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October 21 Kraft Foods – Moving Consumer Sites to SharePointKraft Foods has highly customized SharePoint 2007 to provide the web sites needed by their brand teams. They worked with RazorFish (XHTML and CSS expertise) and Blackwell Consulting Services (.NET and SharePoint programming) to design a custom yet flexible solution. By reducing the requirement for marketing agencies to maintain the brand sites, Kraft will save $2MM per year. The brand sites contain:
IT Information - Global IS organization manage 270 global websites. 5 websites have moved to new SharePoint web sites. The remainder will be done over the next 2 years. Brand Managers work with a variety of marketing agencies. Products – CS 2007, SP 2007, SQL 2005, .NET 2.0, Windows Server 2003 Developed "Global Service Components" used by the platform. Built a "flexible template model" that allows the user's to change the page layout on the fly. Standard Content Items – specific content with set styles that can be selected by the business user. Customize the deployment tools to allow "Go-Live" and Rollback Allows for syndicated content to 3rd party websites Brands each wanted unique look and feel. Ratings and reviews, polls, surveys, subscriptions – standard web parts built by Razorfish They wanted full creative and layout control over the web parts. Extensions to MOSS 2007
How was it done?
Promotion and Versioning
Multi-User Editing with Office 2010 and SharePointHave you used Google Apps and seen where multiple people can work on a document simultaneously? Office 2010 will have that same functionality and it will leverage SharePoint as the common document store. The goal for multi-user editing is to allow you to act independently of others while editing the same document at the same time using a rich text editor. To be effective, multi-user editing must handle file level conflicts, within document conflicts, merging of changes, and managing multiple copies of the same document. Currently, OneNote 2007 supports Shared notebooks which provide a level of multi-user editing. Office 2010 enhances and extends that functionality across all the Office products. Below, I have detailed each of the ways multi-user editing is allowed in each product. The big take-away for me is that you get similar features to Excel Services in SharePoint 2007 if you have Office 2010 and SharePoint Foundation Server. OneNote 2010
Word 2010
PowerPoint 2010
Excel 2010
Technology UsedThe files are cached locally and synced via a file provider to SharePoint. The MS-FSSHTTP file provider sends only the changes to the users as part of each sync. MS no longer uses WebDAV for this type of communication. A related technology is inside Windows Server 2008 R2. If a user opens a document across the WAN and his/her neighbor (I assume same VLAN) opens the same document later, the server will get the document from the original user and save the trip across the WAN.
October 20 SharePoint Foundation 2010 Server Overview (aka WSS 14, WSS V4)I'm trying to get this Blog done early today so I can go hear Huey Lewis and the News! Microsoft is having an 80's party and Huey Lewis is the main performer. Should be fun! I composed this on the Netbook. The Netbook is slower and took a while to get setup. So far, I'm not tremendously impressed.
This presentation was given by Rob Lefferts, Microsoft SharePoint Group Program Manager SharePoint Foundation Server 2010 is the successor to WSS 3.0. It is still the infrastructure and framework that SharePoint Server is built on top of. Per Microsoft, Foundation Server is intended for team sites, basic content management, developers, and "Starter Farms." Best of all, it is still a download at no additonal cost!!! Yea! Foundation Server includes
What's New in Foundation Server
What you don't get
SharePoint 2009 Conference – Day 1The first day has been very good – good sessions, good information, and it ended on a high note. I won a Samsung Netbook at the end of the day from a software vendor. It is really cool and really small. I'll try it out on Day 2 of the conference and let you know how it works. I've also realized that if you have extra money to spend or lose, there's a lot to do in Vegas. If you don't, then you just go to conference sessions all day and stay at the hotel. That's what I'm doing. (Except for Tuesday night. Microsoft is having a party.) SharePoint 2010 HighlightsBeta will be released in November 2009 with expected final release in Q2 of 2010. New products include SharePoint Server 2010, SharePoint Foundation Server 2010, SharePoint Server for Internet Sites; Fast Search Server for Business Internet, and SharePoint WorkSpace 2010. The Office 2007 ribbon bar is used to edit pages, add web parts, and modify page properties. Other interface improvements have led to a cleaner and better looking user interface. WSS is still the foundation of SharePoint Server 2010 and is still available as a free download. The new name will be SharePoint Foundation Server 2010. Groove has now become SharePoint Workspace 2010 and will be included with SharePoint Foundation Server 2010. You can set up either SharePoint Workspaces or Groove Workspaces to work with offline and share with others. All SharePoint pages now work like Wiki pages. A Word-like, rich text editor is included now in all editing situations. Photos can be browsed from the local PC and uploaded all in 1 step!! Yea! All content can be rated and tagged and commented on. SharePoint Server 2007 has advanced taxonomy and folksonomy. Lists and Document Libraries can now hold 1 million+ items. This is a huge increase over the current limitation of 2000 items. My Sites have more social features. SharePoint tracks your comments on pages across the farm, others can add comments to your "wall", and you can build your own tags and tag clouds. SharePoint 2010 will only run on a 64-bit Windows Operating System. Office 2010 will support co-editing (multiple users can work on the same document at the same time via a web connector). For DevelopersVisual Studio 2010 allows you to see the SharePoint Server in Server Explorer, features can be developed in and deployed from VS 2010, and web parts can be developed with a Visual Designer and deployed to the server. The SharePoint development environment can be loaded on Vista SP1 or Windows 7. A SharePoint Site Definition Template has been added. MasterPage development has changed (I don't know details on this yet). Site definitions that include customizations to the MasterPages and customizations to the ONET.XML file will require work to upgrade from WSS or SharePoint 2007 to 2010. A Developer Dashboard (based on site permissions) is available on every page for support purposes. This exposes performance stats and object details for the page. This should be a big help for support and debugging.
That's the highlights for the new products. Tomorrow, I will post details about SharePoint Foundation Server 2010. October 19 Day 1 - Before the SP 2009 ConferenceI'm here. The convention center and my hotel are connected but there's another hotel between me and the convention center. It takes 15 mninutes to walk from my hotel room and the convention center! At least it is all inside. ( Just a reminder, I'm 3 hours behind you. I have not changed my laptop timezone.) There are 7000 people attending the conference and a lot of hype. I think I will learn a lot but I may have to do some probing to get answers about WSS. As I'm sure you can guess, all they really want to talk about is what they can get more money for. Today starts with the Ballmer keynote and the sessions will mainly be overviews of what's new in SP 2010. They have a really cool way of connecting people. All registered attendees are part of the "community" and can fill out a profile with picture. There's a collage page of all pictures and a search tool to find people. To the right of the collage is a constantly updating twitter stream from conference participants. When you have access to twitter, search for #SPC09 and you can see. I'll post the highlights from the day late tonight. August 14 Where did my 4 GB of RAM go?If you have upgraded your PC memory to 4 Gigabytes of RAM, you may not see all of it. System Properties may only show 3.0 GB to 3.25 GB of RAM if you are running a 32-bit operating system. Why? Here's as simple an explanation as possible. It can get really technical but most people don't really care.
Windows XP 64-bit or Windows Vista 64-bit can address (or see) 2^64 bytes of memory (a REALLY big number - bigger than our national debt. I think that's why they had to invent 64-bit processors and 64-bit operating systems so the government could spend more money The key thing to remember is that you have to have BOTH a PC that is 64-bit and an operating system that supports 64-bit. I hope that helps. If you have questions or clarifications, please comment below.
July 17 Mission Accomplished!I went with an HP Pavilion dv6z laptop. It has all the features I wanted, plus some, and did not cost a lot more than I wanted to spend. The only thing I did not like was the weird size of the 12-cell battery. It will be interesting to see how it works. See the photo below.
 See how the battery sticks out and is not flush with the bottom of the laptop? That's odd. But maybe it will help improve airflow and keep the CPU cooler.
July 13 Looking for a new laptopWhat's the Story?
I'm in the market for a new laptop. I've been happy with my HP Pavilion dv6000 but I need something that will run 64-bit Vista
 (I'm giving in!), a little more horsepower, and more hard drive space (so I can dual-boot with XP). Most of my clients still have Windows XP but I'm starting to see more Vista PCs and Windows 7 is just around the corner.What do I pick?
I'm leaning towards Dell, HP, or maybe Lenovo. I have heard and read some good things about the Lenovo ThinkPads. I'm keeping an eye out on each of the Outlets on their sites for a good deal.
The Specs
I'll probably get a laptop with a little more horsepower than what most people need because of the work I do but not quite as much as a hard-core gamer (more $$$).
I'd love to hear what other people are buying or any questions or comments that you have!
Jeff December 02 Determining Photo Web Site RequirementsWhen trying to determine what type of web site you need and how many photos it will support, the size of the photos and the amount of web site storage space are the critical considerations. To help you determine, how large each photo will be (in megabytes), here's a web site that can provide a good reference - http://web.forret.com/tools/megapixel_chart.asp - and below is an example of how you would use this web site to help you determine how much web site storage space you will need.
Step 1 – Look up your camera on the web site. Let's assume we have a 5 Megapixel (MP) camera that is not on the list. We will use the 5 MP camera under the "Standards" list. Clicking on this link shows us that a 100% JPG (JPG100) image will consume 1.5 megabytes (MB) of storage space. The JPG or JPEG image format is the most common format and is the best format for the web. It is the smallest in size of all the formats and provides good quality for viewing on a web site.
Step 2 – Estimate the maximum number of photos you will have on your site at any one time. Suppose you will have no more than 200 photos at any one time on your web site. Total storage required = 200 photos X 1.5 MB = 300 MB Add 20% to the Total Storage Required as a buffer. This makes the total 450 MB of space needed for 200 photos.
Step 3 – Find the lowest cost web hosting plan that gives you enough storage space. Fortunately, most web hosting companies will easily accommodate the space we need in their lowest priced plan. At HelpMyWebsite, the Economy Plan ($3.99 per month) gives you 10 Gigabytes (GB) of storage which will easily accommodate our example needs. To quickly build a website with photos, you can use Website Tonight and the built-in Photo Gallery, or an add-on photo gallery, to get started. These are all included for free with any domain name purchase.
August 08 Internet Web Filters and Parenting ControlsAs a parent and a computer professional, I'm always looking for ways to protect my family from the darker side of the Internet while not preventing them from doing what they really need to do and not sucking up all the bandwidth of our Internet connection. Over the years I have looked at many different reviews of Internet filtering software for the home and tried various Parental Control software packages. No matter if it is Net Nanny, CyberPatrol, Parental Filter (free software), Microsoft Live OneCare Family Safety software, or the built-in Vista Parental Control software; they all suffer from the same shortcomings
Recently, I started using a new service called OpenDNS. OpenDNS is primarily a Domain Naming System service. (DNS is how your computer knows how to find something like www.yahoo.com.) On top of this service, they provide Internet filtering that you can configure from their web site. The service is free and is supported by adds that appear when you use their search engine or a website is blocked. Some of their main features are as follows: Content Filtering
I've been using it for about 1 month and like the service so far. It covers my entire home network just by configuring my DHCP router to use the OpenDNS servers instead of my ISP's. I encourage you to check it out. If you have questions or want assistance setting it up, please feel free to contact me at jeff.copeland@helpmyoffice.net.
Jeff Copeland
April 21 Web CollaborationWeb collaboration can save you and your business time (and maybe money). Do you need to find information, find people, find places, get directions, arrange a meeting, share documents, work with others in another location, be notified of changes, learn from expert opinions, have your information follow you wherever you go, keep track of friends, family, or business associates; or get your ideas and products in front of a large audience? Whew!!! That's a lot! If you answered yes to any of these, Web 2.0 is for you.
The following services and tools offer these capabilities. iGoogle Google Apps
Digg Del.icio.us - bookmarks that follow you wherever you go and are ranked by other Internet users. MeetUp MySpace Microsoft OfficeLive Microsoft SharePoint Server 2007
Windows SharePoint Services
WebEx (now part of Cisco)
GoToMyPC
TeamViewer
Microsoft Live Communication Server (instant messaging, internet meetings)
Some of these are hosted solutions and some of these you can implement in-house.
More Vista TalkWell...I recently helped one customer move from an older Windows XP laptop to a new Windows Vista laptop. So far so good. It did not have Windows Vista SP1 when he bought it from the store and Windows Update would not present him with the option to install SP1 because he had some .NET Framework security updates that failed to install. Come to find out, his laptop had all the correct .NET Framework versions so we downloaded the larger version of SP1 from Microsoft and installed it ourselves. It really seemed to make a difference in the performance of the laptop. He had one problem with a "no-name" USB hard drive but that was about it.
I also went ahead and recommended Vista SP1 for a customer who was still using Windows ME!
 I figured if she had to learn something new, she might as well learn Vista instead of XP. Either way, she will be MUCH happier than she has been with Windows ME!  So...I still issue the Vista warnings regarding older hardware and the non-SP1 version of Vista. But if you have mostly newer printers, scanners, monitors, video cards, and external hard drives, you may be fine with Vista. Just make sure you get plenty of RAM.
-- Jeff March 28 Windows Vista – Is it right for me?From what I’m hearing from my customers, I’m recommending that people stick with Windows XP as long as they can. If you do decide to upgrade or get a new PC with Vista, please remember the following guidelines: · You need 1 gigabyte of RAM for normal everyday use; for multimedia applications and heavy use, you should go ahead and get 2 gigabytes. · If you are upgrading an existing PC, check with your video card manufacturer, your printer manufacturer, and any software you run to make sure it is compatible with Windows Vista. This seems to be where most of the heartache and wasted time comes from. · If you can wait until Service Pack 1 is released, you will be better off since most of the kinks will be worked out already.
July 26 Password Management
Personal Password Management How many website user names and passwords do you have? If you are inundated with them like me and can never remember the password, try the Password Minder program by Keith Brown. Install this nifty utility on your PC and only have to worry with one master password from now on! Operating Systems - Which One?The computer operating system you use depends on a number of factors:
The table below gives you a good start on deciding which one is right for you.
Remember, you don't always have to have the "latest and greatest." Sometimes it pays to led others lead (or bleed) the way while you are being productive!
Viruses and Spyware DefinedWe've all heard of viruses and spyware but do we really understand the terms? Here's some quick definitions and what you need to know to protect your computer and data.
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