I almost didn't write this one. But then I changed my mind because it occurred to me that there's a lot of people who are in the same boat. Let me be very clear here that this entry is written from the perspective of a business power user, someone who stretches things to their usable limits, and then some.

As many readers here already know, I am a Blackberry guy. Have been for years. Occasionally, I go through the trial phases with other devices, sort of a change-up process that - at least to date - has always ended up being a sort of Blackberry Vacation phase for me.

Anyhow, yesterday I set aside my trusty and scratched Blackberry 8700, with it's extended battery and general useful goodness, to try the latest in Windows Mobile technology for a while - the Samsung Blackjack, procured from Cingular. Giving up my Blackberry, which has survived multiple submersions (don't ask, don't worry) and significant drops on many a hard surface, is not something I take lightly.

The Blackjack looked interesting. I had an opportunity to switch out with no risk and to see what it's all about. The TV commercials had caught my eye, truth be told, and it looked like about as good of a Windows Mobile device as any, probably even better. So, I thought, what the heck... And yesterday it arrived and we swapped out the SIM cards. I went about my business sans-Blackberry and with a sleek new phone. This blog entry is my (rather pointed)comparison of the two devices and software. It's important to note that a comparison point of view is my primary perspective when I review mobile devices. In order to make a switch from what I already have it has to work for me in a business sense, well enough to make me want to move, so a comparison with a power-business-user slant is both fair and meaningful.

Anyhow, It's been an interesting 24+ hours.

First off, the 30,000-foot Gestalt view: To be honest, my hopes have been fairly dashed. No matter how you skin it, from a strict usability standpoint the Windows Mobile 5 experience still just doesn't match that of the Blackberry. It's much closer than it used to be, but the remaining gap is real and there's much work remaining to be done to move into the same category. And I am not referring to the Blackjack hardware here (more on that in a minute). I am referring to the OS as a whole and the UI navigation specifically. I have to scroll and click through so many things just to do the simplest tasks. The conglomeration of operating system and applications (some controlled by MS, some by the device manufacturer, others by the carrier, I am sure) is just a little too klutzy to work well. It's right on the edge of being too difficult to be practical. Keep in mind, I come from Blackberry land, where things work quite well, where Blackberry controls the hardware and the software in a much more complete manner. And that's the set of users that Windows Mobile needs to win over. Without that, the potential market is considerably more scarce. Also keep in mind, I really want the Windows Mobile experience to rival or even best the Blackberry - there's no fan-boy stuff going on here. The simple fact is that in practical power-user life the Blackberry wins by a significant margin. And by practical use I mean email, calendar, tasks, text messaging, and the like. Not MP3 files and video. Those are nice, but the basics have to work really well first.

What exactly am I referring to? On the Blackberry, I look at one screen and touch one wheel to do everything but type. Everything I need is right there, in full view. My email is one thumb click away and so is the calendar. On the Blackberry clicking the wheel brings up a context sensitive menu of options - all of the options right there on the screen without having to go to three or four more buttons on the face of the phone. Sounds picky, I know, but deal with several hundred emails a day and see how much of an impact it has. For that matter, spend ten minutes reading email flowing in on a Blackberry and then see how long it takes you to do the same thing on the Blackjack or any other Windows Mobile device. It's a different world.

Now, granted - Blackberry doesn't have some of the terrific things the Blackjack and Windows Mobile sport, and it's some pretty darned cool stuff that you get on the Blackjack/Windows Mobile device, to be sure. For example, the 3G UTMS/HSPDA network is amazingly fast (the Blackberry 8700 is an EDGE device, which is okay but doesn't really even compare speed-wise), and of course the Blackjack has a camera, which is something you can't get (yet) on a Blackberry (but the 8800 model with a camera is rumored to be coming in the spring). The 1.3 megapixel camera does a pretty nice job, by the way. Much better than other phones I've used before. Windows Media Player 10 (with some nifty streaming audio and video on the fast network provided by Cingular) and the ability to use MicroSD cards is cool. You don't get that on the Blackberry. And a solid MSN/Live Messenger application that I don't have to go find and pay for was a welcome item, as well. It also does AOL and Yahoo! messengers, by the way.

Did I mention it's a phone? Bluetooth 2, speakerphone capability and a very good phone call and sound quality are all pretty impressive.

There have been three lock-ups that I had to pull the battery to resolve. One was a network data failure to communicate at all this morning first thing, and the others were random application glitches it seemed. I have had to pull the battery on my 8700 a few times, but it's very, very rare.

Ultimately, even with the cool bells and whistles, if I cannot reliably and effectively do email, calendar and messaging in a very quick, painless and efficient manner like I can with the Blackberry phone, it's all for not. At best the experience on Windows Mobile takes some getting used to for a Blackberry user, and yet in reality even after some adjustment time it still lacks. You just have to navigate too much and too far with too many pointers and controls to get much of anything done, and the beautiful, bright screen is used for "bling" more than for practical real estate application. I will look for screen themes that better use the space, but I'm not holding my breath.

As far as the hardware goes, it is a nice feeling device. It's very solid and feels substantial in your hand. I like that. I think the proprietary cable that hooks to the USB port and/or charger cable was a terribly bad decision. Why not mini-USB so I can use my existing cables and chargers? Oh, wait - that's right. How would they sell more accessories if they all match? Ugh.

And don't get me started on battery life. Get this - between 8am and 3pm, I completely went through a charged battery, and that with only one phone call all day, and that call only lasted five minutes tops. I have the Exchange push-sync thing going and Bluetooth is turned on (by the way, the Bluetooth on the 8700 is flaky and the Blackjack has it beat in terms of reliability). I imagine that uses a bit more battery, but is it unreasonable to expect that the battery would last at least a day? The Blackberry lasts forever on a charge. I have a hard time killing it on a dawn-to-past-dusk day of emergencies and lots of phone calls. Good thing there's two batteries with my Blackjack - I needed them both just today. That's not good. A Microsoftie friend tells me there is some way to  turn off the HSPDA capability and that doing so might help with battery drain, and also that the push configuration with Exchange is a power-killer as well. But to me it seems like the features should be supported by the battery system. Either that or else the features need to be made a lot more efficient. Again, I am speaking from a practical standpoint. It has to work in the real world, regardless of what it is. And I can't change batteries mid-day in many cases. Hopefully after a few charges the life will get a little better but I can't imagine it getting so much better as to alleviate the concern.

Probably my biggest and most noticed disappointment about he hardware is the keyboard. I was surprised at how hard it is to type on this thing. Visually the keyboard is pretty cool and is somewhat similar to the Blackberry. But once you touch it you realize the keys are long and tall in shape, close together, and it's too easy to screw up finger placement. They're also slippery and stick up a long way, making accurate finger action even more difficult. The spacebar key is too narrow, and there's actually room there on the device to make it wider - which makes its lack of size even more unfortunate. And worst of all, as I type email or anything at normal typing speed the device randomly misses keystrokes. They just don't register. And at other times the OS seems to lag in showing what I type. I have had to go back and fill in missing letters and characters all day long on the thing, which is doubly frustrating. Again, from a practical standpoint that's not good.

I hate even writing this, because I very much wanted to like the Blackjack. And while I don't quite hate it (and I will stick with it for at least a few more days to see if somehow my experience and opinion changes), the usability issues have just about killed it for me out of the gate. The enthusiasm is gone and it's been fairly disappointing.

I have to believe that on the platform side Microsoft is truly interested in going after the serious enterprise business market, which is why I mention these details about the OS. And I will happily share my thoughts and experiences with anyone on the Mobile OS team that wants to take them. I'm picky, heh. And the war's not over yet: Today no less than ten people noticed the cool form factor of the Blackjack and instantly asked me if that was a new Blackberry I had. "No," I told them, "it's a Blackjack Windows Mobile phone." Hmmm! said the looks on their faces. "Do you like it?" they asked with anticipation. "No," I said. "It's driving me nuts. It should be cool but so far it's just too much work to use it." And that's the truth.

As I said, I almost didn't write this. There are many people out there that will get the Blackjack and love it, I am completely sure of that. It's a great phone. But as a hard-core power user on the business side, I need more - and this is my way of asking.

First impressions count for a lot, and the experience I've had with the Blackjack - colored by my experience with other devices that work very, very well - was simply less than I had hoped for. I think I have reasonable expectations. I am hopeful - and somewhat confident - that it will get better in the future. At least I sure hope so. The Windows Mobile OS has a lot of potential to kick butt. It just needs to get across that magical proverbial line, and probably Microsoft needs to do even more to ensure that the device makers do their part, as well. I know that seems like a legal stretch, but hey there's plenty of proof showing why it's needed. Blackberry has perfected their form factor and their software, which while relatively simple is elegant and works very well. Microsoft doesn't need to copy them to come up with a great solution, and they don't need to stifle the channel partners, software authors and hardware manufacturers, but they do need to set high standards, and they need to push hard and fast.

If and when that happens, maybe then I'll switch. Maybe it'll be a no-brainer. I am open to it, and hope that someday it will happen. Until then, I think this is just another vacation from my Blackberry career, but I am willing to let time tell. Heck, it's probably a good idea to stick with something else for a short period anyhow as far as repetitive stress injury avoidance goes, at least. Right?

From Mark Harrison's weblog:

All Windows SharePoint Services customers are entitled to an extended free trial of Antigen for SharePoint. This trial version will be active through June 30, 2006.

To download, simply go to www.sybari.com/wss and fill out the form.

Antigen for SharePoint allows Windows SharePoint Services users to collaborate without the risk of uploading or downloading infected documents or inappropriate content.

The simple and honest fact is that many people who have deployed WSS or SPS don't run any anti-virus software on their SharePoint implementations - and that's a huge mistake. Running plain-ol' AV on the server's file system is exactly the wrong thing to do, because all the SharePoint files are stored in the database where regular AV software can't touch them. And besides that, running real-time AV scans of a SQL database file (which is constantly changing) is a supreme resource and performance killer if there ever was one.

I've worked with Sybari's Antigen products on both SharePoint and Exchange for several years. In my book, it's the best thing in AV-Land since sliced bread. So check it out.

Lots of service pack and patch announcements the past couple weeks, and here's another one of note. Exchange Server 2003 Service Pack 2 was released the other day, and it contains a number of fixes and important enhancements.

Better support for Windows Mobile devices (push technology with Windows Mobile 5, for example - which stands a chance of giving RIM a run for it's money eventually if the devices keep getting better) and incorporation of the Sender ID protection from spam, enhanced security, better offline address book support and even enhanced mailbox store sizes (75GB per store).

Webcasts are available here, and a top-ten reasons to upgrade list can be found here. The latest information about Exchange Server can always be found on the Exchange web site.

Okay, so granted, it's not the first DHTML/Javascript book, but "Foundations of Ajax" is the first (that I can find, anyhow) book extolling the virtues and details of building Ajax web applications. It's still listed as pre-order on Amazon, but on Apress you can purchase and download the eBook right now for only $20 (regular book price is $40). the PDF version is about 38 megabytes in size and 260 pages in length. The whole Ajax thing is cool in my mind, and I have been doing a lot of reading about it lately. Ever since Outlook Web Access on Exchange 2003 and then Google Maps came out, I've been pretty amazed at what you can do with this technology. Now there's lots of interesting apps that run in a web browser, a little more than thin client, but not really a fat client either.

So, go get this book and start to put that XMLHttpRequest object to work for you. Go build something usable and cool. Probably the one big thing that impressed me about this book was the fact that it pushes a test-driven/test-first approach to development (using JSUnit) and the fact that it has so many detailed, in-depth code samples and discussions. It doesn't just present code samples though. It takes you through the how's and the why's, which is cool.

What's this Ajax stuff, anyhow, you ask? From the book description:

"Google Maps, Google Suggest, Gmail, Tada List—these are all examples of highly dynamic web applications. In the past, we had an awkward choice: a thick client or a thin client. With a thick client, we got rich user experiences but had to deal with an error-prone and time-consuming deployment process. With a thin client we got ease of deployment but had to sacrifice the user experience.

"Today we have a third choice: highly dynamic web applications that are nearly as feature-rich as their thick client brethren. Using Ajax techniques, we can provide our customers the rich user experience they have come to expect while still enjoying the ease of deployment that we’ve come to expect.

"An Ajax application is very similar to the web applications we’re already familiar with. The difference is that it incorporates an “Ajax engine” that negates the start-stop nature of traditional web interaction and drives the whole process along. A quick look at an Ajax application like Google Maps will demonstrate the improvement to user experience very clearly. Gone are the constant page-refreshes and instead, you’re presented with a smooth, responsive interface that seamlessly reacts to your requests.

"Leading technology companies are adopting these techniques, and pressure is increasing for other companies to do the same in order to compete. The bar has been raised in the web application world, and what was once considered impossible is now being realized. With the help of these revolutionary Ajax techniques and this groundbreaking book as your companion, you can lead the way and get ahead of the game."

The eBook version is available to buy online now for $20.00, right here (at least at the time of this post).

Google has launched their Google Blog Search -and its good stuff. One of the best things in my book is that you get a list of highly-relevant weblogs before you get the text search results.

Some searches:

• OneNote
• Security
• Exchange 2003
• Obligatory ego search

Microsoft has released their Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) product, which is a replacement for Software Update Services (SUS). The server solution acts as an in-house patch management and deployment solution for your networked Windows machines and core applications.

What's New in Windows Server Update Services:

• More updates for Microsoft products, in more categories (Windows XP Professional, Windows 2000, Windows Server 2003, Microsoft Office XP, Office 2003, Microsoft SQL Server 2000, Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Desktop Engine [MSDE] 2000, and Microsoft Exchange Server 2003, with additional product support over time) 
• Ability to automatically download updates from Microsoft Update by product and type
• More language support for customers worldwide
• Maximized bandwidth efficiency through Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) 2.0 (BITS 2.0 is not installed by Update Services and is available on Microsoft Update)
• Ability to target updates to specific computers and computer groups
• Ability to verify that updates are suitable for each computer before installation—a feature that runs automatically for critical and security updates
• Flexible deployment options
• Reporting capabilities
• Flexible database options
• Data migration and import/export capabilities
• Extensibility through the application programming interface (API)

This new release is ten-fold better than the old SUS product, and if you are responsible for deployingpatches reliably and verifably across your company, this is something you must at least try. It will save time, improve your comtrols, and generally help you sleep at night.

Oh - and it's free to download. Just install it on a Windows 2000 SP4 or Windows 2003 server - your existing CALs cover it.

• Info here
• Download here
• FAQ here
• Full product overview here

Too bad there's not a Windows Mobile device that truly rivals Blackberry's form-factor for durability and real-world practical power use (yet, that is) (in my humble opinion, that is), but I can continue to hold out hope for better PocketPC's now.

Why? Because the Windows Mobile OS (2005 version) will soon be getting a messaging security and feature pack update that will enable "push" technology for instant delivery of all your Exchange 2003 info (email, contacts, calendar, etc) to your Windows Mobile 2005 powered device. Exchange 2003 SP2 will enable the functionality on the server side.

So half my concerns about the PocketPC/SmartPhone editions of Windows Mobile will be alleviated - namely the always there, immeidate delivery story.

Funny thing... I was having coffee with a Microsoft friend just the other day. He asked me why I was still using a Blackberry (common question from my Microsoft acquaintances), and I didn't have to say much. My first argument was the lack of real-time push.sync (which we both knew was coming on with the next Exchange update and the Mobile update). He agreed with me in one respect, though: RIM got the form-factor figured out when they built these Blackberry things - nailed it right on the head. RIM's keyboard rocks, plain and simple.

Good going for the Windows Mobile team. Lord knows that whole Blackberry Connect thing has never really panned out (it's supposedly Blackberry software that runs on the Windows Mobile OS, but it's really not materialized anywhere to speak of).

But about those devices running Winodws Mobile... They need to be improved to really make them work and hold up. My idea? Simple. Microsoft doesn't make the hardware (they keep reminding us of this, and it's become more of an excuse than a reason over the past couple years, guys), but they do have some control and impact in that area. Microsoft should exercise some release management and licensing control over the hardware manufacturers - Perhaps they should specify some quality and usability requirements and license the OS first to those manufacturers that actually produce a better product. that meets some stringent requirements for usability, reliability, durability, performance and battery efficiency.

Important message to all companies looking to do handheld QWERTY keyboards: You might want to consider where you're going to spend your "innovating" funds. You might be best served to simply pay RIM however much they ask to use their keybord. Like, as in their actual keyboard, not some knock-off, lumpy chicklet version like on several of the Windows Mobile powered devices I have used in the past, or the river-rockish Treo keyboard (yuck). Just buy the technology from RIM - Their's ain't broke, nothing to fix or improve.

At any rate, looks like the possibilites continue to change and grow, and Microsoft's made a good move here. Glad to see it's coming to pass.

I've recently gone on a run of trying all kinds of new devices in the PDA/MobilePhone/Email-Enabled-Device arena. I have used various Blackberry devices for a few years now (and have been using the Blackberry phone devices since they were first born). I have occasionally moved to other devices to try them out and see if they would suffice for use in my work. Recently I undertook that sort of project, evaluating various mobile carriers and their networks and devices, so it's been a real gadget-land around these parts since around the first of the year.

I won't be writing about the networks and service providers (maybe some other time), but I did want to catalog some of what I encountered, the geeky part of the project: All these nifty mobile devices.

It's worth noting right up front that as a general rule, I've pretty much always been disappointed with more-than-just-a-phone devices whenever I've tried them, for one reason or another. My experience has been the same with most of this latest run of devices I have tested. Also, I wrote this entry/review over the course of the past couple months, going back to it periodically to document bits of my experience over time.

To cut to the chase, let me jump to the end of my story briefly: As of yesterday I am back (by choice) with a Blackberry phone from Cingular - the very same model of phone I had before this whole testing process started. It's a RIM 7290 device. And that's a choice I made after using a whole slew of what people say are the coolest, newest phone/PDA/email/whatever devices.

You know what they say - Once you've had Blackberry, you can never go backberry. Or, uh, something like that... Sorry. Bad joke. But it's true.

My recent device trials (and tribulations) have included the Audiovox 5600 smartphone running Windows Mobile 2003 from AT&T/Cingular (which has been the rage among bloggers the past several months - it's unofficial nickname is the "Scoble Phone") and the Blackberry 7100t phone from T-Mobile. I've also used the Blackberry 7100g (Cingular) and the PalmOne Treo 650, both from Cingular. Rounding out the list was the Siemens SX66 device, which has a slide-out keyboard and WiFi built in, running the PocketPC Phone Edition of Windows Mobile 2003.

In each case, there were things I liked about these devices, and there were things I didn't like.

Audiovox 5600 SmartPhone (running Windows Mobile 2003 - ATTWS/Cingular)

I'll give Audiovox kudos for making a really cool phone in the gadgety sense, but I have to give it lower scores in terms of it's practical utility. Keep in mind, I use this kind of device as a tool, one that I use constantly for communicating and staying in touch for work. The "Scoble Phone" has been hyped up as the only device you'll need to carry around, and it has all kinds of nifty things on it, like mobile MSN Messenger, Windows Media Player, the ability to use Mini-SD cards for tons of extra storage, a built-in still/motion camera (of very mediocre quality), etc. But the software apps are a little glitchy, and I lost count of how many times this thing either reset itself or required me to pry the battery out of the back and replace it in order to get it started and working again. On top of that, while the geek/nifty factor is fairly high (I can see how Windows Mobile is a useful and appealing mobile OS), the practical/regular use score is low - it just doesn't work that well for me, beyond its simple use as a phone and SMS device. Text input is T9, which is cumbersome at best and impractical for work. Bluetooth for hands-free use worked somewhat reliably, but was problematic from time to time. Audio quality was good. It's small and compact and has a certain "neato" quality. But it doesn't allow me to quickly and efficiently communicate, except via voice calls. I handed it back. I liked the phone, but it didn't work for me, not even close. And by the way - as of the time of this writing, Cingular is not offering the phone on its web site.

Blackberry 7100t (T-Mobile) and 7100g (Cingular)

These two devices are essentially identical in terms of the guts and the software running on them, but the Cingular device has a better form factor and body/shell - It's a lot more solid, the keyboard is laid out better and is easier to use, and I get a strong feeling it would last longer than the T-Mobile model in a durability sense. Text input is a unique hybrid type - the keyboard has a standard qwerty style layout like all Blackberry devices, but instead of one letter per key like others by RIM, the 7100 series has two characters per key. It does the predictive text thing, a lot like T9 does on a mobile phone keypad, but it's considerably more accurate and a lot faster to type with. Making the move from a standard-keyboard Blackberry to this device takes a little getting used to, but after a few days I found myself fairly comfortable with the layout. Bluetooth hands-free functionality was flawless and reliable - better than the Audiovox phone. RIM figured out some good things with this device, but there are a few things missing that keep it from being a truly killer device: There's no MP3 support like you get in the other phones tested, and the ear-piece audio level at max volume is painfully quiet (a common complain with Blackberry phones that really needs to be addressed). There's no camera, and since this is a biz-class device, that makes sense. But RIM should really consider building a model with a camera option, an SD slot, MP3 capabilities, an MP3 voice recorder, MSN instant messaging (they included Yahoo! and AOL on this one, so why the heck not), and better audio capabilities (ring tones, music, etc). In fact, a Windows Mobile device that actually shipped with the vaporware (to date) Blackberry Connect software package would have me running for the store. But, progress is progress, and all in all the 7100 is a pretty good tool that makes some improvements on earlier models. But hey, put the standard RIM keyboard back, please - if it ain't broke, well - you know... I returned both these devices as they were loaners, but I'd recommend them to others, and a few people I know have bought these recently - and they're thrilled with them.

PalmOne Treo 650 (ATTWS/Cingular)

Topping out in the community's collective Bling! category is the PalmOne Treo 650, a nice looking and feeling PalmOS-based SmartPhone with lots of counterintuitive functionality and mediocre documentation. Now I remember why I left the PalmOS behind a few years ago. You'd think I'd have remembered, but sometimes we just need to be reminded. This is another phone with a so-so-quality camera built in (better in overall image quality than the Audiovox 5600, but with the same low 640x480 resolution). It has a full keyboard built on, which is arguably it's most redeeming factor, but in daily use the keyboard feels lumpy, klutzy and crowded compared to any RIM/Blackberry device I have used. The Treo uses a touch screen and a slide-out stylus for screen navigation, as well as a set of directional and select buttons. The screen is bright and contrasty, which is nice. Battery life is fairly limited when you're actually using it. Call audio is excellent, and is louder in earpiece volume when compared to the other devices mentioned here. The email setup and use of multiple email programs ranks a "so-so" score, and overall it was clunky to use. I can't count how many clicks, scrolls and stylus gestures/touches it took to do even the simplest activities. If I am sitting in a chair, have some time, and have both hands completely free and nothing else to distract me, I can use this device. But I don't want to. Returned to sender, can't recommend it.

Siemens SX66 PocketPC Phone (running Windows Mobile 2003 - ATTWS/Cingular)

I was excited about getting my hands on this device, and hopeful that it would meet my needs and satisfy the usability/utility requirements. I also hoped it would have Blackberry Connect software on it, as was advertised some places and rumored at others. It didn't have it, but I tried it anyhow. The first things I noticed was that I was able to use it with my Exchange server (the Audiovox device crapped out if I tried to use a "space" character in my password. I had thought [assumed] the inability to use a space in a password was a limitation of the OS, but this device proved me wrong). The screen on this thing is very nice, and the backlight is bright and contrasty. Bluetooth worked better than any of the other devices in hands-free mode, and the keyboard makes it more accessible and usable than the Audiovox device by far. But the keyboard's pimple-style chicklet bubble layout was painful to use in the real wold - keys are tiny and way too close together unless you;re six years old (probably not the target market). Battery life was pretty awful, especially if you use the WiFi at all. Even without using WiFi, the battery was dying on me regularly between charges, and since there's no USB charging with this thing I could not charge it in the car or anywhere convenient (You have to charge in the cradle, which is plugged into the wall via a power adapter, or you use the same wall plug adapter with a socket adapter to go straight to the device. So be prepared to be tangling the wall adapter cord up a lot to carry it with you everywhere, or else plan on a dead phone periodically - dumb). To top it all off, this morning I grabbed the device and went to turn it on, but it did not respond. Yet, the little green service light was flashing so I knew it had power to it. I pulled the battery put it back (the Windows Mobile version of CTRL-ALT-DEL), but still no response. I started driving to work and tried it again while I was stopped for coffee at the local store. Voila! Up it comes, but totally reset, nuked, blown away, default ROM settings - everything I had set and stored before was gone. Good thing the important stuff was on my SD card... I've read and heard rumors of serious software problems with this phone, and when you combine that with the lame keyboard that looks cool but isn't at all usable, well... Returned, with prejudice.

Back In Black - or, Right Black Where I Started From

So, as of this morning I am back running on a Blackberry 7290 phone with the latest, solid Blackberry software. This is the same model I gave up a few months ago to do the testing. Sure, it's not as fancy in many ways as the 7100-series, but it's got the best keyboard and it works, works, works. And probably the best test of all was this: Within one minute of picking this thing back up and setting a couple of device options to something other than BB's defaults, I suddenly found myself orders of magnitude faster and more productive than I was with any of the other devices I'd tried.

RIM got something right when they built the Blackberry. Then they added a phone to the device. Then they did this funky keyboard thing with the 7100 that works pretty well. It works, and it is usable.

There's a great book I've held onto for a few years now called "Don't Make Me Think" by author Steve Krug. It's all about usability (as related to web design, but that doesn't matter, the same concepts apply here). The reasons the Blackberry devices are all so good is because they are truly intuitive - I don't have to spend my time clicking and clicking and tapping and clicking just to try to find some simple function, and the user interface is so intuitive it becomes almost reflexive to use. RIM wins because their devices have utility. It's because they're reliable. It's because they're usable. I have confidence that RIM/Blackberry will keep that as their core philosophy, and so I am very much interested to see what will come next from the company.

But damnit, I still want to see and use a good, reliable phone that runs Windows Mobile latest edition, with Blackberry Connect software on it! PLEASE! There's a lot of room for growth, and it's not all about smaller, smaller, smaller, or geekier, geekier geekier... It's all about usable, usable, usable. Size is just one part of usability. Geeky is fun, but not always practical. Who will end up winning this game? Can't wait to see.

But for now, Blackberry's in the lead in my book.

When Microsoft sets its sights on a market segment, look out. It'll happen, sooner or later.

I've been using a whole bunch of the latest mobile phones recently to test them and see how well they'll work for business use. The fact of the matter is, most of them pale in comparison to the Blackberry devices. Blackberries are great tools. All the others are great gadgets. At work, I need a great tool more than a great gadget.

But what I really want is the best of both worlds. Push email, real-time sync on email, calendar, and all that. Lookups live over the air from my company's active directory. MP3 player, phone, voice recorder, MP3 and poly ring-tones... and the RIM form factor works great - he typical PDA-phone running Windows Mobile is a little too goofy and unusable - especially in the keyboard area. Blackberry keyboards work great - the palmOne and PocketPC keyboards I have used - well, they just suck.

From Engadget, with reference to an article at Internet Week, word about the upcoming Windows Mobile 2005 and how Microsoft likely intends to compete with RIM's Blackberry devices - and server.

This will raise eyebrows and - if the Windows Mobile devices can be improved to be a better tool and less gadgety - it's entirely possible they could take away a lot of the market currently sufficiently served only by RIM...

Microsoft wants to kill the Blackberry dead with Windows Mobile 2005

If their recent deals to license their ActiveSync technology to Nokia, Symbian, and palmOne are any indication, Microsoft is working hard to steadily encircle the Blackberry with the next version of Windows Mobile, aka Windows Mobile 2005 aka Magneto. The plan? CRN reports that Microsoft is finally going to unveil Windows Mobile 2005 at the Mobile and Embedded Developers Conference in Las Vegas next month, and that they’re going to be taking a serious swipe at RIM by adding Blackberry-like support for push email and live content updating to Windows Mobile-powered Pocket PCs and Smartphones. The CrackBerry’s pretty damn entrenched, but Microsoft knows a thing or two about dislodging a market-dominating competitor, and so will be reviving a familiar tactic: to compete with RIM’s server product they’re going to be giving away their Exchange 2003 Server Pack 2 update, which adds support for push, for free.

Microsoft has announced a large number of security webcasts that are set for April. The list here is quite long, so click to see them all, or check out the Security Webcast Calendar, which is a Word doc calendar with all the upcoming webcasts listed and linked.

There are lots of very good sessions planned. Anyone with a security responsibility or emphasis in their jobs should take a good look at these upcoming webcasts and consider viewing...

Security Webcasts are a convenient way for IT Professionals and Developers to stay technically updated on the latest Microsoft Security Guidance. These webcasts concentrate on security information and are presented by senior executives and other subject matter experts. They feature interactive technical presentations, product demonstrations, and question-and-answer sessions.

Microsoft Security Webcast Series: Upcoming & On-Demand

• For IT Executives
• For IT Professionals
• For Developers

Security Webcast Calendar

NEW: Now you can register for an on-demand webcast and choose how you would like to view the archive. Downloadable Microsoft Office System PowerPoint and .wmv files are available for most webcasts that took place Dec. 1, 2004 or later. Once you register, you will be directed to the on-demand webcast and also shortly receive a confirmation email with links to the PowerPoint and .wmv downloads.

Additional Webcast Resources

Microsoft Security Webcast Series:  Upcoming & On-Demand

Digital Blackbelt Series: Defend your code from attacks

Ongoing through May

How would your code stand up to an attack? If you are not sure, join us for the Digital Blackbelt webcast series as Developer Community Champion Joe Stagner discusses security risks, vulnerabilities, and solutions from the software developer's perspective. We will provide real-life examples and security tips and tricks that can help you gain the knowledge and techniques to become an experienced “blackbelt” in writing secure code.

Web Development: Increase the security of your applications

Ongoing through May

Increasing the security of your software is not the result of a single event. From design through development, to testing and deployment, a multi-disciplinary approach must be taken to deliver a quality software product that minimizes organizational risk. Join Dennis Hurst, Senior Consulting Engineer at SPI Dynamics, and other guest speakers as they detail knowledge that can help developers increase security around the coding of web applications. 

Security360

Third Tuesday of Every Month

Learn best practices to guide your security strategy during this monthly webcast series. Each webcast focuses on a specific security topic and includes commentary from industry experts outside of Microsoft.

Security Webcast Calendar

Security webcasts listed in an easy-to-use calendar format.

BONUS: Attend any live webcast through June and you could win a Portable Media Center. See official rules for more details.

Additional Live & On-Demand Webcast Series Available NOW:

• Ask the Security Experts
• ISA Server 2004
• Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2

For IT Executives

Microsoft Executive Circle Webcast: Security360 with Mike Nash: Secure E-mail, It’s More than Filtering (Level 100)

Tuesday, April 19, 2005 - 9:00 AM - 10:00 AM Pacific Time

Mike Nash, Corporate Vice President Security Business & Technology Unit, Microsoft

Reducing the amount of spam clogging e-mail systems is top-of-mind. However, e-mail security is not just about preventing unsolicited messages; it is also about protecting the digital information assets you send through e-mail. On this month's Security360, guest host Amy Roberts, director of product management in Microsoft's Security Business and Technology Unit, will discuss with industry experts the whole spectrum of e-mail security, including filtering technologies, e-mail policies and enforcement, and partner solutions. As with every Security360, this session includes a checklist of recommendations and resources, as well as a live Q&A with industry experts.

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=43965

For IT Professionals

TechNet Webcast: Implementing Exchange Server Security (Part 1 of 2): Securing Services and Messaging Protocols (Level 300)

Monday, April 04, 2005 - 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM Pacific Time

Harold Wong, TechNet Presenter, Microsoft

Securing communication over networks is essential to securing your organization from intrusions, overloads, and interruptions of many types. In this first session of a two-part series on Exchange Server Security, we describe how to deploy a more secure Exchange Server 2003 infrastructure and how to secure its server services and messaging protocols.

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=43587

TechNet Webcast: How Microsoft IT Deployed PKI Inside Microsoft (Level 300)

Tuesday, April 05, 2005 - 9:00 AM - 10:00 AM Pacific Time

Larry Talbot, Microsoft IT SECURITY TECHNOLOGIST, Microsoft

This webcast presents a detailed discussion of how Microsoft IT installed a Public Key Infrastructure, built originally with Windows 2000 Server Certificate Services, and later upgraded with Windows Server 2003, to implement a secure communications and remote authentication infrastructure. This enabled the use of S/MIME signatures and encryption, secured Web connections by using SSL or TLS, ensured the confidentiality of stored data by using EFS, ensured the confidentiality and integrity of transmitted date by using IPSec, and enabled strong network user authentication by using Smart Cards. Join this webcast to find out how you can do this - or something similar - too.

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=44148

TechNet Webcast: "Ask The IT Security Experts" Series: Building Security Training and Awareness (Level 100)

Tuesday, April 05, 2005 - 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM Pacific Time

Ben Smith, Senior Security Strategist, Microsoft

Experts often talk about the importance and need for security training, but few actually talk about how to do it. Join us for this webcast as we bring together some of the sharpest security-focused Microsoft IT professionals to provide expert answers to your questions about Building Security Training and Awareness. This webcast presents proven, and slightly unconventional, methods of training users and administrators on security. As with all of our "Ask the Experts" webcasts, there will be plenty of Q&A time for the experts to field your questions. Send your security-related questions to our panel of experts ahead of time at: itxcast@microsoft.com.

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=43974

TechNet Webcast: Network Isolation Using Group Policy and IPSec (Part 1 of 3): Overview of Internet Protocol Security (Level 300)

Wednesday, April 06, 2005 - 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM Pacific Time

John Baker, TechNet Presenter, Microsoft

Data Isolation: How can it make your IT infrastructure safer, and how do you use Group Policies and IPSec to implement it? This session is the first of a three-part series presenting the information and tasks needed to implement data isolation using Group Policies and IPSec within an organization. This first installation provides an overview of the nature of Internet Protocol Security - the challenges to secure network communication, how IPSec can help, and the various ways IPSec can be implemented to achieve different types of secure communication.

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=43592

TechNet Webcast: Windows Server 2003 SP1 Technical Overview (Level 200)

Thursday, April 07, 2005 - 9:00 AM - 10:30 AM Pacific Time

Rand Morimoto, Author, President, Convergent Computing

Windows Server 2003, the latest server operating system from Microsoft, builds upon the security, reliability, and performance improvements implemented in previous versions. Organizations need these continuing improvements as their networks develop and network usage evolves with new technologies. Organizations also need Service Pack 1 to protect themselves from an increasing variety of network and computer. Join this webcast for a technical overview of Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1, where we will present its features, configuration tools, system security enhancements, network security enhancements, and deployment options.

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=43599

TechNet Webcast: SQL Server 2005 Series (Part 4 of 10): Securing your SQL Server (Level 200)

Monday, April 11, 2005 - 9:00 AM - 10:00 AM Pacific Time

Bryan Von Axelson, TechNet Presenter, Microsoft

Parts four and five in our series highlight the security enhancements in SQL Server 2005. Part four of this series focuses on authentication and authorization while crypto support is covered in part five. We begin with authentication, examining the Security model, endpoint-based authentication and the password policy. Then we move on to explore authorization, covering User Schema separation, module execution context, granular permission control and Catalog security.

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=42448

TechNet Webcast: Implementing Exchange Server Security (Part 2 of 2): Protecting Against Unwanted E-Mail (Level 300)

Monday, April 11, 2005 - 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM Pacific Time

Chris Avis, TechNet Presenter, Microsoft

This second session of a two-part series on Exchange Server Security describes how to increase the security of e-mail that flows through an organization's Exchange servers. We also introduce you to Exchange Server 2003 features such as Real Time Block List support and Intelligent Message Filtering, tools making it easier to reduce the amount of unwanted e-mail before it spreads through your organization.

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=43602

TechNet Webcast: How Microsoft IT Implements Trustworthy Messaging at Microsoft (Level 300)

Tuesday, April 12, 2005 - 9:00 AM - 10:00 AM Pacific Time

Grant Hogan, Microsoft IT Service Manager, Microsoft

Similar to most enterprise organizations, Microsoft shares information among its resources through e-mail and other electronic documentation. At the same time, we have a concern for the security and privacy of this data. With that in mind, Microsoft created the Trustworthy Messaging initiative to provide confidentiality for key business sensitive data sent to and from internal corporate clients without sacrificing their ability to freely share this data. Join us as we review, in detail, Microsoft IT's implementation of Trustworthy Messaging.

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=44151

TechNet Webcast: Information about Microsoft's April Security Bulletins (Level 100)

Wednesday, April 13, 2005 - 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM Pacific Time

Christopher Budd, CISM, CISSP/Security Program Manager, Microsoft

Debby Fry Wilson, Director/Security Response Marketing, Microsoft

On April 12th, Microsoft will release its monthly security bulletins. Join this webcast for a brief overview of the technical details of these April security bulletins.  This webcast will provide you the opportunity to raise your questions and concerns about the security bulletins. A majority of the session will be devoted to addressing your questions and providing answers from our security experts.

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=43750

TechNet Webcast: Network Isolation Using Group Policy and IPSec (Part 2 of 3): Understanding Network Isolation Using IPSec (Level 300)

Wednesday, April 13, 2005 - 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM Pacific Time

John Baker, TechNet Presenter, Microsoft

This session is the second of a three-part series with the information and tasks you need to implement data isolation using Group Policies and IPSec. This session shows how to use IPSec to create network isolation zones. Topics include the advantages and limitations of network isolation, where network isolation fits into a defense-in-depth scheme, and how to use Group Policies and Active Directory groups to restrict access to specific servers.

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=43606

TechNet Webcast: Maximizing Security Features within Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2005 (Level 300)

Thursday, April 14, 2005 - 9:00 AM - 10:30 AM Pacific Time

Sean Olson, Lead Program Manager, Microsoft

This technical session describes potential security threats and their mitigations for the Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2005 release. We will focus on the new features and challenges differentiated from Live Communications Server 2003. The ultimate goal of this presentation is to provide you with the information commonly required to satisfy a security audit of a product prior to its commercial deployment. Topics will include authentication, auditing, and security recommendations for the new Live Communications Server 2005.

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032269267&Culture=en-US

TechNet Webcast: Securing the Network Perimeter with ISA Server 2004 (Level 200)

Friday, April 15, 2005 - 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM Pacific Time

Keith Combs, TechNet Presenter, Microsoft

Do you currently have an effective way to secure your network perimeter against risks introduced by the Internet, remote users, and remote network segments? Learn how Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server 2004 can help protect against all of these threats and more. This session demonstrates how ISA Server 2004 can enhance security for internal servers as well as external-facing resources such as Microsoft Exchange Server or Microsoft Internet Information Services. We will also show how ISA Server can operate as a virtual private networking server for more secure remote access to the internal network.

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=43759

TechNet Webcast: SQL Server 2005 Series (Part 5 of 10): Protecting Sensitive Data (Level 200)

Monday, April 18, 2005 - 9:00 AM - 10:00 AM Pacific Time

Bryan Von Axelson, TechNet Presenter, Microsoft

Parts four and five in our series highlight the security enhancements in SQL Server 2005. Building upon the discussion of authentication and authorization in the previous session, part five of the series covers the crypto support in SQL Server 2005. We begin with an introduction to the concepts of database encryption including encryption support, keys, certificates and key management. We show how SQL 2005 can protect sensitive data using data encryption and module signatures, and introduce sign modules, what these are and how they work.

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=42450

TechNet Webcast: Assessing Network Security (Part 1 of 2): Planning and Research (Level 200)

Monday, April 18, 2005 - 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM Pacific Time

Kai Axford, Security Specialist, Microsoft

How do you know whether your network is secure? And how do you know how to find out? This session is the first of a two-part series to help organizations plan and implement processes to identify vulnerabilities to network attacks. This first session shows how to plan your security assessment and how to gather information such that the methods and results fit your organization's needs. In this presentation we'll specifically show how to plan a security assessment and the details and processes for gathering network security information about your organization.

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=43762

TechNet Webcast: Threat Mitigation for Windows 98 and Windows NT 4.0 (Level 200)

Wednesday, April 20, 2005 - 9:00 AM - 10:30 AM Pacific Time

Harold Wong, Senior Technology Specialist, Microsoft

While migration to a newer platform is recommended, many customers have key business applications that will only run on legacy operating systems. This session offers prescriptive information and test plans for hardening legacy Windows clients and servers, with the goal of reducing the security risk factors for Windows NT and Windows 98 systems as much as possible. We also provide guidance on how to upgrade securely to newer operating systems.

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=43789

TechNet Webcast: Network Isolation Using Group Policy and IPSec (Part 3 of 3): Advanced Network Isolation Scenarios (Level 300)

Wednesday, April 20, 2005 - 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM Pacific Time

Matthew Hester, TechNet Presenter, Microsoft

This session is the final presentation of a three-part series about the information and tasks needed to implement data isolation using Group Policies and IPSec within an organization. The session describes several scenarios where you can use IPSec to enhance network security by using IPSec to create network isolation zones. This scenario-focused view of Group Policies and IPSec is based on Microsoft's prescriptive guidance.

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=43792

TechNet Webcast: Assessing Network Security (Part 2 of 2): Penetration Testing (Level 200)

Monday, April 25, 2005 - 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM Pacific Time

Kai Axford, Security Specialist, Microsoft

How do you know whether your network is secure? And how do you know how to find out? This session is the second of a two-part series on assessing network security, to help organizations plan and implement processes to identify vulnerabilities to network attacks. This second session shows how to implement penetration testing for intrusive network attacks, presents checklists that will help identify and remediate common issues, the tools and processes for scanning systems for vulnerabilities, and concludes with a case study where all these factors are put to work at a typical commercial enterprise.

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=43818

TechNet Webcast: Security Risk Management (Level 300)

Wednesday, April 27, 2005 - 9:00 AM - 10:30 AM Pacific Time

Kai Axford, Security Specialist, Microsoft

When establishing security for your network, you must take risk assessment, cost-benefit analysis, and implementation of security countermeasures into account. The Security Risk Management Guide, designed by Microsoft, can help your organization establish the ongoing process of security risk management. This 90-minute webcast presents a qualitative approach to risk management, tying in best practices from both the industry as well as the ones learned and formulated by the Microsoft internal IT Group.

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=43821

TechNet Webcast: Defense-in-Depth Against Malicious Software (Level 200)

Friday, April 29, 2005 - 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM Pacific Time

Michael Murphy, TechNet Presenter, Microsoft

Malicious software has become increasingly advanced; worms and viruses can propagate more quickly and evade detection more effectively. This session describes how a defense-in-depth approach to antivirus solution design can help protect various components of a computing infrastructure from malicious software attacks, including client computers, servers and networking devices. This webcast also covers implementing an effective outbreak control and recovery plan and identifying, containing and remedying the effects of malicious software.

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=43841

For Developers

MSDN Webcast: Practical Security for Intranet Solutions (Level 200)

Friday, April 01, 2005 - 9:00 AM - 10:30 AM Pacific Time

Joe Stagner, Developer Community Champion, Microsoft

Internal Web and Windows-based applications often require integration with existing applications and systems, access to databases, strong authorization and authentication mechanisms, and identity management. This webcast discusses strategies for incorporating security best practices into intranet solution development. We will provide practical guidance on how to implement security enhancements throughout intranet solutions and introduce future security improvements available to developers through Visual Studio .NET 2005 and ASP.NET 2.0.

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=43408

MSDN Webcast: Practical Security for Internet and Extranet Solutions (Level 200)

Monday, April 04, 2005 - 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM Pacific Time

Rob Jackson, Developer Community Champion, Microsoft

This session discusses strategies for incorporating security best practices into intranet solution development. Internal Web and Windows-based applications often require integration with existing applications and systems, access to databases, strong authorization and authentication mechanisms, and identity management. This session provides practical guidance on how to implement security enhancements throughout intranet solutions and introduces future improvements available to developers through Visual Studio .NET 2005 and ASP .NET 2.0.

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=43832

MSDN Webcast: Implementing Security for Mobile Device Solutions (Level 200)

Friday, April 08, 2005 - 9:00 AM - 10:30 AM Pacific Time

Joe Stagner, Developer Community Champion, Microsoft

Are you dealing with security issues and concerns with your Microsoft Windows Mobile-based solutions? This webcast will describe the various the security considerations for building mobile software solutions and the tools, technologies and strategies available to the mobile developer. Both traditional applications accessed through mobile devices and solutions designed specifically for mobile use can be affected. You will learn how to use the security features of the Microsoft .NET Compact Framework in conjunction with Windows Mobile-based PocketPC and Smartphone capabilities to provide more secure file storage and data access. During this 90-minute webcast will also cover how to protect mobile device communications with your application servers.

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=43585

MSDN Webcast: Digital Blackbelt Series: Defending the Database (Part 1 of 2): The SQL Injection Attack in Detail (Level 300)

Friday, April 08, 2005 - 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM Pacific Time

Joe Stagner, Developer Community Champion, Microsoft

Developers the world over underestimate the seriousness of a SQL Injection Attack. In this session we will dive deep into the topic and do some live hacks to see the huge danger of SQL Injection.  We'll discuss how a Mal-Tech might find and approach your box, discover your schema, table, and field names, steal your data, corrupt your table records, add himself as an administrator, reduce your own admin rights, pollute your network, take over your mail server, shutdown your application (and hide it from your ops people), upload his own wares and OWN YOUR NETWORK. Don't miss this webcast.

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032267306&Culture=en-US

MSDN Webcast: Writing Secure Code (Part 1 of 2): Best Practices (Level 200)

Monday, April 11, 2005 - 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM Pacific Time

Rob Jackson, Developer Community Champion, Microsoft

Do you want to learn more about analyzing, mitigating and modeling threats? This presentation is part one of a two-part series to help experienced developers build their knowledge of secure coding best practices. Join this 60-minute webcast to learn about established threat modeling methodologies and tools and how to apply them with other best practices to minimize vulnerabilities and limit damage from attacks.

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=43835

MSDN Webcast: Assessment: Tips and Tricks for Web Application Security Testing (Level 300)

Tuesday, April 12, 2005 - 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM Pacific Time

Dennis Hurst, Senior Consulting Engineer, SPI Dynamics

Caleb Sima, Founder and CTO, SPI Dynamics

This session will demonstrate the proper technique for testing a Web application to ensure that it is properly secure. In addition, we will discuss the challenges of Web application security throughout the development life cycle, and the available methods and tools used to test the security of Web-based applications. Attend this webcast and learn how to test a Web application using a Web browser and the inherent limitations of this approach. You'll also learn what obstacles must be overcome during application testing to ensure proper security.

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032267633&Culture=en-US 

MSDN Webcast: Developing Applications in Windows XP Service Pack 2 (Level 200)

Friday, April 15, 2005 - 9:00 AM - 10:30 AM Pacific Time

Rob Jackson, Developer Community Champion, Microsoft

Have you installed Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) and some of your applications are not working or are not working correctly? The new security features of SP2 may affect how certain types of applications run. Join this webcast to see examples of applications that may be affected and learn how to modify them to work with Windows XP SP2. Also, learn how to configure your development environment to work successfully on Windows XP SP2.

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=43793

MSDN Webcast: Writing Secure Code (Part 2 of 2): Best Practices (Level 200)

Monday, April 18, 2005 - 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM Pacific Time

Anand Iyer, Developer Community Champion, Microsoft

Are you looking for effective strategies to defend against common security threats faced by application developers? In part two of this two-part series for experienced developers, you will continue learning more about established best practices for applying security principles throughout the development process. During the 60-minute webcast we will discuss common security threats faced by application developers, such as buffer overruns, cross-site scripting and denial of service attacks, and how to effectively defend against these threats.

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=44153 

MSDN Webcast: Advanced Application Development with Windows XP Service Pack 2 (Level 400)

Friday, April 22, 2005 - 9:00 AM - 10:30 AM Pacific Time

Rob Jackson, Developer Community Champion, Microsoft

With Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2), Microsoft is introducing a set of security technologies that will help improve Windows XP-based computers' ability to withstand malicious attacks from viruses and worms.  To developers these technologies will have an impact on the applications they create and the tools they use.  SP2 restricts how remote procedure calls are made across a network which may affect the operation of enterprise applications. Join this session as we discuss these interface restrictions and provide you with advanced application development techniques for SP2, including how to reduce RPC-based incompatibilities.

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=43812

MSDN Webcast: Digital Blackbelt Series: Defending the Database (Part 2 of 2): Making the Right Design Choices (Level 300)

Friday, April 22, 2005 - 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM Pacific Time

Joe Stagner, Developer Community Champion, Microsoft

After drilling down into the infamous SQL Injection attack in Part 1 of the Defending the Database, we will now address several of the questions and answers developers have concerning the database and security.  This session will cover topics such as, Secure Connections, SQL versus Windows Authentication, user versus role-based authentication, EXPs, Managed Stored Procedures, Alerts and Monitors.

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032267315&Culture=en-US 

MSDN Webcast: Implementing Security in the Development Lifecycle (Level 200)

Monday, April 25, 2005 - 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM Pacific Time

Joe Stagner, Developer Community Champion, Microsoft

Security should be your primary concern throughout the development process. This session discusses how security can be implemented at each stage of the software development life cycle. Microsoft has created the Security Development Life Cycle to describe how to implement security best practices by adding pointed and well-defined checkpoints to the existing development life cycle. This session outlines recommended changes to the design, development, testing, verification and release phases that can reduce the number and severity of security vulnerabilities shipped to customers.

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=43816

MSDN Webcast: Remediation: Developing Secure ASP.NET Applications (Level 300)

Tuesday, April 26, 2005 - 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM Pacific Time

Dennis Hurst, Senior Consulting Engineer, SPI Dynamics

Prashant Sridharan , Lead Product Manager - VS, Microsoft

Are you looking for a way to correctly validate input easily and quickly to ensure it is secure? This webcast will show you real-life examples and demonstrate how you can do this.  Throughout the webcast we will discuss secure state management, how to apply state management across multiple applications, as well as how to setup and develop proper authorization and access control to ensure that privilege escalation defects/vulnerabilities are removed. Attend this webcast to learn advanced Web application protection techniques covering how to code login forms and other form inputs so they are immune to malicious brute force attacks.

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032267641&Culture=en-US 

MSDN Webcast: Practical Security for Intranet Solutions (Level 200)

Friday, April 29, 2005 - 9:00 AM - 10:30 AM Pacific Time

Joe Stagner, Developer Community Champion, Microsoft

Internal Web and Windows-based applications often require integration with existing applications and systems, access to databases, strong authorization and authentication mechanisms, and identity management. This webcast discusses strategies for incorporating security best practices into intranet solution development. We will provide practical guidance on how to implement security enhancements throughout intranet solutions and introduce future security improvements available to developers through Visual Studio .NET 2005 and ASP.NET 2.0.

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=43913

Additional Webcast Resources 

• ALL Upcoming Webcasts
• ALL On-Demand Webcasts
• Microsoft Business Solutions Webcasts
• Microsoft Executive Circle Webcasts
• Microsoft Office System Webcasts
• Microsoft Small Business Webcasts
• MSDN Webcasts
• MSDN Architecture Webcasts
• Security Webcasts
• TechNet Webcasts

If you've ever used Microsoft's online support knowledge base, you know how much information is available there, and how hard it can be to find information you're looking for. On top of that, how are you to know when new articles are added about the technologies that you care about?

For a few years now, I have used a free online service called KBAlertz to keep track of KB articles that are released about the Microsoft servers and apps I deal with every day. I get email notifications whenever new KB information is published in areas like Office, Exchange, SharePoint, SQL, LCS, Windows Server, Windows XP - you name it. Whatever topics you choose, you can stay informed.

There are three primary ways to get the info you want and need from KBAlertz: Browsing/searching, email and RSS feeds.

Personally, I subscribe to the site's email alerts and get them on a regular basis whenever new items that match my criteria are discovered. The digest-formatted HTML emails contain all the new articles since the last check, and are nicely formatted and easy to use.

For a few key technologies I also subscribe to feeds in my RSS reader, FeedDemon, where I can easily catalog and search through them.

For example, let's say I am interested (as I am) in keeping on top of all the latest knowledge base info about IIS 6. This web page lists the latest articles, and this  button, which you find at the top of each technology's page, let's me subscribe to the IIS 6 RSS feed for new updates.

Signing up for the email alertz is easy and it's free - just quickly create an account and start checking the boxes next to the topics you are interested in. You can choose from the whole gamut of Microsoft technologies.

The Microsoft Knowledge base is cool, and it's a great source of info. KBAlertz just makes it better.

Microsoft has opened up the Office document formats and made them available for the world to see.

The Schemas provide developers and representatives of business and government a standard way to store and exchange data stored in documents. The download contains documentation on a number of XML schemas for Microsoft® Office 2003 Editions including:

• Microsoft Office Word 2003
• Microsoft Office Excel 2003
• Microsoft Office InfoPath® 2003
• and Microsoft Office Visio® 2003

It also includes schema information for:

• Microsoft Office OneNote® 2003
• Microsoft Office Project 2003
• and Microsoft Office Research Services

Download the schemas and documentation and read the Office 2003 XML Reference Schemas Frequently Asked Questions.

News coverage from TechWorld:

"The move puts Microsoft on a better footing to compete against open-source applications and non-proprietary document formats. Governments around the world have begun to reconsider the use of proprietary formats, which usually lock them into using particular applications and may hinder archiving efforts.

"Microsoft Office formats have become a de facto standard, one of the factors making it difficult for organisations to use alternative applications."

(via Robert Scoble)

The other day I decided to change to using passphrases instead of single passwords on my Windows accounts. Aside from the minor headache of having to remember I made the change at all, it's been a good thing.

That is, until today.

This afternoon I decided re-enable my wireless sync with my Exchange server on my Windows Mobile 2003 smart phone (Audiovox 5600). I had disabled it when I changed the password the other day, with plans to set it back up when I had time. So I went to enter the new passphrase on the mobile device, but no workie... Apparently, while Windows and Outlook and Exchange-HTTPS and pretty much everything else in the Windows world supports passphrases that include spaces, not so on Windows Mobile 2003.

Apparently you simply can't enter spaces in the password box on the smart phone.

So, I have a choice to make: I can either change back to using passwords in order to allow my Windows Mobile device to sync with Exchange (one step forward, two steps back), or I can stay with passphrases and leave my Windows Mobile device crippled (don't even get me started on that one).

Needless to say, I am not very happy with either option...

Anyone have a solution? Am I missing something here? Seems to me when you create a password interface, you'd support what the back end system allows you to use?

John Porcaro works in Marketing at Microsoft. He frequently posts well-thought-out blog entries that you can pretty much take to the bank. His latest is about email culture and its affect on working today. He offers suggestions for how to deal with email, as well as when not to. There are uses for email, and plenty of places where it's just not the right thing to do.

He explains the email culture at Microsoft, and talks about how it impacts him individually. I can relate - I've often found myself victim to the TMI problem. John gets it. Read here to find out why:

http://johnporcaro.typepad.com/blog/2005/01/microsofts_emai.html

Below is an excerpt from his blog entry. Be sure to read his blog entry, to get the full flavor and message, but this list is a great summary of tips about use of email, good and bad...

---

...But over time, and hundreds of thousands of emails, I've learned a trick or two. And though I don't practice them all like I should, here are my favorite email tips:

• Remember, your Inbox is your Inbox.  It's not your To Do list.  You don't use your paper inbox as a filing system, do you?  (Okay, maybe you do.  So how's that working for you, anyway?)
• Block out time to "process" email.  And when you do, "process" it.  Don't spend more than a minute or two on an email--and don't start down the road of firing off two or three emails for everyone you get, or diving into a project after you get to email 13 ("oh, ya!  I owe him a project plan!" or "I should blog about that...").  Put it on your To Do list, and keep processing your inbox.  If you can't do that, there may be other kinds of help available.
• Don't use your email as a filing system.  And for heaven's sake, don't rescue a co-worker who is looking for something you happen to have tucked away in an email folder.  Let them rescue YOU!  If someone else owns a document/plan/conversation, let them store it for you.  Chances are if you need it, someone else has it.
• Use SharePoint/fileshares for what they're for.  Notice that both words have a common root: "share."  You can't share what's stored on your hard drive (well, easily anyway).  Don't use email as a content management system. 
• Get Lookout or MSN Desktop Search if you're hopelessly hooked on using Exchange and your email folders as a filing system, Don't waste another minute "looking for that file" you know you got back in August. 
• DON'T FORGET ABOUT YOUR TASK LIST! (It's the one I have the hardest time with.) Once you've cleaned out your inbox, nicely categorized and prioritized your Task list, don't forget to use it. If you do, you'll soon have a long "To Do" list, and a full Inbox, not exactly an improvement on the situation. 
• Ignore Incoming Email until you have time to process it.  Can you imagine if snail mail was real-time?  Would you wait by your house's mailbox, and opening each piece of junk mail as it came in?  Thank goodness it only comes in once a day!  And even though you pick it up daily, I bet you process that "inbox" only a few times a week.  Change your default view on Outlook to open to your Calendar and Task List, rather than your Inbox.  Turn off the popup toast and reminder sound when email comes in.  Don't respond immediately to each incoming email. 
• Pick up the phone once in a while.  You'd be surprised at how much you can get done in a phone call rather than on email. 

---

Merill Fernando lives in Sri Lanka, a country that was very hard hit by the tsunamis, and he exchanged emails with me this evening after he took the time to send a few kind words in response to the little bit of help this weblog has provided. He has also posted on his weblog about what even a small contribution can do to help people in need. You should read it, especially if you think you can’t afford to give enough to help others. Even if all you have to give is a five bucks, Amazon.com will let you easily donate whatever you can afford. Merill’s site will show you how much just $1 will buy.

Again, we are calling on all bloggers who use AdSense to pledge to donate your AdSense revenues for December or whatever time you wish to the relief and aid effort. Merill pointed the idea out on his weblog and agrees that it is a great idea – so please contribute and contact Google to let them know you would like them to help make this happen by providing an AdSense administrative option to donate funds at the end of this month. Whether or not Google participates in this effort, I am donating my revenue check. Please consider doing the same.

Together we can make things happen – that’s part of the power of the blogosphere. Give now, post your thoughts and plans to your blog, and contact others that can make a difference and ask them to help.

If you’re looking for places to give, just go here. And thank your for doing your part.

I have neglected posting SharePoint links and info recently. Bad me. Good thing there’s other people out there keeping us up to date. For example, Amanda Murphy recently linked to a few interesting nuggets of SharePoint gold, and I thought I would consolidate a couple of the ones that I find most interesting here, as well. Thanks, Amanda!

Nigel Bridport’s SharePoint User Manager v1.0
http://weblogs.asp.net/nigelbridport/archive/2004/11/30/272173.aspx

“Not sure about other people, but I find it quite time consuming when trying to manage users inside of Windows SharePoint Services sites, especially when the sites in the hierarchy have their security inheritance broken.  A number of customers end up breaking security inheritance at every opportunity and then hit this problem.

“So, I am in the process of writing a SharePoint User Manager Windows Application in order to help out in this area!”

Stramit’s Granular Backup Manager for WSS v1.0
http://blog.spsclerics.com/articles/434.aspx

“Granular Backup Manageris a tool which allows you to create back up file and/or .bat file to make this file for a global hierarchy of WSS site. Its internal is based on the sMigrate.exe of the SharePoint system. the back up file are just Web Package. Each sub site of a WSS collection can have its own web package directly with this tool

I made this tool to make easy the back up operation in the case in large WSS collection with document library. Using granular back up file allow you to restore just little site for recover a document instead of the all collection (less time, less space, just the site).”

Jan Tielens’ Smart Part for SharePoint v1.0.0.0
http://weblogs.asp.net/jan/archive/2004/11/23/268644.aspx

Finally I’ve managed to finish a new release for the SmartPart for SharePoint; version 1.0.0.0. This release has some really cool new features, but I'm really excited about the first one: connectable web parts with ASP.NET user controls!

• Create connectable web parts
  In SharePoint you can connect web parts, so they can exchange data. For example you could create a web part that displays a list of invoices, and another web part that displays the details of the selected invoice (master/detail view). Normally you’d have to create your Invoice and InvoiceDetails web parts by hand, implementing the ICellProvider and ICellConsumer interfaces (see Patrick’s excellent article about this topic). With the new version of the SmartPart you can do the same, but instead of coding everything by hand, you can create ASP.NET user controls! Just implement the ICellProviderUserControl or ICellConsumerUserControl on your user control, and you’re done.
• CAS Optimization
  Maxim Karpov did a great job on fine-tuning the Code Access Security for the SmartPart. For running the previous versions of the SmartPart, you’d had to increase the trust level in the web.config to WSS_Medium. In this version this is not required anymore. Of course if your user controls require a higher trust level, you can raise the trust level as usual.
• Hiding the user control selection
  Once you’re finished building your user controls, maybe you’d want to ship the finished web parts/user controls to a customer for example. In that case you don’t want the user to select the user controls from the dropdown listbox of the SmartPart, or filling out the user control name by hand. With the new version of the SmartPart you can create a DWP file which contains all the settings for an instance of the SmartPart showing a specific user control. The nice part is that you can hide the dropdown listbox or textbox for selecting the user control by adding the following node in the DWP after you’ve exported an instance of the SmarPart:
  <ShowUserControlList xmlns="SmartPart">false</ShowUserControlList>.

The other day, Research In Motion (RIM) announced the release of Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES) v4.0 to their customers. The told us about it back in September, but it was not actually released until just recently. Exchange and Domino versions are available now.

What’s the big deal? LOTS.

Of primary interest to IT-types and end users alike is the fact that with the new version of the BES software, end user basically no longer need the Blackberry Desktop software at all anymore. All synchronization can be done wirelessly, or over the network with a small, easy to distribute application.

That means fast, easy setup of handheld devices. It also means that all handheld data can be backed up the the server, and that users can be given a passcode to type on any handheld along with their corporate email address to wirelessly provision and configure their Blackberry device.

There’s a bunch of improvements and enhancements, from security changes to better data access to more programmer tools... I’ll be doing an upgrade from v3.6 to v4.0 here very soon, so I’ll be sure to post my observations and thoughts when we are done with that little project.

One thing’s clear: RIM is getting things right. I’ve been working with BES for a number of versions (for four years now), and with each release the bar is raised significantly.

Now, in order to fulfill my gadget dream, all I need is a Windows Mobile device with a keyboard and the Blackberry Connect software installed. Hey Motorola, where’s that MPx???

The one where I try to sound smart, but really just make a fool of myself in the process. But if I learn something new, it's all good.

I'm just a glutton for punishment, so it's not too unusual that I would attend a developers' evening conference event put on by Microsoft about development for mobile devices, regardless of (or perhaps in spite of) the fact that I am most definitely not a developer.

That said, don't use anything I write here for anything real. Don't quote me or anything. Please. This information is all wrong, I can pretty much guarantee it. This is just an attempt on my part to see how much I can learn in three hours, in an area where I easily get lost.

But I mean hey, I keep seeing these techie developer-like guys writing two lines of code at most in these sessions and how they just magically make things work, shazam!, so I figure even a guy like me should eventually be able to figure this stuff out, at least sort of. Enough to create something useless but functional, at any rate.

Because secretly I sometimes wish I was a developer. I long to make things. New things. Different things.

I just want to create.

So here I am, seeing if I can learn any of this stuff. And I am finding - as usual - that its kinda cool.

Windows Mobile development random thoughts (or maybe this is just a cheap excuse to use bulleted lists):

• Design applications assuming your app will need to rotate portrait>landscape>back again.
• Screen dimensions - be flexible here and include hi-res resources for VGA quality screens in the future (use higher res to improve quality, not so much for more real estate).
• Emulators are cool - deploy, test on a software phone or Pocket PC.
• VS.net will compile and deploy x86 executables to emulators, and ARM compliant code to the real devices. In the future the emulators will emulate ARM chip-sets.

Ok, so this dude just wrote 2 lines of code and made an app that collects a ticker symbol from the user, calls a web service and returns the current price. Two lines of code. Cool. The term code-behind probably relates to this. But I'm not a developer, so I am guessing here.

Look Mom - TWO LINES! Neat.

Idea: Have special evening sessions just for non-developers, where you teach them to develop cool simple stuff. People like me, whose brains are a little older and slower, but who desperately want to be a cool nerd (like that makes sense) and create things. Seriously. I'd go to every one of those events. No real nerds allowed, unless they are teaching (sorry to all my developer friends - I need someone to work at my pace heheh). Target guys like me, who really want to learn, the ones who spend the money. Focus on making something simple, cool and complete. Let me create something, let me feel like I understanding these guys that work for me and around me. Help me grok your world. Let me create something that works, something that when we're done is all mine and does something - hey, anything - useful.

Okay - back to the session...

Ahhhh here we go - demos. I like it when I can see something created and then working.

Tipper is a little program someone wrote that helps you figure out how much of a tip to leave. Cool, especially for foreigners who may not be accustomed to the tipping stuff.

• Windows forms and controls - I think I know what this all means... Looks like there are some controls not available in the mobile framework, which makes sense, since it's a more limited memory space and less-powerful hardware.
• Networking - looks like you don't have to understand HTTP in order to use it. Something about streaming and stuff that escapes me. Okay, it's actually way over my head, but "escapes" sounds cool.
• Data - XML or SQL Server CE for storage, depending on type, amount and size of data (SQL for bigger/more I guess). Web services for data exchange. SQL Mobile 2005 will be a cool enhancement with all kinds of new stuff like data grids and binding and stuff. Make SQL CE development easier. Not require you to use a SQL CE device to develop a database. Nice.
• XML Parsing - XmlTextReader and XmlTextWriter parse a doc, but with no in-memory caching. XmlDocument lets you parse a complete document at once and traverse it in memory.
• ADO.NET - Uhhh, yeah. Way over my head. Heh.
• Web Services - This I get. Sort of. more so than ADO.net anyhow heh... XML web services, both basic and digest authentication. SSL encryption support here, too. SOAP stuff. Clean is good, right?

More demos... A news reader that goes out and reads RSS feeds - now that's a cool one. Thom Robbins wrote this and some of the other demos. The news reader and others can even be downloaded from his blog, here.

Hmmmm Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition. Cool - that should be interesting...

There was an interesting presentation about the future of the compact framework and Windows Mobile, and there will be positive changes in VS.NET 2005 for the new version, too. Life becomes friendlier and easier for the mobile developer.

Microsoft Location Server - lets your application find itself or other apps. Real time location information integrated with MapPoint technology. Very, very cool. Hosted by your company, not Microsoft, which is even cooler.

Ok, I am prety close to brain dead now, and I need to save a few brain cells for my trip to buy Halo at 12:01am. Cool stuff here. I have no idea what I am talking about, really, but I do feel smarter, so that's good.

Thanks to Bliz for the heads-up and invite.

My Blackberry phone device up and died on me as soon as I got to Hawaii a couple weeks ago (a blessing in disguise to be sure), so I got a replacement this week. The new one is the Blackberry 7290 model - the latest rendition of the smaller form factor devices with the full keyboard. It's nice. Have fun with an online tour here.

Want to add ringtones? Instructions here.

Some things I like about it:

• Nice, contrasty, clear color screen
• CallerID info is now big, bold and easy to read, and backlights itself for dark places
• A new Help icon on the home screen that works really well
• VERY bright back-light, and two-stages of brightness (hit the back light button once for half light, again for full brightness, again to turn off - cool)
• Color background images for the home screen and the "screensaver" mode, and a new icon on the home screen called "pictures" that I'll have to explore a bit
• Bluetooth (YAY!) (but no printed documentation in the box on how to use it - Go to the help icon on the device's home screen - that only took me a day to find... Once you enable and configure it in the device settings an icon is added to your home screen, as well)
• Quad-band radio on AT&T (850/900/1800/1900 GSM/GPRS) means noticeably improved network coverage over other devices I have used
• USB charging and connector uses a standard USB cord with the itty-bitty plug on the device end, same as several other devices I use like my MP3 player
• Improved keyboard layout (subtle)
• Better information on the home screen - if I enable wireless calendar sync with Exchange for example, the icon on the home screen changes to indicate it's active in that mode. In vibrate mode, the profile icon (which is moved to the home screen, by the way - that took me another hour to find heheh) gets an overlay of - uhhhh - a vibrate gylph or something like that.

A couple of things are really bugging me, though:

• I can't get the RBRO code to work on the browser that's installed on this one. If I go to Google, I'd like to be able to choose to use HTML only. I'll have to play with this some more. Trying to view a larger HTML page results in an error that the page is too large to convert to "HDML" - whatever that is... That sucks, guys.
• The thumb wheel used for navigation is a little too stiff and slick compared to other BB models like the 7280 or 7780, which means my thumb slips a lot. I am sure I will adjust, it just bugs for now.
• Mine came with a version of the v3.6 desktop software in the box that needs to be updated to ensure wireless calendar works correctly. If you use it, get SP3a. Hmph.
• Still uses the old style ring tones. Come on, guys - polyphonic tones have been around for quite a while now - what's up with that? UPDATE: At least you can add your own simple MIDI files!
• Maximum volume on the earpiece is lower than on other models. It makes it harder to use in noiseier environments. But it's still adequate, just not as nice as other Blackberry phones I have used.

Other than that, I am pretty happy with this thing. It's (for the most part) a real improvement.

Integrated instant messaging that extends its presence and person information to other products, and which reaches outside itself to integrate with other communication products, is on the way. This is a big part of Microsoft's move into the VOIP world.

From Microsoft Monitor:

Earlier today, Microsoft announced the new Office messaging client, codename Istanbul, which is scheduled to ship first half 2005.

Through Istanbul Microsoft plans to bring disparate messaging capabilities, such as IM and telephony, right into Office. To get there Microsoft will deliver new identification capabilities to its server products and the hybrid 'Live Communications' IM client.

Istanbul is yet another Microsoft effort to pull technologies into Office and so extend the suite’s utility. Remember that address book, calendar and e-mail features existed in separate products before Microsoft brought them into Office through Outlook, which hooked into Exchange Server. The Live Communications Client will bring IM, telephony and identity services into Office, but, again, connected to a server product.

As a proponent and business owner of SharePoint 2003 technologies, this article on Security Pipeline caught my eye:

When President George W. Bush and Sen. John Kerry square off Friday at Washington University in round two of their presidential debates, the event will spur an intense IT integration effort pulling together national, state, and local emergency responders. These responders will rely on the real-time flow of data to ensure that the only bombs going off in St. Louis are rhetorical.

To do this, the event's incident-command team, comprised of police from St. Louis County and Washington University, firefighters from the city of Clayton, Mo., and agents from the U.S. Secret Service, will rely heavily on a Microsoft SharePoint-based portal modified by service provider Convergence Communications LLC. In its university lecture hall headquarters, the command team will have 25 PCs that can send and receive data over a LAN to as many as 450 police officers positioned across the campus, regardless of whether the officer hails from county, city, or university forces. Five officers normally patrol this same area.

The portal will let command-center workers exchange instant messages, share data, and have joint access to a checklist of tasks that need to be completed on schedule. For example, if a road is scheduled to be closed at a given time, the officer closing that road must communicate via the portal that he accomplished this task. "If the task is overdue, the list will flash so that the commanders know there's a problem..."

Very cool. Granted, it's a million-dollar system built on SharePoint as a platform - what do you figure the price would have been in the private sector though?

I know he didn't mean to (so I won't act all flattered or smug or anything), but Robert Scoble just sort of summed up the better part of my topic/category list for this-here-blog of mine, over on his blog...

I thought it would be interesting to compare his list of cool upcoming topics for the future to what's categorized or searchable right now on my site. So, I did just that and have added the links, below. Not a bad start, and it points out to me where I am falling shorter than I had realized in my content. Hey Robert, thanks for the copy.

“For the next 18 months, where are the business opportunities going to lie? Tablet PC. Bigtime. Windows Media Center. Gonna be a big deal. SmartPhones. Wanna watch how fast the Motorola MPX220 sells when it's released in the next few months? Xbox Live. You only need to say one number and everyone knows exactly the Xbox thing I'm talking about: "2." Visual Studio 2005. Tons of stuff coming there. MSN has a whole raft of things up their sleeves. And we haven't even started talking about BizTalk, SharePoint, Exchange, SQL Server, 64-bit Windows, SBS, CRM, LiveMeeting, and OneNote, among other things.”

It also gives me a gut-check on my existing blog categories. Here they are, with the ones that apply to this posting checked:

AudioBlogging	Blogging	Humor	IT Security
Mobile	Movies	Office 2003	OneNote
Personal Stories	Random Stuff	RSS Stuff	SharePoint
Tablet PC	Tech	Things that Suck	Windows Media Technology

By way of Jonathan Hardwick, a list of webcasts scheduled covering the upcoming release of Microsoft Operations Manager 2005:

"The MOM 2005 release date is fast approaching, and they're setting up a series of webcasts for customers to learn more about it."

• Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 - Sept 2^nd, 9:30am-11:00am.
  Exploring Microsoft's new event and performance management tool for Windows Server System and beyond.
• Managing Exchange Server with Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 - Sept 7^th, 10:00am-11:30am.
  Increasing service availability and reducing email outages with MOM 2005.
• Managing SQL Server with Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 - Sept 14^th, 8:00am-9:30am.
  Increasing SQL availability and reliability with specialized knowledge and tools in MOM's SQL Management Pack.
• Monitoring your E-Business Solutions with Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 - Sept 16^th, 12:30pm-2pm.
  Using built-in knowledge in MOM 2005 to reduce downtime.
• Using Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 at Microsoft IT - Sept 21^st, 10:00am-11:30am.
  How to manage 6,000 servers across 225 worldwide sites for maximum performance and availability.
• Installing Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 from Start to Finish - Oct 5^th, 8:00am-9:30am.
  Your guide to setting up and testing MOM 2005.
• Monitoring Solutions to Extend Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 Capabilities - Oct 14^th, 9:30am-11:00am.
  Service Monitoring Solution Accelerator.
• Real Stories of Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 - Oct 19^th, 10:00am-11:30am.
  Lessons learned from our MOM 2005 early adopters.
• Monitoring Active Directory with Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 - Nov 4^th, 12:30pm-2pm.
  Using MOM 2005 to improve availability of one of your most critical services.
• Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 at MSN - Dec 1^st, 10:00am-11:30am.
  Using MOM 2005 to monitor one of the largest web portals in the world.

Evan Dodd addresses the /3GB switch confusion and common misconceptions in an informative and to-the-point article on his web log, pointing to technical commentary by a colleague, in the context of Exchange server.

Exchange Server is a complicated product, but things as simple (yeah, I said it) as the /3GB switch don't need to be such a mystery. Admittedly, most exchange admins won't actually care what the switch does. But for those that do want to know, they can easily find out, and even participate in a lively discussion. Or get a link summary of the whole discussion here.

This is a good example of why blogging by the people who are in the trenches is such a great idea. By the way - Another good Exchange commentary resource is KC Lemson's blog.

From Jonathan Hardwick's blog:

New releases: online training sessions for MOM 2005

MOM 2005 is coming out Real Soon Now - but they've already created eight 50-minute online lab sessions to introduce its features:

• Microsoft Operations Manager 2005
• Managing Active Directory with MOM 2005
• Managing Exchange with MOM 2005
• Monitoring SQL Server 2000 with Microsoft Operations Manager 2005
• Planning and Deploying Microsoft Operations Manager 2005
• Administration and Configuration of MOM 2005
• Building and extending MOM using MCF and the SDK Part 1
• Building and extending MOM using MCF and the SDK Part 2

To take a lab, go to https://microsoft.granitepillar.com/mom2005/.

Well, no more dual telephone service for me. Last week, I made the decision to cancel my old-skool standard land-line (POTS) phone service with Qwest, after signing up for and trying out Vonage's IP phone service, which works over my Internet connection.

The LEC's (that's "local exchange carriers") better think fast. They're going to lose this game.

For a lot less money each month, I can now take my phone number wherever I want with a soft-phone that runs on my laptop and/or a portable IP phone device that I can plug into any Internet connection. I can make all the long distance calls I want. I get my voice mail messages as nice little email attachments as soon as someone leaves one for me. I am spending less money each month. It costs less. I get more features for less cash. Oh, by the way - did I mention it's cheaper than the land-line service?

I made one small adjustment to the service on the Vonage web site under my account settings that set my IP phone bridge device to max quality, and the service is great.

This is the future of home telephony, not to mention business service. Hey Baby-Bell's - wake up and make some coffee - your customers are waiting...

UPDATE/SHAMELESS-PLUG:

I just noticed - if you want to sign up for Vonage service, they have a referral program where I can send you an invitation and you'll get the first month free, and I'll get an equal service credit - good for everyone! Just email me here:  and I will send you the invite - be sure to send your name and the email address you want the invite to go to.

Their web site: http://www.vonage.com/

By way of KC Lemson, RSS feeds for all of you Exchange pro's with information you can't help but need:

• RSS Feed that points at the root of all the blogs registered for Exchange [i.e. a notification of newly registered Exchange bloggers]
• RSS feed for links to recent posts on the Exchange blogs
• RSS feed for Exchange KB articles
• RSS feed for KB articles authored by Exchange MVPs
• RSS feed for Exchange downloads

I wonder how many Exchange admins use RSS readers and feeds - if you think about it, there's some competing technology there. Or maybe it's a high percentage. I wonder if my Exchange admin is on the RSS bandwagon? ;)

Over at CRN.com there's an article describing surprise in some circles that Office 12 won't be married to the Longhorn release of Windows.

What people may not remember is that Office 2003 (AKA Office 11 - the current version) was originally planned to release with what would become Longhorn (back in the day), and that as the Longhorn release has changed over time, that relationship was also broken off well before it reached the altar.

The fact that Microsoft keeps its productivity apps moving while building a healthy platform for them to run on - In other words not gluing them to each other - is a good thing. Longhorn will be a monster-sized change in the Windows operating system world, and while Microsoft will almost certainly build special hooks into Office 12 that will take advantage of Longhorn's new features when(ever) it's released, I'd expect (based on my conversations) that another version of Office will soon follow or parallel the Longhorn release, but Office 12 will include some pre-baked Longhorn capabilities. Besides, they'll have to support previous versions of Windows for at least some time, in order to allow people to properly interoperate.

Longhorn will be to Windows XP and 2003 what Windows 95 was to Windows 3.1 -- It will be huge, a major change in the way we use computing power from both the end-user and programming/design perspectives. Longhorn represents the next paradigm shift in the Windows computer world, if you will.

Microsoft now does a better job of quickly finishing better and more-frequent releases of their software. In-house quality assurance and release management tools implemented in the past year or two help them reach bug-free, clean code state ("Milestone Q") faster and with greater confidence, which better enables them to get products ready and out the door, with more features and fewer problems. It also enables them to switch gears and attack issues in existing products ruthlessly when needed.

I, for one, am glad we won't have to wait for Longhorn to keep growing and improving in areas like Office and some of the other productivity applications. New versions of Office mean we can reasonably hope for new or enhanced versions of other Office System tools, which we know are coming - specifically tools like Live Communication Server (look for some very cool and improved features there in the next couple of releases), SharePoint, Exchange and other Office System products on the server-side. Longhorn should be the platform to beat all platforms from a computing perspective, and other applications should be built to fit when Longhorn is ready (meaning feature-completed, tested and secured in a way that Microsoft has never done before). To do otherwise would be akin to the tail wagging the dog, and that just won't do.

From KC Lemson's weblog, a solution to a frequently asked SharePoint question:

Publish a web part on your sharepoint site that can be dynamically consumed inline by other sites

The Exchange team uses sharepoint portal server for a lot of things, such as storing & tracking documents & lists & whatnot. As the release manager, I own the site that has the master schedule on it. There are other teams that used to have a schedule listed separately on their own sites. I wanted them to consume my web part rather than repeating the content, so that if/when the schedule changes, they don't need to update theirs (or worse yet, leave it stale and confuse someone).

Linking to my web part is one option, but that's not inline in their sites, so it's not as nice of an interface. Exporting my web part as a template for them to import will only give them a copy of it at that point in time.

Thankfully, MVP & sharepoint guru Sig clued me in on how to do this. My site is http://mysharepointserver/sites/site1. I have a web part that I want to expose inline in http://mysharepointserver/sites/site2's content. Here's how the manager of site2 can do this:

1. Open up site2 in frontpage 2003. Make sure you have the default.aspx open in the page view.
2. On the task pane, choose “Find Datasource“ (click the down arrow near the top of the task pane to see it)
3. Enter the URL http://mysharepointserver/sites/site1 and the name of the web part you want to reference
4. Drag/drop the result to the desired location on your site and save changes

It works wonderfully. Thanks so much, Sig!

Microsoft embraced blogging and open discussion some time ago. Now not only do they allow/encourage their employees to blog about their work and express their own opinions, they've moved all the greatness that is Microsoft-employee-blogging right onto their corporate web site. And they've completely embraced RSS as a delivery mechanism. Practically all their community content is available in RSS feeds. Nice.

From Microsoft's Community site:

We just launched the Microsoft Community Blogs Portal, a searchable listing of blogs by Microsoft employees, categorized by product or technology topic. The project also makes it easier for pages across Microsoft.com to publish lists of relevant blogs and posts from those blogs.

This project was intended to answer one of the key pieces of feedback we get from customers about our blogging efforts to date. As people posted in response to Scoble's question about Microsoft blogs, it’s sometimes hard to find blogs about a particular technology or product that we make, even on a site like blogs.msdn.com which only has full time Microsoft employees blogging. Our answer to that is to ask our bloggers to categorize their RSS feeds (and to indicate whether they’re writing for a technical audience or a more general readership). The blog portal then makes those blogs available for consumption.

The project also provides ways for blog content to be automatically incorporated into pages on Microsoft.com. We’ve already been doing this, in a proof of concept way, on MSDN in the developer centers, but the process has been very manual. This should make it much easier for all our site managers to incorporate blogs.

A nice side effect of the project is the ability to search across all of the registered RSS feeds. So if you aren’t able to find something using regular Microsoft.com search but you think one of our bloggers might have written about it, you can search across all the registered posts from the portal.

Oh yeah, about RSS. A second project which launched yesterday, called Smart Components 2.0, also allows these contextually relevant lists of posts and blogs to be re-published via RSS. What’s that mean? In a nutshell, every one of the blog recent posts components contains a white on orange RSS badge linking to an RSS feed that is scoped to the same content set as the component. The one on the blog portal has an RSS feed of the fifty most recent posts from all registered Microsoft blogs. If I’m on the Exchange community site, there will now be an RSS feed that aggregates posts from registered bloggers who write about Exchange. And we aren’t just RSS-enabling blog content. With the new code that we deployed yesterday, all sorts of smart components on our sites, including lists of newsgroup content, upcoming chats and webcasts, knowledge base articles, and security bulletins now emit RSS.

Finally, what we shipped yesterday was a portal and a toolbox for our site managers to incorporate these features into their sites. We’ll point to uses of the new components as they go live and spread Microsoft blogs and RSS across Microsoft.com. We’ll also write specifics about some of the other new features in the Smart Components 2.0 release.

(Bonus: there are some interesting hidden features in the blog portal.)

ADDED 7/11/04: It's definitely worth noting that despite the “revolutionary” apearance (to some) of Microsoft suddenly being “open,” that's not really the case. I have always been able to talk in depth with many people at Microsoft about the things that I do in my line of work, and they have always been quite open and helpful - both in terms of providing me information I need, and in terms of collecting information from me in order to make sure they're building relevant products.

Josh Allen has a similar opinion:

People at Microsoft blog because they tend to be open, independent, and communicative; not the other way 'round.  Blogs do provide evidence that Microsoft is just a bunch of normal people like any other company; but the blogging isn't the cause of this normalcy -- it's just a new way to communicate that reality.

Hey. it's a Microsoft link day here at the ol' blog, so... Another useful one:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/community/itlinks.mspx

Microsoft's IT Pro communities are a good resource for a variety of MSFT servers and technologies. Newsgroups and a huge amount and variety of information - coming from both inside and outside Microsoft:

Would you like to get your computer advice directly from the world’s leading technology experts? Interested in tips from power users or developers? Do you have tips you’d like to share with others? Then you’ve come to the right place. There is a lively community of computer experts and computer users who are taking advantage of the Internet to exchange ideas, information, knowledge, and expertise about Microsoft products and services. The Microsoft Communities Web site provides access to wealth of newsgroups, chats, user groups, tips, and discussions where experts and users who are passionate about Microsoft technologies share their thoughts, help, support, and ideas.

Evan Feldman has written an interesting article about the process of field trials during the initial development of the Tablet PC. We've deployed more than 50 tablet PC's at the company where I work, and as the guy responsible for that decision (read: they guy whose neck is hanging out), I can say that I have heard the same concerns and have seen the same "celebrity" status (whether right or wrong) attached to using one of these truly nifty devices.

Ultimately, what matters most is finding and implementing a tool that makes people more effective and productive. Among other recent technologies we've deployed, the Tablet is one that is starting to show us its unique ability to help people become more flexible and effective in their day-to-day work. I'll be shocked if Tablet PC functionality doesn't eventually become commonplace or even standard in notebook computers - it just makes sense.

Tablet PCs, OneNote, SharePoint Portal and Windows SharePoint Services, Office System 2003, Live Communication Server, Exchange 2003, and much more -- It's been quite a year for those of us at work behind the scenes. What I especially appreciate is the noticeable improvement in quality in all of these product areas with new version releases, and the resulting increases in use and adoption by end users.

Personally, I've used a Tablet PC since the first models were released commercially more than a year and a half ago, and I'm lucky enough to be in a position where I get to (or unlucky enough to have to, depending on your point of view) test new equipment and software in the process of deciding how, when and whether we should use them at our company. I'm looking forward to seeing what's next in the Tablet world -- There's plenty of room and opportunity for this platform to grow, and the potential is certainly great.

Thanks to Alwin Hawkins (who has a blog I read regularly), I'm a Gmail user now. He had a couple extra invitations (you can't just sign up, someone has to invite you), and was kind enough to share.

Okay, so there are certain things about Gmail that are kind of cool. I like the idea of being able to organize content by conversation and applying multiple labels (think of them as virtual folders) to a single conversation. Add the fairly advanced searching features, and you've got a pretty flexible email system.

It's definitely not Outlook on Exchange, but then again not much is. Besides, this is 100% web-based. You get a gig of storage space, which is nearly obscene. For a person who needs a free and flexible Internet email account for personal use, it's not too darn shabby.

SearchExchange.com reports that later this month, Microsoft will release the new spam filter for Exchange 2003, as well as Service Pack One and the first Feature Pack.

Nice that they are separating the fixes (service pack) from the feature enhancements. Notable among the feature enhancements for me are the improved/new admin tools and the RPC-over-HTTP setup tools. Nice.

Speaking of which... If you have not yet enabled RPC over HTTP, let me tell you - it's very nice to be able to connect to the Exchange server securely over the Internet. It's also a bit complicated to set up (involves some registry editing, client software patch download, and a good understanding of the vague), and has not been all that well documented. However, there is a recently-published technical article at the Microsoft Download Center called “Exchange Server 2003 RPC over HTTP Deployment Scenarios” that covers the setup on both the server and client sides. Read carefully and follow every step, and it will work. Note also the system and network requirements. They are not optional. You'll need to have a compatible environment for this to work.

Looks like maybe the future is starting to look up for PocketPC-based phones.

I used a Motorola SmartPhone (MPX200) for a while, but gave up on it because of poor performance in the Exchange sync department (on the part of the phone, which bogged down under the pressure).

As far as T9 text input has come, it drove me crazy trying to type email on a phone keyboard, so I switched back to the Blackberry Phone, which does a great job for me and others where I work. It just doesn't run the Windows Mobile OS.

But, looks like Motorola has some new models up its sleeve. While the new SmartPhone (MPx100) looks interesting, the new MPx PDA-Phone looks very cool. With a full keboard built-in, a true HTML browser, WiFi built in, etc., I'll be all over this (if it ever makes it to the US, that is). Availability is set for 2nd half of 2004 according to Motorola's press releases.

KC Lemson, who works on the Exchange team at Microsoft, asks if there are any IT bloggers out there who are actually blogging about IT. She's soliciting links from anyone who does, or from people who know of good ones, to see if it would be worthwhile to put together a list.

I think that's a great idea. There are tons of blogs by developers and about specific products, etc., but not that many that are about IT operations and management. I hope this takes off, and it's already made me think a bit about some things that I could be blogging that I have thus far ignored.