Archive for February, 2006

Bill English had an interesting post on creating a top level site in a specific content database that falls in the “Duh why didn’t I think of that”category for me. While I agree with him that this isn’t a solution for everyone and really should only be considered when the specific need arises to create a new site collection within a specific content database – I do think it’s worth sticking in my bag of tricks since from time to time, it is a question I get asked.

Shane sent me this video of an amazing story of a young basketball player with autism that totally lit up the scoreboard when he finally got a chance to play in a game last week. Awesome story!

Congrats to all Canadian athletes that have successfully competed in the 2006 Olympics but seeing a Newfoundland team bring home the gold for Canada in Curling has extra special relevance. Great job guys!

It helps me cope with the male hockey embarrassment. Luckily our women hockey players still know how to dominate.

Besides being one of the greatest buddies a gal could ever ask for, my niece Samantha is quite the little Photoshop wiz. I look forward to her works of art ranging from cartoon characters or animated stickmen because they are always so funny and incredibly creative. But today was special….today I got my very own Wizard Card.

I can’t really remember what I was doing when I was 13 but I am pretty sure it was nothing like that.

As a .NET user group leader I am always on the look out for good development resources for all experience levels. That is why I thought this “New to Development” portal set up by the ASP.NET team is absolutely fantasic! It contains a series of How to Videos that walk a new developer through topics such as working with web parts, master pages and localization with ASP.NET 2.0. Great for beginners as well as those looking to familiarize themselves with the new framework.

View the ASP.NET 2.0 How to video listing here.

Looks like there are a few other Canadian sites out there focusing on Xbox. It’s always great to find new sites.

Thanks Jade for the linkage. Though between you and me I don’t know that SharePoint and Xbox are THAT unrelated. I guess not everybody has an Xbox 360 WSS theme and custom list for managing their games list.

RELEASED: SharePoint Show #2: 105 Features of SharePoint 2007, with perspectives and insight by Dustin Miller

The show takes you on a 30-minute audio tour of more than 100 features in the new version of SharePoint, along with indepth perspectives on this topic by SharePoint MVP Dustin Miller of SharePoint Experts and SharePoint University. You won’t find this much detail about SharePoint 2007 anywhere else! Don’t miss it! You’ll find The SharePoint Show in iTunes, or go to: http://www.sharepointshow.com.

I was checking out Shane’s post on the announcement of the details for Office 2007. When scanning through the price list I was surprised when I saw the words “Microsoft Office Project Portfolio Server 2007″. I know Microsoft purchased UMT recently so they were obviously considering further expansion into that space. But I really don’t know much about that product.

From the SKU Details Document:
Office Project Portfolio Server 2007 will be a top-down portfolio management governance solution. The solution has been designed to help ensure that organizations gain visibility, insight and control over their project, program and application portfolios. Project Portfolio Server’s analytical modules will help ensure that organizations can prioritize, optimize and select the investments that are best aligned with their strategic priorities, and proactively schedule the selected projects to maximize resource utilization across the planning horizon.

This should be very interesting to watch. I have been working on the BETA 1 with Project Server (luvin’ it) but I haven’t seen this product yet so I will be interested in learning more.

In the meantime, I have been really wanting to extend my posts into more knowledge driven material on using some of the existing 2003 application and server products from the Office System. Sharing information on the new platform is exciting for those of us at the bleeding edge but the more I work with customers on the existing platform – the more I realize the need to share information on the Internet for existing products.

According to the Gamerscore Blog…Halo 2 will be released for Vista. This gives us a good indication of timeframe now anyhow.

“Halo 2” is making its PC debut on the Windows Vista platform. The game will have both the single-player campaign and multiplayer experience of the original, as well as the additional maps offered in the “Halo 2 Multiplayer Map Pack.” Gamers will also have the opportunity to build their own multiplayer levels.

Read more on the release of Halo 2 for the PC here…

I remember a long long time ago when Eli Robillard had one of the first really sweet consolidated lists of SharePoint Resources. He has once again stepped up to the plate with an extensive list of SharePoint Search resources. A common area that organizations seek guidance on.

Impressive stuff Eli!

Adam Field has announced an exciting cool new contest for his Exchange User Group that could allow one lucky (well talented rather) participant to walk away with a copy of Windows Server 2003 R2 with 25 CALs. That is one sweet prize!

All you need to do to win is suggest a name and design a logo to represent it.

According to Patrick, it is beginning to look as if we may be able to blog about the client applications of the Office 12 family. This is great news for me as I have been using these for a while (along with Server of course) and I have a tonne of cool things to write about. Between OneNote, InfoPath, Outlook and Word – I have enough goodies to keep me going with blog content for quite some time. In fact, it has been hard to blog lately because so many things I have been doing have involved things I am not allowed to talk about.

Ahhh freedom tastes good!

Note: I will be confirming this of course before I unleash too much information since I’d prefer to remain on Microsoft’s good side when it comes to NDAs.

From Mark Harrison’s (most awesome) blog, I just discovered the SharePoint Show. It’s a podcast about…well SharePoint as one might suspect. Very cool to see. I need to download it to check it out myself so I can give a proper review but for now feel free to check out yourself.

I also noticed from Mark’s blog that Navigo Systems has been purchased by Mondosoft. Navigo were one of the original companies to demonstrate a solid product in the SharePoint search enhancement space. Should be interesting to see what happens next.

Later this year, the Xbox 360 game I have possibly been looking forward to the most will be launched. The Godfather from EA Sports, will allow a player to take the story and experience beyond where the books / movies left off which is a critical component to how I see video games complementing and extending the entertainment experience of movies. This is possible only through the intense labour and persistence of game developers to create the perfect atmosphere and environments in the games that suck you into the story.

TeamXbox has an interesting interview with a designer that takes us through the Brooklyn neighbourhood and it’s relevance to the game. A nice teaser for what is to come….

February 1st is a very special day for our family since it is the birth date of my older brother, Arnold as well as his son, Arnold. We got together on Saturday for a most awesome birthday party and it was a blast. So Happy Birthday to both of them.

January was a slow month for blogging due to an incredibly hectic travel and work schedule – hopefully February will be much better. Isn’t it ironic that the more cool stuff you have on the go…the less able to write about it you are. Hopefully the drought will end soon.