Kurt Shintaku's Blog

If you’re interested in hearing Steve Ballmer’s thoughts on his life at Microsoft as CEO & after, as owner of the Clippers, etc., check out this 39min podcast published last week on Freakonomics Radio:

Our latest Freakonomics Radio episode is called “Hoopers! Hoopers! Hoopers!” (You can subscribe to the podcast at Apple Podcasts or elsewhere, get the RSS feed or listen via the media player above.)

As CEO of Microsoft, Steve Ballmer was famous for over-the-top enthusiasm. Now he’s brought that same passion to the N.B.A. — and to a pet project called USAFacts, which performs a sort of fiscal colonoscopy on the American government.

Steve answers questions about:

• his creation of the $10M http://usafacts.org
• the decisions behind Microsoft’s mobile phone strategy & his thoughts today on Apple’s iPhone
• his purchase of the Clippers basketball team
• and more.

So if you’re interested in listening, check out the podcast online (or read the transcript) here:

• PODCAST: Freakonomics Radio – “Hoopers! Hoopers! Hoopers!” (39min)
  http://freakonomics.com/podcast/hoopers-hoopers-hoopers/

Interested in extending Visual Studio for SharePoint development?

In this PnP Webcast, we concentrate on introducing new community driven Visual Studio extension for SharePoint Framework solutions. The Visual Studio Extension for SharePoint Framework wraps the command-line UI of the Microsoft Yeoman Generator (yo @microsoft/sharepoint) into a familiar Windows Forms experience, executes the generator project scaffolding behind the scenes and creates a Visual Studio project that includes all the necessary files for a complete web part project. Also included is a web part item template for adding new web parts to an existing Framework project. Developers can launch the Workbench local sandbox environment to test their web parts by pressing F5 or by binding to the Gulp Serve event in the Task Runner Explorer.

For developers who wish to dive deeper and learn more about the new web development toolchain used by the SharePoint Framework, the Advanced mode provides full access to the Yeoman generator command parameters and an optional cmd.exe window to view the generator tasks in real time. Visual Studio extension for SharePoint Framework projects is a community driven open source initiative under the SharePoint PnP "umbrella". This work is done together with SharePoint engineering to ensure that extension is kept up to date with all the upcoming changes within the SharePoint Framework. 

Read the agenda, watch the video & download the presentation here:

• New SharePoint PnP Webcast – Introduction to Visual Studio Extension for SharePoint Framework (SPFx)https://dev.office.com/blogs/introduction-to-visual-studio-extension-for-sharepoint-framework

Looking for a better way to understand how Office 365 is being adopted in your organization relative to licenses purchased & how to target training & education where needed.

Here’s an excerpt from the announcement blog:

Today, we’re pleased to announce the public preview of the Office 365 adoption content pack in Power BI, which enables customers to get more out of Office 365.

The content pack combines the intelligence of the usage reports with the interactive analysis capabilities of Power BI, providing rich usage and adoption insights. With these insights, admins can drive more targeted user training and communication that helps them transform how their organizations communicate and collaborate, enabling a truly modern workplace

Read the rest of the announcement here:

• BLOG: Announcing the public preview of the Office 365 adoption content pack in Power BI
  https://blogs.office.com/2017/05/22/announcing-the-public-preview-of-the-office-365-adoption-content-pack-in-powerbi/

PER THE EVENT PAGE:
Visit the Windows Blog for updates about our Microsoft Event beginning at 4:00AM PT/7:00AM ET on May 23. Then check back at the event page for updates and more information.

SUPERSITE POST:
Richard Hay wrote an interesting post about the event tomorrow… in case you’re interested in what he thinks will be on display in China.

• SUPERSITE: Microsoft’s May Shanghai Event: Timing, Where to Watch, and What to Expect
  http://winsupersite.com/hardware/microsofts-may-shanghai-event-timing-where-watch-and-what-expect

PREVIOUS POST:
https://kurtsh.com/2017/05/09/event-microsoft-event-shanghai-may-23rd/

Windows 10 Creators Update has a new feature on it called “Dynamic Lock” that enables a user to walk away from their PC with their phone, and at a certain distance, the PC will automatically lock the screen.  This is done by pairing your phone & your PC, and measuring the signal strength between the two.

HOW DO YOU SHORTEN THE DISTANCE BEFORE LOCKING?
The Dynamic Lock feature however has no configuration.  It’s either on or off, and there’s no way to adjust the distance upon which the computer locks itself… and the reason for that appears to be because every computer’s Bluetooth strength is different.

There’s an article however written by Rafael Rivera from Thurrott.com that shows how to adjust this in the Registry, if you’re so bold.  Simply put:

• Create a registry key named HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\NaAuth
• Within that key create a DWORD value named BluetoothRssiMaxDelta
• Set the value to an appropriate integer.  Rafael used 5 but your mileage may vary.

The issue however is that the registry tweak values are not the same for everyone.  Depending on the power of your PC’s Bluetooth transceiver, you may have completely different values from the next person.  He explains how he derived this value for himself and how you can do the same.

Read the article below.

• THURROTT: Using and Calibrating Dynamic Lock in Windows 10 Creators Update
  https://www.thurrott.com/windows/windows-10/90883/using-calibrating-dynamic-lock-windows-10-creators-update

(Note: Dynamic Lock will reduce both your PC’s & phone’s battery life.  I’ve read that this is as much as 25%-33% so be forewarned.)

I was just made aware of this amazing open source Service Client for Forefront Identity Manager or Microsoft Identity Manager, called the “Lithnet FIM Service Client”.

If you want to extend the capabilities of FIM/MIM using abstracted APIs, eliminating the need to recompile the libraries every time you upgrade the servers, this is the library you want to get.

At Microsoft for example, we have a site called “IDWebElements” that accepts inputs from the URL submitted plus the user’s identity that enables people to join groups or remove themselves from groups in just a single click of a link.  This library can help you help accomplish the same thing with much less code.

Taken from the doc article:

The Lithnet FIM Service Client is a .NET Library that makes it easy for anyone to program against the FIM web service using any .NET language. It supports create, update, delete, and search operations against the FIM service.

The library has a similar purpose to the FIM 2010 Client , but abstracts away the particulars of the SOAP web service implementation into a robust object model. The development of the FIM 2010 client was abandoned some time ago and unfortunately, the client suffers from a number of bugs and performance issues. This library is not intended to be a drop-in replacement for that library. It is a complete re-write with a new API and more approachable way of working with the objects in the FIM service.

The Lithnet Resource Management Client is designed to be easy to use and help you get started quickly.

1. First, create a new project in Visual Studio
2. Ensure Microsoft.ResourceManagement.dll is registered in the GAC (you can find this on your FIM service server)
3. Install the nuget package from the Package Manager Console in Visual Studio
4. Update the app.config or web.config file to point to your FIM service server

If you are using either Forefront Identity Manager 2010 or Microsoft Identity Manager, and want to orchestrate it or extend it’s self-service functionality, you need to check this library out.

• DOWNLOAD: Lithnet FIM Service Client
  https://github.com/lithnet/resourcemanagement-client
  (Old location: http://lithnetrmc.codeplex.com/)
• SAMPLE CODE & ARTICLE: FIM 2010: Programmatic access to FIM Service with Lithnet FIM Service Client library
  https://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/32015.fim-2010-programmatic-access-to-fim-service-with-lithnet-fim-service-client-library.aspx

We are very excited to announce an upcoming opportunity to ‘Ask Microsoft Anything’ (AMA) about Yammer!

The AMA will take place on Tuesday, May 23, 2017 from 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. PT in the Yammer AMA space.

An AMA is a live online event similar to a "YamJam" on Yammer or an "Ask Me Anything" on Reddit. The Windows as a service AMA will give you the opportunity to connect with members of the Windows product and engineering teams, who will be on hand to answer your questions and listen to feedback.

Don’t forgot to add the event to your calendar. We hope to see you there!

• DATE/TIME:
  May 23rd, 2017
  9:00AM-10:00AM
• LINK:
  https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Yammer-AMA/bd-p/YammerAMA
  (Note: This link also contains the last Yammer AMA done back in March.  Download the summary here: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Yammer-AMA/That-s-a-wrap/td-p/51174?attachment-id=1329)

Microsoft has adoption materials for Microsoft Teams available on the FastTrack website:

• FastTrack Engage
  https://fasttrack.microsoft.com/office/drive-value/engage

(Select the icon to the far right “provide a chat-based workspace” and you’ll find the content that’s been released)

Communication

• Countdown template
• Announcement template
• Flyer template
• Poster template
• Banner poster [en-US]
• Tips for achieving more together
• Tips for staying connected as a team

Training

• Quick start guide [en-US]
• IT admin getting started guide
• Teams admin getting started guide
• Office 365 Live Webinar Training [en-US]

Today, we’re excited to announce Data Visualizer, a new Visio feature that automatically converts process map data in Excel into data-driven Visio diagrams.

This update, which is available to Visio Pro for Office 365 users, helps reduce manual steps while giving business analysts even more ways to create process diagrams in Visio.

Diagrams don’t always start in Visio. They often begin as hand-drawn sketches or—in today’s data-driven age—in Excel. Using Data Visualizer, business analysts can represent process steps and associated metadata in a structured Excel table and quickly convert that information into a visualized Visio diagram.

You can do this by either using a premade Excel template or an existing spreadsheet of your own design. The premade templates—there’s one for basic and one for cross-functional flowcharts—provide a sample mapping table to populate with diagram metadata. The table includes predefined columns for process step number, description, dependencies, owner, function, phase and more. You can also customize the table with your own columns to meet specific business requirements.

Read more here:

• BLOG: Automatically Create Process Diagrams in Visios from Excel Data
  https://blogs.office.com/2017/05/01/automatically-create-process-diagrams-in-visio-from-excel-data/

In case you missed it, a summary of all the announcements made at the SharePoint Virtual Summit are available here at this blog post from SharePoint/OneDrive Corporate VP Jeff Teper:

• RECAP: New SharePoint and OneDirve Capabilities Accelerate Your Digital Transformation
  https://blogs.office.com/2017/05/16/new-sharepoint-and-onedrive-capabilities-accelerate-your-digital-transformation/

If you’d like to see the entire event via recording, here is the video on-demand:

• VIDEO: SharePoint Virtual Summit (2hrs)
  https://event.microsoft.com/events/2017/1705/SharepointSummit/