Thoughtsofanidlemind's Blog

Category: Technology

  • Getting used to Outlook 2011 for Mac

    On November 8, I described how a brand-new MacBook Air had made its appearance in the IT lineup for the Redmond household and some initial teething problems that this Windows-centric (to date) individual had experienced in setting up this beautiful piece of equipment. It seems that the latest HP Envy…

  • Starting a voyage with Mac

    I’ve been using DOS or Windows PCs since the first IBM PC appeared. Over that time Microsoft-powered computers have infuriated and annoyed me on a regular basis but I think that I am now inured to the ways of Windows. Perhaps this will change with the advent of Windows 8 and the…

  • Greenwich, Sybari, and debates about PC versus Mac

    This past week we (Paul Robichaux, Brian Desmond, and I) finished the last in the current series of Exchange 2010 Maestro events. We were in the Hyatt Regency in Greenwich CT, which proved to be a perfectly acceptable location. Attendees were focused throughout, enduring all that we could throw at…

  • RWC events, weekly happenings, and Frankfurt calling

    Wow… what a Rugby World Cup (RWC) semi-final. Wales were desperately unlucky to end up at the wrong end of a 9-8 result as France staggered through to the final to emulate their feat at the original RWC in 1987. Much of the commentary since the final whistle has centered…

  • September 2011 wrap-up

    Lots has happened during September, much of which I have covered in other posts. This post serves as a wrap-up for other bits and pieces that I haven’t managed to get to over the month. First, a recommendation for rugby fans. Have a look at Brendan Fanning’s WordPress blog where he’s been…

  • I never knew that my thoughts on Exchange and Office 365 were quite so fluent in German

    The nice people from Quest have been kind enough to invite me to give a keynote at the European edition of “The Experts Conference” (TEC), which is scheduled for October 17-19 in Frankfurt. As part of the event, they asked me to interview with a German magazine called NT4Admins (you…

  • Offline Gmail returns but doesn’t make Microsoft quiver (too much)

    Yesterday Google relaunched offline access for Gmail, Calendar, and Docs. The new HTML5-based capability replaces the previous functionality built using Google Gears. Gmail is the first application to get an upgrade in the form of a Chrome application that can be launched using a new tab within the Chrome browser…

  • Some reflections on what’s been happening @HP

    I retired from HP in March 2010 and clearly a lot could have changed in the company since that time. Even so, I wasn’t prepared for the seemingly incoherent set of announcements that came out on August 18. I’ve pondered on the topic for a few days and captured my…

  • Hotmail’s ActiveSync support

    For as long as I have been using an iPhone, I have been frustrated by the inability of Hotmail to support a modern email access protocol. Hotmail seemed to be fixed in the mists of time at a point where POP3 was deemed to be sufficient to meet the needs…

  • On email disclaimers

    The April 7 article “Spare us the email yada-yada” published in The Economist provoked some consideration of how email disclaimers have evolved to a point where they have become one of the “minor nuisances of modern office life”, mostly because the information inserted in the disclaimer is designed to make the…