AMITPRO Invades Microsoft Briefing

Bank holiday always throws me so this is sneaking up on me quite quickly.

This Thursday, (6th May), Microsoft are holding a regional Partner Business Briefing in Birmingham to promote the upcoming changes to the Microsoft Partner Network, showcase the current wave of Microsoft products and facilitate inter-partner collaboration (we promoted the event on the AMITPRO site).

As part of this, a number of partners have been invited to speak briefly around a variety of topics with partner collaboration and growth as a central theme.

It’s no coincidence a big chunk of those are AMITPRO members since working together and sharing ideas is one of the main reasons we’re all a part of the group.

I’m fortunate enough to be one of those asked to speak so if you’re going to be there leave a comment as I’d love to hear from you and I’ll introduce you to the AMITPRO crowd!

MSN Video Player vs iPlayer

I saw this article last week on the Times Online website,

Microsoft challenges BBC’s iPlayer with its new MSN Video Player

The recently launched UK MSN Video Player will show full series of various popular shows (there is even some old Doctor Who stuff on there!)

This is all powered by Silverlight of course

On the face of it this looked really interesting. The picture quality was decent and a reasonable selection of programming (they’ll need to keep updating it to prevent it becoming stale though)

However, my excitement once again turned to disappointment

As always seems to be the case with anything new and shiny at the moment there is a distinct lack of subtitles. If you’re a regular reader you’ll know how many times I’ve come up against “Digital Discrimination”.

The iPlayer is able to display subtitles and does for most programs (not all though)

At the top of the page is a feedback link so I dropped my comments into there. It would be nice if this was sorted sometime soon but based on my experiences with the Xbox and it’s Zune Marketplace service I’m not holding my breath

Microsoft Partner Network: 2009

I’ve been asked to spread the word about an upcoming event

On Wednesday 7 October, the Microsoft UK team will be inviting partners to the number one UK channel event, Microsoft Partner Network: 2009 at Wembley Stadium.

This free event will give attendees  insights into current Microsoft strategies and the direction the company is taking the business, first-sight of some of the innovative technologies launching this year, and information about how partners can work better together for greater success.

The event is aimed at Partner executives and sales leads and set to be the event of the year for Microsoft in the UK.  American and UK Microsoft executives will be on hand to learn:

· Insights from Microsoft executives as they share the Microsoft vision and strategies together with business growth opportunities and product innovation

· A range of Partner-to-Partner online and offline networking opportunities, plus strategic and practical guidance on how to collaborate successfully with other Microsoft Partners

· Market insights and guidance on developing customer opportunities

· Useful resources to help you sell, market and deploy Microsoft technology, particularly when you find yourself in competitive technology situations

· A glimpse into future industry trends and innovation, with exciting demonstrations

· An introduction to the UK award winners from the Worldwide Partner Conference 2009

To register your place at this essential event, click: http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/InviteOnly.aspx?EventID=DD-1E-C0-39-22-3C-75-22-2A-77-E7-A8-70-48-B2-67&Culture=en-GB and enter invite code: 22BAF4 or call: 0870 166 6670

Check the Microsoft Partner Network 2009 website for more details about the event over the coming weeks. You can also sign up to our RSS service, or follow us on Twitter.

This has been posted on the UK SBSC Blog with a bit more information so check that out too!

Windows Foundation Server – Food for thought

At a recent AMITPRO meeting we had a presentation on Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS)

This is hosted SharePoint, Exchange, Live Meeting with other services on the way

I could see the attraction for a large company that is maybe running their own Exchange implementation (for example) and moving it off-premise into the could obviously bring some cost savings and do away with some management headaches

The problem i had was relating this to small business (I’m picking on Microsoft here but I’m thinking hosted services from anyone)

Generally small businesses will need at least one server in-house so they can at the very least do file and print sharing. For us this has meant SBS 2003 (and now SBS 2008). Regular Widows Server works about the same price or more so SBS has extra features and easy management

Since Exchange (and SharePoint) comes as a part of this why use the hosted service? (i know this is over simplifying the whole thing but bear with me)

Today Microsoft announced a product that joined the dots up a little for me

Windows Server 2008 Foundation (press release)

The product is basically Windows 2008 with a 15 user limit and some limitations such an 8Gb memory limit and no virtualisation capabilities

The idea is this would sit on a lower spec server and provide basic file and print and remote access services

I‘ve had conversations with potential new clients recently who are looking at a first server and though i never thought I’d think this SBS 2008 is actually “too big” for them. They are generally growing business who have reached the stage where they recognise they need a server based system

SBS 2008 +CALs is more expensive than SBS 2003 at the lower end and you also need a slightly beefer server (4GB minimum)

Foundation could now fill this gap

A single server in-house for the day to day stuff and then get some hosted mailboxes and voila! You could load SharePoint and WSUS and you would have a pretty decent feature set. The downside is the nice simple SBS management wouldn’t be there but if the client is taking up a managed services offering that wouldn’t really matter to them as that’d be your job!

While I’m not getting too excited about this it certainly giving me some ideas and will give an interesting alternative when talking about that first server.

No official details on price yet but the software will be available pre-installed on servers from manufacturers such HP, Dell, etc and they are looking at the under-$1000 mark (seems awfully familiar to what they said about Home Server)

Couple of other posts i found are here and here 

One to keep an eye on

Update: As usual SBSDiva has a great post on this here where she compares it to a brick…you know for building stuff with

More links here and here

Microsoft Live ID – How many do you have?

The problem of digital identity has been discussed many times by people a lot smarter than me. What frustrates me is when something seems obvious but doesn’t work that way

I have a Microsoft Live ID. I’ve had it for years and years. It’s the ID I use for Live Messenger, it’s the ID I use for my Xbox Live account, it’s also my hotmail address and it’s the account I use when taking Microsoft exams.

All these things are specific to me.

You probably already know as an IT professional you can associate your Live ID with your employers Microsoft partner profile. This helps them as their Microsoft partner status can rely on the amount of staff they have with Microsoft certifications. Also key people in the organisation can be given access to the Partner portal to manage the company relationship with Microsoft

So what’s the problem?

I recently booked some Microsoft training for myself and others at the company on the partner portal. The invoices for these are delivered via email.

When i received them the company name on the invoice correctly read “IBIT Solutions” but the invoice address was my home address

There was a problem with the invoice amount which was a priority so once this was sorted i asked about the invoice address

In the reply i was told that the invoice will be sent to the address in the my Live ID and if I wanted to change that I’d need to do it myself

I replied back to query why their system used the email address from the my Live ID and not the partner profile yet it was able to get company name ok. The reply i got back was

What I am trying to make you aware of is, when you choose to associate yourself to a company in the Microsoft Partner Programme, you can do this without using the company address – which is what you have done. It’s optional, either you use your home/private address or the company address – it’s completely up to you  – your choice.

If you would like the invoices to be sent to the company address then you will need to edit this in your individual profile to affect these changes.

Your individual profile is xxPersonalIDxx and you have associated this to a Partner in the Microsoft Partner Programm using your own address. The system recognizes you as being an individual associated to IBIT Solutions, but as I have already mentioned -  because the address field(s) are to be filled out by the individual, using either your home/private address or the same address of IBIT Solutions will result in you being sent an invoice to whatever address it is you have used to create your account with.

If you opt to enter your home address then the system will issue you with an invoice to the email account you have associated to IBIT Solutions using the address you have entered in your hotmail account (individual profile).

Of course, to avoid this you can associate xxCompanyIDxx and use this email alias to book yourself onto events and have the invoices sent to your company email account with the company address and not to your hotmail account which you have set up using your home address.

I replied back to explain that i still don’t “get it”

If i’m signed into the Partner Portal surely it’s obvious that anything I’m doing there is on behalf of the company? Why would I want an invoice to be addressed to me?

If i created a new company specific Live ID where would my Microsoft certifications sit?

If I (or any other employee) left the company they would expect to take their certifications with them as they are personal to them and they would that Live ID to associate with the new company. Surely using a company specific ID here doesn’t work?

I’d also then have two Live IDs to work with and signing in and out of anything that uses the passport network is a pain in the neck as far as i’m concerned

Just wondered how everyone else deals with this? Are you maintaining multiple Live IDs?

Are there any guidelines on how you should deal with Live ID’s when work situations and personal life are blurred (again the Certification thing, I feel is a good example)

Otherwise just let me know if i’m completely missing the point?

I was always under the impression that I’d only ever need one Live ID for signing into multiple services

The person i was swapping emails with has since said that he can see my point and will forward my query onto the relevant team so we’ll see if anything else happens

I’m officially a two browser person

Since Google Chrome is actually out of Beta I’ve installed it on my PC at home and my laptop (and i plan to install it at the office too). I have mentioned before about why i thought i might run two browsers, compatibility with some Microsoft products, Application shortcuts and the speed increases are just a couple of reasons

Another reason is this though

Internet Explorer 7

Google Chrome

Note: the screenshot from Chrome looks wider as it render the page across the whole screen. In IE it the page was centered with white space down both sides – i cropped out the white space

Now i know this may not actually be the browsers fault. It could be the way the web site designer has put the page together but the average browsing public wont really care about that

Just for fun i fired up my Windows 7 virtual machine and opened it in IE8 (i don’t like to use Beta software on my main system where i can help it!)

Internet Explorer 8 Beta

Internet Explorer 8 Beta (running in compatibility mode)

This isn’t a me taking a shot at Google Chrome. I’m sure if i look hard enough I’ll find pages that render just great in Chrome and look awful in IE

That it’s worth I’m really enjoying using Chrome and since i spend a lot of time in Google Reader and Gmail it makes sense for me to take advantage of Google’s own browser

All areas of IT seem to have their own religious wars and the browser wars are one of the fiercest. Just remember with any software you have the choice to use which ever fits your needs and for me that means using multiple browsers. Not blindly swearing that my first choice of browser is the best there is, everyone should be using and all other browsers suck!

Is it just me?

Does anyone else have problems accessing the MCP site?

Sometimes when I go to the site I just get this page

As you can see by looking from the top right hand corner i’m definitely signed in. If I sign out and back in again doesn’t make any difference

Other times I use the same page and get straight in without any hassle. I’ve always just put it down to something i’m doing but I got in yesterday with no problems and yet can’t get in today. I haven’t used any other passport accounts in between visits so i’m a  little bit stumped

Answers on a postcard?

Mesh on your Mobile

I’ve taken to Live Mesh pretty quickly. I love the fact I can just save a file and not worry about getting onto the various computers I use

As well as my regular PC and laptop my mobile is a device I always have with me

If you go to mesh.com and click the "add device" button it’s said "coming soon for mobile" for ages and I’ve been keeping an eye out for any developments on this front

So this morning I wondered what would happen if I pointed my phones browser at the mesh website

I was prompted to sign and was redirected to m.mesh.com

From here I was able to browse my folder list and get access to any files I’d stored in my mesh

Notice at the top right of both of the screen shots there is an “add picture” button which could be handy for storing mobile pics while on the go

This may not exactly be ground breaking news but I was quite pleased I stumbled across it!

Mojave Experiment – My Thoughts and consumer perceptions

I stumbled across the Windows Mojave website on various blogs last week (I think I saw it on Steve Clayton’s blog first)

Here’s one description

“Microsoft last week travelled to San Francisco, rounding up Windows XP users who had negative impressions of Vista. The subjects were put on video, asked about their Vista impressions, and then shown a "new" operating system, code-named Mojave. More than 90 percent gave positive feedback on what they saw. Then they were told that "Mojave" was actually Windows Vista.”

A couple of days after this the site had a teaser with the date July 29th marked as the release date

So that’s today and the Vista Team Blog has a post with some more details

Here’s the bit that annoyed me a bit (maybe that’s too strong a word but it’s all that springs to mind right now)

Finally, some people have asked if Mojave is the big marketing project we’re working on – it’s not. The Mojave Experiment is just that: an experiment we conducted on the fly that yielded interesting results. We’re publishing the video today because we think you’ll also find it interesting.

Why not make this a marketing project??

The experiment proved that the average consumer has preconceptions about Windows Vista that need to be put right.

Advertising and brand are areas where Microsoft are really losing out at the moment in my opinion and as this shows too many people make judgements based on what they have heard

Just another example,

When I was getting ready to come into the office this morning there was an advert for the new iPhone on the TV

The main message of this particular advert was that the iPhone was now 3G and that meant faster Internet access

If you went and asked the average consumer what HSDPA is I’m sure they would have no idea but because of adverts like this one they’ll have the preconception that the iPhone has the fastest mobile browsing speeds. 3G “sounds” faster and is more marketing friendly than HSDPA

I’m not the only person to say this sort of thing but please Microsoft, advertise just a little

Thanks Technet Guys

Been a little quiet on the blogging front recently due to lots going on from a work and personal perspective (got some really big news this weekend which I’ll post about when I can!)

I just wanted to say a public “thank you” to the people who look after Technet Subscriptions

Last year I won a free subscription at a Technet event I attended. It recently expired and I needed to get it renewed. Since it was a promotional subscription I was having problems renewing it online

So I sent an email and got a great response from the people the who look after Technet subscriptions here in the UK so I’d like to say thanks to Georgina Mitcham, Alex Ball and the guy who I spoke to over the phone but whose name I didn’t get!

I now have another years worth of Technet and a free book!(Renewal promotion..it’s this book. It arrived this morning and while hefty looks very useful)