BlackBerry Outlook Web Access (OWA) Setup with BlackBerry Internet Service (BIS)

I struggled with this one for a while. My old Instinct would allow me to get Exchange mail to the Sprint Mail Client on the Instinct via OWA credentials. Of course, it did not originally work when I got the Instinct. It was not until they came out with an update to the mail client, but once they did that it worked slick. Now trying to get my BlackBerry Curve 8330 setup to do the same thing was initially frustrating as well. Attempting a number of different things and then finally broke down and called Sprint. They basically said that it was not possible without getting with the Exchange team at work. I didn't have to do that before. It sounded as though it would only work with BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES), but I only had BlackBerry Internet Service (BIS), as it is a personal phone, etc.

Anyway after much searching I found the document that I needed to get it done. It was a BlackBerry KnowledgeBase document. KB03133 to be exact. I had read posts telling you to find the CN name, post telling you to find out your mailbox name and use it, etc. Well it was this KB document that gave me what I needed. I had all of the info, except for what truly needed to go into the mailbox name field. It may not be as difficult for many, but as my work e-mail account has changed many times, I think that made it a bit more difficult. The big point of the KB is to login to your e-mail account via OWA and then hover over the Inbox or one of the other items in the navbar area and look at the lower left hand corner of your browser. What you need for your mailbox name is what displays in the address bar after the last slash in the address and before the pound (#) sign. My cn name was firstname_first-initial-of-lastname, my mailbox showed lastname, firstname. It was here when looking at the address that it showed something different than all of the Outlook configuration information. It showed firstname_lastname, which was different than it displayed anywhere else (so use what is shows for you, not just firstname_lastname as mine happened to show). My e-mail address is firstname.lastname@company.xxx. So once I had this little tidbit to put in, bingo, I was able to receive my e-mail from Exchange. No BES, no additional cost (I already have an unlimited data plan), no additional software on my PC desktop, etc. Of course, this only gets you the mail from that point forward, it does not download what is already in the box. It also does not pick up the Calendar info as the Instinct mail client did. This can evidently be done via BES, but I can live with just getting my mail, at least for now.

Microsoft Drops SMS Link

Thanks a lot Microsoft (said sarcastically).

Dear registered users of SMS Link：

On August 26, 2009, the SMS Link service for Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 will be discontinued. This e-mail is to inform you of the service’s discontinuation and give you alternatives should you desire to continue sending SMS (“Text”) message through Office Outlook 2007.

Microsoft’s SMS Link service will be discontinued effective August 26th, 2009. Once this service is discontinued, current users will no longer be able to send SMS messages through Office Outlook 2007 using SMS Link. There are several service providers worldwide who offer similar services, and if you wish to continue using this feature in Office Outlook 2007, you should consider switching to one of these providers. Here is the link to the service provider hosted web site:

Providers to consider include:

• SMS Officer
• Red Oxygen
• Bulletin

Providers such as these will allow Outlook users to send SMS messages regardless of which wireless carrier they use, as they are 3rd party services that work with a variety of international wireless service providers. We are not recommending any particular service and we do not guarantee that these services will be able to meet your needs. While we sincerely apologize for any inconveniences caused by the decision to discontinue Microsoft’s SMS Link offering, hopefully you may continue sending SMS messages from Outlook using these or other service providers.

You will receive NDR (non-delivered report) if you try to send out SMS (“Text”) message using your SMS link account after the service shut down on August 26, 2009. If you want to remove your SMS Link Account in Outlook , please follow the guide here.

Thank you for using SMS Link, and thank you for choosing Microsoft.


Thanks,
The SMS Link Team

Free 411 Updated

I mentioned some 411 options in a previous post.



Well there is a new one to mention, which follows yesterday's post. It is Bing 411. You may have noticed that if you call LiveSearch 411, it answers Bing 411. Well, Microsoft has re-branded it as well. The old phone number 1-800-CALL-411 (800-225-5411) will still get you there, but you can also get there via 1-800-BING-411 (800-246-4411).

May as well mention some of the other Microsoft items showing under Bing (The codename for Bing was KUMO - one can also put in www.kumo.com and it will resolve to Bing.com.):

Bing Maps
Travel Search
Shopping
Xrank

xRank keeps track of notable people and puts them in order for you. We count Bing web searches for movie stars, musicians, and other famous people. Then, we compile our findings into an insightful ranking formula that tells you who the world is searching for most. The result is a cultural snapshot of who's hot and who's not!

I already mentioned the search engine (or as MS would call it, a decision engine) and it has many of the options of others:

Web Search
Image Search
Video Search
News Search
Local Search

Of course, you can get news alerts as well via your Windows Bing ID, I mean Windows Live ID.


From Behind Bing:

A new breed of search engine has arrived, a search engine that does more than point you to a set of links. We’ve built a “decision engine” and it’s called Bing. Internet search has become the No. 1 avenue for finding information and getting things done. But with more than 200 million Web sites online (and counting), most search engines are ill-equipped for the task. Not Bing.

Bing provides direct access to the information you’re looking for. Bing organizes search results so you can quickly and easily locate the content that matters most. And Bing helps you harness that information through exclusive tools specific to your key tasks, leading to more-informed decisions. Put simply, Bing is a first-of-its-kind decision engine.

Microsoft states:

"Our research around Bing showed that it connoted “fast,” “easy,” and “delight”

Hotmail was still accessible via the Hotmail.com, when they moved to Live (mail.live.com). Will it eventually go to Bing Mail (mail.bing.com)? We'll see.

Chandler Bing

Friends character Chandler Bing would have been so happy.



Microsoft has changed the name of Live Search to Bing. Why???

The first definition for bing on dictionary.com is a noun of British Dialect.

Definition: a heap or pile

Insert your own joke here.

Of course the second definition that shows is a verb used without object.

Definition: Obsolete. to go.

Hey, they chose the name, not me.

Presentation

The presenter at a presentation I attended this morning paced back and forth the whole time as he talked. Kind of felt like watching a tennis match. Almost makes one want to yell, "STOP".

IE8 B2

Have you tried Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2. I had not tried IE8 for a while as I did have some issues with the first Beta, but Beta 2 does appear to be more stable.

"Cannot Complete This Action"

We had an issue with a single site in our Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) environment. The environment is set as a single site collection.

In a simple sense, the diagram above gives an idea of the basic layout. One main site which have very little if anything other than a way to get back and forth between the two sites. One site is limited to IT staff and the other is open to the IT staff and the department it supports.

The site Department 2 stopped being accessible over lunch one day. When trying to reach the site one would get "Cannot Complete This Action".

As long as one knew the address to sites under it they could get to them fine. Those with permissions could still upload documents to libraries, etc, but one could not create new lists, document libraries, etc. in that site or below.

If you put in the address of a known list or library in the Dept 2 site, one would still get the "Cannot Complete This Action" message.

Another symptom was that some links to site default pages were not working correctly. If a link went to a site without the default.aspx added (such as via the breadcrumbs), it may not find the default page. It seemed to consistently fail on the same place each time, but every site would not fail to load without the default.aspx.

Items within Department 2 would still display in search results and one could save the documents from the search and they would open fine locally.

We are in a mixed IIS and SharePoint environment. Our main Intranet site is still hosted on IIS and links to SharePoint for different items. As there were some documents that needed to be accessed within Department 2, and creating from the root worked fine, a Department 3 was created, and Department 2 documents were loaded into Department 3, links on the Intranet were updated and tabs that normally go to subsites of Department 2 were placed on the Department 3 site, but linked to the subsites under Department 3. We did not do this until we ended up being locked out of Dept 2 longer than we had hoped. All in all it took 2 1/2 days from start to finish to get things how they were.

A call was put in per a support contract to see if the issue could be resolved.

Once getting the callback after putting in the initial problem, it was cleared up rather quickly by a hotfix that one would not have guessed would eliminate the issue, but since it did, who can complain.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/951695

That doesn't mean it will fix your problem as we found a lot of individuals with the issue vai online search and some recommendations out there that a few seemed to work for a few, but not others, so as they say, your results may vary.

MSDN Benefit Administration

Does anyone else find Microsoft's Benefit Administration to be slow, tempermental and not very well done?

Google Chrome and Windows Live Hotmail

Funny.

ID changes

From Redmond Developer:

"If you change the way you're representing some data in your enterprise directory, all the apps that made assumptions about the shape of that data start to malfunction."
Stuart Kwan, Program Manager, Federated Identity Team, Microsoft

Unfortunately, the network team decided to start adding a new 2 digit prefix on newly created network ids, as the result of an issue regarding some duplicate ids. They are unique, but not across the entire forrest, which appears to be an issue for Safeboot as I understand it. Implementing this today would create an issue for some of our Visual Basic applications. Luckily an e-mail was sent out about the date they were going to begin implementing, so we were at least able to postpone the implementation. Now we'll have to see how much work will be required. They have since decided that besides adding the 2 digit prefix, that for some accounts they want to add a 4 digit prefix. At least we haven't started making the changes yet. Now the question is, will they decide on other changes and what other things could end up being affected somewhere down the road.

Hopefully incorporating things like Zermatt and/or CardSpace into one's development might help with situations like this down the road.

Of course, even solutions like these don't replace the need for communication and interaction between IT groups, especially when they are in the same shop.

Service Pack 3

Yes it is Service Pack 3 for Windows XP.

Billy G

A funny video from Billy G's last keynote at CES. This takes you to a page on Autoblog that has a cropped down version from SlashGear.

You can follow the link below for the whole keynote:

Billy G's keynote

Windows Live Photo Gallery

The wlxquicktimecontrolhost.exe appears to have a problem. Doing a search doesn't return a lot. I have only seen it running when Windows Live Photo Gallery is reading a directory with photos/movies. The process eats all of your CPU. The only thing that appears to fix it is removing Windows Live Photo Gallery. Looking at the process name one would be quick to blame Apple, but not sure if that is the case.

Foldershare

Another Microsoft Live Labs Product is Foldershare.

"Why FolderShare?

Keep important files at your fingertips - anywhere. All file changes are automatically synchronized between linked computers, so you are always accessing the latest documents, photos, and files."

Lists

Another Microsoft tech preview item is Listas.

Create and edit lists, keep a list to yourself or share it with others and collaborate with your friends. Collect content from all over the web with the Listas Toolbar.

I'll be trying it out. Right off it sounds a bit like Microsoft's tool to compete with Google Notebook.

Organize your notes.
Keep all your notes organized by creating multiple notebooks for different subjects or by dividing a single notebook into several sections. You can also easily rearrange your notes by dragging-and-dropping them from one section or notebook to another.

Add your own thoughts.
Click the "New note" button and start typing to add text notes to your notebook, or click the "Add comment" link within a note to add comments to clippings you've collected.
Search the full text of your notebooks.
Easily find any information in your notebooks using the search box at the top of the page.

PhotoSynth

I posted about PhotoSynth back in Augusts of 2006, but now they have a technology preview (pre-beta) available. My video card is not up to snuff, but it might be interesting to take a look at if you have a system that will support it.

Google and Microsoft Take On Healthcare

This is a topic that could prove to be interesting.  I must admit it would be nice to be able to get to one's records than to always wait for a call on tests, etc.

Google and Microsoft Take On Healthcare

FTP in Batch File

Here is one that is still handy.  Trying to ftp something on a schedule.  You can use the Windows AT Command to kick off a batch file and within the batch file you can call ftp with -s to run a script (.scr).  Nothing special about the .scr file, it is just a text file with a .scr extension.  Just put the .scr file in the same directory as your batch file.

You can check out Microsoft Article ID 313565 for specifics on the AT command and Article ID 96269 for specifics on FTP batch scripts.

I missed seeing this one before - MS Shared View.

From the site:

Hold more effective meetings and conference calls
Connect with up to 15 people in different locations and get your point across by showing them what's on your screen.

Work together in real time
Share, review, and update documents with multiple people in real time.

Use when and where you want
SharedView is easy to use, from anywhere, at a moment's notice.

No built in chat or audio with the product at this point. You can find out more in the FAQs. It does allow one to post handouts for a session, which are cleaned up when the session is over.

Something you may not have known.