- Popfly Game Creator
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Ok, so I admit it, I can play games, but am pretty lame at creating them...
Here is my first attempt ever!
This is built using Popfly Game Creator, its not new news by any means, but if you have not seen this then check it out, its very cool for anyone who wants to try their hand at games development for the very first time.
This took me about 20 mins to get up and running... fun fun fun!!
- Microsoft Malware Protection Center - Security Intelligence Report
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Microsoft recently released its Security Intelligence Report Version 4 on April 22 at the Infosecurity Europe event in London. This is no light reading folks, its a big report about 104 pages long, but there are some really interesting facts inside...
- Malicious Software Removal Tool (MSRT) data shows that the infection rate for Windows Vista–based computers is
60.5 percent less than that of computers running Windows XP SP2, and 91.5 percent
less than the infection rate for Windows XP with no service packs installed. - Microsoft has filed nearly 250 legal actions worldwide against spammers, often working
with law enforcement officials in the United States, Europe, the Asia-Pacific region,
and South America. - Phishing is still predominantly an English-language phenomenon. Typically,
75–80 percent of the active phishing pages tracked by the Microsoft Phishing Filter
at a given moment in 2H07 were English-language pages.
There is also some interesting data on what sort of detections Windows Live Care came across on Software...
This is where you really need to be careful of pirate software. A report from IDC iterated the risks of pirate software in the enterprise, some of the points from that report highlight this;
- 25% of the Web sites we accessed offering counterfeit product keys, pirated
software, key generators or crack tools attempted to install either malicious or
potentially unwanted software. There are a significant number of sites that will
attempt to install malicious or unwanted code. - 11% of the key generators and crack tools downloaded from Web sites and 59%
of the key generators and crack tools downloaded from peer-to-peer networks
contained either malicious or potentially unwanted software. There is a significant amount of malicious or unwanted code to be found in key generators
and crack tools. - The cost to organizations to recover from a single incident of malicious software
on a single workstation can run over a thousand dollars. The cost to
organizations from lost or compromised data can run into the tens of thousands
of dollars per incident. The "savings" of using pirated software can be wiped out
with a single security breach.
The IDC report can be found here.
To read more, click the link below and find out more about the research conducted between July 2007 to December 2007, and be aware of the security threats in our industry.
Microsoft Malware Protection Center - Security Intelligence Report
- Nexus SC: The System Center Team Blog : Operations Manager 2007 goes CROSS Platform!
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There is sometimes so much information to digest that you miss these announcements, so I am a bit late to the party, but this is awesome none the less. Announced at the Microsoft Management Summit 2008 in Las Vegas was the new functionality for System Center Operations Manager 2007 enabled through a technology called Cross Platform Extensions Beta. This feature enables systems administrators to manage their Unix/Linux servers in their IT environment. The subsequent blog post iterates the following benefits that this delivers to an organization;
- Improves service levels across Microsoft, Unix and Linux platforms.
- Enables administrators to more easily manage cross-platform environments.
- Accelerates incident resolution through expert knowledge issues and causes.
- Enables detailed heterogeneous performance analysis and reporting.
- Automates routine administration for non-Microsoft platforms
Nexus SC: The System Center Team Blog : Operations Manager 2007 goes CROSS Platform!
Jump in to the link above to get more details, but this is an exciting move forward to making a heterogeneous environment that more manageable.
- Expression Studio 2 is out... now with PHP support!!!
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Lots of things happening today...
Got to admit, the branding of the Expression tools is really funky, however the tools themselves are equally awesome. Expression Studio brings together the various Expression products together such as;
- Expression Web 2 (Professional Web Design Tool)
- Expression Blend 2 (Professional Interactive Design Tool)
- Expression Design 2 (Professional Graphic Design Tool)
- Expression Media 2 (Professional Asset Management Tool)
- Expression Encoder 2 (Professional Video Encoding Tool)
What really got me excited was our support for PHP in Expression Web 2. I got it installed and gave it a quick look, and there it is baby, third on the list is PHP page.
Now I am no PHP developer, but I am really glad we are supporting PHP as it is such a popular technology being used for building websites. So if you are a PHP developer, Id love to hear if anyone has downloaded Expression and used it to build a PHP site. Id love to get people to share their stories of success or frustrations :-).
Let me know, I should go and learn some PHP now...
- Singapore Community Launch 2008
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Home - Community Launch 2008
On the 17th of May, the Singapore Professional's .NET user group, the Singapore Windows User Group and Singapore SQL Server user group are coming together to have their own community launch of Windows Server 2008, Visual Studio 2008 and SQL Server 2008.
I love these launches because you get the opportunity to chat to people who are really passionate about these products and how they are using it in so many innovative ways. This year the agenda is getting better and bigger,
This year with tracks focusing on both development and IT professionals there is plenty of content for everyone, so get in fast and get in early.
Once again I have the honour of delivering the closing session and handing out prizes, this is always a lot of fun, as nearly everyone walks away with a prize.
So register now at Home - Community Launch 2008 , the leads have done an amazing amount of work to get this happening and I congratulate them on their efforts and passion.
- Community Clips
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Now I know this is directly following on from the previous blog, but this site is also cool. Spawned off from the Office Labs site, Community Clips is an area that enables users to create and share clips on how they use Office and what tips they can share...
Community Clips
- Microsoft Office Labs
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Microsoft Office Labs
This is cool, if you get a chance check it out...
From the site:
Welcome to Microsoft Office Labs!
This site is a proving ground for ideas that come from regular employees and interns who work anywhere in Microsoft. Most of the code prototypes are developed by the Office Labs team in partnership with the teams that make the products. After all, they produce most of the ideas. Some of the things you find here will be web-based, others are downloads. Some will be a combination, something we call "software + services."
The prototypes you see here are like "Concept Cars". They aren't products or features of Microsoft Office. Don't expect them to work perfectly, or be available here forever. Just as when a concept car is shown at an auto-show, one or two or none of the ideas shown might make it into a future vehicle. Everybody knows its unpredictable, so don't go off thinking this is some kind of preview for future versions of Office, ok? Anyway, we thought it would be interesting to present some ideas we are exploring.
It's fun to try new stuff, but we also have a reason for putting these ideas out here in public. We want to find out which of these ideas are valuable, how people use them, and generally what you all think. To measure how effective the various ideas are we collect a variety of data about how you use these prototypes. If the thought of us gathering this data bothers you, please don't use these tools.
The prototypes really work, but as we said, they’re not products. We may enhance these prototypes based on your feedback as we test the ideas further, but these are free and there’s no official support. As with all such things, proceed at your own risk.
Every couple of months or so another prototype may show up. Sometimes more than one. Sometimes it’ll be longer. We hope you become a regular visitor and participant in the discussions. Let us know what you think!
One of the projects you can try is the Search Commands for Office 2007. This enables you to type in the command you are looking for and then click the one you want, very cool.
- Some thinking fun for a Friday
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So some colleagues stopped me in the hallway and asked if I could solve the following brain teaser, I wanted to share with you and see how quickly someone gets it.
Ok so here is the equation...
5 + 5 + 5 = 550
What you are allowed to do is place a single line in to the equation to make it correct, and you cannot put the line through the equals sign to say that the equation is incorrect.
Lets see if someone can come up with the answer, if not I will post the answer next week. :-)
I kicked myself when I was demonstrated the answer.
- Report: Microsoft fastest to issue OS patches, Sun slowest
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Symantec have just released their malware report on security threats in the industry and it is great to see that results are in showing that Microsoft is the fastest in the industry to issue operating system patches to help protect customers from vulnerabilities.
You can get the report from the link below...
Report: Microsoft fastest to issue OS patches, Sun slowest
I think this goes a long way to demonstrating that the investment we have made in the trustworthy computing initiative is enabling us to ensure the protection of our customers is a key priority, and these investments have enabled us to be more agile when responding to threats on the Windows platform.
- Winplay - Winplay - Guitar Hero 3 Mobile (One-time Purchase)
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Totally non-work related, although it does involve Windows Mobile... Guitar Hero III for Windows Mobile. THIS IS AWESOME!!! I love the Guitar Hero series and am constantly playing it at home, my wife is also a big fan and is one of the only games she will consistently play, well that and Puzzle Fighter, apparently Halo 3 doesn't excite her... don't know what's wrong with her!!!
Anyway, this is going to be an awesome way to spend the bus ride home!!!
Winplay - Winplay - Guitar Hero 3 Mobile (One-time Purchase)
- Free Microsoft software tools for Spore students
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I am personally very excited about this initiative "DreamSpark". DreamSpark is a programme that puts in the hands of the students the developer & designer tools released by Microsoft. Students now get free access to tools such as Visual Studio, Expression and XNA Games Studio, so if you have a passion for programming, graphic design or games development and you are a student, here are the tools for you.
Free Microsoft software tools for Spore students
- Mainsoft supports Microsoft technology for Java, Linux | InfoWorld | News | 2008-04-08 | By Paul Krill
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This is cool stuff, Mainsoft is releasing technology that will enable Microsoft's ASP .NET AJAX technology on Java supported platforms such as Linux. This is enabled through their new release of "Mainsoft for Java EE version 2.2".
In a nutshell this means that developers can use Visual Studio to develop web applications using ASP.NET AJAX and deploy to either Windows or Linux.
Mainsoft supports Microsoft technology for Java, Linux | InfoWorld | News | 2008-04-08 | By Paul Krill
- Rocker eyes holographic touring to save planet | Entertainment | Music | Reuters
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I am a big fan of the band System of a Down, and am really enjoying some of the solo work that lead singer Serj Tankian is doing. If you are in to Celine Dion though, this is definitely not music for you. However I must applaud the recent comments and dedication that Serj has to the environment, so much so that he is considering doing virtual concerts or as he calls it Holographic Touring. He makes some compelling points about having the technology and being able to broadcast directly from his home studio while still interacting with fans. As he says "I think we could reduce our need to travel if we could project ourselves into meetings and concerts. We have the technology, and we're not using it right now."
The other point he makes is that during such a concert he could interact with fans during the broadcast, this would certainly give fans an opportunity they may never have had in a real life concert.
Awesome concept Serj!!!
Rocker eyes holographic touring to save planet | Entertainment | Music | Reuters
- Interoperability Principles
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Back in February you would have heard the interoperability principles that Microsoft announced to enable non-Microsoft products and Microsoft products better interoperability to share data and capabilities. If you missed out on that announcement, you can read more at the Interoperability Principles page here
Interoperability Principles
The first principle announced "Open Connections to Microsoft Products" is now commencing the release of many of the protocols being used between products. Documentation is now being made available on the following products;
- Office 2007
- Exchange Server 2007 to Outlook 2007
- Office SharePoint Server 2007 protocols
- Application Markup Language (Xaml) technical specifications for Xaml object mapping and the Xaml vocabulary for WPF
You can get more information for this here at http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc216514.aspx
There is a short article done by PC Advisor back in February which outlined who would benefit from these protocols being documented and published.
I for one am excited about what this means for the software industry and look forward to the applications and experiences that will be enabled by the publication of this information.
- MySong: Automatic Accompaniment for Vocal Melodies
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Just for a bit of fun, Microsoft Research appears to be making the move in to Pop stardom a little simpler. The research being done by this team takes the vocal melodies and song that a person sings in the microphone and creates a musical accompaniment to compliment the singing.
The video itself goes in to the details, but make sure you watch to the end to have a laugh at the various ways people have applied it.
MySong: Automatic Accompaniment for Vocal Melodies