Video: Server 2008 {NAP} Launch
I suddenly realized this morning I never posted anything about my trip in February down to Los Angeles CA to launch the biggest product of my 11 year career at Microsoft – Windows Server 2008. Whoops. :->
I made a 3 part video of my experience. It was glorious weather down there. A friend in Hollywood offered to put me up while I was there. I always love to save the company a few bucks {I’m a shareholder after all}.
Part one of the video is me heading from Hollywood to downtown LA via the underground train. It cost me $2 and was super-clean and safe {cops everywhere}. NAP had it's own "pod" in the Microsoft area, as well as many NAP Partners down in the Microsoft Partner area. When I arrived with 22 hours left until show start, the work was still well underway. As most shows I have attended, somehow it all comes together in the final hours.
I woke up bright and early the next morning and walked to Starbucks before catching the train again. I was still drinking daily coffee at that time {boy those were the days}. :->
The show kicked off with a presentation by Tom Brokaw. Tom then introduced the "chief", Steve Ballmer. I tried to catch the points in Ballmer's discussion which relate to NAP in the video below. We got an amazing amount of coverage considering how much Steve had to talk about. I was super pumped after hearing NAP come out of Steve's mouth, and then as an added bonus he even mentioned we have Linux NAP too!
After Steve wrapped up, we all {and it was a bunch of people} herded over to the show proper. I had two big things to take care of - the NAP pod had a demo in it that I wanted to make sure was ready to go, as well as the live stage demonstration I had at the very end of the day. Somehow, I wanted to get some video too {which is below}.
After the show was done I headed to the after-party. Ah, that was a ton of fun. I have been working on {Longhorn} Server 2008 for many years, and I decided to "let my hair down". It was hosted at the Mayan {an amazing club in downtown LA}. After arriving and learning that it was an open bar for all 1000+ of us {wow}, Mo Rocca gets up stage to give away door prizes. I had never heard of Mo before seeing him on stage, but he was pretty funny. He showed a video he recorded earlier in the day basically picking on all the nerds at the show {hmm}.
The best part was last. Mo introduced the {surprise} musical guest - The Barenaked Ladies. WOW! I never thought I would like their music, but I was blown away by their show. These Canadians dudes rocked the house! I was able to get 30 seconds of video before I was nearly thrown out of the club. :->
Someone in the audience was able to capture my live NAP demo. I stumbled upon this video on SoapBox when posting one of my NAP videos. Watch the race between a styrofoam missile I launched on stage and NAP auto-remediating a Vista SP1 Client! :-> I came up with that stunt an hour before we went on, and it went over very well!
I truly hope you enjoyed the videos, as well as using Server 2008. My blood, sweat and tears are all over that product and I am really proud of how it turned out!
Cheers!
{ Jeff Sigman }{ Senior Program Manager & NAP Hero }{ Enterprise Security Group }
{ NAP Blog, FAQ, Forum, MSDN, Site and my bloÿg }
Comments
Anonymous
January 01, 2003
I’d like to welcome a new guest blogger to the NAP Blog – Chris Edson. Chris is a senior engineer onAnonymous
January 01, 2003
It was a ton of fun Patrick! I wouldn't have minded attending the New Zealand event myself! :-> JeffAnonymous
April 25, 2008
Hey there Jeff, It really looked like an awesome launch - I wish i could have gone. Too bad the heros happen here launch cost just under $200 to visit over here in New Zealand.