"Building Better Geeks Since 2004"
There was some talk Wednesday night at Fox & Hound about Internet Explorer 8, and I wanted to share these videos for those interested in seeing what’s new and cool.
MIX video:
First Look at IE8 Activities and WebSlices
Channel 10 video:
First Look: Internet Explorer 8
Download: Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 for Vista & Server 2008
Note – This is a developer’s edition, so make sure you’re playing with it on a demo or VPC machine, not in a production environment.
Whitepaper Title: Deploying Windows Mobile 6 with Windows Small Business Server 2003
File Name: SBS-WM6_122107.doc
Version: 3.0
Date Published: January 2008
Language: English
Download Size: 1.8 MB
Pages: 49
Download URL: Click here
Description:
Do you want to add Windows Mobile devices to your network? Is your network based either on the Windows Small Business Server 2003 (Windows SBS) server software with Service Pack 1 (SP1) or on Windows Small Business Server 2003 R2? If so, you can use the step-by-step instructions in this document to deploy devices that are powered by the Windows Mobile 6 software on a Windows SBS network.
Contents
Source: Sean Daniel’s blog
Recently I started using a new Outlook plug-in called Xobni (thanks for the invite Nick!) Xobni isn’t new. In fact Bill Gates talked about it over a year ago:
What Xobni Does
Basically, Xobni (pronounced ‘zob-nee’) lets you track email relationships, conversations, connections with others, and (my favorite feature) provides a no-search list of files exchanged with others. It also provides metrics on what time of the day someone emails you.
Here’s an example from my personal email account,
and just for fun, we’ll pick on Kevin:
Top Section – Name, Emails Received, Time of Day, Emails In (received) vs. Emails Out (sent) and includes To From CC and BCC, and Rank based on the number of emails to and from this person.
Contact Info – Phone (this is automatically pulled from email body), link to schedule a meeting, link to create an email.
People Connected to… – These are contacts that I’ve CC’ed in an email to Kevin, or contacts he’s CC’ed me on.
Conversations with… – Threaded conversations with this contact.
Files Exchanged with… – My favorite feature! Whether I sent the file to Kevin, or he sent it to me, it shows up here. VERY nice.
LIKES:
DISLIKES:
Regarding the time zone issue, I could go either way on this one.
Take Susan for example, she’s in California (GMT -8) and I’m Kentucky (GMT-5). So, while it’s true that sometimes she sends email when it’s 3AM for me, it’s only midnight for her, so it’s a bit confusing at first glance because it looks like she’s still up at 3AM (maybe she is 😉 :
With Wayne in Sydney, Australia (GMT +10), it’s even more noticeable with the time difference:
So, if I look at the chart, before I even try to send Wayne an email, I know that if it’s before lunch time for me, he’s probably asleep down under.
And resource-wise, I’ve been pretty happy w/ Xobni:
Right now Xobni is a closed-beta, but I’ve got some invites left. If you’re interested, log a reply to this post.
And if you’d like a bit deeper look at Xobni, here’s a link to a video tour:
http://www.xobni.com/learnmore/
UPDATE – I found out Wayne already blogged about this, but my post is prettier and I’ve already typed it all, so I’m posting it anyway 😉
As Susan pointed out yesterday, Vista Service Pack 1 is available for TechNet Plus subscribers.
Since I can’t find my TechNet info, the good news is that Vista SP1 is also available for MSDN subscribers:
The EXE version weighs in at 434.5 MB:
The ISO DVD version is a stout 1.13 GB: 
Download speeds are pretty quick this morning.
1.13 GB in 18 minutes. I like that. 🙂
We’ll post the public URL when it hits general consumption status.
While troubleshooting Exchange Active Sync for a client today, I spun up a WM6 virtual Pocket PC to test the certificate & server settings. After troubleshooting was complete, I noticed a pop-up for the Customer Experience Improvement Program.
For most folks with WM6 this is a big ‘whoop-dee-doo’, but since I’m still on WM5 with my personal Pocket PC, I was kind of surprised to see this message.
Anyway, these pre-built Windows Mobile 6 virtual Pocket PC devices are really awesome for training and troubleshooting:
You can download them for FREE: click here
Note: To connect the WM6 VPCs to your existing Network Interface Card, you should also download either the Virtual Machine Network Driver for Microsoft Device Emulator (1KB) or Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 (30.4 MB). Virtual PC has the VM network driver baked in.
Less than a year after the official launch of the 2007 Office System, Microsoft announced on a TechNet blog that Service Pack 1 for Office 2007 will hit the web on 12/11/2007 (Patch Tuesday for December 2007).
“Will it come down the pipe automatically”, you ask?
“The 2007 Office System SP1 will be critical service pack for a variety of reasons. It will eliminate many deployment barriers to deployment you may have in your environment, it will provide support for Windows Server 2008, and will provide critical fixes to products such as Project and Project Server.
The use of Automatic Update (AU) Deployment has been a concern we have heard from many customers in recent months. Because of this, the 2007 Office System SP1 will not be released to AU immediately. Instead, the Microsoft Office System team will provide guidance as to a date at which we will begin throttling up so that you have time to educate yourself on what is in SP1 and determine the best method for you to deploy it in your environment. ”
That is all.
Chris, scooped me on this today, but my post has became a tragedy involving crushed hopes and dreams for mo-bettah Office 2007 love on my WM5 PPC. I hope you fare better and have a smooth upgrade. Me? Notsomuch.
Title: Microsoft Office Mobile 6.1
Subtitle: Upgrade for Microsoft Office 2007 file formats
File Name: OfficeMobile_Licensed_0409_US.msi
Version: 6.1
Date Published: 11/28/2007
Language: English
Download Size: 12.7 MB
Download URL: Click here or here
Description:
Office Mobile 6.1 is an upgrade to Office Mobile applications on Windows Mobile. The new upgrade supports the new Office 2007 file formats. It’s a free download, but see * note below.
Requirements:
That said, you can purchase the full version of Office Mobile 6.1 online for $49.95 at Handango.
Installation Instructions:
(Your mileage may vary – if you’re thinking about upgrading a device that isn’t new, read on.)
Error message: Office Mobile 6.1 is not compatible with Windows Mobile 5.0 powered devices running builds earlier than 14847.
To check the build number of your Windows Mobile powered device, go to Settings, click System, and then click About.
MISSION STATUS
DENIAL
OK, so I didn’t think this device was that old. I got it last year. It’s an iPAQ hx2795, it’s got a fingerprint reader, bluetooth, wifi, rubberized kung foo grip on the sides, 4GB SD card in the slot and 2 more in holster loaded w/ multimedia goodies. It’s plenty fast enough. And it’s been great for lots of stuff, like:
BARGAINING
Please don’t be too old! You’re not even 2 yet! I’ll buy you an 8 GB SD card, OK?? I check System / Settings / About / and sure enough, Build 14366.1.0.1. Gaaa!
ANGER
Weezer sang it best: “Say It Ain’t So” (musical interlude while I chill)
ACCEPTANCE
Calmer now, I’m digging into this. Found the update page for the hx2000 series on HP’s site. Downloaded the BIOS update, tried to flash the BIOS…
….and I bricked it. Sour times.
MIXED PANIC & BLINDING ANGER
Vista WMDC tanked in the middle of the BIOS flash. I jumped back over to Chris on IM (he’s been providing moral support throughout this ‘upgrade’).
HFB asked if I followed the Robot Horde’s Best Practice to Applying ROM Updates to Windows Mobile Devices. I didn’t do the 3rd party backup, but did everything else right. Per Chris:
Duly noted. My gift to you, gentle reader.
HOPE
An internet search brought up the following method to un-brick an iPAQ:
http://mobilitytoday.com/forum/showthread.php?t=7567
If a user is attempting to update the BIOS or FIRMWARE of their iPAQ and the power goes out, or they accidentally turn-off their iPAQ, when then attempt to restart the iPAQ, it will only get to a white-screen, where it then sits forever.
Both soft and hard-resets do not appear to clear the trouble in most cases.Hopefully you will never need to use this step-by-step process.
I have confirmed with Nathan at HP Technical Support that this is their approved recovery process:1.) Go to the Master Index of BIOS, FIRMWARE, & DRIVER Updates,
2.) Select the appropriate hyperlink for your model.
3.) Download the most recent BIOS version SoftPAQ (SP) for your Model of iPAQ.
4.) Press the POWER + iTASK + CONTACTS + RESET buttons at the same time so as to enter the FLASH Mode
5.) Make sure your USB connection to the Cradle is hooked-up.
6.) Place your iPAQ in the USB Cradle.
7.) Stop the MS ActiveSync session on your HOST PC: CTRL-ALT-DELETE > TASK MANAGER > PROCESSES.
8.) Hilight WESCOMM.EXE and select “End Process” button.
9.) Run the file you downloaded from HP in step 3.
10.) The iPAQ should now begin Flashing the iPAQ’s ROM BIOS.This should work for most every iPAQ model, however, we cannot guarantee this will succeed at restoring your iPAQ to a usable state.
PROGRESS
After the near-impossible iPAQ 4-finger salute & some fiddling… cowbell!
…and there was much rejoicing! 🙂
To repeat a quote I heard at SMB Nation two years ago, “All I know about the bleeding edge is – that’s where people bleed.” It might have been Erik Simpson, can’t remember really. But it hits home tonight.
STUPIDITY
And because I never learn my lesson, I’m going to try again this weekend (only from an XP machine this time). Because I’m nothing if not persistent. Woo-hoo!!
Seam carving is one of those new technologies that you have to see to understand. I’ve heard this called “content-aware image resizing”, “retargeting” “rescaling”, etc., and those names fall flat.
You really need to see this – it’s just too cool to even try to describe:
Pretty nice, eh? Wanna try it yourself?
Download The GIMP – GNU Image Manipulation Program (14.4 MB) Here are 3 examples of what you can easily do with GIMP and the Liquid Rescale plug-in.
EXAMPLE 1 – Reduce Overall 25% – Mythbusters
Before (500×375 pixels)
During (showing the Liquid Rescale plug-in)
After (375×281) – look at how much white space we lost on the top and sides of the picture. But the aspect ratio remained the same, even though Adam is a little thinner in the after picture:
That doesn’t look significant, but look how much picture we would have lost to conventional cropping using Microsoft Office Picture Manager (the hands would be gone completely):
EXAMPLE 2 – Reduce Width Only by 25% – Seagull in Seattle
Before (2272×1074)
After (1074×1074) -25% width
After v2 (2840×1278) +25% width, -25% height
Note: These pictures were not rescale or cropped – it’s a ‘retarget’.
EXAMPLE 3 – Reduce Height Only by 25% – Susanne & Vlad
Before (1024×768)
After (1024×576) -25% height
Once again, not a crop… yada yada… you get the idea. It’s lots of fun. Enjoy!
Dr. Codec 🙂
Title: How to Sell, Deploy, and Build Business with Microsoft Windows Sharepoint Services 3.0 and SBS 2003 R2
File Name: Selling_WSS_and_SBS_Kit.zip
Version: 1.0
Date Published: 11/15/2007
Language: English
Download Size: 3.2 MB
Download URL: Click here
Description:
A new partner enablement tool that helps you create solutions using Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and Windows Small Business Server 2003 R2. Access the toolkit’s resources—including a process cookbook, technical documentation and marketing materials—to learn how to build your business by selling and deploying customized solutions.
Contents Include:
*If you’re looking for the document on creating a secure extranet using WSS v3 on top of SBS, it’s in this download. This is the same WSS / SBS content released at Worldwide Partner Conference 2007 that everyone has been asking for over the last several months. Basically, this stuff is a gold mine!
I love SharePoint. I love Dilbert. Put them both together and it’s like peanut butter and chocolate. In fact, I love SharePoint and Dilbert almost as much as I hate monkeys (that’s a lot!)
THE FRUSTRATON
And as much as I’ve always adored SharePoint (even back in the STS 1.0 days), user adoption was always sluggish. To this day I’m still floored by how many IT Pros / SBSers and even SBSCs don’t use their own http://companyweb site. Unlike the ‘Field of Dreams‘, if you build it, they won’t necessarily come. 🙁
THE STING
So for several years I’ve been sneakily using the Daily Dilbert to lure reluctant end users into SharePoint sites. Many users have absolutely no desire to hit http://companyweb or set it as their IE homepage. But add the Daily Dilbert to your intranet, add in a traffic cam web part, a weather radar, and you’ll be amazed at how quickly and consistently users hit the site. And once users and small business owners are in the habit of using Companyweb, it opens their eyes and they start thinking about what else they can do with SharePoint.
Customer – “Hey, can we put links to our vendors on this site? What about HR documents? What about… “
You – “Sure, we can do that. Let me show you some of these ‘Fabulous 40’ templates Microsoft has released for SharePoint… “
They start recognizing that it can drive *tremendous* business value. And you can be there to provide those value-added services. Win-win. 🙂
THE DOWNLOAD
What you’ve been waiting for, the link to download the Daily Dilbert web part:
THE INSTRUCTIONS
The SharePoint pros have already snagged the web part and left the building along with Elvis. But if you’re new to SharePoint, you’ve probably already tried to open the web part and didn’t know what to do with it. So here are the step-by-step instructions to install that Daily Dilbert web part on your own SharePoint site (Note – make sure your SharePoint permissions let you upload web parts):
Right-click the Daily_Dilbert.dwp link above, and save it to your desktop 
Click the Browse button 
THE PROPS
Major thanks and shout out to Brian Ritchie for developing his mega-cool Dilbert Web Service, and for letting me link to it. Check out Brian’s site at www.dotnetpowered.com
***Bonus Material ***
THE GUTS / HOW IT WORKS
Actually, the web part is the easy part. It’s like the peanut butter and chocolate mentioned earlier. This is just a combination of my ghetto image web part and Brian’s rockin Daily Dilbert Web Service that is doing the heavy lifting of calculating the daily URL. So basically, this is just a) an image web part that b) points to a static URL, that c) contains a picture updated daily by Brian’s web service.
Alternately (and VERY cool), you can use the code and instructions on Brian’s site to run your own Daily Dilbert web service (sa-weet!)
Here’s the code for the Daily Dilbert web part if you want to see what it looks like inside:
<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”utf-8″?>
<WebPart xmlns:xsd=”http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema” xmlns:xsi=”http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance” xmlns=”http://schemas.microsoft.com/WebPart/v2″>
<Title>Daily Dilbert</Title>
<FrameType>Default</FrameType>
<Description>Thanks go to Brian Ritchie for kindly providing this web part! Be sure to visit his website at: http://www.dotnetpowered.com/dailydilbert.aspx by clicking on the help button.</Description>
<IsIncluded>true</IsIncluded>
<ZoneID>Left</ZoneID>
<PartOrder>2</PartOrder>
<FrameState>Normal</FrameState>
<Height />
<Width />
<AllowRemove>true</AllowRemove>
<AllowZoneChange>true</AllowZoneChange>
<AllowMinimize>true</AllowMinimize>
<IsVisible>true</IsVisible>
<DetailLink>http://www.dilbert.com</DetailLink>
<HelpLink>http://www.dotnetpowered.com/dailydilbert.aspx</HelpLink>
<Dir>Default</Dir>
<PartImageSmall />
<MissingAssembly />
<PartImageLarge>/_layouts/images/msimagel.gif</PartImageLarge>
<IsIncludedFilter />
<Assembly>Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=11.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c</Assembly>
<TypeName>Microsoft.SharePoint.WebPartPages.ImageWebPart
</TypeName>
<ImageLink xmlns=”http://schemas.microsoft.com/WebPart/v2/Image”> http://www.dotnetpowered.com/dailydilbertservice/dailydilbert.axd
</ImageLink>
<VerticalAlignment xmlns=”http://schemas.microsoft.com/WebPart/v2/Image”>Middle </VerticalAlignment>
<HorizontalAlignment xmlns=”http://schemas.microsoft.com/WebPart/v2/Image”>Center </HorizontalAlignment>
<BackgroundColor xmlns=”http://schemas.microsoft.com/WebPart/v2/Image”>transparent </BackgroundColor>
</WebPart>
***Extra Old Skool Bonus Material***
Back in the day before Brian’s Daily Dilbert web service, I used a similar WSS v2 stock image web part and linked it to a Dot Net Nuke site that hosted the Daily Dilbert. Straightforward, but effective.
In case you haven’t figured it out yet, you can’t use a stock image web part in WSS to link directly to the Daily Dilbert website GIF, because the image name changes every day. For example, today (11/21/2007) the image name is dilbert2002222371121.gif.
THE END
Again, much respect to Brian for the web service. Also, props to Scott Adams, the talented creator of Dilbert. If you liked the web part, be sure and leave a comment below. And if you like the Dilbert cartoon, be sure to click the words “Daily Dilbert” at the top of the web part each day – this will take you directly to the www.dilbert.com website where Scott can get the traffic he rightly deserves for creating such an awesome cartoon. Enjoy!