CRM 4.0

I finally came to the conclusion unaided that (with some limitations) Microsoft CRM 4.0 (or XRM if you like!) is a strong product that is almost overshadowed by the power of the Dynamics framework its built on. Runtime creation of entities and customisations. In built report builder and mail merge exports and integration with Outlook. Other than Javascript need I write tough code again?

Dynamics is pretty much limited only by Licencing and imagination. And for inspiration check out the accelerators on codeplex http://www.codeplex.com/crmaccelerators the events accelerator is soooo sweet!

Worms

Well Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty is out – and its pretty darned slick. As usual (since about version 8.04) it grabbed all the hardware on my two laptops straight away. Only issue was getting Skype for Linux to see the Logitec Pro 9000 webcam properly. I’m sure Pulseaudio was at the bottom of this (low volume on mic and playback!)

So seeing as my none work computing is worm free (and using opendns.org for that added extra! the worms outside in the wormery are the only ones I have to take care of. Now they are in their new home (can o worms) they are munching away through most of the cooking and other food waste each day. Kids are fascinated by them too. And remember folks only Red Worms (composting worms) do the job, not regular Earthworms!

CRM 4.0 Mail Merge

Dunce hat moment (or maybe not).

Spent a while selecting records for mail merge, going through the whole process without errors, yet no records appear at the end of the merge. After a while scratching head, checking through xml files, directory structures, changing permissions, looking at webserver logs theres a real obvious reason (after the event):

Make sure ‘Send Marketing Materials’ is ticked on the contact!

Priceless advertising – 100% none Photoshopped

Going to kep a lookout for more of these, no such thing as bad advertising I suppose!

Time to Dust of the lights

Well the darker mornings and the low blinding evening sun are upon us now in New Zealand. Time to dust of the bike lights and the ‘brights’. Be safe, seen and legal!

OK so why don’t they get a younger Pope or at least one that has life experience since the 1980s

In one year the Catholic church manages to divorce itself from accepting Itaian law (in case they make gay marriage legal), excommunicate a 12yr old rape victim and those that helped her have an abortion and reject the science that condoms help prevent the spead of HIV in developing and developed countries.

Now religiously I’m a fence sitter (There could be a greater God, a science project or a la Simpsons we are merely an atom in Homer’s armpit – I’m too dumb to know the answer!), but this just seems crazy beyond all belief. Surely the word of God can find more relevence in the 21st century. Or does the Vaticans vaults and luxuries remove you from the reality of real life?

Shake up or become the realm of loons and the home of the socially unacceptable

CRM 4 Import Error

Cam across an odd error when trying to import data from our Pre-Production to Production environment.
Steps:

• Load two custom entities where one of the entities is a ‘lookup’ for the other.
• Loaded the entities in the ‘correct order.
• Imported data into the first entity – OK
• Imported data into the second entity – Not OK
• The import didn’t come up as automatic, which meant that the data wouldn’t upload even if I did continue.

So some head scratching and wondering if I’d had a blonde mement along the way. So tried to add a new record into the entity manually. Which gives a ‘Query Builder Error. No attribute’ error on clicking the ‘New’ button. also the icons for the entity are missing.

After some rummaging around the import of the entity had not built the relationship between the two entities. Re-adding this relationship and re-publishing the entity fixes the problem.

The verdict is still out on whther I messed up along the way (not sure how!) or theres a glitch in the customisation import code in MS CRM.

The Avids getting better

After the first few rides the Avid BB7s have worn in a little. Great stopping power with good control. Getting the inner brake pad the right distance is the key to getting controlable braking. The tendany is to try and et the pad as close to the disk as possible without it rubbing, but this pretty nuch gives you on/of braking. Increase the distance a little and theres lots more control.

Finally given Folding@home the boot

After a long time (years) of contributing to F@H its finally been removed off my last machine(the PS3). Over the years its been runing on pc’s, laptops, Linux servers and more recently my PS3 for quite a while.

So why the change? Well I still agree with whats publically stated as the aim of F@H, but the majority of papers coming out of Standford have ben about the technology. Also though some will disagree (especially with the advent of cloud computing et al) I truely think theres better ways of doing the same research with less damage to the environment than having all these consumer machines crunching away at 100% eating up electricity. Today is the age of Server virtualisation, multiple ’servers’ running on one larger more efficient piece of hardware. The sums for the use of consumer Pc’s and consoles for crunching against the virtualised servers in my mind don’t add up any more.

So farewell Folding@home, may you find a breakthrough without breaking the planet…………….

Avid BB7 rock

Finally gave up on the front disk and ordered a pair of BB7s. Fairly straight forward to fit and burnt in quickly. Not had chance to try in the wet, but stop great in the dry. I like how much you can adjust the grab of the brakes without using tools. Got to be easier than mucking around with hydro brakes.