Month: January 2014

Categories
Community Off Topic

Come to the dark side…

It’s been a fairly light week after all the news pouring out from the Consumer Electronics Show, but a few highlights of interest.

  • It would seem that Andrew Connell has finally come back to the dark side with the procurement of a MacBook Pro. Funny enough that he’s got a similar logo on his MBP as Scott Hoag. As for me I’ve been sporting a Lego on my MBP for a couple of years now.

Speaking of off-topic, there’s been the drive as of recent for Microsoft to be recognized as more of a devices company than a platform company. In as much, we’ve seen Office 365 begin to bridge that gap, offering Office Web Apps that for the most part provide similar experiences across devices and browsers. Granted, not all browsers are created equal (IE6, you’ll always have a special place in my heart…). Nevertheless, I came across Addictive Tips blog postings on the “Best of Addons for 2013.” Specifically for FireFox and Chrome. So eat your heart out and check these out when you’ve got a few spare cycles:

With all of the security concerns as of recent note such as the Starbucks App being found to store passwords in clear text, it’s interesting to see that Google is adding the ability to send e-mail messages to individuals that you happen to be connected with through Google+. Note that there are ways to get out of this engagement by simply going in and changing your settings. More on how to do this is available here:

http://www.addictivetips.com/web/how-to-opt-out-of-gmails-new-email-via-google-plus-option/

And speaking of Google, don’t forget that the same technology baked into the Galaxy Nexus 5 where you simply say, “Okay Google” and a search page pops open ready to listen to your every beck and command – it’s also available for your Chrome web browser as an extension that can be added from the Google Chrome Store here:

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/google-voice-search-hotwo/bepbmhgboaologfdajaanbcjmnhjmhfn?hl=en-US

If you’re me and you’re still looking to finish out your MCSE SharePoint certification and just have to knock out the 70-417 MCSA upgrade exam, it couldn’t hurt to check out some of the materials that the Microsoft Virtual Academy is offering up on the Windows Server platform. More details are available here – and best of all, the training is free.

http://www.microsoftvirtualacademy.com/product-training/windows-server

The Microsoft Office 365 team has updated the services that were added to Office 365 today for the December 2013 update on their Service Update Wiki. More details on this are available here – http://community.office365.com/en-us/wikis/office_365_service_updates/974.aspx#dec2013. Nothing overly significant, just three modifications.

On January 15, the Apps for Office and SharePoint blog posted an article on “Publishing apps for Office and SharePoint to Windows Azure Websites.” Definitely a handy article and walk through when you’re looking to create provider-hosted apps. Kudos to the Office Developer Team.

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/officeapps/archive/2014/01/15/publishing-apps-for-office-and-sharepoint-to-windows-azure-websites.aspx

Last but not least, the Simpsons will be available throug the FX app as its sister station FXX has the exclusive on-demand rights for the show. The details are thin at the moment but it looks like a cable subscription will be required. More on this is available from the Unofficial Apple Weblog post here:

http://www.tuaw.com/2014/01/16/dedicated-app-will-stream-every-episode-of-the-simpsons-and-mor/

Categories
Community

UserCode Solutions… collaborative guidance

This just in, we finally have a ruling from the SharePoint court of appeals… Sandboxed Solutions are deprecated!

Okay, some of them are deprecated. If you’re using declarative code and JavaScript, then keep on writing those Sandboxed Solutions, they’re still supported.

If you’re using the slimmed down API that Microsoft presented to us in SharePoint 2010 for the use of custom code within a Sandboxed Solution, then you’re outta luck as the SharePoint Developer Team has posted guidance leaving things pretty cut and dry as to where things stand. The only caveat being that they don’t define what they mean by “deprecated”.

More on this thrilling story is available here – Deprecation of Custom Code in Sandboxed Solutions.

Something that the article calls out, but I’m guessing that a lot of developers still may have overlooked is the Reimagine SharePoint Development session that they’ve been pushing folks to check out.

If you’re not too keen on these changes though, or you have a use case that you feel will make Microsoft think a little differently or perhaps augment the way custom code Sandboxed Solutions are handled going forward, be sure to speak your mind over at the Customer Feedback for the Office Developer Platform.

If you happen to live in the DC area, there’s an IT Pro Camp going on
22 February 2014 at the Chevy Chase offices of Microsoft. More details are available along with registration here:
Washington DC IT Pro Camp

A few other articles of note that might come in handy that I’ve come across from friends in the community:

Categories
SharePoint System Administration

Patch Tuesday – January 2014

A few quick bits of information for today that might be of interest to those of you working with the Microsoft Stack.

If you dig into the KB2916605, it’s labelled as important, not critical but probably something you’ll still want to address. This impacts impacts Microsoft Word across several versions as well as the Word Automation Services and Office Web Apps of SharePoint 2010 and 2013.

Also new today, Power BI is now available for purchase for your Office 365 SharePoint Online tenants. If you have an E3/E4 subscription you’ll see a heft discount.

This past weekend I mentioned during a presentation on getting started with Office 365 that there are service updates that are pushed regularly. To get more information as to what’s being pushed each month, check out the Services Updates for Office 365 for enterprises, mid-size businesses and Education (English) here:

And if you’re interested in learning more pertaining to the Office 365 Service Upgrades that are ongoing for the Enterprise, more information is available here:

Looking for the latest and greatest when it comes to new content for SharePoint 2013?

Nothing really of note, the last update was back on 16 December 2013 with:

  • Deactivated controls in SharePoint Designer 2013 (new)
  • The building blocks of SharePoint hybrid (new)
  • Set-SPAuthenticationRealm (updated)

If you’re looking for updates for MSDN related SharePoint articles, you can find that content here – New and updated content for SharePoint 2013

Categories
Community

Call to Action… Get in Community!

So often we find ourselves struggling with a technical issue or looking for a way to start working toward a business problem from an approach perspective and we find ourselves feeling somewhat alone, without really knowing where to turn.

This weekend I found it interesting going down to Virginia Beach and meeting folks from the DC area that hadn’t heard that there were SPSEvents DC (http://www.spsdc.org) or that there were user groups that they could get involved in.

Nevertheless, if you’re curious as to some of the happenings, check out the different user groups in the area:

Categories
Community

SPSEvents – Virginia Beach 2014

Well, it’s 2014 and you all know what that means… SPSEvents presents SharePoint Saturday Virginia Beach at the Tidewater Community College ATC. This was the sixth year for the event and the community was great! It’s been interesting to have attended several of the SPSVB events over the years and see them continue to refine, get better, introduce new speakers and also to see the community continue to develop.

As for me, it was a great time to bump into the likes of Adam Levithan, Fabian Williams, Patrick Curran, David Berry, Tasha Scott, Susan Lennon, Becky Isserman, Christian Buckley, Joel Oleson, Erin Glenn, Stephen Heister and Benjamin Niaulin.

I presented two sessions at the event in the afternoon. One on the topic of “Getting Started with Office 365.” It’s a quick overview of licensing, some of the plan information, what all’s included with Office 365 and some tips and tricks to consider while making a decision about how you’re going to approach it. Slides are available from Slide Share here:

SharePoint Saturday Events – Getting Started with Office 365 from Dan Usher

Additionally, I spoke on the topic of one of the more dear topics that I deal with on a regular basis – “Authentication, Authorization and Identity – it’s more than meets the eye.” This topic covers the core background of AuthN, AuthZ and ID and provides advice on things to consider when planning out your environment. The slides for this session are available here:

SharePoint Saturday Events – Authentication, Authorization and Identity – More Than Meets the eye from Dan Usher

Thanks to all that were able to attend – you all make these events incredibly worthwhile to speakers looking to share knowledge.