David Overton's Blog

Extending Enterprise Search Capabilities to your BI Applications Quickly get up and running on the key concepts of delivering business intelligence search using features in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and SQL Server 2005. As an added bonus download the sample content below and walk through the process step-by-step with the whitepaper. http://www.microsoft.com/bi/resources/whitepapers.aspx http://download.microsoft.com/download/7/2/a/72ae11fe-564d-4756-a878-eccb2e0692d7/BI%20Search%20Technical%20White%20Paper.doc ETL Performance: Unisys and Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Speed Up the Process Unisys and Microsoft prove SQL Server 2005 supports 64-bit parallel processing and delivers high levels of Extraction, Transformation and Loading (ETL) performance on Unisys ES7000 servers. This white paper summarizes the results of collaborative testing between Microsoft and Unisys running ETL processes on Intel® Xeon® (32-bit) and Intel® Itanium® 2 (64-bit) based ES7000 servers. http://www.unisys.com/eprise/main/admin...

MSDN Webcast: Framework Masterclass: LINQ to SQL (Level 200) – Recorded Microsoft .NET Language Integrated Query (LINQ) provides a common way to work with data in your applications. In this session, we dive into how LINQ provides methods to work with Structured Query Language (SQL) databases, including how to query, insert, and manage data using the LINQ framework. MSDN Webcast: Framework Masterclass: LINQ to SQL (Level 200) MSDN Webcast: Framework Masterclass: LINQ to XML (Level 200) – Monday, September 17, 2007 12:00 PM Pacific Time (US & Canada) In other sessions, we have already seen how Microsoft .NET Language Integrated Query (LINQ) works with relational databases. In this webcast, we explore how LINQ can help you develop XML applications. We cover the basics of the XML helper functions, and we also dive into deeper topics. MSDN Webcast: Framework Masterclass: LINQ to XML (Level 200) MSDN Webcast: Programming SQL Server 2008 (Level 300) – Monday, September 17, 2007 1:00 PM Pacific Time (US & Canada...

Managing Distributed Branch Office Environments with System Center and Windows Server 2008 Distributed branch office configurations within many enterprise organizations are increasing in number and growing in complexity. In this webcast, we highlight the Microsoft System Center portfolio of IT management solutions and Windows Server 2008. We discuss various IT solutions and architectures that can help you deliver quality IT service management for branch environments. http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=7280989 Windows Server 2008: Management, Security and Improved Performance for Your Remote Infrastructure Join us for a Q&A on the new features in Windows Server 2008 that will help you manage and secure your remote infrastructure as well as WAN performance improvements included in the new TCP and SMB protocols. Ask our experts about Windows BitLocker Drive Encryption, improvements in Active Directory, Server Core, the Next Generation TCP stack and SMB 2.0. http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=7280990 ttfn David Technorati...

I'm enjoying being an ISV PAM (Independent Software Vendor Partner Account Manager) and while I miss my small business role, the new job has me looking after accounts that are small and big. One such account already has a case study up. To improve ease of use for its business customers, Corporate Modelling decided to develop its business process management solutions using Microsoft® products. The company also joined the Microsoft Partner Program, which has not only provided guidance for long-term development but also strategic sales leads and connections with other vendors. Corporate Modelling expects to double its revenue every nine months. Microsoft Case Studies: Corporate Modelling This is not my work, I'm just carrying on the great work of others, but it is nice to work with such people. ttfn David Technorati Tags: ISVs , Corporate Modelling

I saw this and thought I would publish this to show that businesses will always put differences behind them if they think there is a buck to be made: Sun to Install Windows Server on Its Hardware Sun Microsystems will start selling its lineup of 64-bit, x86-based servers preinstalled with the Windows Server operating system within 90 days. and Microsoft/Novell Open Windows/Linux Interop Lab The initial focus will be around three projects involving virtualization, management, and identity federation. This just proves that all firms are commercial! Don't believe the religious hype! Of course, competition will still be just as fierce. ttfn David Technorati Tags: Sun , Windows , Novell

I saw Vijay's posting on MS licensing and I have to admit I was quite amazed. 1st off it was a huge rant, it seemed to fail to understand the basics of how businesses make money and finally there was not a good suggestion on how to make it better, except to remove the ways to pay. I will do a reply to the blog later, but first I thought I would offer some insight on licensing. Why does Microsoft sell licenses Microsoft uses licensing to get paid for our products. Customers buy the license if they see the value in the products. If the customer does not see the value, they would not buy. People who say Microsoft should give it away or reduce the price seem to not understand the basic economics of supply and demand - every business, while it may have many goals, ultimately has a responsibility to the investors and this is nearly always to make money. Even when I was treasurer for a charity we needed to make money - it was probably the biggest problem we had, followed by how we deliver the services the charity...

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 us that the Scottish have romantic hearts - Danny picked the shortest poem. but picked on people as "characters" - Steve Clayton decided to do a duet with Stephanie who found it all a bit too much

I saw this and think it is amazing - I know there are already lots of translation services out there, but I like the way things are presented at this site. If you want to do free text or web site translation, have a look at http://translator.live.com/ . Once I'd tested translating a phrase or two (why do I always translate to Arabic??) I thought I would run UKSBSGUY through it. To see the site with just a toolbar to select the language - go to http://translator.start.com//BV.aspx?&MKT=en-GB#http://uksbsguy.com/ . You have a choice of several views - side by side top and bottom original with tooltip translation translated with original text in a tooltip I really like the last option, but play around with them yourself. - translated with English tooltips - English with translated tooltips - Top and bottom - Side by side ttfn David Technorati Tags: Translation , Live

I saw this and had to share.  In the samples on the site it includes a RSS reader, Outlook tool and more! Welcome to Acropolis The Microsoft code name “Acropolis” Community Technology Preview is a set of components and tools that make it easier for developers to build and manage modular, business focused, client .NET applications. Acropolis is part of the “.NET Client Futures” wave of releases, our preview of upcoming technologies for Windows client development. Acropolis builds on the rich capabilities of Microsoft Windows and the .NET Framework, including Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), by providing tools and pre-built components that help developers quickly assemble applications from loosely-coupled parts and services. With Acropolis you will be able to: Quickly create WPF enabled user experiences for your client applications. Build client applications from reusable, connectable, modules that allow you to easily create complex, business-focused applications...

I was contacted by Gerald who had this problem and after a bit of research I found the answer. The text explaining how to do this can be found at http://www.word07.com/locking.htm , however to explain a bit more, here are a few pictures and words. The problem arises when you "group" some text in the developer tab, so the answer is to ungroup it. 1st off, ensure the developer tab is showing by going to the file (round pearl menu button in the top left corner) and selecting the button on the bottom of the menu called "Word Options". This will bring you up a screen as below Now ensure the developer toolbar is enabled with a tick as in the picture Go to the document and find the text that you can't modify Ensure the developer toolbar is displayed and click in the document where the text is and then press the Group button in the toolbar and press the Ungroup option as below That is it - you should now be able to modify the text without any problems. If this does not solve your problem, please...

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 encompassing standard for documents that was documented so I did not have to do all the work myself. Role forward to today, Office is still the prominent document format (which is now documented on http://msdn.microsoft.com ), but there is a new kid in town that encompass everything that an Office document is and more. This is the Open XML document format. People have cried for years that they wanted the Office Document standard to become more than a defacto standard, they wanted it to become a format an open standard. It was always going to be large, but to cover all the features and functions available in Office, it would have to be. There is no point in the standard being something different to that used in Office...

According to the article at MSNBC, 25 years ago a 9th grader let loose a virus on his friends because they didn't like his practical jokes. It was the 1st wild boot sector virus and started a whole industry of security watching. The whole article is worth reading as it discusses the whole business and how it has moved from people wanting to be discovered as the malware was originally designed for notoriety, while now it is more for stealing cash or launching attacks and the writers would rather remain unknown. School prank starts 25 years of security woes First person to ever let loose a personal computer virus was a ninth grader Marcio Jose Sanchez / AP Rich Skrenta poses for a portrait in front of his first personal computer, the Apple II Plus, at home in San Carlos, Calif. Skrenta set loose the first computer virus in 1982 — when he was in ninth grade. NEW YORK - What began as a ninth-grade prank, a way to trick already-suspicious friends who had fallen for his earlier practical jokes, has earned Rich Skrenta...

This question has come up lots of times and the general statement is that it is not trivial. In fact the normal question is can Exchange 2007 be run on an SBS 2003 box. The answer to this is a resounding NO. Exchange 2007 is 64-bit and SBS 2003 is 32-bit and never the twain shall meet. The closest you can get is installing a Windows Server 2003 64-bit system and putting Exchange on it. You will have to buy a Windows Server license, Exchange 2007 license and CALs for each client that uses it. (note if you want Outlook Voice Access then you need Enterprise CALs even if you are only installing Exchange 2007 Standard edition). Once this is done you need to decide if you are going to keep your Exchange 2003 box or forward ports to the new system. If you are keeping both then you also need to be aware of (note this comes from an e-mail from Karan in our support team and should not be considered complete, but a pointer in the right direction): Please note that Exchange 2007 would appear in a different administrative...