Thursday, September 23, 2010

MMS 2011 Call for Sessions

Call for Session topics is now public. If you ever wanted to present at MMS here is your chance! There is no telling what might be selected or not so make your topic interesting that could fill a room. Maybe it is an introduction to a topic or a deep dive. Everything is needed. "Real World" experiences are the greatest draws because the audience can relate to you.

If you are selected then you will recieve the following accomodations:

Free speaker registration for the event
4 nights’ hotel accommodation during the event
Access to the on-site speaker lounge at the event
An opportunity to take Speaker Training on-site with top professional speaker coach Richard Klees


Content Goals
We are seeking session topics from Industry speakers which cover:

Real-world experience in the Windows management space
Best practices developed through actual deployments
Tips and tricks developed from real life experience

Session Format & Content
All Session slots will be 75 minutes, and should be pitched at a 300-400 (technical to deep technical) level for this audience. Live demonstrations are strongly encouraged.

The “Call for Sessions” entry page is located here https://www.mms-2011.com/CFT
The closing date for topic proposals from all speakers is midnight PST on November 24th 2010.

If you have a colleague or Industry contact who is interested in speaking at the event, please ask them to send email to mmsqs@microsoft.com. They will be sent a New Industry Speaker Access Code.

You can register for the event and if you are selected to be a speaker there is a process by which you can go through to receive a refund of your registration fee.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

App-v Quicktime 7.68.75.0

Every few months Apple releases a new Quicktime due to patches or feature changes. Back in 7.5 or 7.6.0 Apple required the "Apple Application Support" program to be installed. This wasn't a major problem but it did make create a App-v version a bit longer to create.

Well with this latest version came new pains. Virtualizing with Client 4.6 was a breeze. Testing the program and plugin worked fine. You still need to remember to use the "Add Application" and put in a shortcut for IE so you can have the Quicktime plugin active in that version of IE.

With this version the IE plugin didn't seem to worked on XP but did work on Win7. Virtualizing it different ways didn't remove the problem, "It would work fine on the Sequencer but not on the deployment test machine".

Each time you tried to view a Quicktime movie in IE the following problem would appear.
Quicktime failed to initialize. Error # 0.
Please make sure Quicktime is properly installed on this computer




After discussing it in the forums for a bit someone else figured out the problem.
It appears how XP and Quicktime handle the need for a file folder. Granted "Apple Application Support" was installed and the folder was in the package but the application was looking for "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Apple\Apple Application Support" and it wasn't going to look at the virtual one.

To solve this problem with XP you can do one of two things. Either create the physical folder for the use or allow App-V do it for you. The folder doesn't do anything but serve as a place holder and the rest of the application will use the virtual version.

If the users don't have adminstraive privs on XP then you will pass down a command to create the folder.

If the users do have administrative privs on XP then allow App-v to do it for you.
Open the OSD file for Internet Explorer and add this text:

<dependency>
<clientversion version="4.6.0.0">
<script event="LAUNCH" protect="FALSE" timing="PRE" wait="TRUE">
<scriptbody>MD "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Apple\Apple Application Support"</scriptbody>
</script>
</dependency>

You could also use the cmd.exe to start the command if you like.

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

MMS 2011 Content Survey

The Content survey for MMS 2011 is live. http://www.mms-2011.com/default.aspx
This is your chance to choose what kind of topics will appear at MMS and how it will be focused.

This year you could win a prize for filling out the survey

"When the survey closes on Wednesday, November 24th, 2010, we will draw two entries from amongst the responses and will send a Portable Media Player to those respondents. If you would like to be entered for this draw, simply enter your email address in the text box below. Supplied email addresses will only be used for the purposes of winner notification and will not be stored or used in any other way."