Our Sharepoint Technology Specialist, David Gorgone, collected some additional information about the aforementioned “Word Automation Services”. 

Word Automation Services, if you recall, is a service that runs on Windows Server 2008 R2 in tandem with Sharepoint Server 2010 that is designed to populate template Word documents with content for specific fields like name, address, etc.  It then outputs the document in a format like Adobe Acrobat/PDF.

Here’s what David had to say:

There is a bunch of new information released and publically available on Word Automation Services. 

To get started, I would check out this presentation (Video and PowerPoint slides) from the PDC on Word automation:

• http://blogs.msdn.com/brian_jones/archive/2009/11/23/open-xml-sdk-word-automation-services-presentation-at-pdc.aspx

There is a streaming video of the presentation, a link to the slides, and his code.  He actually shows code to convert a DOCX to PDF.  This blog also has some good general information on Word automation and using the Open XML SDK.

• http://blogs.msdn.com/brian_jones/

On MSDN, we have released a whole section on Word Automation Services.  This includes articles, getting started, sample code, and details the object model:

• http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee558278(office.14).aspx 
  (Open the table on contents on the left and you’ll see the various materials on this topic.)

And finally, the beta of SharePoint 2010 is now available for download here:

• http://sharepoint2010.microsoft.com/try-it/Pages/Trial.aspx

Session Overview
A significant amount of today's corporate data is stored in end-user computing (EUC) applications including spreadsheets and PC databases. These applications are used in many mission-critical business processes - financial reporting, closing the books, revenue recognition, journal entries, equity and commodity trading, insurance and actuarial processes, scientific analysis, and more. Despite their power, speed and flexibility, EUCs often lack the proper safeguards and controls needed to prevent gross accounting errors, avoid poor decisions, prevent fraud, and protect against non-compliance with corporate and regulatory mandates. Furthermore, organizations often fail to properly inventory and account for them in preparing for litigation and legal discovery.

Join Prodiance and Microsoft GRC expert Jeff Jinnett for this exciting online event to learn about the key issues surrounding spreadsheet and EUC risk, and how to leverage the latest technology and best practices to establish a sustainable eDiscovery Reference Model (EDRM) to efficiently mitigate spreadsheet and EUC risk, improve compliance, and drive business process efficiency.

The agenda will cover:

• The latest industry trends, business drivers and regulatory mandates affecting spreadsheet and EUC risk 
• Best practices and auditor guidance for automating internal controls over mission critical EUCs
• The legal impacts of uncontrolled EUCs and requirements for establishing an effective EDRM model
• A live software demonstration of the Prodiance Enterprise Spreadsheet Manager system
• A review of the business case and ROI

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Date/Time:
Tuesday, December 1st, 2009
(8:30 am PST / 10:30 am CST / 11:30 am EST)

Registration:
http://www.prodiance.com/news/register2.asp?utm_campaign=Webinar%3A%20Catch%2022%20-%20eDiscovery%20%26%20Spreadsheet%20Control&utm_content=eric.perry@prodiance.com&utm_medium=Email&utm_source=VerticalResponse&utm_term=HTML%20Version%20-%20Image%20Link%202

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If you have any questions concerning this event, please call us at +1 (925) 416-9191 or send an email to events@prodiance.com.

ALTERNATIVE THINKING ABOUT BUSINESS SERVICES:
Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 - Information and insights for a smooth migration

Considering a move to Exchange 2010?
Don’t miss this information-packed webcast!

Find out how you can improve organizational productivity and data center efficiency by upgrading to Microsoft Exchange Server 2010. Regardless of your current platform—Exchange, Lotus Notes or another non-Microsoft platform—moving to Exchange 2010 streamlines administration, better protects your communications and meets users’ demands for greater business mobility. 

Making the Move to Exchange 2010: The Inside Story offers invaluable insight into the technology changes and potential business impact of this exciting new release.

Join HP Services Vice President, Office of the CTO, Tony Redmond, a leading authority on Exchange; Microsoft Unified Communications Senior Product Manager Nicole Brown; and Distinguished Technologist in HP’s services organization Donald Livengood for this hour-long webcast to learn:

• How to be sure moving to Exchange 2010 is right for you
• The benefits—both business and technical—your organization can expect
• Critical factors to consider in planning your move
• The most effective deployment strategies
• How to speed your time-to-results

Date/Time:
Tuesday, December 8
11:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. EST
Get the inside word on Exchange 2010’s new features and how you can take optimal advantage of them.

Registration:
Learn more and register
http://customer.hp.com/r?2.1.3KT.2ZX.%5flTUk.Dt0K6o..N.L1mm.2NKu.az1udWxsJm1vPTE%5fCccSGKT0

Webcast Series: Unlock the Value of your Microsoft Software Assurance (SA) Benefits

Date: December 4, 2009

Times:

Registration: Contact me if you’re a customer of mine for information on how to register. 

Register only ONCE to attend one or both sessions. You can come and go as you please.
During these uncertain times, organizations are looking for ways to find the training, resources, and services they need without having to pay more. Microsoft Enterprise Agreements (EAs) come with a rich array of Software Assurance (SA) Benefits that organizations can leverage to save money, increase productivity, and provide their workforce with training and other valuable programs such as Employee Purchase and Home Use.

Join this webcast to learn more about Software Assurance (SA) and how it can help your organization. SA Fridays, a series of webcasts held on the first Friday of each month, will cover the basics of SA, provide SA experts who can answer your questions about SA, as well as go deeper on some of the SA benefits available.

Who Should Attend:

• IT Managers and/or Software Assurance (SA) Administrators
• Human Resources/Training Managers and Directors
• Anyone else who wants to learn more about SA Benefits

SESSION 1: Software Assurance (9:00-10:00 AM PST)
This session will cover the basics of SA benefits available; how to activate and consume the benefits to meet the planning, deployment, and training needs of your organization.

SESSION 2: Customer Showcase – how we leverage our SA Benefits  (10:00-11:00 AM PST)
Come listen to one of your peers discuss ways in which their company has strategically leveraged their SA Benefits to save them time and money as they architect/deploy/manage their Microsoft investments across their enterprise.

Don't miss this opportunity to learn more about how to leverage Software Assurance (SA) Benefits from our SA experts without having to leave your office. Register today for SA Fridays!
SAVE THE DATE for future SA Fridays webcasts:

• February 5, 2010

If you are interested in seeing any of our previous webcasts (Packaged Services, E-Learning, Training Vouchers and Home Use Program).  Those sessions were recorded and are available ON Demand, here.

Maximize Your SharePoint Investment:
Leverage It as a Development Platform!

We invite you to join us at this in-person event that will assist your agencies and organizations in further realizing the return on your existing SharePoint investment via Enterprise SharePoint Development. Enterprise Application Development on the SharePoint Platform enables a multitude of SharePoint benefits to be coupled with the power of the .NET platform. This combination allows the creation of flexible, integrated and secure line-of-business applications to be built in a fraction of the time of traditional development. So join us at a city near you as we explore Microsoft’s current and long term strategy for the Microsoft SharePoint Platform and supporting Development Tools. Seize this opportunity to immerse yourself in the exciting world of Enterprise SharePoint Development!

--------------------------

• 8:30 AM–9:00 AM
  Registration
• 9:00 AM–10:00 AM
  Keynote: Taking your SharePoint Investment to the Next Level with Visual Studio 2010
  This keynote session will provide an overview of the new platform capabilities in SharePoint 2010. You will also be among the first to see Visual Studio 2010’s tightly integrated experience for application developers building and deploying SharePoint solutions.
• 10:00 AM–11:00 AM
  Realizing SharePoint as a Development Platform
  This session will focus on how SharePoint Products & Technologies can contribute to the acceleration of the solution development process by taking advantage of out-of-box capabilities in order to deliver composite business applications for your organization.
• 11:00 AM–12:30 PM
  Unleashing the Power of SharePoint Apps with Visual Studio 2010
  This demo-oriented session will provide a deeper look at SharePoint Development concepts, techniques & best practices. 
• 12:30 PM–1:30 PM
  Lunch
• 1:30 PM–3:00 PM
  Managing the SharePoint Application Development Lifecycle
  The final session of the day will provide a look at strategies and best practices for Team based SharePoint development

Who Should Attend
Developers, Architects, Web Designers and technical managers and stakeholders who wish to gain a better understanding of the long term vision of SharePoint as a platform and the benefit of developing for SharePoint.

Attend for your chance to win* a 16GB Zune HD!
Please feel free to forward to a co-worker you think would benefit from attending this event.  If you prefer I not forward you these types of communications, just let me know. To learn how to manage your contact preferences for other parts of Microsoft, please read our Privacy Statement.

--------------------

If you’re a customer of mine, let me know if you’re interested in attending and I will send date, location, and registration information to you.

Looks like the folks at Microsoft Labs have come up with a fancy new Facebook client, optimized for Windows 7 users.

It supports Aero Peek and is Touch ready for folks with touch Tablet PCs based on Windows 7.

INTEREST LEVEL
One feature that I find particularly useful is the slide bar for “interest” level.  It essentially allows one to view a Friend and say, “I am more interested in this Friend than most.”  This way you’re provided with more updates in the News Feed than others.  It’s a good throttle because there’s a lot of people that frankly, write too much about too little that I actually care about.

PHOTO BAR
Another feature that’s kinda cool is the Photo Bar which allows you to jump from Friend to Friend based on their photo.  It’s a nice highly rendered, highly accelerated-via-GPU function of the Fishbowl application that you simply can’t get using today’s technologies in AJAX and DHTML.

MINI WINDOW MODE
There’s also something called Mini Window Mode which allows you to keep your Fishbowl in a small window so that it’s unobtrusive but still keeps you up to date.  Seems like a Sidebar gadget/application to me but whatever.

…

All in all this is a very worthwhile app to grab.  Between this and Blu, the WPF powered Twitter app for Windows, I’d say there’s a very nice renaissance going on with Social Computing applications and next generation user interfaces.

• DOWNLOAD:  Fishbowl for Windows
  http://bit.ly/5CXIGo

Silverlight 4 Beta Information

Earlier this week at PDC09 in Los Angeles we unveiled a Beta version Silverlight 4. This latest version delivers hundreds of features and controls that, when combined with the continued innovation in Microsoft’s world-class tools for designers and developers — Microsoft Visual Studio and Microsoft Expression Blend – present the leading edge in rapid, powerful application development. With printing support, rich reporting and charting, and integration with back-end systems and server products including Microsoft SharePoint, Silverlight is ready for business.

What’s New in Silverlight 4 Beta?

Silverlight 4 delivers a full suite of powerful capabilities to business application developers, bringing the best-of-breed .NET platform to browser-based experiences. Silverlight provides an ideal platform for developing and deploying modern business applications for both customer facing and staff-facing applications.

To learn more about beta release here are some good resource:

• http://silverlight.net/getstarted/silverlight-4-beta/
• http://channel9.msdn.com/learn/courses/Silverlight4/Overview/Overview/
• http://channel9.msdn.com/learn/courses/Silverlight4/Overview/WhatsNew/

Additionally the Day#2 keynote announcement of Silverligh4 beta release from PDC09 is available on demand at:

• http://microsoftpdc.com/Sessions/KEY02

------------

[taken from Raj’s blog]

As you head into Thanksgiving weekend and start your holiday shopping, be sure to check out Bing cashback for great deals on gifts for everyone on your list.

With Bing cashback, you'll earn a percentage of the product price as cash back. We’ve been adding new merchants to the program in anticipation of the holidays (including the likes of Endless, Macy's and Dick's Sporting Goods), bringing us to more than 1,000 stores where you can search, shop and save.

And, in the spirit of gift-giving, Bing cashback is offering extra cash back on purchases from select stores. Starting the day after Thanksgiving through 12/2, get up to 35% cashback from places like:

• eBay (10% cashback)
• AT&T (35%)
• Dell (20%)
• Best Buy (10%)
• Sephora (20%)
• Gap (10%)
• Footlocker (25%)
• ...and more

Start shopping now by checking out our top gift ideas and don't forget to come back on 11/27 to learn about our special holiday deals. These deals are available to all, so feel free to spread the cheer with friends and family.

The Azure Services Training Kit includes a comprehensive set of technical content including hands-on labs, presentations, and demos that are designed to help you learn how to use the Windows Azure platform including: Windows Azure, SQL Azure and .NET Services. The November release includes new and updated labs in addition to information about Microsoft Codename “Dallas”.

This training kit contains the following content:

• Presentations Presentations will be updated after PDC 2009 with all of the latest and greatest decks.
• Demos Demos will be updated after PDC 2009 with all of the latest and greatest demos.
• Hands On Labs
  • Introduction to Windows Azure
  • Exploring Windows Azure Storage
  • Deploying and Monitoring Applications in Windows Azure
  • Windows Azure: Worker Role Communication
  • Federated Authentication in a Windows Azure Web Role Application
  • Building ASP.NET Web Form Applications with Windows Azure
  • Introduction to SQL Azure
  • Migrating Databases to SQL Azure
  • SQL Azure: Tips and Tricks
  • Intro to Dallas
  • Introduction to the .NET Service Bus
  • Introduction to the .NET Access Control Service
  • Service Remoting with Service Bus
  • Eventing with the Service Bus

• PhluffyFotos

Supported Operating Systems:

• Windows Server 2008; Windows Vista; Windows Vista Service Pack 1
• .NET Framework 3.5 SP1
• Visual Studio 2008 SP1
• Windows Powershell

Instructions:
After downloading the training kit, run the self-extracting executable to extract all of the training kit files to your local machine. After the content is extracted, the starting page for the training kit will be displayed in your default browser. You can then browse through the individual hands-on labs, demos, and presentations.

Please Note: Many of these labs require Windows Azure platform developer accounts. To request an invitation code that can be used to register, please visit: http://www.azure.com

DOWNLOAD:  Windows Azure Platform Training Kit (193MB)
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=413E88F8-5966-4A83-B309-53B7B77EDF78&displaylang=en

LINK:  Windows Azure Web Site
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsazure/windowsazure/

This year at PDC we announced the release of the Office 2010 Beta to the public as part of our Wave 14 launch.  This release was created based on your feedback, plus a year’s worth of validation and testing and the results are amazing!  Office 2010 offers an exceptional productivity experience across the PC, phone and browser.  The beta offers tons of new features such as Office Backstage View, Ribbon user interface across all applications,  photo and video editing in PowerPoint, fast new data comparison tools in Excel, improved mail/calendar management in Outlook and much more!  For your convenience I’ve put together a list of the Wave 14 line up along with a few highlights for each product, a list of extras and demos.  Please take a moment to experience what is undoubtedly our best release ever!

Wave 14 Demos

• Office 2010 Overview
• Excel 2010
• OneNote 2010
• PowerPoint 2010
• Word 2010
• Office Mobile
• SharePoint Workspace
• Office Web Apps
• Forefront

Wave 14 is a comprehensive solution that provides a rich and robust platform for the enterprise and web.  This release ensures that your organization can collaborate more effectively by optimizing resources in a way that drives business process improvements.  Now is the opportunity to see Office 2010 for yourself!  You’ll need to register for the beta first and then will be able to download Office Professional Plus 2010 Beta.

Get 10% Off Everything at the Microsoft Store!

The Official Microsoft Store is offering a 10% discount on all items including games, Xbox 360 consoles, Window 7, etc.  2 Xbox 360 Console deals are still in stock:

• Xbox 360 Elite holiday bundle w/ 2 games for $269.99 (Save $30)
• Xbox 360 Modern Warfare 2 Limited Edition Console - $359.99 (Save $40)

Offer valid 11/16/2009-11/25/2009.

Steps:

• 10% off everything in the Microsoft Store!
• Use promo code MSSTORE10%OFF (after billing screen, before final confirmation)

“Here at Live Labs we’re all about experiments, and Pivot is our most ambitious to date. Pivot makes it easier to interact with massive amounts of data in ways that are powerful, informative, and fun. We tried to step back and design an interaction model that accommodates the complexity and scale of information rather than the traditional structure of the Web.

Pivot is currently available by invitation only to a small technical audience to help us explore future scenarios. To learn more about Pivot and our vision for this project, check out this video, share it, embed it, and blog/tweet/post your thoughts about it.

Why We Think This Is Exciting

When we use the Web today we treat the most fundamental scenarios as separate activities. Search takes us from many things to one, browsing moves us from one thing to another, and recommendations expose affinities that enable us to explore related topics. Can we do better by combining these scenarios into a more unified experience?

Pivot focuses on this intersection, enabling us to learn key lessons while attempting to broadly apply this philosophy to the Web. We hope that Pivot will inspire and fuel transformative experiences across the Web.

At the heart of Pivot are "Collections." They combine large groups of similar items on the Internet, so we can begin viewing the relationships between individual pieces of information in a new way. By visualizing hidden patterns, Pivot enables users to discover new insights while interacting with thousands of things at once.

For those with access to our limited preview, this site includes a wealth of developer details to create Collections. We hope you will join our technical discussion to share your work and interact directly with the Pivot team. If you don’t have an invitation, please leave your email address and we will notify you if we expand our private preview in the future.

Also known as, you get what you pay for.

The wily statistical researchers at SquareTrade, the folks that insure/warranty products predominantly from eBay but also independently have found through their monster database of numbers that people that buy cheap laptops… usually end up with malfunctions up to 20% more often than folks that purchase higher end laptops.

In fact, Premium laptops have the lowest malfunction rate where as Netbooks get returned due to malfunction the most.  Surprised?

Additionally, SquareTrade broke down who’s laptops are most reliable versus who’s… well… have malfunctions more than the others.  The message is clear:  Smaller outfits tend to have fewer returns.

And there were some interesting discoveries along the way.

-------------------------------------------

Manufacturers: Vast Differences in Reliability

• When excluding accidental damage and examining hardware malfunctions by manufacturer, Asus and Toshiba come out on top.
• Apple and Dell both fall in the middle with approximately an 18 percent failure rate; while industry leader HP has the highest failure rate.
• Over one in four HP laptops in the study experienced a hardware malfunction during the first three years of ownership.

Other highlights of the study include:

• Asus and Toshiba were the most reliable manufacturers, with fewer than 16 percent having a hardware malfunction over three years.
• Netbooks are projected to have a 20 percent higher failure rate from hardware malfunctions than more expensive laptop computers.
• Manufacturers proved to be a more reliable determinant of reliability than the type of laptop and should be a greater factor in making a purchase decision.

DOWNLOAD:  SquareTrade Research:  “Nearly 1 in 3 Laptops fail over 3 years”
http://www.squaretrade.com/pages/laptop-reliability-1109/?ccode=bs_war_buyerblog

[taken from the SquareTrade blog]

I hate Scott Hanselman.  Alright.  Maybe I don’t hate him.  But I secretly seeth because his blog is so much better than mine. Sob.

Like this recent post.  I write posts that go deep on certain topics based on my own personal experience on that one topic. 

Scott on the other hand writes posts that are exhaustive in nature because of his breadth of experience and knowledge.

How the heck does one ‘list’ all the apps that leverage Windows 7’s inherent Aero Taskbar features?  Man – that’s just insane.

POST:  List of Applications that use new Windows 7 Features
http://www.hanselman.com/blog/LightItUpListOfApplicationsThatUseNewWindows7Features.aspx

For all geek poets,

A Windows Server haiku

Means prizes click here

----------------------------

There’s no way to really explain this other than to just have you go to it and see for yourself.

The idea is to have folks generate some creative haikus… flex that IT brain, so to speak, around what Windows Server 2008 R2 delivers.

And by the way, there’s even a nice plug for our free Microsoft Press book, “Introducing Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2”

LINK:  Windows Server 2008 R2 Haiku Contest
https://www.r2haiku.com/

Windows Management Framework, which includes Windows PowerShell 2.0, WinRM 2.0, and BITS 4.0, was officially released.

By providing a consistent management interface across the various flavors of Windows, we are making our platform that much more attractive to deploy. IT Professionals can now easily manage their Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7, and Windows Server 2008 R2 machines through PowerShell remoting – that’s a huge win!

The big component for myself is obviously Windows PowerShell 2.0.  Here’s a quick description of PS2.0 as described in the Support entry:

Windows PowerShell is a command-line shell and scripting language that is designed for system administration and Automation. Built on the Microsoft .NET Framework, Windows PowerShell enables IT professionals and developers to control and automate the administration of Windows and applications.
New features that are introduced in Windows PowerShell 2.0 include the following:

• Remoting
  Windows PowerShell 2.0 lets you run commands on one or more remote computers from a single computer that is running Windows PowerShell. PowerShell remoting allows for multiple ways of connecting. These ways include interactive (1:1), fan-out (1:many), and fan-in (many:1 by using the IIS hosting model).
• Integrated Scripting Environment
  PowerShell Integrated Scripting Environment (ISE) enables you to run interactive commands and edit and debug scripts in a graphical environment. The main features include color-coded syntax, selective execution, graphical debugging, Unicode support, and context-sensitive help.
• Modules
  Modules allow for script developers and administrators to partition and organize their Windows PowerShell code in self-contained, reusable units. Code from a module executes in its own self-contained context and does not affect the state outside the module.
• Advanced functions
  Advanced functions are functions that have the same capabilities and behavior as cmdlets. However, they are written completely in the Windows PowerShell language, instead of compiled C#.
• Background jobs
  Windows PowerShell 2.0 allows for running a command or expression asynchronously and "in the background" without interacting with the console.
• Eventing
  This feature adds support to the Windows PowerShell engine infrastructure for listening, forwarding, and acting on management and system events.
• Script internationalization
  This new feature enables Windows PowerShell scripts to display messages in the spoken language that is specified by the UI culture setting on the user's computer.
• Script debugging
  New debugging features were added to Windows PowerShell that let you set breakpoints on lines, columns, variables, and commands, and that let you specify the action that occurs when the breakpoint is hit.
• New cmdlets
  Windows PowerShell 2.0 introduces over 100 built-in cmdlets. These cmdlets, excluding other tasks, enables you to do computer-related, event log, and performance counter management tasks.

You can download the packages here:
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=151321

I told you guys you all should sign up for this years PDC.

And to be clear – this is NOT a ‘netbook’ as it’s been claimed in some news outlets.  This is a full blown customized Acer convertible Tablet PC with Windows 7 Ultimate on it, with a custom installation of the OS installed.  Acer – in case you didn’t know – holds the patent on the Tablet swivel in most Tablet PCs today.

In the absence of any big news during his keynote address this morning, Microsoft Windows President Steven Sinofsky took a page from Oprah's playbook and stirred the crowd to life with the surprise announcement that all of the paying attendees at the company's big Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles would get a free laptop.

Sinofsky said the laptop was custom-designed by the Windows team, working with PC maker Acer to create a machine that represented the best overall experience it could create with the new Windows 7 operating system. It's meant for software developers to fully explore the possibilities of the new operating system.

"We're going to take this laptop, and it's going to be available to you," Sinofsky told the crowd. "For free."

As heard on the webcast, there were huge cheers in the giant keynote hall at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Sinofsky encouraged them to stick around for the rest of the talk, recalling an incident a few years ago, when Microsoft similarly gave away a free mobile device that caused people to rush for the distribution center.

Microsoft historically has focused on operating systems and applications software, not PC hardware, but the company has increasingly been working more closely with PC makers to get them to tune their systems more carefully to work more smoothly with Windows. In that way the Windows team's work with Acer on the custom "PDC Laptop" is an interesting development even if it won't be available outside the show.

(Taken from Todd Bishop’s Microsoft Blog & CNET’s Unboxing of the PDC Laptop)

The Windows 7 Application Compatibility List for IT Professionals is a Microsoft Office Excel-based spreadsheet containing software applications which have met Windows 7 Logo Program testing requirements for compatibility with 32-bit and 64-bit Windows 7 (“Compatible – Windows 7 Logo”).

Additionally, this list contains applications with a status of “Compatible,” “Free update required,” “Paid update required,” “Future compatibility,” and “Not compatible.” Any of these mean the software publisher has stated the compatibility status but note these products have not met the Windows 7 Logo Program testing requirements.

For the latest collection of compatible applications and hardware devices, please visit the Windows 7 Compatibility Center. You can also leave feedback on compatibility and suggest new products to get added in future reports.

DOWNLOAD: Windows 7 Application Compatibility List for IT Professionals
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=890e522e-e39e-4278-aebc-186f81e29173

About frickin’ time.  Windows Marketplace is now available to download for the REST of us that don’t own brand spankin’ new devices.

• Windows Marketplace for Windows Mobile 6 and 6.1
  http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/
  windowsphone/default.aspx

The good part about having the Windows Mobile Marketplace available is that it’ll make available a lot of FREE products that many people had no idea existed.

Here’s a few that you can find on the Marketplace that are real gems:

• Mobile Manager for Netflix
  If you have a Netflix account, you can arrange your shipments online through your Windows Phone.
• Bing for Windows Phone
  This is a rich mapping product that works great with phone GPSs and provides local restaurants, gas stations, and other necessities all directly.
• Tower Defense
  Arrange your towers and defend yourself from bombers, drones, and hummers.

DOWNLOAD: 
Windows Marketplace for Windows Mobile 6.0/6.1
http://windowsphone.com/getmarketplace

(Also go straight to http://mp.windowsphone.com to download straight to your phone)

In a nutshell, this Management Pack for System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2 can be used to keep track of the level of coffee in left in the pot.  Through the use of SCOM 2007 R2, a network camera, and  this management pack, you will never run out of coffee which as we all know is the most important part of a productive environment!

This is mostly made as a proof of concept, as this technique can be transferred to other monitor types. It could be expanded with other types of sensors, like a weight to check the level of coffee instead of a camera, or a thermometer to check the temperature of the coffee.

This is the very first version.   By default, it will trigger a warning when under 50% is left, and a Critical Alert when under 20% is left.

DOWNLOAD:
Coretech Coffee Monitor Management Pack for Microsoft System Center Operations Mgr 2007 R2
http://bit.ly/356ZOy