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.
I am always on the hunt for demos, tutorials and articles on how to achieve tasks in Windows Vista, so I can understand if there is any content on the Windows Help and How-to site that is missing or could be improved, and also from a personal perspective so I can learn more about our products.
Today I came across the following tutorial from ITPro.co.uk and thought it worthy of a quick mention here, so check it and let me know what you think.
IT PRO Tutorials | Creating a Windows Vista Backup
But at this point I would also like to point out just a few of the backup related topics we have on the help and how-to site as well:
Rob
Nothing to do with Windows Vista but worthwhile anyway for any Bond fans out there
MSN UK have got the latest full length trailer for the next James Bond film – Quantum of Solace, well over 2 mins long… so for any bond fans out there check it out.
James Bond – Quantum of Solace movie
Just spotted this new Windows International (the group I work in) blog from Oliver Windows International Testing
“This blog will provide topics of interest to software developers and test engineers who are interested in Software Localization Testing, Globalization Testing and Software Localizability ….
…Going forward, we will be using this blog to share more details on test methodologies, useful tools, typical globalization/localizability defects and general tips and tricks. "
Working in this area, and with past roles in localisation I am looking forward to seeing what they are going to post, and hope i can learn about the process and tools in this area :)
The ever wonderful Windows Vista Magazine has been running a recent set of articles on how to achieve a Windows Experience score of 5.9
The articles are great and well worth a read if you are looking to make sure your computers hardware and software is going to be capable of giving you the ultimate experience
Part 1: Focuses on memory and RAM
Part 2: Focuses on processing power
Part 3: Focuses on boosting your graphics
Part 4: Looks at increasing your hard disk speed
My nearly 2 year old Toshiba Tecra M7 comes in at a paltry 3.0, mainly due the graphics capability. If these where improved I could be up in the high 4s as the rest of the hardware is not to shabby.
Ok so it is Monday morning, but I get loads of email over the weekend from all over the world, and my usual work pattern is to give the titles a quick scan and delete the majority!!! and then start to look at the ones that appear more important that are left.
This morning I had an email from Amazon.co.uk telling me that a new product was available called ‘Windows Cling Pictures’. Thinking that this was maybe a new product around pictures or images in Windows, or a new book that I might be interested in, I right-clicked to download the pictures to find out that no it wasn’t anything to do with Microsoft Windows but rather a product from Crayola for painting physical glass windows.
It made me smile for my faux-pas…
But it looks like it is going to be a long week ahead for me, and I am heading down to Starbucks for an extra shot Americano to get my brain in gear
Hopefully the next set of postings will be more on topic.
You might have already seen a little about the this great new piece of software coming from Microsoft Research , it lets you create collages of pictures automatically from your computer. So I thought I would give it a quick go, and the result are below.
This collage of pictures was from a Heli-Hike trip we took on the Franz Josef glacier in New Zealand, way back in 2001. As you can see from the picture we had a truly great day, and it was one of the best experiences of our life's.
It was so simple to use the tool and am now on the look out for more images to have a play with :)
You can see a demo of the program in action, or get a 30 day trial free, or buy from the Microsoft Uk Store (covering all EU countries)for £19.90
Microsoft Research AutoCollage ‘Pick a folder, press a button, and in a few minutes AutoCollage presents you with a unique memento to print or email to your family and friends. ‘
How great is this latest Bot, from the MSR-MT team Windows Live Messenger translation bot now available!
Really easy to use and setup in a few seconds on Windows Live Messenger, and on your smartphone.
To get started just add mtbot@hotmail.com to your contacts, then start a conversation with TBOT ? to get a list of commands, and then for example enter 7 (for English to Italian translation), then type your message and you get a machine translated response such as
‘quanto freddo è il Bot in tensione di traduzione del messaggero delle finestre’
Update – just also added this to my Office Communicator and of course it works fine there too.
Last week I was away on holiday in North Norfolk which is a very beautiful part of the British Isles and whilst visiting various sandy and stoney beaches I managed to shoot a number of panorama shots of Cley Windmill at dusk:
and
Both where shot with my trusty old Sony DSC V1 camera in auto mode, and both feature Sarah and Felix on the right hand side. Click on the images to get a bigger image, and of you want a copy of the originals (2Mb) then let me know:)
If you are wondering how I created these by auto stitching 4 images together look at this and then download Windows Live Photo Gallery for free
Ps I am still on holiday for another week but will try and get some more panoramas :)
Well it should be live today at http://blogs.msdn.com/e7
I actually work in the Windows product group, as the Windows International Site Manager for the UK in a sub group called Windows International Online phew that was a bit of a mouthful. Although I do not work directly on Windows 7 it is an exciting time to be in the Windows product group, with all the interest in this major next release of Windows.
The blog is going to be about the story behind the engineering/making of Windows 7, told by the members of the development team.
Hopefully it will be great blog with some interesting posts and discussions.
The first, welcome blog posting is up http://blogs.msdn.com/e7/archive/2008/08/14/welcome.aspx
“The audience of enthusiasts, bloggers, and those that are the most passionate about Windows represent the folks we are dedicating this blog to. With this blog we’re opening up a two-way discussion about how we are making Windows 7. Windows has all the challenges of every large scale software project—picking features, designing them, developing them, and delivering them with high quality. Windows has an added challenge of doing so for an extraordinarily diverse set of customers. As a team and as individuals on the team we continue to be humbled by this responsibility."
I am always on the hunt for great content for Windows Vista and just stumbled upon this download (xps, pdf versions) and you can read all the detail there...
well if you read the document you get 2 bonus tips and tricks making it 12 really: 11. Share a folder or file directly from your PC and 12. PC performance.
XPS link = http://download.microsoft.com/download/D/9/B/D9B9587E-427C-439F-B90C-69A1E643DE4C/windows_vista_tips_and_tricks.xps
PDF link = http://download.microsoft.com/download/D/9/B/D9B9587E-427C-439F-B90C-69A1E643DE4C/windows_vista_tips_and_tricks.pdf
Rob :)
updated with correct xps link :)