when technology is a part of the whole!

Microsoft Photosynth takes the idea of photo stitching several steps further, by reconstructing the photographs in quasi-3D. Quasi because it doesn't build up a 3d model, but it lets you look around and does all the stitching in realtime. The best thing is that it has markers where all the photos were taken. It uses uploaded photos from various people and stitches them together to create a live photo panorama of the location e.g. different photos from different people of Qutab Minar can be stitched together to create a virtual tour. Next when someone uploads the Qutab Minar pic, it automatically calculates and assimilates the photo. This is the first release apparently from  Microsoft Live Labs’ . The actual application may be released in the near future around Oct 2006. This project is a result of cross group collaboration with the University of Washington , Microsoft Research , recent acquisition Seadragon Software , PIX , and Windows Live Local . The videos give a taste of t

What is Windows Live Mail Desktop? One place to see e-mail from multiple accounts? Even AOL and Gmail? That's exactly what you'll get when you download this zippy little program. It's an easy new way to keep track of your newsgroups and RSS feeds, too.   Features: · Junk and phishing protection · Support for RSS feeds · Photo email (share & publish your photos as slideshows to the internet!) · Blog it! · 3 pane view of email · Integration with Windows Live Messenger · Active Search · Multiple account aggregation · Instant Search · Free client access to your hotmail account · Lots more and with even more to come!   How to get it? 1. Go to http://ideas.live.com 2. Find the tile for “Windows Live Mail Desktop beta” 3. Click on “sign up” (if you’re NOT signed in with your Passport email address) 4. Click on “download” (if you ARE signed in with your Passport email address) 5. Walk through the beta agreement and accept. 6. Download and you’re done! 7. Be su

The Office Platforms Team has begun a new series of webcasts devoted to developing the new breed of applications for Microsoft Office System 2007 hosted by the experts themselves. These webcasts provide great depth on the massive amount of new features in Microsoft Office System and the great tools support built in and available through Visual Studio and the new VSTO tools. Air Time (Pacific Standard Time) Webcast Title Presenter 7/11/2006 10:00 AM Overview of Developer Technologies for Windows SharePoint Services Mike Ammerlaan 7/12/2006 10:00 AM ARCast: Hey Architects! Meet the 2007 Office System Ron Jacob 7/18/2006 10:00 AM Developing SharePoint Workflows Using Visual Studio 2005 Eilene Hao 7/19/2006 10:00 AM Designing Collaborative Business Processes with the 2007 Microsoft Office System Atanu Banerjee 8/8/2006 10:00 AM Introduction to Visual Studio Tools for the 2007 Microsoft Office System Eric Carter 8/9/2006 10:00 AM Integrating Your Solutions with the 2007 Microsoft O

What is Live QnA? Windows Live QnA  lets you ask any question and get the answers from people who have the answers you’re looking for. If you want to try that out, please leave a comment here and i would send you an invite. I only have 5 invites that are flying out FAST!!! I have a special preference for people who have used Yahoo Q&A as well :)

With evolution of MSN Services to Live, spaces can't be left behind. Live Spaces is just around the block, about to be released. For a preview of what's new, checkout: http://discoverspaces.live.com/ In sort, the story is enhanced photo sharing and social networking experience!

my experience is based on DNN 3.3.3 and on trying to figure out how to run a site faster on DNN.. i am running SQL Server 2005 Standard Edition SP1 and Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition SP1. my hardware is a dedicated machine running 1 GB RAM, P4 3.0 GHz and 120 GB HDD. Have also enabled IIS Compression http://www.24dnn.com/tabid/59/ctl/ArticleView/mid/404/articleId/10/Enabling-ISS-Compression-in-IIS6.aspx   First thing to make sure is that network, disk and CPU nos are running fine.. you can use Performance Monitor to see these nos.. Network: Avaialble Bandwidth CPU: % Processor Disk: % Disk Time   Initially my HDD was showing almost 100% disk time all the time. i had to request a hard disk change from my hoster (which they graciously did!)   the CPU utilization after hard disk change was almost running 100%. Some host level changes that I implemented: Turn off all schedules by Scheduler Mode to Disabled. Actually, the blocking schedule was for sea

Beta for Exchange Server 2007 is now available for download at: http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/preview/default.mspx

I recently installed SQL Sever 2005 (with SP1) on a server that is P4 3.0 GHz and does hyperthreading. After the installation SQL Server seems to take up 99% of all of the CPU. this was uncanny! I searched the net and came up with this: http://blogs.msdn.com/slavao/archive/2005/11/12/492110.aspx This is Slava Oks's WebLog  where he explains whether to do hythreading or not with the SQL Server 2005.

Microsoft has redesigned its corporate home page! It includes a new navigation system, functionality, and information architecture (IA). The BETA experience is being offered to a few people only who reach the MS website. If a customer agrees to participate and views the BETA beta home page, they will access the same version of the home page upon re-visit through the duration of the beta cycle.   You can view the beta home page at http://preview.microsoft.com/en/us/default.aspx

Webcasts by Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals (MVPs) Attend these LIVE Webcasts by experts from Microsoft and get on to the edge of the steep-learning curve. Participate in the Webcast Contest during the Webcast and 2 lucky winners will win a cool Orchid Music Player.  Watch Microsoft Experts all this July & August – LIVE. Register Now! Webcasts by Microsoft MVPs : July 24, 2006 - July 28, 2006 Date Topic July 24, 2006 Data integration in Excel (includes Office 2007) and how to incorporate it into your applications Speaker: Nitin Paranjape (Chairman & MD, Maestros Mediline Sys Ltd ) July 25, 2006 All about WCF “Indigo” Contracts Speaker: Manoj Ganapathi (Cognizant Technology Solutions) July 26, 2006 Get the Power of Microsoft Atlas to your Web Application. Speaker: Saurabh Verma (Co-founder & Chief Software Architect of "The Perfect Future") July 27,

Microsoft has acquired Winternals and that is an extremely useful acquisition! I have always wondered on why doesn't MS acquire such companies with great products and integrate them in the Windows suite.. this will greatly enhance the value of the operating system to the users. News on acquisition: http://www.nasdaq.com/aspxcontent/NewsStory.aspx?cpath=20060718\ACQPRN200607181100PR_NEWS_B_NWT_SF_SFTU040.htm Mark Russinovich wrote about this in his blog today too: http://www.sysinternals.com/Blog/

Our community server has been facing disk issues and is about to be replaced. I have backed up all the data by: Copying all the files manually Doing a Backup of the server using the backup utility of Windows Server 2003 One thing that i was wondering was how to backup the DNS? Two solutions came forth: In the backup utility also point to <system>/system32/dns http://blogger.xs4all.nl/zanstra/archive/2004/11/2... Let's see how my backup goes about!

Microsoft is making Virtual PC free. Anyone wishing to take advantage of hardware virtualization can now download Virtual PC 2004 SP1 for free from www.microsoft.com/virtualpc . This will also include the free download of Virtual PC 2007, with support for Windows Vista, in early 2007. In conjunction with the launch of Windows Vista Enterprise, customers who deploy Windows Vista Enterprise have access to an enhanced benefit: the ability to install up to four copies of the operating system in a virtual machine for a single user on a single device. This benefit, coupled with the free availability of Virtual PC provides Enterprise customers with the most economical means to address application compatibility and other scenarios using virtualization. Customers who do not deploy Window Vista Enterprise and wish to use the operating system in a virtual machine are required to purchase a license of Windows Vista for every copy installed in a virtual machine. Customers who deploy Windows Vist

ok.. i am back to blogging and back from a long hiatus that was brought about by travel, vacation and TechEd... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

The following are MEDC06 labs updated and published to the MSDN Library: Step by Step: Migrating an eMbedded Visual C++ Application to Visual Studio 2005 http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnppcgen/html/med303_msdn_migrate_evc_app_vs2k5.asp?frame=true Summary: Say goodbye to eMbedded Visual C++ and build a native Windows Mobile-based application by using Visual Studio 2005. This hands-on lab (HOL) will take one hour and 30 minutes to complete. Step by Step: Incorporating COM Objects into Your .NET Compact Framework 2.0 Application http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnnetcomp/html/med301_msdn_com_netcf2.asp?frame=true Summary: Learn how the Microsoft .NET Compact Framework version 2.0 enables you to more easily incorporate your existing native COM objects into your managed applications. This HOL will take 1 hour and 15 minutes to complete. Step by Step: Developing Multithreaded Applications with the .NET Compact Framework 2