Kurt Shintaku's Blog

Looks like we’ve resorted to a small bit of bribery to "up the content churn" on Soapbox.

Just post a video on the Soapbox and you could win a digital camcorder and video editing software worth over $400*.
DETAILS:  http://www.imagine-msn.com/minisites/soapbox/

The legalese appears to be located here:
http://www.imagine-msn.com/minisites/soapbox/rules.aspx

The prizes?  Seven (7) Grand Prize Winners (one per Entry Period) will receive: An Adobe Premier Elements video editing software and Sony DCR-HC21 MiniDV Handycam Camcorder. Approximate Retail Value: $359.  The prizes will go out during the following periods.

10/25/06-11/1/06
11/2/06  (Selection date)

11/2/06-11/8/06
11/9/06 (Selection date)

11/9/06-11/15/06
11/16/06(Selection date)

11/16/06-11/22/06
11/23/06 (Selection date)

11/23/06-11/29/06
11/30/06 (Selection date)

11/30/06-12/6/06
12/7/06 (Selection date)

12/7/06-12/14/06
12/15/06 (Selection date)

(If you’re not on Soapbox, request an invite to get on:  Request an invitation)

Seriously people.  This frustrates me.  I’ve met dozens of you who have never used Foldershare!  Especially you "desktop professionals"!  This is one of Microsoft’s coolest (not to mention FREE) technologies and half the people I know have never heard of it, much less used it.

• Imagine having the same INTERNET EXPLORER FAVORITES & LINKS on every desktop you use.
• Imagine having the same OUTLOOK .PST file on every desktop you own.
• Imagine having the same MY DOCUMENTS folder synced between every machine you use.
• Imagine having the same MUSIC & PLAYLISTS available on every Windows Media Player install.
• Imagine even having the same DESKTOP on every workstation you use.

That’s what Foldershare does! 

In its simplest form, Foldershare’s client software keeps a single folder ("My Foldershare" in My Documents) synchronized between all the different machines you use that have the Foldershare client installed on.  If you’d like it to replicate more than just a "My Foldershare" directory, you can easily have it configured to replicate My Desktop, My Music, My Favorites, My… WHATEVER OTHER FOLDERS YOU’D LIKE TO REPLICATE… to every system in your "peer network".

It works on Windows Vista & Windows XP.  It works on workstations & servers.  It works over SSL via port 443.  It’s secure.  It works behind firewalls.  It has a capacity of up to 2GB.  It works as a service in the background and it’s easy to access your files over-the-web even if the machine you’re using isn’t configured with the FolderShare client!  It’s soooooo cool.

C’mon folks!  Go get it!  Yes!  Here!  Now!  Do it, my Internet minions!  I command thee!

WEBSITE:  http://www.foldershare.com

We released Windows Defender the other day so start upgrading.

Windows Defender is Microsoft’s no-charge Anti-Spyware tool for protecting systems from intruders and/or illicit applications and executables.  It’s more than just a detection system based upon signature definitions.  Windows Defender does a couple of very cools things – not the least of which being it’s ability to connect to "SpyNet", a live online database to further validate or check unknown executables or processes.  "SpyNet" is a neural net of applications that are deemed as "bad" by the computing community. 

By analyzing reports that are funnelled up to SpyNet by Windows Defender (this "funnelling" is entirely voluntary) Windows Defender can determine whether the "community at large" believes that the process is a threat.

Here’s a few of the new features that I think are important:

64-BIT SUPPORT:  One of the big features is NATIVE 64-BIT SUPPORT.  Folks – this is one of the first true 64-bit Anti-spyware applications and that bodes well for anyone looking to secure their 64-bit machines today and in the future.  64-bit support today means better reliability & quality in the future.  And for those of you who think 64-bit is "far into the future"… you haven’t learned from history, have you? 

• Remember the transition from 8-bit support to 16-bit support in the DOS-Windows1.0 days?
• Remember the transition from 16-bit support to 32-bit support in the Windows3.1-Windows95 days?

…WindowsXP-WindowsVista64-bit is the same thing.  And to make the point even stronger, unlike previous register length transitions, the 32-bit to 64-bit transition has no price barrier:  64-bit chips that are 32-bit compatible cost the same as today’s standards 32-bit processors.

NO ADMIN PRIVILEGES REQ:  A standard user, without admin privileges on a machine can run Windows Defender.  This is huge because it means that any user can protect their machine.  A lot of anti-virus applications and anti-spyware tools require administrative privileges to run – but not Windows Defender.

FAST DEFINITION UPDATES:  Updates are downloaded using "delta-ing" or what is more commonly known as "byte-level differencing" technology.  This allows people to download only the changes to the list of "bad applications" or "processes" – basically just "what’s new" instead of the information they’ve alreayd downloaded in the past.  And because this list can become very large (some vendors have lists that are 25-40MB in size.  Imagine having to download 40MB to your machine over the Internet everyday… instead of just downloading "what’s new".

DOWNLOAD HERE: 
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=435bfce7-da2b-4a6a-afa4-f7f14e605a0d&displaylang=en

It’s well known that sinec 1995, Apache has been the undisputed leader of web server software used on the Internet.  With marketshare as high as 70%, Apache has been steadily climbing for the past decade in use, taking with it, share from Sun, NCSA, and other web server solutions.

Over the last year (2006) however, Apache has seen a moderate dip in marketshare.  Since January, Apache has seen its marketshare drop by ~10% while unsurprisingly, Windows Server’s IIS has seen growth by roughly 10% with this trend continuing into what appears to be the 2007 year.

Is credibility & support part of it? 

Port80 Software seems to think so.  Enterprise supportability appears to be a prime reason why the Fortune 1000 continues to lean toward IIS 6.0 instead of Apache for Enterprise web solutions on the Internet. 

Read more here:  http://www.port80software.com/about/press/101106

re:  SharePoint® Server 2007 for Search Document Scalability

We have confirmed that SharePoint Server 2007 can crawl & parse through 50 million documents in a single index, dependent on hardware, however there remains no technically enforced document limit for SharePoint Server 2007.  Deployments above 50 million documents are actually possible on a custom solution basis and as commodity PC hardware capabilities grow, since this is all software-based, the scalability of Sharepoint naturally grows with Moore’s law.  And of course SharePoint Server 2007 supports multiple indexes for even greater scalability.

This is a really big deal for Enterprise/Intranet Search, folks.  Let me repeat a few points here about Sharepoint Server 2007’s Search Engine capabilities:

• Scalability that grows with Moore’s law – because of it’s usage of ANY commodity hardware
• Almost TWICE the scalability of "the other guy’s" search appliances
• Multiple index capabilities on the same hardware
• No upper-end limit on document count for the Enterprise edition of Sharepoint, meaning you can index as many documents as you want without any artificial limitations.

And remember:  You don’t need to buy a special appliance to get this level of scalability and it can be done on the hardware that you use today for any of your IT servers.

12/6/06, Wednesday, 9:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m., LiveMeeting

At this session, we’ll provide an overview of the key new features and capabilities in Office SharePoint Server 2007, specifically targeting developers. Topics included are:

• Programming in Windows SharePoint Services
• Solutions, Web Parts and Web Part Packages
• Sites and Pages
• Features, Actions and Templates
• Development using WSS Web Services
• Customizing Search
• Enterprise Content Management
• Developing Workflows
  

Presented by: Neudesic
Audience: IT Managers and Professionals responsible for site management and collaboration
Prerequisites: Previous experience with Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server and managing intranet sites
Registration URL
<http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032306844&Culture=en-US >
Event ID: 1032306844

11/8/06, Wednesday, 9:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m., LiveMeeting

Office SharePoint Server 2007: Key New Feature Overview
At this session, we’ll provide an overview of the key new features and capabilities available in Office SharePoint Server 2007. Topics to be covered include:

• People, Profiles and Personalization
• Web Content Management and Branding
• Enterprise Search
• Business Application Integration
• Business Intelligence

Presented by: Neudesic
Audience: IT Managers and Professionals responsible for site management and collaboration
Prerequisites: Previous experience with Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server and managing intranet sites
Registration URL:
<http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032306842&Culture=en-US >
Event ID: 1032306842

11/1/06, Wednesday, 9:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m., LiveMeeting

Collaborative Authoring and Publishing Process for Quality Management Manual
This presentation and demonstration will show an application built on Microsoft Office SharePoint Server and K2.net for the purpose of Collaborative Document Authoring and Publishing. This example will cover the creation of Quality Management documents, which organizations typically create and maintain as part of their ISO procedures. This “document management application” allows a user in an organization to create new quality documents, make changes, and subsequently submit them to a “document approval” process before they are “published” for public consumption.

Presented by: K2
Audience: IT Managers and Professionals responsible for site management and collaboration
Prerequisites: Previous experience with Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server and managing intranet sites
Registration URL:
<http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032306840&Culture=en-US >
Event ID: 1032306840

10/27/06, Friday, 9:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m., LiveMeeting

Implementing IT Service Request Processes using SharePoint Server
At this presentation and demonstration, K2 will showcase an application built on Microsoft Office SharePoint Server and K2.net for the purpose of submitting and completing an IT Service Request. This demo will showcase the workflow features built into this application, and will also highlight features such as email notification, escalation through reminder email, inter-process communication, the capability to redirect a work item, and integration to SharePoint document libraries and lists.

Presented by: K2
Audience: IT Managers and Professionals responsible for site management and collaboration
Prerequisites: Previous experience with Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server and managing intranet sites

Registration URL:
<http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032306837&Culture=en-US >
Event ID: 1032306837