Windows Home Server

This week John C. Maxwell offered this famous QOTD:

Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. – Thomas Edison

To end the work week, Dominic Carr offers his own suggestions for weekend reading on the Microsoft Blog

It’s Friday afternoon again, and time to wrap up some of the interesting things that happened this week that you might not have seen. It is Super Bowl weekend here in the US and so it only seems fair to start with something sports related.

Jordan Brand taps Microsoft technologies: The Jordan Brand turns 25 this year, and Microsoft technologies are helping with the celebration in partnership with Wirestone. First up is a social mosaic called Mosaic 23/25.The Mosaic uses Silverlight 3 and Deep Zoom to create a huge mosaic of the man himself, all built from hundreds of individual pictures uploaded by fans. And Windows Azure, Microsoft’s cloud operating system helped to make it possible. There is more to come with Microsoft Surface and Windows 7. If you are interested in more details on how the technology works, then read the Silverlight team blog and the Windows Azure blog.

Internet Explorer 8 is very popular: This week NetApplications released their browser market share report and it showed that Internet Explorer 8 is the most popular browser, just less than a year after launch. Brandon LeBlanc has more details on the benefits of IE8, and on reasons to upgrade from older browsers in his post over on the Windows Blog.

Using technology to help the planet: BBC Radio covered the European Environment Agency’s Eye on Earth project, a partnership with Microsoft and based on Microsoft technology such as Bing maps, Windows Azure and SQL Azure. The project aims to combine inputs from citizens with scientific data to provide a better understanding of air and water quality in a given location. You can listen to the the BBC Radio story with the Eye on Earth project starting at 6:45mins.

SharePoint Gets Social: This week seven startups from around the world (all participants in Microsoft’s BizSpark program) came together at Microsoft’s Silicon Valley campus for SharePoint 2010 SocialFest. The goal; see how each team could take advantage of some of the new features in SharePoint 2010 to extend their social networking applications. Each team worked closely with the SharePoint team over 4 days and showed off their work to a panel of judges. The Brits won, and you can read more, and watch the videos in this Microsoft News Center article or in Techcrunch.

Microsoft Tag: You may not yet have heard of Microsoft Tag, but the band We the Kings certainly has and is putting it to good use. Microsoft Tag lets you snap a picture of a “Tag” and get access to more information online about the particular person, product or service. You don’t need to rememeber a URL or text a short code. Just take a picture. We the Kings has teamed up with Microsoft Tag to give away free concert tickets.

Well Done Bill: Microsoft Research Principal Researcher Bill Buxton has been recognized by Business Week as one of the world’s most influential designers. Congrats, Bill. You can read more about Bill and his work on things like Natural User Interface and Microsoft Surface in the News Center article, or this video.

And finally just when we thought we could go home the Bing team announced enhanced cooperation with Facebook on search. This will give users a more complete search experience with access to some great Bing features, and expands the Bing-Facebook search integration beyond the US so that the more than 400 million people who use Facebook around the world will see the fruits of the partnership

And here are a few of my favourites found on Twitter during the week:

isdixon: Controlling Windows Media Center with an iPhone: http://goo.gl/fb/Mciy

nytimesbits: In an effort to compete with Google and Apple, Nokia makes its mobile phone software free of charge. http://bit.ly/dyHWgT

PCMag – How to Buy the Right Netbook http://bit.ly/2cFkAX [If you’re not thinking about getting a powerful, cheap netbook, you should be.]

Pogue – My email column today: Why home videos matter. It’s a good one! http://bit.ly/a9CG42

andreaplattdyal – Measuring Microsoft’s Work by Its Broad Impact: http://bit.ly/9DFFeg

MSFT_IT – White paper on the benefits of Office 2010 + SharePoint 2010 (something to look forward to!) http://ow.ly/13Z38

Microsoft – Nat’l Sci Foundation & Microsoft team on cloud. Huge info cache requires both desktop computers & cloud http://bit.ly/aZ0BVD

techxav – Amazon Said to Buy Touch Start-Up http://bit.ly/ab5898

billcox – Some good stats showing why IE8 is doing well at http://bit.ly/anbYSO. Thanks brandonleblanc!

JohnFontana – MSFT-funded CodePlex Foundation gets first FT employee, executive director Paula Hunter http://bit.ly/dxInSg

Microsoft_Gov – Microsoft Education (@TeachTec) launched a K-12 ebook – Digital Storytelling in the Classroom – http://bit.ly/ajiwzN

neilblecherman – Students invent/distribute soccer ball that generates electricity, bringing clean power to developing countries http://bit.ly/9OTts1

edbott – My latest at ZDNet: Will your new Windows 7 PC support XP Mode? It’s still too hard to find out: http://bit.ly/9ZC7Q3

MSFT_IT – See how Microsoft does IT, in this great post by BuckWoody http://ow.ly/13vy5

PCMag – The ever-divisive John C. Dvorak calls the Apple iPad "good for nothing." http://bit.ly/byzSjg

slashdot – ARM Exec Says 90% of PC Market Could Be Netbooks http://bit.ly/dBOWnG

thurrott – What’s New in Windows Mobile 6.5.3: http://bit.ly/ay1J0b

Cisco_Mobile – A Peek at Apple’s Plan to Re-invent Textbooks http://tinyurl.com/yk9h3zd

Cisco_Mobile How the #enterprise is going #social http://tinyurl.com/yc3m6pc – thanks, susiewee for this Very interesting read.

stevecla – Microserfs at Microsoft UK http://bit.ly/ajpahP

MSWindows – Set up an energy-efficient home with these tips from @MicrosoftCanada – http://bit.ly/dsr7F2

comcastcares – New Personal Blog Post "The Customer, not the Company Defines How Products are Used" http://www.timetobefrank.com

MSWindows – Here’s a list of devices that work w/ Remote Media Streaming in Windows Media Center for you – http://bit.ly/cO5DRy

teedubya – Watching TV Without Cable: Series Part 1 – Netflix Solution http://digg.com/d31Haib

MSWindows – Stream your Windows Media Library to devices around the house w/ Remote Media Streaming – http://bit.ly/56KtWM

WSJ – Medical journal retracts study linking vaccines to autism: http://on.wsj.com/dghEEY More autism research: http://on.wsj.com/bVRtW9

LanceUlanoff – Why Chrome Will be Your Next Browser http://bit.ly/auhb4m #Google‘s browser is about to make the leap from upstart to leader of the pack.

njeaton – NYTimes reports that Google is planning a business-app store to boost Google Apps. http://bit.ly/c7PhII

Carnage4Life is impressed at how Google has made enemies. Apple and Firefox are the biggest surprises. See http://tcrn.ch/96JiLW & http://bit.ly/aibGyk

volkerw – Windows XP to Windows 7 Migration workflow for the IT Pro on TechNet http://bit.ly/bxL4Eu

warrenellis – Still can’t buy Tor books by writers like @cmpriest or @doctorow on Amazon? @Scalzi brings science: http://bit.ly/9dQvki

toddbishop – New push for data-center tax breaks in Washington state, with support from Microsoft and others: http://bit.ly/bU29tT

ForbesTech – The Growing Malware Problem [Article by Charlotte Dunlap] http://cptlst.com/0ueh

thurrott – Apple Entry into Market Means Higher eBook Prices http://bit.ly/au7Xcf

mike_elgan retweeted this from ScotFinnie: Why Apple chose the iPad’s screen format http://bit.ly/bpeczx. Resident smart guy LanceUlanoff says he’s right.

JVascellaro – Google to Launch Store for Online Business Software. http://bit.ly/dsQ3b1

MSWindows 4 steps to keeping your computer protected – http://bit.ly/aHgstb

EverythingMS – Syncing Windows Home Server, Zune and Windows Media Center! http://bit.ly/a9QCZl

dancosta – 42 Reasons Why Netbooks Are Better Than the Apple iPad http://bit.ly/96dzjC [Dan suggests that perhaps "Different" would be a better word.]

exectweets – Manage your company’s software with Windows 7 AppLocker (from our sponsor Microsoft): http://bit.ly/4xnTGJ

edbott – My latest at ZDNet: Can Microsoft close the ‘app gap’ with Apple’s iPad? http://bit.ly/bJIvvw

Microsoft: Windows Azure & SQL Azure now available in 21 countries [Microsoft Blog] http://bit.ly/9XHIqe

valleywag – Googlers Fire Back at Steve Jobs ‘Bullshit’ Jab http://gawker.com/5461539/ #nerdfight #stevejobs

joewilcox – Dalrymple’s beard speaks about "iPad and crazy people": http://tinyurl.com/ycgpetg

joewilcox – Apple US retail unit share is 90% for PCs selling above $1,000; doubled YoY in $500-$1,000 segment: http://tinyurl.com/y943uv3

maryjofoley – Microsoft to target SMB users with new ‘BPOS Lite’ cloud service: http://bit.ly/9En6Dc