Kurt Shintaku's Blog

Hey!  Wanna try the new Office LiveMeeting 2007? 

Find out more about how the 2007 release of Office Live Meeting lets you host real-time web-based meetings and collaboration sessions online. Sign up for a 60-day trial today by requesting activation. See how easy it is to schedule meetings, invite attendees, and host fully interactive sessions in just minutes. You can host your web-based meetings and collaboration sessions online with up to 1250 simultaneous participants. During the 60-day trial, no shared recording, audio broadcasting, or storage is available.

LINK:  https://trials.messaging.microsoft.com/site/

We’ve finally released all the downloadable Office LiveMeeting 2007 Documentation.

• Getting Started with Microsoft Office Live Meeting
  http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=2CBFD726-DD67-4FEC-8FCE-6012EA4C515F&displaylang=en
• Microsoft Office Live Meeting 2007 Events Quick Reference Card
  http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=5F640B86-07D4-4F61-A135-661A9AA7640D&displaylang=en
• Microsoft Office Live Meeting Events User’s Guide
  http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=08623E41-2436-4C7F-84B0-4CE963634889&displaylang=en
• Microsoft Office Live Meeting Quick Reference Card
  http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=06CE50AD-6509-4B93-B6CD-797A88B4DD4B&displaylang=en
• Microsoft Office Live Meeting Service Administrator’s Guide
  http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=824A55C8-809A-4224-A8CD-F37B348B7481&displaylang=en
• Microsoft Office Live Meeting 2007 Release Notes
  http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=8102B4E6-62F2-4D33-B465-A6C5DA1B8973&displaylang=en
• Microsoft Office Live Meeting Service Portal Release Notes
  http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=2A94DF8C-1A6D-42EC-942D-162BC5B30B31&displaylang=en
• Microsoft Office Live Meeting Service Portal Administrator’s Guide
  http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=C0CE5E7C-67C2-453C-8B31-95FF6F3B2873&displaylang=en

Still to be released: 

• Microsoft Office Live Meeting 2007 Security Guide

SUMMARY:
SMS 2003 SP3 disables NetMeeting on workstations using the SMS2003 SP3 client.  End users will not be able to use NetMeeting for adhoc meetings or remote control.  It’s been fixed as of today.

DETAILS:
The SMS client hotfix for the NetMeeting Remote Desktop / Certificate issue is done and released.   It is listed under KB 941820, and should be available via the self help request form on https://support.microsoft.com/contactus2/emailcontact.aspx?scid=sw;en;1410&WS=hotfix

KB:  http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;941820

The article ended up being a bit convoluted but hopefully is clear enough.  I expect at least one revision to clear up some of the wording.

Here’s the recap:

• Win2K clients are automatically fixed via the hotfix – meaning they just won’t back up the certs anymore, and if they were backed up previously will be removed.  
• XP and above require a registry value to be set in order to turn off the certificate backup.  
• The registry values are not added by the hotfix, that has to be done separately.  
• The article says to install the fix on primaries where clients are assigned (and let it create the package, program, etc.)  However you could also just install it to a central site and push everything out from there.  

Download the latest CTP for SQL Server 2008.

MORE INFO:
http://www.microsoft.com/sql/2008/default.mspx

DOWNLOAD:
https://connect.microsoft.com/SQLServer/content/content.aspx?ContentID=5395

The Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Best Practices Analyzer Tool is a diagnostic tool that gathers configuration information from a Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 environment and determines whether the configuration is set according to Microsoft best practices.

(Note: Although you can install the Office Communications Server 2007 Best Practices Analyzer directly on the computer that runs Office Communications Server 2007 Server, we recommend that you install and run this tool on a client computer.) 

The tool uses set of configuration files to gather information from the Office Communications Server 2007 environment. It compares this data against a set of pre-defined rules for Office Communications Server 2007, and reports potential issues. For every issue reported, the tool provides the current configuration in the Office Communications Server 2007 environment, and the recommended configuration.

DOWNLOAD: 
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=1b90993c-072a-4c84-b385-b76d23b2f27c&DisplayLang=en

Imagine having a Windows Vista gadget that alerted you whenever something happened that you needed to be notified about within System Center Operations Manager 2007?

Check this out:  Ops Mgr 2007 Resource Kit – Sample Vista Gadget
DOWNLOAD:  http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=0F5A060B-635D-4355-B0AC-32EE2943BFD9&displaylang=en

Creating a Global Human Resources System Foundation with SharePoint Server 2007
In this webcast, we describe how migration of the Microsoft Human Resources Web content platform to Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 enables:

• Faster future development.
• Reduction of 50% custom code, resulting in business and IT agility.
• Lower sustenance costs.
• Essential capabilities for future state architecture.
• Alignment with the Microsoft IT global vision for simplification.

In the past, each application or content site developed its own functionality and process, leading to more than 20 highly customized applications and/or sites today. Continuing down this path breeds redundant work and convoluted technical architecture. Join this webcast to learn how migrating the HR Web content platform to SharePoint Server 2007 is expected to provide a return on investment (ROI) of more than $10 million over three years and a reduction of 15 custom global HR Web sites.
Presenters: Saumil Gandhi, Senior Solutions Manager, Microsoft Corporation, and Gaylon Blank, Application Architect, Microsoft Corporation

Saumil Gandhi is a senior solution manager with Microsoft Human Resources IT (HRIT), where he is responsible for envisioning and delivering the future versions of HRWeb, which enables employees to interact within a unified user experience across HR applications. Saumil focuses on stabilizing the existing platform, providing an integrated experience, and reducing or eliminating redundant processes and tools within the realm of HRWeb. Before joining the Microsoft team in 2005, Saumil spent more than seven years envisioning and delivering wireless data platforms and applications across the globe, spanning all major US carriers, Australasia, and Latin America.

Gaylon Blank is an application architect for Microsoft Human Resources IT (HRIT), where he is responsible for designing a reusable platform for building the current and future Microsoft HR line-of-business (LOB) applications. His two main areas of focus are the employee-facing portal, taking advantage of Windows SharePoint Services and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, and discovering the right components to consistently build transactional systems.

This is event is pre-recorded and available anytime.

REGISTER:
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?culture=en-US&EventID=1032346074&CountryCode=US

Does your company have large financial spreadsheets with complex calculations that take a long time to finish?  Doesn’t it make sense to have these calculations be done on servers instead of independent workstations?

Better yet:  If the calculations are extremely complex, doesn’t it make sense to have these computations done across a farm of high-performance computing cluster nodes, like an array of Windows Server Computer Cluster Edition installations?

ENTER CLUSTERED EXCEL SERVICES
The idea is that properly structured spreadsheets can be parallelized using Excel 2007 and sent to a Windows Server Compute Cluster farm for computation.   And because the farm is centralized, the entire company can leverage the same computational horsepower across multiple loads/jobs. 

A diagram of how this works is below:

MORE INFO
If you’re interested in this technology, more information on "Clustered Excel Services for Financial Services" can be found here:
LINK:  http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/ccs/finserv/excel.mspx

WEBCAST
We also have a webcast on this technology called "Scaling Out Excel Calculations Using Windows Compute Cluster Server" available here:
WEBCAST:  http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032331351&EventCategory=5&culture=en-US&CountryCode=US

Ooh.

Interested in developing a Podcasting service internally for your company?  Let’s face it:  Podcasts are a great way for individuals to reach out to their communities. 

• Executives that want to speak to their employees
• HR departments wanting to speak about certain on going topics
• Financial analysts that need to communicate to their investors

Nintex developers a podcasting server, making it easy to record and publish podcasts that can be disseminated to through Sharepoint Server 2007.

LINK:  http://www.nintex.com/Nproducts/Podcast.aspx

Does your organization manage an internal helpdesk? Microsoft IT manages a global internal helpdesk that receives 63,000 contacts per month. To improve the client-support experience and productivity while reducing costs, Microsoft IT took two approaches: off-shoring and outsourcing the internal helpdesk (including service desk and deskside support) and developing a number of call-avoidance techniques. Join this webcast to hear firsthand the benefits and lessons learned from outsourcing, in addition to the programmatic approach and high client satisfaction for problem resolution and call reduction through call-avoidance techniques.

Monday, November 19, 2007 11:00 AM Pacific Time (US & Canada)

Presenters: Jon Browning, IT Director, Microsoft Corporation, and Jeremy Eubanks, Senior Program Manager, Microsoft Corporation

• Jon Browning is a director at Microsoft responsible for helpdesk call centers in Bangalore, Dublin, Tokyo, Dalian, and three U.S. locations that support 115,000 Microsoft employees and vendors in five languages.
  Jon has been with Microsoft since 1990, where he focuses primarily on IT strategies and solutions. Jon directed the internal client deployment of Microsoft Windows 2000 from early beta through release to manufacturing (RTM), and he has consulted on several implementations since. Prior to his current role, he managed the Asia-Pacific helpdesk operations that included call centers and desk-side technicians in Microsoft locations throughout the region.
• Jeremy Eubanks is the service desk technology manager responsible developing and driving the call-avoidance strategy for the internal helpdesk at Microsoft. In the past 18 months, the helpdesk technology team has achieved at 15 percent call-avoidance level. Jeremy has been a program manager at Microsoft since 2001, working in roles ranging from program development to project management. He holds a master’s of information science (MIS) degree from Eastern Washington University and recently received his Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Seattle University.

REGISTER: http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032355614&EventCategory=4&culture=en-US&CountryCode=US