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A couple of choice items benefitting the Microsoft Giving Campaign this year

Post author By M3 Sweatt
Post date 15/10/2009

As I noted in my post yesterday, this year’s Microsoft Giving Campaign activities kicked off this month. In addition to the items I mentioned in my previous post, I also posted a couple of special items. (If you don’t know about our campaign, see this link for more info: http://bit.ly/1ajgA0.) Although this is only open to Microsoft employees, I wanted to thank many of the folks who have been kind enough to provide some interesting items. (I checked with our auction and PR team to ensure I could mention the items here. 😉

One of my favourite items is my Samsung NC20 mini notebook PC with Windows 7, autographed by the Windows 7 management team, including Jon DeVaan and Steven Sinofsky. This is an awesome portable, and combines the small size (11.5" x 8.5" x 1.2") and light weight (3.3 pounds) of a mini notebook with an excellent screen. The 1,280 x 800 resolution makes you feel like you’re using a full-size notebook, compared to the cramped 1,024×576 or 1,024×600 of typical small notebooks.

The keyboard is also large and comfortable to type on, with the same key spacing as full-size notebooks. The PC has 2GB of memory, a 160GB hard drive, slip case, charger, and two batteries (standard 6-cell unit for 5-6 hours and a 9-cell for 7-9.5 hours) battery, making this perfect for extended time away from sockets.

My thanks to our management team for taking the time to sign this computer!

Also up for auction is this new-in-the-box, never used, limited edition Pink Zune 30, courtesy of my wife (this was her original Zune, but she preferred a smaller 4GB Zune).

I purchased it at the initial release of the model and then obtained autographs from Robbie Bach, Steve Kaneko, J Allard and Bill Gates.

In all, the donations raised from the sale of these items will go to a good cause.

Tags: articles, what I read, twitter, Microsoft, Windows 7, Giving Campaign.

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Tags Announcements, Microsoft, Microsoft culture, of interest, Windows 7, Zune

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Wonder what’s up at the Microsoft Giving Campaign? Here’s a look at few auction items generating interest

Post author By M3 Sweatt
Post date 15/10/2009
1 Comment on Wonder what’s up at the Microsoft Giving Campaign? Here’s a look at few auction items generating interest

As I noted here, this year’s Microsoft Giving Campaign activities kicked off recently. In support of the charity auction we run, I posted a few items of interest. (If you don’t know about our campaign, see this link for more info: http://bit.ly/1ajgA0.) Although this event and the items are only open to Microsoft employees, I wanted to highlight some of the items I’ve listed and thank the folks kind enough to provide them. (I went ahead and checked with our auction and PR teams to ensure I could discuss them here ;) Please note that I don’t personally benefit from the listing of any of these items; funds will benefit the local United Way and other charities.

Award-winning technology journalist and author Ed Bott graciously offered to provide a personally inscribed and signed copy of his new book, “Windows 7 Inside Out” to the winner of one of this auction. The new 1056-page book also includes a CD with a fully searchable eBook, downloadable gadgets and other tools for customizing Windows 7. I may just bid on this item myself.

Internationally renowned artist Natasha Wescoat has graciously agreed to donate a signed original painting, to be created and personally inscribed for the high bidder. Natasha’s passion for community and social media has helped propel her work onto a global scale via her presence on social media sites like Twitter (@natasha) and her blog, http://NatashasArtCandy.com.

Natasha’s art graces over 1,000 private and corporate collections worldwide, garnering a devoted following that has enabled her to work with television shows (Extreme Makeover Home Edition) and movies (Marley and Me). A new transplant to Seattle, it’s nice that Natasha has offered this custom piece and I’m sure that it will garner a lot of attention.

The good folks over at TechFlash and Kroll Map Co. have kindly provided a local geek treasure: a truly limited edition of the popular TechFlash Geek’s Guide to Seattle poster (http://bit.ly/PAYOM), autographed by the TechFlash team. Measuring 36 by 28 inches, the popular poster was redesigned for our Giving Campaign auction as a one-of-a-kind piece to show more of the map surface on much bigger scale.

The poster highlights some interesting locations, including some well-known sites but also many of the region’s most interesting tech locations and hidden gems, ranging from the former rental house where Jeff Bezos started Amazon to an extremely cool, little-known communications technology museum south of the city. (Many thanks to Todd Bishop at TechFlash and Kroll for this donation.)

Prolific Seattle artist David Hoang (on Twitter @DavidHoang) has graciously donated his talent to create a custom, one-of-a-kind Hand Drawn Avatar to the high bidder for use as a social media (or other) "avatar" on Twitter and other services. David explores the foundations of popular culture, de-contextualization, re-contextualization and convergence. In a world of "instant-uploads" and automatic avatar creations, David takes a step back and spends 20-30 minutes on a high quality drawing for the user. David also records the experience and presents the final YouTube video as a music video: see an example of the finished work at http://bit.ly/P3Q7E.

Tomorrow I’ll post details on a couple of items that should appeal to the techie in all of us (I know I think they’re quite cool ;).

Tags: articles, what I read, twitter, Microsoft, Windows 7, Giving Campaign.

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Tags Announcements, art, Microsoft, Microsoft culture

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Who’s tweeting what on Twitter? A few of my favourite recent tweets

Post author By M3 Sweatt
Post date 07/10/2009
1 Comment on Who’s tweeting what on Twitter? A few of my favourite recent tweets

Here are a few of my recent favourite tweets from others on Twitter.

A quick post between discussions: a few of my recent favourites tweets on Twitter (you can find more and assorted links on my twitter feed):

screwdriver 1 in every 66 computers browsing web running Windows 7 and it hasn’t even released yet!! – http://bit.ly/HrK7B

Microsoft_Xbox Protect yourself and your XBL account. Here are tips for Account Security on Xbox Live: http://bit.ly/14lAEv

nickmackechnie shares this re-Tweet (aka RT) from RT @EverythingMS: "Microsoft Partners earn $8.70 for every $1.00 Microsoft earns – IDC study released — http://bit.ly/7tneq"

arstechnica Google tells employee: you can no longer be a Microsoft MVP – http://arst.ch/8j0

chrispirillo Microsoft warns about advance fee fraud and lottery scams. http://bit.ly/EL17Z [Common sense to fight common scams.]

LanceUlanoff How Microsoft Will Lift Us Out Of the IT-Spending Dumps http://bit.ly/3vcjv Me: @johnbiggs may b right. Get ready 4 an IT upgrade explosion

LanceUlanoff RT @mike_elgan: Here’s a nice vision of multi-touch on Windows 7. http://bit.ly/k8Xwt Me: And people wonder what they’ll do with multi-touch

windowsblog Free Windows 7 Seminar with Mark Russinovich (and Friends): Have you ever wondered how Windows 7 resumes from s.. http://bit.ly/YpyZ8

AmandaSena Interesting chart-shows more women use social media than men http://bit.ly/fHIAV

MSSpringboard Use Windows 7 to Manage Windows Server 2008 R2 Servers http://bit.ly/p9igp

MSSpringboard Good read about User Account Control Data Redirection: http://bit.ly/TuKtM

MSSpringboard Learn how to get the most out of your Windows Home Server’s capabilities: http://bit.ly/KAxsn

engadget HP Mini 311 reviewed with earnest, ION-enhanced affection http://bit.ly/3jCVb9

inafried Macs and PCs found shacking up. NPD finds more households have Macs, but lots of those homes also have a Windows PC. http://bit.ly/17MPAv

nytimes AT&T Reverses Policy on iPhone Internet Calls http://bit.ly/QVwTc

wmexperts A chat with Microsoft about Windows Mobile 6.5 http://bit.ly/7IjRd

maryjofoley Why MS claims it isn’t discouraged even though it has 246 apps in its Mobile store (vs. 85K for Apple): http://bit.ly/1cFmZA

mitchellashley Today’s blog post: Going Mobile – The Dawn of the "micro app" http://bit.ly/Rlr1N

Also from mitchell: RT@HuntHenning: Microsoft considering making Zune services available to Apple users http://bit.ly/39DpxZ

shanselman blogged: How to Collaborate with Remote Employees with Office Communicator 2007 R2: Our business admini.. http://bit.ly/b92SQ

slashdot Fans Come Together To Complete Star Wars Uncut http://bit.ly/We1iQ

SteveCase Why Consumers Like New Products With a Familiar Ring http://bit.ly/3WFupo

SteveCase The Power of Time Off – a TED talk video: http://bit.ly/3fQ9qI via @brainpicker

mayhemstudios RT @cloud79: NPD: Mac owners are bigger gadget nerds than PC owners http://bit.ly/nJ0aI

scottlum New Blog Post: The Local Economic Benefits of the Global Software Business – Microsoft VP Pamela Passman http://bit.ly/IfP6B

parislemon Google: A Web Browser Is Not A Computer, Not A Search Engine, And Not A Ham Sandwich http://ff.im/-9kKYQ

ForbesTech Must-Have Skills For IT Leaders [Article by Arun Manansingh] http://cptlst.com/qnh9

Carnage4Life How secretive is Apple? See http://j.mp/33fu7Y and http://bit.ly/jdnqH (read part about Purple 2)

mrelph RT @k_sasha: Nice. Canada listed fourth for quality of life by most recent UN study. I feel better already 🙂 http://bit.ly/UDYDM

mrelph New blog post: http://tinyurl.com/ya2r4nd – The Canadian Crew Shows Off Cool Windows 7 Hardware…

mrelph New blog post: http://tinyurl.com/ybyo9ld – Compatibility & Ecosystem Momentum For Windows 7

nytimesbits The I Can Has Cheezburger empire–that’s the word the blog post uses, empire–has a new name to reflect its lolcat http://bit.ly/16KKW4

nytimesbits Spending on Online Advertising Continues to Fall http://bit.ly/kssw2

jesseluna RT @simonmainwaring: WIRED: Clive Thompson on How the Real-Time Web Is Leaving Google Behind. Interesting. http://bit.ly/oYZcn

JohnAByrne BW’s Rob Hof’s latest blog post: "Google’s Scott Huffman: Many More Search Features Coming" http://bit.ly/3yhkx4

TimDraper Recommended Reading: The Way of the VC: Having Top Venture Capitalists on Your Board: http://tinyurl.com/wayoft.. http://bit.ly/1PysAA

CNETNews Is cloud computing the Hotel California of tech? http://bit.ly/11fkZN

CNETNews Why CIOs are saying no to Macs http://bit.ly/4FXHfT

GuyKawasaki 12 things I don’t see at most conferences http://om.ly/JPsO

Microsoft Corp travel $ cut? LifeCams+Office Comms Server 2007 R2=F2F solution; enterprise multipack now avail http://bit.ly/3MnG8o ^SL

MicrosoftStore Microsoft Store Italy (http://bit.ly/qSbt0) and Australia (http://bit.ly/XE2gr) have opened!

tysoncrosbie Asperger syndrome in the office: How I deal with sensory integration dysfunction http://bit.ly/PPzqt #reader

And I’ll leave today with these:

apelad Forward thinking always comes back to haunt me.

Carnage4Life loves when people who seem incapable of doing their jobs want to do mine as well. Twice the fail at half the price

Tags: articles, what I read, twitter, social media, social networking.

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Twitter: it’s more than people talking about themselves (well, maybe not ;). It’s a real resource.

Post author By M3 Sweatt
Post date 06/10/2009

Parking @ #BrickCon: $7. Coffee outside: $4 The line to get in the door? Endless, but worth it…

Interesting think about Twitter. It’s a social network that’s more than just a bunch of people talking about themselves, as Pam Baker noted in her article in TechNewsWorld…

"To its detractors, Twitter is little more than a pipeline through which bores and narcissists flush their short, uninteresting brain droppings."

Hmmm… perhaps.

I side more with Darren Rowse’s views on the benefits of Twitter (he’s the gent behind ProBlogger): it’s useful as a tool for networking and as a virtual water cooler.

In this case, overhearing what Frank was up to over the weekend answered a question we’d had at home the week prior: as it’s fall again, when the heck is that darned Lego expo?

As I noted on twitter this weekend, thanks to tweets from @frankarr, we were made of the Lego BrickCon down at the Seattle Centre. To us, this was an example of valuable information casually "overheard" in the Twitterverse from an individual I follow (in this case, usually more for the humour than the timely what-to-do-around-town information).

And without Twitter, we might’ve missed it.

Increasingly, Twitter is one of the initial stops I make in the morning after reading the news online, checking mail and my RSS fees. Sometimes whilst doing my email, with Twitter scrolling merrily along in the background. Several news providers tweet quite often and pulling up their list of recent tweets gives a quick view into what’s what.

Back to BrickCon.

More importantly, our boys, Max and CJ were able to get their hands on the last Spacetroopers (aka Halo) figures from the good folks at Brickforge.

Of course, the real fun was when CJ was reminded that BrickCon was held at the same location as the Halo 3 ODST launch event. To which CJ asked: "Can I wear my costume again ?"

Tags: articles, what I read, twitter

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The Microsoft Giving Campaign kicks off!

Post author By M3 Sweatt
Post date 05/10/2009

For those FTEs who read this blog, a quick note to let you know that I have posted a few items of interest on this year’s Microsoft Giving Campaign auction. (If you don’t know about our campaign, see this link for more info: http://bit.ly/1ajgA0.)

A couple of very choice items will be posted this week that you will not want to miss. Unfortunately, I am unable to discuss them here.

But, I can say that geeks will love 2145 and 2197, and art lovers will enjoy 2159. A few new items will be added this week, so keep watching.

Tags Announcements, art, Microsoft, Microsoft culture