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Several people who installed the Technical Preview of Microsoft Office 2010 noticed after 30 days activation will not succeed. This is related to the fact the activation servers of Office 2010 not yet are published via DNS, simply explained to the fact they don’t exist yet. How you can re-activate for another 30 days? I give you a brief procedure how to do it :

First you have to stop the service : Office Software Protection

Then run x:\Windows\System32\OSPPRUN.exe (x can be your C: or other driveletter you have installed windows on)

You will have a prompt.

Enter these command followed by an enter like shown below, go to next step

>Initialize (enter)

>Open (enter)

>GetInstalledSkuIds (enter)

   0. 128a057a-7e95-4063-b296-c54c5f3d3f3a (deze is het ID van Office 2010)

   1. 26adec89-edf3-4adc-a3fc-c865f1a9f71f

OK.

> GetInstalledAppIds 128a057a-7e95-4063-b296-c54c5f3d3f3a (enter)

   0. 59a52881-a989-479d-af46-f275c6370663

OK.

(You will get something that looks like this)

> GetLicensingStatus 59a52881-a989-479d-af46-f275c6370663 128a057a-7e95-4063-b296-c54c5f3d3f3a (enter)

SkuId            = 128a057a-7e95-4063-b296-c54c5f3d3f3a

eStatus          = SL_LICENSING_STATUS_IN_GRACE_PERIOD

dwGraceTime      = 1D 23:37

dwTotalGraceDays = 30 days

hrReason         = 4004F00C

qwExpiration     = 2010/10/31

OK.

(What you are now going to do is set AppID and SkuID for Office 2010 to enable again 30 days before activation. That gives you another 30 days to test. Mostly the IDs are the same, if not please copy and use yours

> Rearm 59a52881-a989-479d-af46-f275c6370663 128a057a-7e95-4063-b296-c54c5f3d3f3a 1 (enter)

OK.

>close (enter)

>Initialize (enter)

>open (enter)

You can enter the command below to check out how many days you have left (See dwGraceTime): 

> GetLicensingStatus 59a52881-a989-479d-af46-f275c6370663 128a057a-7e95-4063-b296-c54c5f3d3f3a (enter)

SkuId            = 128a057a-7e95-4063-b296-c54c5f3d3f3a

eStatus          = SL_LICENSING_STATUS_IN_GRACE_PERIOD

dwGraceTime      = 29D 23:37

dwTotalGraceDays = 30 days

hrReason         = 4004F00C

qwExpiration     = 2010/10/31

>quit (enter)

You are able to use it again for 30 days. Have a lot of fun with testing Microsoft Office 2010…

Coming year will be a good one for ICT.

Look what for beautiful things are coming soon :

Windows 7 (replacing Vista)
Office 2010 (replacing 2007)
Windows Mobile 6.5 (replacing 6.1)

Bing (new engine for their search solution) (replacing msn live search)

Microsoft is really active in 2009 to prepare everyone to a good ending of 2009 and start of 2010.

Grab these opportunities. These new applications have nice features and create opportunities.

Today it’s common that people use so much specific terms that a regular user does not understand it anymore, even people who consider themselve as expert are getting every day terms which they don’t understand.

Technical terms are commonly being used by sales persons as if it’s normal everybody would understand it. In a lot of cases the sales persons use the terms in the wrong context. I’m going to give you an example of someone who was going to buy a new LCD TV together with a friend who was not an expert but knew more than the buyer. You can see that communication between the sales person, the buyer (the user) and the assistant (friend, helper) important is.

The friend went with him to buy the LCD TV and asked the simple question: What do you want? The answer was : minimal 42″. They went to the shop and this is what them is told :

1. “Do you want FullHD or HDReady?”
2. “Do you need HDMI and how many?”
3. “Do you need any component connections?”
4. “Do you want to view Digital broadcasts?”
5. “Do you want plasma or LCD?”

The answers on these questions were easy :”What is that?”

The salesperson gives answers but the buyer and the assistant are overwhelmed in the more complex technical terms than the initial question. Instead of making it more clear it’s now not understandable for both. For every unknown term there are now 2 unknown term added.

1. It’s easy, FullHD has 1920×1080 pixels and HDReady has 1280×720
   (buyer ask himself what those numbers are and what the heck pixels are)
2. HDMI is a new connection which is based on DVI but with integrated sound, but also better than component
   (they wonder what DVI is, what about the sound and what is component)
3. Component provide better quality than a scart-connection
   (scart connection, sounds familiar, component not, they don’t know if their equipment has component connections or not)
4. Digital broadcasting is more clear than your current television broadcast.
   (This will confuse the people. Can I see my ‘old’ channels? But HD is better, why do I need digital broadcasting?)
5. The biggest difference is that plasma has a better refresh rate than LCD.
   (the what? refresh rate… ahhh ofcourse (now you lost them completely)

What you see is that the sales person what to show-off with his knowlegde. The buyer does not come to the shop for this. He/she wants to buy a new good television. The assistant does not say he also doesn’t understand the half of the terms and is going to say ‘yes’ on some sentences to not look dumb.

The same happens every day as a new ICT project is started. What the customer wants should be communicated with the customer on the level he/she understands.

You could use explain those complex terms in easy language without technical terms. Instead of saying ”1920×1080 pixels” it’s maybe more clear to say ”4-5x sharper image”.

Try to speak clearly to the customer. Nobody is well served by someone who his ego is so big that he wants to show-off with complicated term, nobody is served with that. Clear and easy is the way to go.