The Tech Blog of Dan Usher

Author: Dan

  • STSADM Extensions… explored

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    First off, for those of you not familiar with Gary LaPointe’s STSADM Extensions, I would recommend checking out his blog over at http://stsadm.blogspot.com and investigate what he’s got to offer. For those of you that are familiar with stsadm for WSS and MOSS then you’re familiar with the likes of Ben Curry‘s Microsoft SharePoint Products…

  • Sun xVM VirtualBox – Small Footprint, Speedy

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    So I came across an article earlier today making mention of Sun’s xVM standards compliant Virtual Sandbox software and I figured, "It’s free and it looks halfway decent, plus it’s standards compliant." So a quick visit over to Virtual Boxes web site (http://www.virtualbox.org) and a little download magic and I was off and running setting…

  • MOSS 2007 SharePoint Server 2007 Best Practices – First Thoughts

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    So I met Ben Curry at TechEd IT Pro Week 2008 and I must say that he’s a decent fellow that’s quite knowledgeable about SharePoint administration and provided some of the gotchas during his presentations.  But what’s better than an hour with Ben Curry?  767 pages of Ben Curry (and Bill English) goodness. http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=u015-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=0735625387&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifrRecently their…

  • Skype Finally Supports Skype Out Numbers in the US!

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    Alright, so this is completely devoid of anything to do with SharePoint, but I was pleasantly surprised this evening when placing a call to a colleague over Skype and having him tell me that a local number in his exchange was showing on caller ID.  Sure enough, not only can my SkypeOut number show up,…

  • WWDC 2008 Keynote Mentions SharePoint

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    So I’ve been pondering whether or not to procure a MacBook Pro for my personal use and to hopefully push myself toward greater creativity and to disconnect myself from corporate work in some sense. Nevertheless, while watching the WWDC 2008 Keynote speech, the first video regarding the iPhone in the Enterprise using Firmware 2.0 mentions…

  • TechEd 2008 – Day 1

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    Day 1 of TechEd 2008 was a long first day to open up the conference.  Starting off with breakfast at 7:30, heading to the keynote at 8:30 and then onward to breakout sessions, hands on labs and interactive sessions through 6:30 in the evening was quite a lot to digest – but the day didn’t…

  • TechEd 2008 – IT Pro Week

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    So I’m down here in Orlando, FL at the Orange County Convention center for TechEd 2008 – IT Pro Week.  The Windows 2008 pre-conference session so far is definitely eye opening and has definitely made me realize that there’s more to what is available with the W2K8 software than first perceived – have to rethink…

  • Utilizing Social Bookmarking

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    This isn’t necessarily SharePoint related, but just a recommendation that if you claim to be the expert on a topic, or at least a journeyman that has significant interest in a topic and some experience such that they wouldn’t be considered a rookie, I would highly recommend becoming involved with social bookmarking circuits such as…

  • Making Sense of Troubleshooting and Preventive Medicine…

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    If you’ve ever had to troubleshoot a SharePoint issue within the realm of the third iteration of SharePoint’s platform, then you know that there’s more than just what you’ll find in Central Admin that sometimes requires tinkering to resolve problems. I’ve dealt with everything from timer jobs not firing off due to daylight savings time…

  • Interesting Search Results…

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    If you’ve ever wondered how the SharePoint Search Crawler crawls, what it’s crawling (whether it be major versions or minor versions or the associated meta data with either), I would highly recommend checking out Bill English’s article "What Does the Crawler Crawl and When?" For those that are search aficionados, it’s a nice review.  For…