In the Microsoft world

I am sitting in a ballroom of the Baton Rouge Marriott Hotel. Inside are nearly 300 IT professionals who are watching two large projection screens on left and right with a speaker on a platform in the center. Behind him is a three-foot tall by 15-foot wide projection that reads "Microsoft." The easy-going, tall speaker, Sean, is wearing an iris blue long-sleeved shirt emblazoned with a white Microsoft logo over the pocket that already bears his name tag. It is his job to address the group and explain in an informative and pleasant manner the functionality of Windows 2008 Server. He does this via a wireless microphone that extends from behind his right hear to the corner of his mouth. His banter accompanies the colorful slide presentations he has prepared on his laptop. Because it was only released two months ago, most of the group gathered inside the room has never had an opportunity to install, much less configure Windows 2008 Server. They are here to learn about the new operating system. In short one could consider Windows 2008 Server as pretty much Windows Vista Server just as Windows 2003 could have been viewed as Windows XP Server. Occasionally he will crack an IT joke, referencing some obscure code or something that only a few IT professionals will understand. Other times he does something unexpected or a message appears that asks whether his system is authentic and the room roils in laughter. Believe me, any kind of humor will make this presentation more tolerable. Two of the most interesting concepts so far have included Windows PowerShell, a return to a command line interface for Windows to permit better utilization of applications and more efficient operations (can you say Linux?) and Server Vitualization with Hyper-v, which will allow consolidation of different virtual machines on a network and allows for management through another Microsoft product called System Center Virtual Machine Manager. Of course, the latter products can only be installed on a 64-bit system, which could cause problems with drivers on an existing network, but it's all in the name of progress at Microsoft. The room is packed for a simple reason: everyone who attends gets free Microsoft software (Full versions of Windows Server 2008, Visual Studio and SQL Server are given out like candy to an eager pre-teen). That's well worth the three to four hours for sessions that can be about as dry as a bone. "This is just the tip of the iceberg," the expert drones on as he does a hands-on demonstration of virtual machine access. For me, his explaining how to use command line interface to many of the IT professionals in the audience is almost like experiencing deja vu. Microsoft began its dominance of the computing world when it launched DOS (disk operating system) back in the 1980s. It was a command line interface. They have now come full circle due to several reasons. The most primary is due to security concerns exacerbated by hackers who were able to take over Windows computers remotely while using the Windows GUI (graphical user interface) that Microsoft has trumpeted for ease of use since Windows 95. Security holes have been closed, but there are so many problems that have been exposed that Microsoft has had to rethink the concept of having devices employ a GUI. If it is truly easy to use for the end-user, it follows it must also be easy for the hacker to gain entry into the server or other computers on the network. So to keep unwanted computers off networks, they have employed a battery different options, all of which are intended to make computers more secure and to validate all computers on the network. "Remember, I didn't build this system," Sean says innocently as laughter is heard throughout the room. "But I do know the guys who did." Finally, after he goes over the time allotted by 30 minutes, the room doors burst open and the busy crowd rushes to get their free software. Part two is upcoming, dealing with providing solutions for clients. But I will venture a guess and it's not a long shot. It will be more of the same. The good news is that there is some learning that is going on. The bad news is that a lot of it is tedious. But, then again, who said networking computers was all that much fun anyway?

This and that

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal makes the Hollywood scene tonight with his first appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Since the writer's strike is over, perhaps he will be able to get someone to write some zingers for him. Lately, the governor has had a busy time playing host to President Bush and Republican nominee apparent John McCain. It will be good to see him out from underneath other politicians' shadows and standing (or sitting as it were) on his own. Jindal follows several highly visible governors including Arnold Schwarzenegger and Mike Foster.
I've got less than two days of the JCC's "Biggest Loser " contest left and now that Passover is over I can start to enjoy (and I use that term loosely) items like rice cakes again. My weight is now down to 172 pounds from my starting weight of 187. Also, my blood pressure is down to 120/70 from the starting point of 120/80. In short, I feel great and my midsection has shrunk appreciably. The benefit of the work in the gym can readily be seen in my arms and legs, which each have more definition. The only sad part of my experience is that my trainer's last day with me and the program is this Wednesday. After that I am on my own or I need to consider having more sessions with him.
Congratulations to the New Orleans Hornets who are one game away from advancing to the second round of the NBA playoffs after they dispatched the Dallas Mavericks last night, 97-84. They have advanced further than any other New Orleans NBA franchise. I know that Clevelanders love King James, but Chris Paul has proven to be superhuman, coming into his own and leading the Hornets throughout this season to the delight of local fans. Some may recall that some of the biggest NBA records at the time in the late 1970s were registered in the Superdome and took place when the Jazz was still a New Orleans team and Pete Maravich was the local star. After the Jazz left in 1979, this city which had previously hosted an ABA franchise, the New Orleans Buccaneers, went without a professional basketball franchise until four years ago when owner George Shinn moved the team to New Orleans from North Carolina, a move that still smarts for the Tarheels.
A Microsoft event takes place in Baton Rouge tomorrow. The experts there will show the latest permutations of Windows Server 2008, Visual Studio and SQL Server. I am looking forward to it and I'll give you a report on how the event turns out.

Creepy Crawlers

A typical New Orleans house pet

When I was first living in Cleveland, I was always expecting roaches to pop out from underneath the kitchen cupboards or to be running along the baseboards. It was just what I considered a normal expectation of life. However careful one may be, any food in New Orleans kitchens drew roaches, pure and simple. A typical "pet" was the large cockroach with the small head and large thorax and abdomen that runs about an inch and a half in length. There were also the smaller variety of German cockroaches with a smaller, less segmented body that were an inch or less in length. It wasn't until a few weeks after my stay in Cleveland due to what locals now call "the federal flood of 2005" that I began to notice there weren't any roaches in Cleveland. Apparently, the one benefit that those long bitter winters yields is a virtual eradication of the roach population. What few members of the crawling insect variety that choose to live in Cleveland are much smaller in scale and rarely sprout wings as their larger New Orleans cousins do. I mention this because last night I began to open up the cupboards where I had stored my non-kosher for Passover foods. As you might expect, I got the expected scurrying of unwanted pests as light hit the inside of the cabinets for the first time in over a week. Some of the New Orleans variety of cockroaches actually are fairly brazen. If the lights are on, they don't care. One can almost hear them shouting "Hey, buddy, turn that thing off!" Cockroaches, which can aggravate asthma and cause allergies leave a trail of their excrement behind them (sorry if you're eating when you're reading this), especially if they happen on to find crumbs or other food items inadvertently left on countertops. Trust me. Cleaning is a way of life that is necessary in New Orleans kitchens and bathrooms where the pesky critters seem to congregate. Local comedian Ricky Graham says you can tell a native from a visitor because natives know just the right amount of foot pressure to apply from their shoes to a cockroach to kill them, but not so much as to ruin the carpet.

Wet Jazz Fest

Yesterday's opening of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival was a splendid day for sun and fun, but today's performances were dampened by the heavy rains that poured throughout the latter portion of the day. With the ground already soaked and mud in abundance on the infield, tomorrow's expected heavy rains suggest, perhaps, alternative plans should be made. For the diehard Jazz Fest enthusiasts, no amount of drizzle, downpour, inundation, thunderstorm, squall, or cyclonic disturbance will prevent them from attending. And the same could be said for the performers. One of the highest paid professionals was Billy Joel, whose rain-soaked and thunderstorm-filled set was cut short by a half hour due to the floodgates that had opened up in the skies. Joel was quoted as having shouted out at the sky "Is that the best you got? C'mon, bring it on!" While this is all in keeping with the spirit of the Jazz Fest that emphasizes fun, great music, delicious food, creative crafts and pride in the local culture, to experience the festival in the rain takes a lot of stamina and mind over matter. As Satchel Paige once said, "If you don't mind, it don't matter." I recall going to one of the early Jazz Festivals with none other than Leigh Harris, known to her fans as L'il Queenie. The downpour was so bad and the mud was so thick that the half boots I wore were caked with mud through and through. After the Fest was over, I remember walking over to a nearby home and using their water hose to hose off most of the mud. The shoes had been worn only a few times before and had been soft and pliant. After the festival, they changed colors and were stiff as a board. No amount of saddle soap or store bought treatment could save them from the garbage heap. In the end the performances and the time were reckoned easily worth the price of one pair of shoes. However, with today's walk-up $50 price tag to see the Jazz Fest and the cost of good shoes up at least 200% from what they were 29 years ago, one may question if it's all worth the trip. My favorite way to see the festival is to ride a bicycle into the front gate. You dispense with the cost of parking and the time involved in finding a safe spot and pretty much can leave whenever you want, squirting through tight spaces and blasting past the worst of the traffic. However, there is nothing more dangerous than riding a bicycle on the rain slick streets of this city when Jazz Fest, Mardi Gras or some other celebration is ongoing. It is an accident waiting to happen and I loathe pedaling in the rain. Of course sitting and sloshing through the mud is not all that enticing either. Frankly, I will miss not seeing my hero Elvis Costello as he sings with our great performer Allen Toussaint, but the opportunity to stay warm, dry and mud free is too enticing for me to pass up. Lastly, I console myself with the knowledge that there still is another weekend of Jazz Fest upcoming. As Billy Joel sang yesterday, that's why I'll be "Keeping the Faith."

Stumpin' with McCain

John McCain arrived in New Orleans today to tour the still devastated Ninth Ward area and to speak at the mostly African-American campus of Xavier University. He took particular pains to distance himself from the Bush administration and the sorry response it had to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. There was no doubt that McCain was not speaking as a Senator, who like his fellow Senators Obama and Clinton, did little to breed confidence in the government in the days following the cataclysm. McCain was speaking as a presidential hopeful and one whose rhetoric spoke more towards what he would have done were he in charge as opposed to what he actually did to inspire our citizens, all of whom were forced to flee their homes and businesses. Today many of them are still trying to recover from the unprecedented disaster. If we trust what McCain said today, the citizens of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast would have little to fear if another "100 year" storm were to slam into the vicinity head on. He would direct the recovery effort himself from the tarmac of whatever nearby airport he would land Air Force One. He pledged: "Never again, never again will a disaster of this nature be handled in the terrible and disgraceful way this was handled." That's quite a bit of posturing for McCain, who heretofore has never been quite as reproachful of the Bush administration in the area of domestic policy. McCain has been quite careful in the past not to tie his hitch to the Bush wagon train, especially as anti-war demonstrators have encircled the wagons. He has had the indelicate task of supporting the campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan, while distancing himself from Bush. When asked if the responsibility for the disaster in New Orleans goes all the way up the ladder to Bush, McCain answered "yes." The speech could be McCain's sharpest criticism of the President. Given the fact it was delivered to a group that experienced much of the pain and suffering brought about by the incompetence of a poorly managed FEMA response team, it received thunderous response. As a member of Congress, McCain also shouldered some of the blame too. He was critical of his fellow Senators and those Representatives who continued to add pork barrel projects to legislation when much of that money could have been earmarked for hurricane relief. McCain was one of the first Senators to tour the city after the storm, but that was due in large part to a response from Women of the Storm, a local group who petitioned Congress to see for themselves what was happening (or the lack thereof) in New Orleans. McCain and others made the trip in March 2006, almost seven months after Hurricane Katrina made landfall. Make no mistake about it. New Orleans is not Republican territory. Through the years it has largely supported liberal Democrats, while neighboring Metairie, Baton Rouge and much of the northern areas of Shreveport and Monroe have constituted a fairly large amount of staunch Republicans (or registered Democrats who vote Republican). In a way he vindicated himself because of remarks reported earlier in the week on CBS and by Newsweek that suggested McCain was unsure whether or not to rebuild the Ninth Ward. "I really don't know...that's why I'm going," he was reported as having said. Local organizations spearheading relief like ACORN were appalled that McCain, or any presidential candidate for that matter, would be unsure about the rebuilding efforts there at this juncture. McCain may have had his most difficult moments when he was asked how he could justify the huge cost of waging the war in Iraq and Afghanistan when only a small fraction of that cost has trickled into New Orleans and the Gulf Coast areas affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. He was also asked why he favors making the Bush tax cuts that favored corporations and the upper tax brackets when many of those cuts resulted in the loss of federal funds supporting minority education institutions like Xavier University. The controversy of Barack Obama's connection with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright surfaced briefly when McCain was confronted by a student who questioned how he could accept a political endorsement from the Rev. John Magee, a Christian evangelical, who has claimed that Hurricane Katrina was divine retribution for the sinners who lived in New Orleans. To his credit, McCain called Magee's remarks "nonsense." He also pointed out that there is a major difference between accepting an endorsement and attending a pastor's church for 22 years. McCain will probably take Louisiana in a face-to-face showdown with either Obama or Clinton. It is safe to say, though, that while he probably won't win in New Orleans proper, he generated an incredible amount of positive public relations as a result of his stop here. A later stopover in Baton Rouge to raise funds for his continuing campaign marked the end of a busy day for the Republican nominee apparent.

Political Nexus

Hot on the heels of the North American summit between President Bush, Mexican president Felipe Calderon and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper a few days comes news which should put New Orleans even more in in the political spotlight. Republican nominee apparent John McCain will be here tomorrow to tour the Ninth Ward area and to meet with Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, the new wunderkind of the Republican Party. McCain will only be here for a day to pump up his statewide campaign, where he appears heavily favored to win the state in the November presidential elections. Meanwhile, Jindal is looking forward to making his first national TV appearance on Monday's The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. How Jindal comes across will definitely help shape how big a player he will be in the Republican convention and there are several of his biggest supporters who are hoping to catapult his popularity into a run for higher elective office on the national scene. Meanwhile, former Democrat John Kennedy (now a member of the G.0.P.) geared up his campaign for U.S. Senator with a powerful ally, none other than the top Republican, President Bush, at a rally yesterday in Baton Rouge. The President appeared at a fundraiser for Kennedy who hopes to unseat popular politico Mary Landrieu. Landrieu has been raising money for her own war chest, but she has yet to draw as impressive a figure as Bush to endorse her.
Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton is relishing a hard fought victory in Pennsylvania. While North Carolina and Indiana loom large, it is apparent that she is seeing her former hold over the nomination process slip away from her although she is holding a firm line. If she were able to pull off an upset in North Carolina, I would be the first one to rally the troops for her, but even the most ardent of her backers acknowledge that Obama looks like a shoe-in there and that her best hope is Indiana, provided she wins big. As Sonny and Cher once sang, "The Beat Goes On."

Big Easy Music Awards

In many ways the New Orleans recovery scene looks bleak. The progress being made in the Ninth Ward can be measured not by blocks, but by the erection of single houses. Lakeview looks a lot better today, but imagine that one or two houses stand on a single block, while the rest is empty space, sandlots and grass growing where beautiful houses and mansions once stood. The bulldozers and wrecking cranes have had their final say on a conservative 60% of the housing there. While FEMA trailers are for the most part gone from the scene, the homes that were so severely damaged that their tenants have permanently relocated cry out for lack of attention and upkeep in areas like Broadmoor and Mid City. But if the physical progress can be measured at a crawl, the mental return from survival mode to exuberant cheerleaders can best be seen in the arts scene. Last night while President Bush dined at Commander's Palace, the New Orleans arts community feasted on two major events. At Le Chat Noir a packed house enjoyed the Storer Boone Awards that are nominated, voted on and passed out annually by the theatre community. I was not in attendance there as I headed over to Harrah's Theatre for the 20th annual Big Easy Music Awards. The music community honored its own last night with a celebration involving live performances and mixed media. In the end 29 awards were passed out to a widely divergent set of musicians, singers, and promoters of various things having to do with musical New Orleans. Top award recipients included Al "Carnival Time" Johnson, who received the 2008 Music Heritage Award. Johnson still spends much of his time away from the city living in Houston, the city to which he evacuated just prior to Hurricane Katrina hitting New Orleans. WWOZ passed out several honors to volunteers who had helped their radio station survive the terrible times following Hurricane Katrina. Station manager David Freedman was on hand to reveal that Rolling Stone Magazine had tabbed the quirky radio station with worldwide web listernership in addition to local devotees as the Number Two Radio Station in the country. (Only subscribers and you know about this information because the magazine has yet to hit newsstands.) Jazz saxophonist Donald Harrison, Jr. received the 2008 Big Easy Ambassador of Music Award, while his former partner, trumpeter Terence Blanchard, got the nod as the 2008 Entertainer of the Year, largely based on his Grammy Award winning "A Tale of God's Will (A Requiem for Katrina). Rhythm and blues pianist Eddie Bo received the 2008 Lifetime Achievement in Music Award from local legend Allen Toussaint and Lt. Governor Mitch Landrieu. The droll Harry Shearer served as master of ceremonies and much of his banter reflected on his dissatisfaction with the Bush administration's response to the Hurricane Katrina relief on a local level. Newcomer Troy Andrews and veteran performer Irma Thomas received top male and female performer honors for 2007. But it was the live performances that captured the indomitable spirit of New Orleans and Louisiana. For me one of the best was the Big Easy Awards Funky All Star Band directed by Donald Harrison, Jr. and featuring Shamarr Allen, Troy Andrews, "Big" Sam Williams, Matt Perrine, Stanton Moore and Jon Cleary (who won the Best Rhythm and Blues Artist for 2007 as well) that really made me feel that I had arrived back home. There's simply no other way to describe the feeling I had as they churned out "Hey Pocky Way," a Mardi Gras Indian funk classic first popularized by the Meters. The evening ended with Lafayette native hip hopper Cupid singing his popular "Cupid Shuffle" and the entire hall standing up and moving to the directions from the singer ("to the right, to the right, to the right, to the right; to the left, to the left, to the left, to the left; now kick, now kick, now kick, now kick; now walk it by yourself, walk it by yourself.") It was a great night for New Orleans music and an even better night for the city to once again feel proud of all that it has achieved since the storm. My hats off to Awards organizer Gloria Powers and Margo and Clancy Dubos of Gambit Magazine who have sponsored this incredible local awards ceremony for the past two decades!

The last time there was this much media attention in Pennsylvania, it was Groundhog Day and Punxsutawney Phil was looking for his shadow. Whether the Clinton campaign continues or grinds to a halt, only the voters of Pennsylvania can tell. For you Clinton supporters who are not voting in Pennsylvania's primary today, perhaps you will consider voting in our poll at right.