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Hi, I’ve always been open and honest on my blog and it is time to share broadly the news that I’ve left Microsoft. I’ve been considering my career and a few things became apparent. I wanted a break . When I joined Microsoft over 12 years ago, a sabbatical was part of the deal. While...
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I recently fell of the back of a boat which resulted in my faithful Samsung Omnia being written off. Since this was a personal phone, I decided to upgrade to a Nokia Lumia 800 as it looked like a fab phone. I have so far not been disappointed, however I hit two problems. The first was that...
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Hi all, I thought I would share my Christmas lights – I do love them David
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Hi, I love Christmas. I’m not religious, but I really enjoy the happiness it brings people and the fact that everyone seems to spend time not working, with their families or unwinding. One way I do this is through putting a stupid number of lights on my house. For the last few years...
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It appears to be a snowy time for many people at the moment, so I thought I would share a few pictures from chez Overton. I hope your enjoying the weather and not freezing. take care David Technorati Tags: Snow Personal
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I was late putting the lights up for Christmas due to an operation on my hand, however they made it. You can see them here - http://davidoverton.com/media/p/12744.aspx and http://davidoverton.com/media/p/12743.aspx and Thanks and Happy New Year David Technorati Tags: Christmas , Christmas...
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It seems like an age ago that I spoke with a film crew about my daughter's at Microsoft's nursery and about the depression that first came visiting over 3 years ago now. As a result they spent some time with us as we put up the Christmas lights on the house . This is always a cheerful...
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Well hello again, I've been away for quite some time - work has been very time consuming and two members of my family have required some dedicated attention while they have not been feeling well (and no, no swine flu). I'm hoping to start finding more time to "do" the blog and potentially...
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David Overton's Blog
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David Overton
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Wed, Jul 22 2009
Filed under:
Filed under: Windows 7, Vista and XP, Community, Personal, SBSC, Microsoft, Windows Client, Small business, Windows Server 2008, ISV, SBS 2008, Windows 7
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[updated 2nd May 2009] Hi everyone. My SBS 2008 book is in now available to order. Details below. If you want to ask questions once you have the book, go to http://davidoverton.com/r.ashx?13 . To order the book click http://davidoverton.com/r.ashx?1M Small Business Server 2008 – Installation, Migration...
Posted to
David Overton's Blog
by
David Overton
on
Fri, Apr 3 2009
Filed under:
Filed under: SBS 2003, Windows SharePoint Services, Community, Personal, SBSC, Microsoft, SBS 2003 R2, Documentation, Tips, Small business, If you only read one post today, Windows Server 2008, SBS 2008, Book
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Someone posted this question on a discussion group at work and it got me thinking. If you bought a nice new system over the last 2 or so years in preparation for SBS 2008 (Cougar as was or even SBS v.Next) and had it installed with SBS 2003 you've probably heard that SBS 2003 to SBS 2008 is a 2 box...
Posted to
David Overton's Blog
by
David Overton
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Sat, Jan 10 2009
Filed under:
Filed under: SBS 2003, Support and Tools, Virtualisation, Community, Personal, SBSC, Microsoft, SBS 2003 R2, Tips, Small business, If you only read one post today, Windows Essential Server Solution Family, SBS 2008, Hyper-V
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[updated 5th May 2009] Hi, If you are interested in ordering a copy, click here and you will be taken through to the Packt Publishing ordering page, with a choice of electronic (e-book in for form of a PDF) or Softback traditional book or both available for immediate shipment . If you are interested...
Posted to
David Overton's Blog
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David Overton
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Sat, Jan 10 2009
Filed under:
Filed under: Personal, SBSC, Microsoft, Documentation, Small business, If you only read one post today, SBS Cougar, Windows Server 2008, SBS 2008, Book
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[updated post MS announcement on 22nd January 2009] I hate bad journalism and this is a really good prime example. Microsoft job cuts: thousands of UK staff at risk Author: Cliff Saran Posted: 11:08 05 Jan 2009 Rumours are spreading on the web that up to 3000 staff at Microsoft UK could face redundancy...
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Steve sent me this earlier in December, but I thought it was worth sharing. Here is the photo he took: ttfn David Technorati Tags: David Overton , Overton , Personal , UK Train Stations
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This year, like all others for the last 10 years we’ve decorated our house with Christmas lights. We have at least 3 different religious views in our house, which is amazing considering there are two adults and two children, aged 8 and 2, however we love the smiles the lights bring to ours and...
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Microsoft’s campaign now has David (UKSBSGUY) in it!! I love PC’s, I love freedom to choose between a PC, a MAC or anything else, but I CHOSE PC’s. I love SBS 2008 and I love small businesses that make the world go round. I also love my family and I’m amazed by the people at my...
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and This weekend I finally got to see Star Wars The Clone Wars and while my Star Wars sensibilities were offended for the 1st 5 minutes (the voices are different and my eyes had to get used to the new visuals), but once I had done so both Molly and I really enjoyed the film. If you like...
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Just thought I had to add a quick post to explain why I have a bunch of Pink photos on the blog site. While at an internal Microsoft event the final day treat was time at Six flags with Pink. I’m a great Pink fan, although not all Microsoft employees were, which meant that when Pink tried for audience...
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Well, this is one of those “I should have called support earlier mails”. I’ve been trying for about 3 months to get my davidoverton.com domain transferred from one vendor to the vendor I use for all the others. All attempts failed, so last night I phoned Australia to try and get it fixed and now the...
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I’ve just noticed this blog post on the Windows Vista Magazine - What software could you not live without? We’re searching for the 100 best programs for Windows Vista – and we need your help! By James Stables on 08 July 2008 In our October 2008 issue we will be compiling a list of the 100 best pieces...
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Hi, so I made it – thank-you to those who nominated me – now it’s time to vote for me!! If you like what I do, help me to show Microsoft that my blogging and style is the “right” style. Click on the picture and vote for me in the Company Blog shortlist. Click the picture above, or go to Company blogs...
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[update - I missed the nomination deadline, so don't vote for me!! double update - I've been accepted - so DO vote] I was browsing Steve Clayton’s blog today and noticed these awards. While I’m not one to play copy-cat, I’d like to think my blog posts are useful (well, enough people read them...
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Some of you might know that I used to write for Windows XP Magazine, but having used Windows Vista during the beta cycle I eventually had to give it up as I was writing about an OS I was not using. Well, that has all changed - I've been using Vista for over 3 years now and I've now got a technical...
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I’m really sorry that everything has been so very quiet on the blog front – work has just been maxing out and I even took some personal time out – I’ve now been married for just over ten years and to celebrate Mrs Overton and I visited Niagara Falls for the weekend. It was a wonderful time and worth...
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It is strange that I have come to accept that we live and work in a global economy quicker, it appears to me, than the EU. I accept that we can’t be the best at everything in the EU and we have to work out what our value is to others – true for every business. However, the EU seems to have an anti-non...
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Hi, My site is hosted by me on the end of a dynamically changing IP address (well, it could change, but has not for about 18 months). To get round this I have bought a number of domains, but they are all changed and updated by a magical piece of software that sits on my server that updates the DNS records...
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Once again my internet provider and power company let me down at the weekend, causing the web site to be up and down – more down than up to be honest. Now, one of the hard disks has put it’s hands up from the abuse so that is failing too, impacting performance. Overall, until I find some more funds to...
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I’ve taken back control of this domain and will at some point be changing the site look and feel to reflect this. This does NOT mean that my focus on subjects around technology, small business, Microsoft and partners will be changing one single drop. It is just that my role at Microsoft is no longer...
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Well, it had to happen - another way to keep track of everyone and see what is going on in the world out there. I've joined Twitter as UKSBSGUY - Twitter / davidoverton . Always keen to learn more and get more feedback!! = was twiter/uksbsguy, but I have updated it to reflect the change to davidoverton...
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I was at a Citrix event last week. It was a good event with my role explaining to people that "no", Microsoft and Citrix don't hate each other and in fact our technologies are very, very complementary. I'll post on the Microsoft, Citrix, Virtualisation (Terminal Services, Application...
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Since I've had a few mails and texts about this - I thought I would say thank-you for the kind birthday wishes. Yes, I'm getting older - now 37... luckily my daughters keep me young at heart David
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I've mentioned it before - Dr Kurzweil is a very interesting man. Wikipedia describes him as: Raymond Kurzweil ( pronounced /kɚzwaɪl/) (born February 12 , 1948 ) is an inventor and futurist. He has been a pioneer in the fields of optical character recognition (OCR), text-to-speech synthesis , speech...
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I saw this and thought I had to share. While not as funny as some, still worth watching. For the record, no-one has ever thrown money at me! Look for the Jedi master mind tricks (failing) at about 4 mins. Life At Microsoft - The Truth Revealed Life At Microsoft - The Truth Revealed People often stop...
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Someone posted about a speech Bill gave and while it is worth reading / watching the whole thing, one thing stood out - his regret and how it is now a focus for his life and money: Bill Gates - Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation But taking a serious look back… I do have one big regret. I left Harvard...
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This is a personal rant. If you want to read on, please do so, if not, thanks for getting this far. Oh I love how people wave flags "for the greater good" when they really mean "for my own good". Today I saw something that just made me have to comment. Unless you have been in a bunker...
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I had the pleasure of attending this event today. The last item was Q&A with Bill Gates and there were a number of questions that you will be able to watch and listen too in the future. However, the one that I thought was most interesting was this one: "What will Bill be doing in his part time...
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I've started looking at this application and found it better than I had hoped. It is simple - it triangulates your position using Wifi and phone cells and emulates a GPS should you need it for another application. It also uses GPS to capture the settings from the other two items and give them a more...
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Well, it is now over 30 years since Star Wars made me realise that there is more to life and that doing the right thing was something to fight for. However, just as a bit of nostalgia, here is a little posting from the Community Pages sharing how Happy Christmas (non-PC version) was done 30 years ago...
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I was invited by Russell Singler of the The Animation Art Gallery to go look at TimesOnline for a quiz and competition to win some of his artwork . I found a discount code for the next ten days that gives 10% off of his work and this fun quiz ( www.timesonline.co.uk/kidstv ) Good grief! You really are...
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I love CES. Yes, it is not business oriented, but it is great to see what everyone / anyone is doing in the consumer end of the market. Microsoft have a little silverlight site for people to find out more: This site can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/ces/ :-) Notice the areas we will be talking...
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I've managed to not blog for a week, which I think is a miracle for me and I am also enjoying the freedom of not working or doing anything too strenuous for the brain. I did think it was worth saying "Happy New Year" to you all and to say that I will be back. On the technology front I had...
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I Love Santa Claus!! I was thrilled to hear Jonathan Ross announce that he had entered British air space. You can see all the Santa cam videos at http://youtube.com/view_play_list?p=26B9B2ACB4AAC849 . One that caught my eye was his visit to the International Space Station: ttfn and a Merry Christmas...
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I'm enjoying the festive spirit at the moment - the home is well lit and I am officially off from work (officially because I still do a bit here and there). I'm off to the cinema with one of my daughters today and plan to spend some of the afternoon wrapping presents too. What more could one...
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I am lucky enough to have understanding neighbours and a family that understands that while I work hard all year, come Christmas I take time off and this includes the house being decorated in Christmas lights. To see them this year, have a look at the photo album - http://uksbsguy.com/photos/doverton...
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The card itself can be found at the site http://www.seasonal-greetings.com/ , but since this is a nice little Silverlight card I thought I would try my hand at embedding it too, so below is an embedded version of the card. If this gives you problems, let me know. If you feel inclined you can click the...
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The UKSBSGUY.com server is on my home broadband connection and this means it does not get business availability. Last night I had another 10 hours downtime and 8 hours earlier in the month. This all sounds bad, but here is where you need to understand SLAs and what availability statistics mean. If I...
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I've been ranting a bit recently about wanting everything for nothing and then I saw Susan's article - http://msmvps.com/blogs/bradley/archive/2007/11/29/so-how-much-money-has-been-wasted.aspx - and it just goes further to say how much time is spent not moving forward, but going backwards. I...
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I have had a bit of a rant with Vlad over at Vista SP1 vs. XP SP3 Performance Stats: Flawed Samples or Market Reality? and the comments are good - the communication is very worthwhile, but I thought I would share some of the "what was it like with Windows XP" reality. That does not excuse the...
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It's funny working in an industry where if you are not going at 50,000 miles an hour you are considered to be standing still. One area where Microsoft is speeding along is photography. In this post I will explore the announcements, the demos, short and long term products and then the future that...
Posted to
David Overton's Blog
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David Overton
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Fri, Nov 23 2007
Filed under:
Filed under: Windows 7, Vista and XP, Live, Fun, Personal, beta, Microsoft, Windows Client, Vista, Research, Demo, Open Standards, If you only read one post today
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It was a rare weekend, I had agreed to do some digging in my parents garden to put up two arches. Some of you will know my dad - Derek Overton from various SBSC events. They live just over the way from a piece of MOD land that used to be used for all sorts of things and bangs were not unusual. Anyway...
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Steve describes himself as my loyal blogging servant... how the tides have changed from when he was my boss. Ahhh!! Not my servant, but yours... post blogging edits are a wonderful thing. Well Steve was my boss, not bad really :-) Anyway, he is now a good part of the Software+Services drive in Microsoft...
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I'm against anyone who gets too xenophobic or protective of "jobs in my country". Jobs should be filled according to the needs of a company and all aspects that lead to the definition of "needs" should be taken into account. While I am staunchly loyal to the UK, if a job is better...
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I'm Back!! I have a stack of e-mails, posts and comments to respond to (434 e-mails that require a response left). I hope to do this today / tonight. I upgraded my Windows Home Server from Evaluation to RTM over the weekend which was the cause of the planned downtime. I also took the time to write...
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I saw this and just thought it was very silly. I do need to point out that this is a personal opinion and not one that represents Microsoft or that of its employees. However I do think that this idea ranks right up there with "everyone should write their own software" which an certain Open...
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Following on from people who wanted a quicker blog, I have moved to another theme by Nick at http://www.nbdev.co.uk . If you are seeing the blog "messed up", then you need to set your site options to Athena by clicking Edit Profile in the top right corner: and then selecting the site options...
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I just had to share with you the back end of my weekend and why it made Monday such a disaster. All was well on Sunday, I went sailing, then about 4pm my back decided to jump back into the land of extreme pain. OK, so 1 member of the household down. About 8pm Lizzy, my 1 year old, started throwing up...
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This is just a silly post, but thought I would share: Of course, not wanting to do it alone, many others also joined in. Did I mention that we were standing on our chairs at a bar under the bridge with a lot of confused people around us? - Matt Brady was very animated in his performance - Stephie shows...
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This is a rant and it is my opinion and does not reflect that of Microsoft or others - It is my Opinion! From 1992 to 1995 I had to write document converters - I had to pick apart binary file formats and translate them to another format. It was hard work and I JUST WISHED people would create a largely...
Posted to
David Overton's Blog
by
David Overton
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Thu, Sep 6 2007
Filed under:
Filed under: Office System, Developer, Community, Personal, Microsoft, Office 2007, rant, Open XML, Open Standards, If you only read one post today
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Hi, This is a bit of blowing my own trumpet, but I thought I would share the latest figures for my web site. As best as I can tell, about 61,000 people visited my site last month and about 17,000 bots (those are people, not page views). While the site peaked in June, it is still doing nicely, so thank...
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OK, so this is really simple. I'm off on my holidays for two weeks and I won't be updating the site (I do have some posts that will appear, but nothing will be topical as I won't be writing anything during that time). If you want to make MY life easier and have your comment posted for others...
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I know I work for Microsoft and never hide the fact, but this site is not about "Isn't Microsoft Great", it is about offering tips and advice on technology and how it impacts ISV's and small businesses. The opinions here are mine and NOT MICROSOFT's. So I've changed the background...
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One of my University lecturers help at the London Science Museum to build the Babbage difference engine around twenty years ago. Engines like this which is very mechanical based are obviously simple ways to implement functions of modern cpus in nano technology. It was a a nice surprise to see the article...
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I subscribe to a lot of blogs and reading them all can be a bit of a pain. If you want to see who I read, have a look at http://uksbsguy.com/files/folders/files/entry4501.aspx to get the OPML file. I store and read some in Outlook, but the rest need something bigger. The tool I seem to be using a lot...
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While I was at Star Wars Celebration Europe I managed to spend quite a bit of my unearned bonus on bits of "art". Some I will put pride of place on my wall, others will go in a tube because I don't have enough wall space. Here is what I bought (I just photographed them and then used a tool...
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OK, so still need to do a all up post, but before I do, here is how I got to re-make the video. One item at the event was part of the set for the Tantive IV. The nice director and actors explained how shooting from different angles and by swapping bits out the set could be made to look even bigger etc...
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They are like chalk and cheese when you 1st meet them. I'm not going to say how, but read their blogs and I know that you will know what I mean. Both have good business sense and both are nice to people they like (I count my self in this camp most of the time). Vlad is a little more outgoing with...
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I have to shout about this, Nigel who lived just down the road "popped" off to Calgary a couple of weeks ago to compete in the World Championships Blacksmiths . This competition is hard work - doing something most of us computer people never really experience - lifting a heavy hammer and beating...
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On Saturday, 7/07/07, MSN sponsored Live Earth, The Concert for a Climate in Crisis . This 24-hour global event featured more than 150 of the world’s top bands performing on all seven continents, with concerts in Sydney, Tokyo, Shanghai, Istanbul, London, New York, and other cities around the world....
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With a tear in my eye the time has come for me to move my stick hut somewhere new. I have loved working in and with the small business community and with a set of awesome partners who can complain and nag, but normally with good cause and that are more willing to say thank-you and "good job"...
Posted to
David Overton's Blog
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David Overton
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Fri, Jul 6 2007
Filed under:
Filed under: SBS 2003, Office System, Support and Tools, Community, Personal, SBSC, Microsoft, Office 2007, SBS 2003 R2, Small business, Partner, If you only read one post today, SBS Cougar
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Congratulations to Susanne on her impending job move. She is the best UK SMB Girl out there :-) She often keeps Microsoft straight with her views and I will always be grateful for her honest conversation and being a good friend. Anyway, as always you can go to her blog, but here is an extract. Note,...
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No point in me buttering this up, but if you want to see what can be done in 3D with a "bunch of snaps".... I've been really excited about Photosynth since it was first publicly demo'ed about a year ago. But now you can go and play with it yourself and explore some of Britain's...
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I'm obviously in a little bit of a carefree mood as I am going to offer my personal opinion on one of the Internet greats. Google has built an amazing advertising business through search, but their company slogan of "Do no evil" seems to be more "deny any evil doing". Lets be...
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OK, so this has really got my goat - I read that there is a £100 difference between the UK and US prices for Vista Premium Edition, so I thought I would add my PERSONAL view on this. Microsoft does not set the prices, the resellers do - some offer products at a loss to bring you in, some add plenty of...
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Hello everyone - I'm back, as they say. I managed to fill my inbox while away, so stopped getting mail on Friday. I do have lots still to process, so it will be a little slow. If you want to see the photos, pop along to http://uksbsguy.com/photos/sailing/default.aspx ttfn David
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I love standards - they make life easier. TCP is one, ODF is one, SNA is one, ASCII and EBDIC are. Even PDF is one. It just makes life easier. In this connected world standards are a good thing and sometimes more than one standard is very good. Microsoft has offered the Open XML (Office 2007 document...
Posted to
David Overton's Blog
by
David Overton
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Wed, Apr 4 2007
Filed under:
Filed under: Office System, Support and Tools, Business, Developer, Community, Personal, SBSC, Microsoft, Office 2007, Word, Excel, Demo, Small business, Internet and Web, Partner, Licensing, Academic, Application Compatibility, Office 2003, Open XML
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Now I have never been good at expressing things that get under my skin, so if this seems awkward, so be it. There was once a man who helped invent the modern day database. In doing so he gave me a career in computers that has changed my life, and countless others. I have had a couple of meetings with...
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I can be abrasive sometimes and whether it "is my fault" or not, I don't always understand others' point of views. To this I would like to say "It is my fault". Now, if you have got up off the floor, let me give you a few examples. I say "contact our customer support" and you say "I don't have time"...
Posted to
David Overton's Blog
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David Overton
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Mon, Feb 19 2007
Filed under:
Filed under: SBS 2003, Windows 7, Vista and XP, Office System, Support and Tools, System Builder Information, Business, Off-topic, Windows SharePoint Services, Community, Windows Server 2003, Personal, SBSC, Windows Client, Vista, Office 2007, SBS 2003 R2, Marketing, Action Pack
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I have quite thick skin, but a few things really get my goat, so it is time I published my rules This my blog, not Microsoft's or for that matter, anyone else's Comments posted to the blog should respect me and others posting here, otherwise they won't get published As to no.2, that means...
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Finally the day has come and the rest of us (well, you - but I felt that excited anyway) without a Volume License (or if you work at Microsoft) could get and use Windows Vista and the 2007 Office System (known as Office from here on in). The British Library was chosen as two Leonardo De Vinci codices...
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Again, this was sent to me by my good lady. This was sent to me by my wife as 2 of 2. The other one can be found at http://uksbsguy.com/blogs/doverton/archive/2007/01/16/problems-with-boyfriend-5-0-husband-1-0-and-nagging-5-3-humour.aspx Dear Technical Support, 18 months ago, I upgraded to Girlfriend...
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This was sent to me by my wife as 1 of 2. The other one can be found at http://uksbsguy.com/blogs/doverton/archive/2007/01/17/problems-with-girlfriend-1-0-amp-1-2-fiancee-1-0-and-wife-1-0.aspx Dear Tech Support: Last year I upgraded from Boyfriend 5.0 to Husband 1.0 and noticed a distinct slow down in...
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Our nice Partner Group in the UK wanted to say Happy New Year.. http://blogs.msdn.com/ptstv/archive/2007/01/04/partner-tv-happy-new-year-from-the-uk-partner-group.aspx ttfn and have a great year. David
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I am not one who likes to dwell on things, but the doctors have said I can drive and this is in part to the progress of my finger. I am off the big pain killers too, so the mind is less numbed, although I do now feel like I want my drugs back - they made the world a more smiley place. To see how I did...
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I seem to be able to find trouble at the moment. I attended part 1 (3 of 5-days) of a competent crew training course designed to get me on the ladder to bigger and better sailing experience and finally teach me what the wind has to do with sailing. Over the three days we started with the basics, like...