| THE | E | LIST | N | EWS |
| by Mr. E | ||||
Does it seem that everyone who used to work for Windows Magazine has a newsletter these days? Well... personally, I’m rather glad for that. I enjoyed and appreciated the magazine back in the day, and am happy to see that the gathered talent is still finding its public voice. I read several of these newsletters regularly, including those by Mike Elgan, Fred Langa, and (when his was still coming out) the irrepressible John Woram. And, of course, Scot Finnie.
Scot was a hot newsletter dude back when most of the others were still working on ink and paper. He remains one of the most insightful commentators today for those really using Windows. This newsletter may not be named any more ingeniously than Langa List, Mike’s List, or, for that matter, The E-List (Woram, on the other hand, called his “Just Another Newsletter”), but the content is definitely original and engaging. Scot’s Newsletter, more or less combining Scot’s previous “Windows Insider” and “Broadband Report” newsletters, is possibly the most topical, practical newsletter of its kind that you can find today.
I decided to feature it right now because he just moved to a new location. The link above is current. He’s also making a number of improvements in form and content. If you aren’t a subscriber already, this is a terrific time to check it out. If you want, you can read the last half dozen issues right off the front page before deciding to sign up. Personally, I’d sign up. (Oh. I already did.)
Scot has been a long-time supporter of my site. In fact, I guess you could say he was the one who “discovered” the site when he made my primitive, early, crawling Windows Shutdown Troubleshooter the Link of the Week in the August 11, 1999 issue of his Win98 Insider. The site had only been up about a month, and we were still a month short of Microsoft releasing the Win98 SE shutdown patch. The Win98 SE shutdown bug was a hot topic. (Ah, dem wuz da days!) Over the years we’ve become friends as well. But neither of these is why I’m recommending his newsletter. (I think you know me better than that by now, don’t you?) I’m recommending it because I personally find every issue a compelling read. He has information. He has points of view. Most of the time we agree. Sometimes we don’t, and the email lines are set burning in the aftermath. But he usually makes me think, and he has a lot of common sense. Hands on. Stuff for people who use this stuff. Well worth the read.
Here are links to some of Scot’s prior articles that may catch your fancy:
Among the 700 or so Microsoft MVPs, one group that has forged an enthusiastic and dedicated team is those MVPs who specialize in Microsoft Word. Considering the popularity of the product (it is a mainstay of the contemporary American business world), this is a huge topic, and they have collated much of their collective expertise into a large FAQ — Frequently Asked Questions site — devoted to their favorite word processor.
Do you have questions about Word? After you have exhausted your poor Office Assistant and worn out the F1 key, I can think of no better place to go than this site, www.mvps.org/word/index.html. In addition to FAQs on a dozen separate question areas, it has tutorials, downloads, links, and other helpful tools. Definitely a site to check out, and to keep in your Favorites list!
While you’re at it (to toss in a backup Featured Site), take a look at WordSite.com MS-MVP Bill Coan’s site on optimizing your efficiency with MS Word. His motto: “Don’t just use Microsoft Word... put it to work for you!”
Larry Samuels, in this leading edge FAQ, has attempted to answer the most commonly asked questions about .NET Server 2003 — including those known answers that are known to work, but that aren’t officially supported!
It appears to be a well-done counterpoint to Microsoft’s official FAQ on the same subject. But, not being a Microsoft employee, Larry has more liberty to explore (without their liability concerns) answers that would never make it into an official FAQ. (This, by the way, is one of the things I like best about the rich informal support of newsgroups, forums, and Web sites — such as this one — that are independent of Microsoft. We can give you answers that MS technical support would never be permitted to give you. Truth be told, I’m pretty sure Microsoft likes that, too!)
Some of the links (at the bottom) are to Microsoft documentation that is only accessible to Beta tester’s with a valid user name and password. That means that many of you won’t be able to use those links, though they should be of considerable service to people actively involved in the Beta program, and possibly will open the door to more information availability to all users once the Beta is formally closed.
UPDATE: I’ve just learned that Microsoft probably will be incorporating Larry’s FAQ into their Windows .NET Server Customer Preview Program page. I guess that will make it “The Official Unofficial FAQ for Windows .NET Server 2003.” (These names just don’t get shorter, do they?) Larry is going to keep the original version hosted locally for a while to accomodate the hundreds of E-List News readers that already have visited his FAQ but, if you don’t find it there in the near future, look for TOUFFW.S2 at its new location. (It is also currently mirrored at http://compaac.homestead.com/files/wnetFAQ.htm because of the heavy traffic it’s already receiving.)