Kurt Shintaku's Blog

Download the Lunch & Learn SharePoint Adoption Kit.
The Lunch & Learn kit contains all the materials you need to promote SharePoint within your organization. The kit includes instructions, templates, videos, quick reference cards and more to help you deploy an internal SharePoint resource site – a place to access SharePoint information and tools, and connect around the best part of the day: lunch.

•  SharePoint Webisodes
•  Show Me How Videos
•  Quick Reference Cards
•  Tips & Tricks PDF
•  Table Tent Template
•  Poster Template
•  Email Template
•  Best Practices PDF

Download this kit to show your team how SharePoint makes life, and lunch, a little better.

• DOWNLOAD: Lunch & Learn SharePoint Adoption Kit
  http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/iusesharepoint/pages/get-the-kit.aspx

Just noticed that they posted the session list on the SharePoint Conference web site.
http://www.mssharepointconference.com
/pages/sessions.aspx

There are 210 sessions to attend during the week long event.  This is a gonna be a whopper of an event.  Here are the pivots around the different sessions going on.

• Audience:
  Developer (36) IT Professional (33) Other (141)
• Level:
  100 (4) 200 (84) 300 (108) 400 (14)
• Capability:
  Communities/Sites (24) Composites (9) Content (47) Insights (25) Search (24)
• Tags:
  Access (3) Administration (45) Adoption (8) Architecture (7) Best Practices (88) BI (26) Claims Authentication (3) Cloud (17) Communities/Sites (15) Composites (9) Content (22) Customization (47) Data Services (2) Deployment (52) Developer (33) Development (35) Duet Enterprise (2) Enterprise Content Management (23) Excel (7) Governance (22) High Availability (10) InfoPath (7) Insights (25) Internet Business (25) IT Pro (31) Line of Business (7) Office 365 (11) Office Client (29) Office Web apps (4) PerformancePoint (12) Planning, Deployment and Adoption (8) Project (7) Scalability (25) Search (32) Security (10) SharePoint (185) SharePoint Designer (18) Social (16) Strategy (2) Tools (26) Upgrade (7) Virtualization (2) Visio (8) Web Content Management (24) Windows (1) Windows Phone (5) Workflow (7)

This is a repost – in it’s entirety – of a post from the GetThePoint blog.  I’m doing this because it’s THAT important to SharePoint Search Admins.

Please take the time to investigate this.  It’s a got a TON of fantastic info.

Have you been scratching your head about how to approach People Search for your SharePoint site or how to try enabling it again? You know you need to do this because a good Search tool is the mesh that helps connect all the disparate parties who contribute to your sites. But, how to proceed?

You might find this detailed and well-illustrated post interesting. It discusses how one might enable SharePoint Search, avoid pitfalls, and work around possible snags:  Troubleshooting SharePoint Search

Paul, the author, provides basic deployment steps for less-experienced administrators, presents a brief explanation for more advanced admins, and dives deep to suggest ways to work around difficulties, both known and more obscure. Suggested work-arounds cover the following topics, among others:

• The loopback issue where search crawling fails and results in an Access Denied error. The post gives two ways to fix this via a registry update: a quick way and a right way.
• Search problems with HTTPS sites. The post presents a simple solution, involving a one-line configuration update.
• Problems associated with Active Directory policies, namely those involved with enforcing proxy server and security settings (like those affecting trusted sites lists). The post presents several options for dealing with this.

Check it out! It’s a bit lengthy but worth the read if SharePoint Search is in your path

[taken from http://blogs.msdn.com/b/microsoft_press/archive/2011/07/19/new-book-windows-sysinternals-administrator-s-reference.aspx]

I usually don’t hype books too much, but damn, if this isn’t a long time coming.  These are the kind of tools that you really want to have a paper reference for.

Here’s a sample from the blog announcement:

“Aaron Margosis and I are thrilled to announce that the long awaited, and some say long overdue, official guide to the Sysinternals tools is now available! I’ve always had the idea of writing a book on the tools in the back of my mind, but it wasn’t until a couple of years ago that Dave Solomon, my coauthor on Windows Internals, convinced me to pursue it. After a few false starts, I decided that a coauthor would help get the book done more quickly, and turned to Aaron, a good friend of mine who’s also a long-time user and expert on the tools at his day job in the Federal Division of Microsoft Consulting Services. It was a great choice and I’m proud to put the Sysinternals brand on the book.

Whether you’re new to the tools or have been using them since Bryce Cogswell (my Sysinternals and Winternals Software cofounder, now retired) and I released NTFSDOS in 1996, you’re sure to take away new insights that will give you the edge when tackling tough problems and managing your Windows systems.

The book covers all 70+ tools, with chapters dedicated to the major tools like Process Explorer, Process Monitor, and Autoruns. For each we provide a thorough tour of all of the tool’s features, how to use the tool, and include our favorite tips and techniques. There’s no better way to learn than by example, though. The last section of the book will be familiar to anyone that’s read this blog or watched my Case of the Unexplained conference sessions, because it presents 17 real-world cases that show how Windows power users and administrators like you solved otherwise impossible-to-solve problems by using the tools.

…

The book is available for purchase on Amazon.com and available from O’Reilly in 4 ebook formats, or you can read it online through Safari.

Microsoft owns 4 of the top 10 largest datacenters worldwide which house the Microsoft Cloud presence.

This video (posted Jul 24, 2011) will provide a deeper look at how Microsoft uses secure, reliable, scalable and efficient best practices to deliver over 200 cloud services to more than a billion customers and 20 million businesses in over 70 countries.It provides an understanding at how we view our end-to-end cloud strategy from an infrastructure perspective.

I’m an avid Bing user.  On rare occasion, I find myself wanting to check another search engine other than Bing for search results. 

The problem is:  If I check Google, I don’t want my identity, PC, or search details or search activity tracked back to me, and I certainly don’t want Google collecting information about what I do from my PC.  (Something they do actively monitor because your unique behavior is valuable to advertisers for targeting)  Between the details they attempt to collect from all the people using AdSense & sites leveraging Google Analytics, it’s hard enough trying to stay away from their tracking.

I’ve written about this before, but just to reiterate, to configure your machine to alternatively search Google without:

• getting your search stored on the Internet in logs for longer than 24 hours
• having your Internet search terms & usage behavior tied to your identity
• revealing what you click on in the search results and having it captured

WHAT TO DO
Follow the following steps in Internet Explorer (7/8/9):

1. Go to http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/searchguide/en-en/default.mspx
2. Enter https://ssl.scroogle.org/cgi-bin/nbbw.cgi?Gw=TEST in the field labeled:  “Paste the URL of the Search results page”
3. Enter “Scroogle SSL” in the field labeled: “Specify a name for the search provider”
4. Press ENTER button.  A dialog box called “Add Search Provider” will appear.
5. Press “Add” button.

From this point on, anytime you want to alternatively search Google, simply type your search query into the URL field in Internet Explorer and select the Scroogle SSL search icon – which should look like a G with a circle & slash through it:

WHAT THIS DOES
This leverages Scroogle, a 3rd party entity that exists to help protect your identity from Google and prevent your preferences, choices, and Internet behavior from being tracked by Google.  This will accomplish the following:

• Act as a go-between between you and Google to prevent them from tying your search query to your personal computer, browser, identity, and of course tracking tags like cookies – Scroogle replaces all your identifying information with that of Scroogle.
• Clear your search from the face of the earth in 48 hours by wiping their logs nightly – as opposed to being archived for months if not permanently
• Securely transmit & receive your search query & results to & from Scroogle over SSL to prevent traffic scanners like WebSense and other tools from inspecting & recording your activities
• Filter out Google advertising except for paid-placement in Google’s search results

WHO IS SCROOGLE?
Good question.  A good deal about Scroogle and what they do and why they do it is written up in the following two links:

• https://ssl.scroogle.org/sslnote.html
• http://www.scroogle.org/doctorow.html

WOW.  A huge cache of 24 downloadable digital posters for SharePoint 2010.  Foundation and Server.  Grab the ones you need below!

Tips for printing posters
If you have a plotter, you can print these posters in their full size. If you don’t have plotter, use the following steps to print on smaller paper.

Print posters on smaller paper

1. Open the poster in Visio.
2. On the File menu, click Page Setup.
3. On the Print Setup tab, in the Printer paper section, select the size of paper you want to print on.
4. On the Print Setup tab, in the Print zoom section, click Fit to, and then enter 1 sheet across by 1 sheet down.
5. On the Page Size tab, click Size to fit drawing contents, and then click OK.
6. On the File menu, click Print.

If you want to create posters that use the same symbols as these posters, you can download Visio stencils for posters (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=88e03d22-8f42-4c9d-94ef-d8e48322d677).

DOWNLOADABLE POSTERS:

• Design Sample: Corporate Portal with Classic Authentication
• Design Sample: Corporate Portal with Claims-based Authentication
• SharePoint 2010 Products Deployment
• Services in SharePoint 2010 Products
• Cross-farm Services in SharePoint 2010 Products
• Topologies for SharePoint Server 2010
• Extranet Topologies for SharePoint 2010 Products
• Hosting Environments in SharePoint 2010 Products
• Search Technologies for SharePoint 2010 Products
• Search Environment Planning for Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010
• Search Architectures for Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010
• Design Search Architectures for Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010
• Global Solutions for SharePoint 2010 Products
• Business Connectivity Services Model
• Content Deployment in SharePoint Server 2010
• Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 Upgrade Planning
• Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 Upgrade Approaches
• Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 — Test Your Upgrade Process
• Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 — Services Upgrade
• Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 — Upgrading Parent and Child Farms
• Getting started with business intelligence in SharePoint Server 2010
• Databases That Support SharePoint 2010 Products
• SharePoint 2010 Products: Virtualization Process
• Governance for SharePoint Server 2010
• Duet Enterprise for Microsoft SharePoint and SAP Poster

DOWNLOAD:  Technical diagrams (SharePoint Server 2010)
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc263199.aspx

Learn how you can lay a deep foundation for your SharePoint Server 2010 Business Composites skills in this training course.

This course covers a SharePoint Server 2010 Composites overview, and all of these aspects for SharePoint Server 2010:

• Access Services
• InfoPath Forms Services
• Workflows in SharePoint Server 2010
• Business Connectivity Services
• SharePoint Business Intelligence
• Composites Service Application Configuration

Download the lab manuals for this course here. To view the entire course, visit:

• VIDEO:  SharePoint Server 2010 Composites Training
  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/hh126810.
• DOWNLOAD: SharePoint Server 2010 Business Composites Training
  http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=26942

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 2 (SP2) is now available for download. These packages may be used to upgrade any edition of SQL Server 2008. We remain committed to providing our customers with essential changes via Service packs.

• Service Pack 2 contains updates for SQL Server Utility, Data-Tier Application (DAC), as well as integration capability for Microsoft Reporting Services with the Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Technologies.
• Service Pack 2 introduces support for a maximum of 15,000 partitions in a database, and includes SQL Server 2008 SP1 Cumulative Update 1 to 8.
• While keeping product changes contained, we have made significant investments to ease deployment and management of Service Packs. Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 1 is not a prerequisite for installing SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 2.

For more information about SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 2, please visit our Release Notes.

What’s New:

• Reporting Services in SharePoint Integrated Mode. SQL Server 2008 SP2 provides updates for Reporting Services integration with SharePoint products. SQL Server 2008 SP2 report servers can integrate with SharePoint 2010 products. SQL Server 2008 SP2 also provides a new add-in to support the integration of SQL Server 2008 R2 report servers with SharePoint 2007 products. For more information see the “What’s New in SharePoint Integration and SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 2 (SP2)” section in What’s New (Reporting Services).
• SQL Server 2008 R2 Application and Multi-Server Management Compatibility with SQL Server 2008.
  • SQL Server 2008 Instance Management.With SP2 applied, an instance of the SQL Server 2008 Database Engine can be enrolled with a SQL Server 2008 R2 Utility Control Point as a managed instance of SQL Server. For more information, see Overview of SQL Server Utility in SQL Server 2008 R2 Books Online.
  • Data-tier Application (DAC) Support.Instances of the SQL Server 2008 Database Engine support all DAC operations delivered in SQL Server 2008 R2 after SP2 has been applied. You can deploy, upgrade, register, extract, and delete DACs. SP2 does not upgrade the SQL Server 2008 client tools to support DACs. You must use the SQL Server 2008 R2 client tools, such as SQL Server Management Studio, to perform DAC operations. A data-tier application is an entity that contains all of the database objects and instance objects used by an application. A DAC provides a single unit for authoring, deploying, and managing the data-tier objects. For more information, see Designing and Implementing Data-tier Applications.

Please Note: SQL Server 2008 SP2 applies only to the SQL Server 2008 release. This service pack can not be applied on top of SQL Server 2008 R2.

• DOWNLOAD: Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 2
  http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=12548

I thought this was funny yet cool enough to post.  Especially since I’m a new newly minted father. 

Imagine using your Xbox 360 Kinect as a baby monitor.  What, with it’s infrared camera and it’s 3D depth movement recognition… it makes sense over a typical cheap IP-camera.

In less than an hour I was watching my little boy in infrared while he slept in his bedroom. It wasn’t that hard to setup as I relied on one Kinect device and two generic laptops, capable of 40 FPS.

In this post I will take about the architecture and how you can setup Kinect quickly and easily. Even in complete darkness you can see the outline of your child asleep in bed. And if anyone walks in the room they are immediately visible, thanks to the depth sensor which consists of an infrared laser projector combined with a monochrome CMOS sensor, which captures video data in 3D under any ambient light conditions.

…

Wanna know more?  Read the original post:

• Bruno Terkaly – Developer Evangelist
  Kinect as a Baby Monitor–I set it up in an hour
  http://blogs.msdn.com/b/brunoterkaly/archive/2011/07/13/kinect-as-a-baby-monitor-i-set-it-up-in-an-hour.aspx