So... I have recently upgraded to Office 2010. I must say it s pretty cool. At least Outlook is... everything else feels much like Office 2007 with a cooler skin. If you are an Outlook user, I highly recommend the Social Connector Add-Ins. These do a great job of aggregating all of the social info out there on your contacts. I havent dove yet into the web integration, but I've run into two good bugs worth mentioning.

First, if you have Visual Studio 2008 installed, you may run into a situation where you can no longer cut and paste in the HTML designer, and the entire program essentially locks up. This problem appears to be related to a web authoring file that does not get properly updated by the Office 2010 installer. To fix this, you need to simply run a repair on the “Microsoft Visual Studio Web Authoring Component” that is part of Office 2007. You can find this file at C:\Program Files(x86)\Common Files\microsoft shared\OFFICE12\Office Setup Controller\Setup.exe if you are running 32bit, or C:\Program Files\Common Files\microsoft shared\OFFICE12\Office Setup Controller\Setup.exe if you are running 64bit. Here is a post from Rinat Abdullin that helped me to solve this problem. This was a lifesaver!

Second, I am a Google Calendar Sync user. I use this tool to sync my Outlook Calendars with my Google Calendar on my desktop and my phone. Needless to say, I'm lost without this functionality. Once I installed 2010, I noticed that the Sync tool from Google said that it did not support this version of Office. I went to the Google home for the sync tool and found 4 pages of people complaining about this very issue and trying to get Google to add some support. Unfortunately, they don't seem to be listening... but I found some relief! Basically, what you have to do is download a Hex Editor and change the version values of the Outlook 2010 executable from 14.0.0 to 12.0.0. Sounds creepy, but it works like a charm! Here is a post on addictivetips.com that has a cool hack to get this working.

If you find yourself having these same problems, hopefully this will help. Just trying to do my part and be a good netizen.

If not, this might make you want to get one. It's called Google Shopper. And its free.

Here is presentation from Scott Brinker. I started following his blog over a year ago for one primary reason - he referred to himself as the Chief Marketing Tehnologist. This is a role in the world of marketing that I have felt was needed for quite a while - in fact, I considered myself to be performing the duties of this role while at Northlich. This thinking is what prompted me to start 247Interactive.

I've noticed that in the agency world, the realization of the paradigm shift that tech is creating, and the need for a qualified person who understands it to build a strategy around embracing it - has been alot like giving birth. If this is the case, then Scott's presentation below is like an Epidural.

I know. Just read it and tell me what you think :-)

Thanks to Huber + co Interactive and Best Light Video, we have some footage of the Ohio Interactive Awards mixer and ceremony. Thanks again to Tim Schigel, Johnny DiLoretto, and Tech Corps for their participation, and congratulations to all of the winners! I'm already looking forward to next years event! Enjoy!

2010 Ohio Interactive Awards from huber+co. interactive on Vimeo.

I was given an opportunity to share my Zen and the Art of the Technology Brainstorm thoughts with the members of the Columbus Chapter of BDPA for their May Information and Exchange Rally. The meeting was held at OCLC (very cool place - (former?) home of Eric Schmidt and the Dublin Core Metadata Initiatve for all of you Semantic Web people out there). It was well attended - hor d'ouerves, great conversation, insight from the OCLC CEO Jay Jordan. I shared the podium with Wayne Hicks, the Executive Director of BETF, who shared the history and purpose of BDPA with us, and John Henderson, COO of CSI International, who is about to unleash some cool, new technology into the market soon.

Thanks to Reggie Hillery and Alva Anderson for the invitation and a great event! If you are black and an IT Professional, you really need to take a look at this organization!