I have been using Office 2008 for Macand the Previous Entourage 2004 to connect to our Exchange server a work. The program itself has been pretty good. It allows you to do about 90-95% of what you can do in Outlook on the PC. You can do all of outlook’s normal stuff - Email, Contacts, Calendar/Scheduling, set your Out-Of-Office notifications, etc. Entourage will also allow you to open other user’s folders given you have the correct permissions. It even has a built in project area which I have used from time to time to keep everything together under each project (emails, calendar entries, notes, files, etc).

One of the limitations has to do with scheduling a resource. If the resource (such as a conference room) is set to auto-accept invitations, it will not auto-accept the meeting from Entourage. It just sits in the resource’s inbox waiting to be approved.

On October 14th, 2008, Microsoft released Entourage update 12.1.3. This broke one major things: scheduling meetings with other people or resources. If you schedule a meeting and send the request, you get an error message and it just sits in your outbox. Microsoft is supposed to be working on the issue and will hopefully release a fix soon. Here is a newsgroup with more information.

In some cases, a workaround is to send the invitation, then move it from the outbox to your drafts folder. Then open the item in your drafts folder and hit send again. I have not tried this yet - I have actually started playing around with the Apple Mail and iCal combination since this happened. I will write about that in another post after I have more time to play with it.

Overall, Entourage 2008 works pretty well. It connects to OWA and via https enables you to connect from anywhere.

Update: Looks like Microsoft release a patch to fix this in Office 12.1.4

Could not resist posting this. It originally came from here: http://tinyurl.com/6r84q6

A few months ago I was looking for somewhere to put my short term savings (vacations, etc). I compared the rates of a few online banks and my current savings account with one of my regular banks. After comparing rates, features, and reading a few articles online, I decided to open an ING Savings account.



The 2 factors when choosing ING Direct was the rate and the fact that you can open multiple “sub accounts.” I use these sub account to segregate money for certain goals. There is no additional cost or fees to create these other accounts. After you open and fund your first account you can then open additional savings or checking account that are linked to the main account. Then you can move money between them to save for certain goals, like vacation, a new car, an emergency fund, etc. For step by step instruction, look here.

Here are a few things that I have found out about the accounts. Nothing bad, just good stuff to know.

• After your initial deposit into your accounts(s) the money is held for a small period of time, maybe 10 days, before you can withdrawal it
• Any deposits into your account are also held for a week or so before you can withdraw them
• You can only withdraw from a savings account (this is also between ING accounts) so many times a month, I think 5 (Federal Requirement)
• You can have 3 outside linked accounts at one time to your ING Direct account to transfer money in and out. This does not mean you can’t initiate the transfer from another bank, however. But linked account can be setup to automatically transfer on a schedule.

Like I said, nothing bad but just good to know up front. If you are going to be moving money around a lot, then you may want to open an ING Checking account to move the money into first, then you can disperse if from there. But I have not had any issues with these requirements.

ING also offers a free $25 for opening an account with an initial deposit of at least $250. I already did this and got my $25. If you are interested, just use the contact form and ask for the ING Direct offer code and I will get that to you as soon as I can.

Today was Race Day for the KomenMD 5K! We met-up with some friends for the race. My wife and daughter a long with other friends did the 1 mile walk. My friend Troy and myself did the 5K race. I was really proud of him for jumping in the race at the last minute without training and he did well.



First off it was around 43 degrees at the start. We were stuck in traffic for about 40 minutes on the way there. We finally got parked around 8AM and our 5K started at 8:15AM. We bundled up the kids and got down to the starting area (in the back). With 5 minutes to go, I attempted to use the restroom (lovely spot-o-pot). I ran over to where they had them but the lines were 10 people deep for each one. As I got in line, we heard the announcement for the 5K race beginning! I said,“forget this” and Troy and I ran for the starting line.

Of course we were way past the back of the other “runners,” most of which we were dodging as they were walking and talking. I hung with Troy until after the first mile or so, then I took off to try to get a decent time. I was still dodging walkers the rest of the way, but I made it via my Nike+ Sportband as running 30:13 for 3.2 miles (since we ran further just to get to the starting line and were late starting). Overall it was a cold but fun day!

Link to Amazon Apple Nike + iPod Sport Kit. Amazon does not currently carry the Nike+ Sports band (no iPod Needed), so here is their main website to get more information on both products. I will go into more depth of the Nike+ Sportband and website later.

I am running in the 5K race this Sunday in Hunt Valley, MD. I have been running consistently now for the last few months working my way up to it. I started running outside in August until my feet/knees were starting to give me some pain. I backed off my pace and also got a treadmill. The treadmill has been really great and I can jump on there anytime. I do miss running outside, but it is really starting to get cold in the mornings now and very dark for the time I usually run. I may be able to get outside on the weekends until Spring - But I do love the winter!

The forecast for the race is supposed to be in the low 60’s. Can’t wait for the race.

Tags: Personal

This is my first post. I have re-designed my website which has been long overdue. My Twitter Feed (Widget on the page or here) will be the most up-to-date. Here I will post other personal, Tech, Fitness, Finance, or any other interest. At the moment, I think this is mostly going to be a dumping ground of sorts.

Tags: Website