Sling Alibi

Microsoft Events in Middle East & Africa

asli — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 05:11:27 -0400

Thanks to my colleague, Renat Minazhdinov, who put together this list of launch related events in MEA.

Country	City	Date	Description	Audience
Algeria	Algiers	April 21	Visual Studio 2010 and Office 2010 Launch	Devs, ITPro, CIOs
Egypt	Cairo	May 10-12	Visual Studio 2010 and SQL Server 2008 R2 Launch Days	Devs, ITPro, CIOs
Gulf	Dubai, Kuwait, Manama, Muscat	Mar 22 - May 7	Visual Studio 2010 Community Day	Developers
Israel	Tel Aviv	Mar 22	Visual Studio Briefing Developer Academy – developer launch for Azure	Developers
Jordan	Amman	April, 14	Visual Studio 2010 and Office 2010 Launch	Devs, ITPro, CIOs
Lebanon	Beirut	15-May	Visual Studio 2010 Launch	Developers
Pakistan	Karachi, Islamabad	April 28 and May 5	Visual Studio 2010 Launch	Developers
Saudi Arabia	Riyad, Jeddah	April 24-28	Visual Studio 2010 Roadshow	Developers
South Africa	Johannesburg	March 23	DevDays 2010	Developers
South Africa	Cape Town	March 25	DevDays 2010	Developers
South Africa	Durban	May 12	DevDays 2010	Developers
Turkey	Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Kayseri, Eskişehir	April 14 – 30 May	INETA Visual Studio Roadshow	Developers

Technorati Tags: Visual studio 2010

Scheduling against multiple time zones with Outlook 2010

asli — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 01:24:54 -0400

Although not a new feature, the ability for Outlook to cast your calendar in multiple time zones is quite a useful one, as the work teams get more and more geographically dispersed. It is easy to set up. Go to File, Options and select Calendar. Scroll down until you see the section on Time Zones – choose the two time zones you work most frequently in. If you travel between them quite a bit, you can readily swap the one that you are currently in. All your appointments will shift to center the business hours squarely in the middle of your screen.

If you have quite a large span of hours between your time zones, you can ensure that business hours in one region do not scroll out of view by expanding your business hours. In the same dialog box, you can change the work hours to be from 12AM-12AM, and then click on Saturday and Sunday, if you are in MEA, as those are working days for a good part of the region.

Your final screen should look something like this.

Technorati Tags: Office 2010

Work for Microsoft for the Middle East & Africa

asli — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 00:16:31 -0400

Microsoft Middle East & Africa (MEA) is a dynamic and rapidly growing region when it comes to our technology platform. To mirror this, we have a slew of jobs in the region that we are actively hiring for. Click on any of the links to view the job details, and then click the Apply to job button to submit your CV/resume. You can also filter for only jobs in a specific product line or division, and save that search.

I created a list that highlights some of the countries in MEA – feel free to subscribe directly to this list, or create your own.

View RSS to see the various jobs in MEA – you can subscribe to this list for real time updates. Here is an excerpt of the roles in UAE and Turkey.

Highlights

My number one favorite open position in Dubai that we have open is a Developer Evangelist, the role I played in New York City for nearly 7 years. This one will go fast, so please apply fast. The second most interesting role is the Academic & Local Software Economy Lead who can live nearly anywhere in the region. Both are listed below.

I like to think of Dubai as the New York and Abu Dhabi as the Washington DC of the Emirates. In Abu Dhabi, order reins true in properly parallel streets – which is not the only rein, as evidenced by the recently rebranded Burj Khalifa. There we have several positions open - we even offer part time flexibility, which perfect for young mothers.

We have a wide variety of roles available in MEA, for the newly graduated and looking to break into IT/ICT, to the developer who is interested in cloud or the seasoned architect, or to the senior executive looking for a challenging role in our Business Management Office.

UAE

Gulf Developer Evangelist(709830 -External)

Job Title: Gulf Developer Evangelist Location: Dubai, UAE Role Description: The Gulf Developer Evangelist (DE) principle role is to promote adoption of Microsoft platform technologies, which leads to current and future revenue, customer satisfaction, market share gains and positive NSAT amongst our partners and customers. The DE will represent both the technical trusted advisor and liaison between the developer community and Microsoft. He or she will motivate cross group stakeholders to pa...

MEA HQ Academic Evangelism LSE Lead (256434 -External)

MEA Academic Evangelism & LSE Lead Location: MEA HQ Approved Locations (UAE, Turkey, Bahrain, Egypt, Israel or South Africa) MEA is full of talented young people who will soon lead the IT sector across the region. Microsoft has a unique and critical opportunity to engage this highly influential audience today. The education space is the frontline of competing for share vs. Google, Apple, and OpenOffice, as well as a long-standing hotbed for Linux and OSS support. Our mission is to win the ...

App Dev Consultant Abu Dhabi(715095 -External)

Job Title: App Dev Consultant Location: Abu Dhabi, UAE Microsoft Services Mission Statement: Ready to focus on being the expert with a single product, technology, or solution space in complex environments? Want to product knowledge to customer business solutions that impact to the bottom line of the company? Interested in leveraging your technical skills to create innovative customer solutions? Are you interested in having first-hand knowledge of the roadmaps for the broadest and most innov...

Partner Account Manager UAE(709566 -External)

Job title: Partner Account Manager-Solution Job location: Abu Dhabi, UAE Job Overview PAM Solution is responsible for business planning, developing, and managing Microsoft’s key services and solutions partners, such as consultancies and solution integrators. The PAM Solution’s key individual accountabilities are focused on their engagement activities with their managed partners to influence and lead to the success and growth of the partner selling and implementing Microsoft Solutions. P...

Engagement Manager Part-Time(710705 -External)

Engagement Manager - part time Location: UAE/Abu Dhabi Hours: 24 working hours per week - Working days flexible and to be agreed with the successful candidate. Microsoft also supports flexible working arrangements and you will be able to work from home. This is customer facing role which requires meeting and working closely with Microsoft team, Partners team and Customers. Microsoft Services help customers realize their full potential through accelerated adoption and productive use of Micros...

Turkey

Regional Procurement Manager (715044 -External)

Job title: Regional Procurement Manager Location: Istanbul, Turkey The Global Procurement Group (GPG) EMEA is a team of procurement professionals who are predominantly active in the EMEA region Category Managers Team or the Area Procurement Managers Team. This Procurement management MEA region position (M1) includes support to the Turkish subsidiary, is based in Istanbul, Turkey and reports into the EMEA GPG Areas Group manager. - This position is responsible for understanding of, and givi...

PRODUCT MANAGER - CLIENT & IW(712008 -External)

Information Worker Product Marketing Manager (IW PMM) – Microsoft Turkey Mission The Product Marketing Manager (PMM) is accountable for driving growth, revenue and scorecard (SC) targets within the Business Marketing Organization (BMO) and with the segments for ‘Information Worker’ Business Group’s products & technologies ( Microsoft Office, Sharepoint, Exchange Server,etc.) audiences, and initiatives. The workgroup is accountable for growing share of IW products, monitoring the progress aga...

Create your own job shopping cart for your career at Microsoft.

Technorati Tags: office 2010,Visual Studio 2010

Have your blog posts automatically tweeted

asli — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 22:26:20 -0400

You can set Live Writer to automatically tweet your posts when you publish with this handy Twitter plug in by shoutmeloud. Download the plug in Twitter Notify.

Technorati Tags: Live Writer,Twitter

Changing your default address book in Office 2010

asli — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 22:19:28 -0400

By default, Outlook will use your corporate Global Address Book (GAL) as the data source to check names. When you type an email address into the “To”, you can hit CTRL+K and this will validate the letters you have typed against matching names in the GAL. What if you want it to search your personal repository of contacts instead? You can change the default address book by clicking on the Contacts tab in the left hand Outlook pane. At the right of the ribbon, click on the Address Book button.

Select Tools, Options. Then choose the Address Book you wish to use. If you do not see your desired address book listed, you can select the Add button to add a new list.

Technorati Tags: Office 2010

Who’s Who: Babar Iqbal – World’s Youngest Microsoft Certified Professional

asli — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 06:31:54 -0400

Dubai. March 2, 2010. Tech Ed Middle East & Africa. Dubai is hosting the first ever Tech Ed in the Middle East and Africa, one of only 10 cities in the world to host this 17 year old tradition. Today, during the keynote, S.Somasegar, Senior Vice President Developer Tools, presented the youngest Microsoft Certified Professional, Babar Iqbal, with a round trip to Redmond to visit with product managers and executives. Walid Abu-Hadba, Corporate Vice President of DPE WW, also presented Babar with a new Windows 7 tablet PC. Babar is the highest contributor to ImagineCup through the power of his 80,000 person fan base.

I had an opportunity to ask Babar, along with his older brother, Asif, and asked a few questions about Microsoft and our role in technology for youth and girls.

There’s a lot of technologies out there, you started with Flash. What interests you most about Microsoft technologies?

“Touch. Game development. Windows development. Surface, Windows 7, XBox XNA and .NET 4. I like interface development. For non Microsoft products I do like UnReal and iPhone development.”

What could Microsoft do with Mobility?

“We should have a portable XBox games to Zune as handheld control. With Win7 mobile, I compare it to Zune interface. I think Zune interface is simpler and easier to use than the Windows 7 mobile interface. I like the Zune more than Win7 interface. Easier to navigate with Zune and more simple."

I am excited about project Nepal did programming experiments with V-mode, it was very good. I am excited about learning more about project Nepal. “

You received your MCP at age 9. What would tell other 9 year olds about the benefits of being an MCP? What can Microsoft to help attract young developers like yourself?

“Education, technology, programming – these should be fun things to learn. Also there should be more teaching on Games development – fun stuff should be taught. not all the boring stuff. we have IT education, but it is not fun. They teach : Theory theory theory. Instructors should teach fun stuff and easy stuff.”

Until we do that, do you think kids will not be interested?

“When I was working in flash and web development first, it was a hobby at first, and this way, always fun. I do it because I like to do it. The kids should start with something fun to do.”

There are not a of girls doing what you do, are there? Why do you think that is? What do you think we can tell girls your age to get them interested in technology?

In this region, girls are far more interested in technology than the boys are. Babar’s brother Asif comments that girls are more interested in the graphical elements, like iPhone and gaming development.

More than 60% of Babar’s 80,000 fans of girls – many of these local Emiratis. Geographically dispersed with 2300 in UAE. You can find Babar’s community at Students-cafe.com – nearly most of these are university and college students. “People want to work with technology but they don’t know how to do.”

“I do posts and asks them questions what facilities your university provides in IT, posted and gathered ideas on Students-cafe.com.” Babar finds it difficult to manage all these questions all by himself, and asks Microsoft to do something small, in a sustainable way with good quality.

What should be do for the people are local?

Asif remarks “Microsoft needs to get to the level of students. evangelists are talking at too complex levels, need to have students teaching students. Students want someone young like Babar to teach them, especially in this region. When he shows them. They are comfortable at his level. He’s one of us. Bring one of their own to teach them. Grooming program in Gulf region for people he’s teaching. Some show good promise – 50 people. All they need is incentive. Build a simple gaming animation app app and get a tour. Led Babar leads 10 people. Small tours Burj Al-Arab. Microsoft Gulf offices. Trips to Redmond. “

Babar cites a lack of resources in schools. “Game development should be taught – 3D modeling. In big university I have visited there are no facilitators for 3d animation, 3d modeling. No classes or trainings. “

Who are you most interested in meeting when you visit Microsoft?

“Steve Ballmer & Bill Gates. I would like to get involved with the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation to help children get education.”

Why WebSiteSpark?

asli — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 16:24:46 -0400

WebSiteSpark is a program geared towards small web developer companies. The goal is to accelerate the speed of web development & help companies to get websites up and running by providing 3 years of free software, guidance and marketing to build your web properties.

What’s the catch? First, you have to be a small upstart company and there is criteria on what defines a small upstart – less than 10 people including owners. Secondly, since the program is geared towards building web businesses, you need show that you used the software for the purpose of building a website and if you don’t deploy a site within 6 months, there is a $100 withdrawal fee from the program. Aside from that, that’s it! I’m surprised more people aren’t taking advantage of it. You can even use the software for up to 2 additional people at your company besides yourself.

Even better, if you are a hoster or very well connected with web development companies, you can be a provider yourself (as a Network or Hosting Partner) – this makes you the go to source for people wanting to deploy web applications – this is especially useful for small hosting companies to gain a competitive edge. How? As a network partner, you receive marketing support directly from Microsoft & become listed in our catalog of partners as the choice go-to platform for companies looking to build a web presence.

WebSiteSpark is not just for ASP.NET Web Developers

Following up on my previous post about migrating from PHP on Linux to Windows, WebSiteSpark can also help ramp up PHP development companies. Here a few samples from MSDev- our portal for training partners.

WebsiteSpark: Get Web Apps like WordPress and Drupal Running Within Minutes!In this short video we will show you where to find and give an example of how to use the Windows Web Application installers for common apps such as Drupal and Wordpress.

WebsiteSpark: Move an Existing LAMP Site onto WindowsIn this short session we discuss what resources you have available to help you transition existing LAMP sites onto the Windows Web platform.

Resources: Migrating from PHP on Linux to PHP on Windows

asli — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 05:21:29 -0400

In this post, we will walk through the checklist of resources to migrate your applications from PHP to Windows.

Migrating your PHP Applications to Windows

Install PHP. Install PHP on Windows
Engage in discussions about PHP on IIS in the PHP general Q&A forum
Migrate Web Server. Execute the steps to Migrate from Apache to IISand review the How to migrate to Windows guide as well as view the Linux-Apache-MySQL PHP Migration webcasts
Migrate database.Migrate MySQL to SQL Server 2008and review the SQL Server Driver for PHP Documentation
Performance tune. Build high performance PHP on Windows applications with Zend and boost performance with FastCGI on II6and FastCGI on IIS7. Very helpful to walk through the hands on lab for tuning and speeding up your PHP application
Download web applications from the web application gallery – this includes the most popular PHP applications. The most popular are DotNetNuke and the photo Gallery

DotNetNuke® Community Edition

DotNetNuke® is the leading open source framework for building websites and web applications on Microsoft ASP.NET. Through an intuitive, menu-driven interface, even non-technical users can use DotNetNuke to easily create powerful websites or extend the functionality and features of existing web applications. More information

Gallery

A slick, intuitive web based photo gallery. Gallery is easy to install, configure and use. Gallery photo management includes automatic thumbnails, resizing, rotation, and more. Authenticated users and privileged albums make this great for communities. More information

<> - Dubai to NYC and back in 12 seconds

asli — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 07:48:58 -0400

In this article, we’ll cover how you can build your own customized 3D tour with no code using Bing Search. This is a great way to share your local points of interest (like the stunning Burj Al Arab – warm sun bathing photo taken two days ago my frigid friends) with friends and family. This is particularly helpful if you moved halfway across the globe and need to fly friends shortens a 12 hour flight into 12 seconds. Let’s explore how I created my own Bing collection to fly my NYC friends to Dubai and back.

Build a 3D Tour of your favorite POI (not the kind you eat in Lanai)

Go to Bing.com – sign in with your live ID (this way you can save all the customization into your account)
Click on the Maps tab
Type in : Dubai Marina (or whatever neighborhood you call home)
Change the view to be Aerial Satellite

Fred lives Underwater (no, not a new band)

Here you have two options to add a point of interest (POI).
1. Zoom and pan around until you get to a point of interest. For me, I choose the Burj Al-Arab. OR
2. If your POI is something fairly well known, it is easier to load the lists create by other users. In the left hand side, click on the link for “Explore user-contributed places” The results will include news, Wiki articles, and other URLs contributed by users. Like our friend Fred, who apparently lives under water. You will see pushpins next to these points and you can adopt them as your own by clicking on the pushpin link. Once you do that, a small window opens up with more information and metadata about the POI. From there you can click on the Save button to save it to your own personal collection (Again, you need to be signed in first, in order to see this option).
3. Keep adding POIs until you are satisfied with your list.

Create a custom Tour

Create a custom itinerary or tour, by adding several POIs to My Places Editor. Each time you save a location, it gets added to your list.
Click on the My Places button to create new lists and tours by clicking on the “New List” button.
You can also import and explore other people’s lists.

Fly first class with Photosynths

You also have the option to filter the user contributions by toggling the options at the top of the list. You can choose only to see items with photos, 3D buildings, MapCruncher, or Photosynthwhich enables you to combine multiple photos into one first person type view, as you can see by visiting Times Squareor by visiting the observation deck of the tallest building in the world, Burj Khalifa

Create a 3D tour to fly your friends to Dubai

After you are satisfied with the order of the locations in your list, close the My Places editor and select the Actions drop down button. Now you are ready to fly your friends over by creating a 3D tour. Choose the “Tour & make videos in 3D” link .
When you play the tour, the globe will spin as your friends fly over to visit.
When the video plays, the user flies from spot to spot. You can even customize the flying behavior to include panoramic spin around and speed up or slow down the animations. Hit the “Go To” Play button when you and change the drop down from Asli’s favorite building to Home in New York to fly from Dubai to New York in 12 seconds.
You can right click on a pushpin in the map and choose Edit, and then modify the behavior of the 3D animation in the 3D Tour tab. You can change the viewpoint – to be from ground level or above or circle a building clockwise. You can do this for each POI and really create a unique experience for your friends and family.
When you are ready, you can share your map via link or email.

Color code your Outlook 2010 Inbox Messages

asli — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 06:54:14 -0400

Most of us at Microsoft spend most of our time in Outlook and the flow of email sometimes can get overwhelming. Categories, Rules and Alerts are one way to prioritize the flow. You can take this one step further and color code your inbox as such:

Outlook 2010 moved the location for Automatic Formatting. Although I had set this up on my previous machine, today when my teammate, MM asked me where it was, it took me a bit of time to remember. Instead of Tools, Options, it is now located under the View menu. Click on the View Settings menu to begin.

Click the Conditional Formatting button

You can change any of the existing ones for Unread messages (bold), Expired messages (strike through). Or you can add your own. Let’s do that! Click the Add button.

Now you need to add “rules” or in this case they are called – conditions. Click the condition button. In my case, I want to change the “Where I am” option. I choose the “on the To line with other people” option. You can create as many of these as you would like.

Select a formatting font for these messages – Click on the Font button and then adjust the settings for the Font. In my example, I opted to see any emails that have me in the To with other people as red:

Now I can see any email sent directly to me in red:

A fun one to add is “Not to me” – I code those in light grey. This takes a bit more advanced work to set up. Follow the same steps as above, and after you click on the Condition button, instead of selecting “Where I am” choose Advanced. Then in the Fields box, select All Mail Fields and pick To. And another criteria that uses the CC field and doesn’t contain your name. Then select “doesn’t contain” and type in your name. For Font, choose Silver.