I am Microsoftie 4 ever (18+ years) working in Windows Services and Content team in the UK, my blog is mainly focused on the Windows family of products and trying to provide help pointers and resources for customers on our products.
and you are in the UK and can get to London on the 31st March? then this training might be useful :
Windows 7 / Vista application compatibility lab in London, March 2009
‘The purpose of this lab is to provide training on the changes in Windows 7 and Windows Vista that are most likely to cause compatibility issues with client applications designed to run on Windows XP or earlier. Microsoft application compatibility experts will be on hand to help test and debug those applications and, either mitigate or identify the fixes required to resolve any problems that may be discovered. The intention is that you leave at the end of the week with your applications working on Windows Vista and Windows 7.
The primary target for these labs is applications that are already known to have compatibility issues with Windows Vista or applications that have never been tested on Vista. If your application runs on Windows Vista, then it is very likely that it will also run on Windows 7, so we will be running either another lab or a briefing on Windows 7 ONLY issues once we are closer to the release of Windows 7.
All client applications are welcome, whether they are written in .NET, C++, VB6, etc. Please bring with you an installable version of your applications, the symbols (PDBs), and the source code. If you have any special requirements then please contact us before registering to see if we can accommodate these.’
Rob
We have recently had lists of all sort of things about Twitter, such as the Microsoft product twitters. Well now thanks to Danny Sullivan on search engine land we have the..
The Big List Of Search Engines & Their Employees On Twitters
Which includes tweeters from Google, Microsoft (Live, adcenter, powerset and others), Yahoo, Ask, Techmeme, Twitter and others…
I don’t blog too much about Office products, I don’t really have enough time or focus in that area, but i came across these videos on the I started something blog showing some of the ideas and vision of the next generation of communication, collaboration and production technologies
there is a longer 5 minute video available on Longs post as well as links to a powerpoint deck from Microsoft presspass
Well worth checking out
Apparently the oldest English words (according to Reading University researches) are “I”, “we”, “two” and “three” dating back tens of thousands of years, (40,000)…
Also they claim words such as "squeeze", "guts", "stick" and "bad" as likely to be extinct before others…
What the researchers found was that the frequency with which a word is used relates to how slowly it changes through time, so that the most common words tend to be the oldest ones.
For example, the words "I" and "who" are among the oldest, along with the words "two", "three", and "five". The word "one" is only slightly younger.
The word "four" experienced a linguistic evolutionary leap that makes it significantly younger in English and different from other Indo-European languages
The article on the BBC web site BBC NEWS | Science & Environment | 'Oldest English words' identified is very interesting for anyone interested in languages
My Colleague Chris has just told me that we have updated the Microsoft Store (AKA MSStore) to allow you to buy Windows Anytime Upgrades. These upgrades allow you to move one version of Windows Vista to higher spec one without having to buy the full product, and you get DVD Media, product key and instructions in the box.
So for example you can go from Home Premium to Ultimate for £144.99*
Windows Vista: Windows Anytime Upgrade: Overview
The available options are
Home Premium to Ultimate: You've experienced Windows Vista Home Premium and you're ready for the best of everything Windows Vista has to offer! With an upgrade to Windows Vista Ultimate, you'll have all the capabilities you enjoy in Windows Vista Home Premium-plus all the power and convenience of Windows Vista Business.
PRICE: £144.99*
Business to Ultimate: When you purchase Windows Vista Ultimate with Windows Anytime Upgrade, you get the single most powerful solution for home, work, and everything in between. With the acumen of Windows Vista Business, plus the fun of Windows Vista Home Premium, Windows Vista Ultimate simply has it all.
PRICE: £109.99*
Home Basic to Home Premium: Windows Vista Home Premium is simply the best system for giving you everything you need to enjoy home entertainment, with easy ways to manage your photos, videos, music, and even TV and movies. And all within a brilliant new interface that makes it fun to use.
PRICE: £79.99*
Home Basic to Ultimate: Windows Anytime Upgrade is the most affordable way to get Windows Vista Ultimate, the best of everything Windows Vista has to offer. From the stunning entertainment features that help you enjoy everything from photos to live TV, to essential work features like data protection and easy networking, Windows Vista Ultimate has it all.
PRICE: £199.99*
*= Prices do not include shipping and handling or applicable taxes.
If you are not sure which version of Vista is the one for you then I can recommend Comparing Windows Vista editions as a good place to start
If you are not sure which version of Vista you are currently running then check out this very short article
Remember Kylie and Alexa and their demonstrations of how easy it is to use Windows Live products, well there now is an extension to this with them taking on some more senior citizens and seeing if they can beat them in using the products:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/rookies/
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/rookies/8v80/
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/rookies/9v90/
thanks to the LiveSide for the tip
Ok so all the talk is about Windows 7 and Windows Phone and other latest and greatest technology bla bla bla
But if you are looking for a bit of nostalgia mixed in with your current phone (if it is a Nokia N95) then check this out
‘If these screenshots are to be believed, then an ironic hacker has successfully installed Windows 3.1 onto a Nokia N95 handset. Marchin-PRV used DOSBox to emulate the x86-class processor on the Symbian handset in order to install Microsoft's 1992 OS. Totally useless, yes... and totally badazz’
Windows 3.1 running on Nokia N95 is both awesome and depressing – Engadget – check out the comments as well
The Oscar’s passed me by as usual but this article didn’t
And The Oscar For Best Search Engine For Oscar Winners Goes To … Microsoft Live & Ask.com
Nice work and kudos tot eh Windows Live Search teams
as Danny Sullivan points out ‘…these type of specific answer searches can be a habit breaker when you know to expect them consistently.’
For other smart Windows Live Search answers try
On Saturday morning I came across this article in the Saturday Independent discussing how the Cornish language had been declared extinct by the UN, and a couple of quotes caught my attention
‘Unesco’s director general, Koichiro Matsuura, said: “The death of a language leads to the disappearance of many forms of intangible cultural heritage, especially the invaluable heritage of traditions and oral expressions of the community that spoke it – from poems and legends to proverbs and jokes.”
There are thought to be just 300 fluent speakers of Cornish left and Jenefer Lowe, development manager of the Cornish Language Partnership, says reports of its extinction are premature. “Saying Cornish is extinct implies that there are no speakers and the language is dead, which it isn’t,”’
UNESCO say this about Cornish language:
Name of the language: Traditional Cornish (en); cornique traditionnel (fr); корнский традиционный (ru)
Vitality: extinct
Number of speakers: 0 (the death of the last speaker of traditional Cornish probably took place in 1777)
Location(s): Cornwall, England; the entry deals with traditional Cornish; Cornish is currently being revived and exists in three different versions; revived Cornish cannot be regarded as endangered as the number of users seems to be constantly growing
So it look like there may have been a little confusion here, but it is good to read about how small languages can survive and even grow even in today's generic society.
The article goes on to mention other British languages such as Welsh, Scottish Gaelic and Manx and it reminded me of Microsoft's Unlimited Potential web site which is well worth checking out for its Local Language Program that ‘…represents the Microsoft commitment to helping more people worldwide benefit from technology, while striving to preserve local languages and cultural identities. This means making software available in as many languages as possible.’
Microsoft actually provides a Welsh LIP (Language Interface Pack) which can assist the over 500,000 Welsh speakers use Windows in there their chosen language, you can download the pack here (Pecyn Rhyngwyneb Iaith Windows Vista)
You can read more about UNESCO’s Atlas of the worlds Languages in Danger and view the world map in pdf and use an interactive map using Google maps to search for languages and there vitality, and read about details of each language. Which are all pretty good resources if you are interested in this topic.
Currently I am having my kitchen refitted and today I was chatting with the electrician and he handed me his business card, which i thought was a wonderful piece of design.
I always love smart bits of marketing and I like how the idea of a business card over a standard plug works so well for his line of work.