Mid-Market Mayhem

Skydrive and Office 2010

2009-11-20T20:49:10Z

I’ve been using my 25 gigs of SkyDrive for a while to share files with partners, customers, friends, family, and anyone else that might be interested in what’ hanging out in my publically shared folder. Mainly I use it when file attachments are just too big to put into email because of file size restrictions or just good manners of not filling up my recipients mailboxes.

You can upload files to SkyDrive via drag-n-drop or use a simple upload form where you choose individual files by navigating to them (pretty much the standard way most files are uploaded to websites). Now there is another way to get files into you 25GB of SkyDrive storage for easy sharing or just to have your files available on the web so you can get to them no matter where you are. It’s done via the Office 2010 client.

Word, PowerPoint, and Excel have this share option enabled under the current beta listed under File > Share > Save to SkyDrive. OneNote shows it as a feature but notes that it is not currently available. You will have to sign in with you LiveID to connect to the SkyDrive service. Once that happens, your folders will enumerate and you can save to any of your existing folders or create a new one. Choosing to create a new folder will launch the browser and take you to the “New Folder setup” on your SkyDrive account.

What’s better than being able to stay inside of your favorite Office applications and access 25gb of on-line storage? How about the fact that once you save your Office documents out to SkyDrive you can edit them with the Office WebApps through a web browser no matter where you are? Check out this overview of the PowerPoint Webapp from the PowerPoint Team Blog for more information on the PowerPoint Webapp.

Office 2010 beta can be downloaded at http://www.microsoft.com/office/2010/en/default.aspx

Nebraska SharePoint User Group Meeting 2/3 at 9AM

2009-01-08T21:50:32Z

Nebraska SharePoint User Group

SharePoint In Action

You are invited to the SharePoint User group on Tuesday, February 3.

At this event you will see SharePoint In Action. Create it, Build it, Deploy it and Debug it. We will build a master page, custom style sheet, web part, feature receiver and stapler to demonstrate the basics in development for SharePoint. After we build it, we will deploy it to SharePoint and debug the whole thing.

If you have specific questions that you would like answered, we encourage you to submit them to marketing@inetium.com, so that the presenters can address them to the best of their ability.

Click to Register

About the Nebraska SharePoint User Group:
Since 2004, Inetium's objective has been to develop and support the local community focused on SharePoint Technologies. The mission of the SharePoint User Group is to:

Educate user group members about SharePoint Technologies
Transfer knowledge within the community
Communicate best practices
Introduce new products/solutions

We look forward to seeing you!

When:
Thursday, February 3, 2009
Registration: 8:30 - 9:00 AM
Event: 9:00 - 11:00 AM
Networking/Q&A: 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM

Where:
Microsoft Corporation
One Valmont Plaza, Suite 201

13815 FNB Parkway
Omaha, NE 68154
Driving Directions

Registration:
Click to attend

Web site:
http://www.sharepointne.com

Contact Information:
If you would like more information about this event or about the Nebraska SharePoint User Group, please contact Inetium at (952) 646-0800 or marketing@inetium.com.

Podcasting Kit for SharePoint – August Tech Preview

2008-09-02T16:23:32Z

The August Technology Preview of the Podcasting Kit for SharePoint has been released to CodePlex over the week-end.

There are four major updates in this release:

1. PKS is now fully compatibility with Windows Server 2008 x86 and x64

2. A final Zune/RSS integration: 1-click synchronization!

3. Expression Encoder 2.0 for thumbnail extraction and soon server-side re-encoding!

4. We’ve migrated from beta 1 to beta 2 of Silverlight 2

Microsoft Online Media Series: Week of August 25, 2008

2008-08-19T22:33:10Z

It’s been a bit since my last post and it’s time to get back on track. Below are some really great pieces of information to take advantage of now and on going. Make sure to use the RSS links at the bottom to syndicate the content.

The Microsoft Online Media Series give you a fast, convenient way to find and engage with content that is most relevant and helpful to you. Featuring both live and on-demand content, the series give you a look at the month ahead while also letting you browse webcasts, virtual labs, and podcasts by product and topic.

FEATURED MICROSOFT OFFICE SYSTEM CONTENT

Series Highlights:

Tips and Tricks for Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007

Access our library of on-demand webcasts and learn tips for creating stimulating presentations with Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007. We show you how to structure your story, identify key points, and create slides almost effortlessly—and get results. Watch a webcast, such as “How to Create a 15-Minute Presentation (with Graphics!) in One Hour” with best-selling author Cliff Atkinson, today.

Highly Rated On-Demand Webcasts:

Introducing Windows Vista for 2007 Microsoft Office System Users (Level 100)

How to Create a 15-Minute Presentation (with Graphics!) in One Hour (Level 300)

Creating Custom Dashboard-Type Views for Powerful Communication (Level 200)

New Podcasts:

Tips and Tricks for Office 2008 for Mac: Incredible Documents Made Simple (Level 200)

WMA (16MB) | MP3 (15MB)

BROWSE MICROSOFT OFFICE SYSTEM CONTENT BY TOPIC

Microsoft Office System

Office Virtual Labs syndication

RSS

RSS for Office Podcasts, choose your format below.

WMA | MP3

Polycom CX Family

2007-11-29T18:36:30Z

This line of devices has been designed to work with Office Communication Server 2007. I am currently using a model similar to the CX200.

At first look you notice that it lacks a numeric pad, this is because you do your dialing through the Office Communicator Client. "Dial" may not actually be the best word to use since in most cases dialing a contact takes nothing more then a right click so the physical act of dialing is not really there, thus negating the need for a number pad in a majority of scenarios. (image 1) You can click to dial any number that is in your organizations GAL or in your Outlook contacts. If the number or person you want to dial does not meet the prior criteria, you can just type in the number using the Communicator Client to place the call. (image 2)

Other features include:

presence status light
volume
speakerphone
indicator lights for
- unread voicemail
- call forwarding is enabled.

When I am on the road, I use nothing more then a pair of headphones with a built-in mic. At my office or home office its nice to have a handset to pickup or take advantage of the speakerphone. In the words of one of my colleague's. "there is something old school about having a physical device." It's interesting to think we could be at a point where a desk phone could be considered old school. To me it shows how the workforce is being able to become truly mobile and being less and less tied to a desk or any physical location.

What's new in Exchange 2007 SP1?

2007-11-29T17:02:00Z

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb676323.aspx

Public release of Windows Server virtualization

2007-09-25T15:21:00Z

Windows Server 2008 RC0 includes the first public look at Windows Server Virtulization (code name Viridian). You can start the download process here http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/audsel.mspx

Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Ignite Tour

2007-08-14T18:53:57Z

Overview:
Join us for this invitation-only, two-day, hands-on workshop to experience the power and promise of Office Communications Server 2007!

This will be rolling into the St. Louis office on September 6th. The link is below.

http://www.msreadiness.com/CourseDetail.aspx?id=6258

SCCM 2007 Setup on Windows 2003 R2 SP2

2007-05-04T00:27:00Z

I was recently putting together a demo lab for the latest public release of SCCM 2007 (Beta 2) and could not get past the following;

• MS06-030: Vulnerability in Server Message Block could allow elevation of privilege (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=79239).

• Windows Server 2003 Post-Service Pack 1 COM+ 1.5 Hotfix Rollup Package 6. Information about this Hotfix Rollup is available at: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=79240.

I am running Windows Server 2003 SP2 which addressed both of these issues,however the prerequisite checker during setup does not "know" what to do with SP2, so I was stuck. I found some documentation on Setup Prerequisite Checks which includes good info on using the check in various senarios, but not how to get past it so I just tried the following Setup /noprereq and I could complete the installation.

Obviously using this in normal setup without verifying that you meet all the requirements could cause issues, but if you want to run WS2003 SP2 until the SCCM 2007 Beta 2 setup has been changed to reflect those fixes, this is an option.

Notes from MMS 2007

2007-03-31T17:27:08Z

At the Microsoft Management Summit 2007 in San Diego there was some great technology displayed. It was evident that the System Center family of products is becoming very mature. The DSI model is becoming a reality and interoperability between SC products is key in driving the ability to move towards a more dynamic infrastructure. Below are just a few points that I picked up throughout the week.

"Service Desk" was officially named System Center Service Manager. Betas are reported to hit the public next month. Be sure to check Connect and signup. My favorite part of the Service Manager demo was the self service portal for application deployment. It allowed the user to go out to a portal and see the packaged applications available in the environment (housed in SMS/SCCM or Softgrid) and select which applications they would like to install with a few clicks.
Client monitoring with SCOM 2007 is not what I thought it would be. I was thinking along the lines of how a server is monitored and thought to myself "wow, that's overkill for a desktop." There are several ways you can monitor the desktop and they are covered in the following document. Agentless Crash Monitoring is a very interesting way that SCOM can collect the data that from the "Windows Error Reporting" service and allow admins to check and see if the issue(s) is a one-off or if it effects enough of the user community to address the issue.
Softgrid. You could not turn around without hearing someone talking about Softgrid. There is a lot of excitement around the product, which makes sense considering it takes everything you know about application compatibility, registry settings, DLL conflicts..etc.. and throws it all out the window.

Those were just some quick points that stuck out, there's still more to cover. Keep your eyes on the System Center landing page. A lot is going on with the System Center side of the house over the next year.

Installing Adobe 8 on Vista

2007-03-14T17:08:00Z

I've seen a few posts on how to do this, but the following is the only way I could get it done.

Right Click the Adobe 8 executable (AdbeRdr80_en_US.exe)
Click on the "Compatibility" tab
Check the box under "Compatibility mode" for "Run this program in.....
Choose "Windows XP (Service Pack 2)
Click OK

Now go back and run the Adobe executable and the install should go.

More DST info

2007-02-23T17:34:00Z

Here you find some information as well as some web resources to get pointed in the right direction concerning the DST changes in 2007.

A good place for anyone to start is some of the links below

Main DST landing page- http://www.microsoft.com/dst2007
Upcoming webcasts on DST information - http://support.microsoft.com/gp/dst_webcasts

Also the version 2 of the Exchange Calendar Update Tool went live last night on Feb 21st. KB | Download

Key improvements over V1: ~2x performance improvement when MSEXTMZ.exe is running in Update Mode, improved user interface, fixed memory leak that caused the need to frequently restart the client machine, improved algorithm for mapping extracted time zones to OS time zones.

Windows Home Server 2007 @ CES

2007-01-08T23:18:00Z

Video: Windows Home Server CES 2007

Virtual Earth Interactive SDK

2007-01-03T19:34:47Z

This one does not necessary fall under Mid-Market or partner space, I just thought it was worth mentioning.

http://dev.live.com/virtualearth/sdk/

This site allows you to walk though various scenarios of navigating the map, adding custom locations, views, directions, and even display 3-D birds eye view (if available). After you have a view you can display it on your blog, webpage, in an application and so on.

One idea would be to create a collection that has all the various location of a company using push-pins to display those locations. Each push-pin could be edited to show information specific to each branch. When a user hovered over the push-pin the info could be displayed and then could act on the information displayed i.e. phone number, driving directions and so on.

Just to give a better idea, here is a collection I have created with events I will be competing in in 2007.

http://local.live.com/?v=2&cid=A9B6CFBF1C9F0219!154

Exchange Server 2007 Loadfest

2007-01-03T06:23:52Z

Attention Partners!!!

Load up on knowledge about Exchange Server 2007 – in one day!

Overview:
This one-day technical hands-on workshop will introduce you to the new and enhanced features of Exchange Server 2007, and will provide a set of best practices for implementing and administering new functionality. You will learn about key technologies in server storage, server roles, and high availability are enabled in Exchange Server 2007. Upon completion of the workshop, you will have knowledge of the necessary tools and skills to implement a secure and robust messaging environment.

Available Dates and Locations
All meeting times are local.
*Login is required to register for this course.
Feb 01, 2007
9:00AM-5:00PM
Falls Church, Virginia

Feb 05, 2007
9:00AM-5:00PM
Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey

Feb 23, 2007
8:30AM-4:30PM
San Diego, California

Feb 23, 2007
9:00AM-5:00PM
Washington DC, D.C.

Feb 23, 2007
9:00AM-5:00PM
St. Louis, Missouri

Mar 06, 2007
8:00AM-4:00PM
Edina, Minnesota

Mar 08, 2007
9:00AM-5:00PM
Houston, Texas

Mar 08, 2007
9:00AM-5:00PM
Tampa, Florida

Mar 08, 2007
9:00AM-5:00PM
Chicago, Illinois

Mar 09, 2007
9:00AM-5:00PM
Livonia, Michigan

Mar 28, 2007
9:00AM-5:00PM
Columbus, Ohio

http://www.msreadiness.com/IL_abstract.asp?eid=5014846#list