Kurt Shintaku's Blog

This download allows you to export and save to the PDF and XPS formats in eight 2007 Microsoft Office programs. It also allows you to send as e-mail attachment in the PDF and XPS formats in a subset of these programs. Specific features vary by program.

This Microsoft Save as PDF or XPS Add-in for 2007 Microsoft Office programs supplements and is subject to the license terms for the Microsoft 2007 Office system beta software. You may not use this supplement if you do not have a license for the software.

DOWNLOAD:  Microsoft Office Add-in: Microsoft Save as PDF or XPS

WHY PDF?

PDF or Adobe Acrobat document format is a standard for printing visually accurate & more importantly, traditionally "read only" documents that can be somewhat protected from modification by lay-computer users.  Being able to create documentation in this format is important for many folks. 

Adobe however as of late has had a cow about us providing people with the ability to create .PDF documents within Office.  While there are numerous tools that provide this capability (including competing Office suites such as OpenOffice), Adobe seems to have a problem with Microsoft providing this functionality out of the box.  During Office 2007 Beta 2, we released "Save as PDF or XPS" as a built in feature but because of Adobe’s huffing, we’ve decided to make it available as a "free download". 

Adobe still has a problem with this approach, primarily because Adobe makes money on selling $70 copies of Acrobat to corporate customers and if a PDF generator is available from a trusted and supported vendor (instead of an open source outfit or a flyby night small ISV) there’s serious chance that many people won’t buy Adobe Acrobat.  Most people just need it to create initial .PDF files anyway.  Apparently our customers don’t have any problem with the inclusion of "Save as PDF" in Office 2007:  I’ve heard nothing but great comments about the feature’s availability.

Here’s a discussion of the topic:  http://blogs.msdn.com/andy_simonds/archive/2006/06…

BTW:  For more on XPS, check out http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/xps/default.mspx.

There are also a variety of "blogs" written by Windows Digital Document team members including:

• Andy Simonds
• Feng Yuan
• XPS Team

Ooh!  Even more candy for the hardware junkie!  Enter the Microsoft Wireless Entertainment Desktop 8000.

The ultimate rechargeable keyboard and mouse for Windows Vista™ and PC entertainment. Designed to make it easier than ever to control PC media from your desk, your lap–or even from the comfort of your couch.

The keyboard is backlit making it easier to see in the dark.  How many times have you been typing away and found yourself squinting at the keyboard not being able to find the right key… maybe you were at your desk… maybe you were in the family room using it for your Xbox 360 & Final Fantasy XI… maybe you’re a vampire.  Either way, this a a cool new keyboard for the night owl.

Like me.

There’s a "plate" that slides onto the top of the unit.  The plate allows you to place your mouse on the keyboard’s side – for those of you wondering how this was going to work on your lap.

…must… get.. Presenter Mouse!

Introducing the Microsoft Wireless Notebook Presenter Mouse 8000:
The first ever Notebook Mouse with integrated slide presenter, laser pointer, and media remote control. It’s an all-in-one super tool for the office, road, and home—the only input device you need.

Seriously.  How cool is that?  A small mouse for notebook users… that’s wireless using Bluetooth… uses Microsoft’s new High Definition Laser Technology… has a laser pointer on it… and it has left and right Powerpoint clickers on it to make it the ultimate presenter’s tool.

I repeat:  BUY A SLINGBOX.  DO IT NOW.   Why are you still reading this?  What part of DO IT NOW did you not understand?  Get up, get into your car, bus, motorscooter, Goped(tm) or whatever mode of transportation you use, get down to BestBuy, and BUY A SLINGBOX.  If you know me, and you trust me, go out and get one.  Do it and do it now.  I command thee, my Internet minions!

WHAT IS A SLINGBOX
It’s a device tat allows you to watch your actual home TV connection over the Internet.

The photo on this page is an actual shot of my "TiVo" software controller that shows on my PC to "remotely control" the video image coming from my home TV connection to my work computer – all over the Internet.

The Slingbox is essentially a device that hooks up to your home DSL/Cable network, your TV’s cable connection or your DirecTV connection, and allows you to watch a live stream of the video coming from it, while providing 100% full control over the "remote" over the Internet.  Yes, you can change channels.  Yes, you watch view pre-recorded content on your TiVo or Windows XP Media Center Edition system.  Yes, you can command your system to "record" a show.

It took me 10 minutes to hook it up to my first TV with the following:

• DirecTV
• TiVo
• Microsoft Wireless Router

… it connected to my Wireless Router, opened up a port for outbound access, and was already configured to send signals to my TiVo to allow me to remotely control it from anywhere on the Internet.

WATCH FROM YOUR WINDOWS MOBILE PHONE
Here’s the crazy part:  It also allows you to watch your TV from your Windows Mobile Pocket PC Phone for FREE until September 16th.  The software installs on your Pocket PC Phone (including the Treo 700w as well) and lets you watch TV live over a 150kbps connection.  After that you’ll have to pay $30 for the software.

WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH MICROSOFT
Why gosh, I’m glad you asked!

1. Slingbox broadcasts only to Windows XP-based computers currently..
2. Slingbox broadcasts only to Windows Mobile-based Pocket PC Phones & Smartphones.
3. Slingbox broadcasts using Windows Media Video 9 (.WMV) codec. 

CAVEATS

1. OUTBOUND BANDWIDTH:  The one thing I think that I’d recommend is having at least 256kbps upstream Internet connection.   (I have a 3.0Mbps/768kbps connection so that’s not a problem for me)  While it’s supposed to kinda work over a 128kbps connection according to some boards, I don’t know how well it would work in reality. 
2. VERIZON EvDO:  I’ve been reading horror stories over people that are getting their data network contracts terminated over the use of Slingbox because of the bandwidth it consumes.  Read the link and be careful.
3. TCP PORT:  This seems to use TCP port 5001.  Some folks may want to use… oh I don’t know… port 80 for some strange reason <ahemfirewallsahem> and might need to tweak the Slingbox to do that.  Fortunately the nice people at SlingMedia have provided documentation to do this.

DETAILED EXPLANATION
I can’t do it better than these guys.  Read this if you want the details and screenshots.  Better yet, just go get one.  It’s only $199 and it’s probably the first device I’ve ever purchased that was cooler than my XBox 360, my Pocket PC Phone, and my HD-TiVo + Windows XP Media Center Edition combo… all COMBINED.

Windows Vista, Office 2007, and Exchange Server 2007:
Desktop Search, Enterprise Search, and Exchange Server 2007 Features and Technologies
Irvine – 11/9/06, Thursday, 8:30 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Los Angeles – 11/14/06, Thursday, 8:30 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.

With Windows Vista and SharePoint Server 2007, significant updates were made to help users find and organize information. Exchange Server 2007 provides IT teams with tools to more easily manage enterprise messaging, and provides end users with performance improvements. The planned topics for this session are:

• 8:30 a.m. – 9:00 a.m.: Breakfast and registration
• 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.:
  Windows Vista integrated search: making it faster and easier to find information on PC’s, networks, and the Internet
  SharePoint Server 2007: using Office SharePoint Enterprise Search to incorporate business data along with information about documents, people, and Web pages to produce comprehensive, relevant results
• 12:00 p.m. – 12:30 p.m.: Lunch and Registration for Exchange session
• 12:30 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.: Exchange Server 2007: new features to more easily deploy and manage Exchange installations, scripting, performance enhancements to deliver end user benefit

Audience: IT Managers and Professionals responsible for desktop support, collaboration infrastructure, and enterprise messaging
Prerequisites: Previous Windows and/or Exchange management experience

Irvine Registration:

• Registration URL:
  <http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032306419&Culture=en-US >
• Event ID: 1032306419

Los Angeles Registration:

• Registration url: <http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032306425&Culture=en-US >
• Event ID: 1032306425

Windows Vista and Office 2007:
Deployment and Management Methodologies for Reducing Time and Overhead
10/3/2006, Tuesday, 8:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m., Irvine

Windows Vista provides a more secure, manageable and reliable desktop, so staff can spend less time deploying and maintaining infrastructure. At this session, we’ll cover:

• New and improved deployment tools for Windows Vista and Office 2007
• Built-in diagnostics and new update methodologies to help minimize downtime and increase reliability
• Startup and power management improvements

Audience: IT Managers and Professionals responsible for desktop support and management
Prerequisites: Previous desktop management support

Registration URL:
http://msevents.microsoft.com/cui/eventdetail.aspx?culture=en-US&eventid=1032307443&x=10&y=12
Event ID: 1032307443

Admittedly I didn’t know a couple of these tweaks listed in an Ed Bott blog article. (http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=132) 

———————–

10 essential tweaks for Windows Vista RC1

Posted by Ed Bott @ 4:43 am

Admit it: You’re curious about Windows Vista Release Candidate 1. Now that Microsoft has made it available for download by the public (after giving technical beta testers a five-day head start), you can take it for a test drive.

There’s no doubt that RC1 is a huge improvement over Beta 2, which was released earlier this year. On the right hardware, it’s fast and a pleasure to use. (On the wrong hardware, it’s downright painful, but that’s a story for another day…) If you’re ready to give Vista a try, I’ve put together a list of 10 tweaks that will make the experience easier for you. This page contains a summary of the ten tips. For detailed instructions with illustrations for all the tweaks, visit the accompanying image gallery.

Read the rest of this article here.

File this under "Wow."

Some organizations create drive images that they use to build new desktops & servers with.  These drive images may need to be replicated across WANs to enable local sites to build systems with.

The problem is that historically, any change made to the drive image woud result in a massive "resyncing" of the replicated image files.  Because image files are often 8-20GB in size, this can result in a tremendous amount of traffic.

But not with Windows Server R2 DFS-Replication.  Using Windows Server R2’s "Distributed File System & Replication", it is possible to build a single virtual server name like "CORPIMAGES" that everyone in a worldwide network references – and each user is automatically directed to the file share "replica" that is nearest them geographically, so that local site users go to local file share replicas.

If a drive image is created using Windows Imaging Format (this is important), every time a drive image is modified/updated on the CORPIMAGES virtual share, only the differences are replicated to the file share replicas throughout the WAN network.  This results in a massive savings of time and bandwidth for a corporation.

How massive?  Our folks in Redmond did this exact test across two different drive images that resulted in a 91.59% reduction (151.59 MB replicated instead of 1.76 GB) in traffic and replicated data.  (Reference here)

What’s even more impressive is that the Windows Server R2 ENTERPRISE EDITION cross-file remote differential compression results in even less traffic being needed to be replicated.

Managing Your Cross-Platform Data:
Solutions for Oracle and SQL Server Environments

REGISTER:  http://www.windowsitpro.com/roadshows/sqloracle/?c…

This one-day event is designed for Oracle professionals who have cross-platform responsibilities or need to transfer their skill sets to SQL Server, and for IT managers seeking database computing environment improvements for their organizations. We are bringing Oracle professionals together to learn from a third-party, independent source key concepts about SQL Server in enterprise database computing environments, including:

• how to successfully deploy SQL Server’s BI capabilities on Oracle
• proof points demonstrating that SQL Server is enterprise-ready
• how to successfully deploy Oracle on the Windows platform, focusing on the advantages of 64-bit Intel® processor-based server implementations

What you’ll learn:

• About the benefits of 64-bit Intel® processor-based server implementations on the Windows platform
• About SQL Server BI for the Oracle platform
• About high-availability proof points for database computing on SQL Server and Oracle
• About the architectural differences between Oracle and SQL Server
• About research illustrating the benefits of cross-platform training for DBAs

Who should attend:

• Cross-platform Oracle DBAs and developers
• IT managers and directors

What you’ll receive:

• Technical content regarding Oracle/SQL Server cross-platform computing
• DVD with session slides, lab coursework, and sponsor offerings
• Summary of industry cross-platform data computing research
• Invitations to follow-on learning opportunities
• Show bag and T-shirt
• Opportunity to win prizes
• A one-year subscription to Windows IT Pro Magazine* (if you are a current subscriber, your subscription will be extended by one-year)