Author: rich_gibbons

Microsoft Licensing, products, Cloud, and more!
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Predator and Robocop raps


I think these are amazing-the Predator & Robocop films condensed into 6 and 10 minute raps respectively.

The originality and skill involved in telling the whole story of a film in less than 10% of it’s running time is brilliant, especially the way they’ve worked movie soundbites into the lyrics. These gems are lovingly crafted by DJ Mayhem & MC MouthMaster Murf, from a group called The Anomalies.

Predator:

Robocop:

I hope they come up with some more as I’d love to see these become a new meme on the intertubes, I might even give it a go myself if I get the time!

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Microsoft Roundtable Demo


I (along with our friends @ Microsoft) did a demo of the Microsoft Roundtable today down at a customer’s very impressive site and I’m pleased to say, it went very well 🙂

We tested out a couple of different setups and I can tell you now that 2 Roundtables in the same room just isn’t a good idea! Having both devices live means feedback and general audio-confusion for all involved so even in the bigger boardrooms, 1 is the limit really.

Some people were worred that the panoramic view across the bottom would be too small for effective video-conferencing and that may be true, but it’s easy enough to enlarge the video for conversations and then drop it back down when you want to share data etc*.

The ability of Live Meeting to share presentations, take polls and provide collaborative whiteboarding was a definite hit with the demo attendees, and helped show that the Roundtable, in conjunction with Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007, really is a great business benefit.

The demo was such a hit that even the Managing Director of this world famous multi-national company came down to take a look, and was instantly impressed with how it could help increase productivity among their 2000+ users 🙂

It was great to see first hand what customers think of this product and also great to see that they agree with me about the many different benefits such as increased productivity, reduction in travel expenses, helping reduce a company’s carbon footprint and more.

Here are links to some of my other Roundtable posts:

Documents & Downloads

Unboxing Pics

Review

*I’ll hopefully be able to update this post with some example images soon…

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Microsoft Thumbtack


Thumbtack is a new release out of the Microsoft Live Labs, “A single place to save or share the stuff you want from all around the web” as MS say.

I’ve had a little play around with it and it’s not bad. They suggest using it to share lists with your friends, lists such as your favourite restaurants but that doesn’t really apply to me as I don’t have that many friends & I don’t like that many restaurants 🙂

They also suggest using it to collect info on purchases etc that you’re researching online (you could use it for other research too I.e dissertations, coursework and the like) but for this, I’d much rather use OneNote. It’s got more features, is more intuitive and feels a lot more robust that Thumbtack. OneNote is one of my favourite MS programs and I think really shows what Microsoft can do and how good software really can make things easier so Thumbtack does have a lot to live up to I suppose!

I can see that for more social people this could come in pretty handy, especially as it’s completely Web based so all your mates will be able to see what you send them…

All in all, a pretty good new release-just not for me…

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Microsoft Softwear


Microsoft Softwear…that’s not a spelling mistake, that’s Microsoft’s newest release. Clothes by Microsoft = Softwear!

There are a number of different t-shirts, some designed by Common (the formerly good rapper) and all harking back to the days of MS-DOS et al…you can see the full ranges here.

I know the vast majority of people are going to find this the most Uber-geekiest they’ve ever seen-but I think they’re awesome! The missus has just informed me that I’m a “massive geek” to confirm that!

My 3 favourite t-shirts are:

These are “in stores December 15th” according to the site but which stores and can I get them in the UK?!

**Update** Two of these bad boys (the Binary Code Tee and the Bill Mugshot Tee) are on UrbanOutfitters.com, but just those two. They cost $28 ($34 inc Tax) and Urban Outifitters will ship to the UK BUT the shipping will cost $56!!! That means for one T-shirt you’re looking at $90, which today is £57.68…they’re cool but that’s a bit too much in my opinion!

I’ve had a look on urbanoutfitters.co.uk but I can’t see any on there, hopefully they, or another retailer, will get them over here quick sharp 🙂

If you’ve got any more info-hit me up and let me know!

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Microsoft release Open Source Content Management System


Microsoft have released an Alpha version of Codename “Oxite”, their new Open Source Content Management Solution. Oxite is available from the CodePlex website here and it is available under the Microsoft Public Licence.

Microsoft say:

“Oxite provides you with a strong foundation you can build upon – pingbacks, trackbacks, anonymous or authenticated commenting (with optional moderation), gravatar support, RSS feeds at any page level, support for MetaWebLog API (think Windows Live Writer integration made easy), web admin panel, support for Open Search format allowing users to search your site using their browser’s search box, and more – so, you can spend time on designing a great experience.”

It’s customizable, Open Source nature means that should customers wish to, they can swap out MS tech such as Live Search & SQL for other, non-MS versions instead.

This release seems a little odd as MOSS (Sharepoint) 2007 can do all this and more, so why bother? For the cynical among us it could be nothing more than an attempt to increase Microsoft’s Open Source credentials to gain favour with users and other industry factions. I agree that is probably part of it, but I also think it’s a genuine attempt to help people in the Open Source community benefit from Microsoft’s experience with MOSS 2007…but then I would 🙂

Let me know what you think of this in the comments…

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Microsoft Licence RSA Technology


Microsoft have announced that they have licensed RSA’s Data Loss Prevention (DLP) technology and will include it in future versions of Exchange server, Sharepoint server & “similar” products. There’s no word whether it will feature within Office but it would seem likely as Sharepoint is part of the Office family and Office also includes Exchange’s desktop client, Outlook. Also, as the point of origin for the vast majority of documents (spreadsheets, Word documents, .ppts etc), extra security in Microsoft Office seems a logical idea.

This will integrate with Active Directory Rights Management Services (AD RMS) so the RSA software will identify in file servers, databases, datacenters, Sharepoint repositories etc and then AD RMS will enforce the policies. These policies can be used to prevent certain people performing certain tasks with certain documents so for instance the HR Dept. can view and print wage spreadsheets, but only the Finance Dept. can edit them.

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Windows 7 Beta Release Date


It seems that Microsoft are pointing us towards a January 2009 release date for the Windows 7 beta, rather than December 2008 as originally thought.

**Update-it seems we have dates for when the beta will be available here.

According to the Register, MS have updated their sites to show that event attendees won’t receive a physical copy of the  beta in their hands until an event on 13/01/09. If you’re at an event before then, you will get teh beta DVD mailed to you later.

Despite this, ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley thinks we could be on for a December 17th release..who will be proved right? I’m very excited about getting my hands on a proper beta of Windows 7 so the sooner the better I say!

**Update** Yesterday (16/12/08) Microsoft sent invitations to select “beta tech testers” giving them early access to Windows 7 Beta 1. The note from MS contained the line “While (the Windows 7) beta will not be available until early 2009…” so a general release date in January is nearly confirmed.

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A Moonwalking bird


I’ve just seen this on an episode of QI, it’s a bird that can MOONWALK, true comedy genius!

This is very random and unrelated to anything else on my blog-but who cares-it’s brilliant! Just so you know, it’s a Mannikin bird…

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No reasonable person should trust Apple’s marketing


I’m a Microsoft fan and don’t have much, if any, love for (M)Apple-but now it seems neither do Apple.

In a 9 page response to a customers complaint re: the “twice as fast for half the price” claim, Apple state, and I quote (the bold is mine):

“Plaintiff’s claims, and those of the purported class, are barred by the fact that the alleged deceptive statements were such that no reasonable person in Plaintiff’s position could have reasonably relied on or misunderstood Apple’s statements as claims of fact.”

So either we’re all reasonable people and all know that Apple’s marketing is a tissue of lies, deceipt and $8 pee covered phones or we believe that they don’t outright lie and are therefore “unreasonable” 🙂

Gizmodo have got the hook up on this here…

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Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2


Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 Betais now available to people with MSDN and/or Technet subscriptions to begin testing.

Then from December 4th, the Customer Preview Program will launch via Technet here for testing by all, though Microsoft recommend it’s for “enthusiasts, developers, and IT Pros” 🙂

SP2 will wrap up all the updates released since SP1 and include improvements from Customer Experience Improvement Programme too. For more information on specific changes with Vista SP2, check out Mike Nash’s blog post here and/or check out the Notable Changes document.

Thanks to Gizmodo for the following list of changes & improvements:

Emerging Hardware Support

•SP2 contains Blue tooth 2.1 feature pack supporting the most recent specification for Blue tooth technology
•Ability to record data on Blu-Ray media,
•Adds Windows Connect Now (WCN) Wi-Fi Configuration to Windows Vista SP2,
•exFAT file system now supports UTC timestamps, which enables correct file synchronization across time zones.
•SP2 provides support for new form factors, such as ICCD/CCID. new form factor support –example USB form factor as opposed to PCMCIA).
•Support for the new VIA 64-bit CPU
Security

•SP2 includes all previously released security updates, and builds on the proven security benefits of Windows Vista
•Secure Development Lifecycle process updates, where we identify the root cause of each security bulletin and improve our internal tools to eliminate code patterns that could lead to future vulnerabilities
•Reliability
•SP2 addresses previously released reliability updates, as well as addressing crashes, caused by Microsoft code, discovered since the launch of SP1
Performance

•Resume performance when Wi-Fi connection is no longer available after resume from sleep
•Inclusion of Windows Search 4 for improved indexing performance, improved relevancy in search, broader indexing scenario inclusion, as well as new Group Policy integration for Windows Search,
•Improvements to the RSS feeds sidebar gadget to improve update performance and responsiveness
Application Compatibility

•It is our goal that applications that run on the Windows Vista Operating System today and are written using public APIs will continue to work as designed on Windows Vista SP2.
•Previously released Application Compatibility updates are included in Windows Vista SP2.
•Spysweeper and ZoneAlarm now working with POP3 email accounts
Administration and Support Improvements

•Customers installing .net framework 3.5 service pack 1 will notice shorter download and installation times with Vista service pack 2 or Windows 2008 service pack 2 already installed,
•Service Pack Clean up tool (Compcln.exe): This tool helps restore the hard disk space by permanently deleting the previous versions of the files (RTM & SP1) that are being serviced by Service Pack 2.
•Single installer for both Vista & Server 2008
•Ability to detect an incompatible driver and block service pack installation or warn users of any loss of functionality
•Better error handling and providing more descriptive error messages where possible
•Better manageability through logging in system event log
•Componentization for Serviceability of the installer
Some Specific Fixes/Additions Include:

•Inclusion of Hyper-V
•Event logging support in SPC
•DNS Server now listens over ISATAP address
•Fixes DRM issues from WMP upgrades
•Windows Vista Feature Pack for Wireless
•Reduction of resources required for sidebar gadgets
•Improved power settings for WS08

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