Thoughtsofanidlemind's Blog

  • Seat 25G to Seattle

    I’m just back from spending the week in Bellevue and Redmond, where I attended Microsoft’s annual MVP Summit. MVP stands for “Most Valuable Professional” and essentially it’s a group of advocates for Microsoft technology organized by interest. I’m an Exchange MVP and have been since 2003 or thereabouts, but this…

  • Whoops! Where’s my Inbox?

    One of the weaknesses inherent in cloud-based services was displayed once again on February 28 when Gmail service was lost to some 500,000 users, or as Google expressed it, 0.29% of the total user base (I love the way that small percentages are used in an attempt to disguise the…

  • Multi-role or single-role servers?

    Ever since Exchange 2007, Microsoft has emphasized the product’s capability to be installed in different roles on a server. The logic behind this direction is pretty simple: you should only ever install the code that you actually need on a server rather than installing a lot of stuff that you…

  • Personal experience: the perils and pain of losing Internet access

    I thought that I was all set for the Exchange 2010 high availability webinar that I co-presented on behalf of Marathon Technologies on February 24 – or so I believed. The slides had been done, we had run through how webinars work using the GoToMeeting tool (easy to use –…

  • Some odd Google search results

    One of my ex-colleagues at HP was doing some research into how Exchange 2010 performs replication. He plugged in a search request into Google and got some interesting results back, which he just had to share with me (below). I don’t know whether to be appalled or pleased with the…

  • Exchange 2010 Public Folders: Part 3

    This content comes from a chapter removed from my book Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 Inside Out, also available at Amazon.co.uk (including a Kindle edition). The first part of the chapter is available in this post and the second here. This post completes the chapter on public folders. – Tony Permissions Public…

  • Join me at the Marathon Technologies webinar on 24 February 2011

    Many companies ask me to look at their technology, especially when it’s relevant to Exchange 2010. Typically there’s a request to get involved by assessing the technology and perhaps writing about it.  Most of the time I politely decline because I don’t have the time or I don’t care to…

  • First look: HP E5000 Messaging System

    On January 21, I blogged about the joint HP-Microsoft announcement of the HP E5000, the first messaging appliance-type system specifically designed to run Exchange 2010. This week I’ve had the chance to spend some time in Cupertino, CA working with HP and Microsoft representatives from the team that created the…

  • TMO’ing Six Nations rugby in Twickers

    It’s been a while since I reported on rugby activities, so here goes. Saturday last (February 12) saw me at Twickenham, London for the England vs. Italy match in the RBS Six Nations championship. Whilst I have been the TMO for other internationals, this was my first Six Nations game…

  • Exchange 2010 Public Folders: Part 2

    This content comes from a chapter removed from my book Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 Inside Out, also available at Amazon.co.uk (including a Kindle edition). The first part of the chapter is available in this post. Now let’s get on with some more discussion about public folders. Creating new replicas The default…