I thought you might be interested in this video – in it Neil chats with Eric Havir and demonstrates some of the educational apps we’ve been building for Microsoft Surface. The chemistry one at the end of the video is my favourite. It’s a little difficult to make out exactly what is on the screen at times, so make sure you click on the ‘watch in HD’ at the bottom right of the YouTube...
Windows 7 Secrets
There’s been a few people linking to this excellent list of Windows 7 Secrets by Tim Sneath. And rightly so, it’s a great help. As @digory noted, there’s details of how to get IM back to the status bar (where it belongs!). But there’s other gems as well, like how to open a second instance of an already running app (Tip 19 – Shift click it on your task bar) and how to walk through the...
Running Google Chrome on Windows 7 Beta 1
If you are having trouble running Chrome on Windows 7 then chances are you are running the 64bit version of Windows 7. The solution is pretty simple. I’ve put it below, and note that it is almost entirely copied from Sandip’s BlogsDNA blog here – I’ve simply incorporated some of the comments into the screenshot. Right click on your Google Chrome icon and bring up the properties. Add...
Live Mesh gains credibility
You’ve hopefully seen the news about Live Mesh winning the Best Technology Innovation of 2008 at the Crunchies. I think this is an important award for Microsoft, since it indicates that there is at least some mainstream acceptance that they’re doing something cool and innovative (note: by mainstream, I’m talking about people in tech as a whole – not just Microsoft fan boys like myself...
Bob’s server room
Yes, I think this is pretty cool. Bob Muglia, recently promoted to President of Server and Tools at Microsoft, shows the Channel 10 team around his house, and in the basement. And hiding away in the basement is his 9 server setup (soon to be virtualised down to 4), organized to cater for –in Bob’s own words – a company “with 2 to 500 staffâ€. The video is from last September, and...
Microsoft patent push – 57,000 and counting
57,000 – That’s a lot of patents Microsoft are aiming for. This is actually an interesting insight into the Microsoft mindset – they are actively pursuing research + development, and protecting their IP. The numbers from the Microsoft PressPass article put the totals at: 10,000 issued US patents 17,000 pending US patents 30,000 international and pending patents I wonder how they...
Running multiple Messenger logins on the same machine
Thanks be to A-Patch! The awesomeness that is A-Patch is now out with a version for Windows Live Messenger 9 (the Wave 3 RC version released last week). It’s actually a cut down list of options this time, in order to get it out quickly. But I’m not complaining. I’m really happy. Here’s why: As well as the usual option for getting rid of the advertisements, it also enables Multi-MSN. ...
Adobe Infinite Images and Deep Earth
Adobe has been experimenting with it’s own image navigation & stitching together technology, and Infinite Images is the latest demonstration of it (see here for the ReadWriteWeb article). You, me and every other Microsoft watcher will immediately see shades of Deep Zoom and perhaps a little Photosynth in this. What’s cool about the the Adobe system is how it uses tagging (based on...
Sara Ford’s tips come to an end
In a word: Thanks. A shame that Sarah’s tips on Visual Studio finished up last Friday. But hey, great things can’t go on for ever (she says, deferring to the wisdom of Axl). I’m really interested to see how she applies all those spare cycles now :-) to CodePlex. There’s going to be some cool stuff to keep an eye on. Sarah has been a wonderful example of sharing (her book profits...
Live Mesh update on hold, Quality in focus
I think it’s interesting that the Live Mesh team decided to put their upcoming release on hold (as announced at the start of this month). Here’s their reasoning: UPDATE: In the world of services, we have blackout periods where no updates are allowed. This is to ensure stability during, e.g., the holiday season when use of a product goes up and the availability of employees to fix issues goes...