Spy Journal 3.0 Filtering the web for you

And once again clearing my browser of all the interesting tabs I opened this week. Not many – I have been working too hard on deadlines!

Microsoft Technologies

IE8 has been released and being rolled out. I have been using the beta and RC1 for months. Time to get the real thing now. Download IE8 now.

The Windows Experience Blog has some page load time tests for IE8 versus Firefox and Chrome.

Embed your live calendar on your website or blog. Sarah Perez posts a how to.

Sarah also posts on the instructions to setup POP3 for hotmail – now available worldwide.

Some interesting comments over at Daily Dose of Excel about the future of VBA.

Doug posts up a cool excel window minimise /maximise animation piece of VBA.

Gadgets

Doug shows off a portable wireless hotspot in a backpack.

Internet

The Technium posts a treatise on the concept of building a fan base of 1,000 true fans in order to generate a living. There is a follow up with some reality checks on depending on True Fans.

Live side gives us Face book comes to Windows Live Frameit Power Toy.

This is a “real” blog post. Doesn’t feel that way yet? That’s cos I am still rambling. Or is that why it is a real blog post? Maybe this has something to do with the fact that it is the absolutely unheard hour of 6:30am and I was awake at 5:30 and have consumed a very nice coffee and am buzzing!

So lets deal with the facts involved here. First off the screen door slamming about 3 metres from head while I was asleep and in the middle of a strange confused dream where I was involved in counter terrorist warfare including a shootout in a barn where I stopped bullets matrix slow motion style using a leather cushion and then encourage the last remaining terrorist to shoot himself so I could rescue the civilian hostage (predictably a woman) rudely awoke me. Particularly as that was followed up with scratching sounds on the door. I went to the door with my big stick (kept beside my bed) and found a gecko on the inside: conclusion neighbours cat (that I daydream about sending to cat heaven) was chasing the gecko and leaped at the door slamming it shut.

Yesterday was a long day but very rewarding. I left home at 7:30am and drive until 10 AM to get to a client – through two mountain ranges and beautiful forest parks and past several large dams. Once there I sat in a meeting for 2 hours and then spent 4 and half hours preparing for my presentation at their committee meeting that night. The committee meeting kicked off and dealt with a lot of issues before finally getting down to me. As they had been going for 2 hours at that point I suggested a break first which was gladly accepted. I then lead them through some governance and management principles, using various examples from the previous two hours of meeting time to show where they were acting in a way that was not the most efficient use of their time. After looking at how to reduce time spent in the meeting rehashing the managements decisions on operational issues I lead them through an exercise in looking at the financials from a strategic perspective. It was so good receiving constant affirmations and nods from those present, as well as very positive body language. I closed with indicating the things we will be running through next week when we do some more specific training on how to manage their organisation strategically. Next week I will be travelling up there again to spend half a day coaching on on one with the executive director and then a mock committee meeting going through more exercises. The following day will be spent redesigning their executive reports both operational and financial.

I find this sport of work extremely stimulating and very rewarding. In this case the client is a small not for profit organisation providing a vital community service, but they are constantly tied up in dealing with issues and as a result many of their long term plans never see the light of day. I have been helping them streamline their organisational processes in order to be able to put the time required into the strategic and long term growth plans they have.

After the meeting finished at 8:15PM I drove home picking up a snake for Judith on the way. A long 15 hour day but so much fun. I love what I do!

Got lots of things to share today.

Starting off with Windows 7:

• Engineering Windows 7 have listed a bunch of changes made to Windows 7 since the Beta was released.
• They have also written a very interesting article about how they built the Windows 7 Boot Animation.
• The Windows Team Blog has a list of the new Windows Media Centres features in Windows 7.

Crossing to Windows Home Server we have these posts:

• Susan the SBS Diva blogs about Backing up the desktops in a small network.
• Windows Home Server Team link to an article about synching two Windows Home Servers using SyncToy. I use Synch Toy a lot to keep numerous folder pairs synchronised. Combined with Livemesh this makes keeping the data between my server and my clients servers synched a cinch!

Now over to Microsoft Office: