Shutdown Day – May 3rd

I haven't read anything about this yet. While checking my feeds I saw Steve's post on this.

A whole day without a PC ...  it's a saterday, so that should help ... I do wonder how many people can/do/will ... I'm in ...

The clock is ticking towards Shutdown Day and if I can turn off my computer for a day I’m sure you can :)

Shutdown Day is a Global Internet Experiment whose purpose is to get people to think about how their lives have changed with the increasing use of the home computer, and whether or not any good things are being lost because of this.

The idea of Shutdown Day project is simple - just shutdown your computer for one whole day of the year and involve yourself in some other activities: outdoors, nature, sports, fun stuff with friends and family - whatever, just to remind yourself that there still exists a world outside your monitor screen.

So why not join me, Jeremy, Frank and a few others? Find out more

Shutdown Day – May 3rd

New Mac Messenger for OCS

The MS Exchange Blog (not the official Microsoft Exchange team blog) reports on the upcoming MAC Messenger for OCS currently in beta ...

... According to Eric Swift, Senior Director of the Office Communications Group at Microsoft, they are working on a new Messenger client for Mac with a beta coming later this year.

The new Mac Messenger (Office Communicator for Mac?) may not have feature-parity with its Windows-based counterpart, but it will have peer-to-peer video and audio conferencing, rich presence, GAL search and dual sign-on. Your Mac clients will be able to integrate with your Office Communications Server 2007 as well. ...

New Mac Messenger for OCS

BeFunky - Cartoonize your pictures

A few weeks ago I saw Willem's blogpost about BeFunky. A cool site which let's you create avatars and also cartoons from photos.

I'm sure that applications like photoshop, etc can do this much better, but doing this on BeFunky is really a 'nobrainer' and the effect is quite nice ...

Ok I need a facelift, that's all :-)

This is very nice for presentations for example ...

Exchange 2007 and Windows Mobile 6.1 - applying security policies

Over on Jason Lanridge's blog he reports about some new features of Windows Mobile 6.1 in combination with Exchange 2007.

There's now the ability for the admin to manage bluetooth, the camera an the use of applications on the mobile device ...

Nuno has just written an article on the application of the new policies within Windows Mobile 6.1 and Exchange 2007 SP1.

Those policies allow you to do new things like disable the camera, switch on/off bluetooth and even control which applications a user can run.

You can read the blog article HERE

Source: Exchange 2007 and Windows Mobile 6.1 - applying security policies

Microsoft Albany Beta launches today, what is it?

New milestone for Microsoft by offering subscription based Office ...

... Microsoft launches Albany Beta today, but what is it? The name reveals nothing. “Albany” is the codename for a new all-in-one subscription service of essential software and services for consumers. It consists of Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007, Windows Live OneCare, Windows Live Mail, Windows Live Messenger and Windows Live Photo Gallery, it also installs the Microsoft Office Live Workspace connector. With Albany consumers will get the latest versions of Microsoft Office Home and Student and Windows Live OneCare as they are released.

Each “Albany” subscription is good for three PCs and the final version of the product will be delivered before the end of this calendar year. Microsoft Office and Windows Live OneCare will still be sold as standalone package as well. Albany just gives customers more choice and addresses the needs of those customers who value having the latest and greatest version of Microsoft Office. Pricing is not yet known.

Q&A: Group Product Manager Bryson Gordon discusses “Albany”
Getting ready for Windows Live Wave 3 ....

Source: Albany Beta launches today, what is it?

Gratis 5GB "USB"stick

Voor meer informatie : Ja ik wil ook gratis 5GB opslag

Report: Microsoft fastest to issue OS patches, Sun slowest

Bink.nu posted an interesting piece published ny Symantec comparing the speed of OS pathces between Apple, Sun, HP, Red Hat and Microsoft ...

... Symantec's comprehensive security report on the malware industry from July 1 to December 31, 2007, is now available (PDF) in its 100+ page glory. While some parts of the report simply reiterate data we're well aware of—it's no surprise to read that the majority of malicious activity originates in the US—there's also a great deal of new information here that we'll examine below.

OS/software vulnerabilities

Symantec broke down information on patch development time by operating system and by the type of vulnerability encountered. Surprisingly, Microsoft had the shortest time-to-patch over both halves of 2007. In the first part of the year, Microsoft released 38 patches (two of which involved third-party applications) with an average deployment time of 18 days. From July to December, Microsoft released 22 patches with an average patch time of six days. ...

Report: Microsoft fastest to issue OS patches, Sun slowest

The new town for Microsoft's new datacenter

The video is not very recent, yet gives a good overview of Microsoft's ambitions and real plan being executed in the datacenter space ...

Quincy, WA is the home of Microsoft's new online services datacenter, consuming 72 acres of land. The Mayor of Quincy expresses his gratitude for the choice, and MS planners explain why they chose ...

 

Video: The new town for Microsoft's new datacenter

Microsoft Protocol information for SharePoint and Office

Microsoft Corp. today took another step toward fulfilling its interoperability principle of ensuring open connections to its high-volume products and driving greater interoperability, opportunity and choice across the IT community of developers, partners, customers and competitors.

Microsoft today posted on MSDN more than 14,000 pages of preliminary versions of technical documentation for Microsoft protocols built into Microsoft Office 2007, Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Microsoft Exchange Server 2007. With this action, Microsoft will have posted a cumulative total of more than 44,000 pages of protocol documentation that it committed in its interoperability principles. Anyone who wishes to do so can now access, for free, preliminary versions of the documentation for the “connection points” between these Microsoft products as follows:

• Protocols between Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Microsoft Office client applications;
• Protocols between Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and other Microsoft server products;
• Protocols between Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 and Microsoft Office Outlook;
• Protocols between 2007 Microsoft Office system client applications and other Microsoft server products.

As a result of today’s posting, all types of developers — including independent software vendors, open source developers and developers in customer IT departments — will have consistent, open access to this protocol documentation that defines how these high-volume Microsoft products communicate with other Microsoft products. This consistent, open access to information will promote more interoperability options for developers of all types and will help foster improved real-world interoperability solutions in the marketplace.

Source : Microsoft PressPass

• Office Protocol Documentation
  

The Office protocol documentation provides detailed technical specifications for Microsoft proprietary protocols (including extensions to industry-standard or other published protocols) that are implemented and used in Microsoft Office client programs to interoperate or communicate with Microsoft products.

The documentation includes a set of companion overview and reference documents that supplement the technical specifications with conceptual background, overviews of inter-protocol relationships and interactions, and technical reference information.

• SharePoint Products and Technologies Protocol Documentation
  
  The Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies protocol documentation provides detailed technical specifications for Microsoft proprietary protocols (including extensions to industry-standard or other published protocols) that are implemented and used in SharePoint Products and Technologies to interoperate or communicate with Microsoft products.
  
  The documentation includes a set of companion overview and reference documents that supplement the technical specifications with conceptual background, overviews of inter-protocol relationships and interactions, and technical reference information.

Report: Office 2007 demand ‘healthier than thought’

Over on Microsoft Watch Mary Jo Foley blogged more details on the most recent Forrester Report about Microsoft Office 2007. It ggives more insight in deployments of MS Office (obviously), but also the relation to SharePoint and the deployment relative to Google Apps and OpenOffice ... (and no mention of IBM Lotus Symphony ;-) )

...There is quite a bit of difference of opinion as to when and whether business users should upgrade to Windows Vista, but Office 2007 isn't suffering from the same fate. According to Forrester Research (which has really been cranking out the studies in the past few days), businesses are deploying Office 2007 at a rapid clip. ...

... Other findings from Forrester’s “The State Of Microsoft Office 2007 Desktop Adoption” study (which is only available to subscribers to Forrester’s research service):

• The majority of those surveyed plan to deploy Office 2007 within the next 12 months (21 percent immediately, 43 percent within 6 months and 29 percent within 12 months)
• SharePoint Server 2007 is being deployed at almost identical rates and often in tandem with Office 2007.
• Of those surveyed, 43 percent said Office 2007 rollouts were tied to upgrades in PC hardware
• *The release of Office 2007 SP1 “removed a hurdle keeping many from moving forward in calendar year 2007.”  ...

... And what about Google Apps? Any IT pros surveyed looking seriously at a completely Google-hosted alternative to Office 2007?

“Enterprises are looking at Open Office and Google, but they are not yet looking to move to them,” McNabb said. “Less than one percent are giving any real fuel to (Microsoft) alternatives.” ...

Report: Office 2007 demand ‘healthier than thought’

Windows Live OneCare 2.5 enters public beta

LiveSide reports on the availability of teh Windows Live OneCare 2.5 Beta. Netherlands is on the list :-). This is the way it should be, no US only beta's ...

OneCare, the anti-virus/tune-up/back-up all in one program, has just opened up a public beta of version 2.5 (current released version is 2.0.2500.22, on my machine, anyway).  Anyone can go to Microsoft Connect and sign up and try the new beta, you don't need to be signed in to get to the page:

Sign up for Windows Live OneCare 2.5 beta

Looks like there's quite a list of countries available, no US only this time.  Not sure what the changes are from the released version, and there's no information about changes on the public Connect site.

Windows Live OneCare 2.5 enters public beta

˙˙˙ ǝsɐǝld uoıʇuǝʇʇɐ ɹnoʎ

ɯǝllıʍ oʇ s,opnʞ

dılɟ/ɯoɔ˙pɐɟʌǝɹ˙ʍʍʍ//:dʇʇɥ

¿ ɟlǝsɹnoʎ ʇı op oʇ ʇuɐʍ

˙ƃuıʇıɹʍ ǝɹɐ noʎ ʇɐɥʍ ɹoɟ uoıʇuǝʇʇɐ ǝɯos ʇǝƃ oʇ ʎɐʍ pooƃ ɐ sı sıɥʇ

BetaNews: IBM debuts beta of Lotus Symphony 4.0 for Linux

 

... The Armonk, N.Y. company's software is based on code from OpenOffice, and is being marketing as an alternative to Microsoft Office.

Symphony is based on the Open Document Format standard, and includes tools for users to import Microsoft Office and Adobe PDF files into the suite. IBM says this would make it easier to integrate the suite into current deployments. ...

... "Symphony was designed to provide freedom of choice and freedom from overpriced commodities," Lotus software chief Kevin Cavanaugh said. "Symphony and Linux are a natural fit for the growing ranks of businesses and individuals who have better things to do with their money." ...

Source: BetaNews.com

I haven't written much about IBM Symphony to date. Symphony's USP's are "free"and multiplatform which makes sence and ODF which for some time was the only ISO standard document format . If you're going to make yet another attempt to concur the desktop at least find your niche ...

But this approach is not simply the alternative to MS Office; the way it's positioned requires companies to also replace the desktop OS with "free" Linux, which complicates things I would say. IBM of all companies should know that enterprises run more than just Office on their desktop machines.

What I find surprising, is that IBM is taking the desktop application route with their suite and not that Rich Internet Aplpications (RIAs) i.e. develop an alternative in line with Google Apps. Although they are most likely working on such an approach , they seem to put all of their effort into creating something similar like Microsoft Office.

Also by emphasizing too much on an alternative to Microsoft Office, the focus is on the productivity side alone, functions such as wordprocessing, spreadsheets and presentations and less on Microsoft's approach of evolving Microsoft Office into Microsoft Office System since the introduction of 2003 Microsoft Office System and the latest release 2007 Microsoft Office System.

... The 2007 Microsoft Office system includes new and improved application suites, business tools, server platforms, and services. Find sales and technical-readiness information, as well as videos, case studies, podcasts, and demos from partners who are building innovative solutions based on the new platform. ...

(https://partner.microsoft.com/40025002)

Sure Microsoft Office 2007 can also be seen and implemented as 'just another' productivity suite, but next to that the seemless integration with communication and collaboration tools (inclusing Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007), BI applications and 3rd Party solutions turn it into a very comprehensive platform.

In other terms desktop productivity is something of the 90's; in todays business it is about communication and collaboration with your productivity tools at the center. This is (becoming) a platform decision.

I also wonder how much time and money IBM is investing in usability, and Accessibility features. And where does IBM Symphony differ from solutions already out there in the market for years (OpenOffice, StarOffice) ?

In summary, business that are considering shifting desktop OS and desktop productivity apps should keep in mind :

• Productivity Tools are the applications your end users are working with every single day to buy, sell, create or whatever they do to grow the business. Do you provide them with commidity tools or with the best tools possible ?
  
• There is a platform decision involved for your users to communicate and collaborate and to provide functions for compliancy and document retention (IBM sells Lotus Notes / Domino, Connections, Quikr, SameTime, websphere, etc)
  
• There's migration involved (IBM has a services organisation with many consultants and engineers)
  
• This is not about Office at all...

Open XML Overwhelmingly Approved as an ISO / IEC standard (IS 29500): the end of the file formats war

You've most likely seen a lot of speculations on the ISO vote for Open XML. Brian Jones, part of the Office Productteam and heavily involved in Open XML officially confirms the vote :

APPROVED

(This is no April Foolsday joke ;-))

... I'm sure many folks have seen the news by now that Open XML has been approved as an ISO/IEC standard (IS 29500). Based on the numbers I've seen, looking at the P member countries there are now 24 who vote "yes", and only 8 vote "no". This puts the P member approval at 75% easily passing the 2/3 majority needed. Of the overall votes (both O and P members combined) 61 countries votes "yes" and only 10 voted "no" which puts the overall approval at 86% (so only 14% no). This puts us well below the minimum bar of no more than 25% voting "no". So on both criteria, Open XML now easily passes, which is a great indication of the general positive feelings amongst the national bodies of the progress made over the past 6 months.

Now that the voting over, it's time to move forward and start to work together in the ongoing development of these document format standards. There has been a lot of energy focused on the review period over the past year or two, and we need to use that same energy to move us forward. There is still a lot of work to do in order to make it even easier for developers to build solutions using these standardized technologies (new tools; test suites; labs; etc.). We also need to continue looking beyond traditional documents and identify the important innovations that will be necessary for the documents of the future. I may have been a bit premature last year when I declared the file format wars over. It was a couple days after we saw that Open Office was going to have Open XML support, and I thought at that point folks would start to move on to the more collaborative and mutually beneficial investments. Well, I was a bit premature I think, but now a year removed from my initial statements, I think we've reached the milestone that really will help put a lot of the tension to rest. Open XML has been approved as an ISO standard, and we can now switch our energy back to the technical work that will continue to drive things forward. As we move into the next stages I'm excited to see the energy and knowledge that will be brought to the table as we begin to innovate and move both Open XML and ODF forward as important internationally standardized file formats. ...

Continue at Source : Brian Jones : Open XML Formats

HP Buying Tower Software

Guy Creese (Burton Group) blogged about the Tower Software acquisition by HP. Interesting move by HP. : 

There's a SharePoint in every story ... "The addition of Tower also is expected to enable HP Software to address the growing Microsoft SharePoint compliance and e-discovery opportunities."

Hewlett-Packard announced today that it was buying Tower Software, an Australian document and records management company.

Some interesting quotes in the press release:

1. "The deal will enable HP to expand its offerings in the fast-growing electronic discovery and compliance software market."
2. "The addition of Tower also is expected to enable HP Software to address the growing Microsoft SharePoint compliance and e-discovery opportunities."

Translated, that means that HP is buying it for both tactical and strategic reasons. Tactically, buying Tower Software will increase HP's revenue by allowing it to sell a more complete solution (Tower TRIM Context and the HP Integrated Archive Platform are already integrated). Strategically, buying Tower Software will connect HP to the SharePoint ecosystem, which is growing by leaps and bounds. Startups/small companies are selling solutions that fill gaps within SharePoint, and veteran providers (e.g., EMC/Documentum, Open Text, Tower Software) are integrating with SharePoint as a way to connect to information worker workflows.

This is yet another example of the silos of yesteryear (imaging systems that were separate from document management systems that were separate from records management systems, etc.) all toppling in a movement towards a more lifecycle approach.

Source: HP Buying Tower Software

Virgle ... People on Mars ...

... Posted by Sir Richard Branson, President and Founder of Virgin Group
In my life, I've had a lot of exciting adventures and launched a lot of ambitious business ventures. I'm delighted today to announce Virgle, Inc., a joint venture between the Virgin Group and Google which qualifies on both counts.

Virgle's goal is simple: the establishment of a permanent human settlement on Mars. Larry Page, Sergey Brin and I feel strongly that contemporary technology is sufficiently advanced to make such an effort both successful and economical, and that it's high time that humanity moved beyond Earth and began our great, long journey to explore the stars and establish our first lasting foothold on another world.
In the years to come, we'll be sending up a series of spaceships carrying (along with the supplies and tools needed to build the new colony) what eventually will be hundreds of Mars colonists, or Virgle Pioneers -- myself among them. If you think you might want join us (or invest in or otherwise assist this vast venture), I hope you'll read more here about how Virgle will work, what our brave Pioneers can expect and what the future holds for what just might be the most ambitious adventure in mankind's long and storied history.
See you on the north side of Kasei Valles!....

View article...

April 1st :-)