I've been testing out Live Mesh for a few weeks now. I'll avoid any discussion of specific features as I'm guessing it's mostly NDA'd. It is hard to describe what it is in a single sentence. But to be honest I think that's OK since it is a developer beta.

I started out using Mesh for some basic file storage (on a few meg). With that experience being successful I've now moved on to syncing hundred of megabytes of files with the Mesh.

I'm also starting to see some interesting possibilities with the Mesh framework - beyond the super basic files/RDP scenarios showcased in the original demo.  Once I get some other projects out of the way I might try my hand at a Mesh enabled application.

The Consumerist reports that T-Mobile have banned Pen & Paper in one of their call centers. Even these prison call center workers get to use pens and paper. Apart from the abject ridiculousness of such a ban I find it quite audacious. Are their business systems so good that reps don't need to use paper to make ad-hoc notes whilst on calls? The elimination of pen and paper within a call center is a great goal - but actually banning them?

I'm sure that the negative morale will easily exceed any 'compliance' benefit that they were hoping to achieve.

Arun Kumar has written a cool Bulk Export tool for CRM 4.0. Check out his post on the Team Blog for more information. The tool is up on Codeplex so Arun might be looking for Community Developers to participate in the project. Ping me if you are interested and I can connect you.

We've just released an update for the CRM 4.0 Sample Data and made French, German, Italian and Spanish available! You can now select different languages on the download page:

This dataset is used with the Data Migration Manager. This screencast shows you the steps how to perform the sample data import.

I'd like to extend my thanks to the localization teams whose hard work made this release possible. Having credible sample data in non-english languages is super important for the product.

With the RTM version of Windows XP SP3 out this week I decided to give it a try. My laptop is a Lenovo T60P Widescreen with 4 GB RAM. I run both Vista and XP in classic mode so I can't really comment about Luna vs Aero.

For general windows stuff (eg. exploring folders/files etc) XP SP3 felt a little faster than Vista. Notice I said 'felt' - because as a human I can only comment on perceived performance not actual performance. However I did find one major application significantly slower on XP SP3 and that was Office 2007.

It turns out that Office 2007 runs much faster on Vista than XP. It turns I write a lot of emails. This means that Vista is my OS of choice. So after a day on XP SP3 I'm back on Vista. I'm in between beta testing at the moment (which is relatively rare at Microsoft). I was using IE8 for a while but it's still a bit rough and even with the compat mode I had to use Firefox a lot for some sites (which is painful as I find Firefox slower than IE). I'd use Safari more but it's lack of phishing filter really turns me off. At some point I'll emotionally commit to beta testing Office 14 and run a new build every few days (a nice benefit of being part of the Office division).

I enjoyed this presentation (30 minutes) and you probably will as well. Find 1/2 hour, it's worth it.

I wrote up an interesting blog post at lunch today but I'm unsure if I'll post it. The post isn't offensive - but it's bound to upset some people. However the people whom it might upset probably 'had it coming' so I don't actually feel bad. I'm debating if I should show the post to marketing (they will either love it or they will freak out). Either response doesn't work for me.

In the interim a little self censorship never hurt. It's why I wear pants.

The MVPS have been and gone. I didn't spend too much time with them because I had family in town which limited my schedule.

Jim has a good write up here. The two hours of suggestion bugs (note we call every issue and suggestion a bug for purposes of tracking) are all my plate for the moment. Tomorrow I'll find some time to de-duplicate them with the rest of the suggestion pile, add additional details, write up repro steps where appropriate and then farm them out to their respective feature owners. We are pretty strict around how these bugs/items are managed: you can't ignore them once opened and you can't arbitrarily close them. It's a good way to ensure that nothing 'falls through the cracks'.

Virtualization is now supported. Sorry I didn't blog this earlier but my mind was deeply engaged with the next version.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/946600#

See other coverage for more info.

OK. It's mid-night here. My better half is awake and watching a dog grooming competition on Animal Planet. When did dog groomers get their own TV show? WTF. It seems now that every profession has their own TV show except mine (an no The IT Crowd does count - but maybe JPod does). To matters worse too many of my friends have TV show professions. My wife doesn't have a show for her profession - but it does feature often in bizarre Law & Order plotlines (which is a good second best).

I've been following the 2020 Summit from afar and I've been generally impressed by the depth and breadth of the topics. It's this type of policy debate which will allow Australia to survive in the 21st century. I'm a little concerned that the depth of the debate for the technology industry seems a bit shallow (ie. the usual broadband and education noise). Australia is well positioned to become the technical hub of the Asian time zone if we, as a nation, play our cards right. I'm sure that over the next few days more info from the Summit sessions will be reported and hopefully there will be some good proposals for the tech sector.

Rudd is proving ever the successful technocrat. He seems keen to undertake a transformation of Australian society and he might just be the person to achieve it. However it is unclear to me exactly what transformation it will be. Sure - the obvious stuff is apparent: Republic, Indigenous Reconciliation, Environmental Sustainability etc. There seems to be a tremendous energy in Australia right now: it appears that this is our time to truly define our nation (unlike previous attempts when occurred under the protective wing of our colonial mistress).

Update: Initial Summit Report is available [PDF]

See his latest post. CRM is more than just software. It's a business philosophy where software is simply an automation component. A company can practice great CRM without computers (eg. index cards, diaries, wall calendars, customer files). However great CRM software makes all of this much easier and efficient. Great software enables you to do so many things that with paper 'you just wouldn't have bothered to do'.

I'm not a huge Cringely fan (although I really liked his TV stuff). I did enjoy his recent article: The Truth About IT Consultants. The checklist for then lies spoken by consultants (at the bottom of article) is awesome. Fortunately I interact with the 'Type A' consultant (as Cringely calls them) more than the others. However I've experience my fair share of the B's and C's.

I'll be going to the Microsoft World Wide Partner Conference this year in Houston. Space is always limited at these events so if you are considering going I recommend you sign up now! I'm hoping to spend some quality time in the sessions this year (last year in Denver was back to back meetings). I'm keen to learn more about some of the business models Microsoft partners are using today and hope to adopt in the future (especially with respect to Software as a Service). I also have no plans to attend any other conference this year. With the heir being so young I've placed a lower priority on business travel. At this stage my schedule is wide open (I'm yet to finalize any speaking engagements). Closer to the date (ie. in June) I'd be happy to accept meeting requests from any customers and partners who are also attending.

I discovered today that you can set the number of items shown in the Most Recently Used (MRU) list for CRM 4.0's Outlook Client. The default setting is 7 items and I find it just doesn't work for me.

Add the following reg key to our client machine:

Location: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\MSCRMClient
Value Name: MaxRegardingObjectListCount
Type: REG_DWORD

Here is a reg patch for those that love their *.reg files. This patch sets it to 50 items (ie. 32 in hex).
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\MSCRMClient]
"MaxRegardingObjectListCount"=dword:00000032

Warning: Modifying the registry is dangerous. If you don't know what you are doing them don't attempt it. Ask one of your parents to help out.

The following screenshot shows this config in action. I've blurred the data out for the usual reasons.