How would you like to be able to turn your Windows firewall off when your on the domain and then on when your in public or private networks?  Seems pretty easy, just open up and turn on/off at will, nope, it's easier than that, this can be automated.  Wouldn't it be neat if you could step on program (iTunes maybe) at the office, but allow it access from public and private networks?  Would you like to be able to configure some inbound and outbound firewall rules and you think the home user interface bites???

Wf.msc to the rescue!  This is one snap-inthat makes me think that the Windows Firewall might not be as bad as it looks.  Instead of only have rules on a per interface basis, you can set rules on a per network type basis.  You can have simple stuff like, "when I'm on the domain, turn the firewall off", or you can be trickier and say "when I'm on the domain, deny iTunes access to the network".& ...

Nope, you didn't guess it...  Microsoft has previously released four limited-edition developer action figures, the "Source Fource".  In order to receive one of these highly coveted action figures, you must be one of the first five thousand people to attend two live web casts in a given month.  I have all of the original four.  It looks like Microsoft snuck three more into play without my noticing (that didn't take much effort).

The first of the new action figures is "ISV Super Gal" who has been placed into eligibility for two months, December 06 and January 07.  I doubt I'll be getting her, but hopefully I'll be able to get the other two.  Yes, I'm collecting dolls0...  Wait, theses are action figures :)

Here is the homepage:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/events/hero/defau ...

Yesterday I received an email from a colleague with a rather long signature.  This prompted me to create my own signature, a better and longer signature!
Here it is :-)

------------
Bennett Dill
Application Architect
Interactive Solutions
Technology Solutions
Foo, Inc.
Microsoft MCAD.Net
Email - bennett.dill@foo.com
Office - (513) 555-7577
Fax - (513) 555-7733
Supervisor - Mike Bar
Supervisors Email - mike.bar@foo.com
Supervisors Supervisor - Jeff BigWig
Supervisors Supervisor Email - jeff.bigwig@foo.com
Irc - MuteThis
www.foo.com
ww ...

At my house I have a file server and a couple laptops.  Both laptops are running Windows Vista Ultimate.  I wanted to be cool and post the build or something cool like that, but Control Panel -> System and Maintenance -> Find which version of Windows you are using (this appears to be the same link as "Welcome Center") yielded nothing more than "Windows Vista Ultimate" with my CPU, ram, video card and computer name.  I tried the handy "Show more details" arrow and landed on "Control Panel\System and Maintenance\System" with a heading of "View basic information about your computer".  Nothing more about the OS version there, but a friendly note was present asking me to refresh my "Windows Experience Index" because "New hardware detected".

Anyway, I digress...  On my wife's laptop, I was setting up iTunes (don't get me started), and had to map a network driv ...