Kurt Shintaku's Blog

If you’re a desktop IT administrator, you NEED to start watching this series of blog posts & videos that are being done by Office experts, Jeremy Chapman & Yoni Kirsh, reviewing the new direction that Office is headed in with Office 365 & Office 2013.

• The new Office: What are your options, what’s changed and what’s new?
  Go through the differences between the Click-to-Run and MSI-based Office versions, the new IT Pro capabilities, and the premise of the new Office.
• The new Office Garage Series: Who Moved My MSI?
  Go through the differences between Windows Installer Package (MSI) and Click-to-Run package types, how to download Click-to-Run builds for use with software distribution tools.
• The new Office Garage Series: Client Configuration Management 101
  Tackle the frequently asked question, "Do I get more control if I use the traditional Office installation?" They look at automation support and install-time controls, configuration
• The new Office Garage Series: Identity, Activation and Data Access with a User-Based Office
  Review the new user-based Office service, how identity and services are provisioned, where data and passwords are stored and what the user experiences look like.

This is a regular series.  Add a reminder to your calendar to tune in each Wednesday 9am PST. Also mark April 3rd, 9am PST on your calendars when we come to you with the Garage Series Live! We’ll have Paul Thurrott, early adopters and Office engineers to discuss lessons learned, deployment secrets and much more.

• ADD SERIES TO CALENDAR:
  http://blogs.technet.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-60-37/4278.Watch-Now–New-Garage-Series-for-IT-Pros.ics

There’s been a great deal of documentation published for Windows Azure over the past 6 months.  Take a look at some of these references if you’re working on an application for the cloud on the Windows Azure platform.

• Autoscaling Application Block and Transient Fault Handling Application Block Reference
• Building Elastic and Resilient Cloud Applications – Developer’s Guide to the Enterprise Library 5.0 Integration Pack for Windows Azure
• Building Hybrid Applications in the Cloud on Windows Azure
• Create Your First Application – Node.js and Windows Azure
• Drupal on Windows Azure
• Migrating Data-Centric Applications to Windows Azure
• Moving Applications to the Cloud, 2nd Edition
• Using Windows Azure Mobile Services to Cloud-Enable your iOS Apps
• Using Windows Azure Mobile Services to Cloud-Enable Your Windows Phone 8 Apps
• Using Windows Azure Mobile Services to Cloud-Enable your Windows Store Apps in C#
• Using Windows Azure Mobile Services to Cloud-Enable Your Windows Store Apps in JavaScript
• Windows Azure and SQL Database Tutorials
• Windows Azure Prescriptive Guidance
• Windows Azure Service Bus Reference

In case you’re interested in any of the following topics, this is a list of pointers to eBook references made available for free from Microsoft as of March 2013.

Learn how to install and configure the new Office in your organization. This book provides deployment instructions for Office 2013. The audiences for this book includeapplication specialists, line-of-business application specialists, and IT administrators who are ready to deploy Office 2013.

Topics include volume activation, Group Policy, and customization with this 281 page eBook/whitepaper.

Download “Deployment guide for Office 2013” in the appropriate format below:

• PDF: http://download.microsoft.com/download/4/8/B/48B0E72E-11C0-4E6E-AA23-6B777FADCF7A/Deployment-guide-for-Office-2013.pdf
• MOBI: http://download.microsoft.com/download/4/8/B/48B0E72E-11C0-4E6E-AA23-6B777FADCF7A/Deployment-guide-for-Office-2013.mobi
• EPUB: http://download.microsoft.com/download/4/8/B/48B0E72E-11C0-4E6E-AA23-6B777FADCF7A/Deployment-guide-for-Office-2013.epub

Free eBook (pdf) “Microsoft Lync Server 2013 Step By Step for Anyone eBook” by Microsoft Lync MVP Matt Landis. This book is an experiment in a new format the author is calling "blog to book" which mean the book is contantly updated so make sure you keep an eye on this page.

• Step by Step Installing Lync Server 2013 Standard Edition Front End
• Step by Step Installing Lync Server 2013 SE Monitoring Server
• Step by Step Installing Lync Server 2013 Persistent Chat Server
• Step by Step Installing Your 2nd Lync Server 2013 SE Server Associated Backup Pool for Resiliency
• Step by Step Enabling Lync Server 2013 Enterprise Voice Features, Response Groups and Managers
• Using Lync 2013 and OneNote 2013 Integration
• Music on Hold and Lync
• Configuring Skype federation to Lync 2013

Grab the book here:

• DOWNLOAD: Microsoft Lync Server 2013 Step By Step for Anyone eBook (pdf) English
  http://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/office/Lync-Server-2012-9d6fe954

BizTalk Server 2013 has RTM’d and is available for download for MSDN subscribers.

We are excited to announce that BizTalk Server 2013 is now “Released to Manufacturing” (RTM)!

BizTalk Server 2013 will be available for download on MSDN starting today. The English locale SKUs will be available for purchase starting April 2013. Other language SKUs will be available for purchase starting May 2013. Host Integration Server 2013 will ship at a later date, however, BizTalk Server 2013 is fully compatible with Host Integration Server 2010.

This is the eighth release of BizTalk Server, another step in the on-going investments we are making in BizTalk.  As discussed in our Beta announcement, we’ve made improvements in the following areas:

• Improved Performance
• Simplified Development and Management Experience
• Cloud Connectivity
• Running BizTalk Server in the cloud (IaaS)
• Support for the latest platform and standards

• BIZTALK SERVER 2013 RELEASE ANNOUNCEMENT:
  http://blogs.msdn.com/b/biztalk_server_team_blog/archive/2013/03/21/biztalk-server-2013-is-now-rtm.aspx
• BIZTALK SERVER 2013 LICENSING CHANGES:
  http://aka.ms/BizTalkServer2013LicensingFAQ
• BIZTALK SERVER 2013 FEATURE LIST:
  http://blogs.msdn.com/b/biztalk_server_team_blog/archive/2012/11/06/announcing-biztalk-server-2013-beta.aspx

It’s here!  Pandora has launched on Windows Phone 8 and it’s the ONLY free version of Pandora with no ads and no monthly streaming limits – download Pandora today!

Pandora is better on Windows Phone because you get to:

• Listen to Ad-free music, for free through 2013, with no monthly streaming limits
• Pin your favorite stations to the Start screen for one-touch access
• Automatically filter explicit content by launching Pandora in Kid’s Corner

Download it now!

• RELEASE: Pandora for Windows Phone 8
  http://www.windowsphone.com/pandora

The new Twitter Analytics for Excel tool provides users with the ability to analyze five Twitter handles at a time, analyze all results in summary tab, view top posters, and conduct drill downs on specific tweets.  This is a great tool for demos, roundtables and EBCs.

Twitter is one of the most popular marketing and news channels for businesses, and its popularity continues to grow. Extended Results has teamed up with Microsoft to build the utlimate add-on for Microsoft Excel and make it available to you as a FREE download! Since most everyone already has a copy of Excel 2010 or 2013, we thought Excel is the best place to do your Twitter insights. Well, now you can do it with a tool you use everyday and it is FREE.

With the release of Excel 2013, we decided to revisit our previous solution and update it with a new interface and functionality only found by using Excel 2013. And what did we discover?

• Several features for in-application development allow for better control with integration with Web services like Twitter and pulling all kinds of data content.
• Better UI control so we can apply new styling that drives better insight.
• Application dialog (displayed above) showing the data/content being pulled.
• Better integration of PowerPivot so you don’t have to go behind the screens to refresh.
• And much more…

DOWNLOAD: Twitter Analytics for Excel 2013
http://www.extendedresults.com/products/twitteranalytics/

TONIGHT!  We have an launch event that the Microsoft Store is holding in Century City/Los Angeles for Gears of War: Judgment.

• Free pizza. 
• Free raffle giveaways.
• And as usual, a few surprises.

DATE/TIME:

Wednesday, March 18th 10PM

LOCATION:

Microsoft Store Los Angeles
(Westfield Century City)
10250 Santa Monica Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90067
Phone: (310) 228-3550

(Damn.  I thought I’d posted this a long time ago but I guess I didn’t.)

The Lync Team just released the new Lync 2013 Mobile clients for Windows Phone and iPhone and iPad.   This is exciting since the new releases enables audio and video calls from the mobile device.   Take a look at the following post for a complete update of the feature enhancements:

• BLOG: Lync 2013 Mobile Apps available for Windows Phone & iOS
  http://blogs.technet.com/b/lync/archive/
  2013/03/11/lync-2013-mobile-apps-available-for-windows-phone-and-ios.aspx

Here is the specific link for the Windows Phone version”

• DOWNLOAD: Lync 2013 Mobile App for Windows Phone
  http://www.windowsphone.com/s?appid=d85d8a57-0f61-4ff3-a0f4-444e131d8491

Here are the links for iPhone and iPad:

• DOWNLOAD: Microsoft Lync 2013 for iPhone by Microsoft Corporation
  https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/microsoft-lync-2013-for-iphone/id605841731?mt=8
• DOWNLOAD: Microsoft Lync 2013 for iPad by Microsoft Corporation
  https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/microsoft-lync-2013-for-ipad/id605608899?mt=8