Speaking at SharePoint Saturday DC

In recent months there has been a series of interesting free weekend events called SharePoint Saturdays centered around the topic of--what else--SharePoint! Well, SharePoint Saturday is coming to the Washington, DC, area!

Dan Usher and I are scheduled to present together on the topic of smart card authentication with SharePoint 2007. The talk is entitled SmartCard authentication: Considerations, options and pitfalls. Oh my!

With the ever present risks of data integrity and non-repudiation, several organizations have begun to utilize smartcards for authentication to systems. With the greater number of SharePoint instances being stood up within organizations, ensuring the smartcards can be used to access data is key. In this session, we'll discuss smartcard authentication, considerations when determining the appropriate architecture, options for integration with different authentication providers and implementation pitfalls.

There are a few different ways you can integrate smart cards (or other two factor authentication) into a SharePoint instance. We'll talk about the various methods, including the option of using a custom membership provider.

There is a special food drive going along with the event. Check out Dux Raymond Sy's explanation on the SharePoint Saturday DC website.

Search Settings in SSP gives error "Authentication failed because the remote party has closed the transport stream"

There was an odd error that we have been seeing in one of our SharePoint 2007 server farms. When trying to access the Search settings page in Central Administration's Shared Services Provider, the SSP gives this error:

"Authentication failed because the remote party has closed the transport stream."

It ends up that it's an issue with the SSL certificate that is installed on the "Office Server Web Services" IIS instance. Somehow it gets corrupted when .NET 3.5 Service Pack 1 is installed.

Microsoft knows about the issue and has a fix right here:

http://support.microsoft.com/?id=962928

Custom Smart Card Authentication and SharePoint

One of the great new features of SharePoint 2007 was the ability to utilize multiple means of user authentication: Active Directory, LDAP, SQL, and more. This is nothing new, and since the advent of MOSS 2007/WSS 3.0 the use of non-AD authentication via Membership Providers has been well documented.

What if you need to use PKI (Public Key Infrastructure) certificates and/or Smart Cards (like Common Access Cards, aka CAC)? There are a few ways to do this, depending on how the user certificates need to map to your account store. If you use Active Directory, there are built in ways to map certificates to users and have IIS handle the handshake. Or you can use a third-party system or SSO. This assumes you have a defined user directory and pre-defined certificate mappings.

But what if you need to accept PKI/Smart Cards, but do not have a master user directory (AD, LDAP) of everyone who will attempt to access the site?

The Concept:

• Use a custom ASP.NET Membership provider to accept and read PKI certificates (using IIS)
• Create and login to a NEW account (AD, LDAP, SQL)
• Forward the user to the SharePoint site.

Very similar to this idea from Adam Buenz.

Easy? We shall see.

Opening PowerPoint Slideshows

Scenario: Users want to store files in SharePoint and open them from another website. The users are on a network with Internet Explorer (IE) 6 or 7 and Office 2007. This should not be an issue.

However, files of type .pps (PowerPoint slideshows) were opening in a undesirable manner.

Instead of opening in full-screen slideshow mode, the PPS files were opening in Edit mode inside of PowerPoint.

After doing a bit of research and testing, I believe this is the only solution that will allow PPS files to open in slideshow mode when using Internet Explorer and Office 2007. This site talks about it too. In a nutshell, it requires a client side configuration. Nothing on the server side can do the trick if the user is on Internet Explorer and Office 2007. It's not even an issue with SharePoint. It happens on non-SharePoint sites too.

This solution references this Microsoft KB article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/299824/

Basically, each computer needs to have its registry changed:

1. Start Registry Editor (Regedt32.exe).
2. Locate and click the following key in the registry:
   HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\PowerPoint.Show.8
3. Edit or add the following registry value:
   Value name: BrowserFlags
   Data type: REG_DWORD
   Radix: click Hexadecimal
   Value data: (see below)

It appears that Office 2007 changes the default value to "a", which means PPS files open in Edit mode. You can change the value to 8 (open in a new window in show mode) or 0 (open in the browser window in show mode), but this is a local computer change that would need to be done on each PC. Not realistic. :-(

Accessing the files in Firefox works fine: PPS files open as slide shows, no problem.

Apparently I’ve been tagged…

Thanks to SharePoint Dan/UVAGeek for tagging me. Something to get the mind wandering a little on this beautiful, cold winter solstice.

8 TV Shows I Watch

1. Scrubs. I had never watched an episode until the summer of 2007. Now I own all seven seasons on DVD. It's been moved to ABC and hopefully will end it's eight-year run properly now (NBC really screwed Bill Lawrence over). It's remained well-written and funny throughout the years. Kudos to Bill.
2. 30 Rock. Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin. *giggle*
3. Saturday Night Live. It's still funny, usually. I'm going to miss Amy Poehler.
4. 60 Minutes. We always watched it at home when I was a child. I think it made me appreciate good journalism all the much more.
   
5. Dead Like Me. It's no longer on TV, but I just discovered it so it's new to me. Dark, funny commentary on the human existence.
6. The Simpsons. Sure, I don't watch recent episodes every time they're on. But I have through season eight on DVD and it still makes me laugh. Purple monkey dishwasher.
7. Lost. A simple (yet complex) pleasure.
8. Moonlighting. Probably the best thing ABC ever produced. And my favorite show of all time. It's got David Addison. Enough said.

8 Favorite Restaurants

1. Le Mistral. Only been there once, but I'd eat there weekly if we could afford it.
2. 2941. Also only been there once, but ooo la la!
3. Rabieng. One of the best Thai places ever. 
4. 2 Amys. Warren, where are you?
5. The Italian Store. Right alongside 2Amys for the best pizza around.
6. Sushi Taro. Best sushi I've had in the DC area, besides the sushi counter at the Harris Teeter. :-)
7. Bojangles. Still love that greasy fried chicken.
8. Sammy T's. Have to make a pit-stop in Fredericksburg anytime we're driving up or down I-95. Always good food and lots of vegetarian choices too.

8 Things That Happened To Me or That I Did Today

1. Was woken up multiple times by poor, sickly Zachary. He has yet another yucky cold.
2. Cleaned up the attic. (Yesterday was basement cleanup and classic technology reorganization day.)
3. Updated Windows Live One Care with a new prepaid subscription. That'll be the last time, seeing that Microsoft is dropping the product and offering a free anti-virus download sometime next year.
4. Watched some football!
5. Got Zachary to sit up, with assistance, for a little while. He's getting stronger.
6. Prepared some gifts.
7. Took more Tylenol and Sudafed for this cold that just won't quit.
8. Lit the menorah for the first night of Hanukkah! Benny enjoyed it. 

8 Things I Am Looking Forward To

1. Christmas.
2. Zachary sitting up, crawling, and walking.
3. Benny mowing the lawn.
4. Windows 7.
   
5. SharePoint 14.
6. The new PKI module.
7. A vacation.
   
8. Retirement.

8 Things I Wish For

1. Zachary will sit up, crawl, and walk.
2. Benny will always be so sweet and silly.
3. Good friends.
4. Good neighbors.
5. Financial security.
6. A fun car to drive.
7. A sense of humor.
8. Sanity.

8 People I Tag To Do This Too!

1. Warren
2. Radio Free Andy
3. Stefan
4. Mei Ying
5. Carol
6. Spence
7. Josh
8. Andrew Connell

FiOS adds HD in a logical way

Over the past few months, Verizon has reorganized our FiOS TV lineup and added new HD channels. Slowly but surely, many of the cable network HD feeds are being filled in. This includes CNN, A&E, FX, USA, TBS, TNT, Smithsonian, and even Disney.

While this is nothing extraordinary, the way they reorganized the channels is something to note. The old channel lineup was between 1 and 1000 and the HD channels existed in the 800 range. The HD channel order beared little resemblence to the standard definion channel lineup that was between 1 and 300.

When they reorganized the channels a few months ago, they kept the SD channels between about 1 and 499 and moved the HD channels to 500 through 999. International channels and the music channels are now between 1000 and 1999.

The neat thing that they did was align the SD channels in the same order as the HD channels. All you need to do to get the HD version of a channel (if it exists) is add 500 to the SD channel number. Of course not all SD channels have HD equivalents, and some HD channels (notably HDNet, HDMovies, and Universal HD) don't have SD equivalents.

For most cases, it's easy to fip around. For example:

• Local NBC affiliate 4 is 4 for SD and 504 for HD. It used to be 807 for HD.
• USA SD is still 50 and USA HD is 550.
  
• CNN SD is 100 while the HD version is 600.

This is a great step up for usability. If you know the trick and are able to do simple math, it's easy to switch around and see if there's an HD version of a channel. Plus, if there's a non-HD TV in the house you can easily find the SD version of a given channel you're used to watching in HD.

I don't remember seeing any tips from Verizon touting this usability feature. It took me about a day to figure it out just by using the new channel lineup. They might want to highlight this more.

The next step up is to have one channel lineup with the ability to switch a network between SD and HD.

Verizon FiOS IMG 1.6 has arrived!

What timing. We just got a second HD set-to-box delivered yesterday, and today we wake up to find out that the Verizon FiOS Interactive Media Guide 1.6 update has been applied in Fairfax County!

Kudos to Verizon for pushing this out well before the end of the year. It would have been nice to be notified beforehand, but they are usually tight-lipped about these things. C'est la vie.

When I called to order the second HD STB last week, I actually taught the Verizon rep about the upcoming upgrade. She hadn't heard that the multi-room streaming of HD DVR recordings was coming. She checked with her technical support to confirm and we were both pleased with their answer.

So we'll keep FiOS for now. :-)

Vista in the living room

For some reason, I am obsessed with putting computers all around the house. Now that we have an HDTV in the living room, I've revived my quest of an internet-connected experience in the living room.


I've been waiting for a Windows PC to really take on the form factor of the Apple Mac Mini. Sure, there's always the Shuttle and some specialty PC makers that have home theatre PCs (aka HTPC), but they often run into the $1000s and aren't that small.

Then there is the Apple TV, Windows Media Extenders like the Linksys DMA2100, the Roku Netflix box, and others. While these have simple interfaces they are limited in what they can view and download. I'd like something more flexible.

Then Dell comes out with the Studio Hybrid Desktop. This looks very promising. Sort of similar to the line of Sony VAIO HTPCs, but less expensive.

Starting at $499, it comes with HDMI and DVI output and Windows Vista Home Basic (I didn't know anyone still sold that). So upgraded with decent specs and a real version of Vista, it comes to $1122:

• Vista Home Premium
• Intel Core 2 Duo T5850
  
• 3GB RAM
• 320GB hard drive
• Blu Ray/DVD-RW
  
• Media Center remote

Unfortunately, unlike the Dell XPS 420 you cannot get an optional digital cable tuner. :-(

I will be keeping an eye on this new development, and waiting for other manufacturers to follow suit.

*sigh*

I am running in to this same problem about every six months. So far, one of these methods works every time the network connections break again.

To fix certain networking problems in Windows XP:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/299357

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/811259

http://windowsxp.mvps.org/winsock.htm

*sigh*

*sigh*

*sigh*

I have a Lenovo T60p from December 2006. I've re-imaged it two or three times since then, but the last time was a while ago. I've been trying to troubleshoot and fix rather that reformat.

Time for:

a) A reformat with a fresh, clean, basic install of XP Pro
b) A reformat with Vista?
c) MacBook
d) None of the above

My two little guys, together at last

Our second son, Zachary, was in the NICU for two months after his birth due to some complications not associated with his birth.

He finally came home last Thursday. Benjamin was happy to see him again.

Colors in Excel Services

If you use Excel Services inside of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS), you may run into this little issue: Colors appear correctly when files are opened in Excel on your desktop computer, but charts and graphs turn gray and pink and magenta when viewed inside of SharePoint's Excel Services on the same desktop computer.

This is what it's supposed to look like in Excel and SharePoint:




This is what you see in SharePoint:



The reason you may see the drab colors in example 2 is something so simple that you could kick yourself: The Display settings on the server may be set to 8-bit (256 colors). The solution may be as simple as changing the display settings to b 16-bit or ideally 32-bit.

Microsoft throws this in one of it's online help pages, but you may miss it if you blink.

Quote/

You should be aware that color quality settings vary on a client and server computer. (From the Control Panel, click Display to open the Display Properties dialog box, and then click the Settings tab.) There are three settings:

• Highest (32 bit, 4 million colors).
• Medium (16 bit, 32,000 colors).
• Lowest (8 bit, 256 colors).

The color quality can make a difference in the clarity of the chart, especially if the colors that are used are not distinct enough for the user's current display setting. Because the chart image is created on the server computer, the setting on the server computer can limit the colors displayed in the chart, regardless of the color setting on the client computer.

/End Quote

I'd suggest you use 16-bit or 32-bit for the best results.

HD on the PC

So I love TV. I don't revolve my life around it like I used to, but I love a good show and relish a good movie.

When we finally took the plunge into the high definition television universe about a year ago we had a slight adjustment to how we watched TV. We had been so used to our ReplayTVs, we rarely ever watched TV shows at their regularly scheduled times.

We didn't get an HD DVR from the cable company right away. We got an HD cable box and tried recording the S-video output to the ReplayTV. It was ok, but HD shows were more like DVD shows. Naturally, an S-video connection is surely sub-par when it comes to anything above VHS quality. So we watched HD shows like Lost, Ugly Betty and American Idol live at their original airing times. With commercials.

When we switched to Verizon FiOS we decided to try their HomeMedia DVR and have been using it ever since. However, as nice as the mid-2007 media guide upgrade has been, it's no ReplayTV and it's surely not as slick as the Tivo interface.

So the alternative to the cable company's DVR, besides the expensive HD Tivo and its service fee, is a PC DVR like Windows Media Center or Snapstream. Fine and dandy, except when you want to record HD content.

Over the air HD tuners are readily available for new and custom build PCs. However, there currently is no easy way to get cable TV-based HD content on a PC. (QAM is supported on some cards, but FiOS doesn't appear to support that very well.)

New PCs with video cards that support the CableCard standard have been trickling out from companies like Dell. However, you need to buy a PC with the special video card already installed--they aren't readily available on the aftermarket.

So what's a person who already has a decent PC but doesn't want to spend $2000 on a new box to do?

Check this out: the new Hauppauge HD PVR that can record HD content from component outputs.

I am excited to see how this develops.

The trial period for this product has expired

If you ever get this message in SharePoint 2007:

The trial period for this product has expired

You may not actually have an expired license. Especially if you have a RTM Standard or Enterprise license for MOSS.

Instead, it could be one of SharePoint's extra-special error messages that really mean this and this. Or something else. Or it's just feeling saucy that day...

...or maybe it's just an expired license.

Update: It ended up being an antivirus program update that caused the issue. The update was uninstalled and the problem disappeared.

If you haven't already

If you haven't considered it already, consider giving a laptop. You can donate one for $200 anytime, or until December 31st you can spend $400 for two: one to give and one to keep for yourself.

SharePoint Skinner

Via Mark Harrison:

A neat little application that can help create themes/CSS for SharePoint or just about any website:
SharePoint Skinner by eLumenotion

Check it out on CodePlex.

I haven’t tried it yet, but it looks like it’s worth a trial. And it’s free!

Verizon update on the Fios fiasco

So today on the Verizon Policy blog was a nice post in response to the feedback they received about the FioS IMG upgrade.

There are links to a blogger who discusses some of the new features coming in 2008 as well as the bug fixes coming before the end of the year. (Not soon enough!)

Verizon Policy Blog gets lots of feedback about FiOS

I love the Verizon Policy blog. Not only can you read the thoughts of some execs at Verizon, you can read the feedback from all of the happy Verizon customers.

There has been a lot about FiOS on the blog recently, including this. Notice my comment.

Then check this out, an interesting take on why they haven't been adding more HD channels.

There was an earlier post on the FiOS Interactive Media Guide (IMG) that got over 100 comments about the bugs in the upgrade.

They rolled out a beautiful new guide interface, but added at least two dozen bugs into the system including shows not being recorded, auto-restarting DVRs, and sluggish performance. It really is a nice looking guide and I give them kudos for the graphic design, but I’d prefer the old guide because it was at least 95% reliable as opposed to the new guide interface which is maybe 50-75% reliable.

So, we are still happy enough with FiOS, but the buggy guide upgrade and lack of an easy online support option (e.g. a real customer support email address, not a support bot) have soured our happiness just a little.

Sweet Vista Goodness

I finally reformatted the old desktop (Athlon64 3200+, 1GB RAM, Nvidia GeForce 6600, 320GB hard drive) with a fresh install of Windows Vista Ultimate. I had almost given up on the damn thing because of all the problems I've had with the hardware. It had been sitting idle in the basement for months.

After replacing the power supply and video card last year and getting new SATA hard drive this year, we may have at least a temporary success. Besides the DVD drives (and case), the only original hardware is now the motherboard and RAM. We know what to blame if we still have problems.

Now it has a fresh, clean install of Windows Vista, with no programs except Windows and Skype. I hooked it up to our new Sony 50" SXRD via DVI-to-HDMI and SPDIF to the receiver. It runs the Windows Media Center interface at full 1080p resolution (59Hz) and plays DVDs with full Dolby Digital 5.1 channel sound. Sweet.

Oddly, the regular desktop interface overflows the screen if I set the resolution to 1920x1080, so I'm running it slightly under that which allows the whole desktop to show but puts a black border around it. When switching to Media Center it goes to full 1080p, which is nice.

Sony says to use the VGA input on the back of the SXRD for connecting PCs, but I'm using the HDMI input because it allows up to 1920x1080 resolution which fills the screen. The VGA input, for some reason, plops a small window in the middle of the screen with huge black borders and no way to stretch it. There's no way to even get close to 1080p using the VGA input.

Besides the desire to use Media Center as it was intended, on a TV, the other reason I did this was so we could actually use our Netflix video streaming hours. We get so many hours per month but we never use them because, let's face it, who wants to watch movies on a small laptop screen?

Let me tell you, the Netflix streaming works very well if you have a decent internet connection. We have the basic Verizon FiOS service (5Mbps), and we get the highest quality video. Watching videos via netflix.com is almost DVD quality. No Dolby Digital surround via Netflix though, at least not yet. But this is very, very usable. I'm hoping that Netflix makes a plug in for Media Center and/or releases a cool Avalon/Windows Presentation Foundation-based video browser that can be controlled via remote. And maybe Mac-support too. :-)

Man, this is more awesome than even I expected.

E-mail a link emails a bad link

It appears that we've stumbled upon our first SharePoint 2007 bug. The Send To > E-mail a link feature in document libraries is acting weird.



This feature creates a link like this one:
https://my%2Esite%2Ecom/Meetings/Meeting%20Agenda%20Template.doc

Notice how the server name is URL encoded too. The %2E's should be periods, e.g.
https://my.site.com/Meetings/Meeting%20Agenda%20Template.doc

This seems to be a known bug, and some options for fixing it are listed here:
http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=1540990&SiteID=1

On a Safari

I am writing this blog entry using the Apple Safari browser. On a Lenovo ThinkPad running Windows XP. Are pigs flying? Has hell frozen over?

Nope! Apple has released a beta of the Safari 3 browser for Windows.

I am intrigued by this development.