All Things Microsoft AI

Mobilize Your Business: Using Microsoft Solutions to Keep Your Business on the Move You’re invited to attend a Berbee and Microsoft Seminar As a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, Berbee is pleased to invite you to the special event "Mobilize Your Business: Using Microsoft Mobile Solutions to Keep Your Business on the Move." Attend this two-hour session and discover how Microsoft® supported mobile solutions can make your mobile workforce more productive.Advanced Technology in Action to Solve Today’s Business ProblemsDoes your team need to stay in the know while on the go? Mobile solutions can help your people get to work without being at work. Through business scenarios, case studies, and product demos, this event will show how Microsoft technologies can help your business to:* Enable productivity away from the office* Provide on-the-go access to corporate data* Respond more quickly to customers, partners, and colleaguesAttend This Unique Event for a First-Hand View Don’t miss...

Listed below are the requirments for making a password strong and more difficult to comprimise. 8 characters minimum No repeating characters Embedded numbers and special characters Avoid common dictionary words Avoid using login name within the password Force users to change passwords every 3-6 months Old passwords should be avoided when changing a current password Users should be repeatedly warned never to share passwords with anyone, including System Administrators. Users can check their own password at http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/privacy/password_checker.mspx . This is a non-recording web site used to simply check the strength of a password and it’s resilience for being compromised. For more information on strong passwords, go to http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/privacy/password.mspx

Listed below is a summary of the .Net events scheduled for this month. Attend a few and increase your .Net knowledge! Jan 9: Windows Workflow Foundation http://www.bennettadelson.com/technicalresources/sig.aspx Jan 11: Reporting Services – Level 300 http://www.bennettadelson.com/technicalresources/sqlsig.aspx Jan 23: Microsoft Launch Event (office 2007/Vista) http://www.msdnevents.com Jan 23: Multi-tier Application Development http://www.ClevelandDotNet.info

Microsoft is now offering Exam Insurance for certification tests. For $175, a candidate can purchase an exam with insurance. This allows for either a free re-take if the candidate fails, or 25% off the next exam if the candidate passes. In addition, when you purchase Exam Insurance and take your initial exam by January 31, 2007, you get a one-year subscription to Microsoft TechNet Plus Direct (US$349 value). Please note you must register and take your first exam by January 31. This is considered a very reasonable deal, considering certification exams are $125 each. Exam insurance can be purchased from local Microsoft certified testing centers. To find a local center, go to http://www.exampartners.com/default.asp . To learn more about Exam Insurance, go to http://www.microsoft.com/learning/mcp/offers/insurance/default.mspx

Microsoft recently released a compatability pack allowing users of Office 2000, XP, and 2003 to be able to open, edit, and save files in the new 2007 format. This applies to Word (.docx), Excel (.xlsx), and PowerPoint (.pptx) files. Before installing the compatability pack, users should be sure that all office updates are in place. To download this free utility, go to http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=941b3470-3ae9-4aee-8f43-c6bb74cd1466&DisplayLang=en

Microsoft released SP1 for Visual Studio 2005 earlier this month. To view all of the new features in VS2005 along with SP1 enhancements, go to http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/88fx1xy0(VS.80).aspx To download SP1, go to http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=BB4A75AB-E2D4-4C96-B39D-37BAF6B5B1DC&mg_id=10055&displaylang=en#Overview For related issues with installing SP1, go to http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=928957

Q: Do you know the date when Microsoft will end support for classic Asp and VB6? A: Primary support ended in April of 2005 for those products. They are currently in the "extended support lifecycle" which means that we only provide free security fixes. That will be ending next year in April and then there will only be the "online" support of KB articles that are already published. If you have a customer still using them, I highly recommend you upgrade them, as that technology just isn't up to the task of dealing with Today's types of security, scalability or reliability requirements. Thanks to Bill Steele (Microsoft) for providing this info first hand.