#Outlook 2010 First impressions

OK, because of all the other projects in hand I ducked Office 2010 in beta, but last night left the in-place upgrade running.

So, impressions?

The first start of Outlook identified an addin that was not playing ball – fair enough, try once, it fails, stop it the next time, that’s fine.

But, an upgrade immediately after first start “Your mailbox is being optimised. Performance may be affected while this one time optimization is in progress”. Fair enough – but how about a progress indicator Microsoft?

Not happy 1

Whilst it has attempted to match my pane view, I find all my Public Folder Favourites that were shown in my favourite folders are missing.  FAIL.

Not Happy 2

Why has the sorting order on my folders changed?  I have an “Unread by Date” favourite.  So why is it now in “From” order.  There’s no need to do that, and no justification for doing that. The clue is in the name of the folder…

Not Happy 2

And what’s all this “updating server” nonsense once I am running and causing Outlook to hang?

And REALLY Not Happy 3

In previous versions there was a drop down combo box from which you could select unread or all messages (along with other options).  Whilst there is a filter button on the ribbon – this creates an unread search, throws you to the search tab on the ribbon, and is generally ‘orrible.  All I want to do is obscure read emails from the current view – it’s NOT A SEARCH!!!

Harrumph…

#Humax updates coming soon - more details here:

A software update for the PVR 9200T is coming soon - OTA dates can be found here- Humax's Facebook page

Update will be transmitted overnight so your unit should just find your unit is updated in the morning.  9150 and 9300 updates coming soon.

Bug fixes seem to be the order of the day – including the fix for units freezing (thank goodness).

Not a footie fan but...

But if you, your colleagues, your clients are going be change their work plans because of the Football World Cup, then then you might want to visit this page and download a
BBC Football World Cup Calendar

It's an Outlook calendar with all the matches, locations and channel information for the Football World Cup starting this week.

I've certainly a couple of clients who will become unavailable near matches, so will avoid calling them then!

#OFCOM - how to solve silent calls

OFCOM are still fussing about the problem of marketing companies generating more calls by computer than their staff can pick up. This leads to the silent call (or if you are lucky (!), a pre-recorded message).

The idea is to limit silent calls from any 1 firm to one domestic address to no more than 2 in a 24 hour period.

I've got a much simpler idea. Force all compute generated calls that are not immediately passed to a call centre staffer to play a short message to the recipient asking them to press # to prevent further calls. The called number then to be shared with all other companies performing the same nuisance within a week. As a bonus, the if you press * then you are added to the telephone preference service (http://www.tpsonline.org.uk/) system and will no longer get normal marketing calls.

This will allow the hassled homeowner (or sometimes frightened pensioner) to opt out of the problem, and force the marketing firms to properly resource their call centres, or accept that sometimes their hardworked staff might just get a break.