My baker’s dozen of recent, interesting MSDN blogs posts (082208)

Late on a Friday, the kids are finally in bed and I just burned through the rest of my mail and feeds from MSDN blogs… so here are a few posts I found of interest and recommend…

As Ian mentioned here, a “Huge congratulations to some of my colleagues who have just won recognition from the Computer Weekly Blog Awards.”

Steve Clayton’s “Geek in Disguise” blog won the “Company Blogs” category
Jason Langridge’s “Mr Mobile” blog won the “Wireless and Mobile Blogs” category
Mike Taulty’s “Bits and Bytes” blog won the “Programming and Technical Blogs” category
Ray Fleming’s “UK Schools” blog won the “Public Sector Blogs” category

Super effort!

OneNote Videos on TeacherTube (Thoughts and Information from Alfred Thompson) — Mike Tholfsen, the OneNote Ninja, found some time to record and upload a bunch of videos about OneNote to Teacher Tube. The video he did on the OneNote 2007 Toolkit for Teachers is included in the collection. Mike is promising a bunch more that are specifically targeted at education users including teachers and students.

Free Download To Help You and Your Customers Save Energy and Carbon Emissions (Reaching Out to Microsoft Partners in Australia) — “I installed the Edison PC Power Management application today. It’s a great piece of software we are officially endorsing and it provides a consumer-friendly interface to help the users decide how much power saving they want to do – but it also tells you in environmental language…

Terry Zink’s Anti-spam Blog : Strengths and weaknesses – Terry says that “From time to time, I like to reflect upon my own personal strengths and weaknesses. I may be a spam fighter, but I’m also a professional working within Microsoft and I want grow my entire asset base of skills, not just in spam analysis. You know how on interview coaching, they say to you “If you’re ever asked one of your weaknesses, give one of your strengths that if overdone, could be a weakness”? For example, you could say “Sometimes I work too hard” which is overdoing dedication to the job. It’s kind of a way of weaseling out of the question.”

Thomas Cheah – the Speaker Idol winner (MSDN Malaysia blog) — “The experience in Speaker Idol competition at TechEd SEA 2008 was great. It reminds me of those debating competitions that I participated when I was in high school. Presentation skills are something that will go a long way in your career. Most people have no problems giving presentation, but not many can see how well they are presenting. Speaker Idol is a good testing ground for this. With the 10 minutes time limit, it requires you to focus on giving the most captivate presentation that is within the attention spans of most audiences. Most people tend to be long winded and afraid to miss out every single detail in the presentation. This risks losing the audience attention before the core message is presented.”

Adrian Ford on XPS et cetera : Automatically Opening XPS files from MXDW — MXDW – the Microsoft XPS Document Writer – includes the ability to open XPS files that are created. To enable this, you’ll need to dig into the preferences dialog where you’ll find the following on the XPS Documents tab…”

//steve clayton: geek in disguise : The Fall of Google, the Rebirth of Microsoft and the Changing Face of Apple and Linux — Steve says that “I usually try to re-title my posts from the originator but on this occasion I felt the title of a recent post had to stay. “There is a whole load of commentary in Rob’s post that is of course music to my ears, and on Apple in particular he was joined this week by a hard hitting post from Michael Arrington. What really caught my eye in Rob’s post was this part where he talks about Microsoft Equipt…”

MIS Laboratory – Teaching Resources for Information Systems Faculty : Microphone on Facebook: Converse with Microsoft — Randy says that “The Microsoft educational community has launched a new application on Facebook called “Microphone”. Microphone is a Facebook application (http://apps.facebook.com/microphone) that links the Facebook community directly with experts and enthusiasts from Microsoft Corporation. Since it is a Facebook application, members of Microphone will be kept current on all things Microsoft relating to new products, training and workshops, conferences, technology careers, research, and the Digital Lifestyle.”

Architects Rule! : Herows will always ruin your it organization — Philippe says that “Working in an IT organization can be challenging. There are exhausting late night emergencies and deadlines, unpredictable technical complexities as well as executive management commonly suffering from extreme ADD. “As this leads to countless hours away from family, friends and your own precious solitude, you find those few who stand out willing to sacrifice everything to accomplish success.”

RFID Momentum (Microsoft Manufacturing & Resources Blog) — July 29, 2008 4:12 PM “I asked Greg Walker, a Supply Chain Specialist on our US Manufacturing team to guest blog with me on this topic. RFID Momentum is building and we wanted to jump in and share some perspectives from Microsoft.”

The Web and Microsoft : Photosynth really can be practical — 22 August 08 04:14 PM (klevereblog) “When something like Photosynth is released you begin to wonder what are the practical use cases. I found this “synth” on the site today that really shows the power of Photosynth. It essentially is photo tour of the Art Gallery of South Wales. Not only do you get a 360 view of the room, you also are able to zoom in closely and see the artwork on the walls. There are several similar situations where this could be used. Real Agents would love something like this. I think the real power in something like Photosynth would be potential for social scenarios. I know there has been talk before where individuals would be able to combine their pictures into a single “synth”.

And last but far from least: the award-winning Jason Langridge posted this in reference to something he “Spotted this over on Steve’s Blog and couldn’t help by repost it. Our Office Labs team has released a prototype tool that helps you manage email overload. This concept test provides a “do not disturb” button that temporarily pauses new email arrival, and prioritizes email with a 0-3 star rating system. You can get more details here…”

OK, one more from TechNet:

Dave posted a video of his chat with Brad Anderson on Virtualization and X-Plat Support: “A few weeks back, I had a chance to sit down with Brad Anderson, GM of Microsoft’s Management and Services Division (the folks who build System Center). We talked for a handful of minutes about virtualization, Ops Manager x-plat extensions, and some strategic developments and perspectives on what’s coming in the near future. Money quote: