Microsoft

Hi, I will be presenting at an event in Wales on the 4th April to a number of eCommerce advisors. Is there any special message you would want me to give? The Opportunity Wales programme has delivered over 9,000 eCommerce Review meetings with SMEs in Wales. Outline Programme Schedule 9:00 * 9:30 Registration and Refreshments 9:30 -9:35 Welcome and Introduction 9:35 * 10:40 Session 1 (Includes 10-15 minutes for Q&A interaction in presentation) Microsoft Strategic Update How software will be delivered as a service and the impact this will have on computer hardware, software, devices, upgrades, bandwidth requirements, customisation and configuration, eCommerce integration and the consumer and business user. 10:40 -11:00 Break and Refreshments 11:00 * 12:15 Session 2 (Includes 10-15 minutes for Q&A interaction) Windows Live and Office Live What are these services and offerings and how will these offerings help your business clients. Security and privacy issues and solutions. 5-10 clever things you should know...

I love the idea of these. I will be putting WSS V3 on a SBS box soon to see the impact, but until then, you can watch the following by going to http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=BD5C77B0-F556-4136-8730-1D7FEEAE0A42&displaylang=en Building ASP.NET Web Parts for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (AspWebPartsForWss3.wmv) Creating and Customizing Site Pages with SharePoint Designer 2007 (SharePointDesigner.wmv) Creating and Testing Features with Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (WssFeatures.wmv) Creating and Using Content Types in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (ContentTypes.wmv) Creating and Using Event Handlers in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (WssEvents.wmv) Creating and Using Site Columns in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (SiteColumns.wmv) Creating and Customizing Document Information Panels with InfoPath 2007 (DocInfoPanel.wmv) Creating Custom Workflows with SharePoint Designer 2007 (SpdWorkflow.wmv) Extending the Office 2007 User Interface with a Custom Ribbon (ExtendedRibbon.wmv...

If you have read my previous posts on James you will know that I respect him as a friend and colleague, but his arrival at blogging was still a good 12 months late. He describes why you should blog and what made him decide to finally take up the simplest way to communicate with people. Perhaps more interestingly was his number 1 reason: Compelling Event Number 1. I realised that this year is perhaps the year of greatest potential I have ever seen in my 20+ years in the IT industry. Microsoft is about to release over 20 billion dollars of research and development through product and technology releases. There is so much new opportunity that this will enable for customers and partners of Microsoft that I needed a way of communicating more of the details for both technical and business audiences. I wanted to compliment some of the great blogs my team and other colleagues had created by bringing my own insights and useful information to as many people as possible. The answer 'Blog'. Source: James Akrigg ....

I saw this and thought of all of you who use SBS, like me, and wondered how many people will now go and build a corporate network for the home. I have just 5 PCs on home network, 1 Media Center Extender, 1 xbox and 1 xbox 360 :-). The article is not huge, but for some, useful. Master Your Domain: Build a Corporate Network at Home We're hardcore IT guys at heart, and we want well-managed, smooth-running computers—not only at work, but at home as well. We're willing to put some time into making that happen. We're also privacy and security geeks. We like running things ourselves to retain the desired level of freedom and control. We wanted an affordable solution that would provide easily shared resources (files, calendars, printing, and so on) to benefit all family members. We wanted an integrated solution that was familiar to us so we didn't have to cobble together a smattering of independent pieces. We wanted a flexible solution that could be expanded upon to do new things later. Enter Microsoft ® Windows ® Small...

Talking about SBS is never the easist thing to do, people ask about security, what can it do for them and people are also sometimes put off by the Enterprise focus on much of the SBS information out there. This is no longer true, if you go to http://isainsbs.blogspot.com/ , which is a fabulious blog by Amy you will see ISA information that is relivant for SBS 2003 & ISA 2004. I have also put some basic ideas on what ISA can do for you in the forum - http://uksbsguy.com/forums/thread/145.aspx as always, feedback is welcome ttfn David

So, you have heard of SBSC, you have probably joined the programme and now you are beginning to hear about the Premium partners. Why do SBSC members become premium partners, especially since there is not always the external recognition around this? 1st off, ask the members of your user group who are premium why they do it. The 1st thing I notice is that many small business partners ask for help in the sales and marketing area. SBSC definately delivers here - the one day course can be an eye opener for opportunities on improving profitability or opening up new service areas. This increases as additional content is made available to you through the process to help with CRM and other areas and the list will continue. Then there is marketing support and telephone pre-sales technical support (T-PTS) - all designed to get other people running doing things you don't have time for, Want someone to hunt down the answer to a technical question - get the T-PTS to do it for you. Want some campaing help or assistance, look...

Terminal Server in Windows Server 2003 is very good, in Windows Server 2008 it is truly great. I also found this very good blog, so I thought I had best share this: Meet the Terminal Services Team Episode III Summary.SeeThisOnC9 After walking us through some of the new features in Terminal Services in Episode I and II, Tad takes the show on the road in this episode. We visit with Sriram Sampath, the dev lead on the TS multi-user kernel. The TS team does some clever things in this release, including the way TS access local devices and authentication of users before creating sessions. Sriram spends most of the time at the whiteboard drawing up the kernel architecture. [Click to read the full post ] It is also worth looking at the rest of the set: Meet the Terminal Services Team Episode III Meet the Terminal Services Team Episode II Meet the Terminal Services team Episode I Does your Terminal Server need a NAP? What is the Gateway up to? No VPN, No corporate access, Terminal Server Gateway says "No Problem"...

I just opened up the latest newsletter from bCentral - if you don't get them, you should as hundred of thousands of people in the UK read the bCentral site and access this information. And if you were not sure, bCentral is the one stop shop from Microsoft for UK small businesses to find information on anything from finance to marketing (with a bit of technology in the middle). Anyway, while reading it, the top article was: Top tips to flexible working The benefits flexible working can bring to your business are significant. With the right technology, a flexible culture truly enhances the way you work because customers are better served and your employees are better looked after. For ten top tips to flexible working, download our free guide. Download the guide >> I thought, this looks interesting - the guide is a fantastic starter to explaining what the benefits of flexible working are for small businesses, so a simple read, and potentially mailing it to key prospects and customers would be top of my...

Going through old mails and found this - maybe one day I will get a new screen: Thin displays Sony Demos 9mm-thick High-Def OLED Displays “Look and yearn folks. This here is Sony’s new OLED display. It’s an obscene 9mm thick yet it packs a 1080p resolution along with a 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio. Just as a recap, OLED displays are thinner and brighter than their LCD counterparts and they suck up less power.” ttfn David

Great tips for Microsoft Developers - on a side note, those who said .Net would never take off... dropped to 64% of people targeting Windows (of course, more people are targeting the Web): .NET Survival Guide Eight essential skills and technologies for Windows developers. by Chris Kanaracus with RDN Staff If you're a .NET developer today, the landscape has to be looking pretty murky. On the one hand, Microsoft's dominance has clearly eroded, thanks to key rivals whose market penetration has come at Redmond's expense, open source alternatives and the remarkable growth in the power and reach of Web-based programming. A recent Evans Data Corp. survey validates the challenges facing the .NET community, revealing that the portion of developers targeting Windows continued to decline, to 64.8 percent this year from 74 percent in 2006. Despite these shifts, .NET- and Windows-based development remains the dominant programming platform for user-facing clients, Web applications and business-critical systems....

I saw this over on the SBS Documentation blog - please give generously to make it better in the future!! Using the SBS Quick Start Poster We've entered the planning phase for the next batch of Windows SBS product releases, and we're interested in hearing from those of you who have unfolded and presumably used the "Quick Start" poster that came in the box with the SBS discs. Most importantly, do you find the poster useful? Does it contain information that is helpful to you? Do you use the worksheets in the poster to help collect information about your Internet connection? Where is the poster now? Back in the box? Hanging on the wall? (It does add a big splash of color to a cubicle or drab IT office.) We want to know what you think! Submit your comment or send us your feedback in e-mail . Either way, we want to hear from you! Source: Windows Small Business Server Documentation : Using the SBS Quick Start Poster

The time has come, IE7 has shipped out the door, is available from http://www.microsoft.com/ie and will start coming down via Auto Updates on Windows PCs in a couple of weeks. ttfn David