Of Ones and Zeros

Late to the ball-game: Change to licensing for MOSS Internet + Intra/Extranet

Posted on 17. Dec, 2008 by bryan.

I was preparing a response to an RFP today for SharePoint that required Forms Services to be used for both anonymous Internet sites AND authenticated-user Intranet scenarios.  When I first reviewed this requirement I thought, "Oh snap!  MOSS licensing doesn’t permit mixing Internet and Intranet, this will need to be two farms!".  I was dead certain of this.  So certain, that I wanted to go straight to the Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 frequently asked questions page and quote it in the response.  This is when things took a turn.  My world was flipped upside down.  Dogs and cats, living together.  Mass hysteria.  The following is what I found:

Can I mix SharePoint editions in the same farm?

For Microsoft Office SharePoint Server and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server for Internet Sites, the use of a server determines its licensing requirements, not its location in one farm or another. Consequently, you can mix Microsoft Office SharePoint Server and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server for Internet Sites within the same farm–so long as the use cases are licensed appropriately. However, because Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 for Internet Sites licenses the functionality of the Microsoft Office SharePoint Server Enterprise CAL, you will need to ensure that your users only access functionality they are licensed for based on their CALs.

Microsoft Office Forms Server and Microsoft Office Forms Server for Internet Sites cannot be mixed with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server for Internet Sites.

Additionally, as an accommodation for various possible deployment scenarios, customers wishing to consolidate their SharePoint needs under a single deployment may acquire licenses for both Office SharePoint Sever and Office SharePoint Server for Internet Sites, assign those licenses to the same servers, and use the same running instances of the software simultaneously under both licenses. However, customers must acquire CALs as required under the Office SharePoint Server use rights for users and devices accessing content in any manner not permitted under the Office SharePoint Server for Internet sites use rights.

WHAT?!?!?!  How could this be????  I distinctly remember it stating that you could NOT mix Internet Sites with Enterprise or Standard.  It was a cardinal rule!  Break it at your own peril!  Could I have been mistaken?  (Here’s a hint, I’m never wrong.  Ask my wife )  I was distraught.  I felt like I had been hoodwinked.  So I did a quick search to see if the licensing terms had changed.  For the sake of my sanity, thankfully I found this blog post regarding the change to the MOSS licensing.  In it, Tom Rizzo states the following:

I’m happy to say that beginning Sept 1^st, we made a change that makes running MOSS Server Licenses and MOSSFIS legal in the same farm. So, let the deploying begin! One thing to realize is that this does not reduce the number of licenses you need to buy. So, if you’re running MOSS Server licenses and MOSSFIS on the same farm, you still need to buy both licenses as well as the correct number of client access licenses (CALs) for your internal users.

Sweet vindication!  Well.  Sort of.  I am writing this blog posting December 17th, 2008.  Tom Rizzo wrote HIS blog post September 23rd, 2007.  Apparently I got this news roughly 15 months late.  Ouch. 

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Christmas came early! Pandora for Windows Mobile and Vista

Posted on 17. Dec, 2008 by bryan.

First, I saw the announcement of Pandora on Windows Mobile.  Very cool.

Then, I was listening to Pandora while working, like I pretty much always do, and over in the "ads" section of the screen there were 2 links.  One for the Windows Mobile download, and one for a Vista Gadget.  There have been some 3rd party gadgets in the past that I really weren’t too thrilled with, but this little guy is great:

Unfortunately, I can’t find the darn link again to include in this post!  If I see it pop up again, I’ll update this post to include the link.  Otherwise, just hit refresh a bunch of times and its bound to show up at some point!

Ho, ho, ho!  Merry Christmas!

UPDATE (12/17/2008 9:07PM ET): Ah hah!  Finally have the link for the official Vista Gadget!  Enjoy!

Also, tonight was the first opportunity that I had to test streaming Pandora through my Q9H to my Microsoft SYNC equipped Ford Explorer (using Bluetooth Stereo Headset support on the stereo).  I was very impressed with the stability of the signal.  I drove for about 40 minutes from Annapolis, MD to Centreville, MD with no drops or stutter (3G the whole way).  The audio quality is not great, it’s slightly worse than Sirius Satellite Radio.  Not sure how often I will end up using it, but its definitely cool to have the ability.

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Google Maps Street View – On Windows Mobile!

Posted on 11. Dec, 2008 by bryan.

So a few months ago I scrapped my Blackberry 8700 and got a Motorola Q Global (one of the cool slate gray ones):

All in all I am pretty happy with the phone.  I love the form factor, its very slim so it fits well in your pocket, and its wide so my chubby digits can get an e-mail out with a minimum of type-os. 

In any event, the intent of this post is not to provide a review of my new phone, but rather to talk about one of my favorite new blogs:  msmobiles.com.  Admittedly, not the most attractive web site on the planet, but they do a fantastic job at providing info on the latest developments in the world of Windows Mobile. 

One of their postings today has gotten me excited:  Windows Mobile catches up with iPhone and Android: Street View released by Google !  They have screen shots of the Google Maps update including the Street View functionality.

I haven’t downloaded the update yet, but within about the next 15 minutes I intend to.

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Restoring eMachine T3085 from provided CDs

Posted on 11. Dec, 2008 by bryan.

I do believe that eMachines should receive some type of award for requiring the most convoluted process of system restoration of any manufacturer.  To be fair, I don’t believe the intent was for it to be this difficult, but alas, it is.  At least it is on my old T3085.  I recently had the primary drive fail on me, thankfully I had a spare 160 GB drive laying around (what self respecting geek doesn’t have spare parts in random corners of the house?), so I’ve set out to restore the system from the provided CDs.  Here are the steps required to do so:

• Restore from eMachines Restore CDs.
• When Ghost reboots, hit F8 and select "VGA Mode".
• When Windows comes up, hit OK, then when it asks if the display is okay, hit Cancel.
• Complete the rest of the wizard.
• Next at the login screen Windows will say it must be activated.  Hit ok.
• When the activation wizard comes up (which consequently never fully comes up, its a blank dialog), minimize the window.
• Hit Window-U to bring up Narrator.
• Click on the "Microsoft Web Site" hyperlink.
• Now that Internet Explorer is up, download XP SP2 (make sure to get the IT Professionals and Developers version, should be about 266 MB).
• Install the Service Pack.

I should mention, in a very Pulp Fiction beginning with the end then coming back to the beginning way, that the reason all of this is necessary is because after restoring Windows from the Ghost image Restore CDs, the Windows XP startup comes up.  It asks for your language, time zone, things are going well.  You click Next and it asks for the name of the computer.  You click Next (or Skip, result is the same) and the machine hangs.  Indefinitely.  And you curse.  Throw things.  Kill puppies.

Well, don’t kill puppies.  Follow the instructions laid out at the beginning of this post and party like a rock star.

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Back online!

Posted on 03. Dec, 2008 by bryan.

To all of my beloved reader, Of Ones and Zeros is back after a temporary service disruption today.  A thousand apologies for any inconvenience this has cause you or your family during this holiday season.  With any luck, there will be no more of these:

Special thanks to Bill Hackley for the embarrassing screenshot!

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