Office XP or wait for Office 2003

[Cosmos75]

Microsoft has updated their webpage to discourage people from attending for freebies. Probably due to the the TechTV show (ScreenSavers) caused Microsoft to be "swamped with registrations for the TS2 seminar.

From http://www.connect-ms.com/msts2/default.html

In order to continue to provide technology providers with software we are asking all TS2 attendees to bring verification to the event that confirms their employment as a business owner, legitimate technology provider, or a professional employed in the field of technology. This can be in the form of a business check, business card with photo ID, employment badge, or other verifiable identification. Microsoft is trying to protect the distribution of NFR software to those who meet these specific requirements. We appreciate your understanding and are asking this only as a benefit to our valued channel partners. If you have any questions about what qualifies as proof of employment please e-mail ts2mgrs@microsoft.com. We appreciate your cooperation with this process.

 

[Cosmos75]

Additional language at the website

*Technology providers are defined as system builders, consultants, resellers, developers, and IT professionals. If you do not fall into the technology provider category, one of the other Seminars may be better suited for your needs. You are more than welcomed to attend the TS2 Seminar, however we will not provide you with the kit and the One Plus certificate. Please refer to the other seminars on the left side of this web page for additional information.

**Limit one DVD and one certificate per attendee while supplies last.

 

[Cosmos75]

Cosmos -

When Pat initially informed everyone of the TS2 seminar in her post of this thread a few days ago I immediately signed up and registered. I am attending the TS2 seminar in Lansing, Michigan next Tuesday (Feb. 3rd). I will report back how it went and wether or not it was any value information wise on wednesday. I read the bio for the seminar adn I think the information on certification will be interesting...

Kevin_S must be at the seminar at this very moment! Can't wait to hear his "report" on it!

 

[Cosmos75]

Kevin_S must be at the seminar at this very moment! Can't wait to hear his "report" on it!

Kevin_S is online NOW and replying to this??


Must have been during the first half of the day rather than the second half.

 

[Kevin_S]

Sorry to dissapoint Cosmos

I got pulled into a "Priority 1 meeting" around noon and I wasn't able to make it to the conference by 1 EST... Very sad as I was looking forward to my free copy of Office Pro 2003.

I was notified by Microsoft yesterday and this morning that I would need to have "IT Credentials" to attend. They stated (on my voice mail) that I could call to find out what was a valid IT cred. I explained that, while I work for State Gov who is a Microsoft Partner, I was attending on my own behalf and was planning on using Office Pro at home, for personal business use... They stated that this was fine and dandy (in case you were wondering...

A collegue of mine is at the conf. right now, however, and I will report back after I hear from him tomorrow.... SOrry to dissapoint but I'll give you a report with my findings tomorrow...

Kev

 

[Cosmos75]

Sorry to dissapoint Cosmos

I got pulled into a "Priority 1 meeting" around noon and I wasn't able to make it to the conference by 1 EST... Very sad as I was looking forward to my free copy of Office Pro 2003.

Don't be sorry, I feel bad for you!

I was notified by Microsoft yesterday and this morning that I would need to have "IT Credentials" to attend. They stated (on my voice mail) that I could call to find out what was a valid IT cred. I explained that, while I work for State Gov who is a Microsoft Partner, I was attending on my own behalf and was planning on using Office Pro at home, for personal business use... They stated that this was fine and dandy (in case you were wondering...

Great, and - Yes, I was wondering.

 

[Parker]

Hey

Great link one prob it would cost me a fortune to travel stateside from UL anyone know of similar in UK?

For the record

It's always been considered bad practice to by odd number versions of software in the circles I mix in 'cause of the bugs.

 

[stormin_norm]

What about Access 2002. Clearly this is still in the mix, NO?

My clients are looking to upgrade from Access 97 to Access 2000. I want to push them to 2002 Since they still run Win 98, WinNT4.0, Win2000.

I have to search some threads/boards in two weeks (no time now) on running Access2003 or 2002 on WinNT with Office2000 installed. Anyone try this yet?

 

[stormin_norm]

Hey

Great link one prob it would cost me a fortune to travel stateside from UL anyone know of similar in UK?

For the record

It's always been considered bad practice to by odd number versions of software in the circles I mix in 'cause of the bugs.

If you are a developer--Sign up for the Microsoft Action Pack for $299 and you get all their server & client products.
Look under partners, sales&marketing tools page.

I now have two copies of Office2003, one from the MS Action Pack and the other from the Microsoft Office2003 launch.

 

[Parker]

It's nice to know a few people have found a way of giving Bill Gates a little less money ---- I'll investigate this action pack but it would still be nice to get somat for nofink for a change.

Maybee we should petition MS for all the down time caused by unstable software --- or how about all developers get what they need for free after all we are all learning and mostly learning to either make thier software behave or do what people need it to do!

Then comercial developers could then pay a licence fee to sell the developed product

 

[Kevin_S]

Cosmos - "Follow Up:

Spoke with my collegue this morning and he recieved a certificate for a free copy of Office 2003 Pro and a DVD chock full of other goodies (info links, free resources, trial software, code samples, etc.) To redeem the certificate for his copy of office he had to attend the whole seminar, be in, and able to prove, an IT related field, complete an online TS2 survey, and register his company/place of business with Microsoft.

He said the seminar is geared more towards the small/ personal business (primarily discussed Small Business Server 2003) and doesn't really apply to our setup but they did cover some features/issues with Office 2003. One "Hot" topic was code certification for all software so... if your developing solutions in Access 2003 be prepared for the dreaded "Your about to open an application that has marocs/code that could be harmful... blah, blah,blah..." upon opening user/devloper created dbs. The only way to bypass this is to have a certificate on the network to authenticate the application as "good" and not evil which can be a real pain to setup for the smaller developer/group. The really noticable changes in O'2003 are with Outlook so I'm probably going to stay with A 2002 and bypass '03 (you know how the odd numbered releases of "O" tend to be!

Other then that - he said it was worth will and that he did see some people denied the free gifts due to failure to produce IT authentication materials....

Hope this was the info you were looking for...
Kev

 

[stormin_norm]

IT Authenication. This is a joke. You can make your own business cards at home. Even if you are not an IT consultant or in an IT department, you still have influence on projects which impact IT spending. Tell them that.
What else can they ask you for? Taxid? If you are a sole-proprietor you use your social security number and do not wish to disclose this information to some event marketing n00b.

Just MS scare tactics to counteract some press about freebies.

 

[Kevin_S]

Ahhh BUT you had to have a business card with your PICTURE on it!!!

Thats hard to get unless your in IT

Kev

 

[Cosmos75]

I sent an email to Microsoft asking about the TS2 seminar, whether it was geared towards me, if I could get the DVD, if they had info on InfoPath and Certification. I will concede that I am not in IT or consider myself to be a technology provider. I just happen to dabble with MS Access. Didn't want to misrepresent myself just for a freebie (but what a Freebie for someone like me! ) . Since I just bought XP Developer, I probably don't need it. In case you are curious here is part of there response. Here is their response

So it sounds like you do not fall into the technology provider category. As such, you are more than welcome to attend the TS2 seminar but one of the other seminars happening the same day at the same location may be better suited for your needs. Check out the Touch Point Series, MSDN and TechNet seminars on www.connect-ms.com to see if there is a better fit. In your case, I think both the TechNet and MSDN events might be better suited to your needs. If you believe that TS2 is where your interests best lie you are welcome to attend the TS2 seminar but we will not be able to provide you with the attendee kit and the One Plus certificate redeemable for NFR software. At registration just mention that you want to attend the TS2 seminar but know that you are not eligible for the kit and OnePlus certificate.

I think I am going to try to learn of some of this ASP.NET and XML stuff. Hopefully, armed with that knowledge I'll get more oppurtunities like I did teaching myself Access. Albeit, I still have a LONG (read uber-Long) way to go with Access!

 

[Thecherub]

How about the great white north

Hey Pat do you know if they will be doing any of those Seminars in Canada?

 

[yippie_ky_yay]

Thanks for sharing Pat - MS doesn't seem to hold seminars like that here in Canada and I've been wondering about them since your post awhile back.

About the firewall in XP, it is configured automatically when you run the Network Setup Wizard. To manually start it, go to Control Panel - Network Connections - right-click on the connection you want the firewall to protect and select Properties. Click the Advanced tab and there it is (along with a link to learn more).

It should be noted that the capabilities here are limited (e.g. no ability to block unwanted outbound connections and the ability to restrict internet access for certain applications).

I've only ever used Norton's Firewall and have found it to work well - but I've read that physical ones are the best.

-Sean

 

[stormin_norm]

If anyone is interested in PDA & Tablet development resources from Microsoft you MUST jump into their ISV Smart Client readiness program. You receive:
Software code and developer kits.
Access to technical support through newsgroups.
DVDs of technical sessions from developer conferences and Airlifts.
Microsoft Press® books on smart clients.

Smart Client readiness program

You need to first setup a hotmail account (passport) [as Pat mentioned above], join the partner program and then sign up for the isv program.

 

[Cosmos75]

The final topic was Office. They concentrated mainly on InfoPath which is new with the 2003 release. It's a form builder that stores its data as XLM files so they're easily transportable. Looks like it will provide a good way to do disconnected data entry. Then bring it home and import into your Access db.

Sound interesting. I guess I will have to start getting familiar with XML and .NET stuff as it looks things are moving in that direction. (Freaking out here!)

 

[ghudson]

I just wanted to thank Cosmos75 for starting this post and for everyone else who contributed to this post. I had never heard of TS2 before and I am glad I caught this post before the TS2 event in my area was held. I just received my free Microsoft Office System Professional 2003 CD [and Business Contact Manager and OneNote 2003 CDs] yesterday! I totally agree with Pat's comments above about what the TS2 event covered and the part about the ID verification. It was well worth the four hours of my time. I only wish that they had covered more ground on the changes with the Office programs [especially Access] but that was not the purpose of the TS2 event. It was about promoting their new products. If it is not too late for your area you should attend the TS2 event. I believe that the TS2 events are held every quarter and they travel accross the U.S.

Thanks again guys and gals!

 

[Cosmos75]

I went, I saw, I left...

I just wanted to thank Cosmos75 for starting this post and for everyone else who contributed to this post. I had never heard of TS2 before and I am glad I caught this post before the TS2 event in my area was held. I just received my free Microsoft Office System Professional 2003 CD [and Business Contact Manager and OneNote 2003 CDs] yesterday!

Lol, glad to be of service!

In fact, I was the one who informed out IT department about it and the head IT person actually went.

I totally agree with Pat's comments above about what the TS2 event covered and the part about the ID verification.

They did not check ID when giving out the certificate for the software. I already had a .Net passport since I registered online, you did however have to fill out a form regarding your company.

But, I had already specifically been told in an replay email from Microsoft (after I told them what I do and my interests in the seminar were) that I did not fit the bill for an IT person and as such did not quality to receive the free software.

At the end, they were passing the free goodie bags and certificates, I told them that I wasn't eligible. YES, I said it.

Once the collective gasp from forum members has died down - I did not want to get my company or myself into any trouble. Especially since most the answers to the questionnaire were "Not Applicable." (e.g. How often does your company sell Windows Server 2003 to a client?).. My company is not an IT company.

Oh, well...