Kenneth Lo, PMP » software

SharePoint 2010 Beta Hardware & Software Requirements

Kenneth Lo — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 20:03:12 +0000

The long-awaited SharePoint 2010 Beta was finally released this week. It has set the entire community on fire! Many new features have been added and existing ones improved. I will be posting a series of blog posts next few weeks as the adventures take place. Stay tuned!

Before you start installing the beta in your sandbox environment, you will need to have the 64-bit hardware ready. Below is a list of the minimum requirements:

Windows Server 2008 64-bit with Service Pack 2 (SP2) or later OR Windows Server 2008 R2
Microsoft SQL Server 2005 64-bit with SP2 or later OR SQL Server 2008 64-bit
Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 with SP1

Level 1 Internet browser options running on the Windows operating system:

Internet Explorer 7 32-bit
Internet Explorer 8 32-bit
Firefox 3.x 32-bit

Level 2 Internet browsers options:

Internet Explorer 7 64-bit
Internet Explorer 8 64-bit
Firefox 3.x on non Windows operating system
Safari 3.x

For the complete and updated list of prerequisites for installing SharePoint Server 2010, see “Determine hardware and software requirements (SharePoint Server 2010)” (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=166546) on the Microsoft TechNet Web site.

How to Effectively Create a Work Breakdown Structure in Microsoft Project and Visio

Kenneth Lo — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 08:04:50 +0000

The Microsoft Office Visio Professional 2007 Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) Modeler Add-in enables effective integration of Microsoft Office Visio 2007 and Microsoft Office Project Standard 2007 by providing a new approach to creating, editing and modifying project plans graphically in Visio 2007. The WBS Modeler offers the ability to manage project elements in a graphical view, and to layout a WBS in Visio 2007.

The WBS Modeler can either be used to visualize and edit an existing project plan or to create a new project plan in Microsoft Office Visio 2007 Professional and then export it to Microsoft Office Project (2003+) to carry out the next planning steps.

The WBS Modeler Add-in has 5 main features:

Once installed, the WBS Modeler can be accessed directly within Visio.
Existing project plans created with Microsoft Office Project can be imported directly into Visio.
Visualize selected phases or an entire project plan dynamically in Visio 2007.
Project plans can be edited directly within Visio 2007.
Visually compare and review Visio diagram edits against the original project plan.

Follow the link below and go to the Visio toolbox for more information:

http://visiotoolbox.com/downloads/addins/WBS%20Modeler%20Add-In_51.aspx

Best Free Unified Instant Messaging Desktop Programs

Kenneth Lo — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 07:53:43 +0000

Instead of running various Instant Messaging (IM) tools that clutter up your desktop and kill your bandwidth, you can stay connected with your contacts on MSN, AIM, GoogleTalk, and other IM networks with a single tool. This blog entry aims to help you find the ultimate unified IM tool.

Trillian

Trillian is a powerful Instant Messenger that has over 400 features. It is compatible with most of the popular IM tools and social networks and shows not only the contact list, but also news, feeds and many more.

Digsby

Digsby condenses all your AIM, MSN, GoogleTalk, Facebook chat into one simple, concise list. You can also manage your emails at Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo accounts.

VoxOx

VoxOx includes every conceivable way of communication and it makes it easier. Video call, IM, fax, text messaging, email all merge into one, VoxOx promises that. However, it looks like it’s still in beta and many features are not yet available. But expect more to come and VoxOx will be in serious business.

The table below summarizes the key criteria for the three Unified IM clients (maximum score is 5).

Software	Ease Of Use	Functionality	Multiple Accounts
Trillian	4	5	Yes
Digsby	4	3	Yes
VoxOx	4	3	Yes

Best Free Twitter Applications for Desktops

Kenneth Lo — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 09:34:29 +0000

If you have been using Twitter for any amount of time, you probably have wondered whether there is a better tool to manage your tweets than the Twitter website. How about managing multiple Twitter accounts? Perhaps you find yourself constantly logging in and out of different accounts in the web browser.

There are easier ways to to manage all your tweets and accounts than using the regular Twitter website. You can easily achieve high efficiency with the help of a Twitter desktop application. Let’s examine three of the most popular Twitter desktop applications to help you determine which one would work best for you.

TweetDeck

TweetDeck enables users to split their Twitter feed into columns, creating a clear and simple overview of tweets. With TweetDeck, users can also group their friends. Other features include multiple account management, favorites, and URL shortening. However, TweetDeck does not synch with versions on other computers, so it’s frustrating that users have to do all the settings again when they switch computers.

Seesmic

It does many of the same things that other client managers do, and it works very much like TweetDeck. But Seesmic makes photo sharing easier by allowing users to drag them into a small window. I currently use Seesmic as my primary Twitter application.

Twhirl

Users can view their archive tweets in Twhirl, a feature that TweetDeck doesn’t have. Twhirl is superior to TweetDeck in that it gives users more freedom in customizing colors and themes, which will come in handy when you have tons of tweets flooding in from different accounts.

The table below summarizes the key criteria for the Big Three (maxiumu score is 5).

Software	Ease Of Use	Functionality	Multiple Accounts
TweetDeck	3 clear and simple overview	3 includes all Twitter features	Yes
Seesmic	4 same with TweetDeck	4 same with TweetDeck plus photo uploading	Yes
Twhirl	4 same with TweetDeck	4 customization and view archives	Yes

Chance to Preorder Windows 7 at Substantial Discounts

Kenneth Lo — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 07:00:59 +0000

Sick of Vista? Relief is on the way!

Microsoft on Wednesday announced retail pricing for Windows 7 that’s at or below comparable Windows Vista prices, while also offering a chance for people to preorder the software at a substantial discount, between June 26 and July 11.

The offer, however, is limited in both duration and by the number of copies Microsoft is willing to sell, although Microsoft would not specify that figure. The upgrade will be available at Amazon, Best Buy, Microsoft’s own store, Office Depot, OfficeMax, Costco, Staples, Wal-Mart and several other retailers.

Make sure to preorder your copy now while the supplies last!

How to Delete K2 blackpearl Workflow in K2 Workspace

Kenneth Lo — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 22:47:00 +0000

The entire article is available on eHow.

If you are building workflow applications with K2 blackpearl for a while, you probably have a good number of working instances of workflow in K2 Workspace. Knowing how to remove these is particularly handy during development and testing when you have multiple instances of workflow with different deployed processes.

By removing the older instances, you will save lots of time matching an instance with a particular version of deployed process. Another important benefit is saving hard disk space. In my development environments, the data center only allocate us barely enough space (go figure). Being able to remove the old workflows and log entries saves us many hassles.

1. In Internet Explorer (K2 Workspace works much better in IE) , open http://[K2 Server Name]

2. Log in as an user with administrator permission

3. Click on Management > Management Console

4. Expand [K2 Server Name]

5. Expand Workflow Server > Processes > [Process Name] > Task > Instances

6. Click Select All > Delete

7. Check off Delete Log Entries

Microsoft Word 2007 Tips: How to Paste Text without Formatting

Kenneth Lo — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 22:34:00 +0000

If you do a lot of copy and paste operations in MS Word 2007, you probably have asked for an easy way to control whether the formatting should be perserved in the destination document. That feature is actually built-in. Until I discovered this feature today, I had to use the old faithful NotePad as an intermediate step!

Below are the steps to change the configuration:

* Click on the Office Button in the upper left cornner
* Click on Word Options > Advanced
Scroll down to “cut, copy, and paste” section
* Change the first four setting as you see fit