MCM Event Series 2010

As a part of our sponsorship of the 2010 Marine Corps Marathon (MCM) Event Series, we are pleased to announce our sponsorship of the MCM Run2Register 10K event that is taking place on Saturday, March 27, 2010 at the Marine Corps Base in Quantico, VA.  Here are some important details about the event:

• Participants can secure a slot in the 35th Marine Corps Marathon Main event which will be held later this year on Saturday, October 31st, 2010 in Washington, DC.  All finishers of the Run2Register 10K ages 14 and older will receive a guaranteed, non-complimentary entry into the MCM, days before online registration is available to the general public.
• Date: Saturday, March 27th, 2010
• Time: 8:00 AM
• Location: Marine Corps Base in Quantico, VA
• Complete Info: MCM Run2Register 10K website

Members of the MetroStar Systems team will be participating in the race and others will supporting the Marine Marathon event team and cheering on the runners.  Immediately following the MCM Run2Register 10 K event will be the 28th Irish Sprint One-Miler that is still open to the public for registration.  We are proud to be supporting this event and are looking forward to it.  Let us know if you are participating or plan to be there!

]]> http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/03/11/metrostar-is-sponsoring-the-marine-corps-marathons-run-to-register-10k-2010-event/feed/ 0 http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/03/11/metrostar-is-sponsoring-the-marine-corps-marathons-run-to-register-10k-2010-event/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/metrostarsystemsblog/~3/kuBcFNsszBs/ http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2010/03/02/notes-from-the-2010-microsoft-mvp-global-summit/#comments Tue, 02 Mar 2010 23:21:48 +0000 Mostafa Elzoghbi http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/?p=2599

Hello Everyone,

I’d like to share some of the experiences I had at the 2010 Microsoft MVP Global Summit which was held from 16-19 Feb 2010 in Seattle, WA. This year’s summit was exciting for MVPs as some big announcements for new products at Microsoft such as Windows 7, Visual Studio 2010, SharePoint 2010, Mobile 7 and new web technologies trends such as ASP.NET 4.0, MVC, Entity Framework, Silverlight 4, etc.

Being a C# MVP, I have been asked to present a MVP2MVP side session on Friday 19th from Charlie Calvert (C# Community Manager). My session topic was titled “LINQ in SharePoint 2010” and you can find my presentation here.

I met a good number of geeks within the summit : Hammad Rajjoub (Connected Systems MVP), Mohamed AbdelHaleem (OCS MVP), Waleed Omar-Exchange (Exchange Server MVP), Amit Bansal (SQL Server MVP), Martin Kulov (ASP.NET MVP), Gael Duhamel (Commerce Server MVP), Serge Luca (SharePoint MVP), Jonathan Noble (Power Shell MVP), Razi Bin Rais (SharePoint  MVP), and many other MVPs and friends working at Microsoft.

I had a great discussion and made future plans with Ruari Plint (MEA MVP Lead) for future community events and work to be planned.

I’d like to thank our creative designer Hector Portillo for the design of my presentation.

Some pictures for the event and presentation are below:

[View with PicLens]

You can follow the conversation around the 2010 MVP Global Summit by searching the #MVP10 hashtag and by following @MVPAwardProgram on Twitter or by visiting these links and resources:

• MVP Global Summit 2010 Blog
• MVP Award Program on Facebook
• The Microsoft MVP Award Program Blog
• Microsoft MVP Worldwide website

Feel free to leave any questions or comments in the comment’s section below.

Thanks,

Mostafa

Let’s say you want to install Office Communications Server (OCS) 2007 R2 onto a subdomain (i.e. installing OCS onto a domain such as lab.domain.net instead of domain.net).  If you are logged in as a domain administrator on the subdomain, you will get access denied errors when the installer attempts to write information into the top-level domain.

A simple solution to this is to temporarily give the sub-domain’s administrator write access to the objects in active directory (AD) which it needs to write to, which is usually:

CN=RTC Service,CN=Microsoft,CN=System,DC=[TOP LEVEL DOMAIN IN THE FOREST]

NOTE: The OCS installer error log will tell you exactly which objects it needs access to.

This can be accomplished using a tool called ADSI edit which is designed for editing objects inside of AD.  Screen shots can be seen below:

ADSI Edit (Click on image for larger view)

CN=RTC service (Click on image for larger view)

If you have any questions or comments, please post them in the comments section below.

Thanks,

Lee

I love technology, however, when someone forgets to add very simple comments, it drive me crazy.

Today, I needed to figure out how to add a Custom Tab onto Microsoft’s Office Communicator 2007 R2.

According to the documentation provided by Microsoft, it is a very simple process

Configuring Context-Sensitive Custom Tabs
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb963929.aspx

Step 1: Define the Registry Setting – Adjusting the registry
Step 2: Creating the Custom Tab Definition Files – Creating an XML file

Now, Step 2 was the easiest, since they have a good example on the format of the XML file.

However, Step 1 was the most troublesome, since the instructions tell you to navigate (using regedit.exe) to the following locations within your computer registry in order to create an entry:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Communicator

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Communicator

Very straight forward instructions, however, what they forget to tell you

NOTE: the above path might not exist.

At first, I blamed my Windows 7, but then I contacted a coworker that has Windows Vista and he said the path did not exist for him either.

Hence, the only thing that came to mind was to create the entries manually. At first I was very hesitant to manually create a new key, since I did not want to crash my computer. However, what is the worst that could happen? (OS rebuild)

So, I navigated to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft

1. Created a new “Key” and named it “Communicator”
2. Created a new “String Value”  and named it “TabURL” with the location of the XML file (Step 2) which I hosted on IIS. (See Image OC1 below)
3. Exited Office Communicator
4. Launched and Signed In ont Office Communicator
5. Done (See Image OC2 below)

If Microsoft reads this post, please make sure to adjust your documentation, since this omission causes a lot of unnecessary research and frustration when trying to customize Office Communicator 2007 R2.

MetroStar Systems is pleased and proud to announce that our team member, Mostafa Elzohgbi, will be presenting at Microsoft’s exclusive 2010 MVP Global Summit which takes place February 16-19, 2010 at Microsoft Headquarters in Redmond, Washington.

Mostafa’s presentation will cover both C# and Sharepoint with his session titled “LINQ in Sharepoint 2010 Development.”

He will be joined by over 1,300 of the world’s top leaders from Microsoft’s MVP technical community who represent 96 countries, 37 languages, and span 94 Microsoft Technology areas.  Microsoft’s Most Valuable Professional (MVP) Program, in it’s 17th year, recognizes and awards individuals for their exceptional commitment in helping improve Microsoft’s products and in helping people around the world make the most of their Microsoft technology.  You can read more about Mostafa’s MVP recognition here: http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2009/07/02/metrostar-systems-employee-receives-exclusive-microsoft-award/

You can follow the conversation around the 2010 MVP Global Summit by searching the #MVP10 hashtag and by following @MVPAwardProgram on Twitter.

For more information, you can also visit these links and resources:

• Connect with Mostafa Elzoghbi on Twitter
• Read Mostafa’s Blog
• 2010 Global Summit Website
• MVP Global Summit 2010 Blog
• MVP Award Program on Facebook
• The Microsoft MVP Award Program Blog
• Microsoft MVP Worldwide website

Earlier this week, at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Microsoft unveiled “Windows Phone 7 Series“.  This new phone, which Microsoft is targeting to unleash by the 2010 holiday season, will take a stab at the iPhone and its market by providing

• a completely new user experience (a Zune HD like experience)
• extensive integration with social networks, such as facebook
• video, music and photo aggregation/mashup like abilities
• office productivity tools
• integration with zune (videos & music) and xbox live (games)
• GPS, maps, search
• and many more features ……

Windows Phone 7 Series Demo

Behind the Desgin

We are only 2 months into 2010 and it seems that this year, Microsoft is going all outs in the Mobile and Gaming Markets, both of which will get hit by critical products during 2010 holiday season:

As a End User:  Make sure not be naughty this year. And if you are reading this blog post Santa, I promise to be a good developer (commenting my code)  and a good individual (helping others).

As a Developer: Make sure to stay connected to the latest and try to attend MIX10 Conference where they will release further details on not only ”Windows Phone 7 Series”, but also Microsoft’s broad web platform and tools that help bring together the clients, servers and cloud services needed for creating great rich web applications.

A very exciting year for both Users and Developers.

2010, the year of creating exceptional user experiences across all devices.

I recently upgraded my computer from Windows Vista to Windows 7.  And while setting up my computer, I discovered that the Microsoft Surface SDK only works on Windows Vista.

I am not going to lie, but I was very disappointed and could not see why the SDK could not work on Windows 7. Hence, I went ahead and searched the web for individuals with the same issue. Hence, I discovered this post which helps you with adjusting the Surface SDK msi file, along with samples to work on Windows 7.

Great Post !!!

http://www.grumpydev.com/2009/05/17/surface-sdk-sp1-on-vista-and-win7-x64/

.MSI files can act strangely at times. Causing us to explode in anger as to why it decided that it must check your disk for space requirements.

Is this a sign that I must take a break and get a cup of coffee?

Hence, I clicked on “Return” on the above message and took a break.

To my surprise, nothing had happened. Moreover, when I clicked on “Next”, I received the haunting message again

“Please wait while Setup finishes determining your disk space requirements”

Haven’t I waited enough?
Isn’t this suposed to be easier?
Is this a sign that I should go home earlier?
Am I on Celebrity Ghost Stories?

And then Command Line came to mind.

A black screen (Night) with white letter (Ghost) .

Try this command (Spell)

“msiexec /package [sample.msi] /qr”

and it should install the .MSI without any unwanted messages.

It is amazing how much one can learn in a month after being immersed in an environment. I’ve learned  that while our SVP of Business Development can salsa, it’s the Bhangra music and rhythms that get my new colleagues on the dance floor at a company party. I’ve learned that, true to its name, if I drink the Midnight Magic coffee after lunch I can’t fall asleep before 1:00 a.m.  I’ve learned that when you get smart people and good technology in a room together, you can play a part to help a poor island nation racked by catastrophe.

My role here at MetroStar Systems is, ultimately, to tell our story. While there is a certain “drinking from a firehose” aspect to the transition of a new executive into a fast growing company – average of 272% in the last three years and 420% growth in the last year – in true MetroStar fashion, I’ve tried to do a lot of listening and observing since arriving earlier this month.

So here’s what I’ve observed:
We are Skywalker Ranch meets the United Nations. Our modern offices are situated on a beautiful pre-Civil War era campus in the heart of what is now bustling, modern, high tech Reston, Virginia. But this exquisite facility is only the shell – the real beauty lies within. At the time of this writing, we have nearly 100 employees with more than 30 different nationalities represented. Walking around the office and meeting my new colleagues has been the absolute highlight of my transition so far. The cultural diversity is a huge strength for a company immersed in using technology in new and innovative ways.  We come from different places with different backgrounds and different ideas. When a customer presents a problem, we can offer several unique perspectives and share among our team to create the ideal solution. Innovative collaboration is at the very heart of MetroStar Systems.

We are a company that uses technology to bridge collaboration between people. Sometimes those people are Marines sharing data around the globe; other times we’re leveraging the best social media technology on a global scale in the interest of the State Department’s public diplomacy campaigns. By doing what we do, we effect change in the world.

MetroStar Systems offers a unique ability to collaborate.  Indeed, we are true to our tagline – we “Advance Technology Daily“. But we also…

Avance la tecnología cada día
每天先进技术
Zaawansowanej technologii na co dzień
پیشرفت تکنولوژی روزانه
передовой технологии с каждым днем
Avançando a tecnologia diariamente
تقدم التكنولوجيا اليومية
अग्रिम प्रौद्योगिकी हर दिन
Progresser les technologies de tous les jours
предварително технология всеки ден
Kuendeleza teknolojia ya kila siku
הטכנולוגיה מראש כל יום
công nghệ tiên tiến mỗi ngày
사전 기술 매일
teknologi maju setiap hari
Teknoloji avanse chak jou

Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/noticelj/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

New year, new tools, new games, NO CONTROLLERS?

Microsoft is really cranking on getting Project Natal this year with hopes of getting this onto the market by the end of 2010. Check out the following article, which talks about the science behind Project Natal and how other competitors are reacting:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=microsoft-project-natal

Will Natal have the same effect that the Wii had on us, for the past few years?�
The Wii Remotes slipped out of people hands onto their expensive flat screen TVs before, will my hand hit the TV this time? Will I be in shape to play any of their games?

So many questions, yet, I can’t wait to play. Which reminds me that I need to buy an Xbox 360!