This is the final part of ranking the best 24 vacations I have been on so far. #6 Thailand Thailand was the most recent vacation I have been on and is truly a beautiful country. We spent time in Phuket, Ko Samui, and Bangkok. The temples in Bangkok...

This is the third part in my ranking of the best 24 vacations I have been on so far. #12 The Black Forest, Rhone River, Bern and Sion This trip involved a trip to Bonn where we met with members of the German Bundestag, after which I took a train...

This continues my previous day's blog, covering the top 24 vacations I have been on. #18 The Oregon Coast and San Francisco This was the first vacation we took with Eitan, who was then only two months old. The Oregon Coast was beautiful and we also...

For fun recently, and also for lack of anything I can say publicly about OCS, I decided to rank the vacations I have been on thus far. I counted 24 vacations that I considered memorable to list. I have been to other places, such as 47 states in the US...

Several weeks ago I took a usability class here at Microsoft. Usability, of course, is very important at all levels here at Microsoft and much effort goes into making sure our products are usable by their intended users. Honestly, though, I came away...

In a recent post, I presented an overview of all of the different APIs available in Office Communications Server 2007. The goal of that post was to help direct developers who want to know where to start. From that post I received some feedback that this...

Yesterday I covered the different microstock sites and my opinions of them, and why not to use Shutterstock. :) Today I will briefly cover what the microstock sites are looking for to provide guidance for those wondering whether their photos will be accepted...

I thought I would write up my experiences with microstock photography so far, for those who are interested in getting into it. I first started with the microstocks around March of last year and I started with Shutterstock, then added Fotolia, and most...

Over time I have discussed all of the different APIs available to you in order to create Office Communications Server 2007 APIs. Today I thought I would do an overview of what's available and when you would use each one. Office Communicator API ...

I have seen a lot of questions lately asking how one can add presence to a communications application. There are a number of ways to do this, but I don't think we have done a great job explaining what they are. First, and perhaps what has confused...

In my UCMA blog series, I mentioned a client side API called the 'Unified Communications Client API' (UCCA). In the comments, I had several questions about what this is and how to use it. Recently, I started looking at this API in more depth and, while...

It's funny how the posts you least think attract the most attention. My blog earlier this week about the recall of the 'Sarge' die cast car is one of the most popular posts ever on this blog. So far I have about 1300 views of it, which is the most I have...

It's funny how some of the most interesting things can pop up when you least expect them. Yesterday, I was looking through a section on kids' history/archeology books at Half Price Books, looking for something about Jerusalem that may get my kids excited...

As most of you already know, I have two boys, ages 3 and 4. Therefore it follows naturally that we own the movie 'Cars' and have every die-cast car in the collection. I was most alarmed today when the first thing I see on CNN is one of their cars has...

I thought for a good spirited Monday post I would post some of the funnier conversations we have had with our three (Nathan) and four (Eitan) year olds. Nelya : And when we go to Israel, we’re going to see the Dead Sea! Eitan: Are there fish in...

The following is more information about why each answer is correct for the quiz I presented yesterday. If you have not already taken the quiz, please skip this blog entry and go to yesterday's, then come back to this entry for any explanations. 1)...

For a little fun today, I decided to put together a little test for those who think they know Office Communications Server. Think of this as a fun little exercise that will help you learn OCS and help me learn what topics to blog about in the future....

Those of you who follow my blog have probably noticed I haven't had much up here OCS or Speech Server related lately. The primary reason for this is I just moved to the OCS core team and I am ramping up on the infrastructure and product over there. Lately...

After discussing this with my wife and coworkers who have been to several of the areas I mentioned yesterday, I have decided that the next vacation (after Israel/Jordan) will be Italy and Malta. The following were what made this the best choice in my...

As those who know me well are very familiar with, I tend to plan vacations quite far in advance. For instance, in a few weeks my wife, kids, and I will be travelling to Israel and Jordan. Our plans there are already taken care of and I have been spending...