Lewis Lampkin, III

On Day 2 of the class, we covered the following topics: Windows Deployment Services Microsoft Deployment Toolkit Upgrading and Migrating Active Directory. With regards to Windows Deployment Services, we covered how the deployment of windows systems has changed, and we have a new methodology, whereby it is more suited to imaging systems that may have underlying different hardware. Now, there are methods for updating drivers and patches on an image, while the image file is offline. While covering the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit, we dug in and looked at some of the excellent utilities that Microsoft provides for modifying a .wim file (the new base file format for a system), such as imagex, which can be used to modify an image without first mounting it. Also covered on day 2 was the GUI, as well as command line, methods for Upgrading and Migrating Active Directory. The training so far has been top notch at New Horizons, of which I attribute a good portion of that credit to Mr. Kirk McAr...

I have to hand it to Kirk McArdle, of New Horizons www.newhorizons.com ) again, he's dishing out more good information. He showed us this web site during class wrap-up yesterday: Real Time Publishers, www.realtimepublishers.com , is a great site for downloading white papers about various IT topics. I am most interested in the ones about service management right now, but they appear to have tons of information there. For the price of giving up your work mailing address, you get access to download lots of nice content. If you're anyting like me, you probably shred tons of vendor mail throughout the week. If you'd like to reach me, Lewis Lampkin, III on linked in, I am available at the following address: http://www.linkedin.com/in/lewislampkin

Chris Riling is one of my contacts on www.linkedin.com . His linkedin page is available here: www.linkedin.com/in/criling . I first met Chris during a 2006 training course at American Interactive, www.americaninteractive.com . The course at the time was the CCNA/CCNP bootcamp, all-inclusive deal. If you ever need Microsoft or Cisco training, I'd always suggest American Interactive first. Toby (Cisco) and Jay (Microsoft) were excellent! OK, that's enough free advertising for American Interactive. During the bootcamp, Chris was obviously the youngest person in the class. However, another thing readily apparent was that he was one of the most experienced and knowledgeable people in the class. Here's an anecdotal story ..there was one person in the CCNP course, made the remark that he wouldn't trust Chris to touch his equpment, since he was too young. Of course, this miffed me, as you can judge a person on experience, and skills, but dismissing someone based upon ...

Well, I had a nice first day of class. The instructor was very knowledgeable. His name was Kirk McArdle. I believe that he said he was from Jersey. By the accent, I would have guessed he was from the New York/Boston region, so that much did fit. I figure some of you might be wondering how the class itself went, and the class went fairly well. There was the initial "case of the Moooondays" (If you've seen Office Space, you get this reference.). The class was in the online live learning format (OLL). This means that the class is held across the internet, and you use your mic and headset to communicate during the class. I can understand if this does not work for some. To me, it makes sense to the training company, as they can offer training classes more often than if they had to have the trainers on-site. Also, it helps the students, as they can have more scheduling options for the classes. By the way, this also cuts down on transportation costs, for people needing...

I'm registered to take the course 6418, Deploying Windows Server 2008, through New Horizons of San Antonio, www.nhcomputerlearning.com . I've not taken a course through them before, but they did give a wonderful peek at Windows Server 2008 a few weeks ago, and that two-and-a-half hour freebie was enough to sway me to want to use our Microsoft training vouchers on a class from them. My organization currently runs Windows Server 2003, and we're looking to go to Windows Server 2008. This deployment course should provide the knowledge needed to do that successfully. I'll be taking this course May 10-12, so I'll hopefully provide an update on my experience in the near future. If you're interested in being a professional contact, reach me on linked in, at www.linkedin.com/in/lewislampkin