March 2007 - Posts

Batch-convert Office files to 2007's Open XML format
30 March 07 08:27 AM | Ewan | 0 Comments   

A customer asked me the other day if Microsoft was ever going to build batch-conversion facilities to take old format files that live on a network fileshare, and convert them to the newer XML-based formats - his reasoning was the sometimes considerable Read More...

Filed under: Office

Hosting of applications - the inevitable future?
29 March 07 06:44 PM | Ewan | 0 Comments   

I've been musing over some medium term IT trends lately and one idea that keeps coming back into frame is the seemingly inevitable trend towards hosting of applications. Take Exchange, as just one example... Hosted Exchange * has been available for years, Read More...

Filed under: Exchange, Random Stuff

ZDNet sings praises of Office Communications Server beta
27 March 07 03:52 PM | Ewan | 1 Comments   

Like probably millions of other people, I get the daily ZDNet Tech Update Today (since long before RSS brought news feeds to the masses...) and was floored a little by David Berlind's column today. I think David's a good commentator - normally sails between Read More...

Filed under: IM, Office

Windows Live Mail Desktop - replaces Outlook Express for Hotmail use
23 March 07 06:31 PM | Ewan | 2 Comments   

I've been running the "dogfood" version of Windows Live Mail Desktop (WLMD) for a while now, and found it to be really stable and usable. It's basically a superset of the built-in Windows Mail application from Windows Vista, which supercedes Outlook Express. Read More...

Filed under: Vista

Is your email compliant with the (UK) Companies Act?
22 March 07 03:31 PM | Ewan | 1 Comments   

A semi little-known fact... as of the 1st January 2007, the rules for UK companies regarding business stationery changed. Just like every registered company is bound to include certain information (the registered office, the geography of registration Read More...

Filed under: Exchange

Calibri: a font like no other...
19 March 07 12:55 PM | Ewan | 0 Comments   

Someone asked me a semi-bizarre question today: the new fonts which are in Office 2007 and Windows Vista, especially Calibri (which, I must say, I think looks great)... Can they be installed on older versions of Windows or Office? I had never really appreciated Read More...

Filed under: Vista, Office

Free domain name, web site + email address with Office Live Basics beta
15 March 07 06:44 PM | Ewan | 1 Comments   

I got given a card yesterday proclaiming an offer of free domain name, web site and email service, all hosted by Office Live Basics, which is in beta at www.officelive.co.uk : Sounded too good to be true, but literally minutes later I was logging in to Read More...

Filed under: Random Stuff

Shortcut to quickly set your voicemail greeting in Exchange 2007 UM
14 March 07 11:12 AM | Ewan | 0 Comments   

I love the Exchange UM system my voicemail is supplied by, though it can take a while to navigate using voice commands if all you want to do is set your voicemail greeting. I (like a lot of people in Microsoft UK) set the greeting every day to set expectations Read More...

Filed under: Exchange

Water, Water everywhere, nor any drop to drink
09 March 07 02:19 PM | Ewan | 0 Comments   

So it's been a quiet week on The Electric Wand, largely because of the fact that I woke up the other day and looked out of the front of my house to see... leaving the entire downstairs floor soaked in water, and the footwells of one of the cars with a Read More...

Filed under: Random Stuff

Exchange 2003/2007 clustering & high availability
02 March 07 10:49 AM | Ewan | 3 Comments   

The Exchange development team have done a nice job of expanding the high availability options with the 2007 release. With Exchange 2003, the only real HA design was to use what is now known as a Single Copy Cluster (SCC) - ie. there's one copy of the Read More...

Filed under: Exchange

Is that a Zune in your pocket...?
01 March 07 03:17 PM | Ewan | 0 Comments   

(or are you just pleased to see me) OK, after talking about media players just over a month ago , I couldn't stop myself from buying a Zune when I was in the US last month (no willpower). At $249 + tax, with the exchange rate currently so favourable, Read More...

Filed under: Consumer Tech