when technology is a part of the whole!

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

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 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 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

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 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 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

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

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

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

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 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