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July 2007 - David Overton's Blog
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  • Worldwide Partner Conference - WPC in Denver - what I know so far - Office Live and Windows Live as a platform for partners to build on

    Office Live is already a great success, but today Microsoft announced even more to make it a business for partners to make success for them and their customers. We've released information about partners, solutions and using Windows Live, sample sites and more information on how to make it a business success. Have a look at Microsoft Office Live Launches Partner Program, Helps Partners Reach Small Businesses for more information. Add to this the extra opportunities that Windows Live also brings and the new tools to build on there too ( http://partner.live.com/windowslive/ ) and you really start to get something amazing. The press release Microsoft Office Live Launches Partner Program, Helps Partners Reach Small Businesses includes a reference from Solution Canvas: Solution Canvas is a Glasgow, Scotland-based Microsoft Gold Certified Partner that uses the Microsoft Office Live platform to host justia, a powerful practice management system for small legal firms. justia offers a cost-effective solution that provides...

  • WPC Partner Conference in Denver - what is on and how to follow it even if you can't be there

    The Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference is an amazing opportunity to understand what Microsoft is planning on doing for its partners over the next 12 months, what changes will be happening to our products, look Microsoft in the eye and ask your question and to build relationships with other partners and people inside Microsoft to benefit your business. Some of the speakers include UK Small Business partners, such as Susanne Dansey , Gareth Brown and Andy Trish . They represent two areas of the community and their own companies, Westcoast a Microsoft distributor aiming at the small business end of the partner market and thriving, now Gold Certified SBSC partners who two years ago were not on Microsoft's radar and have made being a SBSC partner a real benefit. In terms of what is on that is just for small business partners we had the Symposium yesterday. As to what was expected, here is the small business blog http://blogs.msdn.com/mssmallbiz/archive/2007/07/03/3677168.aspx Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference...

  • Star Wars art work from Celebration Europe

    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 to remove the perspective from the photos, but don't expect print quality images): From Steven D Anderson the "Dark Avenger" poster, signed by him and one of 250 (11 / 250) and the little post card of the two ladies with blasters. Next up was Joe Corroney - I love his work especially since he also does some of the Star Wars comics. He has a web site http://JoeCorroney.com and his Star Wars blog can be found at http://blogs.starwars.com/joecorroney/70 . As you can see from the pictures on the left, I was lucky enough to not only get number 20 of 250 from his collection, but also the ORIGINAL PENCIL drawing that made this great poster. WOW, amazing and top. This is my best treasure from this event....

  • Exchange 2007 updates - Blogs for Exchange and Outlook, Virtual Machines, Webcasts, Service Pack 1 (SP1) and more

    This information is from the last 2 Technet Newsletters ( http://www.microsoft.com/technet ). Webcasts that have occurred in the past are available for download by clicking on the URLs. Blogs Exchange Team Blog http://msexchangeteam.com/default.aspx Outlook Team Blog http://blogs.msdn.com/outlook/default.aspx Awards Exchange Server wins CRN award The 2007 CRN Channel Champions Awards have been recently announced! http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2007/05/11/438675.aspx Evaluation Quickly Evaluate Microsoft and Partner Solutions Through a Series of Pre-Configured Virtual Hard Disks Microsoft Exchange on virtual hard disk (VHD) lets you try out the key features of Exchange Server 2007. With the VHD Test Drive program, you can download VHDs and evaluate them for free in your own environment, without the need for dedicated servers or complex installations. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=692a6e3c-81c9-4d8a-93fa-266d651735dc&DisplayLang=en Educating Information Workers About Exchange Server...

  • Vista Deployment training

    M icrosoft Windows Vista: Doing Deployment Right! This one-day session is a combination of presentations that focus on growing services opportunities for partners, and a series of new technical exercises that highlight some of the compelling new design enhancements in deploying Windows Vista desktops. Click here to enrol. ttfn David Technorati Tags: Vista , Deployment , Training

  • Unified Communications

    This information is from the last 2 Technet newsletters ( http://www.microsoft.com/technet ) Unified Communications Team Blog http://blogs.technet.com/uc/default.aspx Unified Communications - Office Communication Server 2007 Videos Two videos, one on Office Communications Server 2007 and one on Office RoundTable http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=22&p=4&SrcDisplayLang=en&SrcCategoryId=&SrcFamilyId=&u=%2fdownloads%2fdetails.aspx%3fFamilyID%3d67d3e846-ae4a-4b30-9e0c-eac22bd2a58a%26DisplayLang%3den Unified Communications and Collaboration Event Presentation Downloads Unified Communications and Collaborations Event Downloads http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=22&p=5&SrcDisplayLang=en&SrcCategoryId=&SrcFamilyId=&u=%2fdownloads%2fdetails.aspx%3fFamilyID%3da10931b2-dceb-4ddc-8c5a-25c4b2c5804c%26DisplayLang%3den Using Exchange Server 2007 for Unified Messaging and Fax How can you best implement the Unified Messaging (UM) features of Exchange Server 2007...

  • Moving Virtual Machines Between Servers with Microsoft Virtualisation Technology (Virtual Server)

    I saw this and thought I would share it. Given the rumours around what can and cannot be done with Virtual Server and the technologies coming with Longhorn Windows Server 2008. I did not realise that we offered "Quick" migrations - a few seconds downtime - when moving from machine to machine. With recent announcements there has been some confusion about what Windows Server Virtualisation, can do: Virtual Server 2005 allows VMs to be moved between hosts and has a scripting API to enable this. VMs can move to Windows Server virtualisation, and you will move virtual machines between WSv servers. Our research shows scheduled maintenance - outside the working day - accounts for the overwhelming majority of moves (moving workloads for load balancing is very infrequent); workloads are moved to keep them running while their normal server is taken down to service the hardware or patch the parent/host operating system - something which will be required less with the new server core option. Live Migration should...

  • Licensing Reseller Handbook are now available for UK partners

    This little tool is something worth downloading and reading to help answer some of those licensing queries and to learn more about selling Volume Licensing and the rules and benefits of other licensing types. Get it from here It walk through: Basic licence types How to become a reseller How to sell these licence's (key messaging and operational info) Product Specific licensing ‘need to knows’ ttfn David Technorati Tags: Licensing , Tools

  • How to use the new Security features in Vista and Internet Explorer to stop malware (spyware and viruses) from infecting your computer - all in a Video presented with Silverlight

    The Video I have delivered a number of Vista and Office demos over my time, so I decided to record a number of them for others to borrow, use, learn from or anything else they choose. This video covers the following subjects in enough detail for people to hopefully understand what they need to know on how to use these features in Windows Vista and understand how to be a little safer online: Phishing protection in Internet Explorer ActiveX blocking in Internet Explorer Windows Defender in Windows Vista To see the video played using Silverlight (just try it) click here *. I am hoping that in the near future that the WMV file will be available at new bCentral - the UK Small Business Center on MS.com. At the moment it is not available there, but a copy can be found here * it will take a few moments to open if you have Silverlight installed and require you to download Silverlight if you don't, but it is a 1MB download How I made it I simply ran through part of my normal demo talking as I went. When presenting to...

  • Worldwide Partner Conference - WPC in Denver - what I know so far - Software plus Service

    Steve Ballmer has stated his case for Software PLUS Service. This should not be news for anyone who has been watching the world, but what is great to see if how Microsoft is trying to get it's existing partner leveraged model to work in the new web 2.0/3.0 world. Of course this will not suit everyone, but if done well, everyone can move forward is a happy little dance as things get re-jigged. Ballmer Outlines Microsoft's Software-As-A-Service Plans - Software - IT Channel News by CRN and VARBusiness noted Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer believes the evolution of the "computational model" and new user interfaces are going to create a flood of opportunities for the vendor's channel partners. In a Tuesday keynote speech to more than 12,000 attendees at Microsoft's worldwide partner conference in Denver, Ballmer provided insight into the Windows Live platform and how new technologies like Silverlight mark the beginning of the transformation to a new user interface model. Ballmer peppered his...

  • What is going on in the world of Virtualisation with Virtual Server and Virtual PC on licensing, Vista, x64 and more

    There are a couple of recent announcements with regard to the current range of products that I thought I would cover off. One is about licensing and has been written up by Matt McSpirit at http://blogs.technet.com/mattmcspirit/archive/2007/06/22/microsoft-virtualisation-licensing-client-and-server.aspx and covers how many licenses you get when. The other is Virtual Server SP1: Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 Is Now Available Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 is the server virtualization technology engineered for the Windows Server operating system to increase hardware utilization and enable IT staff to rapidly configure and deploy new servers. Register to download the free software and you will receive relevant resources that are strategically assembled to address the challenges you will face as you discover, assess, and deploy the software. http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=7042993 The What is New page shows (plus more on the page) - note the x64 support for more memory. http://www.microsoft.com/technet/virtualserver/evaluation...

  • Finally the internal mail arrives announcing two new SBS MVPs in the UK

    You saw it here last folks. Congratulations to both Susanne and Tim and to the existing peeps of Scott, Steve and Nick (since he works the UK patch sometimes). If you know of these two then you know they are hard working people in the SBS community and have probably already read that they have been honoured with the MVP award. They join the ranks previously blazed by Steve, Scott and Nick. I also think that Susanne might have decided that since at least 50% of the photos from the MVP site look scary, she would forgo one just now :-). Their comments about this on there blogs can be found here for Susanne and here for Tim - both humble, but the links to other pages shows what others think. New MVPs in UK Susanne Dansey: Windows Server System - Small Business Server Susanne Dansey has spent her entire career in business development in the IT industry & recognizes that the key to successful customer relationships is empathy, trust and under... Tim Long: Windows Server System - Small Business Server Tim has been...

  • Star Wars Celebration Europe Photos on the site

    Hi, this is a quick note to say that I could not help myself - I went (sorry, I took my 7 year old daughter) to Celebration Europe. If you don't like Star Wars, then it is best you probably look away now. I got my (or in some cases Molly's) photo taken with all the stars and characters I could find including Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker) , Anthony Daniels (C3PO) , Kenny Baker (R2D2) , Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca) , Ray Parkes (Darth Maul) , Matthew Woods (Voice of General Grievas) and some of the leading artists down Artists Alley (picture is of Molly with Bonnie Burton and Tom Hodges) who wrote the book How to Draw Star Wars. I will post a long blog on the 2 days on "how I got to star in Star Wars", all the art we bought and a full run-down of what we did, but before that I wanted to share with the Star Wars fans out there my pictures - they can be found by going to http://uksbsguy.com/photos/starwars . I have not photographed the artwork yet, but will be doing so, so expect that to go up as well...
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  • e-Paper update

    Again from the Trends Blog . Big, color e-paper E-paper Still Coming Soon: LG.Philips LCD Teases World With A4 Color Electronic Paper “This is their all-new, world-first A4 electronic paper, a 4,096-color flexible 14.1-inch page made using “metal foil and plastic substrates rather than glass.” They only use power when the image changes and since they are reflective like real paper, they can be seen perfectly from any angle. Even under direct sunlight.” Slightly-flexible displays LOLED: Sony Flexi-OLED Screen Is Trouble Waiting to Happen “Today Sony showed off some 2.5-inch OLED screens that are capable of being slightly bent. It is made out of a glass substrate and is only .3mm thick. Supposedly the display has been created for lightweight, bigger and “softer” electronics” Interactive paper Digital paper with interactivity and sound “By combining paper with printed graphic codes and electronically conductive ink that is engineered to be sensitive to pressure. When the paper buttons are touched, the sound is played...
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  • Worldwide Partner Conference - WPC in Denver - what I know so far - Dynamics CRM Live

    Microsoft Announces Product Offerings and Customer Early Access Program for Microsoft Dynamics Live CRM - This could be huge - $44 per calendar month per user for Professional CRM and $59 for Enterprise edition (Professional Edition plus offline support)!!! Then, when you thought it was not so good for partners, look at the models: With the new Live service, partners in the Microsoft Dynamics CRM ecosystem will have new opportunities to deliver value to their customers and to drive revenue for their businesses by developing and deploying solutions across the three deployment options — Live, on-premise and partner-hosted models . For revenue in the new Live model, partners will be compensated on a recurring basis, not a one-time basis; each year they will receive 10 percent of the yearly Software as a Service (SaaS) subscription revenue for each customer for whom they are the partner of record. During 2008, a special incentive will allow partners to receive 15 percent of the SaaS subscription revenue for that year...

  • Eileen Brown talks VoIP

    This is again taken from the latest TechNet ( http://www.microsoft.com/Technet ) newsletter here in the UK. VoIP Is On Its Way I've been playing with Office Communicator 2007 for a while now and have been impressed by all of the extra functionality that the new instant messaging client brings. We talk a lot about extra productivity in our new products, but I've really noticed a difference this time. It now provides the ability to create a set of contacts that can see different levels of information: personal contacts who can see all published contact information including home and mobile numbers, team settings which allow members of my team to see my free / busy status, and who can also interrupt me whilst my status is busy. Moving down the list, there are company contacts who can see my limited availability and information, and public contacts, connecting through 'Public Internet Connectivity (PIC)' who see my name and email address and limited availability. I think this is much better than the...

  • Visual Studio F5 debugging of ASP.NET applications on Vista

    If you are having problems with authentication issues when trying to debug with Visual Studio on Vista then there is a fix for you. A Visual Studio patch that fixes the Visual Studio F5 debugging of IIS7 applications on Windows Vista Home Premium and above has been released! This patch solves the "An authentication error occurred while communicating with the web server. Please see Help for assistance.", and "Debugging failed because integrated Windows authentication is not enabled. Please see Help for assistance" errors, that until now had to be worked around using the instructions below. This patch also enables customers using Windows Vista Home Premium customers to use Visual Studio F5 debugging, who were not able to use this feature at all previously because Windows Authentication was not available on Windows Vista Home Premium. Mike Volodarsky's ServerSide : Fix problems with Visual Studio F5 debugging of ASP.NET applications on IIS7 Vista ttfn David Technorati Tags: Developer , Vista...

  • bCentral Moved - now the Microsoft Small Business Centre AND a new blog too

    I blogged about this a week or so ago, but the new site is now up and running and looks pretty fabulous. Click the Image to get to the new site. You can see that it is split into two sections, for those starting a business and those growing a business. Have an explore to find out what is there that you or your customers can use. Remember that bCentral was able to draw over 1/4 million UNIQUE visitors in a month, so your customers might well be on the list. The new blog can be found at http://blogs.technet.com/smallbusiness/default.aspx - it already has some excellent entries which I will be referring to soon. ttfn David Technorati Tags: bCentral , Microsoft , Small Business

  • Windows Server 2008 (Longhorn) Virtual Labs, podcasts, webcasts, voting on feedback to product teams, understanding Server Core, PowerShell Quick Reference Guide

    Windows Server 2008: Maximize Control, Flexibility, and Protection See how Windows Server 2008 can help you increase the flexibility of your server infrastructure. Use the online resources to learn how you improve your organization's networking infrastructure, security, server performance, and reliability. http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=7009024 Windows Server 2008: Maximize Control, Flexibility, and Protection > Overview Spend less time on day-to-day tasks and more time adding value to your business with this next-generation server operating system. Windows Server 2008 helps you to increase the flexibility of your server infrastructure while saving time and reducing costs. Powerful new management tools and security enhancements allow you to have more control over your servers while providing advanced protection so you can spend less time on everyday tasks and more time bringing greater value to your organization. Leverage these online resources to explore Windows Server 2008 today. Webcasts Watch these...

  • New Microsoft UK Small Business Blog and bye bye bCentral

    Well, we are in a new financial year and the small business team has undergone several changes. While internally things are being shaken around a bit (as every year - there should be more news soon on this), the web site bCentral is being moved and there is a new pretty cool blog to go visit. Much more business than my blog today. The new website should be up in a day or two and the blog is http://blogs.technet.com/smallbusiness/ . I will be contributing to it every so often, so expect some more here. ttfn David Technorati Tags: if you only read one post today , bCentral , Small Business

  • System Center Operations Manager - Design Guide, MMS 2007 podcasts and videos, Technical walkthroughs and Virtual Labs

    In the words of someone else - I saw this and thought of you. The Operations Manager 2007 Design Guide Is Now Available Download this guide here... Operations Manager 2007 Design Guide Watch & Download Podcasts and Videos from Microsoft Management Summit 2007 http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/casestudy.aspx?casestudyid=201533 Downloads Try the new System Centre Operational Manager 2007 Virtual Labs See how Operations Manager 2007 helps you ease operations and improve your planning capabilities. http://www.microsoft.com/technet/traincert/virtuallab/systemcenter.mspx System Center Operations Manager 2007 Technical Walkthrough Want to get a better understanding of how to architect, deploy, administer, and operate Operations Manager 2007? Walk through this online course designed to help you get ramped up on using Operations Manager 2007. http://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/opsmgr/evaluation/techwalk/index.html ttfn David Technorati Tags: System Center , Operations Manager

  • Live Earth Concerts - playback available, plus the "how it was made with MSN"

    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. There have been many, many critics of the Live Earth concert ("all the pop stars traveling leaves a huge carbon footprint" , "there was not 2 billion people watching", "why should we believe the pop stars", " climate change is not real, not even the scientists can agree "), but even if the world is not about to blow up, surely being better to the planet is good for us, great for our children and sometimes a matter of survival for other people and animals in the more extreme climates. If you have missed everything that Live Earth was about, go have a look at the SoapBox video here . An interesting blog on the whole should we shouldn't we explore these types of events can be...
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  • Microsoft Security products - Forefront and the next version codename Stirling

    I have grabbed these security tit-bits from Technet this month and thought I would share them with you. Expect to be playing with Forefront in one form or another with a year, so might as well see what it does now :-) Microsoft Unveils Next-Generation Forefront Business Security Solution Codename "Stirling" http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=6951832 Announced this month, the new Microsoft Forefront solution, codename "Stirling," is a single product that will deliver unified security management and reporting with comprehensive, coordinated protection across client, server applications, and network edge. "Stirling" acts as a distributed system, sharing and correlating information to identify complex threats, and dynamically responding to protect the organization. Microsoft Forefront Client Security 120-Day Trial Is Available http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=6959785 Microsoft Forefront Client Security 120-day trial version is available for evaluation, a security solution that helps protect...

  • How to get delivery problems examined by Microsoft for Windows Live Hotmail

    This is a really quick post, but sometimes people talk about delivery problems with Windows Live Hotmail and want to know if the problem is with Hotmail or some other part of the system. There is a team who can help with deliverability issues and will investigate these issues after a small amount of self checks (is the power turned on, do you have internet access, are the Hotmail servers working correctly etc). To get access to this team you need to fill out a form that can be found by going to http://postmaster.live.com/Troubleshooting.aspx and following the link to contact support under the " “Sender services, tools, and issue submission" section. As you can see from the image on the left, there are a number of items you can get help with. thanks David Technorati Tags: Hotmail , Windows Live Hotmail , troubleshooting

  • Virtual Earth and Silverlight enable you to hunt aliens in many places

    This little mashup of Microsoft technologies just shows how things are going to change in the future. You can shoot aliens at any location that has birds eye view (In the UK that includes ( Wembley Stadium , Blackpool Tower , Millennium Dome and Brighton Pier ) http://www.andybeaulieu.com/silverlight/DestroyAll/Default.html?latitude=40.689059&longitude=-74.04455 ttfn David Technorati Tags: Local.live.com , silverlight
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(c)David Overton 2006-23