Monthly Archive for July, 2008

Junk Mail, Spam, Large E-Mail Attachments – Or Three Easy Ways to Get my Goat

Published on July 24, 2008 in Computers and Internet. 0 Comments

For our American readers puzzled by the above expression, and number two in our series on "What on earth did the British guy just say" – first digest this link and then return here…

One of my pet peeves is people who send huge attachments via e-mail. Thanks for helping my Outlook grind to a halt and clogging up my inbox buddy! Not only does sending whopping files as e-mail attachments bug me, it’s just not a very good idea full stop – you can read why here.

So for a while now I’ve been extolling the virtues of using alternatives methods to sending large e-mail attachments – and my favourite of those alternatives is YouSendIt.

In a nutshell, with YouSendIt you upload your file to their secure servers for free via a web page, they send an e-mail to your chosen recipient with your brief message and a link to download the attachment, the recipient then chooses to download the attachment or not – quick, simple, no fuss, no muss – and a darn site more reliable than sending that 20mb file via e-mail!

YouSendIt already provide a free plug-in for Outlook to make the whole process even simpler – just write your e-mail as normal, attach your file as normal and send as normal – YouSendIt then strips the attachment out, uploads it securely without any intervention, and sends the e-mail with a link for the recipient to download if they choose.

They’ve also now provided a Desktop plug-in called YouSendIt Express (similar to your context sensitive "Sent To…" menu) that allows you to upload files directly from your computer. Right-click the file, click "YouSendIt" and voila!

So now there is really no excuse for sending large files by e-mail is there? Of course people will continue to do it, but if like me, this continues to annoy the hell out of you in the same way as junk mail through your letterbox and spam in your inbox – how about firing the offending sender a reply containing a link to this blog article (http://tinyurl.com/578n4r) – hopefully they’ll get the message. :-)

Are you using the Small Business Specialist Managed Newsgroups?

Published on July 22, 2008 in Computers and Internet. 0 Comments

One of the huge benefits of being a Microsoft Small Business Specialist qualified partner is the fact you are given access to Working-Day 4-hour Response Managed Newsgroups (or "Online Technical Communities" as they are now known) where you can post technical queries of a Break-Fix nature (no Consultancy questions I’m afraid – that’s what your local user group and peers are there for!) to a threaded newsgroup and get a fast response to those issues from Microsoft MVP’s.

As a rule of thumb, any technical issue that I’ve worked on for more than an hour, or I’m getting in any way frustrated with, I will look for a second opinion on – this might be by asking colleagues, peers, or in many cases, posting a message to the Managed Newsgroups asking for direction. It’s pointless banging your head against a wall when there are resources to help you climb over that wall instead!

Access to the Online Technical Communities is simple. Visit the Microsoft Partner Portal – go to the "Support and Security" tab, then under "Online Assisted Support" view the "Online Technical Community" page. Or simply visit https://partner.microsoft.com/UK/supportsecurity/technicalsupport/onlinesupport/40047250

Access to the Newsgroups is easy enough through a Web Interface – but for those old-skool who prefer to read their newsgroups via NNTP using Outlook Express or a similar newsgroup reader, this is possible too.

That said, whilst the Help Pages on the Partner Portal tell you NNTP access is possible, the instructions they give are truly vague – so in the spirit of making life easier for my peers (and to be honest, for the next time I need to setup a Workstation with NNTP access myself and have forgotten how to…) here’s how you do it:-

  1. Visit https://partner.microsoft.com/UK/40029086 and log in with your SBSC affiliated Live.com ID.
  2. Make a note of the latest security code for access to the Managed Newsgroups.
  3. Click the "Enter the Community" button and follow the sign-up instructions if necessary.
  4. Once logged in, update your Profile by clicking the icon in the top right hand corner.
  5. Visit https://members.microsoft.com/communities/nntpmgmt/default.aspx and follow the prompts to create yourself a NNTP newsgroup username and password. You can use this URL in future to reset your password if lost (although if you’re in the habit of losing passwords then why aren’t you using KeePass?)
  6. Fire up Outlook Express and add privatenews.microsoft.com as a new NNTP server, telling OE that you want to logon to this server using the credentials privatenewsyourID and password.
  7. Let Outlook Express download the latest newsgroups – voila, you’re ready to rock’n'roll!

The SBSC Managed Newsgroups are named "microsoft.private.sbsc." – so use these groups for postings questions and don’t get confused by the microsoft.directaccess groups also listed with similar titles – whilst these are monitored by MVP’s, they don’t have the same 4-hour SBSC response time.

So next time you’re getting frustrated with an Microsoft Product related issue – why not consider using some of the free Support options you have available to you?

Unsafe Chargers ‘flooding’ the UK

Published on July 20, 2008 in News for MSP's. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

BBC News On-Line reports that thousands of unsafe Mobile Phone, Portable Device and Console charging power packs are being sold in the UK, tests showing these chargers can overheat or cause electrocution.

Now normally I take these sorts of reports with a pinch of salt – the high cost of original replacements parts, especially in the area of Inkjet Printers – often makes me think the Manufacturers issue warnings about using “unbranded” items is just a way of them protecting their profits.

However, always being one with an eye for a bargain, I’ve purchased a number of Mobile Phone Chargers and Spare Batteries from eBay over the past 18 months – all coming from Far Eastern sellers – and every time I’ve been disappointed with the performance or reliability of the purchases.

In each case, the Mobile Phone batteries I’ve bought have had ridiculously short life-spans or capacity for holding charge, and the chargers I’ve bought seem to charge at a much slower rate than the branded chargers, plus have got incredibly hot to the touch.

Therefore the report from BBC just confirms what I’ve come to realise – that you get what you pay for, and I sure as hell don’t want to save money only to give myself an electric shock or worse! As they say, “Being Dead is bad for business”.

Technet Server Quest – Retro Gaming!

Published on July 18, 2008 in Tech Reviews. 4 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

If you’re looking to waste half an hour of your Friday (or more!) with some silly gaming, then go take a look at Server Quest from Microsoft. It’s there to promote a Technet Plus subscription (you have got a Technet Plus subscription, right?) from Microsoft and is presented in the style of an old 80′s 8-bit computer game such as Skool Daze. For a retro gamer like myself (who am I kidding – I practically still live in the 1980′s…) it’s great fun!

I’m Twittering

Published on July 17, 2008 in Computers and Internet. 3 Comments

I’ve used many Social Networking sites over the past 18 months – sites such as Facebook and MySpace (and boy, has that site died a death for the 18+ crowd!) but purely on a personal level. Then, over the past few months, I’ve noticed a trend with more and more people who I know through my business life, not just my personal life, using these same tools to keep in touch.

So I wasn’t surprised when one of the things I picked up at WWPC is the value of Social Networking for business – especially small businesses. Not only did I meet a load of folk who already knew me (through this very blog) but I met many more folk who I’ve now connected with via Social Networking tools and am learning from – just by reading their blogs and following their updates!

I blog, I use Facebook, LinkedIn and Plaxo (and please, if you haven’t connected with me on any of those sites – feel free to ask) – but one of the tools I’ve held off using up until now is Twitter.

What is Twitter? Twitter is like mini-blogging – regular, short (140 characters or less) and concise updates. I’ve never seen the value in it personally, but over the past few months have watched Vijay (who is probably the most "turned on" Web 2.0 user I know), Vlad and Texas Matt Tweet (To use Twitter is to Tweet, not Twit as I assumed…) and it’s not only a great way of keeping up to date with what your peers are doing, but also provides some interesting links to follow and thoughts to process.

So I’ve set myself a Twitter account up and will now be tweeting from http://twitter.com/tubblog.

Any Twitters I should be following? Feel free to leave a comment and enlighten me.