scandals of an ITian

I couldn’t wait for the ladies at the registration desk to handover my Gangsta Orange Tech.ed bag and my Tag and stuff. The sheer excitement of getting onto the escalators and not knowing what awesomeness and goodness awaits my arrival on Second Floor (not sure)…. couple of palette’s of HP MINI 5101

Just as God created Man and Woman with his bare hands, these HP Mini’s were born using Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010. As god always wanted to create perfect human beings out of all of us…there was only one way to achieve this with MDT 2010.

Windows 7.

Yep these little Netbooks are powered by Windows 7 Ultimate (x32) editions. They are meant to run and run mad, not just for the 3 days of Tech.ed but for the rest of their life on earth or till I forget that what I am carrying is actually a Netbook and not a small note book from my Uni. Actually my MBA textbooks are heavier!

I had to wait in line to get the Netbook. The Chap in front of me had some questions apparently…Erm “Hello”.

Picked up Netbook number 1239182908309423094…and walked trying to act all cool ya ya it’s only a Netbook, please people show some decency will ya. Ya rt… ran to the quietest corner on the floor and flung open the MINI box. There she lay weighing in .001 grams. A healthy Netbook and a proud dad (erm owner). Cool LED’s on the power and various buttons.

Pushed the power button on… almost seemed like ages…..But in fact was under 3 minutes and I was at the desktop. Hardware manufactures please note… your pre built OS…do you know how long it actually lasts before its rebuild? Why take us through the pain of setting stuff that we don’t need? Please learn from the build that we got today.

Anyways it’s got cool Tech.ed customizations all over it. Check out the wallpaper. I messed it up a bit by adding my Desktop Gadgets

There is also a theme called New Zealand with some really cool wallpapers. Read about it a bit more on Geekzone

Comes prebuilt with IE favourites related with Tech.ed stuff and once you have connected to the wireless connection the homepage would lead to SkyCity Wireless Access Page.

Also another addition to the Netbook is the copy of Office 2010 Technical Preview and the following are installed:-

Visio 2010 is missing though.

For Virus/Spyware protection the Netbooks are installed with Microsoft Security Essentials. When you get a chance to get an Internet Connection to the Netbook sometime, do an update of the signatures. Haven’t had a chance to sit down and play with it but I am sure it would be quite sufficient.

What have I installed?

1. I am not quite browser specific and have needs and reasons of using IE8, FF 3.5 and Chrome
2. Installed Google Toolbar on IE
3. Brought all my FF add-ons but not the favourites.
4. Installed Twirl and Tweetdeck. I use twirl for twits, @mentions and DM’s whereas I prefer watching my topics with Tweetdeck. For the Netbook the Tweetdeck will only have #tenz9.
5. Mozy backup. Never a fan of single partition so will specify the folders to backup online.
6. Telecom T stick software in case of dire deprivation of Twitter.
7. Few desktop gadgets such as Network and Outlook Info to keep an eye out.
8. RoyalTS for RDP sessions to work servers. For all those emergency phone calls I hope not to get.

Hands on Lab,

It was a shame that I wasn’t able to spend much time over here as I had planned. But had a quick look at what would be quite useful and noted a few things to look at. But the pps from Intergen looked damn cool in their yellow flavoured clothes and flip flops. Nice and helpful!

Well other than that there was a bit of work going on and during my explorations of the floors could hear when the Keynote room went ajar a bit of someone practicing, another sneak peak and the room looked awesome. Again restrained myself from taking a snap here.

My other personal adventures included.

1. Walking out of the convention centre brought me out to a totally different side of the building. I looked pretty much out of place by the way people were looking at me.
2. The convention centre car park. Damn cool if you are using it, because you can get some of the pricing reduced by punching your parking card into a machine as you come off the escalators.
3. Took me a bit more than 5 minutes to get out of the car park, I looked like a guy trying to sell something when I started noticing no matter which left or right turn I took, the same people seem to be standing at the same corner. They almost took their phones out to call the cops.
4. Driving back to Botany where my folks stay was fun. Nice roads. Wish we could have some of these big ones in Wellington. Love to ride the bike here.
5. Everyone whom I met today recommended I start from home at around 7 to get to the centre on time.

Anyways thats a very brief summary of what I did today at Tech.ed.

More stories and adventures tomorrow

Cheers

@neop26

Oh Blog Update!!

@ohcrap had some really good tips for using the Netbook which I am going to list them here. It wont be pretty looking for the eyes guys, but that is not the point. Its the message. Please watch out for

1. #tenz9 #toptip the image may not include driveguard. Driveguard is awesome – load it and avoid pain.
2. #tenz9 #toptip my other recommended apps: JZip, Adobe Air, Adobe Flash, HP Webcam app, MagicDisc
3. #tenz9 #toptip loading current drivers for chipset, graphics, and ahci will pay off. Source them from Intel site, not HP site – no HP WIn7..
4. #tenz9 #toptip avoid annoying presenters. Mute your tweetdeck / other twitter app’s notification sound.
5. #tenz9 #toptip take an SD card along to get max advantage using ReadyBoost on your new netbook!
6. #tenz9 #toptip don’t compare with past years. Enjoy each TechEd for what it is. And have fun guys!
7. #tenz9 #toptip Oh yeah. And MUTE your mobile phone in sessions!!!!
8. #tenz9 #toptip one more – dock the taskbar to the right or left hand side of the screen. You’ll find it’s more awesome.
9. #tenz9 #toptip Win7 is your new friend, mother, secret lover. Get under the hood and spread the Win7 love (you know you want to)… ( from @themolk )
10. Follow @nathanm
    @adman_nz
    @techedlive
    @nickmackechnie
    @freitasm
    @venzann
    @nickhadlee for more #tenz9 news.

Pictures of the HP Mini have been taken by those posted by @nathanm .