Office 365 Small Business – Exchange migration. Hidden well…

 minor ramblings, Tech  No Responses »
Mar 202013
 

Just spent 30 minutes on the phone with Microsoft support to figure out how one migrates (a crappy term to begin with. It suggests moving from one place to another. In reality it’s more of a 1-way sync) email accounts from an Exchange server to the mailboxes that come with Office 365 Small Business.

As you can see there’s no mention of Exchange or Migration when you sign in:
Office_365_Small_Business_1

The trick is as follows:
* Click on Outlook, thereby starting the Outlook Web App (OWA).
Office_365_Small_Business_2

* Edit the URL. Remove the part that starts with /owa and replace it with /ecp. Example: https://pod12345.outlook.com/owa/[something] becomes https://pod12345.outlook.com/ecp.
Office_365_Small_Business_3

* Press ‘Enter’ and… voilà! There’s your Exchange admin center, with the option to create migration batches.
Office_365_Small_Business_4

Why hide it like this? Who knows…? Microsoft Moves in a Mysterious Way…

on{x} by Microsoft. Works only on… Android!

 'Personal', Tech  No Responses »
Jun 072012
 

Time for some Microsoft bashing… err… promoting! Yup, I don’t do that too often, for obvious reasons, in my opinion.

There are plenty of apps out there which let Android users automate tasks, performing their pre-defined actions when specific conditions are met. Microsoft thinks it can do one better than that, though, and has plans for a whole scripting system based on giving its users a large degree of control over just how their phones behave, without requiring lots of custom apps for every given situation.

Called on{X}, Microsoft is first debuting the system for Android, where it uses JavaScript to interpret end-user instructions. In order to make it accessible (despite its rather technical underpinnings), Microsoft breaks the relevant chunks of JavaScript code into triggers and actions, all configurable through a convenient GUI. By stringing together these bits, users create on{X} rules, which can then be shared with others online.

For instance, one on{X} rule might contain the triggers for the time being 8 a.m. and the local weather forecast mentioning rain, with the action that an alert should be displayed on the phone advising you to grab an umbrella. Others might contain triggers that detect when you’re out on a jog and a text message from a friend arrives, letting your phone automatically text back that you’ll respond when you’re done with your workout.

This certainly sounds like a system with great potential, and a lot of flexibility. However, its success or failure could lie with the strength of its development community, and just how appealing the pre-configured rules it shares with other users are.

While on{X} hits Android first, Microsoft hopes to bring it to other mobile platforms in the future. Yes, you read that correctly. on{X} is not supported on Windows Phone!
Hmm, a perfect place to quote Alanis Morissette:

And isn’t it ironic…don’t you think
A little too ironic…and, yeah, I really do think…

Twitter, and my ramblings there…

 daily life, minor ramblings, Tech  No Responses »
Feb 122011
 

As you may have already noticed (or at the very least suspected), I am also active on Twitter. I signed up there back in 2007, March 7th to be precise, after having been invited by @jeffpulver. My first tweet contained basically this exact information:

Adding my info to Twitter after jeffpulver invited me to this service…

I started out very slowly: 3 tweets in 2007 and 4 tweets in 2008. In 2009 it began to take off: 67 tweets.
These numbers are nothing compared to 2010 (and 2011) however: hundreds of tweets. The exact numbers can be found in the archive of all my tweets, collected with help of Tweetnest. Later on I also deployed ThinkUp to organize and analyse my tweets. (this I’ve done only recently, so it may not have fully indexed and organized my tweets by the time you read this).

Most of the things I tweet probably hardly get noticed by anyone, although there are exceptions. On February 11th, 2011, shortly after I heard about the plans for a broad strategic partnership between Microsoft & Nokia, I tweeted the following:

All new #Nokia phones will have keyboards so that CTRL-ALT-Delete can be pressed when WP7 has frozen up yet again… #Nokia #CTRLALTDEL #WP7

That simple message got ‘retweeted’ (repeated) by at least 103 people, and even became quote of the day on E24…

Right now I have 153 followers (click for up-to-date info), and I follow 165 people and organizations (click for up-to-date info).
Who I follow? It’s a mix of people I know from my time in the Netherlands (like @josk, @johnschnake, @andreasvz & @ralphtuijn), interesting organizations & websites (like @loesjeint, @mashable & @librarything), and even some celebrities (like @jerilryan, @realnichelle & @andersonrdean).
And who follows me? Well, basically a mix of people (some I know, some I don’t), and even a few celebs like @h_combs, @jerilryan, @realnichelle & @sheilaedrummer.

Why I follow the people I follow? Mostly because they either have interesting things to say, or I think they will have something interesting to say some day in the near or distant future.
Why people follow me? I don’t have the foggiest idea… Feel free to check out my tweets and judge for yourself… :cool:

Who are the people behind the Twitter accounts mentioned in this post?

@jeffpulverJeff Pulver
@joskJos Kok
@johnschnakeJohn Schnake
@andreasvzAndrea van Zoest
@ralphtuijnRalph Tuijn
@loesjeintLoesje
@mashableMashable
@librarythingLibraryThing
@jerilryanJeri Ryan
@realnichelleNichelle Nichols
@sheilaedrummerSheila E.
@andersonrdeanRichard Dean Anderson
@h_combsHolly Marie Combs

Micronet – why hasn’t Microsoft sued them yet??

 minor ramblings, Tech  No Responses »
Mar 172010
 

Well, here’s a very good example of very, very identical logo’s. I wonder why they are getting away with it. Let’s be fair here: Microsoft has sued people & companies for a lot less than ‘borrowing’ their logo… :cool:

Granted, the Microsoft logo has a ‘thingie’ in its first ‘O’, but otherwise the even the font appears to be identical.

Microsoft is a multinational computer technology corporation that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of software products for computing devices.

Micronet is a worldwide provider, developing and manufacturing advanced networking solutions for Enterprise, SME, ISP, and SOHO.

New build project: Linux & Windows 7 dual-boot desktop (64-bit)

 Tech  2 Responses »
Jan 032010
 

Starting soon (when the parts arrive from Amentio):

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