VIRTUALBOY BLOG
Now, as you'll probably have guessed, I love Vista, and it genuinely has changed the way I work, for the better, but every so often it does something which makes me laugh, and although this happened to a colleague of mine, and not me, I thought I'd share it with you anyway....
Hee hee :-) Made me laugh anyway!
If you haven't heard of Halo by now, where have you been? I mean, come on, Halo 2 took $125 million at retail in it's first 24 hours! OK, I suppose not everyone will have heard of it, but let me tell you, when Halo 3 launches for Xbox 360, you will hear about it, as it is going to be huge...
Now this picture was taken from the trailer unveiled at E3. I'd recommend you take a look if you haven't seen it already.
Anyway, to the point of the post...the teaser TV advertisement will air in North America on the 4th of December, during ESPN Monday Night Football, whilst at the same time, being aired in Europe on Xbox.com. So, for all you UK readers, that means staying awake until 2:15am on Tuesday 5th December, to watch the 60 second ad.
For those of you who struggle staying up, you can watch it on our very own Channel 4, on Friday 15th December, at 22:45. How precise is that! You'll also be able to download the ad using the Xbox Live Marketplace, so you can enjoy it in High Def on your shiny new Plasma screen....nice :-)
If you think the Gears of War trailer was impressive, get ready to see Master Chief as you have never seen him before...
On a side note, to celebrate the 5th anniversary of the release of the original Halo, Microsoft Game Studios and Bungie Studios, recently announced an exclusive hands-on experience with Halo 3 - an Xbox Live multiplayer public beta, the first of it's kind for the Halo franchise. This really does represent a great opportunity for for gamers worldwide to help shape the development of Halo 3. Keep your eyes peeled for an official start date for the trial, and I'll see you on there... (Gamertag: mattmcspirit) (original, I know!)
So, all that is left to say is...get ready to join Master Chief as he returns to finish the fight, bringing the epic conflict between the Covenant, the Flood and the entire human race to a dramatic, pulse-pounding climax...
Ok, so slightly random, but useful all the same. Hat's off to Susanne for pinging this over to me :-)
It's taken from 'The New Paperclip' which is a great resource for tips and tricks around Office 2007 and this particular tip focuses on inserting random text into documents, which is especially useful when demo'ing the Office 2007 system.
You can generate the good old Lorum Ipsum text by simply typing =lorem() which will generate something like this:
"Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Maecenas porttitor congue massa. Fusce posuere, magna sed pulvinar ultricies, purus lectus malesuada libero, sit amet commodo magna eros quis urna.
Nunc viverra imperdiet enim. Fusce est. Vivamus a tellus.
Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Proin pharetra nonummy pede. Mauris et orci."
but if you wanted to insert a specific amount of text, i.e. 3 paragraphs, you would place the number in the brackets, like this: =lorem(3)
An alternative to the latin is =rand() which again will generate a couple of paragraphs of random English text, yet this one is a little more customisable, so I can specify =rand(3,4) which would give me 3 paragraphs with 4 sentences in each. Easy!
Same =rand() again for this one.
=rand() again, but this time it generates a random number.
Whenever I demo Vista to Partners and Customers, one of the areas I talk about is around Shadow Copies, or in other words, Previous Versions, and one of the common questions I get back is 'How much space does this consume on my machine??' Well, let me clarify, but first, let me explain what Shadow Copies are all about...
Taken from the incredibly informative Vista Help and Support... "Previous versions are either backup copies—copies of files and folders that you back up by using the Back Up Files wizard, or shadow copies—copies of files and folders that Windows automatically saves as part of a restore point. (Shadow copies can be copies of files on your computer or shared files on a computer on a network.) You can use previous versions of files to restore files that you accidentally modified or deleted, or that were damaged. Depending on the type of file or folder, you can open, save to a different location, or restore a previous version."
For the purpose of this post, I'm going to focus on the Previous Versioning of documents, as it is something easy to demo, and incredibly useful. We've all been there, we've opened a document, made a few radical changes, and instead of choosing to Save-As (because you want to keep the old version too) you've selected save, and then you have closed the document, so there is now no option to go back and undo those changes. That's no good is it!
Well, my friends, Vista has the answer. All you have to do is right-click that document, select "Restore Previous Versions" and this is what you will be presented with...
As you can see, not only can I restore from the shadow copy that I have recently made, but I can restore the backup that I made too! You can restore to multiple shadow copies, so if I'd changed the document 3 days ago, 2 days ago and yesterday, I could go back to either of those! One thing to remember is that if you go back to the earliest one, you won't be able to come back forward again.
What about if you have deleted a file, and need it again. Can you restore from that? Yes you can! You can right-click the actual folder that contained the document before you deleted it, say, My Documents for example, and simply right-click that folder, select "Restore Previous Versions" and you will be able to see the folder contents from before you deleted the document you are interested in!
Can you turn this functionality off? Sure, but why would you wnat to? Can you apply it to multiple partitions? Yes you can! Simply go to control pane -> System -> System Protection...
I can simply select the partitions that i want to monitor for shadow copies. Easy Peasy.
One thing you may be thinking is, if Vista takes Shadow Copies of all my documents etc, surely this is going to hammer this disc space i have remaining, right? Well, if you pop over to The Filing Cabinet, you will see that the default set aside disc space is 15%. You can modify this, and details are all found at that link.
That was a mouthful!
This is a great tool for small businesses, and I'm sure many of you out there will already know about this, but, if you don't, it's your lucky day! Essentially, the Small Business Technology Assessment Toolkit is a step-by-step guide on how to assess the technology needs of a small business customer, and hence pave the way for long-term, profitable relationships.
The toolkit is based on the best practices of Microsoft Partners, and helps to identify customers business needs, goals, plans, competitors, challenges, and technology requirements so you can create a plan that addresses immediate requirements and maps out future needs.
So, what does the CD include?
And, as an added bonus, for a limited time, you can get a free copy of Windows Small Business Server 2003 Release 2 (US$599 in value) when you use the toolkit to assess your customers’ needs. To get your free copy, all you have to do is:
STEP 1: Use the Small Business Technology Assessment Toolkit to conduct assessments with your customers.STEP 2: Submit the business assessments to us. (one copy per partner organisation)STEP 3: Complete a quick survey.
Download your toolkit and get started earning your free software today. You can also read more about the Small Business Technology Assessment Toolkit here.
A what? A Virtual Hard Disk! Earlier in November, we announced the VHD Test Drive Program (link), that essentially enables you as Microsoft Partners, and your customers, to confidently evaluate mainstream enterprise software from Microsoft and Partners in a fraction of the time. At launch, we will have pre-configured VHDs of Windows Server 2003 R2 and other key Microsoft applications such as SQL Server, ISA Server, and Exchange Server + Live Communication Server. With the VHD Test Drive Program, it enables you, our partners, to distribute your applications and solutions as a pre-configured VHD built on top of Windows Server 2003 R2 and leveraging other Microsoft applications.
As you will probably we aware, over the last 12 months or so, Microsoft's virtualisation story really has started to gain momentum, with more and more Partners and Customers getting excited about the possibilities, especially as we draw ever nearer to the 'Longhorn' time frame, and more specifically, Windows Server Virtualisation. This momentum has been spurred on not only by Windows Server Virtualisation, but also by licensing changes, new releases of virtualisation platforms and the acquisition of Softricity. The release of these VHD's marks another milestone for not just virtualisation but a new paradigm in how the industry looks at evals and potentially could become a new software distribution mechanism.
So, why distribute VHD's? Well, not only does it reduce the cost of evaluating Microsoft software, but it also reduces the complexity for customers and Partners. So, what are the value propositions for Partners and customers? Well, think about it, if you are a Partner, you can deliver quick, prebuilt virtual machines for your customers, to provide quick and simple evaluations. This pre-building of the environment, means that the overall evaluation period is reduced, which means shorter sales cycles. It is also a great way to leverage customer interest in Virtual Machines based on Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise Edition and SQL Server 2005.
So, what about your customers? How can they benefit from the VHD Test Drive Program? Firstly, the customer gains the ability to do simple, quick evaluations for mainstream applications. They can also gain increased confidence in virtual environments as the program is backed by Microsoft and subsequently, provide easy to understand technical support policies for third-party products in virtualised environments.
Sounds like a win-win to me!
You can find out more information here:
External PortalPartner Master Eval Images
Are you a Microsoft Partner? If so, do you have the Security Competency? If you do, this is your lucky day!
Over the next 8 months, Microsoft will be giving you the opportunity to win one of hundreds of fantastic prizes from within The Vault, ranging from MP3 players and other gadgets to diamonds, watches, sports cars or a millionaires weekend in Monaco! But why? And perhaps more importantly, how do you get involved?
Well, the incentive is all around Microsoft Forefront Security and it's portfolio of products such as ISA Server 2006 and Exchange Hosted Services. The rules are pretty darn simple, every month until the end of June 2007, the top 3 Partners, by Sales, will be rewarded with prizes such as the ones mentioned above, but that's not all, the top Partner at the end of the year will win the millionaires yachting weekend in Monaco. I'm thinking about getting involved myself, but, alas, my sea-legs are abit wobbly and I tend to go a little bit green on water, so I'll let someone else try and win instead ;-)
You can find out more information about The Vault including all the terms and conditions, over at The Vault Website.
Good Luck...
My partner-in-crime, James Senior (of Vista RTM Sounds fame...) blogged about this a while back, so no doubt 2/3's of the world's Internet using population have read it, but hopefully this will prove useful to those who may not have seen his blog.
You've heard of MCP's right? Microsoft Certified Professional exams already exist for a huge number of topics out there, ranging from Visual Studio, XP, Windows Server and so on, but with the BIG3 on the horizon, namely Exchange, Vista and Office, surely you are wondering when the certifications for these systems are coming along, in order to get your employees trained and able?
Well, although the final details are still being finalised, we have published an advanced look at details over on the MCP site. A brief overview can be found below:
I haven't finished yet! It's like a bottomless Santa Sack....You can find early readiness materials, including new courseware and some free e-learning, over on the learning portals:
I've finished now :-)
I blogged about this a few weeks back, but now that it has been released, I thought I would talk about it again, and hopefully you will gain an idea of how much value this could bring to a small business.
In our last team meeting, my gaffer, Steve Clayton, was talking about Office Live, and how useful it would be in a situation, where, for example, someone is starting a new business, so visits the bank to discuss financial options, and after completing those procedures, the nice business manager at Barclays says "So, you're starting a new business, so it would be a great idea to have a web presence to help drive business, your own domain name, branded emails, the ability to analyse your traffic and specialist applications to manage your business and so on" and the client instantly thinks, "whoa, that sounds great, but it will a) be too expensive, and b) I'm a plumber, it's not totally relevant to me, and I won't have time to set it all up and build it, plus I'm not technical!".
The answer, says the Barclays Business Manager, "is Office Live".
In a nuteshell, Office Live enables you to take advantage of the following features:
So far, nearly 200,000 customers have already participated in the Office Live beta and over 100 partners have agreed to build solutions on the platform. In addition to the U.S. market, we've launched beta versions of Office Live in France, Germany, U.K. and Japan on November 21st.
How much is this "Office Live" then? Well, the services range from free, (no typo) to $40 per month, so check out the Office Live site for more information on what you get for your hard-earned. Readers from the UK should check out the Uk version, over at the UK Office Live site.
The era of software-as-a-service is changing the world in terms of how people build, deploy, consume and pay for software and already, the reviews around Office Live have been extremely positive. Many Microsoft Partners view Office Live as an opportunity to expand their current offerings and to address a segment for which they previously had no viable solution. The business critical nature of the solutions a Partner can create on Microsoft Office Live provides them with an opportunity to become more strategic to their customers, thus driving longer term relationships and increasing word-of-mouth referrals. There is also nothing to stop our Partners building on top of Office Live, hence providing an even more tailored solution to customers. Office Live ultimately helps businesses to become more profitable by removing on site delivery costs and makes it possible for them to focus on providing customized business functionality that is of a high value to the small business.
There has already been abit of press flying around about Office Live, from Personal Computer World, Silicon.com and PC Pro aswell as the good ol' BBC.
Finally, if I could suggest one action, check out the CNBC News Story, as it really does capture the value proposition that Office Live can bring to a small business.
The world is changing...can you afford not to?
Passing MCP's isn't the easiest thing in the world now is it? Especially 70-293 and 70-291, which are complete pains in the...
Anyway, achieving your Microsoft certificate just got easier.
Microsoft Certified Learning Solutions Partners are exclusively offering a new option called Exam Insurance, where you now have two chances to pass any Microsoft Certification exam at no cost. Pass on the first try and you'll get 25% off your next exam. Sounds too good to be true? Well, in the words of Ali-G, it's 'For Real, Aii!' and you can find more information here!