Tag: tips

Categories
Uncategorized

Information on Daylight Saving Time, Time Zone and related DST changes for Microsoft Windows and other products in 2009

An update on some of the recent daylight saving time changes around the world coming this year to Morocco, Pakistan, Syria and Tunisia in 2009…

image It’s been a busy time, reflected in fewer than normal postings on this blog, but happily it’s due in part (when it comes to time) that there has been little to report in the area of changes to DST and times zones.

In past years, the move from Winter to Spring in the Northern Hemisphere would signal a change to clocks in much of Canada and the States. But as you may know (unless you’re an hour late to all your meetings) that the US and Canada "Sprang Forward" a few weeks ago:  March 8 marked the arrival of Daylight Saving Time.

So here’s a look at some of the changes we’re evaluating and how they would be included in future updates in various DST & time zone product updates (with provisions for semi-annual as needed as outlined here).

Morocco: As noted last year, once again the kingdom of Morocco plans to observe daylight saving time in the country, beginning on Sunday, May 31 at midnight, and ending on Thursday, August 20 at midnight. Not surprisingly, this coincides with the start of Ramadan. (I believe that Egypt will likely make similar changes, but we have no confirmed change in that country.) You can find more information on these changes on marweb.com and this post on medi1sat.ma.

Pakistan: Last May (2008), we learned of a change to the observance of Daylight Saving Time in Pakistan that could impact customers using local time zones, including entities engaged in business in or with the region.  Unfortunately, due to the short notice at which the change had been announced, Microsoft was unable to provide updates (hot-fixes) to support the implementation of DST and referred people to this post on the changes for more details.

For this year – unfortunately once again we don’t have any clear communication on changes in 2009. Through news reports, we estimate that we will learn more at the beginning of April. Once we receive an official notification, we will look at how to bet address the changes.

Syria: We have reports that daylight saving time will begin in Syria on March 27, 2009 at 00:00:00 this year according to many sources, this article in the Syrian Arab News Agency (English), and this article from alwehda.gov.sy, the government site. Guidance will be posted shortly on mitigating the changes in the country.

Tunisia discontinues DST in 2009: Recently we learned that Tunisia will no longer observe daylight saving time beginning in 2009, as noted by the Tunisian press agency here. Daylight saving time had been observed since 2006, beginning on the last Sunday of March, and ending on the last Sunday of October.

As noted in a prior post, our product teams are moving to a regular rhythm to update their products and services to reflect these time changes. (For each update release, Microsoft accepts change requests up to a few months prior to the release date.)

We’ve also updated our page on Microsoft’s Policy in Response to DST/TZ Requests, providing recommendations in order to achieve more seamless transitions to new DST and time zones policies. We suggest that governments should provide the following when considering changing DST or making adjustments to time zones:

  1. Ample advance notice (1 year or more) of the planned change.
  2. Official published confirmation of planned changes to DST or time zones.
  3. Concentrated efforts on promoting the change to the affected citizens.

Important note for governments: Let me note that in support of these types of changes, we provide guidance and Microsoft’s Policy in Response to DST/TZ Requests. It’s important for countries and territories to work towards seamless transitions to new DST and time zones policies, providing ample advance notice (of a year or more) with published confirmation of planned changes. In addition, we suggest that entities considering the changes consider implementing changes at the next clock tick after 01:59:59 rather than at 00:00:00. Making the change at midnight can impact daily systems, such as back ups, data pulls or other automated tasks.

 

Tags: Microsoft, Daylight Saving Time, Daylight Savings Time, DST, Morocco

Delicious Bookmark this on Delicious Bookmark and Share

This page is available also via http://tinyurl.com/dstz031909

Categories
Uncategorized

SXSW 2009 in Austin is the place to be, at least virtually via Twitter and the Web for me this year

SXSW '09

This weekend was a busy one for us at home, otherwise I would have found a way to travel to Austin with several of my friends to attend South by Southwest 2009 Conference in Austin, Texas.

For those of you who don’t know, a good summary is offered here on SXSW from the local paper:

"South by Southwest is a music lover’s heaven. But wait — it’s also a film lover’s dream. And, yes, it’s a techie’s delight. What started as a small Austin music festival 22 years ago is now a full-blown music, film and interactive jamboree known worldwide.

Welcome, SXSW. You’re grown up and spectacular but still very much a genuine Austin experience.

Starting Friday, Austin’s downtown will swell with people and events as SXSW kicks off. Bring on traffic and people congestion. Austin is ready and thrilled to host this year’s 10-day happening that is expected to draw 100,000 attendees. This is just the kind of festive event the city needs to shake off the blues of a slumping economy. The Austin Convention and Visitor’s Bureau estimates that the SXSW jamboree will generate about $103 million for the Austin-area economy."

The SXSW conference also offers a music fest offering nearly 2,000 musical acts from around the world on over eighty stages. Although I’ve never been to one in the 23 years it’s been going on, I have always resolved that I would when I made it back to the music business I left so long ago. Now more than ever at is a destination for media, technology, music and art. (I went to my fair share of New Music conferences in New York, which offered dozens and dozens of bands, but that was pre-Internet, and when I had a Compuserve address that ran up a hefty monthly bill that eclipsed even the most precocious teen texter today.)

Next year.

But this year, I decided to spend time after the family drifted off to sleep this weekend to catch up on the goings-on over the filmmaking, music and technology.

Articles from around the Web

Here’s a collection of articles I queued up to read today from the web.

louisgray.com: The Word on SXSW 2009 is at SXSWerds.com March 10, 2009, By Ken Stewart of ChangeForge (Twitter/FriendFeed) — "Need to get the word on South by Southwest 2009? Get SXSWerds.com, a targeted social media platform, brought to you by BlogWerds Media, dedicated to the niche content vertical of SXSW to deliver what’s happened, what’s happening, and what’s happening next. "Co-founder Eric Berlin, who also writes here on louisgray.com, has positioned the Werds-brand as a highly-targeted content aggregation coupled with social media tools for what’s coming next."

Thrive Selected as Finalist for Microsoft BizSpark Accelerator at SXSW – "Thrive (www.justthrive.com), a free personal financial advisory website, has been named a finalist in the Innovative Web Technology category for the inaugural Microsoft BizSpark Accelerator at SXSW, where early stage technology companies will demo their creations in front of judges and a live audience. Sponsored by Microsoft BizSpark, Moontoast, Mosso | The Rackspace Cloud, and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, more than 200 companies submitted to present at the Microsoft BizSpark Accelerator at SXSW, and 20 were chosen as finalists in four different categories: online video-related technologies, online music-related technologies, social networking, and innovative web applications."

Navigating SXSW the social way, March 13, 2009, 11:20 AM — ITworld — by Joe Doherty — "If you happen to be perusing any sort of website talking about the South By Southwest Conference (SXSW), you’ll probably see three names you and the popular media have come to know well: Twitter, Flickr and YouTube. Without a doubt, you will be able to view many new video uploads on YouTube documenting the day and night’s events within minutes of the actual event commencing. Flickr images will be posted and shared to those who give a care. Twitter, though, is fascinating."

Now, this is just plain silly, as my grandfather would say: Suicide girls get sizzling bacon ‘bro’ tattoos at SXSW (courtesy of the Los Angeles Times, March 15, 2009) – "Talk about bringing home the bacon. At Saturday night’s Bigg Digg party at Stubb’s BBQ in Austin, Texas, I ran across two young ladies from the tech world who were sporting brand-new, hot-off-the-grill bacon tattoos. Lynn LaVallee, a.k.a. @poshy, and her friend Jessica Zollman, a.k.a. @jayzombie, in town for the South by Southwest music and media conference, consummated their roommate-ship early. The two San Francisco-based women, both Suicide Girls (that’s the Web’s "enlightened" erotic-photo site), are moving in together next month, and they both love bacon. Hence the decision to get their "bro tatts." Bacon is, of course, one of the Web’s silliest memes."

Where to eat in Austin – Entertainment News, SXSW News, Media – Variety – "Full disclosure: It’s been a long time since I lived in Texas and when I did, it wasn’t in Austin. However, over my 23 years in that state, the city became my kinda-Mecca. (Sacred, yes. Holy, no.) "All of which is not a bad way to describe the perspective of the tens of thousands who converge on SXSW every year. If you’re among them, you deserve to eat well. Or to put it another way: You’re a fool if you don’t. The best breakfasts in any city/state/country. Fantastic Tex-Mex. And, of course, the barbecue. With that in mind, I’ve assembled a top-10-plus-five list: Ten places I know, love and can vouch for; five that I don’t know but hope to based on recommendations from Those Who Know. Some, but not all of these places are within or walking distance from Austin’s downtown. For the closest-to-definitive list of SXSW-accessible restaurants, go to SXSW Baby!, the terrific and utterly unofficial SXSW blog. There you’ll find a fairly exhaustive rundown, complete with Google Map."

Interactive revolt at SXSW – Entertainment News, Technology News, Media – Variety by LIZ SHANNON MILLER — "Over the five days of the SXSW Interactive conference, there are some 120 panels that discuss and dissect Web 2.0 with topics ranging from "Pimp My Film’s Website" to "Digital Cinema for Indies." However, the biggest news to come out of the event was, appropriately enough, virtual. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has a reputation for being a poor public speaker, so those attending his Sunday keynote discussion hoped moderator Sarah Lacy would steer the conversation. However, Lacy, a columnist for Business Week and writer of an upcoming book on Zuckerberg and Web 2.0, ended up steering the conversation directly into oncoming traffic."

SXSW: Web Video Isn’t Killing TV by Jessica E. Vascellaro at the WSJ blog notes that "While the popularity of online video skyrockets, a panel of comedians and technology executives cautioned that the content is still a long way a way from destroying traditional TV. "That’s not to say that Web video isn’t changing the way TV actors and writers think about their jobs… The panel — which highlighted the role comedy plays in driving Web hits — quickly expanded to assess the success and influence of online-only content in general. B.J. Novak, a producer of “The Office” who also plays temp worker Ryan Howard, said NBC’s hit show spends reasonably big bucks investing in shorter online-only “webisodes”, in part to experiment with what works and what doesn’t online. “Everyone is still trying to figure them out,” he said, adding that he thinks the term “webisode” will disappear in the future as people watch more TV content online and vice versa."

PressHerald.com | NXT: Next Generation: SXSW: Zappos.com – Talking about shoes, saving newspapers? – Justin Ellis over at the Maine Sunday Telegram writes (March 15, 2009) that "I am not much of a shoes guy. I have shoes. I like certain pairs more than others, but they’re more of a utility than a fashion accessory. "So when someone mentions Zappos.com, my brain starts to nod off. This could have meant double jeopardy Saturday afternoon at SXSW Interactive. After traveling for more than six hours and jumping time zones, the first thing I attended was the keynote talk from Zapppos.com CEO Tony Hsieh. "But something odd happened. As Stephen Colbert might say, Hsieh "just blew my mind." "Hsieh didn’t come to SXSW Interactive to talk about shoes or even the selling of shoes. Instead he decided to talk about customer service and how it wins the day for companies. If you’re like me, when you hear the phrase "customer service" you get visions of a dingy desk at back of a department store staffed by a kid who’s filing in for someone on their break."

On the http://sxsw.com/home page you’ll find links to many interesting items, including this one offering a graphic recording of Tony Hsieh opening remarks…

         Tony-Hsieh_SXSW-09_Sunni-Brown-sm.jpg

If you missed yesterday’s Opening Remarks with Tony Hsieh of Zappos, then check out the graphic recordings from Sunni Brown and Marilyn Martin to get some of the main points from his speech. Also, be sure to catch the Keynote Interview today from 2:00-3:00 pm with Nate Silver of fivethirtyeight.com and veteran journalist Stephen Baker. The keynote interview runs from 2:00 to 3:00 in Ballroom A, with simulcasting in Ballroom B, Ballroom C, Room 9 and the Day Stage. We expect a big crowd for Nate Silver, so be sure to get to Ballroom A early if you want to get a seat.

SXSW: Digg’s Party Brings Rude Rock ‘n’ Roll ‘Tude to SXSWi | The Underwire from Wired.com – Who says parties are dead at SXSW? Michael Calore has this article noting how "Diggnation hosts Alex Albrecht, left, and Kevin Rose kick off a live-on-stage version of their podcast with a ceremonial shot at Stubb’s. AUSTIN, Texas — It was an unlikely scene for a dot-com party. Drunken revelers raising their fists to offer a devil’s horns salute to a stage flooded with bright flashing lights, kids shouting and clamoring over one another to get closer to the fray, and guitar solos cranked up a few decibels too many. "The Bigg Digg Shindigg was more like a rock concert than a party at a tech conference. It was hosted by social news website Digg and web video site Revision3 here at the South by Southwest Interactive conference Saturday night."

PR Newser (also tweeting the SXSW conference on twitter) has several posts on SXSW, along with these SXSW Odds and Ends from the PR Newser feed today (March 15):

ZDNet blogger Andrew Mager gives props to Porter Novelli: "As a member of the press I’ve gotten great information, offers to setup interviews, and many VIP party passes. These guys know what they are doing."

Blogger Tim Street catches up with Brian Solis to talk TechSet and how it is "changing what advertisers, marketers and public relations agencies are changing because of social media."

Steve Rubel (who is not at SXSW) points out "A Twitter visualization tool from PepsiCo with tweets about SXSW."

CNET’s own Buzz Out Loud 930: Live from SXSW has a report from Day Two by Jason Howell ‘tho hit with a SNAFU of sorts…

Blasted XP didn’t warn me that my hard drive was full! Therefore, half of the podcast didn’t record. Thankfully, I was able to salvage yesterday’s episode from the Ustream recording, so here it is! Special guests include ZDNet’s Andrew Mager, SXSW Event Director Hugh Forrest and Blogger’s Rick Klau.

As noted on the 2009 SXSW Interactive Cheat Sheet (found here) the full 2009 panel schedule is available online.

"As you contemplate what daytime programming that you want to attend at this year’s event, please remember that we will make audio recordings of all this content. In other words, if you miss the panel during the event, then you can listen to it online after SXSW concludes."

You may also find notes posted to http://jess3.com/SXSW09/categories.php from the various SXSW sessions, ‘though nothing is there as of yet.

Variety has a number of articles (old and new) available on variety.com for the SXSW hot topic, with links to interviews, articles and more.

 

Twitter lets you be there in real time… virtually.

It was a good thing that AT&T boosted their network to support SXSW, which allowed the attendees to tweet their thoughts to the masses not in Austin this weekend, along with more Twitpics and live videos than you can shake a stick at (another Texan saying). As noted here on VentureBeat, "Can’t make SXSW? Visualize it in tweets"…

"Me and my fellow VentureBeatnik Eric Eldon are here on the ground in Austin, Texas for this year’s SXSW conference. Right now, nothing too exciting is going on, as we’re sitting alone in a cafe writing, but tomorrow the conference starts. For those not at the conference, there’s an interesting, visual way to follow along.

"Pepsi has teamed up with the teams behind two great Twitter apps, Twistori and Twennis, to bring us PepsiCoZeitgeist, a new Twitter visualization tool that showcases tweets about SXSW. For those familiar with Twistori, it looks similar, but rather than focus on the words “love,” “hate,” “think,” “believe,” “feel,” and “wish,” it focuses on more SXSW-appropriate terms: “arriving,” “registering,” “eating,” “connecting,” and perhaps most importantly, “partying” and “drinking.” But those evolve as the conference goes on, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone notes in a post about the feature today."

I thought that this tweet kinda sums it up:

alexinmadison: @nerdist The nerdiest thing going on right now is sxsw – especially since @jonathancoulton and @paulandstorm are playing there tonight.

Here’s a collection of what you can find yourself via Twitter’s search engine for SXSW tweets, this just a sample of favourite tweets over a 30 minute period. I’ll leave it to you to find yourown favourites (and LMK if you have good links to attendee coverage):

shanewilliamson: Pepsi created a Twitter visualiser for the SXSW event – Clever way of watching tweets from the event – http://pepsicozeitgeist.com/

scnn: SXSW, the Conference for Julia Allison and Other People Lacking Real Jobs [Party Report] : What recession? More .. http://tinyurl.com/cm2mpn

arielwaldman: One of my favorite panels the first year I went to SXSW was Sex & Computational Technology w/ @qdot & @violetblue on it (be4 i knew them)

sukhjit: @garyvee says videoblogging success comes from content, transparency and authenticity. #sxsw Do you have a question for gary? I’ll ask it!

SHHHE: Facebook new hompage (+open feeds) is going to replace Twitter @briansolis #SXSW

@kevinmarks "the internet is the largest group of people who care about reading and writing ever assembled in history" @shirky #sxsw

joshua_thomas: At another packed #Sxsw session. McGyver meets design. http://twitpic.com/24y8b

@jmoriarty: In How Social Media is killing the Revolution with @strebler @penguin and @oddboy #sxsw – don’t just follow ppl who agree

Skud: "the amount of privacy that could’ve happened if apache hadn’t shipped with logging enabled by default is enormous" – #sxsw not being evil

MomCentral: PR firms beware: social media simply offers the ability to screw up with a much larger audience in a much shorter time. #pr2 #sxsw

carmenb: This quote from @garyvee is for @lizcobb: Content is king & marketing is queen. And the queen runs the house. #sxsw

epodcaster: "…if you have an amazing product that could change the world and nobody knows about it that’s no doing you any good either." #sxsw

cheeky_geeky: Gary @garyvee has a good product, works his ass off, and knows his stuff. Forget new marketing until you have those three. #sxsw

adamehrheart: http://tiny.cc/css754 CSS3 presenters were full of it. Why on Gods green earth would Marquee updates be a "Hight Priority" item??? #sxsw

CouchSurfingOri: #sxsw #pr2 @skydiver Twitter is like your 7million person focus group.

hober: I encourage everybody at @ToddHuffman‘s #sxsw panel to check out http://www.overcomingbias.com/

@jmacofearth: Unofficial Mac vs “Other” Count at #SXSW Interactive 2009 (UPDATED with PICS) http://ff.im/-1x4Hk UPDATED!

KellyDanielCNN: vaynurchuk: you could have the best marketing campaign in the world, and if your bottled water tastes like ass, you’re not gonna win #sxsw

CouchSurfingOri: #sxsw #pr2 @skydiver PR Press releases will be dead in 24-36 months. It’s all social media now. Any1 can get in touch w/ the press now.

gaeyia: "Here’s where the difference is: do you have the chops? Is your product GOOD?" #garyvee #sxsw

epodcaster: If you have a great marketing campaign and bad product, Social Media isn’t going to do you any good. By the same token… #sxsw

lesliehatfield: loving yourself the key to success,a common theme here at #sxsw, i guess it’s true, as long as you don’t suck, which is what gary’s saying

@pk2004: The http://sxsw2009.sched.org is busy self scaling to cope with a surge in demand. Cool. #sxsw http://twitpic.com/24y20

MegaJustice: More booth zombies from Atozmedia at #sxsw. Yes, I walk the show floors an record what I see for R&D. Zombies can easily be fixed. Just ask.

christine: Lane Becker’s Therapy for the Under-employed at SXSW: What are you going to do with yourself, now that the econo.. http://tinyurl.com/cnb23n

CindyRoyal: Embrace your dna, people lie to themselves. Love yourself. Be who you are, "cause you can monetize that sh*t" @garyvee #sxsw #sxtxstate

jmaver: @ggroovin why not just rss feed as broadcast vs twitter. because 1% of people understand RSS, but follow me on twitter is simple. #sxsw

RT @unmarketing: At SXSW, attendees confront Twitter saturation http://ub0.cc/5c/24

jeffreynolds: Panels today seem like they were awkwardly organized – can’t get into anything because popular topics are in tiny rooms. #sxsw

omarg: Just did a lengthy video interview with @feliciaday, who was an amazingly good sport (delightful!). Video to come on austin360.com #sxsw

hesnow: As PR person, don’t share what ur eating for lunch. U are the brand u represent, but connect as a person. Say something interesting. #sxsw

For those geeks heading home and will miss the SXSW Music festival, you can find a preview of the event from this story on npr.org last week:

All Songs Considered, March 9, 2009 – NPR Music and All Songs Considered will be in Austin, Tex. next week, blogging, broadcasting and webcasting nearly a dozen live concerts from some of the year’s most exciting bands, at this year’s South by Southwest festival. You’ll hear The Decemberists debut their entire new album, The Hazards of Love, along with performances by K’Naan, The Heartless Bastards and many more, all webcast live on NPR.org.

On this edition of All Songs Considered host Bob Boilen chats with NPR Monitor Mix blogger Carrie Brownstein, producer and Second Stage host Robin Hilton, and Song of the Day editor Stephen Thompson about some of the bands they’re most looking forward to seeing at this year’s South by Southwest festival in Austin, Tex. Hear music from some great unknown bands, like Sgt. Dunbar and the Hobo Banned, Passion Pit, and The Weird Weeds, plus Jason Lytle of Grandaddy, Mirah, and Ponytail.

More news on SXSW at Windows Live Search News.

Tags: articles, what I read, blogs, SXSW.

Delicious Bookmark this on Delicious Bookmark and Share

This post is also available via http://tinyurl.com/sxsw031509

Categories
Uncategorized

Going to the MVP Summit in Seattle? Here are a few travel tips and local suggestions

Microsoft will host the 2009 MVP Global Summit this week, March 1-4, 2009, at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center in Seattle, and at Microsoft headquarters in Redmond. Hosted by two of my associates, the irrepressible Rich Kaplan and the multi-talented Toby Richards (known in the past for a mean saxophone), I’m looking forward to meeting MVPs this week on main campus and at some of the events in Seattle.

My friend Lawrence Liu alerted me to the use of the #MVP09 on Twitter, so you can see all the Tweets WRT the Summit via this Twitter search.

My hat is off to the many folks visiting us this week. 

(BTW: Have your own addition or suggestion for this page? Send me a Tweet on Twiiter.)

I was asked today for a couple of restaurant recommendations, so here are a few tips for those brave and dedicated souls in Seattle this week for the event:

Flight and Hotel: If you don’t already have either of these, there’s always next year. If you didn’t make it to Seattle, follow the Tweets.

But if you must go, try booking online, going stand-by, or fly and drive from another major city.  As for hotels, call a well-connected travel agent or try to find a room in town. A quick scan of Expedia shows rooms available.

First time to Seattle? Check out the very well designed Seattle Visitor’s Guide courtesy of the City of Seattle.

Pack light.  Keep in mind that it is still quite cool in Seattle this time of year: we just had a couple inches of snow last week.  It will be cool at night and up in the low 50’s during the day this time of year (or about 10 degrees for my friends outside the States).  Check the weather report for Seattle here.  Standard dress is casual and business casual: I get along most days with includes khaki, nice jeans or dark pants, jumpers or pull-overs (dress in layers) and a light weatherproof rain jacket.  See also a few travel recommendations from Colin Cowie on packing.

For the evenings, just spruce up with a nice shirt – please, refrain from gratuitous logos.

Wear great, comfortable shoes.  As per past recommendations, don’t bring the stylish shoes, go for comfort.  Even though you’ll be sitting through sessions, there’s still plenty of walking around and standing.  Many smart folks are often seen roaming the floors walking to and from sessions in walking shoes or sneakers.  My pick: nice walking shoes from anything from Ecco, Rockport or New Balance, which all have nice shoes in black. You won’t need snow shoes or mukluks this time of year, but ensure that the shoes are generally water resistant or waterproof: chances are good you encounter a shower at some point, and puddles abound, even indoors at times.   

Bring your favourite snack food. Not.  See below on booking restaurants early (call before you fly) and be sure to enjoy your favourite portable snack foods at the event – there is sure to be plenty around. I expect that there will be plenty to eat and drink at the event starting with the events on Sunday nite. But for travel, I find that Odwalla bars travel well, particularly the C Monster and Berries GoMega.  

Getting from the airport to anywhere: Assuming that you are like much of the civilized world, you’ll be arriving by plane at SEATAC airport. Remember, if you need to get a taxi cab at SEATAC airport, you’ll find plenty on the main floor across the street from the arrivals and baggage claim.

If you arrive into Seattle with other folks on the same flight, consider getting a large van or a limo if you’re going to roughly the same hotel downtown: that way you’ll pay one fee.  Last, unless you plan on traveling off the beaten path, you don’t really need to rent a car (take a cab): there will be plenty of busses and taxis available. More info available at Sea-Tac Airport: Shuttle Bus, and this courtesy of the Seattle Visitor’s Guide site:

When I commuted to Redmond a few years ago, I found that public transit stopped less than a block from my hotel and whisked me right to the Overlake Transit Center, adjacent the main Microsoft campus. 

Travel to and from your hotel to the WSCTC.  Getting to the Washington State Convention & Trade Center is easy – many hotels are in walking distance or are a short cab ride away.  As always, I suggest comfortable walking shoes.  Get to your sessions early as many are filled to capacity, especially the keynotes.

As noted in the Visiting Seattle you find a great Seattle 101, A Guide for Travelers and Tourists online.

Say hello your new best friend: the hotel concierge.  Introduce yourself and hand them a business card.  That one move may come in hand later more than you know.  See ‘dinner’ and ‘getting to the airport’ for starters.  If you plan on doing a lot of schmoozing around town, call them and introduce yourself now to let them know you will be staying at the hotel. 

As Cowie notes, "ask your concierge to make some reservations for you now at top restaurants so you don’t find that you can’t get in when you arrive there in peak season. Tip the concierge the moment you arrive…"  See, you can learn helpful travel hints from a man that you thought only had great party design sense. 😉

There’s always something to eat in Seattle: This city has more restaurants than you’ll ever have time to visit. But there are a few duds amongst the diamonds, so be sure to check out the recommendations at http://www.seattlemag.com/0t12p5/eat-drink/ and http://www.seattlemet.com/. There you’ll find more info on local restaurants and bars, along with more suggestions in Seattle Magazine’s Best of 2008, which includes reviews and information on some of the best places around. Also see the suggestions on Seattle Metro’s eat-and-drink restaurant reviews. In addition, look to stand-bys such as Gayot.com and Frommers.com for more reviews and suggestions.

Some of my local favourites are…

Also of interest when you have free time: Pike Place Market: The Holy Grail of Cheap Eats, "your guide to the best, most affordable handheld (or close to it) meals at the holy grail of cheap eats." A full list of cheap eats from the December issue is available here.

A note on booking tables… Consider booking your table online or through your hotel concierge as noted above: if you haven’t called them in advance, ask for their help in booking a table (tip, please) and get their business card with their phone number after you check in… and give them a tip if they offer a direct dial number.  A good concierge may be able to score a reservation to a hard-to-book place: I have found that your best bet is a well-connected hotel concierge if a direct call to the restaurant doesn’t pan out.  In some dire situations, your credit card company may offer a concierge service to help you book tables or flights.

My favourite: book a table at OpenTable.com. Many of the restaurants still show availability on OpenTable.com as of today, so book early.

Of course, my favourite local chain sandwiches are found via the many local locations of Quiznos and Subway. But again, you’ll be eating well enough that I doubt you’ll need to visit these during the day.

Getting to the airport.  The smart MVP books a car or cab in advance of their departure. So until our new train is up an running to SEATAC, arrange a car in advance through your concierge for more than one traveler.  Or that concierge you tipped earlier just may have arranged a shuttle for a small group that has an opening. 

Additional links from the Port of Seattle: Sea-Tac Airport where you can find more information on flights, transportation and more.

Tags: Microsoft, MVP, travel tips.

Delicious Bookmark this on Delicious Bookmark and Share

Also available via http://tinyurl.com/MSMVP09

Categories
Uncategorized

Concerned about online privacy? So is Microsoft’s Peter Cullen. Actually, it’s his job.

There’s a new article and interview up on Microsoft PressPass with my friend and fellow Canuck Peter Cullen from Microsoft on Data Privacy Day & online privacy. (Also available at http://tinyurl.com/pcullen013009.)  The kids are in school today… did I miss a bank holiday somewhere?

When asked about some of the recent research on the concept of online privacy and the threats to online consumer safety, Peter had this to say…

"One big thing was that, while many consumers are very concerned about protecting online privacy, they typically have only a surface understanding of the threats they face. People take basic steps such as using spam filters, deleting cookies and installing anti-virus software, but they’re not necessarily aware of what these technologies do.

"People also have a perception that once their information is online, there isn’t much they can do to protect it. Many people aren’t aware of the controls they have, such as the ability to opt out of behaviorally targeted advertising or new tools in Internet browsers.

"In addition, specific concerns and risks change depending on how people use the Internet. For example, threats to privacy stemming from social networking sites are a large concern for young people and, increasingly, middle-aged professionals. Online finance issues, meanwhile, may affect older people more.

"What these findings tell us is that we must do more to educate consumers. People are making privacy decisions all the time and may not even know it. They must have the right resources from industry, government and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), so they can better educate themselves about privacy, threats to personal information and ways to safely navigate online. Much like a medical condition: consumers need to understand how the illness occurs, instead of just what medicine to take."

Back in 2007, Microsoft commissioned a survey to find out more about consumers’ awareness of online fraud and how to avoid being scammed and found that…

  • Nearly one out of five surveyed has been a victim of at least one Internet scam.
  • Of those people, 81 percent admitted they did something that led to the crime, such as opening an e-mail that appeared to be from a legitimate person or company.
  • Over half of respondents (58 percent) admitted they had little to no knowledge of current online threats and scams.

Pretty amazing results.

As noted in my post on Cybersafety and staying safe online, I recall from this article in the Seattle Times on cybersafety which included six tips for staying safe online:

  1. Protect your privacy and personal information
  2. Be alert online
  3. Delete junk e-mail
  4. Use strong passwords
  5. Use antivirus software and a firewall
  6. Be smart about downloading

Additional information:

As noted in the article, "Microsoft commissioned focus group research to determine which privacy issues are most important to consumers. The findings were captured in a short documentary that will be screened prior to the panel to inform the discussion. The video is available on Microsoft’s Data Privacy Day Web Site (http://microsoft.com/dataprivacyday)."

[Added 3:37PM] To answer my friend, Charles’, question…

"The 43% increase [cited in the article] in malware removed in the first 1/2 CY 08 – is that number collected from MSFT apps like Defender & services like OneCare or an industry number?"

This is from the Microsoft Security Intelligence Report volume 5 (covering the first half of calendar2008) and is available here for download from microsoft.com. 

Delicious Bookmark this on Delicious Bookmark and Share

del.icio.us Tags: ,,,,

http://tinyurl.com/baqlck

Categories
Uncategorized

Your questions: How to easily set up a dual boot system for Windows 7

Over the weekend I noted that the Windows 7 Beta was available for download, which prompted a number of questions.  By far, the most common and popular question was…



“I want to install Windows 7 but I don’t want to lose my Windows XP/ Windows Vista installation.  I’d like to create a dual boot system… What should I do?”


From the boards and blogs, it appears that this is on many people’s minds.  So much so that Lifehacker’s Adam Pash posted a quick set of instructions on How to Dual Boot Windows 7 with XP or Vista last Friday… and it’s a popular post with more than 120,000 views as of today.


After downloading the beta, it’s fairly straight forward to partition your drive to provide a volume for the installation and then install the beta.  (Instructions for installing the Windows 7 beta can be found online here.)


I will insert one step to Adam’s suggested two step procedure:


Step 1.5: Partition and create a Data partition for your files.


I added a step for my systems, providing an additional partition in my single drive machines (laptops and an HP Slimline) to serve as my data drive.  This allows me to install new drops of the Windows 7 OS without having to back up my data for a migration to the latest version.


Added 011609: Thanks to Duncanma for info on setting up a USB drive to install Windows 7 onto a computer following these steps with diskpart: http://is.gd/gbCa.


Tags: Microsoft, customer support, feedback, customer service.


Bookmark and Share


http://tinyurl.com/win7dualboot