How do you create performance models for complex applications like MediaPlayer? Or better yet, what is the answer to the question: “What happens to the performance of my favorite application X if I upgrade from Windows Vista to Windows 7?”...

SWEET! A new Imagine Composite Editor as of May 26, 2011! What are the new features? Oops forgot the link: http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/redmond/groups/ivm/ice/ Stitch directly from a video (only on Windows 7) Automatic lens vignette...

Like most people you may have arrived here thinking this was an interesting article about the use of cell phones or something like that. But no. It isn’t. This is an article about the use of CELLS, like ecoli to do computation. Cool! Check it...

“It's hard to co-exist with things that want to kill you.” Calvin of Calvin and Hobbes With the current Escherichia Coli bacteriological attack in Europe (hey even if it’s natural, it is still an attack if you got the “trots”).  (What is Escherichia...

Alfred Thompson has written a series of good articles about programming, and why to take the classes, etc. But where is computer science being developed and refined to really save lives?  Chapel Hill held a 2 day conference titled: Microsoft Biology...

First, you might get a firewall warning when you hit this link, it is Microsoft Research, so you will need to choose whether or not you get to see this., Check some of this really cool images, especially the 3D CT: http://research.microsoft.com/en-us...

Some the more boring work courts and police agencies have to do is listening to audio from surveillance, or getting transcripts for use by people who can’t hear. An interesting new voice recognition is called Mavis and more can be found at (and Larry...

Something to read over your morning coffee, tea or orange juice.  Here are a few papers that use empirical tools to study Software Engineering: “ Not My Bug!" and Other Reasons for Software Bug Report Reassignments An Empirical Study of the...

Skipping over my usual blah Apple is not secure, blah blah, Chrome is the most insecure browser blah, blah, blah.  What about a free XBox if you buy a Windows 7 laptop over $699.  This means you can get a laptop with 8 gigs of memory and run...

Overview Build Gigapixel panoramas on your website!  This is amazing, and I definitely see the “find this item” kind of contests if you hide a small image of a number or something in the picture! You will need to use the Imagine Composite Editor...

The Society for Science & the Public holds a number of Science Fairs through out the world and then the World Event was held at the Los Angeles Convention Center in 2011. The event functioned like a well oiled machine, and the students were the focus...

When you run across a person that has done much of the same things that you have done and gets a big award you think two things (or at least I did): Cool, a computer engineer receives a Turing Award! Hey how come I didn’t get one? ...

An interesting paper found at: http://research.microsoft.com/pubs/102772/coordination-techreport08.pdf One of the surveys in the paper (it is an image): This is an amazing read, and gives an insight into the Microsoft software development culture...

Time to click the link below, but read the rest of this short post or count to 10 before you do.  I say count to 10 because you might be thinking: Holey Moley I just figured out C#, WTF# is up with a NEW LANGUAGE! Oh well, here is a link that you...

Wouldn’t it be nice to write a description of the 3D object or 2D object and the image would be created?  Or do a sketch and the computer would offer several images that fit what you are looking for?  Or if you could zoom smoothly into an image...

Glee, a hit television show or a tool for extreme programmers?  Could it be both?  Well on 5/17/2011, it’s both.  In the future, maybe not. What is a graph? It is a diagram that shows communication or information flow that is based on the...

Likely before your time, but in the old days of TV, some TVs had “rabbit ears” and if you held them the channel you wanted to watch would come in better. So what if Microsoft goes one better than Kinect, where you are the controller to Antinect (I just...

The Image Composite Editor allows you to perform advanced photo stitching, and the cost is right: free. Microsoft Image Composite Editor works on 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7.  There is no upper limit on...

It’s the weekend, and that means time to just check out the past, think about the future, make the present more comfortable. Zoom over to the Buxton Collection, and find out about Pivot Viewer while taking a look a the history of keyboards, tablets, and...

The statistical presentations in this video were somewhat weird, seriously the researchers need to work on the visual graphics.  But otherwise this is a good idea, and one that would allow the use of a system that would put your cellphone on hold...

If you are a natural user interface researcher or just a hobbyist, then take a look at this video.  It is a great way to get a handle on what Kinect and the strategy at Microsoft is all about.  

Here are some links to information about how to compare Office 365 with the competition: OpenOffice: http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/businessproductivity/en-us/Why-Microsoft/Pages/openoffice.aspx Google Docs: http://blogs.technet...

What the heck?  If my trail version of Office times out and I just move to the free version of Word, these free add-ins work in Word?  Seriously, how does Microsoft make money? Note that this is DIFFERENT than the equation writer that is popular...

Hey Yo, games with no music in the background are boring.  No sound effects: Boring.  But you are just a poor student or hobbyist, and you don’t have any cash to get access to an expensive sound effects library.  And when I say expensive...

SongSmith, this is cool beans, no kidding.  If you are thinking about writing music as a profession, or just goofing around, this is a way to scratchpad your music ideas. Head over to http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/redmond/projects/songsmith...