I figure what a decent way to start off the week with some links to some tips, tricks, and news.

First off is the news that Microsoft’s Free E-book Offer is back. Starting this Wednesday, April 15 and going through April 22, you can download 2 books from Microsoft Press, completely free. The more interesting one to myself is the Windows 2008 Small Business Administrator’s Companion.

Keeping on the Windows 2008 track Microsoft’s Technet Blogs have decided that this months weekly tip series is on Windows Server 2008. Week 1 and Week 2 have been posted and I have to admit, this is some real good information. Some of it seems quite simple, but as I’ve said before, how many times have you stupidly overlooked like the simple? I know I do quite often.

Finally it seems that the economy has hit the SMB Summit this year. Susan Bradley has more information at her blog, or you can just go to the SMBTN Blog. I say go and check out Susan’s blog anyways as she always has interesting posts with some good information.

And that is it for this Monday morning. More to come during the week, as I get to delve into the idea of 1:1 computing for schools.

So, while reading the other blogs and news sites I check daily, I came across this interesting article. It seems that Microsoft’s .NET 3.5 SP1 has caused yet more problems. This time with Exchange 2007 on SBS 2008.  With this latest issue that has now cropped up with .Net 3.5 Its time to remember a few things…

1) In Microsoft’s defense, they can’t test everything before releasing stuff. That is why hot fixes exist.

2) Never just accept patches. Always find a way of testing them yourself, even if it is on a personal machine, and research the patches also to see what problems other’s have had. The more reports you find, the more prepared you can be about any issues with it.

I know they are simple thoughts, but just watching how Microsoft has screwed up with this latest version of  .Net it just amazes me that people don’t think of these things. Course, I am one to speak.