I suppose the proverbial cat is out of the bag regarding my current 'side project'. I'm contributing to the new MS Press Title Programming Microsoft Dynamics® CRM 4.0. The official street date of the book is October 8th 2008. I'm only writing two chapters (Metadata and Solution Deployment) so the level of commitment is relatively low - which is good considering our current 'push' at work, the sunny weather and more importantly: the baby at home.

Once my chapters are complete and handed off I'll resume work on my other side projects. I've suspended them all for the time being so I can focus my 'non-work CRM thinking' 100% on the book. I'm even considering releasing some cool unsupported application hacks (I just need to find a way to do this and keep the Support Team and the Upgrade Feature Team happy).

If you'd like to pre-order the book here is the Amazon Link:

I'm a current affairs junkie. I like news and more to the point I like analysis. I listen to the AM and PM podcasts (since live reception might be a little difficult while I live on the wrong continent). I've noticed that in the four years since I moved here the quality of US news has declined significantly. Putting aside any question of political bias (became bias doesn't necessarily relate to depth) the cable shows have becoming increasingly banal. All the while the venerable network programs have become irrelevant and outdated.

A lot of people have been talking about the Daily Show's interview with Douglas Feith. I'm amazed at the fact that one of the few places in the US that intellectuals and controversial figures are interviewed with any depth is the late night comedy shows (Daily Show and Colbert). I sense that Jon Stewart is becoming increasingly exacerbated with his new role of 'serious interviewer'.

If you don't believe me: next time you travel turn on CNN International. You'd have serious trouble believing that CNN USA and CNN International are the same station. It's like comparing Britney Spears to Walter Kronkite.

The thing I most frustrating is that this is TV's opportunity to be serious journalists (even if they are bias). This is their opportunity to prove 'why they are better than the news blogs'. This is their chance to save their profession before YouTube destroys their business. CNN: Stop with the celebrities! You aren't the E! channel. Start playing your International content. FOX: OK - I get it - you are biased - that's OK - why act so juvenile? Can't you be insightfully biased? MSNBC: Just make it stop! You don't even know what you are anymore. I'm ashamed at the 'MS' in your name.

I'm slowly moving over my photos to my new Flickr pro account at http://www.flickr.com/photos/philiprichardson. 99% of the photos will be restricted to Friends and Family only. If you fall into one of these categories email me for access.

I've posted a quick Screencast showing the process of adding licenses to a CRM Online organization. The Org license which I'm using is a 12-month trial which can have up to 250 users.

Screencast: Adding Licenses to CRM Online.

As you can see the process is pretty painless. Another great example of the logistics and operational excellence which stands behind CRM Online.

Lemphers is leaving Australia. It's true - I caught up with him last week in Redmond. The good news is he's coming to work here on some kind of Cloud thing. Lemphers is/was probably the best field ISV guy CRM has/had: which means PTY (Microsoft slang for Microsoft Australia) will need to work twice as hard to replace him.

If you are interested in Lemphers' old job he can be contacted via his blog.

I've noticed a subtle change in my behaviour lately (that's behavior for the Americans - this word is one which I abhor using Americanized spelling). The change is simple: I've become less 'bitchy' on email. The cause of my re-programming hasn't been the result of covert bio chemical campaign by my coworkers (although one never knows) - the change has resulted from aggressive use of CRM to track emails.

Any email about a Feature, Customer, Partner is tracked in CRM. This means that email is never deleted and anyone with the right permissions in CRM (ie. our team) can read that mail. The last point is the real advantage here: CRM liberates that important data from the cold dark corner of the mail server and makes it available to all who need to see it. Since tracking is set to be opt-in - things which need to stay private will stay private (and Information Rights Management in Office 2007 still gets a nice workout from time to time).

This pattern of behaviour now means I archive almost no email. The only folders I keep now are Personal (review scores, stock options, job interviews, travel plans etc) and Management (stuff about my team's review scores, stock options, job interviews etc). Everything else gets tracked in CRM or deleted permanently.

So now that my 'general' email archive can be read by the whole team (but not all of Microsoft) I've become far less bitchy.

Oh my! I'm shocked they don't intend to integrate their retail networks (I'm guessing their back office and trading operations will absolutely be merged). Retail branches are far more scalable than they were 10-20 years ago. In NSW their branch territories overlap significantly so a network merge must happen. It will be interesting to see if the government lets this happen (since the FSU will no doubt kick up a royal stink).

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.