici, nije dobro...
Tuesday, March 17, 2009 7:39 PM by Dusan J. Jovanovic
Evagelism? That s sounds bad...
Tuesday, March 17, 2009 9:06 PM by Krosen
Dunno, Patrick. Suggestions?
(Someon s already suggested a Battlestar Galactica marathon)
Tuesday, March 17, 2009 10:05 PM by Bill Chapman
I think if Tjeerd is on the Bus there will be a Star Wars marathon, personally I think a Quentin Tarantino marathon would be a great way to spend a few hundred miles.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009 12:31 AM by Naqeebullah, MCP since 2005
hi, I was surprised when I saw my flash, but in the corner it was mentioned (US residents only) while I am from Afghansitan.
any how I wish all American MCPs good bus trip.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009 12:47 AM by Rambler
Would have loved to join :) but it s for US residents only :(
Wednesday, March 18, 2009 2:28 AM by Satish
how can i get this bus in india???
;)
Wednesday, March 18, 2009 3:18 AM by Andreas H.
Hmm... Only for US Residents? What is when I pay for the flight by my own? Why do we have such a tour only in the US, what’s about Europe?
andreas.haist@avanade.com
Wednesday, March 18, 2009 5:06 AM by Andrew Bettany
Hey guys, great idea, and I am looking forward to seeing you roll up outside in your bus!
Any chance that you can tow behind the bus one of those retro Silverbullet-Caravans? That plus the Star Wars/ Tarantino /Battlestar Galactica movie reels sound just awesome.
Enjoy, and see you on the other side.
:-)
Wednesday, March 18, 2009 7:07 AM by Gladstone Lewis
I love microsoft and want to be a part of that ride on the bus
Wednesday, March 18, 2009 8:31 AM by Mike Wells
I run the SQL User Group in Sarasota, FL. Looking forward to seeing you guys in Tampa!
Wednesday, March 18, 2009 10:19 AM by PutMeOnTheBusToTechEd
Put Me On The Bus To Tech Ed
Top Ten Reasons I was born to be on the bus:
1.Experienced in changing flat tires on a bus...no need for Triple AAA.
2.Qualified bus driver since the age of 12(don t tell my mom) in case the driver needs a break. Requires everyone refer to me as Reuben Kincaid.
3.I have often been quoted as the "Master" champion of playing "Slug Bug"
4.Willing to lead the group in sing-a-longs when the radio can’t find a tower between Saint Louis and Kansas City.
5.Qualified "Squeegee Technician" to keep the windshield clean and our journey safe.
6.Proud owner of a Texaco fuel card with a $1000 limit.
7.I can provide the Richard Simmons "Sweatin to the Oldies" exercise DVD and lead the group in hourly stretching exercises.
8.Willing to provide one free can of Oust air deodorizer to each of my fellow riders
9.Have enthusiastically memorized the movies "Speed" and "National Lampoon s Vacation" for reference
10.I am a PC
Wednesday, March 18, 2009 10:20 AM by Mafruha Chowdhury
I would love to join and have the opportunity to meet all the great Sprit of Tech!
Thanks,
MCPD,Enterprise Application Developer.
Barna1000@hotmail.com
Wednesday, March 18, 2009 12:14 PM by Joanne Lin (MS)
To PutMeOnTheBusToTechEd: wow.. I am amazed with the hourly stretching exercises. :-) that would come in handy!
Wednesday, March 18, 2009 1:36 PM by PutMeOnTheBusToTechEd
Joanne,
Well, let s hope that s the golden ticket that get s me through the bus door without having to sneak in through the emergency exit!!
Thanks
Wednesday, March 18, 2009 2:46 PM by Dana
PutMeOnTheBusToTechEd - I so want to see a video of you making your case! (Maybe you can demonstrate your sing-a-long leadership ability?)
Wednesday, March 18, 2009 3:04 PM by Juhi K
Sounds exciting..I would have really liked to hop in...too bad its open for US residents only...I m an Indian living in US.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009 4:02 PM by Chuck
Take me! Take me! Take me! I have a successful repair/PC build business. Let me represent the techie gamers! (yes, some gamers actualy go to school and get certs, and then use them). We re not all unclean bums in 4 day old clothes!!!!!!! P.S I ve done the band road tour thing when I was younger too (it was a van though, a much higher difficulty level...lol), I ll teach ya a thing or two about traveling cramped in style.....
Wednesday, March 18, 2009 4:17 PM by PutMeOnTheBusToTechEd
Dana....a video huh...I think I need a little enticement before I start recording 99 bottles!
Wednesday, March 18, 2009 7:58 PM by George Palmers
Sound really interesting.......very sad its open for US residents only.....I m an Papua New Guinean maybe next time. Good luck all on the bus.
Thursday, March 19, 2009 11:56 AM by Ronda Pederson
PICK ME! I am FUN - LIVE to program - am a HUGE Microsoft Evangilist - Really need some time away from work.
Friday, March 20, 2009 5:29 PM by Krosen
We d love to have you join us, Ronda--but you gotta convince the community to vote for you! Where are you based?
Friday, March 20, 2009 8:54 PM by Deepak
Yo! Man, that a really cool. I will certainly be on the bus.
Monday, March 23, 2009 5:46 AM by Arnaud
Hey, very good proposition but only for Us guys !!!
I can t believe it, I m from Paris and hope you will change your mind and invite me for this tour (free of charge for a little french man of course).
I think you cannot refuse to take a french man with you...see you.
Monday, March 23, 2009 12:55 PM by Jennifer Snoddy
I m an Indiana MCT. Would love to compete, but I don t think you ll be picking anyone up from Indiana will you?
Monday, March 23, 2009 2:39 PM by JD Thrams
How bout picking me up in Los Angeles? Or, I could drive to Vegas to get on.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009 12:32 PM by Krosen
JD, you should register for the Vegas contest--we d love to have you!
http://www.microsoft.com/learning/getonthebus
So… what are you waiting for? Dig in!
Dino Esposito’s latest book, Microsoft .NET: Architecting Applications for the Enterprise (Microsoft Press, 2008; ISBN: 9780735626096;464pages), co-written with Andrea Saltarello, was published in October 2008 and is on a tear at Amazon: eight 5-star reviews and two 4-star reviews.
Of course it’s the content of the reviews that matters. Here’s a favorite snippet, by Raghu Rudra:
In the era of online documentation, this is one of the few technical books that I read from end to end. Thoroughly enjoyed it while occasionally referring to Martin Fowler s P of EAA book.
Another favorite, by Rafal Buch:
I ve been following Dino Esposito s work for some time, and as usual he delivers great content in a clear and concise (and often humorous) manner. I am only half way through it, and even if i was to stop here, its already a worthy buy.
And one more, by Oleksandr Novosad:
Author s use of common English language and easy-to-use explanations really stands out in this book. As a developer, I feel that I ve gained a tremendous amount of new understanding of architectures from this masterpiece.
Dino is a masterful writer of technical content. His latest book is another in a long string of such examples, and it will help you make smart architectural decisions up front and control project complexity. Enjoy, and then utilize, this pragmatic guidance!