Tag: what i read

As noted on twitter, how frustrating and exciting a week can be, all at once.

New marketing (and here), rumours of “hitting M3”, more Microsoft updates to daylight saving time and time zones, and watching the water level drop, ending yesterday with the Company Meeting at Safeco field and working on our efforts to improve product quality and customer satisfaction, and finally cleaning up email today.

I’m glad the weekend is here, and to celebrate, here’s a brief list of items I completed reading on the bus.  On Monday, I will provide an update on favourite MSDN and TechNet blog posts, but for now, enjoy you’re weekend.

Patient Power – Forbes.com — Matthew Herper 08.21.08, 6:00 PM ET Forbes Magazine dated September 15, 2008 Emily Schaller “If you are told you have an incurable disease, you might be motivated to help find a cure. “Inspired by the CFF’s success, patient groups with an entrepreneurial bent have become the drug industry’s new power brokers. Medicines for blood and bone cancers have reached the market faster because of their efforts. A hundred more patient-group-backed drugs, one-twentieth of all the medicines in development, are in human clinical trials for Parkinson’s, diabetes, muscular dystrophy and a litany of cancers. These patient power brokers will give drug companies $90 million this year, 13 times as much as in 2000, according to Thomson CenterWatch, a research firm that analyzes clinical trials. The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society has 50 drugs in development, including 11 in clinical trials. The Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation is working with 30 drugs, up from none in 2000,…”

WowWee’s $300 Rovio robotic sentry ships this month – Engadget — The Rovio — one of WowWee’s finest if we should say so ourselves — is finally ready to roam around domiciles and keep baddies at bay. First announced (and spotted) at CES 2008, this long-awaited robotic sentry is up for pre-order right now, and it comes packing a 640 x 480 webcam to stream back live video in MPEG4 format. Furthermore, it can snap stills, head out on a customized patrol route and avoid obstacles with its infrared sensor. Get ready — this sheriff’s rolling into your town next Friday for $299.95.

Green, You Say?: Majority of US E-Waste Gets ‘Recycled’ in Asia, Where Recycling Is Often Non-Existent — A new report by the US Government Accountability Office is claiming that the majority of US E-Waste recycling services should reconsider dumping our 20 million plus pounds of waste on Asia, where it’s cheaper but also less effective. Many of the major electronics manufacturers (Samsung, Sony, Best Buy, more) have been proudly rolling out recycling services in greater numbers over the last year or so, but the new information confirms that tons of recycled e-waste never makes it to the actual “recycling” part, at least as far as US standards go

Microsoft: Microsoft’s “I’m a PC” Ad Beats Seinfeld (But Not Hodgman)— 5:14 PM Fri Sep 19 Phase 2 of Microsoft’s Windows ad campaign debuted tonight during The Office, and the latest work by ad agency Crispin, Porter + Bogusky definitely beats the crap out of those (ill-fated?) Gates/Seinfeld ads when it comes to making a point. The point is simple: Not all PC users look like John Hodgman. Some are even sexy beasts. It’s easy to spot Deepak Chopra and Bill Gates affirming their PC-ness, but I think I also saw A-Rod Tony Parker and Eva Longoria too. You guys have a look and fill in the gaps, because there are a lot of celebs and specialists showing PC pride here. I only wish it didn’t open with that poor bastard Hodgman lookalike—the message is damn loud and clear anyhow. Update: Windows’ 15-second “I Wear a Suit” video below…

Apple security not ready for enterprise prime-time | Zero Day | ZDNet.com — Guest editorial by Andrew Storms Last week Apple proved that they are not ready for prime time enterprise relationships. Apple has tried to position the iPhone as enterprise-ready, but this last round of software updates demonstrated beyond a shadow of a doubt how far they have to go to understand the enterprise mentality. On September 9th, Apple released updates to some 20 security vulnerabilities that included updates to QuickTime, iTunes and other software. On September 12th, Apple released iPhone version 2.1, which was intended to fix 8 security holes and repair 3G connections problems. On September 15th, Apple released updates to OSX that includes fixes to nearly 70 security problems. On September 16th, Apple released updates to Remote Desktop, again fixing more security problems.

Ballmer sets a new (and potentially much later) retirement date | All about Microsoft | ZDNet.com — Last time CEO Steve Ballmer offered a tentative timeframe as to when he might retire from Microsoft, he put the date at ten years or so from now (around the time his youngest goes to college). But now there’s a new date. And Ballmer may be sticking around a lot longer than many are thinking, or, in some cases, hoping. According to scuttelbutt from Microsoft’s annual employee meeting, which was held in Seattle on September 18, Ballmer told attendees that he is going to stay on at Microsoft until Microsoft’s search share exceeds Google’s. Ballmer’s retirement reference is in the comments section of a new blog post on the company meeting by Mini-Microsoft.

Microsoft’s pulls its new community manager from the press corps | The Open Road – The Business and Politics of Open Source by Matt Asay – CNET News — This past week Peter Galli accepted a job as the newest member of Microsoft’s open-source team, focused on community relations. According to an internal email sent out by Robert Duffner, Microsoft’s senior director of Platform Strategy.

Talking Business – Stuck in Google’s Doghouse – NYTimes.com, By JOE NOCERA Published: September 12, 2008 A few days ago, Dan Savage had his lawyer send a nine-page, 4,000-word letter to the antitrust division of the Justice Department. Mr. Savage, 59, runs Sourcetool.com, a business-to-business Web site that acts as a directory, listing — and ranking — hundreds of thousands of companies that sell industrial products. According to the letter Mr. Savage submitted to the Justice Department, Google at first gave him nothing but encouragement, even naming Sourcetool its AdSense site of the week at one point. By May 2006 — with the company barely six months old — it was making around $115,000 a month on $653,000 in revenue. According to Mr. Savage, his biggest expense was paying Google to advertise against search terms, which was costing around $500,000 a month.

Best of the Web 2008 on businessweek — Cough ’em up. Which Web sites are saved in your Favorites? Once again, BusinessWeek wants to know the sites you consider most valuable when it comes to getting informed, making money, having fun, and building your own online tools. We’ve also brought back a hit from last year, The Most Influential People on the Web, and added a new category: Best Newcomer. To vote for a favorite site, click on a category at right. Choose from last year’s top five, or write in one of your own. As ever, many sites fit in more than one category, so vote in all that apply. We’ll share results in a late-September special report. Polls closed Sept. 12.

When System Restore Doesn’t Restore — What do you do when your backup harddrive fails, then System Restore doesn’t restore your system as expected? This week has been yet another reminder to me that I have not thought through or planned out a back-up strategy that really works for me. What’s your back-up strategy?

Microsoft Education: Download free posters for your class — They say a picture is worth a thousand words. We think they can inspire even more. You can download and print this poster, or if you send us your name, education institution address, and e-mail address we’ll send you a full-size poster—no charge—for your classroom.

gapingvoid: “cartoons drawn on the back of business cards”: “good ideas have lonely childhoods” – The first chapter of Hugh’s upcoming book is called “Ignore Everybody”.

The Hidden Costs of Cheap PCs, by Dan Costa, 10.31.07 “Sure, $500 will get you a decent system, and another $100 will get you a cheap LCD display. But don’t put that credit card away just yet. If you want to do something with that PC, you will need to keep on paying. If you want Word and Excel, Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007 will run you $149. Photo editing with Photoshop Elements costs another $99. Protecting your system from viruses with a suite like Norton 360 will set you back you another $50. And keep in mind that after a year your virus definitions will expire, and you will need to pay another $40 every year afterward to keep the definitions up to date.”

PC World – Don’t Send That E-Mail (Read This First) — Keep your messages out of the trash with these do’s and (especially) don’ts that will get them read. Steve Bass Jul 18, 2007 1:00 am Email Print RSS 1 CommentBuzz up! 13 Yes 7 No Recommends Are you guilty of sending annoying e-mail? Of course you are. That’s because what you think is cool can drive someone else (probably me) up the wall. I have a handful of examples in my recent “Hassle-Free PC,” “E-Mail That Gets Your Message Across.” I sometimes seem to write more than I should [no fooling.–Editor], so here are a few ideas I had to leave out of the print column.

Judgment: How Winning Leaders Make Great Calls — Excellent decisions don’t often happen by accident. In this excerpt, the authors highlight the elements—and the masters—of effective action Throughout our lives, each of us makes thousands of judgment calls. And, as we rise to positions of leadership, the importance of our judgment calls is magnified by their increasing impact on the lives of others. Despite the implications of the word “call,” the judgment calls that leaders make cannot be viewed as single, point-in-time events. Like umpires and referees, leaders do, at some moment, make a call. But unlike umpires and referees, they cannot—without risking total failure—quickly forget them and move ahead to the next play. Rather, for a leader, the moment of making the call comes in the middle of a process.

Kill Commercials From Recorded TV – Solutions by PC Magazine, 09.12.07 Total posts: 5 by Rick Broida SLIDESHOW (4) Slideshow | All Shots Half the joy of owning a DVR is quickly skipping past the commercials in recorded TV programs. But it’s an imprecise, manual process: You have to reach for the remote, press the fast-forward or skip button, and try to land at the exact moment your show resumes. If you miss, mad bursts of fast-forwarding and rewinding often ensue. A smart DVR would skip the commercials automatically, whizzing you from fade-out to fade-in in the blink of an eye. Alas, TiVo’s not that smart. Neither is your cable company DVR. But if you use a Windows Media Center PC to record your shows, you can turn it into the smartest DVR on the planet.

Environmental Monitoring – Solutions by PC Magazine, by Matthew D. Sarrel, 9/12/2007 AIM Health Size: 1,800 full-time employees Challenge: Automate environmental monitoring of data centers and wiring closets >Solution: APC NetBotz Results: No hard ROI numbers, but company has averted temperature- and power-related outages Erick Murphy, business continuity administrator Tennessee’s AIM Health provides business solutions to health-care organizations (both care providers and insurance companies). The company simplifies information management and analyzes claim data to prevent overpayment. AIM occupies two buildings in Tennessee and one in Wisconsin, and it collocates a server cluster at an off-site facility. Tracking ingress and egress—plus temperature, humidity, and airflow—in the company’s data centers and wiring closets was a time-consuming task.

Beyond WEP: Beef Up Your Wi-Fi Security – Solutions by PC Magazine, 9.12.2007 – “Wireless security is not just for experts anymore. Sure, there are still a few Wi-Fi newbies around who leave their networks wide open, but it seems more and more have finally decided to enable WEP (wired equivalent privacy) or WPA (Wi-Fi protected access). Good for them! Unfortunately, hackers use simple tools to break WEP encryption. Even WPA passphrases, which are much stronger than WEP passwords, can be foiled. The following security measures go beyond the basics, placing moats and drawbridges around your network instead of a Sphinx that will let through any old visitor who answers a riddle correctly.”

Tim Wu, Freedom Fighter (businessweek) — November 8, 2007, 12:01AM EST His wireless-phone manifesto was the inspiration for Google’s new mobile-software strategy, which includes the Open Handset Alliance by Spencer E. Ante

Web Smackdown – Alexaholic – Google | Fast Company — By: Alyssa Danigelis An addictive tool reveals who’s watching what. The hottest little site on the Web right now may be Alexaholic.com. “Wonderfully simple,” raves one blogger. “A nifty tool,” says another. That’s ironic, since all Alexaholic does is show which other sites are hot. It happens to do that very well.

Numbers: You’re swimming in them (Fast Company) — Swivel, a new startup, lets users upload, compare, and contrast data–from iPod sales to wine consumption–to make sense of the world. A Web 2.0 story in charts. By Michael A. Prospero, December 2007 Issue 113

Owning a remote-controlled home, just like Bill Gates – December 1, 2006 — Bill Gates’s smart home cost $113 million. Now you can have the same kind of remote control over your dwelling for as little as $10 a month. By Michal Lev-Ram, Business 2.0 Magazine writer-reporter March 15 2007: 12:23 PM EDT (Business 2.0 Magazine) — Bill and Melinda Gates’s “smart home” in Medina, Wash., cost an estimated $113 million to build – but that’s pennies compared with what consumers are starting to spend every year on making their homes smarter. Thanks to a host of new, lower-cost home automation technologies, cable operators and telecoms are targeting the average homeowner with cheap bundled subscription services, often controlled from their cell phones.

Tags: articles, what I read, Microsoft, blogs (to 091208)

http://tinyurl.com/4cfhyx

This Twitter thing is interesting.  Normally, I’m not a fan of the brief chat or the microblog, but I find it tremendously useful in getting a quick lay of the land in how people are thinking — or tweeting, actually — on a particular topic. You’d expect that more Microsofties would be tweeting (many do) but it appears for now that blogging on MSDN, Technet, Live Spaces and others are the most popular form of externally facing, casual communications for many MS employees.

And speaking of Microsofties, a tip of the hat to my friend, Steve Lipner, our senior director of security engineering strategy, for much coverage this week on how Microsoft has "beefed up" with the Security Development Lifecycle.  As Darryl K. Taft wrote earlier this week…

"Microsoft has evolved its Security Development Lifecycle (SDL) to help developers better address security in the design and development phases of the application lifecycle. In addition, Microsoft is delivering an SDL optimization model, a new SDL service provider network and a new threat modeling tool."

On to other news, there is plenty of election coverage, and I was happy to see the candidates addressing the challenges around daylight saving time.  No, not the presidential candidates, but the local candidates in the hotly contested race in Indiana, as noted in The Herald Bulletin last week as Daniels, Long Thompson debate issues…

"Democratic challenger Jill Long Thompson and Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels clashed over the economy, taxes and privatization Tuesday night, seven weeks before the Nov. 4 general election. The candidates also spent some time on time zones. Legislation was passed in 2005 mandating statewide observance of daylight-saving time, but some counties later successfully petitioned the federal government to be allowed to switch to Central Time. Confusion over time zones has been a perennial issue in Indiana.

"Daniels said the change was needed because of the confusion was hurting businesses because others outside Indiana didn’t know what time it was here."

Brilliant. If you’ve read this blog, you know that confusion over time zones has been an issue around the world. Please, Indiana, just make up your mind.

Why the confusion, you ask? Just look at this example of confusion with the Mideast clock ahead of Ramadan this year on msnbc.com…

"The start of the holy month of Ramadan next week is causing clock confusion in the Middle East. Egypt and the Palestinians are falling back an hour far earlier than usual, trying to reduce daylight hours for Muslims fasting until sunset in sweltering summer temperatures. Politics is also adding a twist. The Palestinian militant group Hamas is ending daylight-saving time at midnight Thursday in the Gaza Strip, which it controls — while the West Bank, run by the rival Fatah faction, is waiting until midnight Sunday. The Palestinians have traditionally changed their clocks at different times from Israel in a gesture of independence. Now for the first time, they’re directing the gesture at each other, reflecting the rival claims for power in the more than year-old split between the Palestinian territories.

You can always spend $50 grand as one University decided to deploy 300 GPS clocks to handle the task of keeping classroom clocks up to date.  "There were 300 fewer clocks for Facilities Management to turn back for daylight saving time last weekend. Those clocks in classrooms around campus have been replaced during the past few weeks with Global Positioning System wireless clocks, assistant director for Facilities Management Sean Schuller said. After more than a year of planning, Facilities Management teamed up with the Office of Classroom Management to purchase 300 clocks from Wisconsin-based Primex Wireless, he said. Primex developed the technology using GPS to keep time in 1999, Primex Wireless marketing manager Anita Carrel said."

Seeing my friend, Rich Kaplan’s photos of Europe this week, I give you this article on Photography: Give Your Photos a Vintage Appearance — Frank Lazaro, a member of the Digital Photography School community, has put together a fantastic tutorial on taking your digital photographs and giving them the vintage feel of older photos. He uses Photoshop and the tutorial and steps are geared towards Photoshop users, but none of the steps are extremely specific to using Photoshop. The effects could easily be recreated with a bit of tweaking to the process in another photo editing program like GIMP. If you’re in the mood to tinker with some of your photos but aren’t interested in being really hands on with the process check out previously reviewed Wanokoto, a web based image editor that helps you create vintage effects.

Perhaps I can learn some ways to spruce up and better my posts by reading the Top 10 Worst Types of Blog Post (and how to fix them) in Boing Boing, posted by Rob Beschizza (September 15, 2008): "Anyone who writes will eventually be guilty of writing something bad. Most do so only incidentally, as a result of error or ignorance. It’s a sin of professional writers, however, to be systematically bad. Following are some of the worst things that I’ve ever done … and worse!"

Now on to the rest of the reading pile, in case you’re wondering what to do during intermission tomorrow.

Howstuffworks "How Music Royalties Work" by Lee Ann Obringer — "Watch MTV or open a copy of Rolling Stone or Spin and you’ll be checking out some musical members of the entertainment elite. The clothes, the jewelry, the cars, the clubs, the houses… One might wonder where, exactly, all that money is coming from. How much does the artist make from CD sales? Bars, clubs and coffee houses across the country are overflowing with fresh, talented musicians who want to join the ranks of these performers. But really, what are the chances of making it to stardom and retiring on music royalties? Making money in the music industry is tricky. Recording contracts are notoriously complicated, and every big recording artist has a small army of legal representatives to translate and negotiate these deals. In this article, we’ll look into the world of music royalties and see how money is actually made in this industry."

fit-PC slim, the ‘world’s smallest PC’ — just don’t lose it on your desk – Engadget looks at the fit-PC Slim, "billed as the "smallest, most energy efficient PC available," and at 13 ounces it just might be. Slim is housed in a 330cc enclosure (4.3 x 3.9 x 1.2 inches), draws a mere 6 watts of power, and like the Linutop 2, runs on a 500MHz AMD Geode. This machine is available in a pared-down 256MB configuration (sans WiFi, hard drive) for $220; a 512MB WiFi version (with no hard drive) for $245; or go all out with the 512MB / WiFi / 60GB hard disk version pre-installed with either Ubuntu or Windows XP Home SP3, for $295 or $335, respectively."

HP trots out 10.4-inch df1000 / 3.5-inch df300a1 digiframes – Engadget says "Don’t look now, but HP just got official with two new digital photo frames that could barely be any further apart in terms of size. On the small side, we’ve got the 3.5-inch df300a1, which rocks a 320 x 240 resolution display (with a 400:1 contrast ratio) and has room for up to 45 pictures on the internal memory. If that’s not enough, users can load up additional images by way of an SD / SDHC / MMC slot, and while the AC / USB power options are dandy, the 2-hour battery life on the rechargeable cell within is super-fine. Sitting tight on the other extreme is the 10.4-inch df1000, with 512MB of inbuilt storage (and its own USB port), a 800 x 600 resolution…"

A few artcles on health, Diet and Inactivity: is HFCS the next Trans Fat? (my old blog entry) given that the Corn industry launched the SweetSurprise web site- Factual Information About Common Sweeteners like Sugar, Honey and High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS).  (Interesting science there.)  We work at home to eat right, to exerise more, to do more with our kids. And it’s troubling to read (along with all the other bad news) in the Washington Post last week that Americans are getting fatter and a number of industries are fattening up as well. (The article also ran in today’s local Sunday paper – I felt ahead of the curve as I love the Post’s on-line site.) In the article, I found it interesting that there was little discussion around the increases in portion size over the last 50 years (at least, in any detail) and the over all make up of many of the fast foods people eat. To me, the lack of any reference to the overall fat content in many processed and fast foods, the recent call-outs on trans fats ("partially hydrogenated oils") and High fructose corn syrup (aka "HFCS") was an oversight.

Here is the article from the Post, "Why America Has to Be Fat" — "A Side Effect of Economic Expansion Shows Up in Front By Michael S. Rosenwald (Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, January 22, 2006; Page F01) "It turns out, economists say, that changes in food technology (producing tasty, easy-to-cook food, such as french fries) and changes in labor (we use to be paid to exercise at work, now we pay to exercise after work) combined with women’s importance in the workforce, not the kitchen, have combined to produce industries able to cheaply and efficiently meet the demands of our busy lives. The cookie industry. The fast-food industry. Potato chips. Soda. The chain-restaurant industry, with its heaping portions of low-priced, high-calorie foods."

For more, see High Fructose Corn Syrup – Live Search

Master Marketing Lessons from One of the World’s Least Nimble Companies | Work at Home Blog — "When you think of Microsoft, what words usually come to mind? For me they include: stable, compatible, standard, profitable, boring, successful. I’m not an Apple ‘fan-boy’, but I certainly don’t see the creator of Windows as a company nimbly releasing game changing products. For a ton of reasons they can’t be that company, but they can certainly try to shed that image."

Using Photographs to Enhance Videos of a Static Scene (saved by over 1,100 people) — We present a framework for automatically enhancing videos of a static scene using a few photographs of the same scene. For example, our system can transfer photographic qualities such as high resolution, high dynamic range and better lighting from the photographs to the video. Additionally, the user can quickly modify the video by editing only a few still images of the scene. Finally, our system allows a user to remove unwanted objects and camera shake from the video. These capabilities are enabled by two technical contributions presented in this paper.

InternetNews Realtime IT News – Windows 7 Looking Like a June 2009 Delivery — Note that it’s a coincidence, my name and this reference to a release… September 12, 2008 By Andy Patrizio "Publicly, Microsoft has said Windows 7, the successor operating system to the firm’s much maligned Windows Vista, will not ship until early 2010, but its internal calendar has June 3, 2009 as the planned release date, InternetNews.com has learned. "Also, Microsoft will use its Professional Developer’s Conference in late October as the launch platform for the first public beta of Windows 7."

IW500: Microsoft IT Is ‘First And Best’ Customer Of Microsoft Products – Microsoft Blog – InformationWeek — Posted by Mitch Wagner, Sep 15, 2008 06:19 PM– "Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT)’s IT department has a double mission: To be an IT department serving the needs of the company, like any other IT department, and also to be the "first and best customer" — a testing ground and model implementation — for Microsoft’s own products. "Not only do I represent Microsoft, one of the world’s largest software vendors, but I also represent Microsoft, one of the world’s largest customers of Microsoft products," said Barry Briggs, CTO and chief architect at Microsoft, addressing a session at the InformationWeek 500 Conference."

Search: Microsoft paying dearly to acquire Live Search traffic — Valleywag just got forwarded an email outlining Microsoft’s latest desperation move in its money-losing effort to catch up with Google in search. Through Florida online marketing company Kowabunga, Microsoft is willing to pay $2.50 per toolbar download to Web publishers who push the search software on users through the month of September, and $1.50 after that.

Collaborage: Enterprise 2.0 Implementation Overview — Friday: June 13, 2008 11:23 AM — "I have to admit that I am more of a visual person. I like to see all of the pieces put together in order to get an idea of what I am looking at and how I might be able to utilize it. After a couple of weeks, I put this model together to pull together the various pieces of the Enterprise 2.0 puzzle."

Technology News: Consumer: The Needy, Clingy Apple TV By John Martellaro, The Mac Observer 09/16/08 4:00 AM PT — "Apple TV is in trouble if it keeps behaving more like a computer than a DVD player, an A/V receiver, or any other kind of consumer electronics home entertainment product, writes John Martellaro. Whereas most CE A/V products just sit there and work, Apple TV is high-maintenance, demanding too much attention, updating, troubleshooting and overall spoon-feeding. "And just today, there appears to be an issue with downloading HD TV shows. The lack of quality assurance testing for HD downloads reminded me of an old Windows Daylight Saving Time bug. Is it midnight? If yes, turn back the clock an hour. Done. Of course, when midnight rolled around again an hour later, guess what happened?"

Op-Ed Columnist – Why Experience Matters – Op-Ed – NYTimes.com by DAVID BROOKS Published: September 15, 2008 — "Philosophical debates arise at the oddest times, and in the heat of this election season, one is now rising in Republican ranks. The narrow question is this: Is Sarah Palin qualified to be vice president? Most conservatives say yes, on the grounds that something that feels so good could not possibly be wrong. But a few commentators, like George Will, Charles Krauthammer, David Frum and Ross Douthat demur, suggesting in different ways that she is unready."

Basics – Gut Instinct’s Surprising Role in Math – NYTimes.com by NATALIE ANGIER Published: September 15, 2008 — "… a host of new studies suggests that the two number systems, the bestial and celestial, may be profoundly related, an insight with potentially broad implications for math education. One research team has found that how readily people rally their approximate number sense is linked over time to success in even the most advanced and abstruse mathematics courses. Other scientists have shown that preschool children are remarkably good at approximating the impact of adding to or subtracting from large groups of items but are poor at translating the approximate into the specific. Taken together, the new research suggests that math teachers might do well to emphasize the power of the ballpark figure, to focus less on arithmetic precision and more on general reckoning."

Television: IMDb Incorporates Full-Length TV Shows — "Despite competition from huge search and information sites like Google and Wikipedia, the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) has for years been a prime resource if you wanted to know anything about a movie, TV show, actor, director, or—hell—even grip. Now the site’s taken an interesting new turn, incorporating shows and videos from Hulu, CBS, and Sony directly into their results. For example, when you go to an episode listing page on IMDb, it links directly to the video for that episode if its available. Seeing as IMDb is the place we already go to look up information about this sort of thing, the direct integration makes it that much easier to find a video you’re looking for if it’s available without having to figure out who might be hosting…"

Maritz flattered by Microsoft’s guerrilla marketing — Channel Marker, September 16th, 2008 by Colin Steele  "I just left a Q&A session with VMware CEO Paul Maritz, where I asked him about the "poker chip" guerrilla marketing campaign that Microsoft launched this morning at VMworld. Here’s what he had to say: "The fact that Microsoft is giving out chochkies to our users is flattering. It is the act of someone in far second."

Peter Moore: Microsoft Wanted to Buy Nintendo, ‘Fixated’ on Sony – Video Game News, Video Game Coverage, Video Game Updates, PC Game News, PC Game Coverage – GameDaily — "The former Xbox executive reveals some interesting insight into Microsoft’s approach to the game industry. They really wanted to take on Sony and possibly even acquire Nintendo to do so. by James Brightman on Tuesday, September 16, 2008 Having already reminisced about the demise of Sega’s Dreamcast, in part two of an interview with the U.K.’s Guardian, former Sega of America and Xbox boss – current head of the EA Sports label – continued the Sega discussion by talking about the company’s transition from a hardware maker to a software-only publisher."

Microsoft looks to spread secure software expertise — "Slates free developer tools for November, hopes other vendors write more secure code" By Gregg Keizer

Innovation Review Cartoon Gallery — "Sometimes pictures and cartoon commentary gives us novel and challenging insights. Melbourne cartoonist, FirstDogontheMoon, provides his perspective on innovation in the innovation cartoon gallery."

Studio Group to Ease Digital-Movie Access – WSJ.com by SARAH MCBRIDE September 13, 2008; Page B4 — "A consortium of studios and consumer-electronics companies is trying to kickstart the market for digital movies and other content by making it more convenient for consumers to use. The initiative, tentatively called the Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem, will allow consumers to use their online entertainment files much like email — buy it once and access it anywhere. The goal is to also ensure that digital-entertainment files play on any device."

PCs: Avaratec 18" Netbook, $550 and Absurdly Flexible — "Before you read any further, we’ll tell you the catch. It’s not actually a netbook. It’s just powered with the specs of a netbook. This Avaratec All In One features an 18.4 swiveling screen, 1.6GHz Atom processor, 1GB of RAM, DVD burner and Windows XP. Sure, you can call it an underpowered iMac ripoff, but then you’d be missing that the whole system runs only $550 and can mount on your wall like an LCD TV. Full specs and video…"

How To: Remove Shot-Ruining Tourists from Your Photos — The Wired How-To Wiki provides the know-how for anyone who has taken great shots of landscapes, landmarks or other scenes, only to find that some fanny-packed dude has stumbled into your frame. The wiki covers the steps needed in Photoshop (or free alternatives like the GIMP) to manually remove and replace a person, while also suggesting you grab multiple shots at the scene if there’s just no escaping a waving arm or insistent gawker. No patience for lassos, layers and the like? Try the free, previously mentioned webapp Tourist Remover.

Iphone Cpu: Apple Employee Posts Job Description On LinkedIn, Divulges Future iPhone CPU Plans — "Poor Wei-han Lien is probably dead right now after posting a description of his current duties—managing the ARM CPU architecutre team for the iPhone—on LinkedIn. As you know, Apple keeps all its future plans secret so Jobs doesn’t stroll out on stage and announce something everyone’s known for about months (oops). In Lien’s case, the fact that he’s managing the ARM CPU team means that Apple’s acquisition of P.A. Semi back in April was for a good reason: to build optimized processors in-house for the iPhone instead of purchasing them from Samsung, like the company does now."

Tags: articles, what I read, Microsoft, blogs (to 091408)

Yes, yes, as I twittered away this evening, installing the IE8 beta and working on how I was going to upset someone’s applecart tomorrow morning (thanks, Amy, and apologies in advance), I read that the Adam Savage of Mythbusters recently explained at a conference why they decided not to air an episode of the show which noted that one could easily hack Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags, as noted here on CNET…

That’s why, reported the Consumerist blog, at a recent conference–it’s not clear which one–Mythbusters co-host Adam Savage was asked why the show hasn’t tackled the technology behind the security limitations of RFID.

Note: Discovery Channel provided me with a statement from Savage Wednesday. You can read about it here.

C’mon… you’d expect that kind of stuff IMHO from Adam, but never from Jamie. 😉

Well, here’s a post on RFID Momentum (Microsoft Manufacturing & Resources Blog) — from July 29, 2008: "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."

And here are a few more interesting things I’ve cleared from the reading pile…

Brad Anderson on Virtualization and X-Plat Support (Nexus SC: The System Center Team Blog) — SAVE — "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: "I think it’s kind of ironic that our major competitor in the area of virtualization is not heterogeneous … and Microsoft is."

Microsoft: We’re not "cool enough" for Mac OS X – The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) — SAVE — If you thought the new Get a Mac ads were spot-on or funny, then you will definitely get a kick out of this. On Microsoft’s Photosynth website, they admit something that we’ve known for years: They’re not cool enough to run on Macs. "Unfortunately, we’re not cool enough to run on your OS yet. We really wish we had a version of Photosynth that worked cross platform, but for now it only runs on Windows. Trust us, as soon as we have a Mac version ready, it will be up and available on our site," reads the website.

Intuit is playing the web services game that Microsoft is talking (The Open Road blog – CNET News) SAVE — August 23, 2008 1:19 PM – Matt Asay "really liked this post by Larry Dignan over at ZDNet. Though I believe Microsoft is showing less of its web services hand than it is holding, Larry brings up a good point: Microsoft has been talking about a connected desktop-plus-web world for many years, while Intuit has been quietly demonstrating how it’s done…"

monitter: real time, live twitter monitor — SAVE — popular with 490 people saving this one –  "Simple. It’s a twitter monitor, it lets you "monitter" the twitter world for a set of 3 keywords and watch what people are saying. Cool huh?"

Architects Rule! : Forrester: The Mobile Architecture Imperative  — "The past eight years have shown little business adoption of mobile applications beyond wireless email and a few key applications. As a result, firms have been able to limp along without comprehensive mobile architectures. No longer. Today, the imperative for defining a holistic mobile architecture is red hot. As IT reacts to a chaotic increase in device types, wireless networks, and demand for mobile apps, firms report that providing more mobility support to information workers, task workers, and now customers ranks at the top of their 2008 priorities. Enterprise architecture professionals must assess which applications these mobile users want and the attributes of that use…"

Australia switches to Mac – Mac – Macworld UK — SAVE — Australians flock to the Mac platform, by Jonny Evans, 21 Aug, 2008 "Australian users are switching to the Mac at a faster rate than anywhere else in the world, a report claims. The Courier-Mail cites research figures from Gartner which show Mac sales grew 52 per cent in Australia in the second quarter – nearly six times the rate of the PC industry overall. "Apple’s share of the Australian computer market in the second quarter of 2008 was 5.3 per cent, according to Gartner, up from 3.8 per cent a year ago. Rival research firm IDC puts the present figure as high as 6.2 per cent, the report claims."

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."

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…"

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."

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."

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! : Heros 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."

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".

Edward Tufte: Books – The Visual Display of Quantitative Information SAVE — 309 people have saved this one — "The classic book on statistical graphics, charts, tables. Theory and practice in the design of data graphics, 250 illustrations of the best (and a few of the worst) statistical graphics, with detailed analysis of how to display data for precise, effective, quick analysis. Design of the high-resolution displays, small multiples. Editing and improving graphics. The data-ink ratio. Time-series, relational graphics, data maps, multivariate designs. Detection of graphical deception: design variation vs. data variation. Sources of deception. Aesthetics and data graphical displays."

Test The Nation: CBC daily facts on Canada — CBC offers this web page with new quick facts on Canada published "almost daily!"

Goals: Musician Ryan Adams’ Success Secret — "Ryan Adams is one of the most prolific musicians in modern music. In the last eight years he averaged a release of one full studio album per year. In one year alone, he released three albums! Since 2000, he has contributed to dozens of other albums and movie soundtracks. One night I stumbled on one of his televised performances, which involved a question and answer session with the audience afterwards. One fan asked how he could write and release so many songs. His answer summed up his work philosophy, one we should all adopt if we want to be successful with our personal goals."

Telephony: Build Your Own PBX with Asterisk  — 168 people have saved this one — "If you’ve ever wanted more control over incoming phone calls at home or at the office, setting up a PBX system could be the solution… (A PBX or "Private Branch Exchange" is like a miniature phone company/switch in your own office/house. The PBX is responsible for making sure calls are routed properly.) Geek.com’s John Rogers has a tutorial for you."

Featured Download: Virtual Volumes View Indexes Backup CDs and DVDs — 50 saved this post — Windows/Mac/Linux (All platforms): "Having an automated, secure, off-site backup solution is a great idea, but for many folks, burning their data and system files to CD and DVD is just more manageable. Free indexing app Virtual Volumes View (VVV) helps you keep track of exactly which file is located on which of those numbered DVDs. Once you’ve let VVV take a look at each of your discs, it can show you them in a physical view (each disc and its contents), a virtual view (one giant file system), or let you simply search through files, including MP3 metadata, to find that certain folder or file you need to restore. The app helps you make sense of large folders you have to break up into multiple discs…"

Microsoft Update Product Team Blog : New Product Families – Windows 7 — Yesterday a new product category for Windows 7 Client was published to Windows Update and was made available to WSUS (another one for Windows 7 Server should be appearing soon as well). As with all of our other new product categories, this is for Microsoft teams who are publishing Windows 7 beta drivers/updates in the near future. In the future, we’ll try to let you know about new categories ahead of time.

NMEDIAPC.com – the leading Home Theater PC components — MediaPC’s " new generation of HTPC 1000 Series. The outstanding features include: Support ATX power supply & Micro ATX motherboard" 4 X 3.5" internal bays for media data Easy upfront access digital connection interfaces (behind door) e-SATA; HD Audio; SDHC 2.0 Card Reader; USB 2.0; IEEE 1394 Support full height & length PCI cards"

Tags: articles, what I read, Microsoft, blogs (082208)

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