Please make sure you update your Live Meeting Console and Outlook Add-in’s:
We have released new versions of the Live Meeting 2007 Console and Outlook Add-in.  These new builds are available for manual, voluntary download here (you will not be automatically prompted to download the new versions).

I recommend upgrading to the latest versions particularly for any users who have encountered problems. The new downloads will automatically uninstall older versions that are present. Please make sure that all Microsoft Office applications (especially Outlook) are closed prior to installing. If you use LCS or OCS for your corporate IM and Presence please exit this application as well.

Here are the links to the new versions:

• http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/help/HA101733831033.aspx (Console version 8.0.6362.62)
• http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/help/HA102368901033.aspx (Add-in version 8.0.6362.62)

Live Meeting 2007 Console (version 8.0.6362.62 - April 11, 2008)
The Live Meeting 2007 Console release includes fixes for several issues, including, but not limited to:

• Improved Application desktop sharing -  includes network connection improvements and faster screen refresh
• Fixed Application desktop sharing freezing when uploading multiple files
• Accessibility improvements to enable red-green impaired users

Please refer to Knowledge Base article 946764 for more detail:  http://support.microsoft.com/kb/946764/en-us

Live Meeting 2007 Outlook Add-In (version 8.0.6362.62 - April 11, 2008)
The Live Meeting 2007 Outlook Add-In release includes fixes for several issues, including, but not limited to:

• Recurring Meetings are now supported
• The Add-in no longer deletes a cache file that is used by Outlook workflow add-ins (such as Interwoven)
• Attendee meeting Accept/Decline tracking will now show up

Please refer to Knowledge Base article 943017 or 948738 for more detail: 
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/948738/en-us

If you encounter any problems installing the new clients please contact Live Meeting Support at 866-493-2825 or via www.livemeeting.com/ask

All politics aside, this is a really nice affirmation of the power of our streaming video platform.  My beloved Silverlight & Windows Media HD... gettin' some airtime!

Microsoft picked for Democratic convention
http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/ticker/article.aspx?symbol=US:MSFT&feed=ACBJ&date=20080428&id=8552457

Software giant Microsoft Corp. will be the official software and HD web content provider for the 2008 Democratic National Convention.

The Democratic National Convention Committee (DNCC) made the announcement Monday. The convention will be held Aug. 25-28 in Denver.

"Microsoft's standing as an industry leader in software development makes them an ideal partner for the DNCC," said Leah Daughtry, CEO of the DNCC.

Microsoft software will be used to track delegate votes and the company's Silverlight platform will be used alongside Level 3 Communication's network to bring live video coverage via the DemConvention.com website.

On behalf of the Speech Components Group, I’m very pleased to announce the initial public availability of Windows Speech Recognition Macros!

•  Download and install now!
•  Read our blog announcement

WSR Macros combines the ease of Windows Speech Recognition with the power of an XML-based scripting language.   It makes it easy to create speech interfaces to applications and perform otherwise tedious tasks with simple spoken commands.

This tool is the brainchild of Rob Chambers and has been in development for quite a long time.  Once in SCG, Rob and Onur Domanic worked on refining the functionality, fixing issues and getting the code in shape to ship.  Aziz El Ouaqid ran the test effort.

Please email listen@microsoft.com with any feedback or questions.
Check out our Speech Blog at http://blogs.msdn.com/speech.

Here are a couple of examples WSR Macro commands:

<speechMacros>
<command>
<listenFor>What are macros</listenFor>
<setTextFeedback>Macros are cool!</setTextFeedback>
<speak>W S R Macros extends the power of my voice</speak>
</command>
<!-- Play Artist Command -->
<command>
<listenFor>play ?the ?artist [Artists]</listenFor>
<listenFor>play ?the band [Artists]</listenFor>
<listenFor>play ?the group [Artists]</listenFor>
<disambiguate title="Which artist do you want to play?" prompt="Choose an Artist" timeout="25" propname="Artist"/>
<wmpMediaControl command="pause"/>
<speak>Playing Artist {[Artist]}</speak>
<wmpMediaPlay attrname="WM/AlbumArtist" attrvalue="{[Artist]}"/>
</command>
</speechMacros>

Also delivered today was the public beta of System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 (formerly code-named “Virtual Machine Manager vNext”), which enables customers to configure and deploy new virtual machines and to centrally manage their virtualized infrastructure, whether running on:

• Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V
• Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2
• VMware ESX Server

System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 tightly integrates with Operations Manager 2007 to deliver a new feature called Performance and Resource Optimization (PRO). Using deep knowledge of the IT environment including operating systems, applications and hardware, Operations Manager identifies opportunities for more efficient physical and virtual resource allocation and generates “PRO tips” within the Virtual Machine Manager console. Administrators can implement these PRO tips and dynamically optimize their datacenter based upon pre-defined policies and the real-time, changing demands of users. When used in conjunction with the broad System Center management suite, System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 enables customers effectively to manage both their virtualized and physical servers and applications across their desktops and datacenters with a single set of consistent, compatible tools.

“Deploying, monitoring and managing applications across a heterogeneous IT infrastructure can present many challenges and complexities, all of which are compounded when consolidating servers, optimizing desktops and applications, or creating business continuity solutions using multiple virtualization solutions,” said Jerry Phillips, senior director of Systems Operations at Clear Channel Communications Inc. “Our experience with System Center solutions has demonstrated that Microsoft not only recognizes our need to manage our Windows datacenter infrastructure, but also non-Windows and virtual servers from other vendors. Being able to do so through a single administrative console will provide improvements in productivity and reductions in our cost of IT operations, enabling us to improve overall organizational contributions.”

A number of partners, including Brocade, Dell, EMC Corp., Emulex Corp., HP, NetQOS, QLogic Corp. and Quest, announced they will deliver management packs enabled for PRO. These management packs enable partners and customers to integrate their domain-specific knowledge directly into Virtual Machine Manager and further integrate physical and virtual management.

“Dell’s focus is to simplify IT for our customers and drive complexity out of the datacenter, and virtualization is a key technology driving this effort,” said Laurie Tolson, vice president of systems management at Dell Product Group. “By working with industry leaders like Microsoft on advances in systems management between Dell OpenManage and Microsoft Hyper-V, System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 and Windows Server 2008, we’re able to bridge the gap between the physical and virtual management spaces, providing an optimized solution that helps our customers get the most out of their hardware and virtualization investments.”

“New ways to lower energy costs, reduce server sprawl and optimize datacenters are provided by the collaboration between HP and Microsoft as virtualization goes mainstream,” said Scott Farrand, vice president of Industry Standard Server Software at HP. “Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager used alongside HP Insight software on HP ProLiant servers, and HP Server Automation software, allow customers to seamlessly manage physical and virtual environments. The combined solutions also allow customers to maximize availability, performance and flexibility of physical host servers, virtualized guest operating systems and workloads.”

Beta software of Virtual Machine Manager 2008 was made available to attendees at the conference and can be downloaded at http://connect.microsoft.com. Customers interested in finding more information on the System Center offerings or in evaluating them through trial offerings can visit http://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter and the System Center blog at http://blogs.technet.com/systemcenter.

Microsoft today announced the availability of a public beta for System Center Operations Manager 2007 Cross Platform Extensions, which build on the existing Operations Manager 2007 technology and capabilities and are designed to help customers extend the value of their Microsoft System Center investments.

Providing customers with a comprehensive management solution, this new end-to-end IT systems monitoring capability incorporates industry standards and proven open source technologies, including Web Services for Management (WS-Management) and OpenPegasus, extending the capabilities across both physical and virtualized Windows and non-Windows operating systems and applications.

Microsoft delivers the core foundational cross-platform support out of the box for:

• HP-UX
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux
• Sun Solaris
• SUSE Linux Enterprise Server

...so that partners can focus on adding their deep domain expertise in the form of management packs. Companies such as Novell Inc., Quest Software Inc. and Xandros Inc. have demonstrated their support by working to deliver monitoring abilities for applications made by organizations such as The Apache Software Foundation, MySQL AB and Oracle.

Further demonstrating support for its commitment to OpenPegasus, Microsoft also announced today that it will be joining the OpenPegasus Steering Committee and contribute code back to the open source community under the Microsoft Public License, an Open Source Initiative (OSI)-approved license.

“The System Center Operations Manager 2007 Cross Platform Extensions have already delivered exciting results for Xandros,” said Andreas Typaldos, CEO of Xandros. “They enabled us to cut our expected development time in half as we created our management packs for Apache and MySQL running on Linux and Solaris, resulting in quicker time to market and delivery of betas to our customers today. This new foundation from Microsoft enabled us to focus on the development of high-level management functions for applications, with the knowledge that the Cross Platform Extensions were providing the necessary underlying interfaces to System Center Operations Manager, enabling heterogeneous management from a single location across customer environments.”

Microsoft also delivered a beta of the updated System Center Operations Manager 2007 Connectors, based on many of the same extensible open source technology and industry standards as the Cross Platform Extensions, which provide an integrated administrative experience and the ability to interoperate and exchange System Center monitoring data with third-party management offerings such as HP OpenView and IBM Tivoli Enterprise Console.

Beta software of System Center Operation Manager 2007 Cross Platform Extensions & Connectors were made available to attendees at the conference and can be downloaded at http://connect.microsoft.com. Customers interested in finding more information on the System Center offerings or in evaluating them through trial offerings can visit http://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter and the System Center blog at http://blogs.technet.com/systemcenter.

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2008/apr08/04-29MMS08PR.mspx

With the launch of the 1^st public beta for Forefront Stirling on April 8^th, I thought it would be relevant to do a post this week on it. This release proves that the Stirling vision scenario in my previous blog article is becoming a reality. “Stirling” seems to be thrown around quite a bit and can be misunderstood, so let me 1^st clarify. Codename Stirling refers to the next wave of all Forefront products, scheduled to hit RTM in the 1^st half of 2009. This wave includes the “next version” of:

• Forefront Client Security (FCS)
• Forefront Security for Exchange Server (FSES),
• Forefront Security for SharePoint (FSS)
• ISA Server – new name Forefront Threat Management Gateway (TMG).

Additionally, this wave includes a server and single management console to interact with all of the above, commonly referred to as the “Stirling” server and “Stirling” management console. The console and server can be run on the same or separate machines. Down the road, we’ll have an official name to replace “Stirling” and “next version of”.

Ok, so what is some cool stuff to check out with the public beta?

• Dynamic response capabilities – see how the forefront products share information and interact with each other.
• Single management console and reporting for the entire technology suite except FSS - get a security state assessment for all of the connected machines & specify how you want to remediate through forefront policy.
• Integration with NAP – use NAP to remediate your machines
• Integrated malware and anti-virus protection – check out how it downloads & pushes out the updates
• Use powershell to manage it – by default Stirling uses powershell behind the scenes, but you can do it yourself if you feel inclined.

  What are some things you can NOT you do yet?

• Install a topology which has more than one Stirling server
• Install the Stirling server, console, or next version of FCS on Windows Server 2008
• Install Terminal Services or a DC on the Stirling server
• Install non-English versions 

Get started

• Download the Stirling beta here.
• The most helpful pre-requisite page to install everything here.
• Stirling homepage
• TechNet technical documentation for deployment, operations, etc.
• Stirling blog
• Forefront team blog

SQL 2008 Track  - 1:00- 4:30pm (Coffee Break provided)
Microsoft & Microosft Partner Neudesic will be sponsoring a Deep Dive session on two topics:

• Beyond Relational
  As Microsoft continues to pursue the Data Development platform, one of the areas they want to progress in, is the handling of binary and unstructured data. The next release has a number of enhancements to the handling of large and non-relational types of data. This might include video, audio, documents, etc.
• Pervasive BI
  Business Intelligence is the largest growing portion of the data world currently, with advances in dashboards, scorecards, ad-hoc query tools, the need for a stable scalable data platform both relational and OLAP have never been greater. SQL 2008 will provide a number of enhancements in performance, new features to ease development and insure best practices, as well as provide a more scalable and functional reporting environment.

Date/Time:
5/29/2008
1:30 PM - 4:30 PM
Welcome Time:
5/29/2008 1:00 PM Pacific Time

Location:
Microsoft Corporation
333 South Grand Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90071

Parking Location and Instructions:
Parking will be available at Joe’s Auto Parks (Lots 220 and 240) located on the corner of Hope and Gen Thaddeus Kosciuszko Way (lot address: 220 S. Hope Los Angeles CA 90071). Please park in the Joes Auto Parks lot.

Registration:
If you are a customer of mine, please contact me for registration details.

How Strong is Your BI House?

A lot can go wrong when your enterprise information infrastructure is built without a solid architecture. The challenges you face when your end-users can't get the information they need from the databases you manage, affects how well your enterprise runs.

Business Intelligence improves performance by driving better decisions, but when business users experience slow performance, inability to view data in a form of their choice, incomplete, stale and/or non-integrated databases they end up with confusing and conflicting results. Learn how to design your BI solution right the first time.

You are invited to attend an exclusive, free training workshop at a location near you.

Coming to Irvine, May 20th

LEARN HOW TO:

• · Design a BI Solution for Performance
• · Design a Scalable BI Infrastructure
• · Implement and Tune Your BI Solution

Join BI expert Erik Veerman for a half-day, hands-on workshop as he discusses Microsoft Business Intelligence Solutions for enterprise-level organizations, the necessity of designing a robust, scalable and enterprise-ready Business Intelligence infrastructure leveraging reference configurations from Dell and AMD to support rich reporting and analytics that keeps your users focused on making decisions and not waiting on answers.

Who Should Attend:

• BI architects
• SQL Server architects
• SQL Server DBAs
• IT architects and IT planners
• IT directors/managers responsible for SQL Server/BI deployments

 What You Will Get:

• Information-packed technical content
• Take-home CDs with valuable labs and resources including:
• Key white paper - End to End Microsoft Business Intelligence installation, deployment and configuration
• Data Warehousing Best Practices and Techniques
• White papers "Deploying SQL Server 2008 & Windows Server 2008/2003 and Windows Server on Dell Opteron™Servers
• Latest SQL Server 2008 Community Technology Preview (CTP)
• End-to-End Microsoft Business Intelligence virtual machine
• Dell Opteron BI Reference Configurations
• Other valuable best practices
• Opportunity to ask questions of the experts from Microsoft, Dell, AMD, and Solid Quality Mentors

Click here to RSVP today!

If you're registered for the upcoming invite-only class we’ve coordinated called “Microsoft Applications Development & Notes Domino integration for Lotus Notes Developers &Admins”, this is important reading.  People that are not registered will be turned away, as we do not have food, machines, or materials for people that aren’t registered, so if you have co-workers that wish to attend, they need to contact me ASAP.

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

ARRIVAL TIME
Please plan on being there at 8:30AM. Keep in mind that once parked, it will require walking a little more than a block or so to get to our building and get past security.

LUNCH:
Microsoft will be catering lunch for this event.

PARKING:
We’ll pay for parking at Joe’s Parking around the corner from the building. We will not pay for parking in 333 S. GRAND AVE (WELLS FARGO) BUILDING so do not park underground, otherwise you’ll find yourself paying upwards of $38 for the day.

Parking is available at Joe’s located on the corner of Hope and Gen Thaddeus Kosciuszko Way (lot address: 220 S. Hope Los Angeles CA 90071). Please note that Joe’s Auto Park is an unaffiliated, independent vendor and that Microsoft is in no way liable for any negligence or any damage that may be incurred by attendees who utilize this parking facility.

WINDOWS LIVE MAP:
http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&FORM=LMLTCC&cp=34.053755~-118.251686&style=r&lvl=18&tilt=-90&dir=0&alt=-1000&scene=6953956&phx=0&phy=0&phscl=1&cid=DA410C7F7E038D!2873&encType=1

Microsoft's  made available a demo of a game called "Invasion" for Windows Mobile, available for free off of WindowsMobile.com.  Originally an Amiga product, this game leverages Amiga Anywhere emulation.

DOWNLOAD: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/
domore/mobile/games.mspx

Full game available at:
http://www.clickgamer.com/moreinfo.htm?b=POCKETGAMER&pid=2285

Invasion is compatible for the following:

Pocket PC Windows Mobile 6.0
Pocket PC Windows Mobile 5.0
Pocket PC Square QVGA resolution (240x240)
Pocket PC QVGA resolution (320x240)
Pocket PC QVGA resolution (240x320)

Microsoft has released a free download of the Windows Live for Windows Mobile 6 software. 

The software enables:

• “Push Hotmail”
• Synchronized Live Contacts
• Live Search bar for the Windows Mobile Home screen
• One-click photo uploads to Live Spaces.

Windows Live for Windows Mobile FAQ
(Windows Live Hotmail, Contacts and Spaces)

This software does not include Windows Live Messenger. Please inquire with your mobile operator about Messenger access.

Q: Can I install this product on a Storage Card?
A: No, Windows Live can currently only be installed to your device’s internal storage. Storage cards are not supported for this application as it extends several Windows Mobile features.

Q: Why am I seeing duplicate contacts when I choose to save Windows Live contacts on my device?
A: Upon first time sign in to Windows Live, if you choose to save Windows Live contacts to your device’s contacts store, they will then be accessible via the Windows Mobile Contacts application and will appear alongside the contacts you have created on your device (either manually, via Microsoft Outlook, or via Exchange ActiveSync). If you did not check "Merge duplicate contacts", Windows Live contacts that have the same First Name and Last Name as contacts already on your device will appear as duplicates. If you checked "Merge duplicate contacts", a merge will take place but there will still be likelihood that some of your Windows Live contacts may not be merged correctly.

Q: How do I get Messenger?
A: This version of the software does not include Windows Live Messenger. Access to Messenger is typically provided by your mobile operator. Please inquire with your mobile operator about Messenger access.

DOWNLOAD:  http://wl.windowsmobile.com 
(As you can see, it’s down right now)

Office Labs is live externally! Check it out at http://officelabs.com.

Thank you to everyone who provided feedback after previewing our new site. We launched the site this morning. Think about it as a home for prototypes and proofs-of-concept, all relating to productivity, which will allow our customers to test drive our projects and provide feedback. The feedback and usage data we collect will help product teams in MBD make decisions about future investments.

The main projects currently featured on the site are Community Clips and Search Commands. Other projects of interest featured on the site are InkSeine, Task Market and SharePointPedia.

• Community Clips is aimed at enabling Office users to easily create and share informal "how-to" videos, opening up a forum for people to help each other become better users of Office.
• Search Commands is an experiment designed to determine if search is an effective way for users to find commands in complex computer applications. For example, type “math” in Word to find the relevant mathematical equation and symbol commands. The use of search for finding commands takes its inspiration from the evolution of other interfaces for web, email and desktop where browsing and searching is complimentary.
• The site also features a number of interesting projects from other teams like MSR and SharePoint: InkSeine, Task Market, and SharePointPedia

We welcome any and all comments and feedback on the prototypes or the site itself. There’s no time like the present for feedback!

Office Search Commands (formerly codenamed "Scout") helps you find commands, options, wizards, and galleries in Microsoft Office 2007 Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Just type what you’re looking for in your own words and click the command you need. Search Commands also includes Guided Help, which acts as a tour guide for specific tasks.

DOWNLOAD: http://www.officelabs.com/projects/searchcommands/Pages/default.aspx

Please note that Search Commands is completely unsupported and is English only.

View Larger Image

This is a list of resources that our regional Sharepoint specialist created for people interested in learning more about Sharepoint deployment, administration, and development.  Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Training, as you can see, is plentiful.

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

SharePoint Learning Page
http://www.microsoft.com/sharepoint/learning/default.mspx

No-cost Sharepoint Training (i.e. 'free')

• Microsoft eLearning courses
• (FREE) Clinic 5045: Inside Look at Developing with Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0
  http://www.microsoftelearning.com/eLearning/gotoResource.aspx?resourceId=2ca702a7-acbe-4a1f-89c4-0e33e82cc439&language=en-US&country=US&locale=en-US 
  In this 2-hour premium clinic you will learn about the rich capabilities that Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 offers to developers. The clinic will focus on Architecture and List Management, Building and Extending Windows SharePoint Sites, and Packaging and Deploying Windows SharePoint services solutions. Having this knowledge will enable you to determine how to incorporate Windows SharePoint Services into your workspace solution development.
• (FREE) Clinic 5046: Inside Look at Building and Developing Solutions with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007
  http://www.microsoftelearning.com/eLearning/gotoResource.aspx?resourceId=73bbe976-dddb-4d3c-bb5e-8a35bf5db755&language=en-US&country=US&locale=en-US 
  In this 2-hour premium clinic you will learn about the rich capabilities that Office SharePoint Server 2007 offers to developers. The clinic will focus on Fundamentals of Building Solutions with Office SharePoint Server 2007, Building Business Solutions with Office SharePoint Server 2007 and how to Incorporate Office SharePoint Services into Business solutions.
• (FREE) SharePoint Server Webcasts, Virtual Labs, and Podcasts:
  http://www.microsoft.com/events/series/sharepointserver.aspx 
  Use these online resources today to learn how Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 can help improve organizational effectiveness.
• (FREE) Additional SharePoint Virtual Labs and Labcasts (hands on experience with Microsoft hosted SharePoint systems that you can use and administer):
  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/office/sharepointserver/bb512933.aspx 
• (FREE) Video demos and training for Office SharePoint Server 2007
  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262880.aspx 
• (FREE) Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 TechCenter (Great starting point for developers and administrators):
  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/office/sharepointserver/default.aspx
• (FREE) End User Training Kit:
  (Install this on your SharePoint portal and users can access this training)
  http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2007/10/11/sharepoint-end-user-training-kit-now-available.aspx
• (FREE) Customizable Everyday Productivity Education (EPE) content developed by Microsoft IT for end user training:
  http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2007/09/07/customizable-everyday-productivity-education-epe-content-developed-by-microsoft-it-for-end-user-training.aspx
• (SOME FREE) Office SharePoint System - Learning Portal:
  http://www.microsoft.com/learning/office2007/default.mspx
• (SOME FREE) End-User Training Clips:
  http://cbtclips.com/sharepoint3/

Microsoft E-Learning Courses:
http://learning.microsoft.com/Manager/Catalog.aspx?clang=en-US&dtype=Catalog&Sort=TitleAscending&page=1&cats=%7bf9d20670-fa9a-45b8-a017-ba71db81a534%7d%3a%7be1031ff3-3f15-4bfc-840b-defae43c69b7%7d%3a%7b337eb1e4-98e6-480a-a5fb-8b7b3a282c9c%7d

Microsoft SharePoint Academy: 
http://www.microsoftsharepointacademy.com/index.htm 
Current Courses (check the web site for current course listing and dates):
- Advanced IT Pro Course for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (4/28/08)

Mindsharp Computer-Based Training:
http://www.mindsharp.com/Default.aspx?top=Courseware&left=Computer-Based%20Training

Classroom Training:
http://learning.microsoft.com/Manager/Catalog.aspx?clang=en-US&dtype=Catalog&Sort=TitleAscending&page=1&cats=%7bf9d20670-fa9a-45b8-a017-ba71db81a534%7d%3a%7be1031ff3-3f15-4bfc-840b-defae43c69b7%7d%3a%7badf07500-03ad-4a36-b0ba-81c728d3d717%7d

Southern California-Based Partner-Led Training:

• Apex InfoTech Inc. (Irvine)
  http://www.oneapex.com/microsoft/office.asp
• Global Knowledge
  http://www.globalknowledge.com/training/course.asp?courseid=10223
• Integrated Digital Technologies (Pasadena, Santa Ana)
  http://idt.edu/Education/catalog.aspx?c=947
• Mindsharp (San Diego)
  http://www.mindsharp.com
• 5-day MOSS Administration
• 5-day 2007 SharePoint Designer
• 3-day 2007 SharePoint Power User
  
  For more information about these San Diego events contact:
  Kristian McKenzie, 952-230-6509, kristian.mckenzie@mindsharp.com
• New Horizons (San Diego, Anaheim)
  http://www.newhorizons.com/content/catalogSearch.aspx?txtSrchTITLE=sharepoint
• Netwin Solutions (Westminster)
  http://www.netwinsolutions.com/courses_view.php?category=10
• QuickStart (Brea, Irvine, Gardena)
  http://www.quickstart.com/courses/technology.asp?type=96
• SharePoint Experts (Anaheim)
  http://www.sharepointbootcamp.com/schedule.htm
• Ted Pattison Group (Irvine):
  http://tedpattison.net/default.aspx
• Vortex (San Diego)
  http://www.vortexdata.com/schedule/default.asp?CategoryID=7&SubCategoryID=8

SharePoint Designer
SharePoint Designer helps you create and customize SharePoint Web sites and building workflow-enabled applications based on SharePoint technologies. Here are a couple of links to get familiar with SharePoint Designer. You can download an evaluation copy here: (http://us20.trymicrosoftoffice.com/product.aspx?re_ms=oo&family=sharepoint&culture=en-US). 

• SharePoint Designer 2007 Product Home Page (FREE):
  http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointdesigner/FX100487631033.aspx
• SharePoint Designer 2007 Help and How-to (FREE):
  http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointdesigner/FX100646991033.aspx
• A six-part series on getting the most out of SharePoint Designer 2007 (FREE):
  http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointdesigner/HA102199841033.aspx
• SharePoint Designer 2007 Online Training (By Total Training):
  http://www.totaltraining.com/prod/microsoft/sharepoint2007.asp 
  Explore the countless possibilities of SharePoint Designer 2007. In this video series John Jansen teaches you to build very simple or incredibly complex business solutions on the SharePoint platform. Learn about Master Pages, how to modify Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) in SharePoint Designer, and how to integrate Visual Studio with custom Web part deployment and workflow actions.

Books – Microsoft Press

• Office SharePoint Server 2007:
  http://learning.microsoft.com/Manager/Catalog.aspx?clang=en-US&dtype=Catalog&Sort=TitleAscending&page=1&search=%22office%20SharePoint%22&cats=%7b803f37c6-1c6b-4905-812f-7367c606d0aa%7d
• Windows SharePoint Services:
  http://learning.microsoft.com/Manager/Catalog.aspx?clang=en-US&dtype=Catalog&Sort=TitleAscending&page=1&search=%22sharepoint%20services%22&cats=%7b803f37c6-1c6b-4905-812f-7367c606d0aa%7d

Microsoft proudly presents:
Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac District Launch Event
Los Angeles, CA: May 13, 2008

Microsoft Corporation
333 So. Grand Avenue
33rd floor, Ste 3300
Los Angeles, CA  90071

Microsoft’s Macintosh Business Unit and your district account manager would like to invite you to attend an informative half-day briefing introducing IT professionals to our recently launched Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac. Program managers from Redmond will be in your area to deliver an in-depth technical session on Office 2008 for Mac, and answer the most pressing questions that IT managers and implementers are asking.

Don't miss out on this great opportunity hear first hand about this great new product, and have your questions answered by Microsoft’s top experts on Office 2008 for Mac.
Topics will include:

• Great new features in Office 2008 for Mac that help end users simplify their work
• Improvements in integration between Entourage, Microsoft’s email and calendaring client for the Mac, and Exchange Server
• Reducing enterprise support costs by improving Windows-Mac compatibility
• How Microsoft makes it easier than ever to deploy Office for the Mac

Technical Agenda

• 12:00pm – 12:30pm:
  Lunch
• 12:30pm – 1:30pm
  Introducing Office 2008 for Mac  
  Word 2008: Great looking Documents Made Easy
  Excel 2008: Streamlined, Compatible and Results Oriented
  PowerPoint 2008: Compelling Presentations with Point and Click Ease
• 1:30pm-1:45pm
  Break
• 1:45pm – 2:45pm
  Entourage  
  Entourage 2008: Regaining Control of Your Day
  Optimizing Entourage and Exchange Integration
• 2:45pm – 3:00pm
  Break
• 3:00pm – 4:00pm
  Working with Office in Corporate Environments 
  Deployment
  Browser-Based Tools (Sharepoint, LiveMeeting, OCS)
  Messenger and RDC
  Licensing
  Q&A

Attend our event and walk away with some nice giveaways!

Register Today:
http://microsoft.crgevents.com/Office2008Mac
registration code:MACTECH

About Office 2008 for Mac: Office 2008 for Mac is the industry standard in productivity and compatibility. A redesigned and simplified user interface makes accessing the power of Office 2008 fast and intuitive. Universal for peak performance on Intel or PowerPC-based Macs, Office 2008 also shares key technologies with the Windows-based 2007 Microsoft Office System for easier file sharing and more consistent output. Office 2008 for Mac helps people to better manage time and information, communicate ideas, and work across platforms.

For those employees of my customers that are interested in Sharepoint technology development, Visual Studio 2005, and integrating Microsoft technologies with Lotus Notes/Domino environments, this is the class for you.

We are sponsoring the private class below entitled, “Microsoft Applications Development and Notes Domino integration for Lotus Notes Developers and Admins” so that select customers may attend free-of-charge. If you or any of your co-workers would like to attend and you are employed by one of my customers (and you know who you are), please let me know so that we can make sure we have manuals, handout materials, DVDs, hands-on computers, and other things available for you upon your arrival.

This course will not be available again this year, so if you or your coworkers are interested, please make every effort to attend. Class will fill on a first-come-first-served basis so let others in your organization know.

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Microsoft Applications Development and Notes Domino integration for Lotus Notes Developers and Admins

INSTRUCTOR:
Gary Devendorf (see Bio below)
LOCATION:
Microsoft’s Los Angeles Office/Training Room - 333 S. Grand Ave Suite 3300, Los Angeles
REGISTRATION:
This is a private event.  If you are interested in participating and are a customer of mine, please email me.

This is basically a comprehensive, specialized instructor-led Hands On Lab.

This one day technical workshop provides demos, hands on labs, a Virtual PC, Notes databases and more. We will focus on integrating Lotus Notes/Domino applications with various Microsoft products by using LotusScript, VB.NET, XML, COM, HTTP, web services, wizards and so on. Along the way, we learn how to create .NET applications. Many demos require no code. All the demo solve real end user problems. Nothing is difficult if you can write LotusScript. So come learn how to extend your existing Notes applications while picking up new skills to increase your value to your organization.

Agenda for the day is as follows:

• 8:45–9:00 Welcome overview
• 9:00–9:30 Integration demo
• 9:30–9:45 Overview of Microsoft products
• 9:45–10:30 Using XML over HTTP as a Domino Service
• 10:30–10:45 Break
• 10:45–11:15 Introduction to Visual Studio 2005
• 11:15–11:45 Domino and Visual Studio .NET Web Services
• 11:45–12:15 Using InfoPath with Lotus Notes and Domino
• 12:15–1:00 Lunch
• 1:00–1:30 Integration using COM
• 1:30–2:15 SharePoint Designer and the Windows Workflow Foundation
• 2:15–2:30 Break
• 2:30–3:00 Using Access
• 3:00–3:30 Understanding the Office Open XML Formats
• 3:30–4:00 Building Solutions with Excel
• 4:00–4:15 Creating Dashboards in SharePoint
• 4:15–4:30 Working with Content Types
• 4:30–5:00 Questions / Resources

Gary Devendorf’s Bio:
Gary Devendorf has been at Microsoft for over 4 years and is a subject matter expert on Lotus Notes. His main focus has been on integrating Lotus Notes/Domino applications with Microsoft products. He is a Lotus Notes developer and a .NET developer. In fact for over 7 years he was the IBM Lotus Product Manager responsible for LotusScript, Domino Designer, Domino Objects, COM, Java, and more. If Gary can add .NET skills to his Note developer’s skills, you can too.

Ever had a performance related question for the Windows Server product team?

ASKPERF - Ask the Performance Team
Thoughts from the Enterprise Platforms Windows Server Performance Team

Welcome to the Blog for the Enterprise Platforms Support Windows Server Performance team (what a mouthful!)  I guess one of the first things to tell you is what the Platforms Performance (or Plat-Perf as we’re commonly known) team does. 

Unlike the Networking or Directory Services support teams at Microsoft, whose support boundaries are fairly easy to work out, the Performance team covers a broad range of seemingly unrelated areas such as Core OS Performance, Printing, Internet Explorer, WMI and Terminal Services.  Simply put – we’re a bit of a “catch-all” team.

So why are we blogging?  Because we cover such a wide spectrum of technology, we see many different types of issues – some more frequently than others.  So we thought we should share with the broader technical community.  We’ll be sharing troubleshooting tips and technical information on areas of our specialty that we cover.  Hopefully the information we provide will help you both from a general OS Knowledge perspective as well as in troubleshooting any issues you run into ...

LINK:  http://blogs.technet.com/askperf/

This should be interesting.  We're getting a primer on this technology in a few days that MS Researcher Dan Morris has been working on along with his project group, called MySong. 

LINK:  http://research.microsoft.com/users/dan/mysong/

MySong is a system that automatically chooses chords to accompany a vocal melody. A user with no musical experience can create a song with instrumental accompaniment just by singing into a microphone, and can experiment with different styles and chord patterns using interactions designed to be intuitive to non-musicians. The goal of MySong is to let people with no training in chords or harmonization get a taste of songwriting.

<shamelessly stolen from my co-worker, Chris Romp's Biztalk blog>

BizTalk Server 2006 R3

A number of you (my customers) have asked about the support of BizTalk Server 2006 R2 and the 2008 wave of products (Windows Server, SQL Server, Visual Studio).  Most of us expected a service pack release of some sort to update BizTalk to support these platforms; however, it looks like the work involved was substantial and as a result, Steven Martin has announced BizTalk Server 2006 R3 to support these platforms as well as a number of new features.  We should see a CTP sometime later this year, with the release taking place in the first half of 2009.

Some of the new features in R3:

• Support for Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008, and Visual Studio 2008
• New web service registry capabilities with support for UDDI (Universal Description Discovery and Integration) version 3.0
• Enhanced service enablement of applications (through new and enhanced adapters for LOB applications, databases, and legacy/host systems)
• Enhanced service enablement of “edge” devices through BizTalk RFID Mobile
• Enhanced interoperability and connectivity support for B2B protocols (like SWIFT, EDI, etc)
• SOA patterns and best practices guidance to assist our customer’s implementations

For customers who purchased BizTalk Server 2006 R2 under SA or EA, you'll get the upgrade free of charge.

http://blogs.msdn.com/chrisromp/archive/2008/04/22/biztalk-server-2006-r3.aspx

Windows(r) XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) is now available for download for subscribers on MSDN & Technet:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsxp/0a5b9b10-17e3-40d9-8d3c-0077c953a761.aspx

Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3)

Updated April 23, 2008

Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) stand-alone is now available for download. Windows XP SP3 includes all previously released updates for the operating system, in addition to a small number of new updates. Windows XP SP3 will not significantly change the Windows XP experience.

Installation media and documentation on disc for Windows XP SP3 may sometimes refer to Windows XP SP2. Windows XP SP2 installation guide instructions apply to Windows XP SP3.

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Get Windows XP Service Pack 3

Subscribers:

Windows XP Service Pack 3 stand-alone version
Top Subscriber Downloads section

Non-subscribers:

Windows XP SP3 will be available to non-subscribers on 4/29 via Windows Update and Microsoft Download Center