Random Snippets

Microsoft has now released the long awaited ISA Server 2004.

They are really pushing the envelope here with a whole bunch of new features and tie-ins with other products in the Windows Server System range.  But don’t worry about being even more puzzled with how to administer it… MS has done a great job of simplifying the interface and configuration steps.

Now no one has a reason for having an insecure network!  Check out the ISA Server site here.

This is probably going to be the only post of the day from me.

I’ve just got out of a long web design meeting for our new website and with that and other things I’ve dropped right behind with my work.  Ah well, the weekend cometh so it can all wait until Monday morning.

Enjoy!

Over at MoDaCo, Simon Desser has posted a couple of snippets from the latest edition of W@Mob (What Mobile) who has just reviewed the up-and-coming SPV C500 from Orange.

If you’ve not heard about this yet (and don’t worry because you will soon enough) this is the smallest SmartPhone to be released to date.  And don’t go thinking the only way they’ve managed this it to remove all the insides… noooo! This phone packs bluetooth, IR, a mini-SD slot, and a 4x zoom camera all in a package just slightly bigger that the old Nokia 8210.  Purely amazing!

Now all I need is a release date and I’ll be counting the days.

PS – For that size comparison take a look at MSMobileNews.com

Microsoft Research has an article here about a new templated document system that can dynamically alter the layout of a webpage depending on user preference and viewing condition.

For example on a hi-res workstation you may see multiple columns but over on a laptop or tablet the columns would be reduced to give a better reading experience.

A nice idea but would this be widely used in a world where web-developers take great pride and time in coming up the perfect design/layout?  Anyway I’m sure this is a heads up for a new feature in the “Longhorn” wave somewhere…. maybe….. J

I’m not sure how new this setup is but I’ve had a few links to CACert who are offering free digital certificates.

This doesn’t seem to be limited to user certs (for e-mail signing etc) but they can provide server & wildcard certificates for you internet servers.  For those not in the know, wildcard certificates allow a single cert (normally mapped to your firewall etc) to provide SSL connectivity to multiple hosts.  So a certificate with the common name of *.mydomain.com can cover www.mydomain.com, mail.mydomain.com and any other hosts you have.  Personally I use a wildcard certificate on our ISA server and this eliminates the need for a different public IP address for each SSL secured host.

I can’t confirm at the moment if these are all free as the site seems to be having a glitch with MySQL but I’ll keep checking.

The Microsoft Exchange Team over at You Had Me At EHLO... have posted a link to the new Exchange Server 2003 help files that were updated with the release of Service Pack 1.

You’ll find a few new topics that cover the new features and functionality of SP1 as well as a couple of things that didn’t make it in to the RTM help files I’m sure.

You can get it here: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/exchange/2003/library/sp1help.mspx

If you’ve not already heard Adam has set up the first UK user group on Exchange Server.

The inaugural event took place a couple of days ago at MS UK down in Reading and I have to say it went very well with almost 100% attendance which is very high for a free meeting of this type.

After putting some feelers out Adam has decided to make this is free membership so if you work with Exchange Server from a Pro side (read: you use Exchange rather than being an ‘Outlook connecting to Exchange’ user) head over to UKESP.org and register.

Go on…. One day you might be glad of the support J

A good read for those people who like to automate the installation of systems to allow extra web-time or whatever time wasting past-time you choose. J

This document covers the customization of the INF file used when setting up Windows Firewall under the up-and-coming Windows XP Service Pack 2.  Handy for small businesses and home users but for those Pro’s out there don’t forget that all of this can be done through Group Policies.

Grab the download here over at MS.

Over at Bink.nu there’s a report that last weeks IE fix wasn’t entirely a ‘fix’.
Well technically it is and does work ‘as it says on the tin’ but leaves other exploits open that stem from the original security hole.

Head over to Bink.nu for more details and the original article.