David Overton's Blog

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• Get a makeover for your Office Live Site as well as a Dell Laptop and cash too!

  I just saw this over at https://microsoft.eprize.net/officelivesaveoursiteuk/index.tbapp and thought I would share. We are offering a makeover, £540 in cash and a Dell Laptop. If you have a site, or know someone who does, then forward this on to them. ttfn David Technorati Tags: Office Live , Small Business , Competition , Microsoft , Office Live Small Business Posted May 23 2008, 11:06 AM by David Overton with | with no comments Filed under: Live, SBSC, Microsoft, Office Live, Marketing, Small business, Partner

• Where will your customers be looking for solutions – will they stick to on premise, or will they move towards a S+S or SaaS solution not from you?

  I know the table above is really, really simple, but I wanted to start the ball rolling – I have been thinking about this for ages!! Let me explain the diagram. The horizontal axis signifies how much of a solution is hosted. An example of this might be Office Live or Hotmail, where almost all of the solution is hosted. We then have the “on premise” or on-site IT going vertically. For most people, this is solutions like SBS 2003. A typical S+S solution might be MS CRM Online which has online components, but also... Posted Apr 12 2008, 04:02 PM by David Overton with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: SBS 2003, Business, Virtualisation, Community, Live, Software as a Service, SBSC, Microsoft, Office Live, SBS 2003 R2, mobile, Small business, Internet and Web, Partner, Licensing, Software plus Service, If you only read one post today

• PhotoZoom using Silverlight and DeepZoom (aka SeaDragon) technology - mine is on Star Wars, but we could create a SBSC one

  The above technology is built using Silverlight 2.0 beta that was announced at MIX08. You can upload photos or import via an RSS feed. I did the later, bit it occurred to me that we should start something like this for SBSC and ISV partners. To see the effect, go to http://photozoom.mslivelabs.com/Album.aspx?alias=Doverton&album=1 and then zoom in and out using the +/- in the top left corner or the scroll wheel on your mouse. It is quite amazing! Hat tip to Steve for this one ttfn David Technorati Tags:... Posted Mar 11 2008, 02:13 PM by David Overton with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: Developer, Live, Fun, beta, Microsoft, Silverlight, ISV

• Office Live Workspace Update for Windows Vista to enable "Open From" and "Save to" menu items in Office Word, Excel and PowerPoint

  One little feature that others might have missed with the new release of Office Live Workspace is the two nifty buttons for Office to enable direct access from the Office Live Workspace Update for Windows Vista The Office Live Workspace Update installs three Windows Vista updates (KB945435, KB945145, KB933860) and one Office 2007 update to ensure optimal performance on Windows Vista when using Microsoft Office Word, Excel, and PowerPoint with Office Live Workspace. The update improves the performance of opening... Posted Mar 06 2008, 07:24 AM by David Overton with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: Windows Vista and XP, Office System, Support and Tools, Live, SBSC, Windows Client, Vista, Windows Vista, Office 2007, Office Live, Tips, Small business

• Training announcement for ISV who are developing or planning to develop on the Windows Live Platform (Silverlight, Live Controls, Live ID, Messenger, Spaces)

  Another entry from the ISV blog - this time for developing on the Windows Live platform Training announcement for ISV who are developing or planning to develop on the Windows Live Platform. The Partner Readiness have just announced the release of the Windows Live Platform Services course. This 1.5 day deep dive covers the core technical aspects of Windows Live Platform Services including: Overview of Windows Live Silverlight Streaming Windows Live Controls Windows Live Tools for Visual Studio Windows Live Data... Posted Mar 05 2008, 02:13 PM by David Overton with | with no comments Filed under: Developer, Community, Hosted, Live, Microsoft, Office Live, Training

• SkyDrive (free online storage accessed via the web) goes to 5GB, comes out of beta, is available in 38 countries around the world

  I went to my skydrive today and noticed it was not 5GB, not 1GB and no longer beta. According to the official blog besides the things in the blog title it is also: This release also includes bug fixes and improvements to make the site even faster and more reliable . We’re proud of this release — so proud, in fact, that we’re officially removing the Beta tag ! The Windows Live wire blog said ( Windows Live Wire: Bigger, better, faster SkyDrive! ): Improvements to Windows Live SkyDrive , including 5 GB of free... Posted Feb 22 2008, 09:23 AM by David Overton with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: Hosted, Live

• UK MSDN Events (Windows Live, Silverlight, Hyper V, Smart Client, Black Marble, Security, Visual Studio 2008 and .Net 3.5)

  I know I should have posted these earlier, but ho-hum - sorry!! 29 January, Reading : MSDN- Building Services: .NET FX 3.5, SOAP, REST, and Beyond . 29 January, Bristol : VBUG -'Code Access Security for Protecting Web Applications'with Chris Seary . 30 January, Birmingham : MSDN - Developing on the Windows Live Platform . 31 January, Reading : Vista Squad UG- Silverlight 2.0 & Hyper V Introduction . 31 January, Bradford : MSDN -What's new in Smart Client Development . 31 January, Bradford : Black... Posted Jan 29 2008, 07:01 AM by David Overton with | with no comments Filed under: Developer, Live, Event, Silverlight, Visual Studio

• Photos, photography, JPEG XR, Photosynth, the future of photography and Seadragons - why all the excitement?

  It's funny working in an industry where if you are not going at 50,000 miles an hour you are considered to be standing still. One area where Microsoft is speeding along is photography. In this post I will explore the announcements, the demos, short and long term products and then the future that lots of people are beginning to see. For me, the fact that people are already seeing such a future and its possibilities is very exciting (both the visions and the fact they are having them without drugs!! (humour... Posted Nov 23 2007, 08:42 AM by David Overton with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: Windows Vista and XP, Live, Fun, Personal, beta, Microsoft, Windows Client, Vista, Windows Vista, Research, Demo, Open Standards, If you only read one post today

• Microsoft's Small Business Blog : Fancy winning £5,000?

  I saw this at Microsoft's Small Business Blog : Fancy winning £5,000? and thought I would pass it on. Fancy winning £5,000? We’ve just launched the Microsoft Office Live £5,000 prize draw and you’re amongst the first to hear about it. You have the chance to win £5,000 or one of several £100 Amazon gift cards. Just click the link and enter the prize draw at https://microsoft.eprize.net/officeliveuk . If you haven't explored Office Live yet it really is worth spending some time looking at what it could... Posted Nov 16 2007, 07:45 PM by David Overton with | with no comments Filed under: Business, Live, Office Live, Small business, Competition

• Microsoft Search Server 2008 Express is available as a release candidate and will be free when it releases. This is all the power of SharePoint search engine integrated into 1 web page

  I have only just been able to start playing with this, but it is looking good. I'm told that it does NOT YET load on SBS, but that the issue is being looked at (the auto config tools that make it so easy clash with the pre-defined IIS settings for SBS) and the plan is to support SBS too. I will look at how to hack it on SBS yet :-) More info can be found at Enterprise Search from Microsoft . So what is it? (basically, web, share and application search capability with lots of abilities, but some important... Posted Nov 07 2007, 02:35 PM by David Overton with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: Office System, Windows SharePoint Services, Live, beta, Search

• Windows Live Writer 2008 - including Vista x64 support, more languages, better compatibility with more blogging services

  I use Windows Live writer for blogging - it does everything I need, well, except write my blogs for me, The latest version has finally released and not as a beta. For a UK version, go to http://g.live.com/1rewlive/en/WLInstaller.exe or follow the link below for all other versions. Finally Final! Published November 6th, 2007 Atom , Windows Live Writer We’re thrilled to bring you the final version of Windows Live Writer 2008 –our first non-beta release! We haven’t added many major new features since Beta 3. We... Posted Nov 07 2007, 04:07 AM by David Overton with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: Live, Internet and Web

• New Windows Live Messenger V8.5 - its all about the look and quality, oh and the web messengering and the buttons ...

  I just saw this (as I have just updated my live suite). Anyway, if you look at the recommended " Nicole’s post " then you quickly discover that for Messenger it is all about the look, experience and quality. However, while this is true, we then have some amazingly cool new features that sit around it, such as Web based IM for people to contact you via a site and adding a "IM me" button to your site. Below are 3 blog entries that tell the whole story. Announcing Windows Live Messenger 8.5... Posted Nov 07 2007, 01:16 AM by David Overton with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: Live, Software as a Service, Software plus Service

• Linked Live IDs - how to join multiple Hotmail / MSN / Live accounts and change between them

  I have lots of e-mail accounts I use - @msn.com, @hotmail.co.uk, and @live.co.uk and Windows Live Mail enables me to read them all, however now when I am in e-mail I can access my linked e-mail accounts. I simply go to https://account.live.com/ and then add accounts to my linked accounts and then I can change accounts by a simple drop down in the windows live mail site ( http://mail.live.com ). More information can be found at Link Your Live IDs Together! or at http://www.liveside.net/blogs/main/archive/2007... Posted Nov 06 2007, 11:58 PM by David Overton with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: Hosted, Live, Software plus Service

• Microsoft Small Business Community Blog : What is going to be in "Cougar?"

  I thought I would repost this as it is a very often asked question. Eric who posted this has said as much as can be said today. I hope to be able to break silence soon on more :) The statement for me that has the most interest as many partners don't think about it is " Embracing Live Services". I can honestly say I don't know the details here, but for all those nay sayers about online / live / Software plus Service etc, this is another loud gong that the world is changing! Also, just one of... Posted Oct 30 2007, 08:51 AM by David Overton with | with no comments Filed under: Office System, Windows Longhorn, Windows SharePoint Services, Community, Exchange, Live, beta, x64, SQL Server 2005, SBS Cougar, Windows Server 2008

• Microsoft lends a tech hand to U.K. startups

  I feel very close to this team... they sit just down a bit from me :-) All good stuff, plus go to the website if you have something you think could be a candidate. Microsoft lends a tech hand to U.K. startups Microsoft's Startup Accelerator Program will help startups use software technology such as Silverlight and Live Services</WEBTEASER _extended="true"> By Jeremy Kirk, IDG News Service Microsoft will assist U.K. startups in using its software technology under a program launched on Monday... Posted Oct 24 2007, 09:05 AM by David Overton with | with no comments Filed under: Business, Community, Live, Office Live, Small business, Silverlight