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February 2004 - Posts

Great News!!

I found out yesterday that my wife is pregnant again and we had it confirmed in a scan this morning. Baby is 6 weeks and 5 days old and is due on the 16th October. Added to that, Im moving to a bigger house tomorrow (which is lucky it seems ;) so I Read More
posted Thursday, February 26, 2004 1:24 PM by adam | 6 Comments
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Service Packs vs Feature Packs

We've covered this before but KC has an excellent post on the intricacies of the Microsoft Product Development process and how these processes impact decisions as to what features go where. Read more here. Read More
posted Wednesday, February 25, 2004 12:58 AM by adam | 0 Comments
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Skype can only get better..

Skype now does conference calling. For a company like mine, where most of the staff work from home, stuff like this is great. Click the link to call me if you want to try it out. I do seem to get an abnormal amount of random calls from Polish people Read More
posted Wednesday, February 25, 2004 12:13 AM by adam | 1 Comments
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Sendmail Working with Microsoft to create Caller ID for E-mail

Just found details of a plugin that sendmail are working on to facilitate caller ID for e-mail. "Authenticated sender technologies like Microsoft's Caller ID are essential to help address fraud and spam in Internet email," said Eric Allman, CTO at Sendmail. Read More
posted Tuesday, February 24, 2004 11:52 PM by adam | 3 Comments
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Exchange Edge Services

KC has blogged links to the press release and technology page for a new product to be released in 2005. “Exchange Edge Services will perform three major functions critical to overall e-mail protection, security and hygiene. As an SMTP relay, it Read More
posted Tuesday, February 24, 2004 11:27 PM by adam | 0 Comments
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Clothing for E-mail Geeks

The Exchange Team have set up a Cafe Press store where you can get clothing designed by the Exchange team themselves. Cool! Details here. Read More
posted Tuesday, February 24, 2004 10:44 PM by adam | 0 Comments
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Ninja Golf.. An Obvious Combination..

Just found an interesting site with details of an old Atari 7800 game called Ninja Golf which, unsurprisingly, involves ninjas playing golf. You can even download the ROM and emulator and have a game yourself! Fore...Aiiiieeee!! Read More
posted Tuesday, February 24, 2004 10:29 AM by adam | 0 Comments
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New Build of Windows XP SP2

For anyone on the SP2 beta, Microsoft have posted up a new build of Windows XP Service Pack 2. This is build 2082 and can be downloaded from here (Beta Access Required). Read More
posted Tuesday, February 24, 2004 10:01 AM by adam | 3 Comments
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I need a new CSS..

I've tried creating my own and given up :( Anyone know of a good source of CSS files for .Text? Read More
posted Saturday, February 21, 2004 11:52 PM by adam | 1 Comments
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ActiveXbox looking for News Posters

ActiveXbox is looking for volunteers to help post news on the site. The job requires 10 minutes a day Monday through Friday, no HTML experience is necessary. Serious inquiries only Click here for more info. Read More
posted Saturday, February 21, 2004 11:06 PM by adam | 2 Comments
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A Whole Bag of Exchange Stuff Part 2

Evan Dodds has an interesting post about the IsAlive function on Exchange 200x clusters. If you have any involvement with Exchange clusters, it looks like Evan's blog is one to watch. In Windows "MSCS" clusters, one of the big things it does is monitor Read More
posted Saturday, February 21, 2004 10:56 PM by adam | 0 Comments
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Apologies..

Sorry I didnt do part 2 of the exchange bits.. Im having a sucky day today. I have a cold (again!) and my wife's car got broken into but i'll get back into the swing of posting this evening And.. I got myself a new mug... Details to follow :D Read More
posted Friday, February 20, 2004 3:10 PM by adam | 2 Comments
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A whole Bag of Exchange Stuff Part 1

In a bid to clear off my RSS queue, I have a plethora of Microsoft Exchange stuff for you this afternoon. Kyle Lewallen has an interesting piece on the use of the PFDavAdmin over at the Exchange Team Blog. What I do want to write about is using this Read More
posted Thursday, February 19, 2004 3:10 PM by adam | 0 Comments
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What's that smell? Oh, I have e-mail!

Apparently, Telewest Broadband are working on a device that will generate smells when you get e-mail/IM Inside the device would be 20 disposable pockets of different scents, which could be combined - like the coloured ink cartridges on a printer - to Read More
posted Thursday, February 19, 2004 2:07 PM by adam | 1 Comments
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Nice new laptops from Sony

Sony are starting to make some sweet laptops. The original Vaio line, whilst feature packed, was ugly. Their recent iMac copy range was also nasty. The new K series is still feature packed, boasting integrated 802.11b/g WLAN connectivity, 512MB of Read More
posted Thursday, February 19, 2004 1:46 PM by adam | 0 Comments
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Useful new tools from Microsoft

Microsoft have released a couple of useful new tools. The first is the Diagnostic Tool for the Microsoft VM. Following legal action from Sun, Microsoft are withdrawing support for the Microsoft Java Virtual Machine (MSJVM). This tool can be used to Read More
posted Thursday, February 19, 2004 10:59 AM by adam | 0 Comments
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Microsoft announces "If You Ruled the Gaming World" Xbox Contest

This via Steve Bink What does the future of gaming look like? What are your hopes, dreams and fears? Do you wish you could influence game developers’ decisions, but feel powerless to do so? Microsoft’s “If You Ruled the Gaming World” Read More
posted Thursday, February 19, 2004 9:31 AM by adam | 1 Comments
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KB - How to Recover or Restore a Single Mailbox in Exchange 2003

Full server restores are something every exchange administrator has to do at least once, even if only for DR purposes. However, single mailbox restores are something that happens more often. This How to article was created, with love on valentines day, Read More
posted Thursday, February 19, 2004 1:51 AM by adam | 0 Comments
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Sig Weber the Web Part Man

If you use SharePoint for anything, you'll know all about web parts. Sig Weber knows more than most and has some great web parts for you to download, inclusing a .NET RDP client. Cool Thanks to Colin for the link Read More
posted Thursday, February 19, 2004 1:07 AM by adam | 2 Comments
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Xbox Live Giveaway Contest

If and when Microsoft come up with the Xbox equivalent of the MVP program, surely Amanda Murphy will be the first one. Amanda just blogged about Microsoft's new Xbox live Giveaway for people living in the UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Switzerland, or Read More
posted Thursday, February 19, 2004 12:56 AM by adam | 2 Comments
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Enterprise Management with the Group Policy Management Console

Its surprising how few AD admins know about this free tool. Quite simply, if you have to do any GPO adninistration, this tool WILL make your job easier. The GPMC lets administrators manage Group Policy for multiple domains and sites within one or more Read More
posted Thursday, February 19, 2004 12:49 AM by adam | 0 Comments
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What makes you read a blog?

I was talking to one of my friends earlier and the subject of blogs came up. He's looking to advance his career (aren't we all?) and I said he should get a blog. He said that there wasn't much point as he didnt have anything to say that would be worth Read More
posted Wednesday, February 18, 2004 11:33 PM by adam | 2 Comments
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DJ Amber has a new single out

You may remember a while back I blogged about a friend of Rob Scoble, DJ Amber.. Well she has a new single out called Your Love [Whatwithall] You can hear a sample here. The full track will be one of ten remixes featured on the forthcoming http://www.karmacoda.com Read More
posted Wednesday, February 18, 2004 6:38 PM by adam | 1 Comments
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Barcode Art

I can't quite decide if this site is genius or just insane :S Barcode art is, as you may expect, a site about barcode art. There are barcode clocks, barcode collages and you can even create your very own barcode just in case you want to label yourself Read More
posted Wednesday, February 18, 2004 4:45 PM by adam | 3 Comments
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Monitoring Server Performance: Best Practice

Another great post from Michael Palermiti, this time on his own experiences with monitoring server performance. I am starting a series of my own brain dumps on monitoring server performance best practices for all the system admins (specifically Read More
posted Wednesday, February 18, 2004 3:57 PM by adam | 0 Comments
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Microsoft Security Stuff

First off, Microsoft have a new site where you can get access to all of their available security guidance. It has the rather appropriate title of Security Guidance Center and can be found here. Secondly, Microsoft are now accepting orders for their Read More
posted Wednesday, February 18, 2004 3:08 PM by adam | 1 Comments
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Storage Considerations for Exchange Server

Michael Palermiti (Another new Exchange blogger from PSS) has a post with links to 2 great articles written for Microsoft OTG (Microsoft's IT Department) Chek it out here. Believe me, poor disk subsystem design and implementation is the #1 reason for Read More
posted Wednesday, February 18, 2004 1:43 PM by adam | 1 Comments
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Exchange Server Cluster Installation Gotcha

Evan Dodds, an Exchange Support Engineer with Microsoft PSS, has posted an excellent workaround for a problem I've experienced before when installing Exchange 200x clusters. Exchange 200x clusters install in two separate phases: In the first phase, the Read More
posted Wednesday, February 18, 2004 1:25 PM by adam | 0 Comments
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Still on the quest for a free mug..

Since I broke my HP mug the other day, I've had to resort to drinking my tea from a Bob the Builder one. Amusing as this may be, I need a new one. Anyone know of any half-decent free mugs? Read More
posted Wednesday, February 18, 2004 1:02 PM by adam | 2 Comments
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Windows Server 2003 overtakes NT4

According to What PC Magazine UK, there are now more internet hosts running Windows Server 2003 then Windows NT4 The number of website hostnames running Microsoft's newest operating system, Windows Server 2003, overtook those running on Windows NT4 earlier Read More
posted Wednesday, February 18, 2004 12:58 PM by adam | 0 Comments
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Exchange System Management DC Discovery

Amanda Langowski has a neat post over on Exchange Team Blog detailing the method that ESM uses for domain controller discovery. It's neat because I didnt actually know it and now I do - read it and you can too :) Read More
posted Wednesday, February 18, 2004 12:53 PM by adam | 0 Comments
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How to Test the Disks on your Exchange Server

Mike Lee has posted an excellent entry on the Exchange team blog about assessing the performance of the disks on your Exchange Server using JetStress If there's one thing that's true of all busy Exchange servers, it's that they generate massive amounts Read More
posted Wednesday, February 18, 2004 10:48 AM by adam | 0 Comments
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Tips for a Successful Microsoft Presentation

Via Rob Scoble.. Scott Hanselman is a Microsoft Regional Director so he gets to do lots of presentations to and for Microsoft. Here, he shares his presentation tips as well as a list of useful tools. This is great for anyoune speaking at conferences Read More
posted Wednesday, February 18, 2004 10:27 AM by adam | 0 Comments
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Server Consolidation Using Exchange Server 2003

This is particularly appropriate to my current project as it's all about server consolidation using Exchange Server 2003. As e-mail messaging continues to grow in both volume and business importance, organizations are looking for new options to manage Read More
posted Wednesday, February 18, 2004 10:04 AM by adam | 0 Comments
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Another reason why my SPV E100 Sucks!

As if i needed one.. MSMobiles.com reports that you can now get Rock Paper Scissors on Windows Powered Smartphone but only on 2003 devices :( Being that it took Orange 3-4 months to fix the MSN messenger issue, im not optimistic about an SP2003 upgrade Read More
posted Tuesday, February 17, 2004 9:33 PM by adam | 0 Comments
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Microsoft Releases Visio 2003 Deployment Tools

Visio is one of my favourite office apps :) Microsoft have released the Resource Kit tools to aid you with deploying Visio 2003. As the download page is a marvel of brevity, I'll tell you what the RK tools include. You get Group Policy and SMS Read More
posted Tuesday, February 17, 2004 9:25 PM by adam | 1 Comments
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Exchange 2003 Bandwidth Analysis

Via Steve Bink Citrix Consulting conducted a bandwidth analysis project of Microsoft Exchange 2003 server using an Outlook 2003 client interface to test various simulated user scenarios. The same scenarios were also tested and compared on the new Microsoft Read More
posted Tuesday, February 17, 2004 8:49 PM by adam | 0 Comments
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Windows Server Feedback. Contribute Your Ideas. Join the Team

Microsoft have a new site where you can submit your ideas and feedback for ongoing development of the Windows Server product line. Help us improve Windows Server by providing us with your suggestions and ideas. All feedbacksubmitted will be sent to the Read More
posted Tuesday, February 17, 2004 10:27 AM by adam | 1 Comments
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VMWare Offers for Microsoft Certified Professionals

For a limited time, VMWare are offering $100 rebate to any MCP/MCSE's purchasing VMWare As a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE) or Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP), you're on the forefront of developments in information technology, and Read More
posted Tuesday, February 17, 2004 9:51 AM by adam | 0 Comments
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I'm back!

After 48 hours of prolific posting at the end of last week, I gave myself the weekend off :D Lots going on over the next couple of weeks: - moving to a bigger house on the seafront (which will be nice for working in the summer) - Jessica is on half Read More
posted Tuesday, February 17, 2004 9:25 AM by adam | 0 Comments
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Microsoft Infrastructure and Mobile Technology – Executive Briefing (UK)

Eurodata have a half day seminar on Windows 2003 and Exchange 2003 and how then can be used to to create a secure, reliable mobility solution. The briefing will focus on: Windows Server 2003 implementation and the importance for the correct Active Read More
posted Friday, February 13, 2004 3:06 PM by adam | 0 Comments
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Microsoft Offers Free VPC2004 Upgrade for Connectix Users

Microsoft are offering a free upgrade to Virtual PC 2004 for any licensed users of Connectix Virtual PC 4.x and 5.x but you have to be quick as the offer ends March 31st In February 2003, Microsoft acquired from Connectix Corporation the leading-edge Read More
posted Friday, February 13, 2004 11:29 AM by adam | 0 Comments
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KB Article - The Exchange 2003 version of Outlook Web Access is only available after you upgrade the back-end server to Exchange 2003

Maybe an obvious one but its actually quite a common misconception that by upgrading your front end servers to Exchange 2003, you get OWA 2003 (I know of at least 2 people that thought this). This KB article explains how various combinations of FE and Read More
posted Friday, February 13, 2004 10:04 AM by adam | 0 Comments
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Cheap Exchange 2000 Books

Paul Robichaux has been doing some spring cleaning and found two boxfuls of Secure Messaging with Exchange 2000. As his 2003 version is due any time now, they have to go. If you're interested, read his blog here. Any chance of a signed 2003 copy, Paul? Read More
posted Friday, February 13, 2004 9:01 AM by adam | 0 Comments
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What the Exchange Kodiak Team do in their spare time

Dont worry, its nothing rude ;) Find out here. with that, I bid thee goodnight... :) Read More
posted Friday, February 13, 2004 12:19 AM by adam | 0 Comments
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How to check the MMC snap-in version on Windows 2000

Ok.. second to last one for the day and then i'm off to bed ;) Over on the Exchange team blog, Nino Bilic tells us how to see what MMC snap in version you have on Win2K "Now - this is one of those things that should be easy and obvious. How do you figure Read More
posted Friday, February 13, 2004 12:17 AM by adam | 0 Comments
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How Microsoft Develops and Releases Patches

An interesting article in Technet from Jeffrey Jones When we launched our first security newsletter in December, I asked you to send me your comments and feedback so that I could be your advocate at Microsoft for security issues—and you delivered! Read More
posted Thursday, February 12, 2004 11:38 PM by adam | 0 Comments
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Wireless Appliance Chargers

Neil asks when someone will invent a wireless charger for electrical appliances and end the misery of untangling the multitude of chargers for various devices we all seem to carry these days? I'm pleased to tell you that they already have. Splashpower Read More
posted Thursday, February 12, 2004 10:47 PM by adam | 2 Comments
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Bloggers: MS are listening

Via KC The MS events team have set up a link for bloggers to point to Tech-Ed at http://go.microsoft.com/?LinkID=404299. They want to track the clickthrough rate via that link, so they can determine if there is enough traffic to make it worth possibly Read More
posted Thursday, February 12, 2004 10:04 PM by adam | 0 Comments
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UK - Avocent Techland KVM Seminar on Server Management and KVM-over-IP

Techland are holding a seminar on the 2nd March on IP based KVM (Keyboard Video Mouse) Switches Avocent make KVM's for HP, Dell and IBM too. Its worth going along as the location is an excellent hotel in Runnymede (Where the Magna Carta was signed in Read More
posted Thursday, February 12, 2004 9:58 PM by adam | 0 Comments
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Windows 2000/2003: Multiple Forests Considerations White Paper

Microsoft have released a paper that outlines situations in which you may need to deploy more than one Active Diectory forest. "This paper describes the conditions that warrant creating more than one Active Directory forest for a single enterprise, including Read More
posted Thursday, February 12, 2004 9:35 PM by adam | 0 Comments
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Lottery Double Rollover - 17 Million Pound Jackpot

The UK lottery jackpot this saturday is 17 million quid. If im a bit late with my first post, you'll know why ;) Everyone I know says that if they won the lottery, they would never work again. Im sure I would. I think having lots of money would empower Read More
posted Thursday, February 12, 2004 11:43 AM by adam | 2 Comments
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Decompression Bombs

Found an interesting article on decompression bombs as a means of Denial of Service attack.. "Here's an example scenario: A mail arrives at your super-barbed-wire-protected mail gateway. The gzip-compressed attachment - only 7k big - is grabbed by the Read More
posted Thursday, February 12, 2004 11:10 AM by adam | 0 Comments
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Updated KB Article - Error Messages Occur When You Install an Exchange 2000 Computer

Error Messages Occur When You Install an Exchange 2000 Computer When you install Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server or Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 on a computer, you may receive the following error message: Setup failed installing sub-component information Read More
posted Thursday, February 12, 2004 10:49 AM by adam | 0 Comments
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Kynn is in Orkut Jail.. and he likes it!

A week ago, I received an Orkut friend request from a guy called Kynn Bartlett I checked out his profile and his testimonials all checked out and he seemed like a nice enough guy so I added him. Today I received this: Weird. For the last few days I've Read More
posted Thursday, February 12, 2004 9:21 AM by adam | 4 Comments
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Marathon blogging

Well I seem to have beaten Tuesdays record. Yesterday I managed 18 posts and I even got a couple of hours karate training in ;) Let's see what happens today :) Read More
posted Thursday, February 12, 2004 9:09 AM by adam | 0 Comments
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First GeekDojo 100 post Blogger

I know I said I was going to bed but i just noticed the post count.. The second lot of 50 seem to have come a lot faster then the first 50 (probably the 30+ posts in the last 40 hours have had something to do with it ;) Here's to the next 100 :D I Read More
posted Thursday, February 12, 2004 1:29 AM by adam | 0 Comments
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Fark RSS

One more before I go to bed... Fark.com Finally have an RSS feed Now I shall sleep well :D Read More
posted Thursday, February 12, 2004 1:21 AM by adam | 0 Comments
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3 x SPV E200 and 3 x MPx200 up for grabs

Paul over at MoDaCo has these phones available in a free prize draw. You have to be in the UK to enter and you need to have an existing Orange contract. Prize draw closes on the 15th. Personally, Im pretty disappointed with the MS Smartphone. It was Read More
posted Thursday, February 12, 2004 1:11 AM by adam | 0 Comments
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Want to ditch the feds? Get a Mac

I found this article by Scott Granneman the other day and I thought i'd share it with you. "Well, it finally happened. Right before Christmas, I had a little visit from the FBI. That's right: an agent from the Federal Bureau of Investigation came to Read More
posted Thursday, February 12, 2004 12:58 AM by adam | 2 Comments
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Failure extending the AD schema during Exchange Setup

Alex McLeod has blogged about a problem you may encounter when extending the AD schema either during ADC installation or when running forestprep (although looking at the installation, I'd guess it would apply to other MS products which extend the schema Read More
posted Thursday, February 12, 2004 12:41 AM by adam | 0 Comments
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Get a free DotNet Compact Framework Poster and Coaster :)

Via Neil You can get your very own poster and coaster by contacting jono and telling him what you're doing with the .NET Compact Framework. He says you can even swear if you like. Hurrah! While we're on the subject of free stuff, anyone know of any Read More
posted Thursday, February 12, 2004 12:27 AM by adam | 2 Comments
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Clear your calendars for 2006!

Not only is 2006 the year when we supposedly get to see the RTM version of  Longhorn but its also when we get to see The Simpsons: The Movie! DVD fanatic got some inside info from Mike Reiss, a writer and producer for the show. Read More
posted Thursday, February 12, 2004 12:15 AM by adam | 1 Comments
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Content Master's Mobility Guru

Neil Cowburn blogged that I'm Content Master's Exchange Guru. Thanks for the link Neil. Neil is Content Master's mobility guru and an MVP on the .NET Compact Framework so if that's your thing, I'd recommend his blog. The great thing about working at Read More
posted Wednesday, February 11, 2004 11:54 PM by adam | 0 Comments
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Exchange 2003 Relay Blacklists

Colin Walker has a tip on using RBL's in Exchange 2003. This is something covered in the Exchange 2003 lab I mentioned the other day and is certainly worth looking at. Colin mentions about the potential issues with missing mail through the blacklists Read More
posted Wednesday, February 11, 2004 11:41 PM by adam | 3 Comments
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Niobe Enters the Microsoft Matrix

This via Mary Jo Foley Microsoft is fielding a prototype of a new tool that eventually could become a member of its Visual Studio Tools for Office family. The prototype tool, code-named "Niobe," is designed to simplify the development of applications Read More
posted Wednesday, February 11, 2004 11:26 PM by adam | 0 Comments
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Implementing E-mail Security with Exchange 2003

Following on from the link I posted yesterday for the Messaging Security Guide, Markus Klein fr