Author: rich_gibbons

Microsoft Licensing, products, Cloud, and more!
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There is an octopus in the Goonies!


I got the Goonies on DVD for Xmas and have spent an enjoyable couple of hours re-watching what is one of my favourite ever films, and a true classic piece of cinema. Not only that but I finally got an answer to one part of the film that has always puzzled me…near the end when the kids escape and are fielding questions from the reporters; Data says “…the part with the Octopus was very scary” and I’ve wondered for years what he was on about.

Now, having watched the DVD deleted scenes in turns out there actually WAS a giant Octopus in it originally! After they’ve all jumped off One-Eyed Willy’s ship-it attacks them in the water and good ol’ Data saves the day 🙂

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Literal Videos Removed


It seems that most of the Literal Videos have been removed from Youtube due to Copyright claims, which is a real shame. It seems that only Tears for Fears are cool enough to leave theirs up…

I don’t really see what the issue is as the videos are affectionate and playful and I think they’ve caused an increase in people listening to those songs and bands as a whole…I know I’ve been rocking out to them a lot more than before.

Hopefully they’ll come back…

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ViaPost-A New Way to Mail


ViaPost allows you to send physical post via your PC, saving money and carbon emissions.

It’s as easy as installing a driveron your Windows machine and printing it using the “Send to ViaPost” option. They’ll print it nearer it’s final location and then stamp it for the final past of it’s journey, apparently reducing overall emissions by 80%…and for a starting price of 27p!

If you can’t install the driver, you can use the ViaPost WebPortal to manually upload documents and mailing lists and there’s also an API for you developers out there 🙂 

This sounds like quite an ingenious idea and I’ll be interested to see how it catches on as it is effectively another type of outsourcing for businesses. This service can save business the time and cost of folding, stuffing and mailing their own invoices, direct mailers etc (something Viapost estimate to cost 50p per letter); however I think a lot of people will be wary of sending anything personal/financial through this channel due to worries around data security-at least initially. The FAQ states:

Security information:
“As soon as you press “Send it ViaPostâ„¢” within the ViaPost print driver your letter will be securely encrypted by the software. This means that your letter cannot be read by others whilst in transit and will be printed automatically and securely at the ViaPost print facility closest to the destination address. If you have any questions please email security@viapost.com.”

Perhaps the biggest downside at the minute is that it takes 3 days for a letter to be delivered-which in many cases could be too long. Again from the FAQs:

Why does it take three days?
At the moment, we operate to the following print cycle: Day 0: You send your letter. Day 1: We print your letter. Day 2: We deliver to Royal Mail local office. Day 3: Royal Mail deliver to the door. Our aim will be to print your letter and deliver it to Royal Mail the same day you send it, so it will be delivered by the postman the next day. We hope to soon offer this service for addresses in London, later rolling out to the rest of the country.

Once they can get the letters received, printed and with Royal Mail within a day-that will make it an even more viable alternative to how we do things now.

I saw this over on Steve Clayton’s blog and would like to say I wish his friends all the best in this venture as it could make a real difference!

It’s all based on .NET and is another great example of how Microsoft software can help make new, fresh ideas a reality so Go change the World ViaPost 🙂

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NWA Help the Police


I found this on YouTube today and it’s absolutely brilliant…a dad edited version of NWA’s “Fuck Tha Police” from a BBC3 Sketch show called Rush Hour. Even better, it’s Adam from the Adam & Joe Show…check it out:

…and that Jasper, is more or less how it is in the Hood.

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XP deadline extended (again)


Microsoft have, yet again, given XP a stay of execution.  System builders will now be able to purchase copies of XP up until 30/06/09.

Mary Jo Foley over at ZDnet has some interesting points to make on this though:

This definition of “System Builder” doesn’t include the likes of HP, Dell, Lenovo etc but rather the small “White Box” vendors, the kind who have a shop in town…

Also, this is separate to the deadline for Netbooks-which is 30/06/10 or one year after Windows 7, whichever comes last.

So all in all not a massive announcement in my opinion, but it does seem to show that the demand for XP is still there. I have been a fan of Vista pretty much since it was released and I can’t wait for Windows 7, so I think people really should move off XP where they can. I can see the attraction now that Netbooks are gaining popularity but it seems that people have got Windows 7 working on them without too much of a problem…

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Microsoft OCS 2007 R2 Released


Microsoft OCS 2007 R2 has officially been Released to Manufacturing (RTM’d) as of 19/12/08 so in plenty of time for the Virtual Launch on 13/02/09.

It’s still on course to add a whole host of new features to the OCS platform which will make it even more of a contender in the UC arena.

I really feel that MS OCS 2007 coupled with the Roundtable is a winning combo when it comes to Unified Communications.

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Microsoft Internet Explorer Vulnerability fix available


Microsoft will release the patch to fix the widely reported issue with Internet Explorer at 6pm GMT today (Wednesday 17/12/08) via http://update.microsoft.com/.

There has been a lot of noise & hype about this in the press, particularly from the BBC, saying that everyone should switch browsers etc. I think there’s been a certain amount of scare-mongering and hysteria surrounding this exploit…but I’m not sure why?

Anyway, it should all be fixed this evening so download the patch and away you go 🙂

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Jabra/Microsoft Unified Communications Headsets


I was talking to our account manager at Jabra today about their latest range of headsets and they’re really impressive.

Jabra were the first, and I believe still the only, company to have their headsets certified by Microsoft as “Optimized for Microsoft Office Communicator” which is a nice badge to have 🙂

I’ve got the M5390at work and it’s a great bit of kit, especially now I’ve worked out how to use it properly! I’ve always held out against headsets, always said I “need to have a phone in my hand”, always thought headsets were a little bit “Posey” but not any more.

I’ve had the M5390 for about 4 months and find it to be great…the best thing is being able to type properly whilst on the phone, particularly during webcasts, conference calls etc. As the headset is wireless with up to 70M range, I can wander off from my desk to pick up a fax, make a brew, buy a Wispa and all sorts of things, that extra bit of freedom really does help increase productivity.

Also, I’ve got it paired to both my desk phone and my PC “softPhone” so it can hook into Microsoft Office Communicator really well. It also means that you can use it to listen to internet radio, Youtube etc during your lunch hour (of course!) and then webcasts and the like during work hours without bothering any of your colleagues.

Jabra OCS headsets

Sorry the text is a bit small, I’ll try and rectify that ASAP 🙂

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Predator and Robocop raps


I think these are amazing-the Predator & Robocop films condensed into 6 and 10 minute raps respectively.

The originality and skill involved in telling the whole story of a film in less than 10% of it’s running time is brilliant, especially the way they’ve worked movie soundbites into the lyrics. These gems are lovingly crafted by DJ Mayhem & MC MouthMaster Murf, from a group called The Anomalies.

Predator:

Robocop:

I hope they come up with some more as I’d love to see these become a new meme on the intertubes, I might even give it a go myself if I get the time!

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Microsoft Roundtable Demo


I (along with our friends @ Microsoft) did a demo of the Microsoft Roundtable today down at a customer’s very impressive site and I’m pleased to say, it went very well 🙂

We tested out a couple of different setups and I can tell you now that 2 Roundtables in the same room just isn’t a good idea! Having both devices live means feedback and general audio-confusion for all involved so even in the bigger boardrooms, 1 is the limit really.

Some people were worred that the panoramic view across the bottom would be too small for effective video-conferencing and that may be true, but it’s easy enough to enlarge the video for conversations and then drop it back down when you want to share data etc*.

The ability of Live Meeting to share presentations, take polls and provide collaborative whiteboarding was a definite hit with the demo attendees, and helped show that the Roundtable, in conjunction with Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007, really is a great business benefit.

The demo was such a hit that even the Managing Director of this world famous multi-national company came down to take a look, and was instantly impressed with how it could help increase productivity among their 2000+ users 🙂

It was great to see first hand what customers think of this product and also great to see that they agree with me about the many different benefits such as increased productivity, reduction in travel expenses, helping reduce a company’s carbon footprint and more.

Here are links to some of my other Roundtable posts:

Documents & Downloads

Unboxing Pics

Review

*I’ll hopefully be able to update this post with some example images soon…

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