September 2008 - Posts

• The Academic Alliance Book Giveaway

  Hello Everyone, It is that time again: your academic year begins and we, in the Academic Alliance, clear out our stack of books. If you would like to receive a bundle of six free books for your university library then please contact me. There are some rules to follow, so please read the following carefully and good luck! Academia Book Prize Draw Terms and Conditions: 1. ELIGIBILITY: This promotion is open to academics in UK universities who are 18 years of age or older at the time of entry.  2. TO ENTER: Simply email your name and postal address to Allison at ukacblog@microsoft.com, and using Academic Alliance Book Prize Draw as your subject line. Once you have emailed Allison, you will automatically be entered into a free prize draw to receive a selection of books. 3. TIMING: This promotion runs from 13:00.00 Friday 26th September. The closing date for this promotion is 15:00.00 on Wednesday 1st October.     4. SELECTION OF WINNERS: Microsoft will select twenty-six winners by a random prize draw in the presence of an independent adjudicator on Friday 3rd October.  The winners will be notified by email by Friday 10th October. The winner may be required to participate in publicity or advertising. 5. PRIZE: The winners will each receive three Microsoft Press books. Prizes as stated and are non transferable.  No cash or other alternatives available. Microsoft reserve the right to substitute prizes of equal or greater value.  The prize will be sent to the winner by 15th October. 6. WINNERS LIST: The winner consents to their surname being made publicly available.  The winners surname will be available for a period of 2 months after the closing date by 0th December 2008. 7. OTHER: No correspondence will be entered into regarding either this promotion or these Terms and Conditions. In the unlikely event of a dispute, Microsoft’s decision shall be final.  Microsoft reserve the right to amend, modify, cancel or withdraw this promotion at any time without notice. Promoter: Microsoft Limited, Microsoft Campus, Thames Valley Park, Reading, RG6 Allison Posted Friday, September 26, 2008 4:38 AM from UK Academic Team Blog | 0 Comments

• Microsoft Certification for Windows Embedded CE 6.0

  Hello All, I know that many of you are considering incorporating the Microsoft Certification Program into your curricula so that graduating students supplement their degrees with an industry recognised certification. With this in mind I thought you might like to know about the the free Preparation Kit for the Windows Embedded CE 6.0 Exam 70-571 together with the 50% off voucher which you can redeem against the examination until 5th January 2009. If you’d like to learn more, please click here. And good luck! Best, Allison Posted Thursday, September 25, 2008 5:28 AM from UK Academic Team Blog | 0 Comments Filed under: Training, Academics, Embedded, Student, Software, Software design, Graduates

• Student Technology Day … making computer science matter

  Hi, I thought you might like to know about an event we are hosting at The Royal Festival Hall on 1st October for engineering, computer science and design students. Suitable for both undergraduate and postgraduate students who are passionate about technology the day will include a wide range of talks together with a keynote speech from Steve Ballmer, CEO. Students who register may even have the opportunity to have their question put to Steve Ballmer in a special Q&A session. Unfortunately spaces are extremely limited, so if you think you and your students might be interested, please do  register as soon as possible by clicking on  Student Technology Day. I hope we see you there. In the meantime, enjoy the weekend,     Allison Posted Friday, September 19, 2008 11:05 AM from UK Academic Team Blog | 0 Comments

• Single Sign On and Exchange Labs

  A few months back, we kicked off some work with St John's University on integrating Exchange Labs with their deployment of Luminis.  In summary, St John's wanted to enable students that were logged onto the Luminis portal to be able to bring up their email in OWA without being challenged for authentication on our service.  A screen-shot representing what is now in place is below, and a site dedicated to the project, managed by St John's, can be found on our CodePlex shared source site here: http://www.codeplex.com/LuminisLiveSSO.  You will find sample code, prescriptive setup documentation, and a place to ask your questions. If you enroll in the Exchange Labs program, you will also have access to additional documentation on SSO. Enjoy! Jonny Technorati Tags: Exchange Labs Posted Friday, September 05, 2008 1:14 PM from Live@Edu Blog | 0 Comments Filed under: None

• Best Practices in getting going with Exchange Labs

  I had a conversation with a customer the other day about what kings of things should they be doing in their first week or so with Exchange Labs...is there a checklist anywhere for example?  Well we do provide starter guidance in the materials we send out during the enrollment process...but I thought I would complement this here for you. I came up with the following table of things of do, and resources you can use at each phase.  I got some positive feedback on this, so I am happy to share it here.  Any thoughts, let me know, and I can update it: Task Notes Resource ENVISIONING     Review Exchange Labs offer Get to know what it is we are offering.  The service is built on Exchange 14, but know that this is not the same as on-premise Exchange...features you see documented on Technet are what you get today...more to come over time. blog Technet PLANNING     Determine your domain structure Do you want to use an existing DNS namespace, or create a new one? blog Understand your Single Sign On options We support web-based SSO in some scenarios today, check out this customer-run project for ideas. http://codeplex.com/luminisSSO/ Familiarize yourself with the look and feel of the service Get to know what users will see, and what admins can do blog TESTING     Activate your service by configuring your DNS Creating an MX record to start mail-flow is an important part of the service activation. technet Install PowerShell CTP and WinRM 2.0 Make sure you install the right tools for the job blog Create some test accounts and work with them for a while Do not test with your real accounts, use samples instead blog Create some test distribution groups and work with them for a while Groups are a powerful feature, get to know the difference between standard groups and dynamic groups, and how to manage them blog technet Familiarize yourself with managing mailboxes Creating mailboxes is only one part of the story...get familiar with on-going management blog technet Decide on a naming scheme for mailboxes If you are planning on an 'email address for life', then some thought needs to be put in here. blog Jonny Technorati Tags: Exchange Labs,Live@Edu Posted Wednesday, September 03, 2008 11:31 PM from Live@Edu Blog | 0 Comments Filed under: None