Just after getting my home development environment all upgraded I finally moved to VSTFS workgroup edition ... I was really excited to use all the great features they offer to support SDLC (including source, bug, documentation management) but integrating it into a nice workflow experience.

Well after going through the goodness of building out a new TFS VM, I find out that it doesn't go well.  TFS complains about the wrong SQL version (albeit i am running SQL 2008).  After ... a rebuild of the  VM or two ... i finally got enough nerve to search the net and found out a nice issue.

For Windows 2008, SQL 2008 and TFS 2008 to work together you need to have TFS SP1 ... the "updated" help file I downloaded which pulls RTM TFS help does not mention anything here except "2008 SQL is supported" :)

anyway ... the link helped me out and my TFS workgroup is up and running.

Back in 1992 i got on the Windows NT 3.1 beta and became very active on Compuserve in the WUG (windows user groups)... little did any of us know this would be the foundation for the MVP program.  Windows was really taking off in the PC industry and 3.0 really made things for NT very different from the Unix systems i was using in the day.  A few years on Compuserve and getting awarded WUG sponsorship from Microsoft really was a nice gift and things really started to boom, it was called the Internet ... there were very few of us WUG folks on CIS who continued forward into the first ever MVP program around 1994. 

This was denoted as the "WIndows MVP" and there were no other product or specializations into major areas of the Windows product line.   We were all very broad and deep in many areas and we really enjoyed helping people so we were rewarded with alpha / beta  access (OS, apps, technologies, MSN etc) and sponsorship into MSN (which replaced CIS).

Over time this really just moved into things like MVP bucks, Technet and Universal MSDN , books, MVP summits and all kinds of other goodies as well as relationships directly to the product teams.  It was a really good time and overtime got me in the door with Microsoft in 1997/8.  It just took me a few years to move out west :)

Why this post? Well in our most recent move, my wife saw my old MVP awards started asking me about this and it made me reflect on these times.

I even see a TON of my old posts ...  http://groups.google.com/groups?q=lester%20russell%20AT%26T&rls=com.microsoft:*&oe=UTF-8&startIndex=&startPage=1&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wg

Sign of the times.