Interesting: Viruses modeled in 3-D for the “Infected Art” exhibit (pictures)
Interesting Links March 27th, 2008
I had promised myself I would keep this blog strictly on CRM, but in this case I couldn’t resist sharing this with you.
I stumbled across this article in Valleywag.com regarding a fascinating exhibit called “Infected Art” at the Varnish Fine Art Gallery in San Francisco.
According to Valleywag.com:
The works represent what worms, virus and spam attacks such as Storm, MyDoom and Netsky look like when put through a “computational art” algorithm.
Each of these infamous malwares are represented uniquely. I’m curious how the artist(s) tweaked an “art algorithm” to process these images, but I’ll allow them their artistic licenses.
After clicking on the “Read More” link, you can:
- Click on the thumbnails to see the full resolution.
- Click on the name of each malware to see the Wikipedia article.
Tags: Fine Art, Interesting Links, MyDoom, Netsky, San Francisco, Storm, Viruses, Wallpapers
Internet Explorer 8 Beta and CRM 4.0
Developer, Downloads, Support March 19th, 2008
Note: if you’re looking for compatibility
information with Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2,
check out this post link here.
Internet Explorer 8 Beta has recently made some news among the web developer community because it renders the Acid2 test correctly. While it may appear to be a simple test (one big yellow smiley face), it’s actually quite an achievement for Microsoft. As the MSDN IEBlog states: “Acid2 is one test of how modern browsers work with some specific features across several different web standards.”
Now, if you’ve been wondering how Internet Explorer 8 Beta interacts with CRM, it’s your lucky day! As your willing guinea pig, I’ll give you the play by play.
- First I downloaded the IE8 Beta setup file, which can be found at this link if you’re interested. Be sure to download the correct version for your OS (ie. XP, Vista or Server)
- The actual installation took about 10 minutes, then prompted me for a reboot. No issues during the install, so far so good.
- After coming back from a fresh reboot, I double clicked on my IE icon.
- Looks like IE 8 Beta doesn’t play well with my Internet Explorer Developer Toolbar! I got the prompt below which took me to this KB article. IE 8 Beta automatically disabled it, so luckily I’m not missing it too much right now.
- Now, on to the CRM 4.0 website! To my dismay I get an “Unsupported Security Settings” error message (screenshot below).
- Per the instructions, I took a look at the ActiveX Security settings in the Internet Options section but they looked fine to me.
- I closed IE8 Beta and decided to uninstall IE Developer Toolbar under “Add/Remove Programs” in the Control Panel. I’m sure there will be a compatible update soon enough, after IE8 goes RTM.
- I then fired up IE8 Beta, browsed to the CRM site and voila… my CRM admin control panel came up instantly!
Final Note:
In case you were wondering how it looks like, see below for my Acid2 test screenshot.
Tags: Acid2 test, Developer Toolbar, installation, Internet Explorer 8 Beta
CRM 3.0: Update Rollup 3 ready to download (KB 935364)
Administrator, CRM 3.0, Downloads, General Users, Links, Support March 18th, 2008
Thanks to Larry’s Taco Talk, I was informed this morning that the latest Update Rollup for Dynamics CRM 3.0 was released today! Great for those who haven’t taken the plunge yet with CRM 4.0… despite the many reasons one should! 
According to the description:
Update Rollup 3 is a tested, cumulative set of updates for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 Server and Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 client for Outlook, including performance enhancements, that are packaged together for easy deployment.
There are two separate downloads:
- CRM Server update – CRM3.0-KB935364-v2-Server-ENU.exe (6MB)
- CRM Outlook Client update – CRM3.0-KB935364-v2-Client-ENU.exe (10.2MB)
Check out the link for the full KB article summary and download links.
Update Rollup 3 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 (KB 935364)
Tags: CRM 3.0, download, KB article, Support, Update Rollup 3
Heads up, Administrators! Known issues with CRM 4.0 on Windows Server 2008
Administrator, Links, Support March 10th, 2008
Microsoft Support recently released a knowledge base article outlining a list of known issues that have come up with Dynamics CRM 4.0 on Microsoft Server 2008. So if you’re thinking about upgrading your server soon, be sure to check out this article link first!
Microsoft Support KB article #950100
Description:
This article describes the support for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 on Windows Server 2008-based computers.
Known Issues:
- Error message when you try to open the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0
- Web application: “Problems with this Web page might prevent it from being displayed properly or functioning properly”
- Error message when you install Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0: “ActionMicrosoft.Crm.Setup.Server.EnableCompressionAction failed”
- Error message when you try to open the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Web application: “HTTP Error 401.2 – Unauthorized”
- Error message when you install an SPLA or an IFD of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0: “An invalid IP address was specified”
- Error message when you view the User Summary report in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0: “An error occurred during rendering of the report. Unable to cast object of type ‘Microsoft.ReportingServices.ReportRendering.Calendars’ to type ‘System.String’”
- Error message when you try to install the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Server on Windows Server 2008: “Internet Information Services (IIS) 7 along with IIS 6 Compatibility Components must be installed on Windows Server 2008″
- An error message occurs when you install Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0: “System.Exception: ActionMicrosoft.Crm.Setup.Server.ConfigureAspNetAccountAction failed. System.ComponentModel.Win32Exception: The group name could not be found”
- Error message in the EDW: “Failure: An address incompatible with the requested protocol was used”
Tags: Knowledge base Article, Microsoft Support, Windows Server 2008
For the Developer: New Software Development Kit (SDK) release for CRM 4.0
Developer, Downloads, Links March 7th, 2008
The Microsoft Dynamics CRM Team Blog announced the release of the newest SDK, version 4.03!
Version 4.0.3 of the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 SDK is now available for download!
This version contains lots of great new information, including the 1st phase of the Report Writers Guide and a vastly improved Plug-in registration tool.
Also included in this release:
- A full sample showing how to create a Custom Workflow Activity that sends an e-mail alert if the close date on an opportunity has changed by more than 10 days.
- New sample code showing how to export the site map and ISV configuration using the API.
- A description and pointer to the Utility code used in the samples.
- A new sample that demonstrates how to retrieve a list of messages and entities that support Plug-ins. The output of this sample is included, in both the CHM and in an Excel spreadsheet.
- Many additions to reference topics.
The online version of the SDK will be available soon, so check back to the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Developer Center next week.
Thanks guys!
Tags: development, download, programming, SDK, SQL Reporting Services
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