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Release 2.0 Offers Significant New Functionality and Ease of Customization With Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services at Its Foundation, Helping Organizations Centralize Employee Access to Information and Tasks

Microsoft Business Solutions today announced the availability of Microsoft® Business Solutions Business Portal 2.0. Integrated with Microsoft Business Solutions--Great Plains® and Microsoft Business Solutions--Solomon business applications, the new release will help organizations further extend their financial management solutions, providing opportunities for greater business information- and process-sharing for all employees.

The major enhancement to Microsoft Business Portal 2.0 is the adoption of Windows® SharePoint (TM) Services as its foundation, meaning Microsoft Business Portal can now offer SharePoint Web Parts such as document libraries, calendars, announcements and others to record activities, share and edit documents, track meeting notes, and provide links to other relevant sites. In addition, SharePoint Web Parts created by other developers can be deployed through Microsoft Business Portal 2.0, dramatically increasing the range of information and services that can be delivered through the portal.

News source: Microsoft PressPass

Dave arrived and set his laptop up, an IBM ThinkPad A31. He didn't connect to the Internet - too dangerous, and against regulations, if I recall - but instead ran his presentation software using movies and videos where others would have actually gone online to demonstrate their points. While he was getting everything ready, I took a look at the first FBI agent I could remember meeting in person.

Dave had some surprises up his sleeve as well. You'll remember that I said he was using a ThinkPad (running Windows!). I asked him about that, and he told us that many of the computer security folks back at FBI HQ use Macs running OS X, since those machines can do just about anything: run software for Mac, Unix, or Windows, using either a GUI or the command line. And they're secure out of the box. In the field, however, they don't have as much money to spend, so they have to stretch their dollars by buying WinTel-based hardware. Are you listening, Apple? The FBI wants to buy your stuff. Talk to them!

Dave also had a great quotation for us: "If you're a bad guy and you want to frustrate law enforcement, use a Mac." Basically, police and government agencies know what to do with seized Windows machines. They can recover whatever information they want, with tools that they've used countless times. The same holds true, but to a lesser degree, for Unix-based machines. But Macs evidently stymie most law enforcement personnel. They just don't know how to recover data on them. So what do they do? By and large, law enforcement personnel in American end up sending impounded Macs needing data recovery to the acknowledged North American Mac experts: the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Evidently the Mounties have built up a knowledge and technique for Mac forensics that is second to none.

(I hope I'm not helping increase the number of sales Apple has to drug traffickers.)