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Showing posts from 2007

Outlook satiates at 3GB

Well u can say that i am a power user of Outlook :).. i realised this recently when my local PST file went to about 3.3 GB... i was blissfully unaware till - there were no mails coming to Outlook anymore. so how bad did it look? when i received a mail it wud show up for a moment in my Windows mobile device that is set to sync with Exchange.. then it would vanish and since my default location is my local PST, i wud expect to find it there.. the problem was Outlook 2007 SP1 didn't have the mails that it was supposed to be having.. now, i mentioned that i am a power user and if i don't have a mail in 10 secs i know that something is wrong! this went on for around a day! enter tech support.. the single pointed agenda for us then was to reduce the size of PST to around  1GB... a lot of mails were deleted.. then a new PST created and mails moved over so that my default PST was around 1GB.. i was informed that the maximum recommended PST file size for Outlook was 2 GB.. then it w

Enrique singing on your desktop - INSOMNIAC Album

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“ENRIQUE” does the launch concert of his latest album INSOMNIAC and you can get a pass from the your computer. Catch him on your desktop via MSN IN CONCERT . SO, LOG IN @ 8...CRANK UP THE VOLUME…AND …ENJOY! Kiss the latino at: http://www.msnindia.com Technorati tags: music , event , enrique

Office 2007 SP1 is Released

Get the Office 2007 SP1 here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=9EC51594-992C-4165-A997-25DA01F388F5&displaylang=en this SP1 appears for the client tools. i am still waiting for the WSS SP1 to come through! Technorati tags: Office SP1

Microsoft releases a slew of Developer technologies

Ok.. see how much you can make a head or tail of: Volta Feedsync Sync Framework (yes it is different from Feedsync) ASP.NET 3.5 Extensions ADO.NET Entity Framework It has been perplexing to see the rate at which MS has been churning out  innovations day after day... while it poses challenges for developers as they need to learn new stuff, it is good for industry as such.. IMHO, the latest set of innovations coming out focus heavily on Web 2.0 enablement implemented by using attributes.. let's check out some of them: Volta is a framework that enables taking the decision on deployment at a much later stage of development. Feedsync is extension to RSS/ ATOM that enables RSS data to be syncronised across any endpoints. Sync Framework let's mobile devices synchronize  data amongst various data sources.. ASP.NET 3.5 Extensions - Data Availability over REST interfaces, Automatic data display & editing using Dynamic Data, ASP.NET Silverlight Controls & ASP.NET MVC pa

BarCamp 3 in Delhi

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The Delhi/NCR BarCamp was my first experience with " unconference " style meetings. I decided to attend the same even though it takes me 2 hours drive one way to get there. Delhi can be a confusing place to drive in if u r starting from Gurgaon, crossing whole of Delhi and then crossing whole of Noida :) The first thing i noticed at the venue was that the car parking was full! I was registrant no # 108 (and i guess a total of around 125 out of 240 registrants ~50%) and was aided very helpfully through the registration process. The enthusiasm at the camp was infectious as the moment i landed I was accosted by Sun Partner company - Navisite who were canvassing about their offerings for Startups! The sessions were being held in 2 rooms - one on blogging and one on core technology. The interest in blogging was apparent ! However at the event, the focus was networking. The audience mainly consisted of startups, entrepreneurs and freelancers. it was clear that technology of choice

Microsoft announces PDC

Amongst of myriad of events from Microsoft, PDC tends to stand out given the new technologies that are discussed there. PDC is essentially where MS discusses the "bleeding" edge of technology and its future plans. It is a mecca of sorts for Microsoft Technology professionals. So here are the dates for Professional Developers Conference (PDC): October 27–30, 2008 Pre-conference October 26, 2008 Los Angeles, California http://msdn.microsoft.com/pdc2008 Not much information is available at this time on the agenda etc but make sure to make your flight reservations.. seats are guaranteed to run out fast.. if you are planning to travel from India leave a comment here and we can network! Technorati tags: PDC , microsoft

Read Office 2007 docs on Windows Mobile

If you have been using Windows Mobile to read documents on the fly, you know that till now Office 2007 docs cudn't be read... :( Office Mobile 6.1 has now been released for Windows Mobile 5.0 Pocket PC and Windows Mobile 6 devices.  The upgrade is a free download and will allow you to open and edit Office 2007 file format documents from Word (.docx) and Excel (.xlsx) You can also view Powerpoint 2007 (pptx) documents.  Other improvements include: • Enhanced viewing experience for charts in Excel Mobile. • Ability to view SmartArt in PowerPoint Mobile. • Ability to view and extract files from compressed (.zip) folders. This free upgrade works only for Windows Mobile powered devices that have an earlier version of Office Mobile. Well i tried to install the same on my HP 6965, but the upgrade failed.. i am still investigating.. Technorati tags: mobile , office 2007

Use Java with OpenXML

The set of people crying hoarse over OpenXML and the problems it poses should pay attention to this: Microsoft has provided a sample demo that shows OpenXML usage in Java ...  The demo shows the interoperability available to people irrespective to the choice of technology they make. I think this further demonstrates that OpenXML is a standard rather than proprietary information format that many believe it is.. In this demonstration ability to allow Java programs to consume Excel spreadsheets directly and to create Excel spreadsheets on the fly is shown. Let ODF up the ante with a .NET - ODF demo... nah! they don't have time.. busy bashing Microsoft on some gathering i presume? Get the code here: http://www.codeplex.com/openxmljavademo Technorati tags: OpenXML , Java , interoperability , standards

MS promotes startups on its platform

Microsoft has started an interesting program where it is promoting startups... the help is available to startups in terms of providing software licenses, marketing support and technical expertise... this is a critical piece that often lacks proper support in a startup... however, there is no mention of any money here :) Read more about it: http://microsoftstartupzone.com/content/Accelerator.aspx Technorati tags: microsoft , startup

Microsoft Software Licensing & Protection Services

Microsoft has released a new toolkit that is guaranteed to make the ISVs and other software houses jump in delight.. drum rolls for rollout of MS Software Licensing & protection services.. the MS SLP provides reliable, convenient, and more secure way to distribute your software. with .NET assemblies it is still possible to reverse engineer the code with right tools and enough time :).. to protect the code on a commercial basis MS SLP provides an interesting option.. Managing licensing & activation is also where MS SLP can help. While the advanced services are avaialble for a price, the code protection is available for FREE at: http://www.microsoft.com/SLPS/downloads.aspx To read more: http://www.microsoft.com/SLPS/ Technorati tags: SLP , code protection

Facebook and Marketing

Facebook is a networking platform that has thrown up some very interesting marketing opportunities... it let's you leverage your entire social graph and use your everyday actions to promote things... this presents a lot of new and interesting ways for marketers to get the message out for their products... below i list some of the methods: Profile blurb and action links Profile News Feeds Application Alerts Application Requests Application Blurb Application Directory Facebook Pages Facebook Ads Facebook Beacon with these many integration points the possibilities are endless and the social platform architecture of Facebook is truly well thought of... and oh what do i think about the facebook and the Open Social debate? i think Open social is a cheap imitation of the facebook platform and should instead adopt facebook standards... google has really played underdog and demonstrated their inability to innovate here.. and so why is orkut.com not yet harbouring "open soc

How Original are you?

Here is a little game from Microsoft that lets Original software users upload their photographs to the gallery. The Game also tests your understanding of Original Microsoft Software and leads you to the Originals Gallery: http://www.microsoft.com/india/originalsoftware/business/are_you_standards_compliant/the_originals_game.aspx I doubt how much of mind share this Original game will get or the buzz it will create.. what i suggest is that MS may consider issuing badges like - "Genuine Microsoft Windows User No: xxxxxx"... there should also be a link that leads to a website that certifies that that the user is truly a genuine windows user.. now this can be done from the optional Windows Registration option that a user gets... there can be a simple addition that generates the Windows User No and provides a badge to display that status... the above idea builds on the concept of recognition and reputation... the badge should be copyrighted and would let a proud Windows owner di

Visual Studio 2008 and .NET 3.5 Released

Visual Studio 2008 has finally come out of the BETA tag and has RTMed! Alongwith the release of VS 2008, .NET 3.5 has also been released. Not only meant for professional developers alone, Visual Studio 2008 also comes in Express Editions that are available for FREE. The products can be downloaded here . I have been running VS 2008 BETA 2 for sometime and it has been simply wonderful. the best feature in VS 2008 has got to be multi-targetting that enables VS 2008 to target .NET 2.0, 3.0 or 3.5 development. Not only that, VS 2008 can also be used to develop Silverlight applications. However, as a community person the feature that is killer for me is support for developing Web 2.0 applications that is included in VS 2008. This includes: AJAX Support JavaScript Intellisense JSON Support RSS and ATOM support The above capabilities are enough to develop all the Web 2.0 applications and in fact i have used VS 2008 to develop a facebook application for reporting Traffic Violations (sti

Windows SteadyState 2.5 BETA launched

Windows SteadyState let's you restore your PC to an earlier stage. Earlier it was called the Shared Computer Toolkit... While it has been available for Windows XP, a BETA version for Vista is now available. If you are interested in this, you can get a BETA at: http://forums.microsoft.com/WindowsToolsandUtilities/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=2420600&SiteID=69 The Windows SteadyState 2.5 Beta is also featured on the Microsoft Connect Homepage : http://connect.microsoft.com/site/sitehome.aspx?SiteID=286 Technorati tags: steadystate , Vista

Windows Live Domains now supports Co-branding

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Began my morning with a shocker from "mashable" on twitter: "Microsoft takes on Ning".. i thought that a new version of groups.msn.com may have been launched (for long the community members in India have been asking for the same)... but the news turned out to be a little different.. Microsoft has launched a new service - "Community Builder" hosted at: http://partner.live.com/communitybuilder As of this moment, Community Builder is nothing but Live Custom Domains . The Live team seems to be trying to bundle all the various services they have offered under this umbrella. However, this is not "Community Builder" from far stretch of imagination. It is what i would probably call - "Business Live".. it has options to host your email, get a messenger account.. same as in Live Custom Domains - what is new here is the branding option.  in the branding, the Community Builder is offering option to include your company logo at the top of the pag

Upgrading DotNetNuke Forums to 4.04.1

One of the most widely used features in any community is the forums... DotNetNuke - my personal favorite had a forum module as well... recently a new version of DNN - 4.7 was released alongwith a new updated forums module - 4.4.1. we quickly upgraded the forums on our DNN installation. after the install which was uneventful, all the members at the site got the administrator rights for the forum. this gave us a few anxious moments. on research we discovered that while earlier, forums module needed "Edit" permission for all users, the latest release doesn't require the same. all that was required was to limit the permissions for the forum users to "Read" for the module! the forums are looking good and working great! And yes, if you are looking for the drop down to edit permissions, you can do so by selecting the "Edit" radio button located at the top of the page. Technorati tags: DotNetNuke , upgrade , forums

New Versions of Windows Live Applications Released

Microsoft has today released enhanced versions of Live Applications that include Messenger, Live Writer, Live Mail, Live Photo Gallery and Family Safety Beta. In fact each of these new applications deserve a deeper review but for this post, i would limit to the enhancements that these applications offer: Now you can post your photos to Flickr in addition to Windows Live Spaces directly from inside Windows Live Photo Gallery Set up your events, manage invitations, and collect photos from everyone using Windows Live Events Live Calendar let's you manage your schedule and share your availability. Automatically rotate and group your photos by time when you import them using Windows Live Photo Gallery Windows Live Writer lets you work off-line and easily add maps, videos, pictures, and more to your blog Keep all your e-mail in one place using Windows Live Mail Use Windows Live OneCare Family Safety to keep track of your what children are doing on-line Set up a vacation aut

Windows Live Messenger IM Control for your blog/ website

here's a blog/website widget that is sure to get you jumping in your chair - the Live Messenger IM Control. The Windows Live Messenger IM Control lets people on the Web reach you in via your normal Messenger interface. The control also shows your Messenger status. Live Messenger IM Control just runs in the browser and lets site visitors message you without requiring Messenger on the visitor's machine.  It doesn't even require the visitor to have a Live Messenger account as they can post as anonymous user. The IM Control is supported in IE6, IE7, and Firefox 2.0 on Windows and Firefox 2.0 on Mac OS.  So, how do you get started? To use the IM Control: 1. Go to http://settings.messenger.live.com/applications/websettings.aspx .  Sign in with your Windows Live ID as needed. 2. Turn on your Web settings to show your presence and receive IM from the Web.  3. Pick a way to show your presence (the icon or the mini-messenger window) 4. Copy the HTML from the page and post it on your

Microsoft Server 2008 (and a FREE Express Edition) Announced

Microsoft is announcing Microsoft Search Server 2008 and Microsoft Search Server 2008 Express . Given that even small companies now have extensive internal knowledge repositories search across all of them becomes critical. Search Server 2008 and Search Server 2008 Express offer an enterprise-ready search solution that will let people find the information quickly and easily. Earlier the only option from Microsoft stable for enterprise search involved  deploying Microsoft Office Sharepoint 2007 . The search master Google also has an enterprise product for search with the lowest version (Google Mini Search Appliance) not supporting connections to other information repositories at a price of USD 6000 / yr. The beauty of it all is that Microsoft Search Server 2008 Express, is a free , downloadable Enterprise Search product.  A release candidate of Search Server 2008 Express is available at http://www.microsoft.com/enterprisesearch the search experience is similar to the familiar web se

Svcutil.exe crashing in VS 2008 BETA 2

while experimenting with VS 2008 Beta 2 and WCF, i cudn't generate the client proxy using svcutil.exe. I built the server as a WPF application and hosted the service there (self-host). i was using netTcp binding for the service. in preparation to get the client working, i created a new IIS application and created a directory under the main directory called App_Code. I copied all the code for Service and the Contract in the App_Code directory so that it be JIT compiled before use. Added the service.svc and web.config to the application. Then browsing to the URL gave me the test page. then svcutil.exe was to be used but it kept crashing. a live search got me to this page: http://blogs.microsoft.co.il/blogs/bursteg/archive/2007/07/27/WCF-Test-Client-svcutil.aspx and that did it! Technorati tags: WCF , svcutil.exe

An inspirational post

they say that in the darkest hour you can see the light.. and it is that time now.. in a recent meeting, the VP of Microsoft India gave a very sound advice that i would like to share with you. it holds true for everyone and especially people who are befuddled with the things around them (esp me).. i do wonder though whether any inspiration/ good thought ever did any good to anyone in the corporate world.. but this may benefit me and you .. so here it goes: Some things I wish I had known when I was 30 •Don’t let someone else define what success means for you this finds its origin in not letting others (including managers)tell you what you are and what you are not good at! you are successful when you you believe you are! •Know your strengths & focus on these –No one ever became great focusing on their dev needs this is divergent in the thought that it encourages you to hone and further work upon your strengths rather than working on your weaknesses. mostly all the reviews and fe

Upgrading Database Server to SQL Server 2005 Standard Edition for DNN websites

i have been using multiple instances of SQL Server Express 2005 to provide backend services to a few websites. SQL Server Exress 2005 provided a quick and FREE way of running the database. however, since it is meant for testing purposes the Express edition doesn't scale well and gave reliability issues from time to time. also, using Management Studio Express locked the DB exclusively rendering the site inaccessible. Today i spent some time upgrading the database to full fledged SQL Server 2005 Standard Edition. the installation was effortless and I immediately applied the SP2. however, when i tried to use the client tools they were still the ones from Express Editions. trying to install the full version of client tools always ended with an error - "Your upgrade is blocked because the existing component is a later version than the version you are trying to upgrade to". also, there seemed no direct way to uninstall the express editions that i had running. Researching the

Word Viewer 2007 is released

if you don't have Office 2007 and have started to receive docx files from individuals, you can now read the same using the newly released Word Viewer 2007.. the word viewer replaces all earlier releases... true to its name, the viewer let's you view the Word documents but don't let you edit the same... the Word Viewer enables free viewing of .docx and .docm with the same visual fidelity as the full version of Word 2003. Get the FREE download here Technorati tags: word viewer

New version of Live Search is available!

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A new version of Live Search is now released. this release supposedly created a WOW when it was first showcased at the recently held company meeting in Redmond. There is progress in two critical areas: the core technology that delivers relevant search has improved dramatically.  there is focus on four key search experiences: Entertainment, Health, Local, and Shopping (represents 40% of total queries) the search index has been expanded 4x times! also there is a improvement in query intent for misspelled and plural words. In the entertainment field a unique way of showing content as it relates to other celebrities (xRank) has been developed.  (Try tom cruise and check out the xRank and the live in browser previews of the videos) . in shopping, you can search for a product or a product category (try Palm Treo 650 or the category “digital cameras”) and utilize not just the rich answer, but the expanded opinion index that intelligently crawls review sites . it also presents abstracts th

Comparing UX technologies for performance

For people who are figuring out what direction to go as far as future technologies is considered, here's a 3rd party community effort to get that answer as far as performance of the various technologies go: http://bubblemark.com/ the same javascript is used to animate in various RIAs so that the results are isolated to the performance of the platform itself. Technologies compared are Silverlight (JS & CLR based), Flash (with Flex), Java (Swing) etc. Long story short: Different browsers behave differently to the RIA frameworks. Best is Opera and worst is FireFox. "The unexpected is that WPF/e is faster than Flash despite the fact that it’s been in the market for years." The source code is available and community has posted their results using the code. Conclusion: start using Silverlight! Technorati tags: silverlight , flash

Migration from Office live over!

well the "forced" migration away from Office Live is now over.. i have successfully migrated the domain and email accounts. the content on the website and the email is gone.. i am making a new start with these.. the experience of migrating the domain was very simple and very painless. and if you want to know who i host my domains with - godaddy.com. and where have i migrated from Office Live - Google Apps. in a few days i will publish a comparison of the two light SME services.. Technorati tags: office live , google apps

Office Live gives me a boot!

I have been running a Office Live Basic account for sometime now. i enrolled when it was still running WSS 2.0 and then migrated to WSS 3.0 and then was finally released. now i have been aiding in running a site and suddenly the site was no longer modifiable. Each time you would try to access the tools to modify the content on the page (website designer), it would throw an error: " We're unable to complete your request Windows Live ID is experiencing technical difficulties. Please try again later." Once or twice i thought it might be a transient condition. but when the same error was consistent over a period of time, I got worried. The emails associated with the domain were running fine all this while. I had it on "Custom Domains" even before the Office Live. So i wrote in to the support and after a few contacts this was forwarded to the product team. the response from the support was - "we are sorry to inform you that you have identified a known issue

Windows Live Translator BETA available

I have used Yahoo, google and other services to translate phrases and websites from one language to another. mostly this has been left to a link on the main page of the website so people who want to read it in another language than english can do so. now, Windows live service has launched the translator service as well. you can access the same here: http://translator.live.com/ you can translate specific phrases or entire websites using this service. when you do website transation both the websites display side by side and scroll in sync. and in case you are wondering if the translator is doing the Hindi or any other Indic language translation, NO it isn't. I hope that realisation on importance of Indian market dawns early on MS (i know the process has already begun with initial release of skydrive BETA in India but it needs to be expedited!). Category: microsoft , website ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This posting is provided "

Lost your Windows CD?

Recently one of the MVPs asked me about an interesting problem. Many a times users of genuine Windows tend to loose or damage the Windows installation media they got with their PC. They still have the sticker with the product code but don't have the CD. What should they do? The solution is to get a replacement disc. To get the disc the customers should approach MS Connect and they would route accordingly. The replacement happens within 90 days and may be charged. the telephone nos of MS Connect are: 1800 102 1100 (Toll Free number – Accessible from anywhere in India from Airtel land line and mobile phone) 1800 111100 (Toll Free number – Accessible from 36 cities in India from MTNL/BSNL landline) +91 80 40103000 (Toll number – Accessible from anywhere in the world from any telecom) So if are facing the same issue, you know what to do.. Category: microsoft , india ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This posting is provided "AS IS"

Windows Live Suite Available

Microsoft has released a combination of all the great Live suite of products in a single installer - Live Mail, Live Messenger, Live Writer, Live Photo Gallery, Live Toolbar, live one care family safety. The installer is available from: http://get.live.com/wl/all the installer itself of a very small size - 1.72 MB and downloads quickly. Once downloaded and installation started, it may take around 30 mins to install all the applications. the version of this suite of products is 1288.816. one is free to choose the applications that one would want on their system. this is presented in a very easy to understand format rather than the "underground" installation of google/ yahoo toolbar that happens anytime you install an unrelated software (read quicktime and many others)! the installation may require you to restart your system in case of certain applications being open. however, you are provided an option to restart later that is a great relief. if you are upgrading the experienc

Get FREE Windows Mobile Ringtones and Wallpapers for Halo 3

Here: https://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/domore/halo3.mspx and find plenty of other ringtones and wallpapers for FREE! Category: mobile , ringtones ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Skype outage: The Story Behind

recently skype suffered a world wide outage. it was reported on skype blog: http://heartbeat.skype.com/2007/08/what_happened_on_august_16.html while skype put the description well, certain other reports fuelled the rumor mills on the problem being due to the Microsoft patch release. the entire episode has been thoroughly investigated by both skype and microsoft and the findings are presented here: http://blogs.technet.com/msrc/archive/2007/08/20/questions-about-last-tuesday-s-release-and-skype.aspx In brief what happened was that skype had architected its applications in a particular fashion with a known but uneventful bug. Once the patch was applied, that bug in skype server application became active and prevented recovery of the network! Category: skype , microsoft ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Microsoft User Group in India Achieves a landmark

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India is truly a developer haven and Bangalore the developer capital. Microsoft User Group communities have existed in this garden city for around 5 years now! And here's the BIG achievement - The Microsoft Bangalore User group is now more than 10,000 members ... what is commendable is that the group is entirely managed by volunteers and speakers from amongst themselves. the group has conducted many events - big and small, authored collaborative booklet, celebrated their success and even dabbled in developing shared applications.. the community doesn't get more DYNAMIC than this! Hats off to the volunteers who have worked hard to get to this and have an unending passion and enthusiasm for sharing their knowledge and the community! i know that this has been a long and ardous journey for the volunteers that is still on. i have seen the problems the group has faced from lack of venue to meet, to lack of speakers, to lack of laptops and projectors and even sometimes lack of atte

Microsoft Office Outlook Connector 12.0 Has Shipped!

T he Outlook Connector has been released from Microsoft. This tool overcomes the disability of Live Mail of providing POP3 access to the mailboxes. With this tool you can use Outlook 2003 or Outlook 2007 to access and manage your Windows Live Hotmail or Office Live Mail accounts, including e-mail messages and contacts! Calendar, tasks and notes can also be accessed and managed in Outlook for accounts with a paid subscription. it also provides support for blocking junk emails. Outlook connector uses a new technology called "Delta Sync" that lets mails sync much faster than any other mail service. The product was tested by more than 120,000 beta testers in just two months. One can get the build from here . However, in my opinion if you want to experience completely FREE version of offline access to hotmail and other email clients you got to be using Windows Live Mail (WLM). Windows Live Mail is going to replace Outlook Express and is generations ahead..... Technorati tag

Windows Live Skydrive in BETA

Microsoft steals inovation over Google! it has now released a public BETA of erstwhile Live Folders TODAY... this is an open BETA available in the US, UK, and India. this is now called Windows Live SkyDrive: http://skydrive.live.com/ . so head over there and get your 500 MB of online space NOW! This feature update includes the following: · An upgraded look and feel – new graphics to go along with your new features! · “Also on SkyDrive” – easily get back to the SkyDrives you’ve recently visited · Thumbnail images – we heard you loud and clear, and now you can see thumbnails of your image files · Drag and drop your files – sick of our five-at-a-time upload limit? Drag and drop your files right onto your SkyDrive · Embed your stuff anywhere – with just a few clicks, post your files and folders anywhere you can post html You can find more detail at team blog: http://skydriveteam.spaces.live.com/ Another first is inclusion of India in the BETA release.. i think it may very well be the firs

Microsoft Global Meeting

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This is a Microsoft Global Meeting (MGX) being held in s stadium .. Almost all countries and all continents represented here! The collective from the world is simply awe-inspiring! Category: microsoft ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Create Master pages for your ASP.NET app in mins

You have done great work on developing your web application and now is the time to build forms for master tables. That is very irritating. VS 2008 has a new way that you can build the same - Enter the LinqDataSource. LINQ is one of the key technologies added in .NET 3.5 and will be released soon. So, if you are trying out VS 2008, you got to try it out. For detailed steps, http://weblogs.asp.net/kencox/archive/2007/08/07/speed-test-a-no-code-linq-based-asp-net-3-5-page.aspx Technorati tags: LINQ. .NET

Project Shutter Announces its winners

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Talking to Vasudev on IM today, he told me that winners of the photography contest - Project Shutter have been announced. I had earlier blogged about this photography enthusiast competition here . It appears that around 158 photos were submitted and it had a blog running with it. There are 2 winners from India with their photos as below. Culture - Bronze with Kishore Food - Gold with Avishek Technorati tags: project shutter , winners , contest , india

NASA goes Photosynth

  MS has announced an exciting collaboration with NASA using Photosynth technology, to create three-dimensional environments of preparations for the launch of space shuttle Endeavour. If you don't know Photosynth, it is a photo application that can intelligently stitch millions of photograph and create a virtual world! With Photosynth you can: Walk or fly through a scene to see photos from any angle. Seamlessly zoom in or out of a photo whether it's megapixels or gigapixels in size. See where pictures were taken in relation to one another. Find similar photos to the one you're currently viewing. Send a collection - or a particular view of one - to a friend. For the first time ever, viewers can experience unprecedented views of shuttle Endeavour on the launch pad, interior and surrounding area of the Vehicle Assembly Building, and the return of previous flight Shuttle Atlantis atop a 747. Photosynth is able to capture the depth and complexity of the shuttle’s structure

Tribute to outgoing President Kalam

Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam personifies what India is best known for - technical prowess, humble beginnings and outspoken! Dr. Kalam was a people's person! Everyone cutting across professions, colour, caste or sex loved him. My memories for Dr. Kalam go for the first time during the missile tests but it was not very close to my heart. yes it made me proud but i wasn't thinking of missiles in my backyard yet. the first time is was personal for me was when he went on record to say that Open Source was good for the country's military! The statement that was much touted by the OSS merchants in the country. The only time i saw him was when he came for a student's conference hosted by Microsoft. Adhering to full ceremonial protocol, he dived into his prescriptions for education sector. it was kinda let down as he went on to read out  seams of carefully written words in a monotonous manner. ok, maybe he isn't a huge orator but he is a magnificent thinker! The presentation was usi

Using Hindi interface for Vista

I was an avid user of the Hindi Interface for Windows XP. When Vista was released, this Hindi interface was not available. Now it has been released and is available for download: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=0e21eb7b-e01a-4fcc-b7f1-30e419da7f5b&DisplayLang=hi And if you are looking for language interfaces in other languages than Hindi, refer: http://www.microsoft.com/industry/publicsector/government/locallanguage/default.aspx you can find Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Konkani, Malayalam, Marathi, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu there amongst others. All one needs to do is download and install the package. After installation, the system will ask you to logout and then log back in. this should get you the language interface you installed. in my case, after the logoff/ login, I had to go to control panel and change the display interface from "Language and Interface Options". Technorati tags: microsoft , hindi , vista

.NET 3.5, VS 2008 and SilverLight 1.0 come closer to being released

Visual Studio 2008 enables developers to build a spectrum of solutions, from rich Windows and Office-based applications, to dynamic Web sites, to an emerging class of rich interactive applications all with one toolset.  Following BETA tools have been announced with immediate availability: Visual Studio 2008 Beta 2 provides a unified development environment and includes support for Windows and the Microsoft Office system, which enable developers in building compelling rich client applications. Now, with included support for ASP.NET AJAX and the Silverlight Add-in for Visual Studio 2008 (see below), developers can also build a spectrum of rich interactive applications for the Web. .NET Framework 3.5 Beta 2 builds on the user experience, Web service-based communications, and workflow advances of the .NET Framework 3.0. In addition, Visual Studio 2008 now includes full project template and tools support for many of the .NET Framework 3.0 capabilities previously introduced. · Silverligh

Microsoft Computer varsity at Bangalore: A Myth

In a recent Times of India report, it was "disclosed" that Microsoft will be setting up a university  in Bangalore and that negotiations are already on with the state IT ministry. On checking with MS folks here, it appears that this report is false.  There are no such plans from Microsoft. There seems to be a misunderstanding by the journalist and a clarification has already been made to the Times of India . On the very next day, 13th July '07 TOI Bangalore edition  carried out the clarification, available on Pg.19, Times Business section. It says : " No varsity plans, says Microsoft " Microsoft Corporation says it has no plans to set up a university in B'lore. "It is not our area of expertise," said an official release from the company. The MS release mentions the company's commitment to the cause of education and the higher learning in IT. "We're sensitive to the need of the Indian industry and the  government's initiative to

Windows Home Server RTMs

Windows Home Server has been released today. Read more about it here: http://blogs.technet.com/homeserver/archive/2007/07/16/ship-it.aspx the post above is a snapshot of the evolution of the now Windows Home Server over 8 years. The magnitude of people involved is also mind boggling: 100,000+ participants Admittedly, I haven't installed the home server at home yet! I believe that Home Server will work as a great home backup device. if you are running more than a few devices in home, this will be an ideal solution for your backup needs. what is interesting is that it may be an ideal solution for SME rather than home users :) with the platform supporting add-ins with a SDK you can bet that many more innovative solutions will be built on this platform. Official MS site: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/windowshomeserver/default.mspx Technorati tags: home server

Learn Blend & Silverlight - the nibble way!

Here's a set of brief and very useable Blend and Silverlight tutorials that you will love. they are brief and quick and has nothing else to dilute the learning experience. Best of all, it is the first tutorial that talks to designers and shows them Blend .. catch the tutorial at: http://www.nibblestutorials.net/ Technorati tags: silverlight

Shutter Bugs - WIN!

everyone loves taking pictures. some take it seriously :) Microsoft (in India and few other Asian countries) is now running a contest to award great shots you take from your cameraphones or SLR. Prizes include HP Pavilion laptops and HP printers. The themes are “Food”, “Culture” and “Architecture”. So, just walk around and click anything that you find interesting that fits in these themes. To participate and learn more, visit: www.projectshutter.com , Project Shutter community: www.projectshutter.spaces.live.com Technorati tags: project shutter , photography

the first non-MS Silverlight game

if flash can do it - Silverlight can do it better! i have seen animations being made but i was still waiting for a Silverlight game. and now i found one - Zero Gravity! while the game in itself is very simple, it does demonstrate the ability to do great games with Silverlight. The game took  about 4 weeks and a team of 5 (designers, developers, animators/artists) using Expression Design, Expression Blend 2 and Visual Studio “Orcas” to develop this Silverlight 1.1 game. The game Zero Gravity is available at: http://zerogravity.terralever.com/ or http://www.ltbennett.com Technorati tags: zero gravity , silverlight

Live Products Install Woes Solved

I wanted to try the new Live Messenger 8.5. Live Mail and Live Writer 2 and so downloaded all of them. However, the installation didn't complete - actually it just died silently each time i would start the same. a fix was available on liveside.com (one that worked for me) and there seems to be an official fix for this: http://windowslivewriter.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!D85741BB5E0BE8AA!1368.entry Technorati tags: live. microsoft

Outlook Connector for Hotmail BETA

The Outlook Connector beta allows those who use Outlook 2003 or Outlook 2007 to manage their Windows Live Hotmail e-mail, e-mail folders and contacts right from within Outlook for free. This was previously available as a subscription service ($19.95 a year), but is now being offered more broadly, and for free. You can take advantage of the rich capabilities that Outlook offers even when offline. Outlook Connector also provides the ability to use advanced contact management features in Outlook to manage your Windows Live Hotmail information like the new Business Card View, Instant Search, and the ability to sort contacts by criteria like location or category. Additionally, any changes made to contact information in Outlook will automatically synchronize with the web version in their Windows Live Hotmail account. Outlook Connector beta download URL http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=7aad7e6a-931e-438a-950c-5e9ea66322d4&displaylang=en So get your hotmail mails

Safari vs IE - Prelims

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Apple Inc. has released a BETA version of their internet browser for Windows - Safari. Apple is known world over for their "cute" designs and this one was supposed to be no different. Based on Apple's reputation of style I went ahead and installed Safari on my Vista PC (aero enabled) from www.apple.com/safari The installation went fine and was quicker than that for IE 7 (given it validates genuine Windows PC, installs malicious software removal tool) etc. However, it did try to install additional software that it thought was useful for me and the ones that i respectfully didn't install. I am a first time user of Safari and some of my initial impressions are as follows: Safari takes longer to start up than IE. While starting IE on my machine is a snap, it takes longer for Safari to start. While Safari makes a claim on it being faster than IE, I would not agree with the same. At best, they both load at the same time. The text comes out rendered very well on IE and Safar

WMDC 6.1 Releases

WMDC has made a new release as v6.1. WMDC is the next in line for what is called ActiveSync and is meant for Windows Vista. WMDC when it was released had a lot of issues - connectivity etc. With the release of WMDC 6.1 many bugs have been ironed out and IMHO, is ready for prime time. Get your download at: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/devicecenter.mspx

Genuine Blogger Hacks

It is well known and observed that blogger templates can be tweaked to get the desired results. searching the web here is a site that i discovered that really presents tips and tricks: http://tips-for-new-bloggers.blogspot.com

Virtual TechEd - US

Want to attend TechEd US and not travelling there? You can now attend TechEd virtually at: http://www.virtualteched.com And if you are wondering about TechEd in India, this is now being called TechMela to be held from June 14-16 in Mumbai. Check out the details on: www.techmela.com

Posting a Silverlight Streaming video on ur blog

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Silverlight Streaming is a service that gives you 4 GB of FREE space for hosting your silverlight applications. Uploading a silverlight video for us on your blog consists of the following: Encoding the source with Silverlight Media Encoder Preparing the upload package Upload the video to Silverlight Streaming Service Modify the Blog Template Make the blog post Encoding the video is accomplished by a free tool - Expression Media Encoder that can encode virtually any video/ audio source into Silverlight compatible format and provide simple player controls. You can encode any video by using File -> Import option. In the Settings tab (located at right of the screen), you should change the Video encoding depending on the server you are targeting. The result of encoding is a directory with various files. For preparing the silverlight video, you will need to delete a few files and includng a manifest.xml file. Refer here for step by step process: http://blogs.msdn.com/tims/archive/2007/04

Sean's Message for MVPs on Open Day

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Fight the Road Rage - Be the citizen Cop!

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If you drive, you know that there are people out there with no regard to traffic rules or common sense. Except swearing at them there is little one can do anything about them. There is a new site that let's you be a Citizen cop and report these traffic violations. - www.trafficviolators.com . To challenge these traffic violators the site is asking for help from the citizens of India (that's you!). The site requires you to register (a single click process with username, password and email). The reason for registration is to discourage fraudulent entries by anonymous people. Also, they say you can send SMS to the site that will upload the registration no. (feature coming soon). After registration, you can enter the registration no of the vehicle that you find violating traffic rules on the road. You can just enter the registration no of the vehicle or include as many details as you can remember about the violating vehicle by clicking on "Add a Traffic Violation" link.

MVP Open Days Photos

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Watch WinHEC Live!

At http://www.microsoft.com/winhec/virtualshow.mspx no need to miss the coolest innovations in hardware space if you can't make it :).. especially true if you are in India.. Official page of WinHEC: http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/winhec/default.mspx WinHEC is the event where MS unveils hardware innovations and future roadmap. Technorati tags: WinHEC

Microsoft CEO Summit - Online

The MS CEO Summit is a private event that convenes more than 100 CEOs from the world's top companies to discuss how technology and business trends will shape the future of business. For the first year ever, an inside peek into CEO Summit is available via CEO Summit Online.   CEO Summit Online can be found here: www.microsoft.com/ceosummit Technorati tags: CEO Summit