Due to the way Outlook 2003 interacts with Exchange 2010, if a user on outlook 2003 tries to open multiple shared calendars, they may receive an error:

The action could not be completed. The connection to the Microsoft Exchange Server is unavailable. Outlook must be online or connected to complete this action.

This is because outlook 2003 has to open multiple mapi connections to exchange 2010 for each calendar, and in doing so, hits the default limit of concurrent connections set in the default throttling policy (20). This problem occurs due to Outlook 2003 dependencies on reference Mailbox Database support, which is not supported in Exchange Server 2010. Outlook 2003 clients must now reference the Exchange Server 2010 Address Book service when they open shared calendars.

Usually, restarting outlook provides a temporary fix, but as more mapi connections are created, the limit is reached again.

Using Exchange Shell, I created a new throttling policy with a maximum of 40 concurrent connections.

To create a new policy:

  • New-ThrottlingPolicy <policyname> -RCAMaxConcurrency 40

Check the details of the policy:

  • get-throttlingpolicy <policyname>

Check the user has the default policy applied already:

  • Get-Mailbox -Identity <username> | fl

To apply it to a user:

  • set-mailbox -identity <username> -throttlingpolicy <policyname>

Then test opening multiple calendars.

There is actually a registry key that sets a limit on the Exchange Information store, at 32 connections, so without changing this, clients will still be limited in the number of calendars they can open, but it looks like 32 connections is enough to open 5-6 calendars.

If you were to change these registry keys, they are:

  • Maximum Allowed Sessions Per User
  • Maximum Allowed Service Sessions Per User

Read this fantastic article about managing IT professionals, by Jeff Ello at Computerworld.

Having been to a few shows and conferences recently, and acquiring a number of business cards that inevitably end up loose in my pocket, bag, or on my desk, I decided I’d better have a look for an iphone app that could read and OCR business cards and import the data into my contacts.

So, I downloaded and installed Worldcard mobile from the app store (£3.49), and tried it out.

worldcard mobile

It works pretty well, you fire it up and are presented with a screen where you can choose to photograph a business card, use an existing photo, or use copied text from an email signature (which is a nice addition). Using the taking a photo option then simply gives you a screen with some border edges to get the image straight, and you take the picture. You need fairly decent light for this, and if the business card is laminated, you’ll need to be careful to angle it so you don’t get any glare. If mistakes are made, you can easily correct them in the app itself.

With almost all business cards, it works superbly, reading the text accurately, and placing the data in the correct fields (mobile, email, name, etc). The only issues it seems to have is with particularly colourful and strangely designed business cards. Once you’ve pulled the data out, Worldcard mobile will export it into your contacts, or you can choose to update an existing contact.

Ultimately, a very useful app. The text recognition isn’t perfect, but is good enough in 90% of cases.

© 2012 Tom Geraghty Suffusion theme by Sayontan Sinha