Outside The Cube

...and I'm heading to Hawaii ;-)  See you on 6/27...

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready/preview.mspx - grab Vista Beta 2 – site is under extreme load currently.

Kinda cool - http://www.iblox.com

"Welcome to the only way to create 3D personalized, multimedia, entertainment and game experiences to share with others. You can use your own digital media content or check out the iBloks shop for cool content from iBloks, and our partners.  It's a fun, easy and totally new way to express yourself.

It's time to get started! Available on both Windows XP and the new Windows Vista Beta 2 release, the free iBloks Mix.Share.Play™ beta software is ready for you to use and enjoy with your friends. Included is our signature Dancing Man mod, customizable Sudoku game, and our cool new iBloks Mix Master for mixing audio. This is a $10.00 value for you to enjoy free, just for being part of our beta software testing program. Use your music, photos and video clips, or our sample media instead, mix it all into an iBloks 3D mod or game, then share it via email, instant messaging, or posting on your blog or web page. We make it a snap to express yourself. When your iBloks is perfect, a single click will share it with your friends. It's easy and fun, so get started now!"

"The DFS Replication service MOM Management Pack (English) that monitors the DFSR service in Windows Server 2003 R2 is available for download at

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=651E7C4A-484B-4AA2-9FBF-F3538075B9E8&displaylang=en.

Note this pack monitors DFSR service in R2 and is not a replacement for Ultrasound used to monitor Ntfrs (especially SYSVOL)."

I'm a big fan of The Longest Journey, so it doesn't surprise me that I'm enjoying DreamFall: The Longest Journey - picks up a decade or so after the original - just starting to get into it...

Looking forward to Half-Life 2: Episode One hitting Valve's Steam distribution mechanism tomorrow - playing HL2 (and Doom 3) were the primary reasons I built my Big Honking Box at home ;-).

Completely addicted to Zuma - this game was MADE to be played on the TabletPC (I'm testing out one of the Toshiba M400 Centrino Duo (dual core) TabletPC models - nice little machine)...

Might check out Call of Cthulu at some point, but have to make it through Halo 2 (yep, that's just embarrassing), Call of Duty 2, Resurrection of Evil (D3 add-on) first...

What are you folks playing?

Anyone who knows me, knows they'll have to pry my Acer Ferrari 3400 out of my cold DEAD hands (currently running XP/x86 as my safe OS, and Vista Ultimate x64 Beta 2 as test)...  Either that, or get me one of the newly announced Ferrari 5000s.

Specs for the Acer Ferrari 5000:

• Processor: AMD Turion 64 X2
• 15.4" screen
• 1.3 Megapixel web camera built-in
• Acer InviLik 802.11 a/b/g wireless
• Bluetooth 2.0
• Up to 160GB HD
• Choice between slot loading DVD-Super Multi double-layer drive or HD-DVD drive
• 5-in-1 media card reader built-in
• Carbon Fiber casing
• Acer VoIP Bluetooth phone bundled

Extremely thorough Vista review (as always) from Tom's Hardware...

http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/05/31/windows_vista/

This is pretty cool...

"As Microsoft expands into more and more markets, scaling and tailoring products to meet global needs becomes a serious challenge. Microsoft Windows Vista currently supports more than 200 locales (100+ languages), and yet this covers only a fraction of speakers worldwide. As a company, we are moving towards a more extensible model for international support that will empower users to create and share customized solutions in the international space.

 

The Microsoft Locale Builder provides a way to extend and modify the set of locales that Microsoft ships with your own regional and cultural data. The Microsoft Locale Builder was created to support customers in regions without built-in Windows locales as well as customers seeking to modify locales that they are already using. Customers will be able to add support on their own timeline without having to wait for new releases of Windows.

Microsoft Locale Builder will also allow corporations, governments, universities, and special-interest groups to generate and easily share custom locales on Microsoft Windows Vista.

Download @ http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=12ADFFC8-A4DA-424B-8D62-17C1E0FFC116&displaylang=en" <--fixed link

Download Technical Case Study and PowerPoint Presentation

Application Compatibility Testing for Windows Vista 

Form Factor: Technical Case Study and PowerPoint Presentation 

Published: 5/22/06

Overview on the Windows Vista Application Compatibility Testing Program, which enables Microsoft to smoothly upgrade the desktop operating systems in its business units to Windows Vista and provide the Windows Vista development team with feedback from real-world application compatibility testing.

Worth a read - http://download.microsoft.com/download/c/2/9/c2935f83-1a10-4e4a-a137-c1db829637f5/windowsvistasecuritywp.doc