50 Uses for your old iPhone

Tom Hand  July 11 2008 02:03:38 PM

Now that Apple is releasing its new 3g iPhone, I expect the "in crowd" will be clamoring to upgrade. This begs a question, where will all those 1 year old iPhones go? I thought it would be helpful to make a few suggestions so that as you trip over a pile of them next to the trash bin outside the AT&T wireless store, you can grab a few and recycle them into something useful.

1) Move heavy furniture (put one under each leg, slides easily over carpet)
2) Use one as a bookmark
3) Air hockey puck (or ice hockey if you’re into that)
4) Paint dots on them and play dominos
5) Jenga anyone?
6) Tile a floor or wall
7) Ninja star (may need to sharpen the corners)
8) Skipping stone
9) Build a short brick wall
10) Tape two together to make a protective case for your new iPhone
11) Flip one to make a decision (black or silver side up)
12) Attach to the bottom of your shoes for ice skating
13) Glue felt to one side for a chalk board erase
14) Paper weight (boring but still useful)
15) Tape several together to make yourself a suit of armor
16) Hollow out a pair, attach together, instant castanets
17) Tie strings on a few and make a wind chime
18) Press flowers with a stack of them
19) Glue one to the end a stick for a fancy new golf putter
20) In a pinch, you could use one as a butter knife
21) Put paste on one side and use them as sticky notes
22) Fly swatter
23) Sanding block (save a tree)
24) Put your name on one and pin it to your shirt as a name tag
25) Drill a hole in the back of two and tape them together for some sporty goggles
26) Door stop (one may not be tall enough, use two)
27) Write on the back and send them out as postcards
28) Hollow one out, attach a hinge and mirror you have nice make-up compact
29) Paint dots, bamboo, characters, wind, dragon and flowers on some for a cool new mahjong set
30) Tie a hook to one (deep sea fishing lure or sinker)
31) Glue them to construction paper on arts and crafts day
32) Stick on your car bumper, let the world know you have upgraded
33) Arrange appropriately along the perimeter of a wheel (instant paddle wheel)
34) Garden stepping stones (may be a bit small)
35) Substitute brake pads (maybe not)
36) Pet rock (just add googly eyes)
37) Glue two to a mitten for an oven mitt
38) Take off the glass front, use the shell as a cookie cutter
39) Doggy chew toy
40) Heat up a pair, keep them in your pockets for hand warmers
41) Replacement skeet shooting pigeons (harder to hit though)
42) They make really nice drink coasters
43) Stick one in the ground (instant sundial)
44) Drill holes along one edge and add reeds for an awesome harmonica
45) Slip one into each shoe to make yourself 1/2 inch taller
46) Glue hundreds to the surface of a large sphere (disco ball)
47) Add bristles to one side for a cool hairbrush
48) Stencil 3g on them and sell them on eBay
49) Add one to your time capsule along with a record player, floppy disk drive, cassette player, zip drive, and of course your past PC.
50) Rumor has it you can also play music on one :)

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Archive Attender Version 3.21 Released!

Karen Bigrigg  June 5 2008 02:55:51 PM

Archive Attender for Exchange version 3.21 was just released!  Listed below are some details about the new version of the product:

New Features:
*Added the ability to move a user’s archives to another archive location.  Additionally, the administrator will be prompted to update the default archive when moving the user's archives.
*Added the option to save messages in ASCII or Unicode format.  ASCII format is required for users using a version of Outlook previous to version 2003.  Unicode format is used by Outlook 2003 or higher.
*Added the ability to perform archive maintenance based on a date range.  This permits administrators to execute archive cleanup based on a date range.
*Added an option to allow users to see web search results in a tabular format.

Issues Resolved:
*Fixed the issue of Archive Attender properly archiving messages initiated by Mail Attender.
*Rectified the issue of correctly de-duplicating more then 2 copies of the same message within the same mailbox.
*Corrected the problem with saving stub changes on messages with HTML bodies
*Enabled the Archive Maintenance schedule window.
*Eliminated prematurely deleting temporary messages from the Stage folder during message processing.
*Fixed the issue with Generate Stubs not creating new stubs.
*Duplicate files now transition when moving user archives.
*Updating the hive and archive statistics after moving user archives now occurs.
*Deleting duplicated messages from within the web search now works.
*Deleting previously-run policies now processes.
*Fixed HTML message Received Date formatting.
*Added public folder capabilities for Outlook 2007.

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Ferris Archiving Survey

Karen Bigrigg  June 5 2008 02:38:10 PM

Ferris Research is currently running an archiving product usage survey, which includes Sherpa Software's Archive Attender as a possible product for evaluation.  The information will be gathered and reported in a comparative analysis.  If you complete the survey, you will receive a results summary.

To complete this survey, go to: www.ferris.com/archiving-survey.html

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Examination of a Product Demonstration

Karen Bigrigg  April 18 2008 12:32:34 PM

One of the roles of being a product manager at Sherpa Software is to administer demonstrations of our software to prospective clients.  These demos have a very specific purpose, although they can take on a life of their own once they get going!  The goal of the demo is to showcase the product, and to allow a potential customer to view the software within a working environment – all from the confines of the internet.  Within the boundaries of my demos, I permit Q&A throughout the presentation.

An Archive Attender demonstration will walk the participants through the data structures of the product: archive locations (where archived data is stored), groups (mailbox containers), users (mailboxes), and public folders.  Additionally, a variety of archiving rules, or policies, are also discussed, including conditional rules (contingent on subject, sender, dates, and size), quota rules, and journal compliance archiving policies.  

Typically, a demo will begin with an introduction to Sherpa Software and what we offer as a company.  This permits the participants to understand with whom they are working.  Following this is an introduction into what the potential customer is looking for in terms of archiving needs.  Are you interested in the end user access of data?  Do you want to archive off of the journal mailbox?  Is quota archiving of interest to save database space on the Exchange server?  After goals are established, the product walkthrough is completed, with open questioning welcomed.

To request a demo, please submit the following information to information@sherpasoftware.com:

*What Windows platform will the software be installed on?
*What Exchange platform is currently being used?
*What is the approximate number of mailboxes?
*Are there any network or desktop PSTs that need to be archived?  If so, approximately how many of each?
*What is the reason of interest/requirements?
*What forms of archiving are desired (compliance, journal, regulatory, storage)?
*Is end user archive access important?  OWA access?
*Who will the main attendees be - contact information (company name, name, phone, address, email)?

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Are you worried about a recession and the impact on your IT department and therefore your professional "life"

Anthony Storti  April 1 2008 05:10:00 PM

Being a semi-regular blogger and a regular "lurker" in some cases I have found that blogging is an excellent way to share ideas and have frank honest discussions on certain topics.   When I learned that my organization, Sherpa Software, wanted to initiate one of the Web 2.0 technologies, I thought great "I can get paid for blogging".  How many people can say that about their job?  But this last question prompted my topic.   The word on the street and in the media is we are headed for a recession or some believe we are already in one.   Being a Product Manager here at Sherpa Software, for our Mail Attender for Exchange product, I started to think about a recession and the impact on IT Departments and therefore the impact on my product in general.

Here are some general indicators that I have picked up on through various articles about the general state of IT at this time:

1 - In a recent InformationWeek survey that I read in a recent article about the Economy - 43% of IT departments were being asked to either cut a percentage of the IT budget or cut specific projects.
2 - In order to scale back IT budgets what is the first thing to go?  76% stated new hires (so much for the idea if you were looking for a new job), 45% stated new application development including software projects and 30% said end user technology such as web 2.0-related projects (no not my blog!!!!)
3 - Another key figure I read is what is the mood of your IT department?  A good indicator of how your IT department is going to approach the economy.  53% stated they were cautiously optimistic compared too 1% that is bullish, meaning nothing is phasing them (I wonder which companies they are).

So how does all this affect your IT Professional life?  IT needs to be prepared to meet the upcoming challenges not be informed by the CIO that the challenges are already here.  One possible effect on your professional life may be (as I just heard from one of our potential prospects) retraining users to be more productive by organizing their email.   Another one maybe the need to replace more expensive systems with less expensive systems and more practical and efficient tools in order to reduce cost.   During a pending recession it is a good time to critically review your department’s wants and needs.  This could provide new challenges to IT staff, new training opportunities, new skills, etc.    All in all I think a recession will be good for the IT professional, with the exception of new hires, because this will develop new ways to do certain things and to refocus on existing strategies.  

As far as the impact on my IT department here at Sherpa Software, in particular the impact to my Mail Attender for Exchange Product, I have a very positive outlook.  Mail Attender is an email management product for both Exchange mailboxes and PST files.   Mail Attender is one of those products that IT departments can use to reduce costs, reorganize email to become more efficient and in general replace some of the higher end similar products that are costing companies 100's of thousands of dollars per year.   My outlook (no pun intended) is very optimistic but not blind that a recession is at hand.  Mail Attender seems to be recession proof, especially in this day and age of discovery and compliance.  That does not mean there will not be changes around here but maybe Sherpa Software will be one of those companies that is "bullish" when if comes to the mood regarding the economic climate.

I would like to know what everyone else is thinking.  Post a reply - blogging can be fun!!!

Anthony Storti is a Product Manager for Mail Attender for Exchange at Sherpa Software.  Anthony can be contacted at astorti@sherpasoftware.com

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What Kind of Learner Are You?

Karen Bigrigg  April 1 2008 04:20:12 PM

Being the product manager of Archive Attender at Sherpa Software presents the challenge of educating my customers and potential clients about our software package and archiving concepts.  One of my passions is teaching; I have a master’s degree in the science of instruction.  Therefore, I appreciate how important it is to understand how to communicate ideas to learners so they can best be absorbed, for that learner’s unique demands and thinking patterns.

To do this, it is imperative to understand that there are different kinds of learners out there in the world!  Richard Felder and Barbara Solomon discuss four different facets of learning profiles a person may exhibit when digesting new material:

*Active verses Reflective Learners:  Active learners like to use information in a hands-on way to understand it, whereas reflective learners best study beforehand and think about the new material.

*Sensing verses Intuitive Learners:  Sensing learners like to work with facts and figures, whereas intuitive learners best digest new concepts in forms of relationships and abstractions.

*Visual verses Verbal Learners:  Visual learners like to work with images, such as PowerPoints, photos, diagrams, and films, whereas verbal learners best learn from auditory explanations and written pieces.

*Sequential verses Global Learners:  Sequential learners like to develop concept understandings in a linear fashion, learning material in a specific order, whereas global learners digest material after understanding the big picture.

What kind of learner are you?  I have to assume that my customer base may be a mixture of all of the above!  Therefore, I am putting together training materials for Archive Attender version 3.2, just released this past March.  Included in that material are training videos.  These training videos walk the user through the product.  Sequential users can work through the video series in order, whereas global learners can jump around to get a grasp on the big picture.  The training videos cater to both visual and verbal learners, as they contain both PowerPoint and software discussions.  Active-intuitive learners get to see the product in action, and reflective-sensing learners can review the PowerPoint discussions for overviews of concepts.  

If you’re interested in this topic further, perform a web search – they have learning profile tests out there to find out just what kind of learner you are!

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Being a Product Manager

Marta Farensbach  March 27 2008 09:55:32 AM

Here at Sherpa we all wear many hats (as ably described by our Lotus Notes afflicted colleague Denny in I like hats), so I thought I'd give you a glimpse of the  Exchange team  here at Sherpa and our hat collections.  

When queried about what I do for a living, I use the generalization 'I work with computers'.  This has the advantage of veracity and brevity while allowing a quick glide to other conversations (although, like doctors, we  'computer folk' tend to be regaled with tales of trail and tribulations of electronic health)… however what I really want to say is that I am a researcher, software designer, marketing coordinator, sales associate, customer support representative, programmer, writer, analyst, teacher, mediator  and, oh yes, my title is Product Manager.  

What does all that mean… In short, I am an expert in my product, Discovery Attender for Exchange.  I am responsible for coordinating all aspects of the development and deployment of my lovely search program.   Like the other PMs here at Sherpa,  I mix together customer feedback, feature requests, market research, company priorities, partner input, code limitations, developer availability plus a pinch of salt  and a dash of pepper into a bubbling cauldron of progress.  If  everything goes well, we'll produce new releases buoyed by QA, beta testers and that bane of all developers, documentation.   Sales & Marketing joins the party with an insatiable appetite for brochures, website updates, training sessions, product demos, webinars, tutorials and the kitchen sink.  

Sounds a bit chaotic, and, to be honest, sometimes (especially near release time) it can be overwhelming.  However, I work with amazing people who put in the extra effort to make sure we put out a stellar product and back it up with solid support,  The support not just for the product itself but for any crazy ideas I come up with (although I am still waiting to hear about that letter opener swag tschosky - letter opener, opens mail…. what's not to love) .  Most importantly, my job is interesting, I am never bored, I have a great product, great customers, great co-workers  and literally learn something new everyday about Exchange, the e-Discovery world and life in general.   I may have more hats than I can usefully wear,  but I wouldn't have it any other way.

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PST FAQ

Korry Clark  February 29 2008 11:21:53 AM

It was been some time since I have contributed to the blogs , so I decided that a quick intro to the PST file format may be useful. With more people utilizing PST files as a data storage, some technical knowledge regarding the properties of PST files can always be useful in deciding if PST file are for you.  

Currently there are two types of PST files.  The pre Outlook 2003 format, ANSI, which has a size limit of 2G. Once the size of the PST file approaches 1.8G you may experience issues adding additional messages to the PST and the likelihood of the file becoming corrupt increases.  The second format which was introduced with Outlook 2003 is Unicode and has a size limit of 20G.  Not sure why anyone would want to have a PST file size of 20G.

The design of a PST is to be accessed locally and neither PST file formats are supported by accessing them across a LAN or WAN. Each PST file can hold a maximum of 65,535 items in each of the default Outlook folders, such as Calendar, Contacts, Deleted Items, Journal, Notes, Sent Items, and Tasks.

What happens when the PST becomes corrupt?  Microsoft offers the Inbox Repair tool (Scanpst.exe) which is designed to help repair problems that are associated with personal folder (.PST) files. The idea of the utility is to analyses the file directory structure and item headers and then tries to recover all folders and items.

PST files can be an very effective storage for old email messages, but with any file format there is always a chance of corruption if you don't follow the limits, rules of the file format.  I hope these facts provided some useful information.

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Ferris survey on retention policies

Srinivasan Balaji  February 29 2008 08:07:07 AM

Here is a link to another survey being done over at Ferris research regarding retention policies. Like the survery about support staff posted by Denny in our Domino blog and linked to by Korry in our Exchange blog, filling out your comments entitles you to a copy of the survery results. In addition to surveying users, David Ferris is also to talking to product vendors, policy formulators, etc in creating his benchmarks. I assume those findings will be included in his results as well.

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Archive Attender for Exchange 3.2 released

Korry Clark  February 28 2008 03:46:41 PM

I'd like announce the release of Archive Attender for Exchange 3.2. We've taken email archiving to the next level as we focused on adding some new features and improved on some existing options.  

Some of the new features introduced in Archive Attender 3.2 are:

1. Automated way to determine and assign PST file ownership to users
2. Ability for handheld devices and non-Windows users to view archived messages
3. Scheduled deletion policies to remove orphan stubs
4. Advanced reporting capabilities that test archiving policies before they are initiated
5. Ability to create search views of multiple users and assign an owner who will have can search the archives of all users included in the view
6. De-duplication of messages in archive location
7. Minor bugs fixed

Archive Attender offers a flexible architecture that does not require a SQL database, proprietary hardware, or any components installed on the Exchange server.  Have a thought or comment on the new version, we'd love to hear it.

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