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| Owen Allen | 9/1/2008 3:22 PM | Blogging; General | 0 | |
Hi folks,
I've decided to switch blog providers (again), and return back to my original home, http://blogs.msdn.com/oallen. I've ported over all of my posts from this blog, so you'll be able to find them there. (FWIW).
I'm also changing roles within Microsoft, and I'm leaving the field, where I've worked for the past 6 years, directly with customers, for a turn at Microsoft corporate. I'll work as a Product Manager for SharePoint. I'm looking forward to the new role and the new areas and partner companies to help with. | 9/1/2008 3:22 PM | 73 | 9/1/2008 3:22 PM | Permalink | Posted at 3:22 PM by Owen Allen | 1.0 | | Owen Allen | 4/21/2008 7:58 PM | Blogging | 0 | |
Hi Occasional Reader...,
I am moving my blog (again) and finally changing my feed to a feedburner feed (so if/when I move it again, the RSS settings won't change).
I hope that you will join me.
(This site will probably be decomissioned as soon as I can figure out how to move my posts over to the new site... so change your feed reader now!) | 4/21/2008 8:02 PM | 72 | 4/21/2008 8:06 PM | Permalink | Posted at 7:58 PM by Owen Allen | 1.0 | | Owen Allen | 4/21/2008 7:57 PM | | 0 | | I was reading Dan Holmes' SharePoint Newsletter today and he talked about his observations in regards to SharePoint Search v1, v2, and v3. Did you realize there were 3 versions of SharePoint Search being discussed now? 2 are released, and the third will be in Office 14. How did the second version get released if we still only have MOSS 2007 and, someday, Office 14? I thought he said it pretty well, so I'm including a portion below. You can read more of Dan's articles on http://www.officesharepointpro.com.
Search: a Case Study of Innovation and Delivery
Last week I reviewed the success of SharePoint search, but I'm going to return to it for a moment. Talk about rapid innovation! We're going to devour what they've got cookin' in vNext. There's no doubt that the investments that Microsoft is making in search to take on Google are paying off in a big way for enterprise search.
I had not stopped to consider that Search Server 2008 is really "version 2.0" of MOSS Search. That means that Search got a "new version" just 18 months after the release of the "first version" (MOSS). It introduced new capabilities and did a lot of back-end optimization. Microsoft will be releasing an update for MOSS to bring its functionality up to the same level later this year, and the upgrade will be seamless. SharePoint 14 will therefore be "version 3.0" of MOSS Search, will introduce important new capabilities, and the upgrade promises to be equally smooth (e.g., hopefully no rebuilding of indices). It's this kind of rapid-release of incremental improvements to functionality that our community really needs.
The "wait 3 to 4 years then do a big painful migration" model that Microsoft puts us through on most of its products has got to change. What we're getting from Search is exactly what the entire industry is searching for from a deployment and manageability perspective. And what I see as an analyst is a product making deliberate steps forward, rather than lurching and jumping forward like, say, the Windows client (Vista), which illustrates the risk of waiting too long then jumping. I hope the rest of Microsoft is paying attention to what the SharePoint Search team has achieved.
| 4/21/2008 7:57 PM | 71 | 4/21/2008 7:57 PM | Permalink | Posted at 7:57 PM by Owen Allen | 1.0 | | Owen Allen | 4/14/2008 12:04 AM | | 0 | | I understand that this is short notice, but there's an event this Thursday evening in Seattle that will be worth the time of any SharePoint fans in the area. The NW Chapter of AIIM is hosting an event titled, "The Evolution of Content Management – Microsoft and the SharePoint Solution". While most members of the Puget Sound SharePoint Users Group will already grok SharePoint well beyond this level, I know that there are other folks within your organizations that do not. This presentation promises to be an easy way to help your friends understand why you live and breath SharePoint and why you feel that it is a critical I.T. service offering within your organization.
Two speakers are on the docket. Dave Healey, a Sr. Product Manager for SharePoint from Microsoft, and Robert Langer, from Global 360.
The cost for this event is $20 for AIIM Members and $25 for Non-Members. This cost includes the program, an appetizer, and a dinner.
The event will be held at the Best Western Executive Inn, 200 Taylor Ave N, Seattle, WA., on April 17th, from 4PM to 7:30PM.
Registration should be made by April 14th. (Sorry for the short notice). Register by email to aramsay123@aol.com, or online at http://www.aiim.org/northwest, or by phone, +1 425.681.4689.
I'll see you there! | 4/14/2008 12:04 AM | 70 | 4/14/2008 12:04 AM | Permalink | Posted at 12:04 AM by Owen Allen | 1.0 | | Owen Allen | 4/13/2008 10:55 PM | | 0 | | While I love using PowerPoint slides as much as the next person, sometimes I find that unrolling a printed diagram and placing it on the table and getting everyone to review a sample SharePoint Logical Architecture Model is a wonderful way to introduce SharePoint concepts that are hard to grasp in other ways.
There is a white paper that describes this architecture model on TechNet, titled Logical Architecture Model: Corporate Deployment. This architecture description includes a link to a visio model, Design Sample: Corporate Deployment Logical Architecture. I took this file and had FedEx*Kinko's print me up a couple of dozen of this printouts, and when appropriate, I hand them to SharePoint administrators when I have this discussion with them.
The basic idea is that a SharePoint Farm for the Fabrikam company is described within this model. There are two SharePoint farms, one that includes the Intranet and the Partner-facing Extranet application, and one farm for the Public Internet site. Within this model, the following SharePoint concepts are illustrated:
- Web Zones (Intranet, Extranet, Internet, etc.) and Zone Policies
- Different Authentication Models
- Multiple SSPs
- My Sites
- Web Applications
- Collaborative Team Sites
- Secure Content Authoring and Publishing
- Content Databases
- Application Pools
- Site Collections
It's all good stuff. This is a model that keeps on giving back insights into SharePoint architecture beyond the first review. Post it somewhere on your cube wall and when the day gets to tough, take a few minutes to gaze upon this model and simply allow the SharePoint sweetness to soak in. | 4/13/2008 10:55 PM | 69 | 4/13/2008 10:55 PM | Permalink | Posted at 10:55 PM by Owen Allen | 1.0 | | Owen Allen | 3/31/2008 12:36 AM | | 0 | |
Mindsharp will be holding a SharePoint Summit in SeaTac, Washington (very close to SeaTac Airport), on May 19-23. Mindsharp will be offering 5 (FIVE!) classes this week. 2 are 3-day classes, and there are 3 5-day classes. This will be a great opportunity for your entire office to come out and get trained together. Tracks offered this week include classes for Developers, Administrators, Designers, Enterprise Content Management, and Search. See the Mindsharp Web site for more details. <UPDATE> If you are one of my customers, mention that I referred you for a 15% discount. | 3/31/2008 12:36 AM | 68 | 4/3/2008 10:45 AM | Permalink | Posted at 12:36 AM by Owen Allen | 1.0 | | Owen Allen | 3/31/2008 12:30 AM | | 0 | | The Ted Pattison group is coming to Redmond the week of April 21. Two classes are being delivered, SharePoint Workflow and SharePoint Publishing. Two very sharp gentlemen, Chris Predeek and Andrew Connell, will be delivering the classes. To register, please see http://www.tedpattison.net for details. If you are one of my customers, mention that I referred you for a 15% discount. | 3/31/2008 12:30 AM | 67 | 3/31/2008 12:30 AM | Permalink | Posted at 12:30 AM by Owen Allen | 1.0 | | Owen Allen | 3/20/2008 11:09 PM | | 0 | |
Back in January (a few life times ago in OOXML time), I posted an entry where I fat-fingered the name of the new Ecma document file format that has been in the news a lot recently. I wrote the name as "Ecma Open Office XML" when it should have been "Ecma Office Open XML". At that time, some friends in Canada used that example to illustrate the vast confusion in the world that existed about the name of the proposed standard. When word got back to me, I posted a comment to that post and mentioned my mistake. Today, I heard that some friends in Ireland are pointing to the same post, and complaining that this naming confusion continues to be rampant in the world, and that all of the efforts of National Bodies in all of the ISO-participating countries, who have worked so hard to bring order and to craft improvements to the standard, have been for naught, because I switched the order of a couple of words while typing. *sigh*. I am proud of the hard work that Ecma and Microsoft, and so many other technology companies and concerned individuals have put forth in the effort establish a document file format that is backwards-compatible and will provide a path for future-proofing information and history. I've been fortunate enough to have played a very small part in supporting this effort, and it's been a wonderful engagement. If either of my 15 readers are interested in more information about the Ecma Office Open XML file format and proposed standard, please visit http://www.openxmlcommunity.org.
- The Open XML Explained book (English PDF) is here: http://openxmldeveloper.org/articles/1970.aspx
- An Open XML Developer Workshop is here: http://openxmldeveloper.org/articles/DeveloperWorkshopContent.aspx
-
US to vote "Yes" on Open XML Standards bid, Computerworld Article (20 Mar 2008)
| 3/20/2008 11:09 PM | 66 | 3/20/2008 11:11 PM | Permalink | Posted at 11:09 PM by Owen Allen | 1.0 | | Owen Allen | 2/7/2008 10:43 PM | General | 0 | | Campaign 2008 has been a learning process for Mitt as well as it has been an introductory process for the country. Mitt has made incredible progress in the last year. Today he gave a stirring speech where he lays out the issues facing the country today and in the near future.
Mitt quoted from David Landis, and spoke about how important our culture really is - in the direction that our civilizaton is moving - it is culture that makes all the difference.
Mitt described the American culture, portions of which are dependent on opportunity and hard work and achievement. This is where the strength of our culture is derived from. He then commented about how entitlements and welfare and other governments programs that foster dependency are a threat to our national culture.
I quote from Mitt, "Dependency is death to initiative, risk-taking and opportunity. Dependency is a culture-killing drug. We have got to fight it like the poison it is. "
After describing his optimism for the future, and his challenge to all of us to confront the challenges that lie ahead, he suspended his presidential campaign so that the national campaign will not be stalled.
If you have not listened to today's speech, I encourage you to do so. You will find the link here:
Romney has set a great bar for others to follow. I hope, and have faith, that Mitt will continue to lead in subsequent years. The conservative voice needs a leader, and Mitt has the tools to provide that voice and that direction. I hope that John McCain will recognize Mitt's capabilities and not be fearful to include such strength within his many positions of counsel.
| 2/7/2008 10:55 PM | 65 | 2/7/2008 10:55 PM | Permalink | Posted at 10:43 PM by Owen Allen | 1.0 | | Owen Allen | 2/4/2008 7:02 PM | | 0 | | I tell you. I am beside myself. One day away from what may be called one of the most important days of our cultural history, and some faceless media person, perhaps in cahoots with the public, and probably claiming that this is based on a "POLL" of some sort, (I'm shaking as I write this - can you feel the shock and trembling in my writing?), has foisted upon us a most significant and upsetting media story. Distorting the truth to a degree that someone less cynical than I would jump to the conclusion that there was "AN AGENDA" behind the FRAUD. Yes, of course, I'm talking about the incorrect rankings. When the media places one entrant above or below another entrant, they are sending a message. Well, I've had enough of the fraud that is the "most popular Super Bowl commercials, as listed on aol.com." I'm going to provide my own rankings. 1. I'll go with the crowd that the Budweiser - Rocky commercial was number 1. It had some great thematic elements in it (you could almost see the horse's breath - as if they were doing this in actual cold weather!) 2. However, number 2 was where the fraud began. (Is that a word?) No question about it, the E*Trade commercials with the Baby were #2. I can only say that some "Conspiracy Theories" abound that the media, because it hates all things that have to do with capitalism and free trade, docked this commercial a few points. (Let this be a reminder to the media, that E*Trade isn't really offering Free Trades, just lower priced trades and higher savings interest.) 3. Diet Pepsi: What is Love - This was hilarious. I watched this one while in the St. Louis airport between flights, and the other 16 travelers who were crowded around an airport HD flat screen display all cheered for it. I might watch the Super Bowl in an airport next year - the seats weren't bad, the restaurants were close, and the hallways were light (not a lot of travelers). 4. Will Ferrell... need I say more? 5. The Bridgestone squirrel was actually pretty good. The grasshopper was a nice touch. 6. and 7. Go Daddy: Danica Patrick and Go Daddy: White Light tied here. (Yes, of course I'm talking about the web versions - everyone saw those, so those votes should be counted!) OK. At this point, they could have just repeated the above 7 commercials over and over again, IMAO. 8. and 9. The Bud Light Breathe Fire was cute, and the "I Can Fly" needed to build on the new franchise, but it took it down a notch... 10. The Balloons - more fraud. This was ranked #3, but I can't figure out what the conspiracy theory is for this one... Something about the irony of Charlie Brown flying through the air while a little Lucy held the football pulled back be her ear and yet CB *still* got the coke? Some tribute to Mr. Schulz? The ranking of the remaining commercials, I'll leave as an exercise for the reader. Don't let the media get away with this fraud! :-) See all of the commercials, and the fraudulent rankings (unless they've been sufficiently chastised by this posting) here: http://sports.aol.com/nfl/superbowlads. Update: I forgot the FedEx commercial and the Shaquille as a jockey commercial... both are better than the Bud Light commercials. Those commercials (fire breath, walk through walls, flying) start interesting, but the tagline "this <insert special ability> no longer in Bud Lite" doesn't quite close the deal. | 2/4/2008 7:02 PM | 64 | 2/4/2008 10:09 PM | Permalink | Posted at 7:02 PM by Owen Allen | 1.0 | | Owen Allen | 1/22/2008 10:49 AM | | 0 | |
Well, it's not really a belated welcome, as they've been with us at the OOXML Party since the beginning, but now it turns out that some of the group that came with them has changed clothes and seen the light about the Office Open XML (OOXML) file formats! Woo-Hoo! Welcome back to the party!
The OpenXMLCommunity.org website just released a new web site re-design - check it out. On the front page, in the news roll-up section, there are references to some new articles about increased support for OOXML.
Some other news about IBM in the OOXML arena -
While I admit that I just scanned these articles, and am not a trained developer in these IBM technologies, I didn't see any mention of instructional steps calling out two myths about developing for Office Open XML. These myths state (generally) that
- Organizations that want to include support for OOXML require help from MSFT to do so, and
- There are still IP issues related to sections of the proposed specification that are unresolved (implying that someday MSFT may charge licensing fees).
Well, could it be that because these developer documents don't instruct developers to call MSFT for help or to negotiate licensing, that the above items really are Myths, and should be included on some "Snopes for OOXML" myth-busting type of web site? Hey - maybe the Mythbusters would take the subject of OOXML Myths on for an episode? Anyone know someone at the Mythbusters show that I could talk to? Are the Ghostbusters still in operation in NYC? | 1/22/2008 10:49 AM | 63 | 1/22/2008 10:55 AM | Permalink | Posted at 10:49 AM by Owen Allen | 1.0 | | Owen Allen | 1/21/2008 10:31 AM | SharePoint Technologies | 0 | | Training for end users (see previous post) is one thing, but how can it be made easier for a SharePoint IT Pro or Developer to get the advanced training that they need? Well, this question has been answered... There is a Virtual Training class that is being offered, and there are two classes that are currently available. This is not virtual in the sense that you download and take it whenever you want. This is Virtual in the sense that you still dedicate most of 5 days to attend the class, but you attend the class remotely through your computer and you have interaction with the course instructor via your computer. The classes cost $695, but are on sale for February and March for $100 off. The two classes offered are: - Advanced IT Pro Course for MOSS 2007 and WSS 3.0
- Architecting and Planning a MOSS 2007 Search Solution
Find details about the classes and more information here: http://www.microsoftsharepointacademy.com/courseSchedule.htm | 1/21/2008 10:31 AM | 62 | 1/21/2008 10:31 AM | Permalink | Posted at 10:31 AM by Owen Allen | 1.0 | | Owen Allen | 1/21/2008 9:31 AM | SharePoint Technologies | 0 | | The SharePoint team at Microsoft has produced and delivered SharePoint training materials for end users. This training includes documents, examples, step-by-step instructions, videos, interactive training, etc. for the following areas: - Collaboration
- Enterprise Content Management
- Search
- Portals and Personalization
- Business Processes and Forms
- Business Intelligence
This is available in two versions, one that can be installed on a user's desktop machine, and one version that is installed on your SharePoint portal site, and delivered via the portal. Both versions of the training can be downloaded here:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointserver/HA102488011033.aspx | 1/21/2008 9:31 AM | 61 | 1/21/2008 9:31 AM | Permalink | Posted at 9:31 AM by Owen Allen | 1.0 | | Owen Allen | 1/19/2008 3:41 PM | | 0 | | I'm going to be speaking at the SharePoint Information Worker Conference 2008 (IWC/2008) conference, which is going to be held Feb 4-6, 2008, in Nashville. I'm extremely interested in the impact that the Office Open XML (OOXML) file formats are going to have on business, and with the upcoming certification discussion and arguments about the file formats, this seems like a great time to share some of my excitement about the new capabilities that the OOXML file formats provide to business and to developers. So, if you want to get a great laugh at me on stage, or if you want to learn about the OOXML file formats, please register and stay for the last session of the conference on Wednesday, Feb 6! There is a GREAT registration special, also, that is going on... Two registrants from the same organization will receive $1,000 off the registration price. To take advantage of this offer, visit http://www.regonline.com/iwc08 and enter the code OFF1. (That's off1 and it isn't case sensitive). This results in a savings of $500 off each registration. See you there! 
| 1/19/2008 3:41 PM | 60 | 1/19/2008 3:42 PM | Permalink | Posted at 3:41 PM by Owen Allen | 1.0 | | Owen Allen | 1/19/2008 3:27 PM | | 1 | | All of the 3,522 national body comments for the Ecma Open Office XML file format have been responded to and published today. The team has been doing a lot of work on this, and I've been lucky enough to have been able to glimpse just a bit into this process. The folks are working extremely hard, but some good work has been accomplished. These are the proposed dispositions (changes) to the file format specification that are being proposed by TC45 in response to the comments from the national bodies to the first draft. Here is the press release from Ecma. http://www.ecma-international.org/news/TC45_current_work/Proposed%20dispositions%20for%20National%20Body%20comments%20on%20DIS%2029500%20complete.htm. Now the next phase starts - or continues, as some of the national bodies have already been tracking in-process dispositions. The next phase is reconciling the proposed dispositions with each of the comments from the national bodies, in preparation for the Ballot Resolution Meeting (BRM) which is approaching at the end of February. | 1/19/2008 3:27 PM | 59 | 1/19/2008 3:27 PM | Permalink | Posted at 3:27 PM by Owen Allen | 1.0 | | Owen Allen | 1/9/2008 9:08 AM | | 0 | | The Nielsen Norman Group's "Intranet Design Annual 2008: Year's Ten Best Intranets" contest has announced their winners and produced a report describing their selections. See the web site and download the report here. One of the winners was built on the MOSS platform - the New Zealand Ministry of Transport. Chandima Kulathilake has posted up some details and a couple of screen shots about the implementation and design of this site. The use of silverlight to help with the display of survey results was interesting, and the tag management stuff was really cool. | 1/9/2008 9:08 AM | 58 | 1/9/2008 9:08 AM | Permalink | Posted at 9:08 AM by Owen Allen | 1.0 | | Owen Allen | 1/4/2008 12:22 AM | | 0 | | I've been fascinated with the history of the Erie Canal since 1996, when I lived briefly with relatives in Victor, NY, and then moving the family into a home in Macedon, NY. Macedon is a town that lies along the canal, East of Rochester, and West of Palmyra, NY. New York State has published a history of the Canals, and I think these short documents are worth the time to read and understand their fabulous history, and the contribution to the growth of New York state and of America during the 1800s. The Erie Canal grew into the New York State Barge Canal and now is named the New York State Canal System. The Erie Canal: A Brief History (2 Pages) HTML / PDF The Story of the New York State Canals (28 pages) HTML / PDF (Below is an excerpt from the above... see the actual article for copyright information) THE STORY OF THE NEW YORK STATE CANALS
GOVERNOR DEWITT CLINTON'S DREAM “As a bond of union between the Atlantic and Western states, it may prevent the dismemberment of the American Empire. As an organ of communication between the Hudson, the Mississippi, the St. Lawrence, the Great Lakes of the north and west and their tributary rivers, it will create the greatest inland trade ever witnessed. The most fertile and extensive regions of America will avail themselves of its facilities for a market. All their surplus productions, whether of the soil, the forest, the mines, or the water, their fabrics of art and their supplies of foreign commodities, will concentrate in the city of New York, for transportation abroad or consumption at home. Agriculture, manufactures, commerce, trade, navigation, and the arts will receive a correspondent encouragement. The city will, in the course of time, become the granary of the world, the emporium of commerce, the seat of manufactures, the focus of great moneyed operations and the concentrating point of vast disposable, and accumulating capita, which will stimulate, enliven, extend and reward the exertions of human labor and ingenuity, in all their processes and exhibitions. And before the revolution of a century, the whole island of Manhattan, covered with inhabitants and replenished with a dense population, will constitute one vast city.”  UCH was Clinton’s dream concerning the original Erie Canal—the canal which seems so small to us not but which was the Grand Canal of our forefathers—the canal which for many years was the model for canal-building throughout the world—the canal which more than any other single agency was responsible for the unprecedented development and prosperity that came not alone to New York State but to the states beyond its western border and even to the whole country in the first half of the nineteenth century. When Clinton wrote these words they seemed to many as the vain imaginings of a most visionary dreamer. But the dream came true, and every loyal New Yorker has reason to feel pride in that the canals have done for his State.
... | 1/4/2008 12:22 AM | 57 | 1/4/2008 12:22 AM | Permalink | Posted at 12:22 AM by Owen Allen | 1.0 | | Owen Allen | 12/31/2007 11:07 AM | SharePoint Technologies | 0 | | Class description: Join this Full Day virtual training to learn the new features of Microsoft® Office SharePoint Server 2007. In this hands-on session, we will show you how to prepare for an Office SharePoint Server 2007 Implementation going through the planning and designing for non-functional requirements. You will see an overview of Implementing Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Search and Indexing. This virtual training event will also provide a hands-on virtual lab environment where you can perform the tasks yourself with step-by-step guidance from Microsoft professionals, giving you experience-based knowledge of Office SharePoint Server 2007. The SharePoint Deployment Labcast program has announced sessions through January! The schedule is below. You can register for any session, the only difference is which time zone the 8:30AM start time is relative to. Monday, January 07, 2008 (8:30AM Central) http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=7923244 Tuesday, January 08, 2008 (8:30AM Eastern) http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=7923245 Monday, January 14, 2008 (8:30AM Pacific) http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=7923246 Tuesday, January 15, 2008 (8:30AM Central) http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=7923247 Monday, January 21, 2008 (8:30AM Eastern) http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=7923248 Tuesday, January 22, 2008 (8:30AM Pacific) http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=7923249 Monday, January 28, 2008 (8:30AM Central) http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=7923250 Tuesday, January 29, 2008 (8:30AM Eastern) http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=7923251
| 12/31/2007 11:07 AM | 56 | 12/31/2007 11:07 AM | Permalink | Posted at 11:07 AM by Owen Allen | 1.0 | | Owen Allen | 12/31/2007 10:53 AM | | 0 | | | 12/31/2007 10:53 AM | 55 | 12/31/2007 10:53 AM | Permalink | Posted at 10:53 AM by Owen Allen | 1.0 | | Owen Allen | 11/28/2007 12:01 PM | SharePoint Technologies | 0 | | SharePointPedia.com is a web site where people discover and share useful content about SharePoint and SharePoint related products and technologies. It’s a social computing application built on top of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007. Anyone with a Windows Live ID may become a registered user and can then submit content recommendations or requests, leave comments, or just vouch for whatever you like. Note that SharePointPedia is not a wiki. It’s a “pedia” in the sense of being a compendium of useful content, but rather than being limited by just wiki functionality, it leverages the much broader set of capabilities in SharePoint. SharePointPedia is also about community, where you can find and connect with others, who have similar interests as you or who recommend content relevant to you. http://www.SharePointPedia.com | 11/28/2007 12:01 PM | 54 | 11/28/2007 12:01 PM | Permalink | Posted at 12:01 PM by Owen Allen | 1.0 | | Owen Allen | 11/28/2007 12:00 PM | SharePoint Technologies | 0 | | With the two new Search Server 2008 products that were recently released (www.microsoft.com/enterprisesearch), there have been questions about when can the Express product be used and when is the full Search Server 2008 product required? Q: Does Search Server 2008 Express require SQL Server 2005 Express Edition? A: No, Search Server Express can still use SQL Server. If you choose the Basic install, then SQL Express will be installed. If you choose Advanced install, then you can select a SQL Server instance to use. Q: Does Search Server 2008 Express have a capacity limit, or ceiling, on the number of documents it can index? A: No, Search Server 2008 Express does not have a limit on the number of items indexed. If you are using SQL Express as the back end, then SQL Express has a database size limit of 4GB, which you will be restricted to. Q: So, the difference between the two versions is the redundancy on the front-end servers? A: Right. Specifically, with Search Server 2008 Express, you cannot have more than one query server in your farm. | 11/28/2007 12:00 PM | 53 | 11/28/2007 12:00 PM | Permalink | Posted at 12:00 PM by Owen Allen | 1.0 | | Owen Allen | 11/28/2007 11:59 AM | Office 2007; SharePoint Technologies | 0 | | For those of you with sharp eyes, you may have noticed that the date on the download package for the Office File Format Compatibility Pack was updated to 11/19/2007. This last update of the compatibility pack was actually in June 2007, when v3 was posted (including bug fixes covered in http://support.microsoft.com/kb/936695/en-us). The change to 11/19 occurred due to changes in the OS compatibility matrix on the web page. So, you should check periodically to make sure that you have the most current Office File Format Compatibility Pack, but if you have v3, from June 2007, you’re still OK. Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=941b3470-3ae9-4aee-8f43-c6bb74cd1466&displaylang=en | 11/28/2007 11:59 AM | 52 | 11/28/2007 11:59 AM | Permalink | Posted at 11:59 AM by Owen Allen | 1.0 | | Owen Allen | 11/12/2007 6:50 PM | Family | 0 | |
I went with the family to see the movie " Fred Claus" this afternoon. Granted it was a school holiday, but the theatre was packed. The movie was great. Two thumbs up. Way past my expectations. This is not Knocked Up for Christmas or Wedding Crashers At the North Pole. The movie was great. Take a date or take the kids - or both.
Merry Christmas! | 11/12/2007 6:54 PM | 51 | 11/12/2007 6:56 PM | Permalink | Posted at 6:50 PM by Owen Allen | 1.0 | | Owen Allen | 11/12/2007 9:00 AM | | 0 | |
“We’re gathered today, just as we have gathered before, to remember those who served, those who fought, those still missing, and those who gave their last full measure of devotion for our country...
One of those who fell wrote, shortly before his death, these words: ‘Take what they have left and what they have taught you with their dying and keep it with your own. And take one moment to embrace those gentle heroes you left behind.’
Well, today, Veterans Day, as we do every year, we take that moment to embrace the gentle heroes of Vietnam and of all our wars.
We remember those who were called upon to give all a person can give, and we remember those who were prepared to make that sacrifice if it were demanded of them in the line of duty, though it never was.
Most of all, we remember the devotion and gallantry with which all of them ennobled their nation as they became champions of a noble cause...
Our liberties, our values, all for which America stands is safe today because brave men and women have been ready to face the fire at freedom’s front.
And we thank God for them.”
—Ronald Reagan | 11/12/2007 9:10 AM | 50 | 11/12/2007 9:13 AM | Permalink | Posted at 9:00 AM by Owen Allen | 1.0 | | Owen Allen | 11/2/2007 2:10 PM | | 0 | | An updated version of VMRCplus has been released. Version 1.6 can be downloaded here. This is a tool for connecting to Virtual Server instances that has a bit more flexibility than the standard tool in the product. More flexibility about screen sizing is the convenient part for me. Try it out. Matthijs ten Seldam is the developer to thank for this - it's his project. His blog with some additional information is here. | 11/2/2007 2:13 PM | 49 | 11/2/2007 2:13 PM | Permalink | Posted at 2:10 PM by Owen Allen | 1.0 | | Owen Allen | 10/15/2007 10:36 AM | SharePoint Technologies | 0 | | On October 9th, we were able to host Arpan Shah, Director of Technical Product Marketing Management for SharePoint, and hosted a Live Meeting broadcast of a speech that he has been working on, titled "The Top Things About SharePoint That You May Not Have Known". We broadcast this out to over 100 attendees, locally in Bellevue and Portland, and remotely on Live Meeting. We recorded the session, but the audio did not get recorded. The video is completely useless without the audio.
Needless to say, I've taken the audio engineers out back and had them summarily reprimanded and sentenced to a weekend of nothing but Halo 3. (They apparently are people with extremely strong personalities and took their punishment without a whimper… curious…)
Anyway – I apologize for not having the broadcast of this session. I have no doubt that Arpan will share this speech again soon and when it is recorded, I'll post an update here with that recording.
Arpan's slides are available for download here | 10/15/2007 10:36 AM | 48 | 10/15/2007 10:36 AM | Permalink | Posted at 10:36 AM by Owen Allen | 1.0 | | Owen Allen | 10/15/2007 10:14 AM | SharePoint Technologies | 1 | | | 10/15/2007 10:14 AM | 47 | 10/15/2007 10:18 AM | Permalink | Posted at 10:14 AM by Owen Allen | 1.0 | | Owen Allen | 10/3/2007 10:25 PM | Windows | 0 | |
So they encourage you to report things to them rather than distributing a patch yourself. So what? Trolltech does this, MySQL does this, Sun does this, Mozilla does this; in fact virtually every significantly-sized open source project encourages you to fix problems through their own channels rather than throwing a patch around yourself. It's just good sense. | 10/3/2007 10:43 PM | 46 | 10/3/2007 10:48 PM | Permalink | Posted at 10:25 PM by Owen Allen | 1.0 | | Owen Allen | 9/19/2007 12:02 PM | SharePoint Technologies | 0 | | | 9/19/2007 12:05 PM | 45 | 9/19/2007 12:05 PM | Permalink | Posted at 12:02 PM by Owen Allen | 1.0 | | Owen Allen | 9/19/2007 11:57 AM | PSSPUG | 0 | | Well, we had some confusion about dates with Todd Bleeker, so we're going to bring Todd back on another date in the future, and the speaker for tomorrow, along with Arpan Shah, will be Chris Good and Eric Shaffer, from K2. Todd was extremely gracious through this mistake on our part, and we're glad that he was flexible about it. We'll see most of you, we hope, tomorrow night in Bellevue! | 9/19/2007 11:59 AM | 44 | 9/19/2007 11:59 AM | Permalink | Posted at 11:57 AM by Owen Allen | 1.0 | |
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