Microsoft Messenger for Mac 7 has been released!

Recently I published an article about how to configure your Mac Messenger 6.0.3 with Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007. Now Microsoft has great news!

Microsoft Messenger for Mac 7!

Built for corporate Mac users on Office Communications Server 2007, Messenger for Mac 7 gives co-workers new ways to communicate easily with each other in different locations or time zones. Additionally, personal users will find a few improvements for managing their contact lists.

More information see: here

Tags van Technorati: Microsoft Messenger for Mac 7,Mac 7,Office Communications Server 2007

Making the most out of toast...

Toast, as the OC team calls it, is a notification that appears near your desktop’s systray (i.e. the thing with the clock in it). Toast’s primary goal is to let a user know that there is an incoming communication request and to give as much context about the request as possible. More information see the Microsoft Communicator Team Blog. Here

Tags van Technorati: Toast,Content,Caller Identity,Action Region,Contextual Info,Communicator 2007

Windows Speech Recognition Macros Technical Preview

Michael already gives his information about these macro's!Windows Speech Recognition Macros Technical Preview is released. You can download it from now.

Validation is required. Source my buddy at Microsoft. More technical info see

Quick Details

Version:
TP1

Date Published:
4/23/2008

Language:
English

Download Size:
42 KB - 2.8 MB*

Overview

The Windows Speech Recognition Macros tool – or WSR Macros for short – extends the usefulness of the speech recognition capabilities in Windows Vista. Users can create powerful macros that are triggered by spoken commands which can perform a series of tasks from as simple as inserting your mailing address to as complex as providing a completely different speech interaction with applications.
While we have tried to make it easy to use, this release of WSR Macros is a technical preview of technology we are planning to release in the future. Not all the features we have planned are included, and some are incomplete. Users are cautioned to treat this release as “pre-beta.” While creating simple macros is very straightforward, the creation and editing of more complex macro files is best suited for advanced users. We welcome your feedback on how we can improve WSR Macros to best suit your needs.

System Requirements

• Supported Operating Systems: Windows Vista

• A computer running a genuine copy of Windows Vista (x86 or x64)
Currently, only English-language editions of Windows are supported.
• A working microphone
• Optionally, speakers or headset for sound and voice output
We recommend the following in addition:
• A minimum of 1GB of memory is recommended when using speech alongside of other applications.
• Speech recognition works best when the computer can hear you clearly. We recommend high-quality microphones for best results. Microphones that are placed near the speaker’s mouth are optimal, such as a headset microphone.
• We recommend that you complete the Microphone Wizard and additionally the Windows Speech Recognition tutorial before using WSR Macros. This will ensure that your microphone is setup properly and help the speech engine become adapted to your voice.
• Please note that most Bluetooth microphones do not function well with Windows Speech Recognition due to limited audio bandwidth.

Error in Conference Center configuration

Recently we had some problems with our own Conference Center configuration. As you can see below you will get an error message with the exact text:

"Content failed to download due to a problem with the Conference Center configuration. Contact your administrator"

The best way to resolve these issues is to check the following items:

• Check your eventlog on your OCS server
• Check your eventlog in Windows Vista  (make sure you use the Snooper.exe tool to filter error messages)
• Run the Deployment Validation Tool

Checking these we saw that there was no error message at all. So we get al little bit confused. Still we had some moments thinking that we can resolve these issues. And we did! When you have the error above please make sure your check the following configurations.

1. Check if you are using the correct proxy in the IE browser. For ultimate testing just disable the proxy for one moment. Try to re-connect. Make sure the IE browser is restarted.

2. Another reason may be that the WMI (InternalClientContentDownloadURL) property isn't configured correctly.

Log on to an Office Communications Server 2007 Standard Edition Server or a server in an Enterprise Edition pool, or a server with Office Communications Server 2007 administrative tools installed, as a member of the RTCComponentUniversalServices group or an account with equivalent user rights.

• At the command prompt, type wbemtest.exe.
• In the Windows Management Instrumentation Tester dialog box, click Connect.
• In the Connect dialog box, in Namespace, type root\cimv2, and then click Connect.
• In the Windows Management Instrumentation Tester dialog box, click Query.
• In the Query dialog box, type the query, such as:
• Select * from MSFT_SIPDataMCUCapabilitySetting where Backend = “contoso-sql”
• In the Query dialog box, click Apply.
• In the Query Result dialog box, double-click MSFT_SIPDataMCUCapabilitySetting.
• In the Object editor dialog box, do the following: To change the location of meeting content, double-click the InternalClientContentDownloadURL property. In the Property Editor dialog box, change the value to  your URL (for example: https://contoso-ocsav.contoso.com/etc/place/null), and then click Save Property

When hitting this URL you will get an HTTP Error 403 - Forbidden
Internet Explorer. With this configuration the Conference Center works again for us.

Virtual Directory (Null Virtual Directory). On each virtual directory etc/place/null we configured anonymous authentication (out of the box).

Tags van Technorati: InternalClientContentDownloadURL,MSFT_SIPDataMCUCapabilitySetting,HTTP Error 403,etc/place/null,Error in Conference Center

New UC events!

On 27th of May Heliview and Microsoft organise the conference Unified Communications.

Be inspired by the possibilities that unified communications can offer your organisation.
Unified Communications & Collaboration: integration and innovation.

Also visit the presentation of Bas Krikke, Business Consultant at e-office. Expierence the ease of unified communications during working with colleagues and partners within and outside your organisation.
Come and find out for yourselves at the e-office ‘working easier’ exposition. Subscribe youself here. If you are having questions more technical I'm also on the e-office stand.

and hot from the press:

SESSION: the new way of work

The new way of work – June 19 2008
In June, e-office and Macaw, both Microsoft Gold Certified Partners, organise the event: the new way of work.

and

This new way of working is the central theme of the session and the major topic for the presentations of Microsoft, Macaw and e-office.
Even the way of presenting is completely new. You join the event either at the offices of Macaw or e-office and still attend all sessions. These sessions are completely driven on Live Meeting Console 2007 and Microsoft Office Roundtable.
Curious? Come and find out working in the 21 century!

e-office helps organisations to improve working processes of employees and raise their productivity, by providing them with a digital working environment including the right portal solutions.
Solutions that optimally assist employees in performing their complex, knowledge intensive activities and which supports them to take more and better decisions. This increases the distinctive power of an organisation.
e-office is Microsoft Gold Certified Partners and uses the unified communications and collaboration-platform of Microsoft. By combining the e-office digital working environment with Unified Communications of Microsoft, you are able to handle all daily signals from e-mail, telephone, instant messaging and videoconferencing.