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Showing posts from November, 2006

Popular Choice: Which Camera to buy?

Most of us already have a digital camera. So those of you looking for one or those looking for replacement camera, here is a good resource put out by Flickr called Camera Finder. Well one can now put your hands where your mouth is. So here is the best camera in each category: Overall: Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT Point & Shoot (this is the consumer category): Canon PowerShot SD400 Cameraphone: Sony Ericsson K750i The above rating is based on the no of people using the camera and uploading pictures in Flickr.   Technorati tags: technology , hardware , camera

Indian Indipodcast Scenario

Well here is little of indipodcasts that i have come to know about: http://www.podmasti.com/  - Mostly bollywood http://www.theindicast.com/  - Mostly economic issues   My thought about the podcasts is that they are totally non-professional. While i agree that these guys are first in the podcast scene the quality they are churning out is utterly ridiculous. why would you want to listen to them when inthe conversation you hear heavily accented language (hindi/ english/ mumbaiya)? hevay breathing and an occasional knock on the microphone is just another icing on the cake. So my advice to the podcasters, especially professional ones is: Get professional quality equipment. Bad equipment doesn't help Get some speaker training.. make the podcast pleasant to hear. In still nascent world of podcasting in India, there is already a beginning. Let's make the beginning a good start!

Microsoft beats Oracle in security showdown

Microsoft is beating Oracle hands down with the security of its database, according to a new report. Microsoft patched 59 vulnerabilities in its SQL Server 7, 2000 and 2005 databases during the period, while Oracle issued 233 patches for software flaws in its Oracle 8, 9 and 10g databases. read more  |  digg story

Windows PowerShell Released

Windows PowerShell (Microsoft’s new command line scripting and administration too) has officially RTW’d.  Most people that are familiar with both PowerShell and the Unix command say that PowerShell far surpasses any shell available on Unix. http://windowsvistablog.com/blogs/windowsvista/archive/2006/11/14/it-forum-day-one-windows-vista-and-windows-powershell.aspx http://blogs.msdn.com/powershell/archive/2006/11/14/windows-powershell-1-0-released.aspx http://www.leeholmes.com/blog/DownloadTheOfficialWindowsPowerShell10Release.aspx

MS Office Live leaves BETA and is released

Office Live had been in BETA for sometime for US market. It has now been released there. Officially, it still has to be released for India even though it is an online service. Office Live is targeted towards small businesses and offers them hosting combined with email and other small applications that they might need for day to day business. Nearly 200,000 have already participated in the Office Live beta and over 100 partners will be building solutions on this platform.  Office Live is a set of web-based products built to help small businesses attract and retain customers -- and ultimately grow -- by providing a business domain and company-branded e-mail, Web site hosting and easy-to-use design tools, and online tools and Workspaces to help manage their business and share with others.  Please visit the Office Live site to see these three great service offerings, ranging from free (yes, FREE) to $40 per month.  CNBC has a story on it at"   CNBC news story

Finding the newsletter solution

For Community Server , there doesn't seem to be a feature for sending a newsletter to only subscribed members. Here is a simple solution from JO Eriksson  on designing a simple opt out newsletter scheme for Community Server installation. Now the only thing while i was implementing it for Community Server 2.1 (Standard Edition) was that the Stored procedure (meant for migrating existing users into the role) produced in the post wasn't working for me. Appears there was a schema change in CS 2.1. I have modified the SP to work with CS 2.1 as follows:   CREATE TABLE #NewRole ( [UserId] [uniqueidentifier] NOT NULL , [RoleId] [uniqueidentifier] ) INSERT INTO #NewRole (UserID) select userid from aspnet_Users where userid not in ( select aspnet_users.userid from aspnet_UsersInRoles inner join aspnet_users on aspnet_Users.UserId = aspnet_UsersInRoles.UserId where aspnet_UsersInRoles.RoleId = 'bb497bc8-d18a-4244-8b1b-8aaa80dc974d' ) UPDATE #NewRole SET RoleID = 'bb497bc8

TCO: 'Cause decisions are driven by logic

It doesn't make sense to talk about TCO (Windows vs Linux) for any other country when your business is operating in India. So, how does Total Cost of ownership (TCO) look  like when your company is located in India and you are going to be deploying a large solution. Linux deplyoment is 15.9% MORE EXPENSIVE than Windows in India. this data has been provided by Frost & Sullivan and independently verified by Cap Gemini. Some interesting factiods about the study: Software cost is just about 6.8% of the TCO; Hardware constitutes about 46% of the TCO TCO of Linux is greater than that of Windows 2003 server by 15.9%   - Training cost are 60% higher on Linux servers than Windows 2003     server. Downtime costs on Linux servers are 25% higher than Windows 2003.   - Linux environments exhibit 30% higher soft costs than Windows 2003     server environments. TCO of Linux is greater than that of Windows across 3 workloads that account for nearly 80% of x86 servers   - Application

Being at IndiMix 06

the IndiMix 06 is all it promised and more. IMHO, MS has moved away from the regular "boring" event patterns of the past. the event this time has a very professional look - from badges to the notebooks. what is outstanding is the amount of AV that is being now used. wonderful opening videos, introduction videos and questions from people from across India. the event started with a larger than life presence of Steve Ballmer (i know people thought that SteveB was not going to be there at the event). his focus was primarly on the Live platform. the panel discussion was amazing that followed. The panelists were: Anil Kumble Shaadi.com CEO CEO - NDTV Online Hungama.com CEO GM, MSN India The questions were answered very well and i took a jab of the entreprenuership from there. And did I mention that there were XBOX 360s present at the venue for FIRST HAND EXPERIENCE! The meeting with MVPs is a high point for me (including Satheesh whom I met for the very first time!).. some notes wi

Microsoft Vista is Released

After releasing Office 2007, Microsoft has now made Vista available to market. The build no. of the RTM is 6000.16386. Some amazing facts on the journey to Windows Vista: Windows Vista will be available in over 100 languages. Windows Vista will have more than 50% more device drivers inbox at RTM than Windows XP had, plus thousands more will be on Windows Update before general availability. This means more devices just work on Plug and Play. Windows Vista is the first Microsoft product that has incorporated the Secure Development Lifecycle from the beginning There were already around 60,000 machines at Microsoft running Windows Vista Windows Vista is the fastest installing version of Windows (between 15 and 20 minutes) Today the release is only for busines users. General users will have to wait till Jan 30th when Vista becomes broadly available. I am truly excited for the new software that promises much better experience than even its latest RC1!

.NET Framework 3.0 Released

Microsoft .NET framework 3.0 has been officially released. this means that Vista will come with .NET framework 3.0 installed with it. .NET 3.0 will let the developers experience the entire power of Vista platform. More details here: http://www.netfx3.com/blogs/news_and_announcements/archive/2006/11/06/.NET-Framework-3.0-has-been-released_2100_.aspx

MS Office 2007 Released

Microsoft Office 2007 has been released to manufacture. In simpler terms, MS Office System 2007 is now a released product supported by MS. Some common questions i have heard: Does it mean it is zero bugs? No, it doesn't. For software to be released, it has to clear the ZBB (Zero Bug Build). However, there are bugs/ features that are always put for SP1. So, internally you can be sure that SP1 is on its way. Does it mean it is not good? No again. In the software development world this is the way to work. You release a product (time vs effort scenario) and then provide additional upgrades and fixes in time. Is the DVD for the same available? not yet for the general people. This time the release of the products has been staggered into a Business Release and General Availability. Nov 8th marks the business release. The general availability will be around end Jan 2007. For the business release, here is a website on value of MS OFfice to businesses (expect very little/ zero dev

Your site: Powered by Windows Live Search

Now you can use Windows Live Search to search your site. The Google Search box has been available for long and now Windows Liver Search gives it to you. The search button comes in 2 flavours: Advanced Search Box that allows your readers to search both your site and the web without leaving your site, by placing the search results in a pop-up <DIV> element. this is very cool. HTML Search Box that redirects your readers back to Live.com to see search results specific to your website or the web in general. You can generate your own Live Search button for your site at: http://search.live.com/siteowner?mkt=en-us The look and feel of the search box can be manipulated by modifying the script for Search button that is generated.

Watch SteveB Live in Mumbai at IndiMix and win XBOX 360

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The online extravaganza of the year… You wouldn't want to miss !!! Stars from the worlds of Cricket, Bollywood, Design and Enterprise take centre-stage, as Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer heralds “the next Web now”. Be sure to join us online to watch the entire event live from Mumbai!! Dont miss host Mandira Bedi as she anchors the online show and engages you in contests. Win thousands of really cool prizes! Entertainment. Sports. Design. Technology. Business. ON indiMIX ’06 - Internet TV… Witness the next era of Web. November 9 – Be on msn.co.in/indimix