Beyond | IT

I'm a little late getting this post out - like a year and a half late - but in case there is any doubt, I am retiring this blog. Although I thoroughly enjoyed writing it, I just can't afford to invest the time needed to keep it up to the standards that...

Wheh!  What a long day today.  Started off great in the morning at Northwestern University showing off the Ford Fiestas and the Fiestaware platform, built on Windows 7 and Microsoft Robotics Studio , to engineering students and anyone else passing...

The American Journey 2.0 road trip to from Ann Arbor, Michigan, to Maker Faire in San Mateo, California, finally kicked off  today!  This day has been a long time coming (my own involvement goes back 2 years or so), but it’s certain been a fun...

If you were at SxSWi this past March, you might have gotten a peek at one of my projects with Ford Motor Company to create a Windows 7-based application platform for the car. The platform -- which Ford has dubbed "Fiestaware" because it's deployed...

I posted a little while back about how to get free Windows Azure Training at an Azure Boot Camp .  This is great 2-day, hands on training.  You can even use the kit to throw your own Azure Boot Camp if none of the scheduled ones work for you...

I’ve been hearing about co-authoring in Office 2010 for quite a while now inside of Microsoft.  If you haven’t heard, co-authoring is a feature in Word 2010 that lets two or more people edit a single document at the same time and see each others...

To celebrate my 200th post on this blog… here is the post no one thought could (ok, would) be written!  My Top 9 Favorite Out of Office messages from Brian Prince . Who is Brian Prince?  Brian is a colleague of mine at Microsoft, and an outstanding...

New animated “vision-style” video released today illustrates the ideas for managing electric vehicle charging that are behind the recently announced Microsoft Hohm – Ford partnership .  Ford says the first consumer vehicle that will work with Microsoft...

Neowin.net picked up on a video today from Nvidia showing the huge performance advantage IE9 gives you with GPU acceleration.  Pretty much speaks for itself - check it out: Full article on Neowin is here – some interesting comments, too.  The...

Microsoft and Ford Motor Company today announced at the New York Auto Show a partnership around Microsoft Hohm and future Ford electric vehicles.  Exciting stuff!  This partnership is ultimately about making the mass-ownership of electric vehicles...

Interesting to see Steve Clayton's post on the McLaren MP4 12-C running not one but two Microsoft Windows operating systems.  Not really that surprising, though.  The McLaren Group is leveraging its racing heritage as it builds McLaren Automotive...

Interesting article on the Forbes site today about security researcher Charlie Miller discovering a trove of more than 20 Mac bugs recently using a technique called dumb fuzzing .  Charlie is a noted Apple Mac hacking specialist.  A few quotes...

This is a really fantastic opportunity to learn how to build your own apps for Microsoft’s cloud platform, Windows Azure ! Do hurry, though: Next Azure Bootcamp is March 30-31st, 2010 at Microsoft’s office in Southfield, MI.  See below for more info...

There are a ton of places to share photos online, but for the most part I use Windows Live SkyDrive.  When I do post elsewhere, such as Facebook , it’s usually just a few “teaser'” photos to encourage people to click over to Windows Live SkyDrive...

Now that Silverlight beta is available for Nokia Symbian phones like the N97 and 5800 XpressMusic (S60 5th Edition) devices, you can download it from the Nokia Silverlight for Symbian page.   While still in beta form, good to see this finally...

If you’ve ever wondered what a single composite picture of all 180,000 endangered species on the planet would look like, well, wonder no more: the answer is a Sumatran tiger.  At least that’s the answer Fauna & Flora International , together...

A new rev of the Microsoft Courier prototype is out, and it looks simply awesome! (See here for info on the original Courier prototype that first surfaced in Fall 2009.) Microsoft Courier may even rival Project Natal in it’s potential impact on society...

I’m a big fan of Blaise Aguera y Arcas’ work (and those he works with) :) .  Blaise is part of Microsoft’s Live Labs team , and I first saw him speak when he introduced Photosynth at TED a couple years back.  In addition to the stitching and...

I love that I’m already getting questions on how to develop apps for Windows Phone 7 Series! The bottom line answer to this question, for now, is this: Go to MIX where we will share info on how to develop apps for Windows Phone 7 Series. For more on Windows...

Alex over at The Next Web actually goes so far as to call the 27” iMacs “iLemons”….  A little harsh, but the Mac quality problems have been well documented since the iMacs and Snow Leopard came out last fall.    Although I couldn’t...

Ok, this is cool regardless of political views.  MSN has created a photosynth giving a 3D view of the State of the Union Address in the US House of Representatives chambers at the Capitol Building.  Most folks have seen the podium in the US...

Codemash is still going and it’s been a great event this year – as in years’ past.  If you’re not one of the 700 people who trekked to the Kalahari indoor water park and convention center in Sandusky, OH, for codemash – or even if you are – there...

Really enjoyed the Ford’s Keynote at CES today. Too much to talk  about, really.  A couple of very quick notes: It was fun to see Ford briefly mention the American Journey 2.0 project that I (and others at Microsoft ) have been working with...

Can Pioneer successfully set itself up as the platform provider for consumer device and internet services integration in automobiles?  Looks like they are going to try, by providing an Intel Atom-powered device of their own called a “ Platform for...

Interesting interview of Alan Mullaly here and also here .  Mulally is Ford’s CEO, and ran Boeing’s commercial airplane business until 2006 when he replaced Bill Ford in that role (Bill Ford is still Chairman).  In my mind, hiring Mulally may...