Mike Tholfsen is an energetic and dedicated senior test manager at Microsoft, and I’ve had the pleasure of working with him in his effort to bring the message of Test Customer Champions to other engineering groups around the company. Product groups who hear about the Test work in OneNote find the effort quite innovative.
Earlier this year, Chris Pratley of Office Labs noted that Mike is a “OneNOte Ninja” (an honour of the highest order, I’m sure)…
“Another guy who’s doing a great job but isn’t blogging yet (he’s shy) is Mike Tholfsen. Mike is the test manager of the OneNote team, and he’s also a tireless (and I mean tireless) OneNote promoter inside Microsoft. You may remember Mike as the guy who wrote “My One and only OneNote“…
“What Mike has done is make a point of meeting with all the right executives, sales people, and so on to get across to them that OneNote can be more than a note-taking tool. He’s made videos internally and externally, like this one to show the power and ease of use of OneNote, in particular focusing recently on this “content distribution” aspect of OneNote to replace paper for green corporate or academic initiatives. He’s helped the Office marketing folks see this potential in OneNote too.”
And a personal (one)note: I use OneNote regularly in meetings and to help compile notes for projects, schedules and more. Read about Mike and more in this week’s reading list. To folks in the States: have a good long weekend… and for folks outside the States: now you know why you’re seeing all the OOF messages on Monday…
Mike Tholfsen’s OneNote and Education Blog — My friend Mike Tholfsen, test manager on OneNote, launched his new OneNote and education blog. Mike is a super smart guy, and I’ve been impressed how he and the team focuses on customer experience.
Also of interest: Mike’s webcast on OneNote 2007 Tips and Tricks: Personal Usage and Collaboration. Join this live webcast to get tips and tricks covering many aspects of Microsoft Office OneNote 2007, beginning with the basic concepts of a digital notebook and the flexible OneNote 2007 “page.” Take a walk with a hands-on expert, and discover how to use OneNote to help you research for a project or trip, and to run effective weekly meetings and action items.
Kid fun: one way to make a paper hat… saved by 17 other people
HTC – Touch Dual Cell Phone (Unlocked) – Info on how to preorder the new Touch Dual mobile phone.
CNET article on Google Capturing 3D Data (Mark Brown’s Virtual Earth Blog) — Mark’s friends over on the Virtual Earth 3D Team today wrote a blog entry about a recent article by Stephen Shankland about a Google experiment to capture 3D data with lasers attached to the heads of sharks, er, the Street View cameras used to capture…
Streaming Moviesâfrom Netflix — The king of snail-mail DVDs now offers a promising films-by-Internet service, but it has issues by Stephen H. Wildstrom May 21, 2008
Allan’s Best Week Ever : Getting to know Windows Live — Allan “recently stumbled upon this set of technical sessions when attempting to learn more about Windows Live as a developer platform.”
Google’s White-Space Fixation (businessweek) — Larry Page presses the FCC to make slivers of wireless spectrum available for unlicensed public use, as opposition mounts, by Olga Kharif
The Sad State of U.S. Broadband (businessweek) — The U.S. has a dismal showing among nations in terms of broadband availability, with no easy solution to bridge the gap, by Catherine Holahan. The U.S. can’t seem to catch up with other developed nations when it comes to giving citizens access to high-speed Internet…
The Waning Days of the Road Warrior (businessweek) — May 22, 2008 — Why the current slowdown in business travel may not end when the economy recovers, by Michelle Conlin
Clip art and media blog: Tell us what you think â weâre listening! — Yes, the Office team woudl love to hear from you: how would you like to engage with the team and with other users on the site? How you like to interact on your favorite sites today?
Download Completed Games – Zune Boards
CEO of ID theft protection service under fire after his SSN is misused (betanews) — By Michael Hatamoto, May 23, 2008 — The man behind an online fraud and identity theft prevention service is being sued in multiple states over his stance that customers’ identities will not be stolen.
Planning for Client Access Servers (Exchange Server TechCenter) — Applies to: Exchange Server 2007, Exchange Server 2007 SP1 Topic Last Modified: 2008-04-29 This topic provides an overview of planning considerations for deploying the Client Access server role on a computer that is running Microsoft Exchange Server 2007
BetaNews | Windows Home Server Power Pack to enter public beta after a data bug — By Scott M. Fulton, III, May 22, 2008 – It’s one of Microsoft’s most innovative products, creating a new market for consumer level server management. But Windows Home Server has recently suffered a few setbacks — problems which may very well be addressed…
Beyond Blogs (businessweek) — May 22, 2008 – Three years ago our cover story showcased the phenomenon. A lot has changed since then. by Stephen Baker and Heather Green
BetaNews | Xbox 360 update canceled while Microsoft works on game portability — By Ed Oswald, BetaNews, May 23, 2008 — Xbox Live general manager Marc Whitten says Microsoft is spending time on building out the infrastructure for the service and will skip over its regular bi-annual update.
Matt Pilgrim – Talking ‘Soft : There can be only one…. — Chris Caposella gave an interesting talk earlier this week in which he mentioned his views that “In five years, 50 percent of our Exchange mailboxes will be Exchange Online…”
Thoughts from Microsoft Ireland : Windows Live SkyDrive offers 5GB of free storage to computer users in Ireland — Windows Live SkyDrive is now available in Ireland offering 5GB of free online storage. SkyDrive provides you with access to your files and information anywhere and anytime you have access to the Internet.
Zune Boards – How to Install Games on Your Zune — A forum member, runtohell121, explains in this thread how to install games on your Zune. Hit the thread link for the details, or just hit the jump for them.
XNA Creators Club Online – home
Google’s Cloud Utopia Doesn`t Mesh With Enterprise — By Clint Boulton, 2008-05-09 — MuleSource CEO Dan Rosenberg rains on Google’s giddiness at a time when everyone is talking about the cloud. The words “Google” and “cloud” are becoming as common in sentences together as “Googleâ and “search.”
Youtubeplay freeware for Pocket PC windows mobile and wm5 or wm6 ppc, PocketPC free downloads. — This is a good YouTube player, which allows you to play full screen, for Pocket PC windows mobile
Research: The Dreams of Doctor Who and Star Trek Fans vs. the Realities of Their Lives
NetFlix Set-top Creator: It Can Do HDTV — But the device may need an ultra-fast Internet connection for high-def. By Swanni — Washington, D.C. (May 22, 2008) — Anthony Wood, CEO of Roku, the company behind NetFlix’s new ‘Net TV’ movie player, says the set-top could display High-Definition videos.
Bargain Hunt: Multimedia PCs – News and Analysis by PC Magazine — 05.22.08 — If you only use your desktop PC for Web browsing and word processing, you’re missing outâespecially when you can get steals like these on a great media-centric PC. by Corinne Iozzio
Gates Never Wanted To Buy Yahoo; Deal This Weekend or Bust – Silicon Alley Insider Henry Blodget (May 23, 2008) said that “As Kara Swisher drives herself to southern California for All Things D, she solves some of the mystery about why Steve Ballmer suddenly walked from the Yahoo negotiations a few weeks back…”
Akimbo, online video delivery company, throws in towel for good » VentureBeat
Google Exec: Hell No We’re Not Paying Anyone To Use Google – Silicon Alley Insider by Dan Frommer | May 22, 2008 5:00 PM Not that anyone ever expected Google to chase after Microsoft’s (MSFT) new “Cashback” gimmick, but at Goldman’s annual Internet conference, Google product director Nicholas Fox didn’t beat around the bush…
Microsoft’s Secret Plan To Kill Google Explained – Silicon Alley Insider by Henry Blodget | May 23, 2008 — We chatted with Microsoft (MSFT) about the economics of Live Search cashback, its new commerce search system. More on that soon, but first an overview of Microsoft’s latest macro plan to kill Google (GOOG)…
GameStop Says ‘Buh-Bye’ To The Zune (GME, MSFT) – Silicon Alley Insider — “Another vote of no confidence in the Zune (MSFT): Video game retail giant GameStop is going to sell off their inventory and wash their hands of the player.” Come to think of it, GS is not the place I would think to buy a Zune… or any music player. Xbox 360 games, sure…
Silicon Valley Users Guide: 10 things Twitter users should not do — The best way to use Twitter is to text “off” to 40404, the service’s SMS shortcut number. But failing that, as more and more of us seem to do, here’s a list of 10 things Twitter users should not do, inspired by a set of tips at SheGeeks.net.
Silicon Valley Users Guide: How to be a girl and a CEO, the 100-word version — For our post “How a girly girl made serious bank on her startup,” Patricia Handschiegel â who did just that with her own startup, StyleDiary â told us that sometimes one has to let the girl’s-girl image go.
Apple’s Future Products Revealed…And Steve Jobs Clearly Needs Your Help – Silicon Alley Insider — Henry Blodget | May 22, 2008 5:26 AM: “Forrester Research is the latest to peer into the future and come back with a list of future Apple (AAPL) products, which we’ve described below. The big thesis? Apple’s going to build the array of electronic devices…
Round 44: US Air vs Microsoft — This is Round 44 in Consumerist.com’s Worst Company in America contest, US Air vs Microsoft. Humbling to say the least.
Travel: Will June 29th Be A Big Cluster#@$! For Airlines? — On June 29th, the FAA will switch to a different filing method for flights in the USA. They are switching to what is called and “ICAO Flight Plan”, which is the international standard that the rest of the world uses.
Complaints: Why Sprint Has The Lowest Customer Satisfaction — 052308: “Brett sent us a story perfectly illustrating why Sprint has really crappy customer satisfaction ratings. While the other cellphone service providers scores hover slightly under the national ACSI average of 75, Sprint’s are a dismal 56.”
Whoops: How Do The Detroit Lions Feel About Season Ticket Holders? “F— ‘Em” — “Kevin Furlong is a season ticket holder with the Detroit Lions. As masochistic as that sounds, it seems that Kevin didn’t appreciate an email that the Lions inadvertently sent him concerning a problem with his tickets. Not an email I’d like to see from any company.
Translating Twitter’s business speak on outages | Coop’s Corner : A Blog from Charlie Cooper – CNET News.com –Breaking a prolonged silence, Twitter on Thursday issued a detailed post on its corporate blog explaining the repeated outages affecting the service and what the company plans to do to resolve them.
Zuckerberg: Facebook founder, Harvard dropout…and koala-eating jet-setter? | The Social – CNET News.com — Posted by Caroline McCarthy: “Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, the youngest person ever to score a spot on Forbes magazine’s annual list of billionaires, is known as a quiet, businesslike fellow.”
The Giant Pool of Money (This American Life) — A special program about the housing crisis produced in a special collaboration with NPR news. We explain it all to you. What does the housing crisis have to do with the turmoil on Wall street? Why did banks make half-million dollar loans…
How to Pack Everything You Own in One Bag : NPR — All Things Considered, May 9, 2008 · With more and more airlines charging extra to check a second piece of baggage, packing light has become a necessity. one packing expert says it is possible to put your belongings in a single piece of luggage… saved by 518 other people
Busted! What Should I Do Now? (Car & Driver feature) — We ask state troopers what they most want drivers to do during a traffic stop. BY JOHN PHILLIPS May 2008
How To: Learn to Play an Instrument Online — lifehacker notes that “the internet is a glorious fount of freely available information, and it’s slowly filling up with excellent tutorials for getting good at just about anythingâincluding playing a new instrument.”… Apparently people are interested in learning an instrument, given that this article was saved by 766 other people
Your Money – Five Basics for Building a Solid Financial Future – NYTimes.com — “The author Michael Pollan offered an elegant seven-word mantra in his best-selling book “In Defense of Food” which is: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” Boiling down investing is a similar exercise: Index (mostly). Save a ton. Reallocate infrequently” … saved by 40 other people
How I got my current favorite mentor » Brazen Careerist by Penelope Trunk — Brazen Careerist blogger Penelope Trunk describes her experiences in finding a mentor whose knowledge and perspective complement and augment her ownâbut more importantly, how she kept the relationship from dwindling… saved by 135 other people
Bank Error Not In Your Favor: Bank of America Suddenly Charges You $146 In Fees For Using Your Checking Account Too Much — Reader Ophelia has a problem. It seems that after 10 years of perfect customer service from Bank of America, they suddenly decided to treat her checking account like a savings account and are charging her hundreds of dollars in “over use” fees.
Friday Fun: Mac Desktop Music Video — one creative filmmaker went beyond the howto and choreographed a full music video to Mac application actions. The result is the mesmerizing video above, which will hopefully add a little fun (if not productivity) to your Friday.
No ads on my Zune, please | Digital Noise: Music & Tech – CNET Blogs — “On stage Tuesday, Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft’s entertainment and devices division, and one of his reports, Mark Kroese, demonstrated how a single advertising campaign could cross several different types of screens, including PC, TV, mobile phones. Of course, Zune has more details on the real story.
Zune spec spot âMusic is lifeâ – istartedsomething — It is a lesser known feature of the Zune media player to revive small animals using the hybrid headphone defibrillator, which this following beautifully crafted spec commercial dutifully demonstrates. Check it out.
Canon HV30 HD DV Camcorder Review (camcorderinfo) — “Conclusion: The Canon HV30, like its predecessor, the HV20, is a very strong camcorder. Unless the competition has made big strides forward since last year (and they may have), Canon may hold top honors once again.” And see these store offerings for Canon VIXIA HV30 High Definition Digital Camcorder – Live Search cashback – Live Search
10 Close Encounters on Tape (MSNBC) — “You be the judge as we count down the 10 most out-of-this-world ‘”close encounters” we could find — from Texas to New Zealand, to the “Belgian Triangle.”
10 dumb things users do that can mess up their computers, from Deb Shinder – Downloads – TechRepublic — Users find plenty of ways to run into trouble, from gunking up their system with shareware to leaving it exposed to attackers to forgetting about using surge protectors. Share this list with your own users so they can sidestep preventable problems…
Kevin Johnson’s letter on Microsoft’s updated online strategy | Tech news blog – CNET News.com — Is nothing confidential anymore? This from CNET last week (May 18 2008): “As Microsoft returns to the table with Yahoo for a deal that might include Yahoo’s search business, Windows and Windows Live chief Kevin Johnson sent this letter updating his team on an updated online and advertising strategy.”
Coding Horror: Building Your Own Home Theater PC — Jeff Atwood has had a PC in his living room “for the past three years as my primary home theater interface” and here he goes through the steps on building a home theater (Media Center) PC. saved by 337 other people
XNA Team Blog : Announcing: Community Games on Xbox LIVE Beta
Digital TV Transition Not as Easy as Advertised – washingtonpost.com — Preparing for Analog Shut-Off, Some Viewers Say New Signals Aren’t as Reliable — By Kim Hart Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, May 20, 2008; Page A01 The government-ordered switch to digital television broadcasting next year promises razor-sharp…
Inside 2008’s hottest tech startups | InfoWorld | Award | 2008-05-19 — By Bill Snyder — Money is the mother’s milk of politics, it’s been said, but when it comes to technology, ideas are the real coin of the realm. In that spirit, we present InfoWorld’s hottest tech startups of 2008, an honor roll of 10 young companies…
Steve Ballmer Egged in Hungary (Gizmodo) — This is just sad…. Steve Ballmer was egged during “a visit to the Hungarian University of Economy. A guy (grad student? just some dude?) stood up, yelled “Give back the money of the taxpayers” in an accent Ballmer probably couldn’t understand, and started egging him. He missed.
The Social Graph Debate Continues… The debate on PII in your social networks (techmamas) — Beth asks “Should your friends be able to load that information into an aggregator so they can track their friends from all the various social networks in one place? For parents the question may be: Why do I care?”
The Beauty of Basic: A Tudor revival (renovation) (Seattle Times Pacific NW) — Lawrence Kreisman of the Times covers a local couple’s “challenge and reward… transforming the house into a home. They have found it again in a Capitol Hill house, and their learning curve on the first project has paid off mightily on this one.”
Staycation – Live Search — Says the venerable New York Times, a staycation is for people who “prefer to unravel the mysteries of the world from the comfort of their living room couches.”
ASUS and MSI have some ‘splaining to do – Engadget — engadget reports that “apparently ASUS and MSI have been caught red handed using the same photograph to peddle their wares. The best part of all is that neither shot is original — they both swiped a stock photo featuring our friend Orange…”
Microsoft announced that it is continuing to explore and pursue its alternatives to improve and expand its online services and advertising business — Microsoft announced that it is continuing to explore and pursue its alternatives to improve and expand its online services and advertising business. May 18, 2008
Photoshop Elements Techniques (Subscription required) — This weekly series is brought to you by the producers of the Adobe Photoshop Techniques newsletter. Join Corey Barker as he brings you the newest tips, tricks, and workarounds and to help simplify your work and put some pizzazz in your images.
Adobe Photoshop Elements for Windows: “See how” movies and training resources — Adobeâs helpful Learning Reference page features “See how” movies, demo’ing how easy it is to edit, create, and share your photos with Photoshop Elements 6. Very helpful.
Photography PhD Not Required (Dell Blogs) — Matt Parretta (May.15.2008) looks at a couple of easy-to-use phoo and video editing applications from Adobe, including Photoshop Elements 6.0 and Premiere Elements, and links to Adobeâs helpful Learning Reference page.
The Aliens are Invading! (Dell Blog) — Dell is taking steps to promote Alienware PCs on its Web site as the PC maker tries to collaborate more–rather than compete outright–with its Alienware unit. Dell has added the Area-51 m9750 to its gaming laptop Web site, according to a Dell company blog
Microsoft: Windows Live outage affected those not signed with Live ID | All about Microsoft | ZDNet.com by Mary Jo Foley, February 26th, 2008 — A widespread, international outage on February 26 affecting users of a number of Microsoftâs Windows Live services affected those not already logged into Microsoftâs Web services via Live ID, according to Microsoft
Life Takes Visa: $10.00 off a purchase of $25.00 or more at Loweâs — Just in time for the weekend… Receive $10.00 off a purchase of $25.00 or more at Loweâs when you use your VisaÂź card.
Tags: misc, articles, what I read, OneNote, Mike Tholfsen
