Blogs

Tim, one of the community leads has a blog that I recommend people to subscribe too. He has said he has had to give up on Vista as it just fails to work . Susan Bradley then asks of Tim if he has logged a bug , but I also remember a long post by Tim on how hard it was to log bugs and being a beta tester. I then did a search of the internet and a few people have asked how to log a Vista bug and the answer appears to be to download a tool and then fill in the details. One thing to say is that things like 3rd party power management tools often break things, so try NOT loading them. Also, if your machine BSODs, let it upload the file to MS so we get the dump. If it BSODs on every boot, try doing a safeboot for it to upload the bugs. There is a great tool in Vista to upload BSODs and other info and it will auto fire when an admin logs in. that is it for tonight ttfn David

Hi there, this is just a quick not to say that MS have published a migration tool for MS CRM - more details and link in the forums - http://www.uksbsguy.com/forums/default.aspx . These tools cover two scenarios - Outlook Business Contact Manager and "everything else" :-) ttfn David

Last night was my second Partner Group meeting in Scotland. I have seen the delights of Aberdeen (previously I had only seen the docs and this was a very interesting perspective on life) and the joys of Glasgow - I discovered that the local offices for many businesses appear to be the SAS Radisson Hotel which USED to have free wireless. On my 1st night we spent our time talking about the importance of training and Office and Vista. Then last night at Glasgow we spoke about training again (as QA were a guest for the night) and Security. While one person successfully tackled me on security I hope I got across the theme that security is simple if rules are followed. To follow up on these subjects, I thought I would do a quick "David" to each area. Many people tackle me with 2 questions on training: Why do I have to go get training before I sit an exam and Why can I not just do on the job training? I always get a bit ratty about the 1st one as my answer is that if you know the technology enough to sit the exam without...

I really like to see robotics coming ahead leaps and bounds and also a bit of Azimov fear and the requirements of "ethical roles and functions". I have a lego Mindstorm kit that Mel bought me a while back, but somehow I don't think this is quite where they are. Having said that, if you are into robotics, it might be worth you having a look at http://msdn.microsoft.com/robotics/ ttfn David Technorati tags: robotics Robotic ethics Robotic age poses ethical dilemma “The South Korean government has identified robotics as a key economic driver and is pumping millions of dollars into research. “The government plans to set ethical guidelines concerning the roles and functions of robots as robots are expected to develop strong intelligence in the near future,” the ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy said.” Learning to walk Walking robot steps up the pace “A humanoid robot is teaching itself to walk and eventually run around a California research lab. Dexter took its first tentative steps only a few days after it...

Howdy folks, Just saw this over at the Xensource web site . It basically says that Microsoft and Xensource – organization leading the Xen Linux based virtualization tools – have extended their working agreements. A few months ago Xensource licensed Microsoft's VHD (virtual hard disk) format and now this has been further enhanced so that Xen will work with the Hypervisor that will ship for Longhorn Server. This means that if you need to run Windows and Linux, the virtualization technology underneath will actually work for you as opposed to against you. Another step towards MS and Linux interop. We already now support Linux guests on Virtual Server!! A bit more about Virtualization and Xen can be found at http://h0bbel.p0ggel.org/2006/07/18/microsoft-and-xen-sitting-in-a-tree/ Ttfn David

Expect more photos to surface, but Susanne has put some some up on her personal blog (did you know she has 3). Anyway, photos of the gang - http://spaces.msn.com/susannedansey/photos/ . Just don't ask why it looks like I am hopping in one of them - it was one of those timing shots. I forgot my camera, so no photos from me. Expect to see other photos linked on the site soon. ttfn David

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...

I still fear Susan and what she would do if I ever made a serious security blunder. Luckily for me, I haven't yet. I also love the way she tells you the way it should be and makes it easy. I went through the process of evaluating my patches and then installing those I thought were needed (I do have some Office components on my test server, but I am hoping she will let me off for that). I was thinking on how to write this up when I say Susan's entry The risk evaluation of patching and saw she put it exactly how I would have done. What is my message - use her process and your customers will be as safe as can be expected. In fact, I applied the IMF patch immediately, which resulted in Exchange being offline for a few minutes, which when using Outlook 2003 or 2007 is no biggie at all. ttfn David

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...

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...

http://officelive.microsoft.com/Misc/Links.aspx?linkId=preview If you are interested in solutions for the smaller small business, look at this. ttfn David

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...