Alexander’s Blog

When I want to send myself reminders, sometimes I use Outlook 2007 or Outlook Web Access - OWA (but you can use any e-mail client) to send a Short Message Service (SMS) text message to my cell phone. For example, when I travel on Southwest and want to print my boarding pass. I send a text message with flight time and ticket confirmation number. If I am not in the office, I call a friend with my confirmation number and have them print out my boarding pass for me.

I do the same when I need to send SMS text messages to my friends because if I am in front of a computer, it is much easier to use Outlook to type a text message then to use my cell phone. Keep in mind that you are still limited to a total of 160 characters in the message subject plus the body and that even if you compose your message in HTML format, the carrier will send the message in plain ASCII text.

To send an SMS text message, simply compose the message in Outlook and then address it to the sender in the following format:

phone_number@carrier_domain

For example, if Bill Gates’ phone number is 425-555-1234 and he uses SprintPCs, you will send a message to:

4255551234@messaging.sprintpcs.com

Here are some of the common carriers.

Cingular: phonenumber@cingularme.com
Nextel: phonenumber@messaging.nextel.com
Sprint: phonenumber@messaging.sprintpcs.com
T-Mobile: phonenumber@tmomail.net
Verizon: phonenumber@vtext.com
Virgin Mobile: phonenumber@vmobl.com
VoiceStream: phonenumber@voicestream.net

If for some reason you don’t want to use your Exchange account to send out SMS text messages in Outlook, you can add your POP3 account at Gmail, Yahoo, etc. and then use that account to send out text messages. Of course, you can do the reverse, send out messages from cell phone to your Outlook but most people who have SMS messaging available on their cell phone already know that. Sending out messages from Outlook to the cell phone is a relatively lesser-known fact.

Microsoft offers a Microsoft Outlook SMS Add-in for Outlook 2003/2007 that is supported on Windows 2003/XP/Vista. Of course, Microsoft is not going to create a piece of software and not have an acronym, that would be too un-cool. Therefore, Microsoft calls this add-in MOSA. You can download and read all about MOSA and its features here.

The Data Encryption Toolkit for Mobile PCs describes how to effectively use both EFS and BitLocker to help address your organization’s requirements to protect data on mobile PCs. The Toolkit also provides you with software tools and scripts to help you centrally configure, deploy, and manage encryption settings on all your mobile PCs.
The Data Encryption Toolkit for Mobile PCs includes the following four components:

Executive Overview. This document provides a broad survey from a business and regulatory perspective of how mobile data is at risk and how the Data Encryption Toolkit for Mobile PCs can help. It also provides information about how you can use the guidance and tools in this Solution Accelerator as well as tools you may already have licensed to mitigate these risks.

Security Analysis. This guide provides an in-depth review of how EFS and BitLocker can help you address the unique risks associated with data on mobile PCs.

Planning and Implementation Guide. This guide describes how to plan for, configure, deploy, and operate EFS and BitLocker in your organization.

Microsoft Encrypting File System Assistant. The EFS Assistant is a software tool you can use to centrally control EFS settings on all your PCs (the EFS Assistant also works with desktop PCs). The EFS Assistant can help you encrypt the sensitive files on your users’ laptops, regardless of where those files are located. In addition, the EFS Assistant operates transparently to end users, eliminating training issues or other impacts. Note that you can obtain the EFS Assistant in one of two ways. The Microsoft version of the tool is available on this page. A community version of the tool is available for download from CodePlex, Microsoft’s shared source development site at www.codeplex.com/EFSAssistant.

You can download the toolkit here.

Check out these MSDN Virtual Labs and TechNet Virtual Labs if you haven’t already. These are a series of guided, hands-on labs which can be completed in 90 minutes or less. The best part is these labs don’t require any installation and are available to you immediately for FREE. Here are the topics that are currently available to you.

MSDN Virtual Labs

ASP.NET 2.0
ASP.NET
BizTalk Server
Commerce Server
Fritz Onion’s Intro to ASP.NET
Internet Information Services (IIS)
JPlusN (J+N)
Microsoft Expression
.NET Framework 3.0
Soup to Nuts
Visual Studio
Visual Studio 2008
Visual Studio Team System
Visual C#
Visual J#
Visual Basic
Visual C++
Connected Systems
Data Access and Storage
Office
Security
Smart Client
SQL Server 2005
SQL Server 2005 Upgrade
Visual SourceSafe
Web Services
Windows Embedded CE 6.0
Windows Live
Windows Mobile
Windows Vista
Windows XP Embedded
TechNet Virtual Labs

TechNet Virtual Labs

Antigen
BizTalk Server
Configuration Manager
Enterprise Search
Exchange Server
Forefront Security
Groove Server
Identity Integration Server (MIIS)
Internet Information Services (IIS)
Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server
Office Communications Server
Office System
Operations Manager
SQL Server 2005
SQL Server 2000
SharePoint Server
Systems Management Server (SMS)
Windows Mobile
Windows Rights Management Services (RMS)
Windows Server 2003 R2
Windows Server 2008
Windows SharePoint Services
Windows Small Business Server
Windows Vista

Microsoft Automotive is extending the Windows platform beyond the desktop computing. Check out this Ford Sync Demo at CES 2008. Ford Sync is an example of how Microsoft Automotive has extended the Windows CE 5.0 platform.

Microsoft offers a standalone version of the Device Emulator that shipped with Visual Studio 2005. You can install this and use to run and showcase device applications. The Microsoft Device Emulator 1.0 is a standalone version of the same ARM based Device Emulator that ships as part of Visual Studio 2005. The standalone emulator is intended for situations when you want to demonstrate or test your application on a computer that does not have Visual Studio 2005 installed.

The emulator download contains the Standalone Device Emulator as well as the Windows Mobile 5.0 with Messaging and Security Feature Pack (MSFP). The installation for Windows Mobile 5.0 MSFP depends on the Virtual Machine Network Driver (VMNet) being present on your machine, before it installs.

The emulator is supported on Windows XP SP2 and Windows Server 2003 SP1.

Click here to download the emulator.
Click here to download the VMNet driver.

Additional information and instructions are available from Microsoft.