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Showing posts from June, 2004

Vacationing at Hoshiarpur

my holidays are coming to an end. holidays that are entirely spent at home.. i kept the resolution of not touching my computer during the entire holiday.. last but one day i have broken it.. taking some time to check out some of the mailboxes that are getting flooded.. the respite is i have not still checked my official mailbox.. i will be back in bangalore late night on June 27th.. joining office on June 28th.. the holiday was a relieving break and i am already feeling revitalised :) So what all did i do in vacations? 1. Went to Hoshiarpur, Punjab where my parents stay 2. Ate and Slept (pure luxury) and the loop kept repeating 3. Caught with few family friends 4. Enjoyed a 10 hour drive (one way) from Delhi and back with good roads and drive through the fields of Punjab 5. Had a severe stomach ache but still kept on gorging on food 6. Saw "Main Hoon Na" in the nice little home theatre at home 7. Played with children in the house 8. Went shopping with mom and sist

Installed XP SP RC2

Installed XP SP2 RC2 today! The install took more than an hour to download and install.. It went perfectly smooth. On to exploring the features of the service pack 2 RC2.. Here is an article that talks about the feature changes in XP SP2 RC2... A word of caution: XP SP2 RC2 will not be installed on the pirated copies of Windows XP. The official response - "SP2 will check the OS' product ID [PID] against a list of known pirated PIDs. If a PID is found to be invalid, SP2 will not install" The SP2 RTM is probably coming out in July/ August..

"IT doesn't matter", does it?

Well this is one thing that deserves its own entry. Bob McDowell at the induction impressed it well that this is one piece of article that is a MUST read.. we are talking about an article "IT Doesn't Matter" from Nicholas G. Carr published by Harvard Business Review. Looks like everybody who is anybody in the corporate world has read this. I need to read this as well. There are excerpts available on the internet. There is feedback on the article available at: http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/b02/en/files/misc/Web_Letters.pdf Will add comments of mine once i am done reading the same.

My Yahoo Accounts have been upgraded to 100 MB

It has BEGUN!! the speculation that Yahoo will be upgrading accounts to 100 MB is true.. out of 3 yahoo accounts i have, 2 have got upgraded to 100 MB.. Yahoo Mail also has a new interface :) Let's see what happens with MSN now.. MSN has been maintaining that 2 MB is all that is going to be there for Hotmail as a free service.. can they still maintain that?

Induction @ MS: Day 0

My first event blogging .. we arrived in afternoon around 1400 hrs (PST) and checked into the hotel - Residence Inn. On the plane, I had met Ashwini who was travelling on the same flight from Amesterdam. Laurent, a French guy from South of France was another MS101 attendee that i met while stil on the plane. Overlooking my window, i see "Hobby USA".. a place where i definitely want to be before i leave US. the good thing about the hotel is - Internet is FREE.. and the first thing i do when i arrive is connect my laptop to the internet.. the room is cosy complete with sofa and kitchenette.. i dream of having such a room for myself.. surfed a little and thought of taking a nap.. the 18 hrs of flight time began to take its toll.. i sleep around 4 hoping to be awake by 6 after which we could go to the nearest "hot" spot.. (i leave it to you to decide on the "hot spot" part).. 9:30.. the red numbers on the watch read... i am now awake and the chances of even g

Heuristic Spam Analysis

If you are using Exchange Server 2003, there is an add on available now called the "Exchange Intelligent Message Filter" that provides spam analysis and filtering based on href="http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2003/nov03/11-17spamfilter asp"> SmartScreen Technology from MSR. I got to know about this from Corti's Weblog . You have already seen this in action if you have seen the Outlook 2003 "Junk Email Folder" and also at hotmail.. :) Download the tool href="http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/downloads/2003/imf/default.asp">here

New community tools coming up

The cool new community tools being rolled out: 1. A new Web-based newsreader that will make perusing newsgroups easier. 2. "Smart components," which are dynamic Web-page elements that Microsoft plans to expose across the Microsoft.com community sites. (Examples of these components: a list of the 10 top downloads; the hottest newsgroup discussions; transcripts of the five most popular online chats.) Microsoft plans to make available to developers, customers and other interested parties these components in the form of RSS feeds. This feature will go live in late June. 3. A new "Chat 2.0" client that will allow users to participate in Microsoft online chats from inside their own corporate firewalls using port 80. This will be availale later this year. 4. Feedback sites from community for MS products like Longhorn, Windows Server etc. If you have some more cool ideas about the community tools, feel free to post it as a comment. -------------------------

Unravel the MS Product Support Mystery: Updated Support Policy

Starting June 1 2004, changes have been announced to the support policy for various products. In the new support policy, the support for most software (business and developer products) has been extended minimally to 10 years (5 years mainstream and 5 years extended) from 7 years (5 years mainstream and 2 years extended). However, support for consumer, hardware and multimedia products stay at 5 years. Mainstream products (e.g. Money, Encarta, Picture It) released annually are only supported for 3 years. Mainstream support includes all support including security updates and request for hotfixes. In the extended support phase, only paid support is available and no warranties are entertained. Self help support and Security updates are available by using KB articles and other resources throughout the mainstream and extended support timelines. For the newly available Service Packs, an older version is supported for 12 months (24 in special cases) with extended support automatic

I am not still a Private Pilot!!

I was up till 2:00 AM last night to get my private pilot license on Flight Simulator 2004!! Today morning i am still not one... the squeaky check ride instructor of Flight Simulator 2004 isn't convinced about my flying capabilities and keeps telling me that my rollout was too early or my airspeed was too high/low, altitude too high/low and the list goes on.. gave up after trying n times for the same.. i guess i keep improving each time i fail the checkride.. anybody got a suggestion? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Shape the future of the Microsoft products

Microsoft has been tilting towards getting more feedback from people recently.. this is visible from the fact that now we have "Community Preview" editions apart from RTM, RTW, IDW, Alpha, Beta etc. At various opportunities, people talk to me about bright ideas they have about a particular MS product. I could listen to them and forget in sometime if there is no interest from others! Not to say that the idea was bad but that the idea gets drowned in the noise that is ever present.. Now, people can contribute their ideas on various MS products whenever they want. So if you thought that your idea was never heard or was lost in the noise, submit your wish to Microsoft directly at: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;en-us;feedback ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Java guys - .NET just became simpler for you

The Java Developer Resource Center is a site created specifically for Java developers who are interested in learning to interoperate, evaluate and/or migrate to the .NET Framework. The Java Developer Resource Center is located at: http://msdn.microsoft.com/java/. Site contains: - Interoperate - What options are available for .NET and J2EE interoperability .NET and J2EE Platform 4-page interoperability poster - Samples Chapters from Simon’s .NET and J2EE Interoperability Toolkit - MSDN Interoperability resources - Evaluate - Learn or evaluate C# or J# and the .NET Framework - C# Language for Java Developers whitepaper - Visual Studio .NET 2003 Interactive Simulation - PAG patterns, tutorials, quickstarts, and other resources on GDN and MSDN - Migration - Migrate legacy Java assets to the .NET Framework - Java Language Conversion Assistant resources - Visual J# .NET resources - Java Virtual Machine migration resources -------------------------------

Port Reporter Tool

Tim Rains, PSS Security Team has developed a tool called Port Reporter that logs TCP and UDP port activity on Windows Systems. In his own words, this is the way that Port Reporter works: "When your system binds a new UDP port or accepts connections on a TCP port, it logs this activity in a text file. It runs as a service on Windows Server 2003, Windows XP, Windows 2000, and Windows NT 4.0. On our newer OSes (W2K3 and XP), this service logs what process is using each port, if the process is running as a service, and what modules (.dll, .drv, etc) the process has loaded. This information will help you determine if your system has been sending suspicious outbound packets or accepting traffic that you were unaware of." You can download the same from: http://support.microsoft.com/?id=837243 or ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

What are people thinking internationally

One of Indian MVPs sent me a mail on perspective of MVP nominations in countries outside India. Please find the post here . One of the MVP Leads comments about the question that people don't ask but always wonder: > I keep getting the feeling that something is expected of MVPs that we aren't being told about. "You were awarded based on your contributions over the past year. You don't have to do anything at all as far as program expectations go. Of course, if you want to get awarded the following year, you'll need to continue to contribute at a high level. We do provide you with as many opportunities (beta programs, conferences, and so forth) as we can, but you don't have to take us up on any of them. The only expectations that I, as the MVP Lead, have is that you conduct yourself in a professional manner. If you start slamming Microsoft or other MVPs, we'll have a conversation. That almost never happens in my happy little world. :-)"

Media Player 10 BETA is here

DAMN nice.. we have windows media player 10 BETA available now!! it is currently only supported on Windows XP :) 2 things stand out there: 1. New design and layout 2. Enhanced support enabled via Auto Sync. Some more new features: 1. Choice of Online Stores 2. Improved All-in-One Smart Jukebox The release notes are an excellent place to find out what is the significant difference for Media 10. For people willing to test this product, there is community feedback link right at the top! for people in India who have interest in digital music technology this is the right time to get ahead with Windows Media 10 and make a difference. Post a comment on this blog to let me about your interest in the digital music technology :) For developers, following SDKs are available: 1. Windows Media Player 10 Software Development Kit (beta version) 2. Windows Media Format 9.5 Software Development Kit (beta version) 3. Windows Media Rights Manager 10 Software Development Kit (b

List of All Indian MVPs Blogs

Anand M compiled a list of the Indian MVP Bloggers at the India Advocates Day . He has put up the list here . ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Threat Modelling tool from Microsoft

The Threat Modeling Tool allows users to create threat model documents for applications. It organizes relevant data points, such as entry points, assets, trust levels, data flow diagrams, threats, threat trees, and vulnerabilities into an easy-to-use tree-based view. The tool saves the document as XML, and will export to HTML and MHT using the included XSLTs, or a custom transform supplied by the user. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=62830f95-0e61-4f87-88a6-e7c663444ac1&displaylang=en ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

India Advocates Breakout - the things that got drowned in noise

Unique things we did (if anyone can find a repeat anywhere.. i will be compelled to take him/her out for a dinner :) 1. Hardware Pool: We got a hardware pool constituted of a Tablet PC, an XDA and 2 XBoxs. Created to bridge the gap between what is not available and what should be available. 2. MS Executive in attendance for 2 whole days: Shu Fen Cally Ko, Regional Director agreed to be with us at the event (even when it was a weekend) for the whole 2 days. She goes forward to the next country, Korea from here rather than Taiwan where she is based. 3. MS India Insider: Jas Gulati agreed to come over on a weekend to be with us. He has never worked with MVPs before, but the faith that they are *exceptional* got him here. 4. 3rd Party Perspective made available: It is always better to get a ringside view of things. Prof. Sadagopan, Director, IIIT graced the occasion with his presence to deliver a very valid value system. 5. A collaborative agenda: The agenda was fixed before

i feel GREAT!

i was going to talk about the UNIQUE things we did at the Advocates Breakout, in case it got drowned in the noise :) i will in the next post.. but this post i dedicate to the spirit of community that i only got to hear about, never saw or felt... i feel it now and i feel GREAT!! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.