I pre-ordered Mario Kart Wii a few weeks ago (I was obligated having owned and every Mario Kart ever, other than the SNES which unfortunately was the only mainstream Nintendo console I never owned). With that said, I’ve been playing it pretty much all day (while I should be doing other things) and have to admit that I’m not good compared to the majority of you all.
Don’t worry, though. I’ll keep practicing and pretty soon I’ll get about the base 5,000 experience points (or whatever they call that rating)… :)
So Flickr has recently allowed the uploading of videos to their site and I figured that I have this little video camera that I love (and the whole blogosphere does now as well after this David Pogue article), so I might as well share a little something to test things out.
Here’s a video of our daughter, Poppy, trying to touch my camera with her oatmeal-covered sticky fingers.
10 Cool Things Customers Have Done With Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Microsoft Dynamics GP
Session Conducted by Jon Jonasson & Pam Misialek
Excel Reports
Access from Outlook
Connect a Reports Library within MOSS by going to Actions -> Connect to Outlook.
Requires MOSS for this connectivity functionality.
Dundas Dashboards
Graphical display
Dundas graphics are available for download (”Gadgets”).
Embed them in WebPart placeholders for “dashboard-y”/KPI interfaces.
Dundas was purchased by Microsoft and the components are available as a separate download.
Analysis Cubes
Easy access from SharePoint
Use Analysis Cubes that are being rendered by Excel Server 2007.
Forecaster
Budget versus actual
???
Document Management and Workflow
Document Controls
“Document Libraries are a Network Share on steroids”
Dynamics Business Portal is the branded version of a MOSS Enterprise CAL
SharePoint Blog
Sharing information and ideas
My Sites
Time-saving collaboration
InfoPath form integrating to GP
Easy data entry
Create form-based/web-based applications that can integrate directly with GP
Example: Employee Expense Form
Adding Web Parts
Ad hoc data access
Importing Data from Excel
Automating Integrations
Editorial Comment: Where were the “cool things” that were done between these products? This was not the session I was hoping for by any means. It was just an overview of SharePoint and “what’s cool” in the product. Nothing about the integration, etc.
I really need to look into how to get onto the presenters list… :)
One of the things that I noticed is pretty cool here at Convergence is their “Green Initiative”. In particular, every registered attendee received a Nalgene-ish reusable water bottle and there are water coolers EVERYWHERE for you to fill up. This takes the place of having free bottled water throughout the venue.
They say that going with this type of program is saving over 30,000 water bottles from being thrown out over the course of this week (and I believe it). Smart idea and a nice way to reduce how much trash an event of this size produces.
Some other Green Initiatives (from an “inside” Conference page):
All attendees will be given a reusable water bottle to fill at water cooler stations throughout the Convention Center. Biodegradable cups will also be available at each water cooler station.
The majority of conference-created collateral will be printed on 100% post-consumer recycled paper (processed chlorine-free) and printed with vegetable-based ink.
All CommNet stations will be stocked with recycled paper.
The fabric of the conference bag is made with 51% post-consumer recycled materials including water bottles and yogurt containers.
The conference pen is manufactured with corn starch instead of petroleum and is 81% biodegradable.
The conference badge lanyard is manufactured from 100% recycled soda and water bottles.
Badge holders will be collected at the end of the event to be reused at future Microsoft Dynamics and Convergence events.
The journal within the conference bag is made with 100% recycled chipboard cover, 100% post-consumer recycled writing paper, and printed with soy-based ink. The wire binding is made of 97% scrap metal with only 3% new steel.
Evaluation prizes include t-shirts made with organic cotton and other solar-powered gadgets.
The Conference Store will be stocking a variety of environmentally friendly merchandise.
Air-conditioning/heating and lighting will be minimized during off-hours to minimize power consumption.
The disposable plates and bowls used during certain meals are made of a biodegradable sugarcane by-product. Napkins, cups and other boxed containers are also made of biodegradable and recycled materials.
Menus will incorporate a variety of locally-grown and organic ingredients. Left-over food will also be donated to Second Harvest, a local food bank.
Convergence Sponsors & Exhibitors have been encouraged to help reduce waste by minimizing giveaways and collateral, using recycled materials where possible, and minimizing shipping and packaging needs.
For those not sure, Dynamics is Microsoft’s ERP Suite that is comprised of the following products:
* Dynamics GP (previously known as Great Plains)
* Dynamics SL (previously known as Solomon)
* Dynamics NAV (previously known as Navision)
* Dynamics AX (previously known as Axapta)
* Dynamics CRM (previously known as Microsoft CRM) :)
It’s an interesting opportunity for me as I haven’t completely embedded (or should I say “dabbled”) with the whole Microsoft Dynamics side of things other than CRM & a little GP.
I’m going to try and post a bit around here just to help share with my co-workers and/or anyone else that stumbles upon my site/these posts.
Sorry to those not interested in this kind of stuff. I’ll be going back to my regular non-blogging self at the end of the week… :)
Going on almost a year, so what better time to record a new podcast!
Actually this was an unintentional podcast that just start happenening. You see, BlogTalkRadio (who my friend Kris just got a new gig with) recently released a new service called Cinch which allows you to record/create podcast by just making a phone call.
All you need to do is dial up 646-200-0000 and start recording at the beep.
Yesterday while I was stuck in traffic (which is usually when/where your typical marusin.com podcast is recorded), I started thinking about this service and dialed it up. As soon as it picked up, I got the crazy idea of conferencing my friend Kris into the call just to see if it would record the both of us. What resulted was this recording where Kris talks about Cinch and we discuss some of the possibilities with using the service and building some applications/plugins around it.
Going on almost a year, so what better time to record a new podcast! 
