Eileen Brown's WebLog

Cool way to add contacts

Jason was bragging to me about just how organised he is.  So, just where does he get all of this stuff from?  Have a look at this neat little tool called Anagram to get all your contacts into Outlook with two easy keystrokes:  Aargh!  it's so simple.

I wish I'd known about this ages ago - would have saved me so much typing...

Jane gets some fame...

I just noticed this video about Jane over on Partner TV.  I hassled Jane into joining Microsoft and then into blogging, Now she's a star in our Field Engineering team and I'm basking in her limelight!..

Nice video Jane...

Who would have thought it?

So.  The Register uses Live Search on it's site....

Hats off to the Windows Live team...

Second Life Grey Goo

Steve (who is still making superb bits of machinima) told me about this worm affecting Second Life.  it's a proof of concept worm that caused a lot of aggravation - a "Grief bomb"

I'm quite impressed by the idea of the Second Life concept - apart from some of the dodgy stuff in there that young people could come across.  Yes - I know you have to be over 14 to use Second Life - but hey - people may be a little economical with the truth. And some of the areas are way beyond imagination

Techsworld seems to think that these worms will target more and more Web 2.0 sites.  What a shame.  As the good guys move on - unfortunately - so do the bad guys...

Can't decide what to do?

Paul has created a neat little mashup using Virtual Earth and a number of other API's.  and its UK focused too.  It's called the Random Day out Generator

Basically, you enter a postcode, when you want to go out and the type of things you like doing/eating. It then suggests your day out and you can get get local info/weather/geotagged photos of the each location. It was designed for (and works best in) the UK, but also works in Australia, the USA and Canada. Paul says that it was designed "for fun" but could turn into something quite useful!

The site needs a bit of performance tweaking, but comes up with a few things about my local area that I need to try out...

Neat...

The links of human kindness

I'm really impressed with how the world really works.  Last month I was on tour doing my Unified Communications demos and labs, and had my first stop in Athens.  Troy and I had some free time so we went around the Acropolis, the Parthenon and then onto lunch before going to the airport.  We collected a cab outside the hotel and were on the way to the airport when I realised I'd left my reading glasses on the table in the cafe where we'd had lunch.  We were too late to go back and get them.  The Taxi driver got the phone number of the restaurant from the receipt, called the restaurant from the cab to confirm that my glasses were actually there, then asked me to write my home address on a business card.  He promised to go back to the cafe, retrieve my glasses and take them to the hotel for them to send on to my home.

So I thanked him, hoped he'd keep his promise, and did the rest of the tour with a pair of those "off the shelf" reading glasses that made me squint a bit whilst doing the demos but got me through the week.

My glasses arrived (by DHL) today.  I was impressed and touched by the taxi drivers kindness...

But the strange thing is that this is the second strange "glasses related" event I've been involved with in the last 2 months.

10 Microsoftees went diving off Pemba Island in September.  We had a really long stopover in Nairobi on the way back home, so the owner of the dive tour (who owned a fishing lodge in Shimoni on the Tanzanian border), arranged for a taxi to collect us from the domestic flight, take us to the famous Carnivore restaurant, then take us back to Nairobi airport in time for our flight back to London. Well Foggy (one of the divers) left his Oakley sunglasses in the minibus taxi and only remembered about them when he got back to the UK.

So he phoned the UK tour operator, who got in contact with the owner of the lodge (2 hours drive south of Mombassa airport) who called the cab driver in Nairobi who still had his sunglasses who gave them to the next set of divers passing through Nairobi who were also going to the restaurant who brought them back to the UK and posted them back to Foggy who only waited a couple of weeks.  Really amazing...

All those links of people...talking to other people...doing really kind acts and making this world a much nicer place.

So now, I've got my favourite glasses back, Foggy has his shades, and for all the people linking to make these chains.  I thank you all... 

spam in the holiday season

I've always said (to anyone who'll listen) that we get more spam during holiday seasons, and now cNet agrees with me.

The volumes are incredible aren't they?  60 "billion".  Whatever your definition of a billion is, that's still a heck of a lot of mail.

No wonder my mother thinks that "the Internet is slow some days" .  With this amount of spam flying around, she may just be right!...

Messenger: Lost password or secret question

I blogged about this a couple of years ago, but I still get quite a few mails asking about resetting passwords on Live Messenger (MSN Messenger).  Some people can't remember their password, some have had their account hacked, some cannot sign in.  All of them can not find out how to do this from the MSN web site. 

So I tried to find the links to do this myself.  It took me over 30 minutes of searching till I found the correct link. (I knew what I was looking for, and had lots of old links to start me off).  Imagine if you're not very familiar with computers, and need to reset your password or secret question as someone has discovered it. Almost impossible.  So here's what you do...

If you can't sign in:

Go to the Customer Care centre at: http://www.msn.co.uk/customercare/default.asp you will find a section on how to fix things when you can't sign in to your account.

If you can sign in:

Go to your account at: https://account.live.com/SummaryPage.aspx and change your password.  it's in the Common Tasks area on the right hand side of the screen...

So my request to the  Windows Live mail team is: 
Please can you can make it easier for kids to:

• Change their passwords (when they've forgotten)
• Change their secret question
• Report a compromised account.  

All of these links should be accessible from the sign in page.  If it took me 30 (frustrating) minutes of searching just imagine how it must be for others...

The same look and feel

I noticed Cows blog today was talking about the Office UI licensing that we've announced.  You know this is one of the most significant things about Microsoft I've seen all year.  We're actually granting rights to our Intellectual Property to developers and I think that this is the first time that we've ever done it (granting rights).  That's significant enough in itself.  Developers can now create applications with the same look and feel as the Office applications (obviously not to products that will be competing with the Office suite though). There are restrictions that developers need to adhere to, but all the info is on the Office UI licensing site

So every application, whether built in house or by an
ISV or a partner can use this new UI and the ribbon, and so things will be accessed in the same way across the board.  An amazing idea, and vary forward looking of the office team.  Really impressive. 

If you want to read the official story by the way, Jenson has the Microsoft view over on his blog as well as a recording a great Channel 9 interview.

Maybe other teams will follow suit...

Do what? for world peace?

Completely off topic for me, and very bizarre but I'm linking to this article in the NY Times about what to do on December 22nd to focus on World peace.  I won't say much more as its certainly not technical, nor is it IT related at all, but it certainly made me think.  Will I contribute to this?  you'll have to guess...

And check out Donna's age....There's hope for us all eh?... :-)

Happy Thanksgiving Day to all over the pond in the US. 

Exchange updates

There's has been quite a bit going on with Exchange recently.  I've had my head down getting ready for the launch event (worrying about hardware, DVD's, slides and Event schedules), and I've also been installing Vista and Office RTM on my machine.  It just wouldn't look good if I delivered the keynote at the launch day using Pre RTM code would it?  I've also installed a new version of Live Writer ( which is available from their blog by the way) so I could continue to post fairly regularly .  I've missed a few Exchange type things, that I've only just noticed. I've been busy!  So here are a couple of updates that may be of interest...

Update for Exchange Server 2003 SP2 (KB 924334)The Outlook Web access (OWA) form stops responding after you install Internet Explorer 7.0 and the S/MIME control on a client.

Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Help (Pre-RTM)

This download contains a standalone version of Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Help. The Exchange Server 2007 Help can help you in the day-to-day administration of Exchange. Use this information to guide you through Exchange Server 2007 features, tasks, and administration procedures.

If you only have a look at one of these, get the help file, GET THE HELP
FILE.  And read it... then you'll know as much as I do about Exchange 2007!...

Mobility Webcasts for December

Momentum Webcast: Enable Your Mobile Workforce by Using Mobile Solutions from Microsoft (Level 100)
Monday, December 11, 2006 - 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM Pacific Time
Jeff Lowe, Solution Specialist, Microsoft Corporation
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032317217&Culture=en-US

Momentum Webcast: A Sneak Peek at Mobility Features in Windows Vista and the 2007 Microsoft Office System (Level 100)
Tuesday, December 12, 2006 - 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM Pacific Time
Matt Berg, Solutions Specialist, Microsoft Corporation
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032316413&Culture=en-US

Office Webcasts for December

Microsoft Office System Webcast: A First Look at the 2007 Microsoft Office System: Five Useful New E-mail and Collaboration Features (Level 100)
Thursday, December 07, 2006 - 9:00 AM - 10:00 AM Pacific Time
Evan Archilla, Senior Training Specialist, Projectline Services
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032313277&Culture=en-US

Microsoft Office System Webcast: A First Look at the 2007 Microsoft Office System: Five Important New Features (Level 100)
Tuesday, December 19, 2006 - 9:00 AM - 10:00 AM Pacific Time
Evan Archilla, Senior Training Specialist, Projectline Services
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032313279&Culture=en-US

Real Time Collaboration Webcasts for December

TechNet Webcast: Deploying Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2005 SP1 (Level 300)

Tuesday, December 05, 2006 - 9:30 AM - 10:30 AM Pacific Time

Joe Schurman, Trainer, Connected Innovation LLC

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032314188&Culture=en-US

TechNet Webcast: Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2005 SP1 Federation (Level 300)

Thursday, December 07, 2006 - 9:30 AM - 10:30 AM Pacific Time

Joe Schurman, Trainer, Connected Innovation LLC

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032317241&Culture=en-US

TechNet Webcast: Deploying Microsoft Office Communicator 2005 (Level 300)

Tuesday, December 12, 2006 - 9:30 AM - 10:30 AM Pacific Time

Joe Schurman, Trainer, Connected Innovation LLC

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032317243&Culture=en-US

TechNet Webcast: Preparing Your DNS for Office Live Communications Server 2005 SP1 Deployment (Level 300)

Thursday, December 14, 2006 - 9:30 AM - 10:30 AM Pacific Time

Joe Schurman, Trainer, Connected Innovation LLC

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032317864&Culture=en-US

TechNet Webcast: Configuring Certificates for Office Live Communications Server 2005 SP1 Deployment (Level 300)

Tuesday, December 19, 2006 - 11:30 AM - 12:30 PM Pacific Time

Joe Schurman, Trainer, Connected Innovation LLC

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032317245&Culture=en-US

Sharepoint Webcasts for December

TechNet Webcast: An In-Depth Look at Windows SharePoint Services and Office SharePoint Server 2007 (Level 200)

Friday, December 01, 2006 - 9:30 AM - 11:00 AM Pacific Time

Keith Combs, TechNet Presenter, Microsoft Corporation

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032317841&Culture=en-US

TechNet Webcast: Integrating the Business Data Catalog and Business Applications Using Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (Level 200)

Friday, December 08, 2006 - 11:30 AM - 1:00 PM Pacific Time

Matthew Hester, TechNet Presenter, Microsoft Corporation

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032317853&Culture=en-US

TechNet Webcast: Real-Time Collaboration and Office SharePoint Server 2007 (Level 200)

Monday, December 11, 2006 - 11:30 AM - 1:00 PM Pacific Time

Keith Combs, TechNet Presenter, Microsoft Corporation

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032317845&Culture=en-US

TechNet Webcast: An In-Depth Look at Search Technology in Office SharePoint Server 2007 (Level 200)

Wednesday, December 13, 2006 - 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM Pacific Time

Matthew Hester, TechNet Presenter, Microsoft Corporation

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032317856&Culture=en-US

TechNet Webcast: How Microsoft IT Manages the World's Largest Windows SharePoint Services Deployment (Level 300)

Tuesday, December 19, 2006 - 9:30 AM - 10:30 AM Pacific Time

Scott St. Jean, Senior Program Manager, Microsoft Corporation

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032316542&Culture=en-US

MSDN Webcast: Office SharePoint Server 2007 Business Data Catalog (Part 2 of 2): Developing Web Services (Level 200)

Friday, December 08, 2006 - 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM Pacific Time

Mike FitzMaurice, Sr. Product Manager - Portals, Microsoft Corporation

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032316741&Culture=en-US