One of the aspirations articulated in the Government ICT strategy is that “Government will work with countries across the world to learn from, share and reuse the best solutions and standards”. This reminds me that I did intend to post more worldwide customer examples of innovative and efficient use of ICT by public sector organisations.

The Swedish Red Cross (SRC), the largest humanitarian voluntary organisation in Sweden, has chosen to adopt Microsoft’s cloud offering, Microsoft Online Services, due to two important considerations: cost reduction and the need for reliable and up-to-date communication.

For any organisation moving to cloud services an important consideration is the cost of the transition and whether it makes financial sense in the long run. In the case of SRC, any cost savings will allow the organisation to spend more on its humanitarian cause rather than on IT.

SRC employees are benefiting from the integrated system where they can switch from their PC, laptop or mobile phone and have all the information at their fingertips. Since the launch web mail and instant messaging has gone up by 50% in the organisation, showing the greater ease with which employees can communicate.

You can read more about the Swedish Red Cross cloud implementation here.

Posted by Ian

I just found out from my Japanese colleague Yuki about this new Cherry Blossom theme available in Japan

“Like as if you enjoying seeing cherry blossom in cherry blossom luxury pamper your mood. Windows 7 theme is available for download free.” Translation from Microsoft Translator

on the page click the button to download the Cherry Blossom theme from Japan

Rob

Rádi bychom upozornili všechny vývojá?e a softwarové architekty, zejména pak ty, kte?í se zú?astnili podzimního prvního b?hu Azure Akademie, že její druhý b?h od úterý vstupuje do druhé poloviny a pokra?uje tématy, které nebyly obsahem podzimního b?hu., konkrétn?:

• Týden 5 – Windows Azure – pokro?ilá témata a novinky
• Týden 6 – Integrace cloud a on-premises aplikací
• Týden 7 – Bezpe?nost aplikací v cloudu z r?zných úhl? pohledu
• Týden 8 – Scéná?e použití cloudu, náklady a p?ínosy

Na Azure Akademii II je možné se stále p?ihlásit a voliteln? je možné též splnit jednoduchý praktický úkol, a to obojí bez ohledu na ú?ast na dosavadních 4 jarních lekcích, které byly opakováním t?ch podzimních.

Nepropásn?te tuto p?íležitost.

Michael

In order to set up Windows Azure Connect, you need to install a piece of software called Azure Connect Agent in each server/machine from your datacenter that you want to access.

In order to do that, you usually have to access Azure-Portal in order to get a specific agent for each server.  You usually click “Install Local Endpoint” in the portal the popup window includes the URL for installing the endpoint, and is says:

“You cannot save the installation software and run it later, because it includes an activation token”

Ok, in reality you can save the endpoint installation software (Agent), get the token from the portal, and run the install as the following:

wacendpointpackage.exe /i  /s /m en-us /token xx699999-ff75-4c85-abd3-a09b337cd9af

where /i is for install; /s for silent; /m for language; /token for activation token.

Your machine needs internet connectivity for the install to succeed.

??? ???? ? ????? ????? ??????????? ????? ?????? ????????? ????????? NuGet 1.2. ?? ??????????? ????? ??????????? ???????? ???????????? ? ????? ??????:

• ????????? ???????? ??????????? – ?????? NuGet ?????? ????? ????????? ?????????? ?? ?????? ? ?????? ??????? ?????????? .NET, ?? ? ? ?????? ??????????, ????????, Silverlight ?? Windows Phone 7;
• ?????????????? ?????????? ??????????????? ???????? (binding redirect) – NuGet ?????? ????? ????????????? ?????????? ??????????? ???????????????? ?????? bindingRedirect ? web.config. ????????? ? ???????? ???????????????? ??????????????? ???????? ??????? ???;
• ???????? ?????? ?? ?????? .NET Framework (?? GAC) – ?????? ? ?????? NuGet ????? ??????? ?????? ??????, ??????? ????? ?????????? ?? ???????????? ?????? .NET Framework. ??? ????? ???? ???????? ??? ?????????????, ??????? ????? ??????????????? ?????? ? ?????????? ?????? ???????????? ?? ???????;
• ????????? ???????? ?????? API – ?????? NuGet ????????? ? ??????? ??????? SetApiKey ????????? ???? ??? ??????, ????? ? ????????? ??? ?? ??????????? ??????? ??? ???????? ??? ?????????? ??????;

????? ????, ?????????? ??????? ?????????? NuGet Package Exlplorer. ?????? ???????? ????????? ?????? ????? ???????????, ??????? ????????? ??????????? ?????????? ??????? NuGet ? ????????????? ? ????? Windows ??? ???????? ????????.

?????????????? ?????????:

• ? ???, ??? ???????????? NuGet ??? ?????????? ?????????? ?? ?????? WPF ? Silverlight
• ????? Visual Studio
• ????? ?? ????? ?????????? Visual Studio

??? ???? ? ????? ????? ??????????? ????? ?????? ????????? ????????? NuGet 1.2. ?? ??????????? ????? ??????????? ???????? ???????????? ? ????? ??????:

• ????????? ???????? ??????????? – ?????? NuGet ?????? ????? ????????? ?????????? ?? ?????? ? ?????? ??????? ?????????? .NET, ?? ? ? ?????? ??????????, ????????, Silverlight ?? Windows Phone 7;
• ?????????????? ?????????? ??????????????? ???????? (binding redirect) – NuGet ?????? ????? ????????????? ?????????? ??????????? ???????????????? ?????? bindingRedirect ? web.config. ????????? ? ???????? ???????????????? ??????????????? ???????? ??????? ???;
• ???????? ?????? ?? ?????? .NET Framework (?? GAC) – ?????? ? ?????? NuGet ????? ??????? ?????? ??????, ??????? ????? ?????????? ?? ???????????? ?????? .NET Framework. ??? ????? ???? ???????? ??? ?????????????, ??????? ????? ??????????????? ?????? ? ?????????? ?????? ???????????? ?? ???????;
• ????????? ???????? ?????? API – ?????? NuGet ????????? ? ??????? ??????? SetApiKey ????????? ???? ??? ??????, ????? ? ????????? ??? ?? ??????????? ??????? ??? ???????? ??? ?????????? ??????;

????? ????, ?????????? ??????? ?????????? NuGet Package Explorer. ?????? ???????? ????????? ?????? ????? ???????????, ??????? ????????? ??????????? ?????????? ??????? NuGet ? ????????????? ? ????? Windows ??? ???????? ????????.

There can be little argument that Facebook is the global leader when it comes to owning the social graph of online interpersonal connections.  It’s also no secret that Bing now uses Facebook ‘like’ data as a ranking factor for search results.  However Google has had some disputes with Facebook, and for one reason or another – do not currently use Facebook ‘likes’ as a ranking factor.

Tweet

In fact, Google have in the past made it clear that they want to build their own social graph and use that to improve search results.  The announcement made by Google yesterday may well be a real boost for building their own social graph, and a blow for the Facebook ‘Like’ button (which has been around for about 1 year now).

What is +1?

Fundamentally it is a similar concept to the now familiar Facebook Like and Twitter Tweet buttons.  It enables users to easily, with 1 click (assuming they are signed in with a Google account) vote their support for a particular webpage. 

For now, the button is only available for SOME users and only within the Google search results list…

Voting for a particular page can be done with a single click on the +1 icon next to the page title. 

Users will then be shown pages which have been voted up by their social network (based on a Google account connected to others by Gmail, Google Reader and other services)…

Eventually Google +1 will also be available to add on to websites (as the Facebook ‘like’ and Twitter ‘tweet’ buttons are today)…

This video provides a nice summary of +1…

So what?

Facebook and Twitter buttons are already widely adopted, so will  people bother to add another (Google ‘+1’) button to their sites?

In short – YES.  At least I believe so.

Google have actually been quite clever here.  They have used their greatest asset (search) and targeted a desire of every single website manager in the world (to increase traffic from Google). 

Yes it’s true that +1 is ANOTHER voting button on top of the already widely adopted implementations from Twitter, Facebook and others.  Yes it’s true that for website users to use the +1 button they will need to sign up for ANOTHER account, on top of their Facebook and Twitter accounts.  But Google +1 does offer something unique which website owners do not get with the Facebook and Twitter buttons…

From launch, it is clear that use of the +1 button will enhance Google search results by highlighting pages which have been voted by a users social network.  However, it’s pretty much a foregone conclusion that Google will at some point start to use those votes as ranking signals as well.  +1 votes will most likely become a necessary factor for website managers to monitor for improving their Google referrals (as Facebook ‘likes’ are becoming for Bing.com referrals today).

In fact, perhaps +1 will at some point replace PageRank?!  Even if it doesn’t I suspect that the ‘fear’ of it will prompt many site owners to adopt the Google +1 button as soon as they can.

Oggi mi sono scontrato con una nuova chicca di MOSS 2007.

In particolari condizioni, dopo aver creato una Web Application con relativi DBs e Site Collection, se effettuo un IISRESET sia l’Application Pool che la Site Collection vengono rimossi da SharePoint mantenendo, però, la Web Application al suo posto. So benissimo che è sempre consigliato (lo sggerisce SharePoint stesso) di fare un IISRESET / NOFORCE  ma molte volte non ho seguito questa strada e non ho mai avuto problemi.

Facendo un po’ di ricerche sul web, ho trovato questo unico, interessante articolo che può dare una spiegazione alla cosa:

There is a slight delay in application pool registration. If you open your website it forces that operation to complete. If you don’t, and you reset before it completes, then it’s gone.

Are you calling iisreset /nowait? This will cause it to abandon that registration, calling just iisreset should let it finish.

Try iisreset /noforce to be safe with this, it’ll wait until IIS finishes, and if it times out waiting, won’t forcefully kill anything. If it takes a long time, give it a timeout that’s higher, the default is 60 seconds. You can do this via: iisreset /noforce /timeout:300 to give it 5 minutes of slack 

Mi rimane sempre il dubbio, però, su quali siano le cause che rallentano le operazioni di “completamento” di una Web Application, tali da generare una tale anomalia.

We spent a considerable amount of time in January during the Business Leadership Roadshow discussing Microsoft and the Cloud, and how to assess a transition to the cloud.

Whether you have an existing Microsoft Dynamics ERP or Microsoft Dynamics CRM practice, or are investing in your first, now is the time to make strategic business decisions on your transition. You don’t have to do this alone; Microsoft has released the Dynamics Cloud Partner Profitability Guide.

With over 1,000 hours of research, interviews and analysis and more than 200 partners testing the content. This is the most comprehensive cloud business guide to date.

As Kim Smith, Director, Dynamics Cloud & CRM Partner Strategy, Microsoft Business Solutions explains, this guide will help Microsoft partners understand the key success factors for their transition to the cloud, in particular, when selling or delivering business application services and solutions. Every partner’s journey will be unique. While we cannot describe every possible issue and its solution; our goal is to provide some of the most relevant tools to develop a solid business plan.

The Microsoft Dynamics Cloud Partner Profitability Guide will help partners to:

• Understand the market perception for services
• Establish an execution roadmap by business function
• Optimize business processes and investments
• Apply profitability models to create a financial plan

Access the guide through either PartnerSource or the Microsoft Partner Network portal.

–Kevin