A Freaky Microsoft Dynamics CRM Blog : Personal

My last post!

mennotk — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 10:59:00 GMT

Don't let the title confuse you, it's only my last post here at MSDN! As most of you know, I've been blogging on MSDN since 19 December 2005! It is time to move on...

I made the decision to move my blogging addiction to my very own domain. On the new location you can continue reading about freaky CRM stuff, but I'll mix it up with some additional topics that interest me and hopefully you guys as well.

Please update your bookmarks, RSS Readers and OPML files.

Blog: http://www.tekoppele.com/blog

RSS: http://feeds.feedburner.com/crmfreak

It took me a lot of time and effort to design my new blog from the ground up. I want to thank Alex Vermeule, Scott Barnes Jaap Steinvoorte and Jron for their help and advice. Over time, I will slowly migrate all of my posts and comments.

Prettige feestdagen en een gelukkig nieuwjaar!

mennotk — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 13:41:00 GMT

I wish all my readers a joyous and memorable holiday season and a very happy New Year.

In the Netherlands St. Nicholas is known as Sinterklaas. To the Dutch, St. Nicholas' Day is the time of greatest revelry in the Christmas season. St. Nicholas comes on the last Saturday of November by steamboat from Spain, and is then paraded through the streets, welcomed by cheering and singing children. December 6th, is observed in most Roman Catholic countries primarily as a feast for small children. But it is only in the Low Countries - especially in the Netherlands - that the eve of his feast day (December 5th) when presents are given and received, is celebrated nationwide by young and old, Christian and non-Christian, and without any religious overtones. The Christmas tree is the center of the home celebration, which consists of carols and story-telling in the afternoon.

If you are wondering what the subject means, you can translate it here. Select Dutch - English and paste it in.

My second year bloggin'

mennotk — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 03:53:00 GMT

Two years and still going strong......(read more)

Acronyms, we sure do have a lot of those in the U.S.A.

mennotk — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 12:08:34 GMT

A word (as NATO, radar, or snafu) formed from the initial letter or letters of each of the successive parts or major parts of a compound term are considered an Acronym. As some of you may recall I had some discussions around this a while back via my comments on this post http://blogs.msdn.com/mscrmfreak/archive/2006/03/12/today-s-word-rss.aspx and this one http://blogs.msdn.com/mscrmfreak/archive/2006/03/13/550053.aspx

Often it is really hard for me to follow discussions or understand what they are talking about in emails as I am not a native English speaker. A while ago I bumped into the website http://www.acronymfinder.com and was amazed by how much acronyms they have in their database. It contains more than 575,000 human-edited entries and Acronym Finder is the world's largest and most comprehensive dictionary of acronyms, abbreviations, and initialisms.

Just as an example, click here to get the possible answers for RSS!

My one year anniversary

mennotk — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 21:15:00 GMT

Exactly one year ago I boarded a plane in Amsterdam and flew to the States. As of today, I am officialy living a year in the United States.

San Francisco Love Parade 2007

mennotk — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 09:29:19 GMT

This is why I love my city so much, there is always something happening. On 29 September 2007 I will be going to the Love Parade 2007 in downtown San Francisco, go here for more info: http://www2.sflovefest.org.

For everybody that does not know the concept of Love Parade; the Love Parade is a popular festival and parade that originated in 1989 in Berlin, Germany, and has spread throughout the world. Past Love Parades have occurred in Tel Aviv, Mexico City, Acapulco, Vienna, Cape Town, San Francisco,Leeds, Sydney, Santiago and Caracas. It was started by the fresh Berlin Underground under the initiative of Matthias Roeingh aka "Dr. Motte". It was held as a political demonstration for peace and international understanding through music.

Until 1996, the parade was held on the famous Berlin "Kurfürstendamm". Since by then, not only the Kurfürstendamm was overcrowded but the streets and even railway tracks near the Ku'damm, too, the parade moved to the "Straße des 17. Juni" which is near the Tiergarten Park in the center of Berlin by the Brandenburg Gate and provided plenty of space. The center of the parade is the Siegessäule in the middle of the park, and the golden angel atop the column has become a symbol of the parade.

In the past I have enjoyed many Love Parade episodes in Berlin, Germany. It is so cool that I dont have to drive 5 hours by car anymore to enjoy it, now just 30 minutes with the bus! If you like electronic dance music, such as Trance, House and Techno you will need to go to the San Francisco Love Parade or as they call it here; San Francisco LoveFest. I hope to make some great pictures such as the one below.

If you want to read more about this phenomenon go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loveparade

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Smiley celebrates 25th birthday

mennotk — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 18:00:00 GMT

You might not know this, but I am a huge........(read more)

It's my birthday!

mennotk — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 10:00:00 GMT

Yes, today is the day I am turning 30 years old. Did you know that August 27 is the 239th day of the year (240th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar? There are 126 days remaining....

Presents are always welcome...

I got lifecasted!

mennotk — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 05:32:00 GMT

Lifecasted?! Maybe I invented a new word...anyway's ...what's lifecasting you might think? Well lifecasting is when somebody is using a portable camera to broadcast their activities over the Internet 24 hours a day.

Justin, http://www.justin.tv, started lifecasting on March 19, 2007 and got a lot of attention by the media. Justin.tv, founded in San Francisco by Justin Kan, is currently a network of diverse channels providing a platform for live video streaming online. The original Justin.tv channel was a pilot project that evolved into the Justin.tv network. Check out the directory to see his fellow lifecasters http://www.justin.tv/live/directory

Today I met Mooncricket in the bus on my way home from work. I had a short chat with him. You can watch the video of it here: http://www.justin.tv/mooncricket/33459/Menno_meets_Mooncricket_on_the_bus_in_San. Make sure you fan it!

I love my Bus Stop!

mennotk — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 09:33:00 GMT

I was surprised when I saw a poster that really reminded me of home! ...(read more)

So easy a caveman can do it!

mennotk — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 08:55:00 GMT

Personally, I think that should have been our slogan for Microsoft Dynamics CRM....

It also happens to be that I love the song of that GEICO commercial, but I have been too lazy to figure out who sang the song. Today I finally went online and found out that the song, Remind Me, was made by Röyksopp and you can find it on their album Melody AM.

For all the readers that don't have a clue what I am talking about...

It officially became my ring tone as of today! Drop me a comment if you like this song as much as I do.

Passed my drivers exam!

mennotk — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 05:54:00 GMT

If you are a visitor in California, over 18, and have a valid drivers license from your home state or country, you may drive in this state without getting a California drivers license as long as your home state license remains valid. If you take a job here, like I did, or become a resident, you must get a California drivers license within 10 days.

It is so weird over here! Written tests using pen and paper to mark the anwsers to 36 questions! Then on top of that you need to bring your own car to take a "behind the wheel" test!! The instructor does a full check of your car and even asks you for hand signals....Than the instructor takes place beside you and does not even have his or her own mirrors or pedals. I can go on rambling like this, but I think you get my picture!

But to end on a good note: I already had passed the "written test" and this morning I passed my "behind the wheel" test in the U.S.A. I received an interim license valid for 60 days until I receive my actual photo license in the mail. Visit http://www.dmv.ca.gov if you want to know more about this!

E-ten Glowfiish M700 review continued..

mennotk — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 08:50:00 GMT

As I have said in the first part of my review of the E-ten Glowfiish M700 I did not test and use everything. Well I can tell you one thing I still haven't tested everything on this phone. Just to much work and stuff going on to actually test everything right away.

Camera:
I have taken some photo's with the E-ten and I discovered that the camera responds really active on light. I mean to say when it is to bright outside or when the sun/light shines into your lens it will display the lines on your picture. I think they made an error in the software and I hope E-ten will fix this when they update their ROM in a few weeks. If you tweak the Camera and change settings you can actually make decent pictures with it. Please don't compare it with a "real" digital camera...I mean just use that and stop crying if the M700 doesn't make the same pictures as your digital camera!

Ringtones:
Easy to change and the playback of them is great. I made some custom ones from housemusic to old songs from the 70's and they all sound real good. Just place them in the rings folder. There is a tool on the phone "add ringtone" and when using that you seem to get a double entry in the ringtone list. I figured that placing the ringtone only in the ring folder was enough. Also no problem in using custom ringtones per contact in the phone. Just assign it and voila it works.

FM Tuner:
I have been using the FM radio a lot that comes with the M700. If you wonder why you can only hear the FM radio via the headphones, well that is because the headphones are used as your antenna. The reception is really good, I mean I drive to work with the bus through a big city and I keep jamming to House stations they have over here. The weird thing is that the "band" meaning Euro/USA/Japan is messed up. Even knowing that my phone is an imported UK phone the "band" settings still should work. Well it works when I use Euro and guess where I am located, yes the USA. At least it works, but I hope they fix that in the ROM update.

Battery continued:
Using the phone in real life situtations now and placing calls, calling voicemail, using EDGE for internet and Outlook I can tell that my phone has a max usuage of two to two-and-half days without charging. I noticed that it forgets the GPRS settings when you let it go totally empty or remove the battery manually. I think they also fix this in the new ROM update.

ROM:
If my information is correct E-ten is one of the few organizations that will and can support the next version of Windows Mobile, codename Crossbow. Not a lot of manufacturers do this, and this would suck.

GPS:
Although I have not used the GPS yet. I can tell based on information of other forums that these programs work without any problems:

iGuidance 3.01
TomTom Navigator 6
Mapopolis 4.7
iGo 2006

Applications:
I have installed several custom applications on it. One of them is a RSS/Podcast reader and that works just great. Extracting the .CAB file on the device, got installed and it worked pretty fast. The one I do not like and maybe it's me, but that is the Spb Today suite. It totally messes up my today screen and I really dislike those little blocks at the top of the screen when installing any product from Spb. (Those blocks I have seen on all PPC's)

Update: http://blogs.msdn.com/mscrmfreak/archive/2007/05/14/my-second-review-of-the-e-ten-m700.aspx

E-ten Glowfiish M700 review - My first attempt to write a review

mennotk — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 06:06:00 GMT

Ok here we go and yes this is NO iPhone! This will be my very first attempt to write a review. I recently bought an E-ten Glowfiish M700 Mobile Phone as you could read in my previous posting.

Let's start with the package I received in the mail via UPS. Once I opened the box I had the following items. An E-ten Glowfiish M700 phone, battery, screen protector, Headset, USB sync cable, AC Adaptor, Leather case, Quickguide and the Windows Mobile 5.0 CD.

Before jumping right in and trying to see how this devices works I had to, according to the Quickguide, charge the battery for 8 hours. Once charged I turned it on and completed the steps shown on the screen. You do not only get Windows Mobile 5.0 with this device but you also get a lot of cool applications from E-ten themselves.

The first days I messed around with it since I did not have a simcard at that time. I will include the things I have done with it in the main story though. Before going into details what I have tested and experienced, I will give an overview of the specs of the E-ten M700.

Operating System	Windows Mobile™ 5.0 software for Pocket PCs (AKU 3.2)
Processor	Samsung SC3 2442 400 MHz Processor
Memory	128 MB Flash ROM, 64 MB SDRAM
Display	2.8", 240 x 320, 65,536 colors, TFT-LCD
Dimensions(LxWxH)	117.5 x 59 x 19.8 mm
Weight	165g (with battery)
Communications	GSM/EDGE Quad-band: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz GPRS/EGPRS Class B, Multi-slot Class 10 Bluetooth® v2.0 class 2 + EDR, WiFi IEEE802.11b/g Certificated
GPS	Embedded SiRF Star III chipset, TMC function supported, SiRF Instant Fix ( Ephemeris Extension ) (subject to change by region)
Camera	Built-in 2.0 mega pixels CMOS camera, up to 1600 x 1200 resolution
Expansibility	Micro SD memory card
Interface/Audio	Built-in microphone and speaker, external stereo headset jack, hands-free mode supported
Interface/Data	Mini USB Sync, headset jack
Ergonomic Design	Touch screen for stylus or fingertip, navigation button, power button, 2 quick application buttons, send/end button, record button, volume control, left soft-key, right soft-key
Battery	Lithium Polymer rechargeable with 1,530 mAh capacity Talk time* : 5~7 hours Standby* : 150~200 hours, Pocket PC usage* : 10~15 hours GPS usage* : 5~7 hours * depend on usage
Software (pre-loaded*)	Windows Mobile™ 5.0 software for Pocket PCs , Microsoft® Office Outlook® Mobile (Calendar, Contacts, Tasks and Inbox), Picture, Notes, Microsoft® Office Word Mobile, Microsoft® Office Excel® Mobile, Internet Explorer Mobile, ActiveSync, Calculator, Game (Solitaire, Bubble Breaker), Voice Recorder, Microsoft® Office PowerPoint® Mobile, MSN® Messenger, Microsoft® Transcriber, Windows Media® Player 10, Direct Push Technology, Microsoft Reader* (* subject to change by region)
glofiish M700 Exclusive Applications	Phone Tools: Phone Application, Phone Setting, SIM Toolkit, Speed Dial, Call Filter, Wireless Modem, Dialer Skin, Add Ringtone, CSD Type, Voice Commander, Connection Wizard, SMS Sender, SIM Manager, Skype Reciever Switch (subject to change by region) Multimedia Tools:* Image Wizard, Image Maker, Multimedia Manager, Camera, Camcorder, FM Tuner MMS Message Utilities: Quick Link, Batte ry Meter, Zoom SMS, Bluetooth Manager, M-Desk, Scenario, Backup Utility, Application Recovery, Wireless Manager, Easy Keyboard GPS Tools: Satellite Data Update, Location SMS, GPS Viewer
Packing List	glofiish M700, stylus, USB sync cable, AC adaptor, headset, leather case, Getting started CD, quick start guide, standard battery

As you can see the specs match my "must haves" list + more. Ok so now where should I start....

Design:

The device looks and feels really nice. It has nice metallic color. The buttons feel normal and you don't have the feeling they will break any second. At the bottom there are two connectors; mini USB and a microSD slot. The keyboard slides out well and is really cool illuminated with a blue glow. When you press the symbol key you should see those characters light up in red, but I must say that's really hard to notice even in total darkness. The stylus is nicely tucked away at the bottom and it kind of "clicks" when you insert it, so you won't lose it that easily.

Screen:

The screen has a normal and decent size if you ask me. I enabled Cleartype and I am still amazed about the quality and sharpness of this tiny screen. The screen is also very responsive to either finger or the stylus. I actually like the fact it likes my finger...

Battery:

I have tested the battery in a way you normally not do. Since I did not had a simcard I couldn't do anything useful with the phone. So I charged it and almost never touched it..it easily was standby for 4 days. Right now I am using the phone and I will give an update in a next posting how the battery performs in day-to-day circumstances.

Speaker, Sound and Headset:

I have made a few calls now and I was stunned about how "clear" it sounds. I had to tweak the balance between microphone and speaker though to get the best sound when talking. I did some conference calls as well and I used the built-in mute button to mute it and place the phone next to me and enabled speakerphone. The quality in my opinion was good and I could hear everything loud and clear. I have to test it when driving a car and I will update you with that experience. I used the headset and another I had laying around and that worked great as well, not only for calling but also for using it with the built-in FM Radio. More on the radio further on in this story.

PC connectivity:

I have read a lot of reviews before picking my phone, the thing I almost always missed is how the device connects with a PC. I personally want to know if a Windows based computer will recognize the phone and sync without any issues. Well here is my story on that.
I use Windows Vista and Office 2007 RTM and am connected to an Exchange 2007 server. I attached the cable in the E-ten M700 and my laptop and Windows Vista picked up the device immediatley and installed the drivers without any issue. Since Active Sync doesn't run on Vista I needed to use a new program called Windows Mobile Device Center. This program you get by going into Windows Update and check for new updates if it's not already displayed. Once installed I had to follow a step-by-step screen and I had my phone up and running with Windows Vista.

Wireless and GPRS/EDGE:

Using wireless is easy and the phone will display messages of available secure and unsecure wireless networks in range. I connected without any problem to a wireless connection in range and went on the Internet. I have also have used wireless in combination with certificates and did not run into any issues as well. I have Cingular as a provider and they got a crappy search engine on their support site, but besides that I needed to setup my GPRS/EDGE settings. Once i found these settings GPRS/EDGE worked liked a charm and I got my email in my inbox.

Ok I think I will leave it at this for now. I know I need to test a lot of things on this phone which I will so don't worry. I will post follow-ups on this posting. Maybe you want to buy this phone or have your own experiences with it..I am all ears and leave me a comment.

Update:
Continue reading here for my new findings and experiences: http://blogs.msdn.com/mscrmfreak/archive/2007/01/16/e-ten-glowfissh-m700-review-continued.aspx