Until further notice, I'm discontinuing cross posting to this blog. As always, all the posts here and future posts are published on my own hosted blog at http://www.shahine.com/omar . If you want to continue getting my content, I've provided some easy...

I almost forgot that I never finished my Treo Review Series. The device is so integrated into my habits now that I don't even notice how much I depend on and value the device. It's been over a month since the last review, and that's a good thing because...

Dennis Cheung, someone that I interviewed for his first job out of college, and someone who I managed for a while in MacBU, announced that he is leaving the MacBU for the MSN Desktop Search Team . I seriously dig the hard work and attitude of the Desktop...

For a while now (since January 2004) I have been posting both to my personal blog ( http://www.shahine.com/omar/ ) and another blog located at http://blogs.msdn.com/omars/ . At the time there were about 140 Microsoft blogs on blogs.msdn.com. I don't actually...

I never thought it would happen, but thanks to Dan Crevier's recent patent, I was slashdotted because I have a blog post that gives some background on Dan (who to this day is still one of the smartest people I've had the honour of working with at Microsoft...

Interesting indeed . I started using FeedDemon because I grew tired of having my RSS in Outlook (I do not think RSS belongs there for high volume RSS readers). Before using FeedDemon though I was using NewsGator Online, and then added FeedDemon because...

The other day I had an experience with my computer, and MSN's software that just made me smile. You see, for the past year or so folks on my team have been involved on a feature that took coordination from dozens of internal teams. This was a big feature...

Here is why Yahoo Music is cool. Yes I work for MSN, and sure I wish MSN Music had this same feature, but I'm super excited that Yahoo Music launched their business. Why? THEY ARE BUILT ON OUR PLATFORM! Let me explain. A few months ago I wrote this...

Well I returned from a 10 day break from work this past Saturday, and on Monday I hit the ground running. Of course before I left for work I made two big mistakes. I subscribed to these two mailing lists at work and I didn't want them filling up my inbox...

If you are trying to reach me over the next week, I will be unavailable. Many have asked me why I'm on vacation so much these past few weeks. Well, my wife has been in Oahu for the past 9 weeks doing a rotation at Kaiser Permanente. One of the things...

I'm not the only one who thinks the Comcast DVR with TV Guide software is buggy . I should call Comcast and ask for a refund. That will surely get them to notice the issues. Money talks...

Every few months, Outlook 2003 will get into a situation where it will no longer render images in the preview pane or the message window. If you reply to the message, then you will see the image. Perplexed by the problem, I would take the brute force...

My good buddy, Jimmy (a.k.a. JimmyG) who no longer works for MS, spends all day taking spy photos of interesting things in Dubai, U.A.E. He happend to grab a pic of a very rare Mercedes G Class, and Microsoft's CEO walking with the Crown Prince of Dubai...

Lisa Brummel was just named Vice President of Human Resources at Microsoft. Previous to this role Lisa was Corporate Vice President of the Home and Retail division, which is where the Mac Business Unit has been located for the past few years (before that...

First of all, a big shout out to Adobe for creating an awesome upgrade for Digital Camera owners. I still don't understand why you insist on installing Adobe ImageReady when I never use it and curse it when I accidentally double click a PNG and watch...

I can't even begin to explain how happy I am that we recently released the Office 2003 PIA download . Why am I excited? Just read this and you will understand. I've known about this for a while but I had to keep my mouth shut :-). Not being able to...

I just found this app called Image Converter 2 made by Sony, that will convert a wide variety of video and photos to playback on the PSP. It supports DVR-MS, the file format that Windows Media Center records TV. It costs $19. Now all I need is a 1GB...

Just got this email from Adobe. Wohooo! Your Adobe Store order has shipped! Product: Adobe Photoshop CS2 Upgrade for Windows Ship Date: April 21, 2005 Quantity: 1 Price: Price:$149.00 Item Subtotal...

Motorola finally cancelled the MPx [via Steve Makofsky ]. I just pulled up this post I wrote last year on the subject: I remember when I used to see announcements or rumors of Pocket PC and Smartphone devices and I would get so excited. I'm at the...

Greg Hughes has a great write up on a bunch of "smartphone" PDA type devices. I have never used a Blackberry, and probably never will because it requires that middleware be installed, and Microsoft just isn't going to do that. So I am stuck to chose between...

Zinio released an updated version of their Magazine Reader. It's much improved over 2.0. One of the things I actually do religiously with my Tablet PC is read PC Magazine in Tablet mode. I can't tell you how cool it is to sit there and read the magazine...

Nooooo!!! I could not resist (sorry Steve ). I had to have one. Must purchase. Well, I was walking back from a Dr. Appt near Union Square 1 hour ago, and I figured I would stop by the Sony Store at the Metreon. If you are in need of a PSP and you live...

I just noticed this warning when I saved a file: So lets see. You are asking the user a question. Unchecking the checkbox above has no clear benefit to me. However, if I do uncheck it my file may not be compatible with future versions of Photoshop...

I just played with a friend's PSP . OMG it rocks. I have an Xbox and I play it like once a month. I have a feeling I would use a PSP a lot more. I could play in bed, on the plane or on the train. The last portable game device I used was an Atari Lynx...

From a co-worker: http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/research/recording_head/pr/PerpendicularAnimation.html A funny flash video of Hitachi's new Perpendicular drive technology. Very funny. I can't wait till I can purchase a 1 TB drive.