Windows Phone 7 annoyances


I upgraded from my Windows Mobile 6.0 device a while back to Windows Phone 7 in order to give it a try. My major reason for the upgrade was for the native SharePoint integration, however I also wanted to compare what Microsoft had developed to other mobile platforms.

Overall, I must admit that it has been a very frustrating experience for a number of reasons, some of which include:

– Swiping up to do things unbalances the phone in my hand. Many times I have swiped up and the phone has shot out of my hand. This was especially true when I started using it. It also find that I have to swipe up generally more than once to get it to work.

– There is no numerical percentage charge displayed. The only indication of charge is a graphic that shows a battery. Now suppose when I look at the charge before I leave the office and see that it has some charge left. That all goes south when I next look at the phone and find that the remaining charge has now disappeared because it was right on the border before I left the office. If there, however, was a numerical percentage charge amount I would know exactly when I was below say 10% and needed a charge.

– Windows Phone 7 doesn’t allow the device to be used as an external storage device. This means I can’t simply attached the Windows Phone 7 to my PC and drag and drop files. I could do this with Windows Mobile 6.0 but not the latest version. What the? C’mon Microsoft, just about every portable device supports the ability to copy files directly to and from the device, but not Windows Phone 7!

– Many of the ‘tiles’ on the front screen could have much less white space. If you have space why don’t you make the information displayed as large as possible? Honestly, bigger text and less white space would be much easier to read.

– These same tiles only seem to support high contrast background colours with white text. It would much better if the background was darker than the text to make reading easier. Why can’t I select the colour of the tiles I want rather than being restricted to only the colours provided?

– There just aren’t enough decent apps. I understand why this is so but in today’s app driven world there needs to be so many more apps than there are.

There are plenty of other really annoying things about Windows Phone 7. Perhaps, I haven’t found all the options (and if someone can tell me what I’m doing wrong I’d love to hear) but I figure if I haven’t found them by now I ain’t going to and what hope would a normal user have?

There are also some good things about Windows Phone 7 but I’ll cover that in a separate post.

SMBNation Spring 2011

My first time at SMBNation Spring has been a real blast. Not quite the same as the event in Vegas but still well worth the trip.

 

The facilities at the International Centre where excellent and the Wi-Fi was the best I have seen at any SMBNation event. Dana Epp’s presentation on the benefits of Tele-working was excellent (as Dana’s stuff always is). Ollie Sommer’s presentation on clustering a Hyper-V environment was another highlight. On the second day, Tim Carney’s presentation on migration strategies had some very interesting and different alternatives on SBS Migrations. Some really great sessions for attendees of all levels.

 

I was a little disappointed that my session on SharePoint wasn’t attended by a greater number, but I accept this in light of the fact that SharePoint still has a long way to go to becoming mainstream (especially with resellers) in the SMB Market, However, those that did attend I believe got something of of value and enjoyed the content.

 

You can find my presentation slides for viewing here:

 

http://docs.com/CNXK

 

Even though I’m really not focused on the managed service provider model like most that attend I was impressed by the vendor hall and the quality of people attending. Both attendees and vendor representative where extremely friendly and helpful so kudos.

 

So what did I get out it? Simple, networking. I was fortunate to be able to catch up with many familiar faces as well as meeting loads of new people. It was great to also put names to faces of people who have corresponded with me over time. These events are so much more about the hallway networking. The presentations are simply the icing on the cake.

 

To Harry and his team at SMBNation a hearty thanks and well done, another excellent event and I thank you for the opportunity of being able to present. I hope to see you all again real soon.

Indexing PDF Documents in SharePoint Server 2010

After a recent post on indexing Acrobat PDF documents in Windows SharePoint Foundation 2010 (especially on SBS 2011 Standard), I was asked whether the process is the same for SharePoint Server 2010.

 

It is much easier for SharePoint Server 2010 as it was designed with the ability to index external file types from the start. You still need to install the PDF IFilter and make some registry changes. After that you simple need to tell the search service in SharePoint Server 2010 to index PDFs.

 

Here some references to help:

 

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2293357

 

and

 

http://www.sharepointsharon.com/2010/03/sharepoint-2010-and-adobe-pdf/

The value of the veg-out


We’re all becoming a pretty serious bunch, constantly checking messages, texting, making calls on our mobile no matter where we are. Whatever happened to the simple idea of ‘taking it easy’ and ‘just doing nothing’?

The biggest challenge most people face today is not having ‘enough time’. For this reason they try and squeeze more and more activity into their daily routine. Typically, this results in very little ‘down time’. It also tends to creep into people’s sleep time. So today, most people are getting far less ‘down-time’ and rest than they actually need.

This constant on the go lifestyle may seem effective but all that it is really doing is running you down. Ever notice you don’t seem to have the energy any more and that you run out earlier in the day? Ever seem to find that you are less than 100% more of the time? Ever find that you seem to be caught in a rut more often (because your brain isn’t allowed to free associate)? Running at 110% all the time causes wear, on equipment and on people.

Many argue they can’t ‘veg-out’ because they’d feel guilty as no one else seems to be doing it, but sometimes as Mark Twain says:

“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it’s time to pause and reflect.
http://www.typology.net/quotes/twain.html

We all need regular bouts of ‘veg-out’ time to allow our minds to rest, wander, explore new concepts and consolidate what we have learnt. Just because you ‘think’ you are doing nothing doesn’t mean your brain has stopped working. You have simply slowed the processes it has to deal with at the front, allowing more resources to be dedicated to what happens in the back room, behind the curtains.

Try some regular ‘veg-out’ time and see if it makes any difference. Watch a movie, talk a walk, listen to music, be with someone, whatever. But take a regular break. You’ll probably find that you’ll respond much better to daily life once you have some time to regularly rest and recover. Remember, all those people who don’t have ‘down-time’ simply do it because that is what every one else is doing and what did your mother say about jumping off a bridge?

CIAOPS SharePoint Bootcamp reviews



I am pleased to say that the feedback from the recent SharePoint bootcamps in Melbourne and Sydney has been extremely positive. here are some examples:

“Great venue + facilities. Outstanding content, with good labs and great takeaway materials. Incredible value for money – well worth travelling”


“It was a day jam packed with value… real knowledge and no fluff.. well worth our time and the investment of the course..”


“I learned enough to make this worthwhile, after about 30 mins. All the rest ramped up, and gave me so many ideas on how to both do things better, and leverage SharePoint so much more. Looking forward to doing the advanced SharePoint as soon as is available.”


“Robert thanks very much for an information packed day. All bases were covered with comprehensive notes, labs, a hard drive with VMs and content and ongoing access to your website and reference material. We covered a great deal of content in a short space of time and it was genuine 300 level technical material.”


“Just wanted to send my warm feedback and deep thanks for a very intriguing and interesting day at the SharePoint bootcamp! I learned a whole lot about SharePoint and the other products you’ve discussed, but mostly learned how much I didn’t know 😉 You were able to pack a huge amount of info in this day to leave a strong desire to use the study material and learn more about SharePoint.”


“I definitely did gain some knowledge on SharePoint 2010 from the one-day Bootcamp course in Sydney and its installation. In addition to that I also learnt something on Virtualisation from the VirtualBox software, especially when I encountered problems with its installation on the Memory setting and BIOS setup on the HP Laptop PC. It was worth the money spent, effectively with the 1-year free Subscription of CIAOPS Operations Guide valued at $300 & the free giveaway Iomega 500GB Portable USB drive ($100), the course is effectively free of charge.”

Of course there are some things that I need to work on including ensuring that everyone can get access to the hosted SharePoint training site before the session and ensuring that everyone is able to set up the labs on their machines. However, I’m really please with the positive feedback given this is my first attempt at something like this.


So where to from here? I am currently working on a advanced SharePoint course as well as something around Office365. I hope to be able to announce something soon for August, so stay tuned here.


If you have any suggestions about what you believe would be worthwhile to cover in my bootcamps don’t hesitate to contact me (director@ciaops.com).

Indexing Adobe PDFs in SharePoint Foundation 2010

Brought to you by this month’s release of the CIAOPS SharePoint Guide.

 

SharePoint Foundation 2010 does not come with the native ability to index Acrobat PDF documents, however it can easily be configured to do this. By default, if you upload a PDF document to SharePoint Foundation 2010 you should see something like this:

 

image_2_361DDEF0

 

When you attempt to run a search for a term in the document (in this case ciaops) you will find that the search returns no result like shown here:

 

image_4_361DDEF0

 

 

The reason is that SharePoint Foundation 2010 relies on something called an iFilter to provide the ability to index documents. You require an iFilter for each different document you wish indexed in SharePoint Foundation 2010. By default, the iFilters for most Microsoft Office documents now get installed as part of the SharePoint Foundation 2010 pre-install. Ones for other common file types, like Acrobat PDF documents don’t, however they can be manually configured.

 

The following process will work on both a SharePoint Foundation 2010 standalone member server and a Small Business Server 2011 Standard server.

 

The first step in the process is to download and install the PDF iFilter program from Adobe. To do this visit:

 

http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=4025

 

It is important to remember that SharePoint Foundation runs on a 64 bit operating system so you are going to need a 64 bit version of the PDF iFilter.

 

image_6_361DDEF0

 

Login to your SharePoint Foundation 2010 server as an administrator and download the file to your SharePoint Foundation Server 2010 and expand the file. You should find a single installation file like shown below.

 

image_8_640B31A8

 

Double click the installer file to run. Accept any User Access Control (UAC) that is presented.

 

image_12_640B31A8

 

The iFilter installation process should now commence.

 

Press the Next button to continue.

 

image_14_640B31A8

 

Accept the License Agreement and press Next to continue.

 

image_16_640B31A8

 

Select a location to install the iFilter files, by default this will be your C: Drive.

Press Next to continue.

 

image_18_11F88461

 

Press Next to continue.

 

image_20_11F88461

 

Press Close to complete the installation.

 

To add the PDF Icon to SharePoint download the PDF icon from:

 

http://www.adobe.com/images/pdficon_small.gif

 

and save it to:

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\TEMPLATE\IMAGES\

image_22_11F88461

 

You will generally need administrator privileges to do this.

 

image_24_11F88461

 

This may mean you have to save it another location and then copy and paste to the destination.

Locate the file c:\program files\common files\Microsoft shared\web server extensions\14\template\xml\docicon.xml. Right mouse click on the file to edit.

 

image_26_11F88461

 

Locate the element where you will see entries for each icon starting with <Mapping key=. Enter the following on a new line:

 

Note, that the extension names do not have to be in alphabetical order so it is best to place the entry at the end of the existing list. Also ensure that the correct filename for the icon is used in the entry line.

 

When complete, save the file and exit notepad.

 

To see the icon immediately in WSF start a command prompt on the server via Start and Right mouse clicking on Command prompt and selecting Run as Administrator from menu that appears.

 

image_28_7D0701ED

 

At the prompt enter iisreset to restart Internet Information server. Don’t forget that resetting IIS will also affect other applications on the server. When the process is complete, exit the DOS prompt and examine any SharePoint Foundation 2010 libraries that contain PDF documents.

 

image_30_7D0701ED

 

Next, copy the following script to a file called Addextension.vbs on your system

 

Sub Usage
    WScript.Echo “Usage:    AddExtension.vbs extension”
    WScript.Echo
end Sub
Sub Main
    if WScript.Arguments.Count < 1 then
                Usage
                wscript.Quit(1)
   end if
    dim extension
    extension = wscript.arguments(0)
    Set gadmin = WScript.CreateObject(“SPSearch4.GatherMgr.1”, “”)
    For Each application in gadmin.GatherApplications
        For Each project in application.GatherProjects
                    project.Gather.Extensions.Add(extension)
                Next
    Next
End Sub
call Main

 

image_32_7D0701ED

 

Now run a Command Prompt as an administrator by right mouse clicking on the Command Prompt icon like and selecting Run as administrator.

 

image_34_2AF454A6

 

Accept any UAC that appears.

 

Change to the directory where you saved the VBS script and type:

Wscript addextension.vbs pdf

 

image_36_2AF454A6

 

You should see no result if the script executes correctly.

 

image_38_2AF454A6

 

If you receive an error like shown above, check that your Search Service is enabled in SharePoint.

 

image_40_2AF454A6

 

Run Regedit and accept any UAC.

 

image_42_2AF454A6

 

Locate the registry (above image is incorrect for SBS. Office Server key doesn’t exist) HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared Tools\Web Server Extensions\Office Server\14.0\Search\Setup\ContentIndexCommon\Filters\Extension\

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared Tools\Web Server Extensions\14.0\Search\Setup\ContentIndexCommon\Filters\Extension\

image_44_1602D233

Right mouse click on Extensions and select New and Key.

 

image_46_1602D233

 

Add the key .pdf

image_48_1602D233

Right mouse click on (Default) in the right hand window and select Modify from the menu that appears.

 

Enter the following into the Value Data field:

 

{E8978DA6-047F-4E3D-9C78-CDBE46041603}

 

 

 

Close regedit.

 

 

 image_52_1602D233

Click Start | Administrative Tools | Services and right mouse click on Services and select Run as Administrator from menu that appears.

 

Scroll down the list of services and locate the service SharePoint Foundation Search V4.

image_54_43F024EB

Right mouse click on the service and select Restart from the menu that appears.

 

image_56_43F024EB

 

You should see the service restart.

 

Close the Services window.

 

image_58_43F024EB

 

Run a Command Prompt as an administrator again by right mouse clicking on the icon and selecting Run as Administrator from the menu that appears.

 

Any PDF documents you now add to SharePoint will be indexed, however those already there will not be indexed until a full crawl is run.

 

image_62_71DD77A3

 

To launch a full manual crawl change to the directory:

C:\program files\common files\microsoft shared\web server extension\14\bin

 

And run the following command:

Stsadm –o spsearch –action fullcrawlstart

 

This will commence a full reindex of all SharePoint information. This reindex may take a while to complete and may impact the performance of your SharePoint Server.

 

image_64_71DD77A3

 

 

If a search is now run using the same term (here ciaops) you can see that now returns a hit from the PDF and from text inside that document (rather than just the title). This indicates that the PDF search is operating correctly.

 

Reference – http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2293357

Office365 and Windows Phone 7 video

Here’s a nice video covering some of the integration features of Office365 and Windows Phone 7.

All searches are not created equal

Interesting video presentation from TED talks about how our Internet searching is not really as ‘unencumbered’ as we believe. Sites like Google, Facebook and Yahoo are all making decision about THEY THINK we should see. The problem with that is we all become more insular and not as exposed to new and alternate ideas.