Adam's Mindspace

I was just browsing the BBC website when I found this article that is well worth a look, whether you're a seasoned messaging pro or just someone looking for more info on unsolicited commercial e-mail (UCE).

Derek blogged about an update to Windows Live Writer Beta which adds a load of features to the initial beta release:

• Tagging support
• Support for Blogger Beta
• Improvements to categories
• And more…

Check out the Live Writer Space for more info

Source: Bill’s Baby: Windows Live Writer 1.0 (Beta) Update

Paul at MoDaCo has been at Mobius in Boston, finding out about all the cool new bits that will be in Windows Mobile 5 AKU3.

For those who have no idea what an AKU is, its an Adaption Kit Update. An Adaption Kit Update is a little bit like a service pack but because all mobile carriers modify the base Windows Mobile OS to their own individual requirements, Microsoft lets them do the same with the AKUs. As such, you can't download an AKU from any Microsoft website - you need to wait for the provider of your device to release their own build (or not as the case may be).

AKU2 was a massive update, containing the heralded Messaging and Security Feature Pack with push e-mail support for Exchange 2003 users.

AKU3 appears to have more of a focus of all round OS improvements.

Key features of AKU 3.0 include:

• Better integration of SIM / USIM contacts
• Alphabetic sorting of SIM / USIM contacts in contacts list view
• Pocket PC language packs at hard reset time
• Auxiliary display support native in OS
• Improved 'Internet Sharing'
• Much improved quick start wizard with 'skip' for tutorial, settings setup at boot time
• Pre-provisioned email accounts
• vCards over SMS
• SMS Multiple Recipient improvements
• Save SMS to SIM
• One handed PPC folder navigation improvements
• WMP full screen video on all devices
• Equalizer
• Smart-type search
• Large number of preconfigured email providers (including GMail!)

Paul also has the lowdown on some other Mobius stuff, including an Xbox Live Client and some new Windows Mobile Powertoys

Source: Mobius 2006 Boston: AKU3 Preview - MoDaCo

Derek and I were just talking Vista as we were both installing the latest build and we got onto the subject of search providers.

This web site allows you to make your own search providers on the fly. A cool extra feature would be for it to have links to popular ones.

I'm doing some Vista related work at the moment (isn't everyone? ;) and I think the Mobility Center is a cool idea.

It's like a widget that has all the settings you'd ever want related to a mobile computer.

Intermedia, a hosted Exchange provider, have written an amusing comparison between Google Apps for your Domain and Hosted Exchange.

Google Apps for your Domain basically provides private versions of Gmail, Gtalk, Page Creator and Calendar to organizations for 'free'.

They point out the following key features of the google offering:

• 24x0 support. This is important because companies for whom email and schedules are mission-critical will want to know they can pick up a phone and get support 24 hours a day, 0 days per week. Google also gives the option of filling out a support form and receiving an automated response.
• No wireless access. Where Intermedia.NET hosted Exchange gives users access to information via BlackBerry, Treo, Q or any other device, Google has bucked this trend, perhaps suggesting that wireless email is in fact a productivity-sapping distraction for employees.
• Private data read by others. Google Apps for your Desktop again bucks the trend that businesses should not allow outsiders to read their proprietary documents and email. Businesses can rest easy knowing that Google is looking at all emails and documents.
• Ads inside applications. Clearly, employees are more productive when their business applications stream ads for online poker sites and pills to combat ED.
• No uptime guarantee. Rather than a predictable 99.9% uptime guarantee, such as the one offered by Intermedia.NET, Google does not provide a set percentage of the time when email will be up and running. This keeps corporate collaboration more exciting, by allowing staff to guess whether the system will be working or not.

All of these points are true. Unfortunately, many folks will just take it at face value and see it as free rather than consider the total cost of ownership vs something like Exchange Server (hosted or otherwise).

I've decided to try and keep my geekdojo mindspace strictly tech and work, in line with the audience we have here.

As such, I have a new personal blog over at Vox

If you're interested in my thoughts and reflections on the inane things that are my life, point your feed readers at http://adamfield.vox.com

Windows Live Writer has been released in beta which, if you're reading this post, has successfully posted to my GeekDojo blog.

A few niggles so far:

• The intelligent config wizard couldnt detect my blog settings automagically from the blog URL
• The (optional) WinLive toolbar install screwed my IE7 tabbed browsing
• Doesn't appear to have the ability to let you name your posts (the default in CS 2.0 is to use a variant of the date)

Additionally, the app looks a lot like one note and could easily just be an add in for OneNote 2007

I'll let you know how i get on

Flickr is the current home of my moblog (and all my other photos for that matter).

However, I was thinking the other day about how cool it would be if EXIF data included some kind of geotag.

Then, I came across Zooomr which has lots of the features of Flickr plus geotagging.

I'll play with it a bit and let you know what I find

The geekdojo has a new blogger - Andy Marshall who is a friend I have known for many years.

He just blogged his first post.

Welcome Andy.

The Technical Case Study that Anthony and I wrote for Microsoft IT Showcase is now online.

Detailed discussion describing how Microsoft IT uses Exchange Server 2003 SP2 and Windows Mobile 5.0 with the Messaging and Security Feature Pack to improve how it does mobile messaging. By using these new technologies Microsoft IT was able to manage mobile devices more easily, better secure mobile devices, and enable end users to take advantage of a more richer mobile messaging experience.

<Touchyfeelystuff>

I've been away for a good few weeks as I haven't felt too good.

I won't bore you with the details but i'm back now.

All I'll say is that it's good to talk :)

</Touchfeelystuff>

As it's my birthday on Sunday, I thought I'd share some merriment with you today.

For those of you using Exchange 12/2007 CTP via MSDN or TechNet who aren't on the official beta, I thought I'd share this gotcha/bug with you.

I'm working on various Exchange 2007 content at the moment so i've installed it a lot lately.

One of the installation requirements for Ex2007 is that you have MMC 3.0 installed.

However, if you have the most recent version installed, Ex2007 setup will tell you that you need to install MMC 3.0. This resulted in a lot of head scratching from me because, by default, the installation doesn't show up in Add/Remove programs. I thought that i'd just forgotten to install MMC.

The answer for the moment is to install the RC1 refresh version of MMC 3.0.

If anyone knows of a workaround that will let you keep the most recent version, let me know via the comments.

UPDATE:

After some searching (pointed out by Neil Hobson) I found the answer here.