Hi,
Thanks for visiting the blog.
I am moving to a new role in Microsoft in the United States.
As a result this blog is being put on hold.
You can find all the latest news from Microsoft Ireland here.
Thanks
Tom Murphy
Microsoft has announced the different product versions for Windows 7.
From the PressPass interview with Windows General Manager Mike Ybarra:
Ybarra: With Windows 7 there will be two primary editions: Windows 7 Home Premium, and Windows 7 Professional. We think those two SKUs will meet most customers’ needs.
Windows 7 Home Premium is the recommended choice for consumers. It gives them a full-function PC experience and a visually rich environment in everything from the way they experience entertainment to the way they connect their devices.
Windows 7 Professional is the recommended choice for small businesses and for people who work at home but have to operate in an IT-managed or business environment where security and productivity are critical. For those running Windows Vista Business, it will be a very logical move to Windows 7 Professional.
There will also be a Windows 7 Home Basic version only available in emerging markets, Windows 7 Enterprise for large corporate customers and Windows 7 Ultimate which will include all the features of every edition.
Additional feature from PressPass:
Customers will be able to download the beta release of Windows 7 until February 2009. After that date the download will no longer be available.
From the Windows 7 Team blog:
The shutdown of general availability for the Windows 7 Beta will occur in 3 phases over the course of the next few weeks:
- Starting January 27th, the Windows 7 page will be updated with a warning that time is running out on downloading the Windows 7 Beta and that we will be limiting downloads shortly. People will be encouraged to register and start the download of the Windows 7 Beta sooner rather than later.
- February 10th, new downloads of the Windows 7 Beta will no longer be available. People who have already started their Windows 7 Beta download and have not yet finished will still be able to finish their download and are encouraged to do so.
You can find out more information here and you can download the Windows 7 beta (until February 10th 2009) from here.
The Presidential Inaugural Committee (PIC) has selected Microsoft Silverlight technology to enable live and on-demand video streaming of the official inauguration swearing-in ceremony on the PIC Web site at http://www.pic2009.org. As part of its efforts to hold the most open and accessible inauguration in history, on Saturday, Jan. 17, the PIC will also stream video of a Baltimore event on the Whistle Stop Tour that will take President-elect Barack Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden to Washington, D.C., from Philadelphia.
| |  |
 | |
Meanwhile, CNN is going to use Microsoft Photosynth to record the inauguration for posterity. It’s asking anyone attending to send them a photo which they’ll then input into Photosynth to create 3D experience of the inauguration. |
Microsoft Ireland has launched an online survey intended to build a better understanding of the attitudes and experiences of 14 – 18 year olds to online bullying and online privacy.
The survey is exclusively for 14 – 18 year old respondents.
You can take the survey here.
Microsoft will not collect or use any personal information and will use the responses to the survey for statistical purposes only to create a small report on the topic.
Availability of the Windows 7 Beta has been extended until January 24th 2009. You can download your own copy of the beta here.
You can find out more about Windows 7 here.
You can also watch some introductory videos
If you’re interested in Windows 7 or have already downloaded the beta, check out the Windows Experience blog.
Dublin: December 17th 2008 - Microsoft is encouraging customers to follow simple safety guidelines including the application of all relevant software updates, installing up-to-date anti-virus and anti-malware software and ensuring that the firewall on their PC is turned on.
Updated Information:
The security update for Internet Explorer has been released. The update will help protect customers from malicious attacks. Like a vaccine developed to fight a virus, this “security update” will protect your computer only if you install it. If you have turned on Automatic Updates, your computer will install the security update automatically. If you don’t use Automatic Updates, please go to http://update.microsoft.com.
The Microsoft Security Response Centre continues to monitor the threat landscape while working, and sharing information with, partners around the globe through the Microsoft Active Protections Program to help protect our customers.
Microsoft strongly recommends that consumers find out how to protect their PC by visiting: http://www.microsoft.ie/protect/
It’s important that consumers:
- Keep anti-virus and anti-malware software up to date
- Turn on their computer’s firewall
- Ensure that their PC is up-to-date with the latest software updates
- Turn on Windows Update to ensure that software is patched automatically
Microsoft has published an advisory with detailed information which customers can access at http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/advisory/961051.mspx
Dublin: December 17th 2008 - Microsoft is encouraging customers to follow simple safety guidelines including the application of all relevant software updates, installing up-to-date anti-virus and anti-malware software and ensuring that the firewall on their PC is turned on. Later today Microsoft will release an update for Internet Explorer which addresses a vulnerability in the browser. Customers can read more detailed information here.
The Microsoft Security Response Centre continues to monitor the threat landscape while working, and sharing information with, partners around the globe through the Microsoft Active Protections Program to help protect our customers.
Microsoft strongly recommends that consumers find out how to protect their PC by visiting: http://www.microsoft.ie/protect/
It’s important that consumers:
- Keep anti-virus and anti-malware software up to date
- Turn on their computer’s firewall
- Ensure that their PC is up-to-date with the latest software updates
- Turn on Windows Update to ensure that software is patched automatically
Microsoft has published an advisory with detailed information which customers can access at http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/advisory/961051.mspx
Do you like print your schedule and your task list from Outlook? Would you like more options? The newly released Microsoft Calendar Printing Assistant brings you a wide variety of new printing options for your tasks and schedule in Outlook 2007.
It’s a free download.
If you’d like a whole range of tips and tricks for Microsoft Outlook visit the Outlook Team Blog.
Microsoft yesterday submitted its response to the Article 29 Working Party’s Opinion on search privacy and announced its support of the Working Party’s call for an industry standard for search data anonymisation timeframes and methods.
Microsoft’s John Vassallo commented:
“In April 2008, the Article 29 Working Party issued an Opinion regarding steps that search providers needed to take to improve consumer privacy protection. The Article 29 Working Party is named after the part of Directive 95/46/EC relating to personal data protection and represents all European national data protection authorities. Specifically, the Working Party requested that companies reduce the amount of time they retain search data prior to anonymisation to six months and that companies adopt strong anonymisation methods.
Today, Microsoft has announced that we are prepared to meet the Article 29 Working Party’s search anonymisation guidelines, but believe it is imperative that all search companies adopt the same standard to truly protect people’s privacy. We’ve evaluated the multiple uses of search data and believe that we can, in time, move to a six month timeframe while retaining our strong method of anonymisation.
We are prepared to make this change and applaud the Working Party for its leadership on industry standards and look forward to continuing a productive dialogue with them and other key stakeholders on how to make industry standards a reality.”
You can read an in-depth interview with John Vassallo and Peter Cullen on Microsoft’s response to the Article 29 Working Party’s Opinion on search privacy here.
The first public beta of BizTalk Server 2009 is available for download. Microsoft BizTalk Server is used to connect systems both inside and across organizations. This includes exchanging data and orchestrating business processes which require multiple systems.
With this first public beta release of BizTalk Server 2009, Microsoft is delivering the first customer preview of the multi-release road map announced in September 2008 and is giving customers the first look of the feature-complete download. BizTalk Server 2009 supports the latest Microsoft application platform technologies, including Windows Server 2008, Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 SP1, Microsoft SQL Server 2008 and the .NET Framework 3.5 SP1. BizTalk Server 2009 also delivers expanded new connectivity options including new integration with Oracle Corp.’s E-Business Suite, as well as updated platform support for the most recent versions of IBM Corp.’s Customer Information Control System (CICS), Information Management System (IMS), DB2, DB2/400, DB2 Universal Database and WebSphere MQ.
Customers also will benefit from BizTalk Server updates in key enterprise focus areas, including connectivity, visibility and platform support, which extend their investments in existing infrastructure, people and applications. BizTalk Server 2009 also delivers improved scalability and reliability through support for SQL Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V virtualization and enhanced failover clustering. It provides significant new enhancements to both individual and team productivity by enabling new interoperability with Microsoft’s application life-cycle management (ALM) solution: Visual Studio Team System and Team Foundation Server. This allows development teams to utilize the integrated source control, bug tracking, team development support, Project Server integration, and support for automating builds via MSBuild for a more seamless development and testing experience.
The BizTalk Server 2009 public beta is available for download and community feedback today at http://connect.microsoft.com. Customers and partners are encouraged to begin developing and testing solutions on this feature-complete beta, and to provide feedback for the final release due in the first half of 2009. As previously announced, Microsoft will continue to target updates of BizTalk Server every two years.
Microsoft employee Ori Amiga has transformed his 12-year-old Porsche into a mobile computing platform using Live Mesh!
Microsoft’s Live Mesh allows you to synchronize all your information—photos, music, documents, and more – among PCs, notebooks, and soon, mobile phones.
In his car, Ori has instant access to his huge and growing music collection. If he adds an album at home, it’s available in his car the next time he starts the ignition.
The MeshMobile is GPS-equipped, and when in motion it’s “dropping GPS tracks into the Mesh” so that his friends can find where he is on Virtual Earth. Amiga also can quickly check the weather and—when stuck in traffic, of course—open Internet Explorer and do some browsing.
Read the full story here.
The next public beta release of Internet Explorer 8 will include improvements to Compatibility View that help end-users when they visit web sites that are not yet ready for IE8’s new, more standards-compliant defaults.
You can find out more details on the IE8 blog here.
Enable Ireland’s National Assistive Technology Training Centre has received a gold medal from the European Commission for its innovative use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for people with disabilities. This medal is in recognition of the launch of Ireland’s first National AT Training Centre, by Enable Ireland and with the support of Microsoft Ireland, in November 2007.
Assistive Technology (AT) is one of the major enablers in helping people with disabilities to live independently, access education and enter the workforce. With over 70% of AT being discarded due to a lack of training, Enable Ireland’s services are helping to bring the full benefits of the technology to the people who need it. AT also benefits those who either acquire injuries or disabilities at work who might otherwise have to retire or take sick leave. On a global scale the most conservative estimate of the related costs of Repetitive Strain Injury for example (RSI) runs into the hundreds of billions of dollars.
Enable Ireland provides a range of AT training courses. However the growing demand for such training means there was a need for a full-time facility. As a result Enable Ireland, with support from Microsoft, has created Ireland’s first National Assistive Technology Training Centre. The new centre provides AT training and advice all year round to an estimated 700 people.
Speaking today from the award ceremony, Siobhan Long, manager of the National High Tech Assistive Technology Service said: “It’s a great honour to receive this recognition from the European Commission. We passionately believe in the potential of AT to remove barriers that might previously have prevented people with disabilities from accessing education and employment. At a time of significant economic downturn, it is even more important that we retain sight of the potential for these technologies to make a real and tangible difference to the lives of people with disabilities. I would also like to thank Microsoft for their support in helping us to open our AT centre and for their continued support since it’s opening.”
Pictured: Minister of State, Dept of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, Sean Power, T.D., and Siobhán Long, Manager of Enable Ireland’s National Assistive Technology Training Service at the E-Inclusion awards in Vienna.
You can find out more about Microsoft’s community programmes here.
You can visit Enable Ireland online here.
From the International Herald Tribune.
On Monday, Microsoft researchers published the results of a study of health-related Web searches on the company's Live search engine as well as a survey of the company's employees.
The study suggests that self-diagnosis by search engine frequently leads Web searchers to conclude the worst about what ails them.
The researchers said they had undertaken the study as part of an effort to add features to Microsoft's search service that could make it more of an adviser and less of a blind information retrieval tool.
Although the term "cyberchondria" emerged in 2000 to refer to the practice of leaping to dire conclusions while researching health matters online, the Microsoft study is the first systematic look at the anxieties of people doing searches related to health care, Eric Horvitz said.
Here’s a link to the full paper.
