SBS Course starts tomorrow

My Introduction to SBS course starts tomorrow at Macquarie Community College begins tomorrow. For more information or to enrol please go to:

 

http://www.macquarie.nsw.edu.au/index.php?action=course&course_action=detail&code=408M297

 

It is held over 3 weeks and will give you a better understanding about what SBS is and how you can achieve the best results from the product. You’ll learn how to set it up, configure and administer SBS. Although the course is focused on SBS 2003 there will be content covering SBS 2008.

 

So if you want to learn more about SBS I encourage you to attend.

Handy add-ons

I’ve always got my eye out for SharePoint add-ons that improve the functionality of SharePoint for user and administrators. Here are some that cater for both.

 

One really nice thing to have is the ability to know exactly what’s been added or changed on a SharePoint site in a single location. By default, if something new is added to a SharePoint site you’ll see the !NEW icon only next to the entry but wouldn’t it be nice if we could see all changes, from all parts of a SharePoint site in one location? Well now you can.

 

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As you can see from the above screen shot I’ve added the What’s New web part to my site’s front page so I can see at a glance exactly what’s been added or changed by date. The web part also supports some customization, so in the above case I also know which SharePoint user made the change. Now, I can click on either the changed item or the location to be taken straight there. Really handy I reckon.

 

The second add-on extends the normal functionality of the Site Actions menu which can only be seen by SharePoint administrators and appears in the top right of the screen as shown below.

 

image_8_2B97DA20

 

With this add-on you can see that the Site Actions menu now has a whole lot more options including List Settings, Feature Settings, Users and Permissions, etc. Access to all of these options is still available by the normal means in SharePoint but with this add on installed an administrator can get to then much quicker.

 

How to install and configure both of these add-ons will be available in the Windows SharePoint Operations Guide in December. You may also be interested to know that come December the Guide will now exceed 1,000 pages! Best of all, each month it continues to grow, add up to date and handy information that will help improve any SharePoint deployment. If you are planning to deploy SharePoint for your business or for customers then the Guide is a great investment and will save you hours and hours because I’ve done all the hard work for you. Because it’s a subscription the information just keeps growing and growing each month. All that for less than a few hours work. Why would you try and do it yourself? Be smart and get the Windows SharePoint Operations Guide.

Uploading multiple documents to SharePoint

One of the most common questions that people ask after they decide to deploy SharePoint is “Can I upload my existing documents to SharePoint”. The answer is “Yes”. The very next question is “Do I have to do them one at a time?”. The answer is “No, provided you have Office software installed on the machine you plan to use to upload”.

 

If you access a SharePoint document library from a machine without Office installed and select Upload from the menu you will only see one option like so:

 

image_4_403329D2

 

However, if you repeat the process using a machine that has Office installed you will see two menu options like so:

 

image_6_403329D2

 

Typically, you’ll get the first option when you access SharePoint from a server machine, thinking you can do the uploads from there. Better option is to go to a workstation and use the Upload Multiple Documents so you can transfer your documents up to SharePoint in one hit.

Did you know?

Here’s an interesting presentation that should make you think. It perhaps gives you some perspective on how fast the technology is moving as well as how its effect on millions (or in the case of China and India, billions) is truly going to be.

 

I admit that I have heard/read these stats but the way they are presented here is pretty groovy.

 

http://www.onlinepc.com.au/movies/Technology.wvx

 

Now, I really like the above presentation (which has a great sound track from Fat Boy Slim). After doing some Google’ing I found a few similar presentations on YouTube if the hi-hop-rock ain’t for you.

I didn’t expect to be asked that

I was recently talking with someone and they started quizzing me about Microsoft Azure. Don’t know what that is? Well, it is Microsoft’s recently announced ‘Windows in the cloud’. Although it is still early days I get the impression that it far more developed that most people think. Anyway, back to my conversation. What was amazing was this person wasn’t a ‘techie’ by any stretch of the imagination, yet it was very clear that they had already started trying to work out how their world would change with the advent of Azure.

 

Another recent conversation around technology stopped me in my tracks again recently. Someone else asked me about Windows 7. Again, even though it is in pre-beta the word is already out on the street. People are wondering what are the benefits and what it will means for them.

 

I find of these conversations extremely interesting because it highlights a number of issues. Firstly, IT is now mainstream. No longer is the knowledge locked up with geeks, people use technology everyday and they want to stay informed. Secondly, the power of the Internet means that their ability to be informed (correctly or incorrectly) is much greater than it ever was. There are so many businesses who make money from disseminating information, it isn’t long before everyone’s heard the rumour for some dark obscure corner of the globe. Thirdly, it demonstrates that people want to know what the direction of technology is and how it is going to affect them? How can they benefit from what’s not only available now but also in the future.

 

Gone are the days when the ‘techie’ was the only who knew what was going on. Now days, everybody is far more informed and interested. If you are in the technology game then you are going to have to work hard to stay up to date because it’s all changing so rapidly now. Ignoring or denying the change is likely to be painful but not nearly as painful as not altering strategy to accommodate. When the ‘average’ person in the street starts asking about cloud computing you know it is here.

Further evidence of the coming of cloud computing

Microsoft announcement 31 October 2008

“As part of a strategic companywide shift toward embracing web-based solutions, Microsoft today announced plans to deliver Office Web applications – lightweight versions of Office – through web browsers.”

and


“Microsoft will deliver Office Web applications – lightweight versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote – through a browser. With these new applications, people can use a browser to create, edit, and collaborate on Office documents.”

and


“we will offer Office Web applications as a hosted subscription service and through existing volume licensing agreements.”

and


“Together, these new tools enable new styles of community-based collaboration where multiple people can contribute simultaneously to various work through the internet.”

So there you have it. Before long Office will be available from the cloud as subscription from Microsoft. Interestingly, it is my understanding that the same web technology will be available to be deployed inside an organization. Thus, instead of Office on every workstation, you’ll have a server providing Office Web products. Won’t know until the product ships but that wouldn’t be half bad I reckon.

If Microsoft are making a “strategic companywide shift toward web-based solutions” are you? Even if you are only dipping your toe in the water, that’s better than nothing! If you need assistance with what’s available or what suits your business then just contact me.

Great cloud apps

Here are some applications available in the cloud that I have come across recently and think are pretty good.

Slide Rocket –  www.sliderocket.com

A PowerPoint competitor. It has some really nice effects. There is a free version that does all the basics but for a fee (which I think is a little pricey) you get additional features like being able to webcast your presentation.

Zamzar – www.zamzar.com

A great online tool that allows you to quickly and easily convert between different formats. Great when you need to quickly convert Office 2007 back to Office 2003 and you can’t access the software but it does so much more!

iDrive – www.idrive.com

With this free software you can store up to 2GB of data in the cloud, encrypted with your own key. Even better for US$50 pa you can store 150GB. The iDrive software allows you to configure scheduled backups, appears as a ‘standard’ drive on your Windows machine and can even recover deleted files. Best of all it uses SSL to transfer the data and encrypts it in storage. So what’s the problem with storing data in the cloud now?

Picnik – www.picnik.com


Use this site to edit your digital images. For most people this site is going to do everything they require without the need for expensive desktop software. If you pay a small annual fee you get even more features. You can even work on images sorted in places like Picasa, Flickr, etc (which I note are also in the cloud).

These are but a few but I’ve certainly added them to my list of favourites. This stuff is just better and better all the time.

Just gotta love VoIP

A while back I converted to naked ADSL. This meant that I could do away with the standard phone line and the normal line rental. Problem was now no normal phone line to make voice calls. Solution was to get an ATA and enable VoIP over the new naked ADSL broadband connection. Apart from not having to pay line rental I’m only billed on the calls that I make, which are at a cheaper rate than Telstra anyway. So I’m miles in front.

 

Now the other day I was umming and erring as to whether I should join in a conference call to the US in which I was interested. I finally decided that it would be worth it so I dialled in using my VoIP phone line. I was expecting to pay $10-15 for the call which lasted about 45 minutes. Boy was I surprised when I received the bill.

 

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As you can see, that 45 minute phone call to the US cost a total of 91 cents! Yes 91 cents, even at 8.30am in the morning. Now I’m sure there are even better plans than that available but I gotta say I’m impressed and if I was a traditional phone company I’d be shaking my boots when VoIP becomes mainstream. In these economic times VoIP can really save you some bucks.