Kit Kai's Tech Blog

I was kind of bored reading about countless blog post, announcing RTM of SharePoint, and where you can download it, at the same time, waiting for the download of the bits to complete in our super slow corporate network. Today was the very few days where I managed to clear all the RSS post for today...

Then, this post comes in from Mike Fitzmaurice, one of those blogs I monitor very closely (because the things he talks about, most of the time I catch nothing... Too profound... :p) entitled "Early Christmas present from Search and BDC Team". Immediately these words, present, search, bdc, caught my attention... Another proof that Microsoft is listening to her client.

When I went to Redmond for training, Microsoft did tell us about BDC, which got us excited, but when we know that the result won't be security trim, you can see the disappointment. Again, when I join this company, the first SharePoint project I was assigned to, I've been to two meetings. Both meetings, we talked about searching into SAP and Siebel. When Bernard and I told them on two occasions that results won't be security trimmed. You can also see their disappointment.

I'm so glad they have implemented this feature, and very very late in the development stage. I immediately fired off an email to my clients... Thanks SharePoint Team! :)

Here is a chance to take SharePoint beta exams, mainly focused on configuration. Check out the details here.

Ha ha, as the title implies, I'm very lousy with English, (actually languages) and many a times, white paper, documentations etc contains difficult words which I don't understand. How many of you know that Microsoft Word can help you understand? I don't, until I sit through Bernard Thiam's presentation.

Try it, hold down the left-alt key and click on a word...

Recently, I'm handling a tender that uses a non-microsoft content management and bpm solution. Being new to the technology, the vendor was very kind (since the license is already sold to the client) in coming to explain to me how the product works. He uses the admin UI to show me functionality of the product. The funny thing to me is, he keep mentioning the word "Implement". E.g. Implement Check-In Check Out, Implement Save Content. Why use the word implement when the product supports these functionality?

So I asked the guy, why do you keep using the word "Implement"?

He said, the admin UI is not meant for the end users. You have to create your own UI, and call the API to do those stuff... I go... Hmmm.... Ok...

Later in the week, I met up with my friend from JSIST, which we lost contact after polytechnic, I was sharing with him that experience. He told me that Java world its like that. Most solutions are DIY. So why not Microsoft solutions? since you can buy a product, customise it a bit (if the product matches your needs) and deploy? Much faster and cheaper and less prone to bugs (except from Microsoft, which you can raise support case).

Well, I think Microsoft solutions are not as scalable as customer might want their solutions to be. Today, throughout Oracle's technology summit, each presentation focuses on scalability, grid computing (Uncle, can share what is Microsoft doing in this space?), virtualisation of various commodity servers to be come one powerful computer platform which can grow when needs arises...

PS. Though most of the post I made seems to be pro-Microsoft, it's basically because I'm not familar with the other camp. How much can I absorb in 3 weeks? especially since I'm still focus on SharePoint in my jobscope... But I will say that I'm not afraid to post anything that is not pro-Microsoft, even though I'm a MVP. I've said things that were not good to Microsoft during presales meetings, in front of Microsoft account managers. Come on, I'm still very technie... Though I'm trying to transit out of that...

Many times, when we discuss about content management solution, a lot of people mentioned to me that SharePoint is not scalable, because SharePoint stores content in the database (SQL Server). No other content management servers stores document in the database, but in the file system and only stores metadata in the database. I can't effectively talk about Sql Server (blob performence issues), since I'm not SQL MVP. But I can tell them the disadvantages of storing the files in the file system, and SharePoint can keep content in more than one content databases.

Well, today, now I know SharePoint is not alone... The Information company is also storing content in database...

Was looking into the existing site definition in MOSS 2007 to create a new site definition for a project. But it is a lot of GUIDs that doesn't make sense to me, and desktop search is my best tool. Since I might need to work with site definition for quite sometime, I might as well start mapping them using OneNote (wish I have a tablet).

Here is what I have mapped so far, mostly from the publishing feature. Any typo that you have spot, do let me know.

Note: This is not feature complete, and would be updated as I peek into more site definitions / feature definitions

It's into my third week in my new company, and I'm already assigned with 1 SharePoint implementation project, 1 SharePoint presales, and 1 non-microsoft tender. While the first two projects is still in my comfort zone, the last one is not, and adding a lot of stress into my life, as I'm not familiar with my company's tendering process, and I'm not familiar with the product.

Searching for technical information about non Microsoft products is really a pain in the ass. While it is easy to find marketing information in the vendor's website, it is really really difficult to find any technical information, and have to rely on colleagues who have learn the technology before. Colleagues are helpful, and I'm now reading up those technical documentation.

Thick as they are, as these products are usually complex, with many components that make up a product. The architecture diagram shows 3 layers, each having 7 to 8 components, and each components have many different parts. But having exposed to these technology make me wonder, is Microsoft playing catch-up? I just realised that many things I was excited about in the recently RTMed product already exist in the other camp. But one thing that makes me stay with Microsoft is, the community, and the way Microsoft takes care of the developer and IT pro community. Something is sorely lacking in the other camp (or maybe my search engine isn't good enough)

Thank God I didn't choose the other career path. And it is all thanks to friends, especially him, him and her :)