Like I said – it all depends on your hosting provider. My blogs use 1and1, and I experienced this issue with my admin pages (<blog url>/wp-admin/) only. After about 30 minutes of spinning wheels, I discovered that there was an issue where the new WordPress admin pages were using PHP5 and the server was not set up to use PHP5.

All I had to do was add the following lines to my .htaccess file, located in the root of my blog’s file system, and everything started working like a charm.

Options All -Indexes

AddType x-mapp-php5 .php

AddHandler x-mapp-php5 .php

First things first, I love Gmail and can’t stand working with e-mail in anything other than the thread view now.  I will admit that it was originally a little painful, but only because I fear change and I am, as I briefly intimated in the prior paragraph, an idiot of the highest order…or perhaps “lowest order” is the appropriate turn of phrase in this instance.  Zoho mail takes this to the next level by enabling the user to expand and collapse threads on the main Inbox page, which is the goods…and one of the reasons why there will probably be a future blog post entitled “How I Migrated From Gmail to Zoho”.

OK – back to the geeks at Google saving my bacon.  I was trying to accomplish something that should be very simple to do without looking like an idiot…sending an e-mail with an attachment.  Here is an except from the body of the e-mail.  Notice the part that I have underlined.

So, I finished typing the message, and being of questionable intelligence, I clicked the “Send” button without actually attaching the ZIP file I referenced in the e-mail.  Gmail told me, in a very unobtrusive and non-condescending way, that I may have been an idiot, or at least committed an act of questionable intelligence.  Here is what I saw next on my screen.

I clicked “Cancel”, attached the file as originally intended, and clicked “Send” once again.

This kind of simple solution to a simple problem is what makes the difference between products that people love and products that make people mad…kind of like how my being self-aware enough to know I am an idiot makes me somehow higher up the evolutionary curve than a baboon…although if the lyric genius Danny Alexander is to be believed, I might just be on pretty solid footing with my fellow humans as well.

“I know I’m stupid so I must be smarter than you…”   — D. Alexander

If you are like me and do a lot of demos, especially ones that are running within a virtual environment (Virtual PC, VMWare Server, etc.) you have probably struggled with the best way to demonstrate the e-mail capabilities of whatever you are going to demo.  In my case, Microsoft SharePoint is what I am trying to show, and although there are a few integration touch points only present in Microsoft Exchange, it is a resource hog and kind of a pain to install and maintain, especially if you are not an Exchange administrator.

Enter AXIGEN mail server.  First things first, I have never played around with the “pay” versions of AXIGEN, but according to their web site, the free “Office Edition” is essentially their full-featured product, with a restriction of 5 users and 1 domain…more than enough for a small office, or a demo VPC or VM.

On their web site, they claim that you will have a 10-minute install, which is true…although if you are going to install and use their Active Directory extension, you can probably add another 5 minutes or so.  All told, the very first time I used it, it took around 20 minutes from the time I started the download until I was up and running, with integration to my Windows Server 2003 Domain (Active Directory) and robust full-featured web mail running on a custom port of my choosing.  The second time I set it up, it took me all of 6 or 7 minutes, start to finish.

I have not played around with AXIGEN versions for any other operating system than Windows, but if my experience on Windows is typical of how it works on other operating systems, then you should have nothing to worry about.

I cannot say enough positive things about this little product.  In fact, some time in the next few months, Mack is going to start bringing a lot of his stuff “in house”, as in having a home office with one or 2 “server class” machines, getting a block of static IP addresses, and starting to do a lot of my own hosting for certain domains that I manage, including e-mail.  After my first exposure to AXIGEN, Microsoft would probably have to pay me to install and use Exchange.

Feel free to download the product and try it out yourself.  You will NOT be disappointed.

http://www.axigen.com

One more thing I would be remiss if I did not mention – it installs and runs on non-server Windows operating systems as well.  Couple AXIGEN with Bamboo Solutions’ WssOnVista, and I can do a full-featured demo within my host operating system, instead of even worrying about Virtual PC or VM Ware.  Now THAT’S something worth telling people about!

So, those of you that are subscribed to the RSS feed, watch your e-mail on Friday evenings from now on for some good content. 

After some research, we were able to determine that one of the Project Server databases had those users checked out to a fictitious users (0000-000000-0000), instead of one of the two normal values, NULL or an actual GUID representing the user that had that record checked out.

We are currently working on a long-term fix, but the quickest way we found to fix the problem immediately was running a simple SQL Query against the Project Server_Production database.

Go to the MSP_RESOURCES table and then run the following SQL:

UPDATE MSP_RESOURCES

SET RES_CHECKOUTBY = NULL

WHERE RES_CHECKOUTBY IS NOT NULL

Once I have an update on how to fix this long-term, I will repost…

After much cajoling and gentle prodding, I have finally decided to enter the blogosphere. I will try to make a little time once in a while to chime in with my two cents about something or other.

Here are the things that are keeping my interest these days, and as such comprise the list of most likely future blog topics:

• SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007
• Excel Services
• Forms Services
• Sports
• My kids and my feeble attempts at parenting
• Bowhunting

Please check back often or subscribe to my RSS feed.

Thanks for stopping by!

-Marley’s and Seamus’s Dad

• My Days - I am an independent Microsoft Information Worker Architect, delivering Microsoft SharePoint and Business Intelligence solutions throughout the northern Midwest.  You can find my company online at:  www.theportalgroup.biz.  You can also find my off-site SharePoint support concept at: www.sharepointsupport.com.

• My Nights - I enjoy, in the following order:
  • being a husband to my perfect wife
  • being a father to my even more perfect children
  • coding…really, I do…call me a glutton
  • Xbox 360
  • Woodworking

• My Weekends – mostly more of the same things I do in the evening, with the following
  sprinkled in:
  • Golf
  • Bowhunting for Indiana Whitetail Deer

• My Education – I am a West Point graduate who takes pride in often hearing the words “I never would have figured you for a West Pointer”…I can think of no better compliment