Use what is free and good

The title is a resume of one of my conclusions after watching the boom of free services on the Web. And After reading my digital version of PC Magazine (www.zinio.com), I found a very interesting link that just makes me remember that I should do the same: Use what is free and good... like part of the value to my offers to the market.
If you would like to know more about a great sample just give a check on: http://www.newsatseven.com/
It is a web site that makes good use of RSS, Podcasting, YouTube and text to speech technology. Worth to see.

WSS - Changing the "administrator" username and password

Today we received the call from one of our customers because for some reason their Windows SharePoint Services web site and intranet stopped working. Some days ago they were making some work with Exchange so the first thought was that Exchange could be causing some problem.
After checking from close the server logs I discovered that some errors were pointing some kind of authorization problems. So something changed with the authentication.
IIS was working without showing errors and the web sites looked working... but the browser was showing an error. Then I went checking the Application Pools inside of the same IIS and I discovered that the application pools of each one of the sites were disabled. Inside of their properties in the tab "identity" I found that the user name and password were not updated. The solution was to select a network service like authorized user. Then like art of magic... the web sites apeared online again!

Windows SharePoint Services 3

WSS 3 is a great application but I have to say that the upgrade from the WSS3 technical refresh version to the RTM was very painful.
2 important web sites where running on the WSS TR before the upgrade and after it... were not working anymore. It took me many hours to solve the problem. So after all that I think I'm able to give some recommendations for any kind of upgrade to WSS.

1. If you are running WSS3 TR make a backup of the complete server farm using the SharePoint 3 Central Addministration site. Go to the Operations section and find the "perform backup" option.
2. Check that the backup was finsihed without errors.
3. Make a copy of all the content databases of your WSS sites and include also the log files related to them. Locate the copies in a different folder.
4. Using the SharePoint Designer (Latest version) make a backup of each one of your sites.
5. Install the WSS 3 RTM. If you are lucky all will go fine... If you have the same problem than me... you will find that you have any of your sites listed within the Web Applications list. If that's the case you will need to create a web application per each web site you had before. Then you will need to remove the content database of each one, restart the IIS and use the STSADMIN.EXE to add the old content databases. You must use the STSADMIN because it converts the databases to what WSS3 needs.

If all fails... you have the back ups and you can contact me using this post. Good luck!

How to save time in the office?

Well... the truth is that if you need to save time, first you must spend some time or, better to say, you must invest some time.
So it is important where to place that valuable time in order to get a good return of investment!
If you need a word document that can help you to plan the organization of an event for example... you just need to ask for it! here you have a sample.
Visit Office Online (http://office.microsoft.com) and look for the section of templates. Then just write what you need and you will get a list with results.
Do you need a Marketing Plan? look at this one!
There is no excuse, now you just need to search in one place to get all that kind of things that you really need to save time.

Work Essentials webcasts

Do you want to learn what is the best of the Office 2007?
I think that it is important to be prepared for the next Office. It is important because you could find in it solutions to current problems within your organization or maybe you will be able to find just inspiration for new good ideas of how to improve the way of working.
In the Work Essential webcasts you will have someone to show you what is the best of each one of the Microsoft products!
Give a check on http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/workessentials/HA101950111033.aspx

Scratchless discs

I bought my first CDs of music more than 15 years ago... And I remember that one of the reasons people started to buy them was that the CDs were far more durable than the traditional "long plays" or vinyl discs.
But the truth is that I only keep just a few of my first CDs because many of them were deeply scratched therefore unusable.
I'm a fan of original and I'm 100% against piracy. So that means that my children are using original DVDs with their favorite movies (they don't have a lot... Because they are expensive). But they love to show that they know how to use the DVD player and that means that accidents are frequent and the DVDs are suffering terrible scratches as well.
Wouldn't be good to have some kind of scratchless CDs? Look how simple solution at http://www.scratchlessdisc.com/

More choices for us... The users!

Some years ago using Ofoto was a great experience. Now they are named KodakGallery and they are still good!
Then some other services started to bloom. One of them is Flickr and I can say that I really like it. But now I see that many creative minds and companies are rising the voice to show that there is market for all. And I think it is absolutely true!
Here I list 3 new services that make better use of your pictures and give an additional component in the experience online: Fun!

SharpCast http://www.sharpcast.com/
They offer an alternative way of backing up pictures, share and organize them. 5GB free storage. The service automates all the process of backing up pictures and sharing them! It is a simple concept, you place the pictures in your PC and then automatically they are being uploaded to the site. RSS Enabled

iBloks http://www.ibloks.com/
This one a service that helps you to mix your pictures, videos and music to compose a slideshow. It also makes easy to share using many different ways like hosted ibloks on their servers or even on Myspace. They give some interesting possibility that is to share ibloks using IM services like Microsoft Messenger and others.

SmileBox http://www.smilebox.com/
This is the most interesting of the 3 services, on my opinion, because it has a really personal approach and goal. Transform your pictures in a reason to make others to smile! This service makes from your pictures great slideshows, postcards, greeting cards, scrapbooks and photobooks.

Gadget of the year - Time.com

Time made a selection of some really cool gadgets (http://www.time.com/time/2006/goty/). After checking them all you will have the chance to select which one is the best on your opinion. I was surprised when discovering the average results! give a check... and if you have time jump to the section of Best inventions (http://www.time.com/time/2006/techguide/bestinventions/).
Super fun!

The best I found for Photoshop, Flash and sound resources

I'm trying to improve my skills and I would really want to be a graphic designer. I found hundreds of web sites and resources on the web. But one that really took my attention is FFiles (http://www.ffiles.com/)
It is a very organized community with a web site that works fine and with resources that are very helpful for sparking creativity!
Gooood news for designers!

Hide your emails from spammers

Spammers use some kind of software named "spiders" that crawl the Internet in search for email addresses. So if a link to your email is published on any Web site or Blog... some spider might find it and start firing your mailbox with not desirable email messages.

There a few ways to solve the problem. One very practical way is to encrypt the email address. It is very simple! and you can find it by visiting http://www.mways.co.uk/prog/hidemail.php

Problem solved!

More web sites for making backups online

1. Omni drive: (Mac and Windows)
   http://www.omnidrive.com/product/
2. BOX: Online file storage: (Mac and Windows) 1GB free
   http://www.box.net/
3. Carbonite Online Backup
   Unlimited storage space.
   http://www.carbonite.com/
   ----- As you can see in the comments to this post there are some concerns about what "unlimited" means for the guys in Carbonite! Look at this link

New Office Online with more clip art!

The Office Online for US is now renewed! It is much easier to use and includes many new features. Today I was using the clip art gallery so I will make a short tip about how to search for photos:

The new interface shows some "tabs", one of them is "Clip Art". Then the most important part is the search box. It will make very easy to find images, photos, animations and sounds. So, after writing the search criteria you need to specify the filtering criteria, if you wish to see only photos you need to select "Photos". This is important because Office Online hosts more than 150000.