This testing is getting pretty tiresome.
MS releases Entourage EWS, changes name to Outlook
Big news on the Mac e-mail front.
First, Microsoft has released the Exchange Web Services (EWS) edition of Entourage, which you may remember from back in January. If you’ve been using the beta version, you will almost certainly be pleased with the vast improvements in sync speed since the beta. MS has also fixed a number of annoying sync bugs. Remember, the EWS version requires that you have Exchange 2007 SP1 with update rollup (UR) UR4 or later.
Next, MS announced today that the next version of Mac Office will contain… not Entourage but Outlook for the Mac. They have not yet announced the exact details of what “Outlook” means in the Mac context (except to say that it includes support for AD RMS), but the Entourage Outlook for Mac team is well aware of the major features that Outlook for WIndows has, and based on my discussions with them I am pretty optimistic about what we’ll see in the next version.
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Filed under General Tech Stuff, UC&C
20% discount on Microsoft Certified Master: Exchange September rotation
Neato! I just got mail from Greg Taylor, head of the MCM: Exchange program. They’re offering a $3,550 discount on the upcoming Exchange 2007 rotation (September 21-October 10). Register here to get the discount. Disclaimer: I teach the UM portion of the MCM class, and Greg’s offering instructors a bounty for new registrants, so I benefit directly when people sign up. However, the training is so good that you should disregard my interests altogether and sign up anyway. (If you do, please drop me an e-mail to let me know!)
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Filed under UC&C
Windows Mobile 6.5 emulator images
Ethan McConnell has a long post on the Exchange team blog covering how to set up the Windows Mobile emulators for testing various Exchange features. Early last month he snuck in an update: a link to the Windows Mobile 6.5 emulator images. If you’re interested in the differences between WM 6.1 and 6.5, this is probably the best way to satisfy your curiosity for the time being; I don’t think there are any actual WM 6.5 devices shipping yet.
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Filed under General Tech Stuff, UC&C
OWA redirects with URL rewriting
From the “you learn something new every day, whether you want to or not” file: there’s an IIS extension that lets you doURL rewriting. Chris Lehr has a blog post explaining how to use it to send users to the correct OWA virtual directory no matter what (or almost no matter what) URL they enter. This is a lot cleaner than the other methods I’ve seen described in the past.
Heading to SJC
We have been having a wonderful family visit in Alexandria, complete with lots of great food and family time. Now I am at AEX enroute SJC. I was supposed to fly AEX-MEM-MSP-SJC but the MEM-MSP was cancelled due to mechanical problems. Too bad Northwest didn’t tell me until check-in. They wanted to reroute me to SFO, which would put me in at almost midnight. Instead I’m going aEX-MEM-IAH-SJC, which should be OK. Then tomorrow, New Job City!
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Filed under Travel
Exchange UM broadcast / distribution voice mail
Microsoft’s Dave Howe posted a great tip to his blog: how to allow users to send voicemail messages to multiple users. This is often called “broadcast” or “distribution” voicemail, because the sender specifies a single address that expands into multiple recipients– just like a conventional distribution group in Exchange. The process is pretty straightforward: you create a new AD distribution group for the target recipients, update the UM grammar files that Exchange UM uses for speech recognition, and start sending messages.
Some must-have iPhone apps for the kids
[ Update: rewritten because the original’s links were bad. I deleted it, and now people who clicked on the original link are getting 500’d ]
Arlene and I upgraded our iPhones to the 3GS model last night, and David got a 3G 8GB to replace his ooold Nokia flip. Tom is awaiting the arrival of his iPod Touch. With that in mind I wanted to link to a few apps that I frequently use. This isn’t a complete or exhaustive list, but it’s a start.
- The Scriptures, a free app that renders the standard works of the LDS Church (Old Testament, New Testament, Book of Mormon, and Doctrine and Covenants), complete with footnotes and a really helpful search feature.
- The Mormon Channel, which provides a number of LDS Church-sponsored audio and information feeds, including full text of Church magazines, scriptures, and content from General Conference sessions. Interestingly, this is a community-developed app— I’m signing up to work on it. (It’s free.)
- The Weather Channel: all the local forecasts you could possibly want, supported by ads. There’s an ad-free Max version for $4 that adds beach forecasts, radar maps, and some other stuff
- feX for Facebook: syncs your Facebook friends list with your iPhone address book (and thus, by extension, with Exchange or whatever you’re using on the back end). This is the fastest way to get pictures of your contacts, not to mention their birthdays and so on. It’s well worth the $0.99 cost.
- TweetDeck: a great free Twitter client. It’s supposed to be able to sync with the desktop version, but I haven’t gotten it to work properly yet.
- Blog with iBlogger is $10. However, it’s by far the best blogging client I’ve found for the iPhone. It handles multiple blogs with aplomb and can easily post text and photos. I haven’t tried posting any videos yet, though.
- Shazam, a free app that identifies songs for you then lets you quickly buy them from iTunes. Perfect for places where they often play music you don’t recognize.
- iPhlix for remotely controlling my Netflix queue (including adding and removing items; well worth its $3 price) and its partner in crime, the free U-verse TV remote control app. Between these two I can remotely record or request shows or movies no matter where I am (e.g. in the back of an airplane somewhere).
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Filed under Friends & Family, General Tech Stuff
The lowdown on Exchange 2010 fax
You may have heard that Exchange 2010 won’t support inbound fax. I have yet to find an Exchange 2007 deployment that actually uses Exchange UM faxing for one simple reason: it’s inbound-only. If you have to do all the work of deploying an outbound fax solution anyway, the value of inbound fax support in Exchange UM is quite a bit lower.
Exchange 2010 won’t create fax messages itself. However, there’s a twist: you can outsource your fax over IP (FoIP) capabilities. Exchange 2010 will honor any existing Exchange 2007 UM fax configuration properties, and it will continue to recognize fax CNG tones. However, instead of answering the call itself, UM will look at a new configuration property defined on UM mailbox policy objects: FaxServerURI. If this property exists, UM will try to hand off the call to the specified fax solution. The external fax solution will establish a fax media session with the sender, create a fax message, and send it to the UM-enabled user’s mailbox.
Messages created by this approach will look basically just like Exchange 2007 UM fax messages, and they’ll appear in the Fax search folder just as existing messages do.
The foregoing discussion might lead you to wonder who’s going to offer FoIP services that work with Exchange 2010. I haven’t seen a list yet. However, Concord Technologies sent out a press release at the Worldwide Partner Conference touting the fact that they’d be offering an Exchange 2010-compatible solution, so I guess we can count them in.
Filed under UC&C
We’re moving to California
(Mental playlist for this entry: Led Zep’s Going to California; Fatboy Slim’s Kalifornia; Take California by the Propellerheads; the Royal Gigolos remix of California Dreamin’; close out with the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Dani California).
From the title of this post and the playlist above, you might have figured it out: we’re not moving to Seattle, but instead to somewhere in the wild, wild Bay Area. Worse, I’m leaving 3Sharp and joining another company altogether. Shock! Horror! How did this happen?
It’s complicated.
Since my dad’s death in 2007 I’ve been thinking more about who I am and what I do. In my early career, I built software, a process that has tangible (and hopefully executable) results. In my current role, I spend a lot of time researching how things work, and the good and bad aspects of various technologies, and communicating my learnings to people in different ways. Over time I began to feel as though I was losing the passion that had made me successful at 3Sharp. I still enjoyed tinkering with new technologies (yeah, Exchange 2010, I’m looking at you), but I felt as though my inner fire was turning into banked coals instead of a roaring inferno.
At the same time, 3Sharp has been growing and changing in some new and exciting ways. Some unforeseen (and very much unwanted) changes in our business meant that we had to lay people off– people I valued as friends and for whose welfare I felt responsible. That was a hard pill to swallow for me. At the same time, PKS, and its related technologies, have been strong areas for us, as has the work we’ve done focused on Office and SharePoint. The only way I could help move that work forward was by driving 3Sharp’s sales and marketing efforts, but I quickly found that– compared to the other things I knew how to do– that I was neither very excited by nor very good at these critical things.
When Acuitus approached me to do some on-site training for them in Monterey, I jumped at the chance because Jim McBee (my longtime friend and a great American) had told me they were doing some interesting things. After the training was over, I flew down to San Jose to talk to them about hiring 3Sharp to do some additional work. During that time I got more hands-on experience with their digital tutor, and learned more about their long-term plans. Instead of hiring 3Sharp, they offered me a job.
After a lot of soul searching, and many long conversations with Arlene, I decided to accept their offer. I’d been approached by other companies before, including competitors of 3Sharp and companies that wanted Exchange talent in-house. This offer was different, though. What tipped the scale is this: I firmly believe that what Acuitus is doing will revolutionize the way computer-based learning works and how it’s used. Working there will give me some unmatchable opportunities to build and do things that can make a lasting impact for millions of people. That was too much to resist!
There are a lot of scary parts to this change: I’m uprooting my family to move someplace that none of us have ever wanted to live, going back to working in an office instead of from home most of the time, and having to prove my skills and worth all over again from scratch. Instead of the established support system we would have had in Seattle, we’re starting over in a new, and very different, environment from what we’re used to. These things are all hard.
The change is hard for another reason. I think of my partners in 3Sharp– Paul, Peter, and John– like brothers. Telling them that I was leaving was one of the most difficult things I’ve ever had to face. I have learned so much from them that I owe them a debt I can’t ever repay, not that leaving them is helping to repay it any! However, I believe in their talent and drive, and I know that 3Sharp will continue to thrive and prosper under their care.
However, sometimes it takes work to move on to the next stage of whatever the Lord has planned for us. That’s what I’m trying to keep in mind as we go through the process of looking at ridiculously overpriced houses and figuring out how we’ll make the leap to this new environment. I’ve added a new category called “California” for posts just about the transition, even. Onward…
Filed under California, Musings
Respite care for Alzheimer’s sufferers in Toledo
Jeri Wendt, a friend of mine from Perrysburg Rotary, sent me this note, and I wanted to share it. If you have a loved one with Alzheimer’s in metro Toledo, please look into Paul’s Peers and support them in any way you can.
When you come across something that you care about and think others may benefit from you just HAVE to pass on the good word… so, please take a minute and read about something that makes my life so much better.
For those who don’t know, my mom has Alzheimer’s. My older brother and I share in her care and luckily for us, about three years ago, we discovered Paul’s Peers Respite Care in Maumee where we take her four days a week. (See attached article featuring me and Mom!). Paul’s Peers is a senior day-care center whose main purpose is caring for elderly people who need assistance. This includes people with Alzheimer’s. It is a place to drop off your loved one knowing they will be cared for by the kindest people you would ever hope to meet. For $35 a day you have up to eight hours of free time for yourself and in our case, Mom gets a day away from us. (A win-win situation!)
I am sending this to you in case you know of someone who would be interested in this program. Due to the economy, many people aren’t working now and are staying at home with their loved ones eliminating the need for elder care during the day. Much to our dismay, Paul’s Peers has had to temporarily stop care on Tuesdays due to lack of enrollment. So… if you have a spouse, parent, grandparent or know of someone who could use this service please let them know. It is a program offered as much for the care giver as it is the recipient.
We would not be able to have my Mom stay at home were it not for this “gem”. We drop her off at 9:00 in the morning and her day begins with a continental breakfast, (donated by Panera Bread), and David, the assistant director, reading the newspaper and discussing current events. The rest of the day the incredible staff keeps things interesting by mild exercises, playing games and cards, watching old movies and listening to music with weekly entertainment such as an accordion player or a story teller. Other events are bi-weekly manicures, trips to the movie theater, crafts, tea parties, church every Wednesday and visits from the children’s day-care. The staff patiently learns the likes and dislikes of each participant and gently works with them accordingly. It didn’t take them long to find out my mom is an avid gin-rummy player who is tough to beat!
There you have it… now you know. If you don’t have the need right now maybe sometime in the future you will have a friend who is at wits end and needs a break. You can offer them a solution.
St. Paul’s Episcopal Church
310 Elizabeth Street
Maumee
(419) 893-3381
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Filed under Friends & Family, General Stuff
Plague Year (Carlson)
This isn’t exactly a horror novel, but it was horrifying. It scared the pants off me. I don’t want to say too much about it to avoid spoiling any potential surprises. Carlson tells the story of a nanotech plague, and its few survivors, in a spare, fast style. There are plot twists aplenty, and neither the heroes nor villains are as simple as they might first appear. Strongly recommended if you like science fiction, apocalyptic fiction, or well-written and scary fiction.
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Filed under Reviews
Meeting forward notifications in Exchange 2010
Back in May I wrote about meeting forward notifications and how Exchange 2007 processes them. This feature is largely unchanged in Exchange 2010, with one very nice exception. In the new OWA options interface, the Calendar tab sports a checkbox labeled “Delete notifcations about forwarded meetings”. If you check it, that has the same effect as running Set-MailboxCalendarSettings -RemoveForwardedMeetingNotifications $true on your mailbox.
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Filed under UC&C
Z-Push considered harmful
So Devin posted about Z-Push, the cool-sound open-source implementation of Microsoft’s Exchange ActiveSync (EAS) protocol. Here’s the problem: the Z-Push folks kinda forgot to buy a license for EAS, and I have a problem with that. After years of complaints that Microsoft wasn’t being open and sharing its protocols, they started to document the behavior of their protocols and offer some of them for licensing, EAS included. That’s good, right? It’s good enough for Apple, Google, and the many other companies that licensed EAS, anyway. However, apparently Zarafa wanted the benefit of Microsoft’s labors without being willing to pay for it, so they built their own implementation. I don’t think that’s fair, and I don’t think the technical coolness of Z-Push should obscure the fact that Zarafa is stealing something that isn’t theirs.
This is what I said in 2002:
Hey, Linux guys: if you want to beat Microsoft, do it by making something better, not by copying their investment.
What happened to Lemonade? How about Funambol? It’s not as though the FOSS world lacks for sync protocols; they just decided that Microsoft’s commercially successful, fully licensable protocol would better suit their needs, so they took it. It boggles the mind. It would be one thing if the protocol were fully open to all implementers, but it’s not. If you don’t like the licensing terms, build your own protocol– that’s not hard to understand, is it?
Live Meeting Lotus Notes plugin
From the I-had-no-idea-this-existed department: Microsoft has a downloadable Lotus Notes plugin that provides integrated support for scheduling Live Meeting sessions and meetings hosted by OCS 2007. (It doesn’t yet support OCS 2007 R2, sad to say.)
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Filed under UC&C
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