Channel 10

Techfest 2010: Mobile Surface

Larry Larsen — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 20:17:00 GMT

Every year at TechFest, Microsoft employees (and a few invited guests) get to take a look at some of the projects out of Microsoft Research. These aren't finished products--you'll see a lot of exposed wires and tape--and in fact, they may never become completed products at all, but each project shows what we're thinking--and maybe where we're going.

This year I met with a team from MSR Asia who have constructed what they hope will eventually be a pico-projector portable computer, and in this project you can see inspiration from Microsoft Surface and Second Light. The possibility I like best about this is the ability to touch your games while still seeing what is there. Additionally, if you use physical controls on apps, such as knobs, you can actually paint labels on the controls themselves.

HP MediaSmart Home Servers Link up with Tivo

Sarah Perez — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 19:33:00 GMT

HP just announced a partnership with home DVR system maker Tivo which allows MediaSmart Home Servers to connect with Tivo devices. The connection will be made by way of a free WHS add-in that lets you manage your recordings via the WHS console. The benefit for Tivo users is obvious: you can now record all the shows and movies you want without worrying about running out of space. Well, I suppose that you could, in theory, run out of room, but since the servers come with either 1 TB or 1.5 TB hard drives plus 3 available expansion bays, it would certainly take some time before you’re maxed out.

In addition to the extra storage, MediaSmart owners can watch the recorded shows on either a PC, Mac or TV by way of the Home Server’s remote streaming option.

XNA Game Studio 4.0 to Support New Windows Phone

Sarah Perez — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 19:33:00 GMT

Game developers attending GDC this week will get a first look at the latest version of the XNA toolkit – XNA Game Studio 4.0 – which provides the technology to create games for Xbox 360, Windows, and now, the Windows Phone 7 Series. Shawn Hargreaves posted on his blog about what’s new with this latest release:

New platform
- Windows Phone 7 Series
New features
- Integrates with Visual Studio 2010
- Dynamic audio output
- Microphone input
- BasicEffect has four new siblings
  - SkinnedEffect
  - EnvironmentMapEffect
  - DualTextureEffect
  - AlphaTestEffect
Improved portability and usability
- Collapsed graphics caps into just two profile levels: Reach and HiDef
- Many graphics API improvements
- This involves some breaking API changes
- Split Microsoft.Xna.Framework.dll into several assemblies, to make it more obvious which pieces are available on each platform

Michael Klucher also added a few answers to some people’s “burning questions,” noting “yes, we have hardware accelerated 3D API’s on Windows Phone 7 Series. Yes, we have Visual Studio 2010 integration with our toolset. We’ve even added buffered audio support to the Audio API’s that many of you have asked for.”

You can find out more about XNA news on the XNA Creators Club Online.

Sobees' Windows App Gets a Makeover

Sarah Perez — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 19:32:00 GMT

Sobees’ desktop Twitter client, a native app built using .NET technology, has just been updated with a fresh design and built-in real-time search, reports TechCrunch. The updated application looks a lot like competitor TweetDeck with its columnar interface, but it offers a few differences.

Llike TweetDeck, Sobees supports Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn in addition to Twitter. However, unlike TweetDeck, Sobees lets you drag and drop columns in order to reorganize them in the client’s layout. You can also preview tweets, translate them, view threaded conversations, and preview Twitpics within the app.

Also new in this version is the addition of real-time search which lets you search OneRiot, Twitter, FriendFeed, and FacteryLabs all at once.

You can get the new client app from the Sobees website here: http://www.sobees.com.

Use Windows Live Writer with Posterous

Sarah Perez — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 19:32:00 GMT

I just came across a great tip for Posterous bloggers on the LifeRocks blog. If you’re among those who prefer Posterous’s simplified blogging platform over the more complex options from Moveable Type, Wordpress and the like, you’ll be happy to know that you can use Windows Live Writer to post to Posterous.

Now why would you want to do that considering that Posterous is already one of the easiest platforms to publish to? Well, maybe you want to send the same post to both your traditional blog or website and your Posterous blog at the same time. If you create the post in WLW, that’s possible. You would just write the post once, publish it to one site, then switch blogs to publish it a second time to the other site. Or maybe you just prefer WLW’s interface over anything else (I know I do!).

In order to support Posertous publishing, you’ll need to grab the Writerous plugin from Codeplex. Once installed, you access the new settings via Tools –> Options –> Writerous from WLW’s main menu. Here, you’ll have to provide your Posterous login info and site name (the latter if you maintain more than one Posterous blog). You can also configure your Posterous posts to autopost to Twitter and Facebook, too, by checking the box next to that option.

For more details on how to configure and use the plugin, check out the project’s page here.

Bing Announces Earth Day Contest

Sarah Perez — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 19:32:00 GMT

Bing is kicking off another photo contest where the winner gets to decorate the Bing.com homepage with their winning image. This time around, though, the contest is limited to students only. To celebrate the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, the winning photo will grace the homepage on April 22nd (Earth Day). To qualify, the students must be in the United States as this is a regional contest.

Besides the grand prize, the top winners from four age groups (ages 5-10, 11-13, 14-17 and 18+) will also win a trip to Microsoft where they get to participate in a Bing editorial meeting where they pick future homepage images. All winners will also receive equipment from HP and Canon. Specifically, HP will be providing the winners with HP Pavilion desktops and a monitor.

In addition to the contest participants, those voting on the images can win, too. From April 13th to the 19th, Bing will give a $5.00 GivingCard for DonorsChoose.org to the first 20,000 people who vote each day. This money can be spent on classroom projects (like math, science, art, reading) at local schools. In total, Bing will donate up to $100,000 a day to help schools across the U.S.

You can find out more about the contest, its requirements, and the submission information here: http://earthdayphotocontest.com.

Pivot Demoed at TED

Sarah Perez — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 19:00:00 GMT

At the recent TED Conference, Gary Flake, a Technical Fellow and founder of Live Lab, demonstrated Pivot as can be seen in the video available here. This new technology, launched at last year’s PDC, lets you browse and manipulate images and data using Seadragon technology. It’s primarily meant to be a visualization tool for discovering patterns and insights by viewing datasets as thumbnail images. The visualization is done via the web using Silverlight, as opposed to using a software program installed on your computer’s hard drive.

In the demo, Flake showed how Pivot could be used to browse a magazine’s archives, Wikipedia, and even your own web browser’s search history. If you have five minutes to spare, the TED video is definitely worth a look.

Microsoft Demos Game Playing on Windows Phone 7 Series, Xbox, and PC

Sarah Perez — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 19:00:00 GMT

At TechEd Middle East, Microsoft's Eric Rudder showed the potential of Windows Phone 7 Series when he demoed a game that could run on the mobile phone, Windows PCs, and the Xbox 360. The game, in this case Indiana Jones, was created using Visual Studio which allows developers to share 90% of the game’s code across the three platforms: Xbox, Windows, and Windows Phone 7. The additional 10% of the code changes required are to implement features unique to each platform – like touch sensitivity and accelerometer support for phones or mouse support on PCs, for example.

What’s even more amazing, perhaps, than the cross-platform support was that Rudder was able to continue playing his game on the Xbox from where he left off on the mobile device. Amazing!

You can see a video of Rudder’s demo here.

Zune HD Facebook App Lets You Share Songs for Live Streaming

Sarah Perez — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 19:00:00 GMT

After a bit of a false start on Monday, the Zune HD Facebook application was relaunched on Wednesday and is now available for installation via the Zune desktop software. As you may expect, the app offers the typical Facebook features: a News Feed, the ability to post status updates, view photos, check out your friends’ profiles, and more. Plus, as PocketNow discovered, the phone offers a cool Zune-specific feature: it lets you post an update about the music you’re currently listening to. The app creates a link to the album and song and automatically posts a picture of the album art along with whatever text you input in your status update. When your friends click the link you shared on Facebook, they can stream the song right in their web browser via Zune.net.

You can see a video of the app in action here.

Microsoft and the Cloud: The Highlights from Ballmer's Speech

Sarah Perez — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 19:31:00 GMT

In case you missed it, Steve Ballmer spoke on Thursday about Microsoft and the company’s vision for its cloud services to a group of students from the University of Washington’s Department of Computer Science and Engineering. If you missed the speech, you can go watch it here on the Windows Team Blog.

However, if you just want the highlights, we’ve got you covered:

The New Website

A site dedicated to Microsoft’s Cloud Services launched at http://www.microsoft.com/cloud/

The Stats

70% of Microsoft’s workforce is working on cloud computing or cloud-related activities
Next year, that will be 90%
Windows Live ID’s identity and authentication system has 460 million users

The 5 Bullet Points

The Cloud creates opportunities and responsibilities: This made me think of the Spider-Man quote, “with great power comes great responsibility.” But that’s kind of what he meant. As SeattlePi summarized, “The industry must strike a balance between the immense power of cloud computing and the privacy concerns that go along with it…As a result of this interconnectedness and the cloud's relative ease of use, the ‘creators,’ as he called them, have all the power. ‘For the creator to have the opportunity to build a strong business,’ Ballmer said.
The cloud learns and helps you learn, decide and take action. Here he talked about how the cloud needs to learn in order to improve. The idea of machine learning was touched on.
The Cloud enhances social and professional interactions. No surprise here: social networks like Facebook, Xbox Live, and Twitter are big cloud businesses. Ballmer also mentioned how Office was moving to the cloud with Office 2010 and the Office Web Apps that arrive with it.
The cloud wants smarter devices. Here Ballmer talked about the 3 screens: TV, PC, mobile. The PC is represented by Windows, the TV is connected to Xbox and the mobile is now Windows Phone 7 Series – a device “really designed for the cloud.”
The cloud drives server advances that drive the cloud. As cloud technology advances, so will the server technology that supports the cloud. Things like scaling, rapid deployment, peak load, virtualization, and next gen servers were discussed. A containerized data center was shown – it actually sat outside the Allen Center where the talk was held. Inside the shipping container were servers, cooling systems and cabling.

A Round-Up of the Latest Outlook Add-ons

Sarah Perez — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 19:31:00 GMT

Microsoft Outlook is one of the top email software programs in the world, but there’s no email program out there that can protect you from the information overload of a busy inbox. Although Outlook has several great built-in features for managing your messages, appointments, contacts and tasks, it’s still easy to get overwhelmed. Luckily for us, there are a ton of Outlook add-ons that can help.

Some of the more recent add-ons integrate social networks into your inbox for a bit of social CRM while others focus on more advanced search and organizational tools.

Below are some of the more recent ones I’ve come across.

(One caveat: I haven’t used all of these in the list below myself. However, the ones I have used in the past – Lookeen, Xobni, and ClearContext – all worked well.)

NEO Pro 4.1 (www.emailorganizer.com) - Automatically manages your inbox and catalogs all email messages using virtual folder structure to significantly reduce email overload and boost overall productivity – with no manual upkeep, clicking, or dragging to folders.

Lookeen (www.lookeen.net) - Provides a fast search for all things in Outlook.

Xobni (www.xobni.com) - Helps find emails, conversations, contact info & attachments faster while integrating social networks and email analytics features.

ClearContext Professional (www.clearcontext.com) - Keeps messages organized by suggesting the right folders to instantly file messages and conversations with one-click.

Chilibase for Outlook (www.chilibase.net) - Easily search and track all contacts and conversation threads.

RedCritter (www.redcritter.com) - Plugs documents, tweets, messages, maps and more — all related to the message you are currently viewing — into Outlook.

SimpyFile (www.techhit.com) - Turns filing Outlook messages into a one-click action and suggesting the correct target folder.

Auto-Mate (www.pergenex.com) - Applies flexible rules to your Outlook folders periodically, automatically organizing your mail in the manner of a personal assistant.

Advanced Folders Watch (http://www.mapilab.com/outlook/folders_watch/) - Monitors new mail messages and posts appearing in Microsoft Outook folders and public folders on Microsoft Exchange Server.

E-mail Follow-Up (www.mapilab.com/outlook/email_followup/) - Reminds you if an email you sent did not receive a reply after a certain time, thus requiring a follow-up email.

Olympic Photosynths

Sarah Perez — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 19:31:00 GMT

Over on the Photosynth blog, they’ve rounded up the top contributions from users who submitted Photosynth’d collections from the recent Winter Olympics. Over the past several weeks, there have been over 40 different synths from the games added to the online gallery, including contributions from the following synthers:

Rick, beatnavy, fjcwhistler, siblog, cgsguy2, Mooseboys, MidnightFrog, rieskame, erickoo, BDsynth,Onyxmoon63, singalittlesong, kriskrug, GaryGlanz, brad_dennis, bal, jessica.glago, neilbl, msnbc.com,jimcseke, Lit, aeolien

(Click through on any of their names to see their Photosynth submissions.)

The top synths – aka the “most viewed” – included those featuring the sports themselves like luge, skating, curling, and skiing in addition to synths from Vancouver and those from other major events like the torch lighting, for example.

You can see some of these favorite synths in the image below:

For more Olympic action, head to the Photosynth site and search for Olympics.

Windows Phone 7 Series Themes for 6.5 Devices

Sarah Perez — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 19:31:00 GMT

The announcement about the next version of Windows Mobile Phones – Windows Phone 7 Series – has inspired some developers to create (unofficial) themes for their Windows Mobile 6.5 phones. Right now, Jaxbot on the XDA-Developers forum is working on a theme that resembles Windows Phone 7 Series’ new UI. So far, he’s been able to make a homescreen and lock screen with live tiles for SMS, mail, and weather. You can also set phone, text, Outlook, and People to a certain app, see upcoming appointments on the lock screen, and launch programs.

However, this theme is in alpha and has some issues that are still being addressed. The known issues include occasionally sluggish animations, problems with kinetic scrolling, and unlock problems.

Another developer, LeSScro, also from XDA-developers, has been working on a WP7S-inspired theme for WisBar Advance Desktop 2.x, the software program that lets you replace your existing Today screen and more. This theme offers time, data, and notifications on the lock screen, profile settings, transitional animation, hubs for games, media, and Office, and an apps launcher.

You can see a video of the first theme here and the second one here.

(via Engadget)

Office Intervention: The Opera Episode - Part One

Tina Wood — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 17:59:00 GMT

The Seattle Opera needs organizational help and our Office Intervention Team is there to help with SharePoint in hand. This is Part One which helps set up the story and talks about the issues the Seattle Opera experiences and Part Two will tackle the problem. What's great about the Office Intervention series is that it takes real life scenarios. For more information on Office and Office Intervention this is a great place to get started. To watch this video on the Office site and for more info Click here.

The History of Microsoft - 1985

Tina Wood — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 14:42:00 GMT

For Microsoft, 1985 brings the announcement of the release of Microsoft MacEnhancer expansion system, the Microsoft Mouse is quarantined in Canada and Microsoft celebrates its 10th Anniversary. There's some great footage of the 1985 Roast in this episode.

Previous Episodes:
The History of Microsoft - 1975
The History of Microsoft - 1976
The History of Microsoft - 1977
The History of Microsoft - 1978
The History of Microsoft - 1979
The History of Microsoft - 1980
The History of Microsoft - 1981
The History of Microsoft - 1982
The History of Microsoft - 1983
The History of Microsoft - 1984

January 23, 1985
Microsoft announces the release of Microsoft MacEnhancer expansion system, a new hardware product designed to open up the Apple Macintosh computer to a wide range of IBM compatible peripherals.

February 1, 1985
Ida Cole is named the new Vice President of Applications, responsible for planning, development, and marketing for the application software product line. She will report to Jon Shirley, President. She was previously with Apple Computer, Inc..

May 3, 1985

Microsoft Mouse Quarantined in Canada
Rich MacIntosh, General Manager of Microsoft Canada, Inc., was recently called to the Canadian Department of Agriculture to retrieve his Microsoft "Mouse" after four weeks of quarantine.

August 9, 1985
Microsoft announces that Wright Runstad & Company breaks ground today on a new Microsoft World Headquarters in Redmond scheduled for completion by mid-1986. The $25 million facility will be located in the southeast quadrant of Evergreen Place Office Park, in a heavily wooded, 29-acre campus setting.

August 12, 1985

Microsoft celebrates its 10th anniversary with sales figures of $140 million for the fiscal year of 1985.

August 22, 1985

Microsoft signs an agreement with IBM for joint development of operating systems and other systems software products.

September 3, 1985

Microsoft selects the Republic of Ireland as the site of its first production facility outside the U.S. for software products to be sold in the European market.

September 30, 1985
Microsoft announces the shipment to retail stores of Excel for the Macintosh, a powerful, full-featured microcomputer spreadsheet that combines business graphics with an on-sheet database.

November 20, 1985

Microsoft ships the retail version of Windows, an operating system that extends the features of the MS-DOS.

Other products released in 1985:

MS-DOS 3.2, Chart for Macintosh, Microsoft Access 1.0 (business communication app, not database), Cobol 2.1, MacEnhancer 2.0, Basic 2.1 Interpreter for the Mac, Chart 2.0 for DOS, Word for Networks, QuickBasic Compiler, LOGO for the Mac,

Notable New Hires:

Jeremy Butler - Former Senior Vice President, International and OEM.;Tony Dirksen - Former Senior Manager, Investor Relations;Ralf Harteneck - Former Vice President, Communication and Meeting Services Group;Min S. Yee - Former Vice President and Publisher of Microsoft Press.

Other 1985:

· Gaming: Tetris is written by Russian Alexey Pazhitnov.

· Internet: The Domain Name System (DNS) is created. Symbolics.com is the first domain registered, followed shortly by cmu.edu, purdue.edu, and others.

· Storage: The CD-ROM format is created by Phillips, in collaboration with Sony.

· USSR: Mikhail Gorbachev becomes general secretary of the Communist Party on the death of Chernenko.

· Exploration: The wreck of the Titanic is discovered after 73 years.

· Music: All-star Live Aid concerts in Philadelphia and London raise almost $250 million for African famine relief.

· Drugs: Crack cocaine begins hitting the streets of New York, setting off a drug epidemic.

· TV: Top-rated shows include The Cosby Show, Family Ties, and Murder She Wrote. MacGyver, Moonlighting, and Golden Girls premiere. Economy: The US becomes a debtor nation for first time since 1914.

· The King: The U.S. Postal Service issues an Elvis Presley commemorative stamp, which sells a record-breaking 500 million.

· Comics: Bill Watterson’s Calvin and Hobbes premieres in the nation’s newspapers.

· Terrorism: Palestinian terrorists hijack the Italian liner Achille Lauro, killing one hostage. US Navy jets later force down the terrorists’ getaway plane in Sicily.

· Reagan: Public outrage accompanies President Reagan on his visit to a * military cemetery at Bitburg, Germany.

· Rock: Rock Hudson dies of AIDS.

· The Real Thing?: Coca-Cola introduces New Coke in one of the biggest marketing disasters of the 20^th century.

· Greenpeace: French intelligence officers bomb and sink Greenpeace’s Rainbow Warrior in the harbor of Auckland, New Zealand. The boat was protesting French nuclear testing.

· Soccer Disaster: The main stand at Bradford City Football Ground in Northern England catches fire, killing 40 and injuring more than 170.

· Movies: Top grossing movies of the year include Out of Africa, Back to the Future, Rambo, and The Color Purple. Out of Africa also nets Oscars for Best Movie and Best Director (Sydney Pollack). Best Actor is William Hurt in Kiss of the Spider Woman, Best Actress is Geraldine Page in Trip to Bountiful.

Bing Autosuggest Now Pulls from History

Sarah Perez — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 19:22:00 GMT

Bing has just launched improvements to its autosuggest functionality. When you start typing in the search box on Bing.com, the autosuggest function – which previously just suggested words and phrases based on popular searches – now prompts you with words and phrases from your own search history, too. According to a post on the Bing Search Blog, this change was made because many search tasks span multiple search sessions that last for days or even weeks. In fact, they found that 44% of non-navigational search sessions last longer than 1 week. In other words, a lot of the things you search for, you’re going to search for again. And again and again and again. By providing those searches to you just a click away, you can get to the info you need faster.

To differentiate your queries from the other autosuggestions (is that a word?), your items will appear in purple – the same color as a previously visited link. The other search suggestions appear in blue as always.

Of course, if you don’t want your searches appearing here, you can simply switch your History off using the “Manage History” option. Alternately, you can use IE8’s private browsing mode to make sure nothing is recorded.

The History of Microsoft - 1984

Tina Wood — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:51:00 GMT

For Microsoft, 1984 means a partnership with Apple, Microsoft Press Introduces its first two titles and we create a new Hardware and Peripherals Division dedicated to developing and marketing hardware products.

1984 Revenue/Headcount

The 1984 Fiscal year-end sales total $97,479,000. The 1984 fiscal Year employee headcount totals 860 people.

January 24, 1984
Microsoft and Apple Computer announce the new Apple Macintosh computer and Microsoft's custom-designed productivity software for the new computer. Macintosh's interface, combined with Microsoft’s software: Multiplan, Chart, Word, File, and BASIC provides a powerful and functional environment for all users.

March 4, 1984

Microsoft joins forces with Spectravideo and four Japanese firms to establish a hardware/software compatibility standard based on the popular Z80® 8-bit microcomputer. The standard, called MSX, was announced on June 15, 1983 and made available a new set of standard specifications so diverse software programs would be compatible with low-cost home computers from different manufacturers. MSX was developed primarily for the Japanese market as the first unified format in Japan for software or hardware. It was never adapted for sale in the U.S.

March 22, 1984

Microsoft Press introduces its first two titles: Cary Lu's "The Apple Macintosh Book” and Peter Norton's "Exploring the IBM PCjr Home Computer."

March 29, 1984

Microsoft creates a new Hardware and Peripherals Division dedicated to developing and marketing hardware products that complement Microsoft's software product line.

August 14, 1984

IBM chooses XENIX and MS-DOS for its new generation personal computer, the IBM PC AT.

September 9, 1984
Microsoft schedules a meeting with Redmond city officials to discuss relocating the company to the Evergreen Place development in 1985.

September 24, 1984

Francis J. Gaudette joins Microsoft as vice president of Finance and Administration.

Other products released in 1984: Project 1.0, Multiplan for Mac 1.0, Chart 1.01, Serial Mouse 2.5, SoftCard II, PCJr Booster w/Mouse, Pascal 3.2, Fortran 3.2, C Compiler 2.0

Notable New Hires: Charles Stevens - Corporate Vice President, Enterprise & Partner Group (EPG);Rich Macintosh - Former vice president of Sales and Support, U.S. Sales;Marty Taucher - Former senior group marketing manager for Microsoft's Consumer Division.;Joe Vetter - Former vice president of the Western U.S. and South Pacific Regions;

Other 1984:

· Winter Olympics: At the Sarajevo Olympics, twin brothers Phil and Steve Mahre took first and second place in the slalom, while Torvill & Dean earned perfect scores and a gold medal for their ice dance to Ravel’s “Bolero.”

· Bhopal: A gas leak at a Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India killed over 3,000.

· Nobel: South African Bishop Desmond Tutu won the Nobel Peace Prize.

· Housing: The average price of a new single-family home broke six figures.

· Beirut: The U.S. withdrew its Marines from Beirut following terrorist bombing.

· Presidential Election: Reagan defeated Mondale and won reelection by a landslide 59 percent, carrying 49 states.

· Music: Top hits included Michael Jackson's Thriller, Prince's Purple Rain, Bruce Springsteen's Born in the U.S.A, Ray Parker Jr.’s “Ghostbusters,” Tina Turner’s “What’s Love Got to Do with It,” and Kenny Loggins’ “Footloose.”

· VCRs: The Supreme Court okays home TV recording in its ruling on the Sony case.

· Medicine: Baby Fae received a transplanted baboon heart.

· Summer Olympics: The Los Angeles Olympics featured record-setting performances from Americans Carl Lewis, Joan Benoit, and Mary Lou Retton and were a commercial success despite being boycotted by the Soviet Union.

· Hong Kong: Britain agreed to return Hong Kong to China in 1997.

· Nuclear protests: The Diablo Canyon nuclear reactor in California went online despite protests.

· Internet: By year-end, 1,000 hosts were on the Internet. In 2003, there were over 170 million.

· TV: Sitcoms Kate & Allie and The Cosby Show premiered, to both critical and popular acclaim. Other top shows included Dallas, Dynasty, The A-Team, and Simon & Simon.

· Tennis: McEnroe bested Connors at Wimbledon, while Navratilova topped Evert Lloyd.

· New Orleans World's Fair: Although a financial failure, the fair did result in a large riverside park which opened up access to the Mississippi.

· Oscars: Amadeus won Oscars for best picture, actor (F. Murray Abraham), and director (Milos Forman). Best actress award went to Sally Field for Places in the Heart.

Geosense for Windows

Sarah Perez — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 17:23:00 GMT

Popular bloggers Long Zheng of iStartedSomething and Rafeal Rivera of Within Windows joined forces to create a Windows 7 sensor driver that connects the location platform of Windows 7 with geolocation service providers. The new tool, called Geosense for Windows, is now available for download from both of their websites (click links above).

As Zheng noted on his blog, Windows 7 offers a built-in location platform and accompanying API which allows third-party developers to build location-aware native apps. However, the way the platform was designed, it required OEMs to first ship GPS-enabled laptops before developers could take advantage of this feature. The Geosense application is essentially a workaround for that limitation as it provides a way to connection the location platform in Windows with various geolocation providers. The providers match and triangulate known cell towers and wireless access points to estimate latitude and longitude.

By offering Geosense for Windows for free, Zheng and Rivera have made Windows 7 location-aware and they hope that third-party developers will take advantage of this to create new applications for the platform.

HP's New Business-Ready Slate

Sarah Perez — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 17:23:00 GMT

HP just announced their new line of business-ready computers called the “EliteBooks.” These multitouch-enabled PCs come with Windows 7 Professional pre-installed and allow for input and navigation with either a keyboard, or, in the case of the EliteBook 2740p tablet, a stylus or your fingers. The EliteBook 2540p is similar, but without it’s sibling’s swivel screen. It’s also the lightest of the two, weighing only 3.3 lbs.

Both EliteBooks come with the following:

reinforced glass 12.1 inch 1280x800 LED screen – you can choose to opt for a less reflective screen for easier outdoor use, too
a range of Intel Core i5 and i7 processor options
a 6-cell lithium ion battery which provides 5 hours of use and you can optionally add a supplemental battery for 11 hours of use
stainless steel finish and magnesium casing
an optional easily portable expansion bay which functions like a laptop dock where additional ports, hard drive bays and an optical drive are available
military-grade resistance to high temperatures, dust, vibration, and altitude
HP’s DriveGuard technology

The 2740p tablet starts at $1599 and the EliteBook 2540p starts at $1099. Both will be available next month.

NASA Pathfinder Innovation Challenge

Larry Larsen — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 17:22:00 GMT

At the PDC last year, you may have seen that NASA and Microsoft made a number of announcements. New data APIs in Codename Dallas, a Silverlight+ASP.NET MVC 2 site on Azure...but did you realize they also launched a programming competition?

NASA has hundreds of thousands of images from their missions to Mars, and with the Pathfinder Innovation Challenge, they want to enlist your coding skills to help classify them. This is a unique opportunity where you can help NASA and win some great prizes by utilizing your existing .NET skills.

The Pathfinder Innovation Challenge consists of four different “leagues." In the Global Cooperation League, you’ll build casual games, which will allow every day citizens to help classify images in a game environment (similar to the counting craters application that can be found online here: http://beamartian.jpl.nasa.gov/maproom), and you'll do so using Silverlight and NASA's Azure-hosted APIs in codename Dallas. In the Intelligence League, you’ll use the power of the Azure cloud to attempt to solve the same problem by programmatically examining and classifying the images.

Full details for the competition can be found on their website at http://beamartian.jpl.nasa.gov/pic. Details specific to the Global Cooperation League are available at http://beamartian.jpl.nasa.gov/pic/coop-league and details for the Intelligence League can be found at http://beamartian.jpl.nasa.gov/pic/intelligence-league. Also, be sure to check out the intelligence league site for a series of “How Do I?” videos, which demonstrate how to sign up for and use the Codename Dallas API.

In addition to helping mankind and being able to brag that your code was helping NASA, PIC winners will also win amazing prizes, including NASA swag, ZuneHDs, and trips to see the launch of the next Mars Rover.

Augmented Reality Comes to Silverlight

Sarah Perez — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 17:20:00 GMT

The ARToolkit, a library of tools for creating augmented reality applications, has just been ported to Silverlight. The SLARToolkit, as it’s called, is hosted over on Codeplex where it and its source code are available for download. Available features in the SLARToolkit include direct Support for Silverlight's CaptureSource, multiple marker detection, simple black square markers, real-time performance and more. It also uses the Matrix3DEx library.

While the above feature list may mean something to application developers, what it means for consumers is that we’ll soon start seeing augmented reality applications developed using the Silverlight platform. These apps will be able to take advantage of your computer’s webcam to launch “augmented reality” applications – that is, those that use technologies like computer vision and object recognition, for example.

There are already two sample apps available on Codeplex, one being a 3D game called Balder and the other a sample that uses Silverlight's 3D projection capabilities. To run these samples, you’ll need a webcam and at least the Silverlight 4 runtime. For more information on this toolkit, check out the documentation.

(via ReadWriteWeb and Channel 9)

Facebook for Windows Mobile Touchscreen Arrives

Sarah Perez — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 14:20:00 GMT

Remember a few days ago when we blogged about the updated Facebook application for Windows Mobile? At that time, the app was only available for standard edition phones - that is, those without touchscreens. Now, touchscreen users have an updated app too. According to reports from Unwired, the touch client, Facebook Mobile 1.2, introduces features like the ability to like and comment, read and respond to friend requests, view and write wall posts, message your friends and other users, update your profile picture, upload photos and videos directly from the phone, and call your friends’ using their Facebook phone numbers. You’re also able to share your Facebook activity with the Windows Live service, too.

At the moment, the new version is only available in the U.S. Mobile Marketplace, but users in other countries can switch to “world view” to download the app.

Outlook PST Spec Released

Sarah Perez — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 14:19:00 GMT

Back in October of last year, Microsoft announced plans to release the documentation for the PST file format – the file where your Outlook email, calendar, and contact data is stored on a PC. The documentation was to be released under Microsoft’s Open Specification format, said the blog post, which means that anyone could implement the .pst file format “on any platform and in any tool, without concerns about patents, and without the need to contact Microsoft in any way.”

Now that documentation has been made publicly available. On MSDN, anyone can read through all the details about the PST Structure Specification, including all the data structures it uses, examples, considerations, data algorithms, and product behavior.

Armed with this info, developers will be able to interoperate with PST data in both server and client scenarios on the platform of their choice. You can access the full spec details here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff387869.aspx.

The History of Microsoft - 1983

Tina Wood — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 03:15:00 GMT

For Microsoft, 1983 means the end of an era with the resignation of Paul Allen, the introduction of MS - DOS 2.0 and the formation of Microsoft Press, a trade-book publishing division specializing in computer books.

The History of Microsoft - 1982

1983 Timeline

February 18, 1983

Paul Allen resigns as Microsoft's executive vice president, but remains on the Board of Directors.

March 9, 1983

Microsoft introduces MS-DOS 2.0.

May 2, 1983

Microsoft introduces the Microsoft Mouse, a low-cost, handheld pointing device for use with the IBM PC as well as any other MS-DOS-based personal computer.

August 1, 1983
The assets of Wiser Laboratories Pty, Ltd. of Australia, the local distributor of Microsoft products, are acquired. With the establishment of this subsidiary, Microsoft obtains a direct distribution network into the region. All of Wiser's employees will be retained, and the firm will stay at its existing address. This is considered the company’s first acquisition.

September 29, 1983

Microsoft ships it’s full-featured word processing program, Word for MS-DOS 1.00 and provides a free demonstration copy to subscribers of The PC World Software Review.

November 3, 1983
Microsoft Press, a trade-book publishing division specializing in computer books, is formed. Nahum Stiskin is named General Manager and Publisher. The primary marketing focus is the business professional, with secondary emphasis on the hobbyist, home, and education markets. Microsoft Press expects to publish 30 to 35 books in its first year.

November 10, 1983

Microsoft unveils Windows, an extension of the MS-DOS operating system that provides a graphical operating environment. Windows features a window management capability that allows a user to view unrelated application programs simultaneously. It also provides the capability to transfer data from one application program to another. Windows wouldn’t actually ship until 2 years later.

December 1, 1983
The first international subsidiaries to connect to Microsoft e-mail are in Europe: Microsoft Ltd. in the U.K., Microsoft Sarl in France, and Microsoft G.m.b.H. in Germany.

Other products released in 1983: BASIC Interpreter 1.0, Multi-Tool Budget 1.0, Microsoft Multiplan 1.1, Microsoft Sort

Notable new hires: Jon Shirley - Former Microsoft president, chief operating officer, and director; Joachim Kempin - Former senior vice president of Microsoft's OEM Division;Mike Slade -Former product manager, helped products such as Excel and Works to become household names and managed the entire line of Mac products;Pete Higgins - Former group vice president of the Interactive Media Group and member of the Office of the President;Raymond B. "Buck" Ferguson - Former senior director of Investor and Shareholder Relations;Bernard Vergnes - Chairman Emeritus of Microsoft EMEA.

Other 1983:

· World Population: 4.690 billion

· Nobel Peace Prize: Lech Walesa (Poland)

· U.S. Statistics: President- Ronald W. Reagan; Vice President - George Bush; Population -233,791,994; Life expectancy - 74.6 years

· First Artificial Heart: A permanent artificial heart was implanted in a human for first time. The operation was performed on Dr. Barney B. Clark, 61, at University of Utah Medical Center in Salt Lake City.

· First Woman In Space: Sally K. Ride, 32, is the first US woman astronaut in space as a crew member aboard space shuttle Challenger.

· Academy Awards: Best Picture - Terms of Endearment, James L. Brooks, producer (Paramount); Best Actor - Robert Duvall, Tender Mercies; Best Actress - Shirley MacLaine, Terms of Endearment; Director - James L. Brooks, Terms of Endearment.

· Nobel Prize for Literature: William Golding (UK)

· Song of the Year: "Always on My Mind," Johnny Christopher, Mark James and Wayne Carson, songwriters

· Record of the Year: "Rosanna," Toto

· Major Movies of the Time: The Big Chill, Terms of Endearment, Fanny & Alexander, The Right Stuff

· M*A*S*H: More than 125 million viewers tune in to the last episode of M*A*S*H.

· Birth of Cell Phones: The FCC authorizes Motorola to begin testing cellular phone service in Chicago.

· New Camera Technology: Kodak produces 8 million disc cameras during the first year of production.

· The Pope: Pope John Paul II signs new Roman Catholic code incorporating changes brought about by Second Vatican Council.

· World Series: Baltimore d. Philadelphia Phillies (4-1)

· Wimbledon: Women - Martina Navratilova d. A. Jaeger (6-0 6-3); Men - John McEnroe d. C. Lewis (6-2 6-2 6-2)

· War: U.S. forces invade island of Grenada, disposing the Marxist regime there

· Median Household Income(current dollars): $20,885

· Cost of a first-class stamp: $0.20

· Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: The Color Purple, Alice Walker

· Pulitzer Prize for Music: Three Movements for Orchestra, Ellen T. Zwilich

Windows Easy Transfer Tool Tip: Back Up Windows Live Writer

Sarah Perez — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 13:28:00 GMT

Over the weekend, I had the fun experience of reinstalling Windows 7 – no, I’m not being sarcastic, I’m a geek, I like doing things like this. For one thing, a fresh install lets me pare down the number of applications I’ve crammed onto the machine to just the essentials. And despite my move to the cloud for many things, I’m always surprised at the number of desktop programs I still use. (For example, Windows Live tools like Messenger and Live Writer, Adobe Photoshop and Reader, FileZilla for FTP uploads, Microsoft Office, and Skype just to name a few.

Anyway, after backing up the essentials (files, photos, music, videos, and my user account) via the included Windows Easy Transfer tool, it occurred to me that I needed to back up my Windows Live Writer settings too. This led me to the free software program called Windows Live Writer Backup. I thought I had used this in the past successfully, but this time around the program just hung. It looks like the current version was released back in the summer of last year, so maybe it just needs an update? (It’s open source, guys, so have at it!).

Since I couldn’t automate the process with the tool, I took a couple of screenshots of my settings and moved on. After reinstalling Windows, re-downloading my favorite programs and re-running the Easy Transfer tool to restore my files and other settings, I launched Windows Live Writer. I was prepared to reconfigure my settings using the saved screenshots, but - low-and-behold! - they were already there! I guess the Easy Transfer tool grabbed them too. How nice!

If you’re preparing to reinstall Windows (and users of the Release Candidate like I was – this means you!), I thought you’d be grateful to know about this little tip. It certainly made my experience easier and hopefully will help you too.