David Overton's Blog : Fun

Blinging Down the House

David Overton — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 22:55:02 GMT

I’ve just tweeted on this, but decided to blog on it as well. The blurb … “During the summer of 2011, the Windows team here in the UK put out the call to all students with tired technology and faded furniture to enter Blinging Down the House. All they needed to do was to ask for help in the form of a simple video entry. The winning entry would then get their technology makeover with the definitive home entertainment setup. “ The winning student was Jack Rose. He went from this: I like the comments of “and I’ve got man boobs, so the Xbox Kinect would come in handy to exercise” and the line about spreading out the vodka shows thoughtfulness! After all was done he had this: Perfect in time for Christmas – Xbox, 3D TV, tablet and touch screen PC! ttfn David...(read more)

Steve from Sytec saw me …

David Overton — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 12:09:00 GMT

Steve sent me this earlier in December, but I thought it was worth sharing. Here is the photo he took:

ttfn

David

Technorati Tags: David Overton,Overton,Personal,UK Train Stations

Star Wars Clone Wars and Robot Chicken both rock

David Overton — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 07:49:43 GMT

and

This weekend I finally got to see Star Wars The Clone Wars and while my Star Wars sensibilities were offended for the 1st 5 minutes (the voices are different and my eyes had to get used to the new visuals), but once I had done so both Molly and I really enjoyed the film.

If you like simple fun, then you should also look at the Clones Vs Droids Game at http://www.clonesvdroids.com/. It is very simple, move your troops around, plan your shots and then see if your shots work, assuming your opponent moves too. I have to say it took a few goes to master when playing against real opponents as first they moved than I had expected and then they actually jumped onto my “side” – something I was not prepared for! Have a go, it is fun!

Finally, on my Star Wars-tastic adventure there is Robot Chicken. This short DVD is based on the former works of Robot Chicken – the stop motion animation group take their normal themes and apply them to Star Wars. I really, really enjoyed the scene where George Bush battles Lincoln with light-saber or where the Emperor is shouting at Vader on the phone for not being able to “protect a little 2 meter exhaust port” until he makes him cry. Anyway, have a look by clicking the picture below.

Enjoy!

David

Technorati Tags: Personal,Star Wars,Clone Wars,Robot Chicken

Want MIX08 in the UK? Then come to ReMix08 in Brighton on 18th and 19th September and save if you book an early bird place now

David Overton — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 17:03:36 GMT

I love what goes on at these events. It would be good to see you there. Here is the little advert:

Final chance to save £110. Very limited Early Bird places left - don't say we didn't warn you!

1,000 web developers, designers, development managers and technology evangelists are going to take the media they love to the next level. Why? Because ReMix UK 08 is getting bigger and better.

Scott Guthrie
Developer Track

Bill Buxton
Design and UX Track

For Designers, Developers, the Community and Beyond Work

	Julie Howell, Fortune Cookie	•	Brendan Dawes, Magnetic North
•	Paul Foster, Microsoft Evangelist	•	Guy Smith-Ferrier, Capella
•	Tim Regan, Microsoft Research	•	Mike Taulty, Microsoft Developer Evangelist

See the website for the growing list of speakers...

What's in the mix

•	Panel discussions to Interactive Mash Ups	•	Designers and developers hand-in-hand to
•	All day VJs to conceptual walls	•	Open Source project, CodePlex
•	Backnetwork to Moo cards	•	Photosynth master classes to Microsoft Surface
•	Our international act to geek bars	•	Swag giveaways to inflatable lounges
•	Designing for compatibility and for the wild	•	Visualising books to sneak previews
•	The latest developments in IM, VE and IE8	•	Latest developments in RIAs and SSDs
•	WPF and Silverlight applications at work	•	•

The technology

It's a full-on interactive event. Be a part of something special. Don't forget the Early Bird offer and register today at www.microsoft.com/uk/remix08/.

Early Bird price £239 (inc.VAT), full price £349 from the 301st ticket.

See you there!

ttfn

David

Technorati Tags: Silverlight, Deep Zoom, Mobile, Windows Mobile, Expression, ASP.Net, Ajax, Windows Live Services, XNA, Microsoft, Partner, Photosynth, Robotics Studio, Data, Microsoft Research, Popfly, Advertising

Are you a “Wizard bigot”? So you think that SBS is a poor quality, cut down version of Windows Server? Do you think that SBS admins are small in capability?

David Overton — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 15:12:27 GMT

Unfortunately there are people who answer yes to the questions above, so lets get some things straight – if you think that:

SBS is bad. There were dark days in the SBS 4.5 and 2000 time (to a small extent) when people thought SBS did not work, did not perform and was clobbered down with stuff that made people hate it. Now Days SBS 2003 is amazing and is built on top of Windows Server 2003 with lots of good stuff extra too.

SBS is insecure. SBS is not only as secure as Windows Server 2003, but since most of the work of securing the system is done for you, it stops you missing silly and obvious things. SBS 2003 R2 even ships with WSUS enabled and a system for telling you if your systems are patched (yes, desktop and server). For a fun look, see Hack That!

Wizards are for wimps. I don’t understand those people who insist on not using the wizards. Yes, SBS 2003 has all the tools of Windows Server 2003 underneath, but why why configure everything by hand when a wizard will do 1/2 hours work in 1 minutes. If you then need to tweak the settings (and that means tweak because it helps the business, not because you prefer everything to end in an even number), then you can still do so – all the of the product features are still there, including all the low level tools.

SBS can’t do everything that Windows Server can do. Well, the answer is almost. It does have some restrictions on it, but they are really simple and nothing to do with application compatibility or ability to work inside a small business:

1 domain (as many other DCs and servers as you want – have a look at Ultimate Server Rave and )
75 CALs, so no enterprise
Only 1 SBS Server per organisation, but as with the domain question – you can have as many Windows Servers in the domain as you want.
Also look at Tech-knowledgey

I love SBS, but to help you convince others, why not have a look at a few places:

For information on the Myths -

Presentation: Dispelling Common Myths About Windows Small Business Server 2003 R2
Are you prepared to answer customer questions about SBS 2003 R2? Get an overview of product features and licensing scenarios as well as a list of common misperceptions about SBS and why they're incorrect.

Windows Small Business Server Truths Revealed
Myths abound about the flexibility and scalability of Windows Small Business Server (SBS) environments. The truth: SBS can work in most complex server-workload scenarios, from multiserver environments to line-of-business applications and remote access. Read about Microsoft Partner experiences. Learn about the robust capabilities of SBS. The benefits of deploying the platform and how you can satisfy the needs of your small-business customers - and increase revenue - by selling them the right solution.

or for customers, send them to http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/sbs/evaluation/topmyths.mspx

To punish those bad wizards from the past have a look at Punch A Wizard Game and then understand more about them look at Wizards.

Finally, have a look at Hello World! and all the items on the blog to understand more about what SBS can do!!

ttfn

David

Technorati Tags: SBS 2003, SBS 2003 R2, Server, Windows Server 2003, Wizards, Small Business, Small Business Server, Marketing, Microsoft, Humour, Humor

Making peace between web designers and developers - watch the movie

David Overton — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 16:32:00 GMT

This is a nice simple cheeky movie:

";" galleryimg="no" mce_src="http://uksbsguy.com/blogs/doverton/WindowsLiveWriter/Makingpeacebetweenwebdesignersanddevelop_E257/videofe25ed816e48.jpg">

It is all about and the finding some .

Enjoy

David

Technorati Tags: Developer, Designer, Harmony, Web-harmony, XAML, Expression

PhotoZoom using Silverlight and DeepZoom (aka SeaDragon) technology - mine is on Star Wars, but we could create a SBSC one

David Overton — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 14:13:43 GMT

The above technology is built using Silverlight 2.0 beta that was announced at MIX08. You can upload photos or import via an RSS feed. I did the later, bit it occurred to me that we should start something like this for SBSC and ISV partners.

To see the effect, go to http://photozoom.mslivelabs.com/Album.aspx?alias=Doverton&album=1 and then zoom in and out using the +/- in the top left corner or the scroll wheel on your mouse. It is quite amazing!

Hat tip to Steve for this one

ttfn

David

Technorati Tags: SeaDragon, DeepZoom, PhotoZoom, Silverlight, MIX 08, Developer, SBSC, Star Wars, Community, ISV

We say that Heroes happen with the '2008 products - see what has been registered by heros so far

David Overton — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 09:15:18 GMT

I found this great web site where you can see 150 case studies that are presented in the form of a book with stories in it. Some are a bit slim on detail and others are good. You might enjoy reading it - http://www.microsoft.com/heroeshappenhere/portraitgallery/start.aspx

ttfn

David

Technorati Tags: Windows Server 2008, Visual Studio 2008, SQL Server 2008, heroes

Life at Microsoft - another comical parody of life in the big machine!

David Overton — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 19:42:10 GMT

I saw this and thought I had to share. While not as funny as some, still worth watching. For the record, no-one has ever thrown money at me! Look for the Jedi master mind tricks (failing) at about 4 mins.

Life At Microsoft - The Truth Revealed

Life At Microsoft - The Truth Revealed
People often stop me in the streets to ask "Hey Tina, what's life "really" like at Microsoft? Sometimes I can't even walk outside my house without somebody standing there with a giant neon sign that blinks "What is life "really" like at Microsoft"? Instead of answering every individual separately and so you can save your money on those neon signs. I decided to create a video that would answer that simple yet complex question. I want to throw out a special high-five to the following because without them and a lot of beer this video never would have happened.

ttfn

David

Technorati Tags: Microsoft, humour, fun, Star Wars

Microsoft and Yahoo merger with Google cartoons

David Overton — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 16:33:48 GMT

I saw these and laughed lots:

Pavel Constantin, Romania

Daryl Cagle, MSNBC.com

Enjoy :-)

Please do not copy the images as they are (c) the artists and I have paid a royalty to share them. If you like them, please point people to this post

ttfn

David

Technorati Tags: Microsoft, Yahoo, Google

Read between the lines of the recent Google/Yahoo/Microsoft announcements

David Overton — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 22:39:44 GMT

I saw this and had to share ... just a little too much truth in them I think :-)

The Google Strategy Will Backfire

We forget that Google is still a very young company. But they just reminded us ... Continue

Parsing Yahoo!: What Makes You Think We're Desperate?

Given its grim outlook as a stand-alone company, Yahoo! suppresses its glee as it steps into play ... Continue

Parsing Google: Don't Trust the Old Bully, Just the New One

Parsing Google: Only benevolent giants like us should be able to buys things ... Continue

Parsing Microsoft, the New Champion of Choice

Protecting the existence of alternatives to a dominant player used to seem like a bad idea in Redmond. Suddenly, Microsoft is using the language it has fought against for so many years ... Continue

Spin Blog - Business Spin by Jack Flack - Portfolio.com

ttfn

David

Technorati Tags: Google,Yahoo,Microsoft,Marketing,Spin

Have you been on a conference call with Microsoft - ever wondered why you are on hold waiting for the conference leader ... the secrets revealed

David Overton — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 08:12:57 GMT

Hi,

Saw this - very much noticed the behaviour, the music and then realised "this is not a stunt... this is what we do".

Enjoy

ttfn

David

Technorati Tags: Microsoft, Conference Call, Fun

How to do mapping on a mobile device or laptop without GPS, earn money while contributing to the project and mapping the world using GPS, mobile cell and WiFi access points (Navizon Peer-to-Peer Wireless Positioning system is the product)

David Overton — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 10:23:00 GMT

I've started looking at this application and found it better than I had hoped. It is simple - it triangulates your position using Wifi and phone cells and emulates a GPS should you need it for another application. It also uses GPS to capture the settings from the other two items and give them a more accurate placement, so learning information about masts, power etc.

So, I've been using this to map my common routes and earn points (*which has just changed as a process), but in a week I've earn't 3274 points and I have not been driving every day and my trips have been short. Once I earn 10,000 points I get $20 courtesy of PayPal. I expect to get a significant amount of those points today on my 2 hours drive to a partner and back.

I can also earn points by getting an award for signing people up and them doing the same as me. To sign up for this, go to http://my.navizon.com/Webapps/UserAdmin/register.aspx?referral_code=5D565A5E5C5E which includes my reference code (5D565A5E5C5E). Being referred by me does not decrease any points you get, just adds some to me as a nice way of saying thank-you for referring. You can obviously get your own referral code too.

One last thing - to load the application onto my phone I had to unlock it to allow non-signed apps (or apps not signed by Orange to be more specific) to run. This was simple and is detailed at http://uksbsguy.com/blogs/doverton/archive/2008/01/24/unlocking-my-windows-mobile-6-device-htc-virgin-lobster-700tv-orange-e650-to-load-non-signed-applications.aspx

ttfn

David

Technorati Tags: GPS, Mobile, Mapping, WiFi, Windows Mobile

How to get DRM protected media on one PC to play on another (eg stored on a Windows Home Server, playing on a Xbox or another PC)

David Overton — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 09:17:26 GMT

This question was asked internally and I was told this is the answer - I've not been able to test it fully, but it appears to be heading in the right direction!!

Q. Why can't I play files that are shared by one computer but located on different computer?

A.
You can use Windows Media Player 11 to share media files that are located on other computers on your home network. However, additional steps are required so that these remote files will play on the devices you are sharing them with.

On the remote computer, the media files must be in shared folders. For information about sharing folders, see Windows Help and Support.

On the computer that contains the library you are sharing, you must grant users permission to access remote folders, modify registry key values, and monitor the shared folders located on the remote computer. The information in this section covers only granting permissions and modifying registry values. For information about monitoring folders, see What are monitored folders?

There are five different procedures for granting permission to remote folders. The first procedure must be done and enables remote content sharing on the computer that contains the library you are sharing. The second procedure grants a specific user account permission to access folders on other computers. However, it will disable sharing for all user accounts except the account you specify. Also, if another user has sharing enabled on this computer, the Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service might not start if this procedure is followed.

The last three procedures grant anonymous logon permission to access folders on other computers. This means that any user can access the folders; it does not distinguish between user accounts. The third procedure is for users of Windows XP Service Pack 2 (Professional and Media Center editions only); the fourth procedure is for users of all other versions of Windows XP; and the fifth procedure is for users of Windows Vista. For procedures two through five, you should only perform one of these procedures.

To enable remote content sharing
To grant one user account permission to access folders on other computers
To grant anonymous permission to access folders on other computers (Windows XP Service Pack 2 - Professional and Media Center editions only)
To grant anonymous permission to access folders on other computers (all other Windows XP versions)
To grant anonymous permission to access folders on other computers (all Windows Vista versions)

ttfn

David

Technorati Tags: Windows Home Server, DRM, Xbox 360

Cool and useful Windows Home Server Disk Management add-in

David Overton — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 08:18:00 GMT

if Heineken did Home Server Web sites then We Got Served would be their site. I love reading the information that Terry puts on there and what is really good too is the fact that it is a UK site. Not that I object to anyone being successful in any country, but it is nice to have one on home turf too.

Anyway, the latest little ditty is the Disk Management add-in from Sam Wood which shows you the status of your disks (capacity used) and where they are in the box (you have to configure this)

Add-In: Windows Home Server Disk Management

A new add-in was released by developer Sam Wood today, called WHS Disk Management. The add-in is an extension of the standard WHS Server Storage interface, helping users visually identify the physical disks they’re working with.

Here’s how it’s used:

Select one of the disks, or expand the columns after the disk ID, to see infomation about the disk. It takes awhile to render, because it’s doing a WMI crawl to find the disk controller. You get SCSI bus/port/LUN, plus disk controller. That’s useful information if you know which port is which on your SCSI/SATA controller.

Add-In: Windows Home Server Disk Management | We Got Served

If you have a Home Server and are a bit techie and like to see what is happening on each disk, this is a must.

ttfn

David

Technorati Tags: Windows Home Server, Home Server, Add-ins

How they said "Happy Holidays!" to Star Wars fans in 1977

David Overton — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 21:21:07 GMT

Well, it is now over 30 years since Star Wars made me realise that there is more to life and that doing the right thing was something to fight for. However, just as a bit of nostalgia, here is a little posting from the Community Pages sharing how Happy Christmas (non-PC version) was done 30 years ago

"Happy Holidays!" Love, 1977
December 21, 2007
Thirty years ago next week, 20th Century Fox began running a newspaper ad for the 1977 holiday season which offered seasons greetings from several Star Wars characters. Even our favorite Grand Moff and Sith Lord offered their best -- we'll chalk that up to New Year's resolutions.

Star Wars: Community | "Happy Holidays!" Love, 1977

ttfn

David

Technorati Tags: Star Wars, Happy Christmas

Kids TV Quiz, Original artwork and Times Online. Take the 15 question Quick and see who you are - I was Dangermouse and there is also the ability to win some Dangermouse original artwork!!

David Overton — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 20:30:56 GMT

I was invited by Russell Singler of the The Animation Art Gallery to go look at TimesOnline for a quiz and competition to win some of his artwork. I found a discount code for the next ten days that gives 10% off of his work and this fun quiz (www.timesonline.co.uk/kidstv)

Good grief! You really are Dangermouse

Have you been known to loiter around a particular post box in Mayfair? Your character bears a striking resemblance to DM himself, the Chief, the greatest super hero in the world, that most debonair of rodents with the mysterious eye patch. You're obviously as brave as a lion, or even a white mouse. You're as cunning as a cat, (or a white mouse). And you can even do impressive yoga poses while balancing on one finger. Whilst you may be the best thing in the secret service since 001, you're not shy in letting people know all about your dazzling skills. What you really need is a timid assistant to boss about – oh shush Penfold…

For the 10% discount at Russell's store, which includes some of the Star Wars artwork I purchased, have a look at http://www.theanimationartgallery.com/ and use the code Jan08 for the next 10 days. (View All 57 Products for Star Wars for the Star Wars artwork)

ttfn

David

Technorati Tags: Star Wars, Kids TV, TimesOnline, Dangermouse

Windows Server 2003 is beginning to feel left behind with the arrival of Windows Server 2008 inside the Microsoft datacenter - fun videos to watch and learn a few reasons why to use Windows Server 2008

David Overton — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 16:29:07 GMT

I saw these and they just made me laugh while sharing a few things about WS2008 vs 2003. Unlike some "new and improved" washing powders, Windows Server 2003 is a good product, but some key areas have been improved to meet people's new and different needs, such as more security, sharing of information, web based applications, minimal systems and virtualisation.

The blog entry (which was obviously written before RC1 appeared, but posted afterwards) can be found at Windows Server Division WebLog : About Lone Server. If you want some fun, skip the soapbox video and look at the long video from the blog / link below.

About The Lone Server
Once I was almost famous. For years, my friends and I were on the front lines: we were the Windows Server 2003 servers that powered Microsoft.com, one of the hottest Web sites in the world. Then, early last summer, everything changed. Quietly, without warning, the new kids took over. Windows Server 2008. Yes, I know, the product’s not even done yet. These were Beta 3 servers, for Pete’s sake. Long way from prime time. But there they were, humming away. No problems. All of ‘em on Windows Server 2008. Except me. The last Windows Server 2003 left at Microsoft.com.

Here’s a video (1:58) of my life today:

And here’s a longer version (3:14), in case you have as much time to kill as I do:

How can this be?
If you’re like me (and I know I am), you probably wonder how a product that’s eight months away from shipping can be handed the responsibility of running something as big and important as the Microsoft corporate portal. Fact is, Windows Server 2008 was lurking around MS.com since back when they still called it Longhorn. Those early bits first took live traffic back in ’05. And since then, WS08 has been everybody’s favourite kid. They called it part of the development team. Said it was a prodigy. Given all the cool little jobs. But then, suddenly, to be given the whole enchilada? All of MS.com? While still in Beta friggin’ 3? Unimaginable, but there it was.
My only hope is that some hero will come along and bring me some kind of, I don’t know, redemption. Call me a dreamer. But really, what else can I do? No matter how you cut it, I’m not long for this datacenter.
<more on the blog at Windows Server Division WebLog : About Lone Server>

ttfn

David

Technorati Tags: Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003, fun

From CES 2008: British Telecom (BT) Vision to use Xbox 360 consoles as set-top boxes

David Overton — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 23:25:09 GMT

If you have BT broadband then their IPTV solution will be coming to your Xbox 360 too (and BT don't charge for the service either)

CES 2008: BT Vision to use Xbox 360 consoles as set-top boxes

One exciting snippet of news from Bill Gates's keynotes speech last night, once again concerning us Brits, was that they're partnering with BT to offer the Xbox 360 as their Vision set-top box.
This is yet another collaboration between the two giants, with Microsoft's Mediaroom already actually powering their Vision broadband TV service since late 2006. This deal with Xbox 360 might be just what BT need to pull Vision out of the depths and into the mainstream - they only have around 100,000 users, and have fallen dramatically short of their targets.
Whilst Gates didn't go into the details last night, the Xbox 360 team has already sent around a press release about the collaboration, claiming it will be available from mid 2008. This means the whole range of on-demand TV and film will be available on the 360, and will be "seamlessly integrated" with Xbox Live.

Tech Digest: CES 2008: BT Vision to use Xbox 360 consoles as set-top boxes

Some more opinions at http://www.product-reviews.net/2008/01/07/microsoft-and-bt-turn-xbox-into-set-top-box/ and http://msmvps.com/blogs/chrisl/archive/2008/01/07/1444069.aspx

ttfn

David

Technorati Tags: Xbox 360, IPTV, BT, British Telecom

Video for Bill's last day

David Overton — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 22:54:07 GMT

I've seen this mentioned in so many places that I had to share:

ttfn

David

Technorati Tags: Bill Gates, CES, last day

CES (Computer Electronics Show) is coming and Microsoft will be there. Want to learn more and watch the keynote...

David Overton — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 21:50:23 GMT

I love CES. Yes, it is not business oriented, but it is great to see what everyone / anyone is doing in the consumer end of the market. Microsoft have a little silverlight site for people to find out more:

This site can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/ces/ :-) Notice the areas we will be talking about at the bottom of the screen shot - Windows Vista, Xbox 360, Zune, Office, Windows Live, Windows Mobile and Games for Windows... rock on!!

You can find links to more information, more ways to view etc at http://www.istartedsomething.com/20080105/bill-gates-ces-2008-keynote/

ttfn

David (still officially on holiday)

Happy New Year and 1tb drive failures

David Overton — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 22:59:50 GMT

I've managed to not blog for a week, which I think is a miracle for me and I am also enjoying the freedom of not working or doing anything too strenuous for the brain.

I did think it was worth saying "Happy New Year" to you all and to say that I will be back.

On the technology front I had fitted my system under my desk with an additional 1TB of storage to enable further file duplication, however this USB Storage Device has caused more system hiccups than it was worth, so it will be being resigned to another less strategic use in the home - I'm just not sure exactly what yet :-)

Have a great New Year and see you when I get back to work on the 7th January. Its been fun doing this for another year.

ttfn

David

Happy Christmas - see the Santa Cam to see where he has been

David Overton — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 00:26:00 GMT

I Love Santa Claus!! I was thrilled to hear Jonathan Ross announce that he had entered British air space.

You can see all the Santa cam videos at http://youtube.com/view_play_list?p=26B9B2ACB4AAC849. One that caught my eye was his visit to the International Space Station:

ttfn and a Merry Christmas

David

Technorati Tags: Christmas, Santa Cam, Santa Claus

Silverlight, the UK PR company and Christmas greetings

David Overton — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 07:25:58 GMT

I'm enjoying the festive spirit at the moment - the home is well lit and I am officially off from work (officially because I still do a bit here and there). I'm off to the cinema with one of my daughters today and plan to spend some of the afternoon wrapping presents too. What more could one ask for?

Well, how about Mason Zimbler writing their seasons greeting card in Silverlight? Well, if it was, then another of my Christmas wishes has been granted . It is quite nice to see a PR company taking the mickey out of themselves a bit, but they are British I suppose!!

http://mason-zimbler.com/festivegreetings/

As always, enjoy the holidays

David

Technorati Tags: Silverlight, Christmas, Personal

Happy Christmas from Microsoft UK and me (ok, so it says Seasons Greetings, but I think we all can take it to be something about having a nice break if you choose to celebrate it)

David Overton — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 15:55:00 GMT

The card itself can be found at the site http://www.seasonal-greetings.com/, but since this is a nice little Silverlight card I thought I would try my hand at embedding it too, so below is an embedded version of the card. If this gives you problems, let me know.

If you feel inclined you can click the NSPCC link and think about how to support them (I do, but so could you)

[updated to change Silverlight embedded card to a link since this is now post Christmas]

ttfn

David

Technorati Tags: Seasons Greatings, Happy Christmas, NSPCC, Microsoft

Do you want a Microsoft Architecture Poster?

David Overton — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 14:17:30 GMT

I saw this at Chris's site and thought I would share:

Chris Bowen's Blog : Got Tech Posters?

There are plenty of technology posters and charts for developers available on MSDN. I didn't realize just how many until I searched for "poster" on MSDN downloads.
Here's a list of the more recent ones: [Edited list by David - more on Chris's blog]

.NET 3.5 Namespaces Poster
The .NET Framework 3.5 Common Namespaces and Types Poster
Exchange Component Architecture Poster
This poster highlights the architecture and feature set of Microsoft Exchange Server 2007.
Visual Basic 2008 Keybinding Poster
Printable wall poster containing list of useful keyboard shortcuts for Visual Basic 2008 developers
Visual C++ 2008 Keybinding Poster
List of keybindings for Visual C++ language within Visual Studio and Visual C++ Express 2008
Visual C# 2008 Poster
Wall chart showing useful keyboard shortcuts for Visual C# programming language
2007 Office System: Developer Posters
Download these posters to learn more about the new features and enhancement to the 2007 Microsoft Office System.
Windows Server 2008 Component Posters
Windows Server 2008 Component Posters, originally printed in the July 2007 issue of TechNet Magazine.
Microsoft Silverlight 1.1 (Ed: Make that 2.0) Developer Reference Poster
Microsoft Silverlight Developer Reference Poster

ttfn

David

Technorati Tags: Developer, .Net Framework, Visual C#, Visual C++, Office System, Silverlight, Windows Server 2008

How to modify the Windows Vista Aurora, bubbles, mystify and ribbons screensaver hidden settings

David Overton — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 10:25:34 GMT

I saw this and thought I would share it for those who want to customise the screen savers that ship with Vista.

Windows Vista Aurora Screensaver Hidden Settings

For those of you who are using Windows Vista, you may have noticed that the screen savers that are included do not contain any settings. Actually, they do, but Microsoft didn't include options dialogs for them.
Long Zheng posted the settings for the Bubbles, Mystify, and Ribbons screensavers back in September before Windows Vista officially shipped. But he didn't post the settings for Aurora.
Through a little bit of digging and guess work, I've uncovered one registry key that actually works for customizing the Aurora screensaver. Let's get started, shall we?

Kristan Kenney: Confessions of a Windows Enthusiast : Windows Vista Aurora Screensaver Hidden Settings

ttfn

David

Technorati Tags: Vista Tweaks, Windows Vista, Vista

Mummy, why is there a server in the house (I had to change it for the UK audiences)

David Overton — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 17:45:47 GMT

This is a funny campaign from the Home Server team who have been blogging about their new marketing campaign. It made me smile. Have a look at the "book" and the "videos"!!

Earlier I posted about our new ad campaign "Stay at Home Servers" and pointed you at the videos (the first of which are getting rave reviews).
Yesterday we posted the full contents of the hit Children's book "Mommy, Why is there a Server in the House?" for your online reading pleasure.
Windows Home Server Blog

ttfn

David

Technorati Tags: fun, Home Server

BBC NEWS | TV rivals (BBC, ITV, C4) form on-demand service

David Overton — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 08:10:40 GMT

I saw this and had to share. I signed up to the BBC iPlayer service and it is very good. Now all 3 major TV channel providers are looking to put make everything available under one hood ... fantastic. From the BBC news site - BBC NEWS | Entertainment | TV rivals form on-demand service

TV rivals form on-demand service

Channel 4's Ugly Betty is one of the shows likely to be on the service
The BBC, ITV and Channel 4 are to launch a joint on-demand service, which will bring together thousands of hours of television programmes in one place.
The service is set to go live in 2008 and will offer viewers access to current shows and archive material.
Plans will have to be approved by the BBC Trust and the other broadcasters' boards, and a name for the service will be unveiled ahead of its launch.
The three broadcasters currently offer their own separate on-demand services.
The BBC's iPlayer and ITV's catch-up service will continue to exist along the new online "aggregator", which will provide a complement to the established providers.
However, Channel 4's 4oD will no longer be a standalone service once it is incorporated within the project.
Programming from all three broadcasters will be available for free download, streaming, rental and purchase via the internet, with expansion on to other platforms planned.

ttfn

David

Technorati Tags: TV on Demand, On Demand, VOD, Internet TV

Another Vista UI tweak - change the size of the thumbnail (preview) picture in Vista Aero when you hover over an icon in the taskbar

David Overton — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 09:44:30 GMT

The final one from Ave, another amazing UI tweak.

Thumbnail Sizer

Thumbnail Sizer allows the user to change the size of Vista's Window thumbnails that show when one hovers over the taskbar button for the window.
download from Ave's Vista Apps

ttfn

David

Technorati Tags: Windows Vista, Vista Tweaks, Vista

3D Rotating (swaying gently back and forth) User Pictures in Windows Vista Start Menu

David Overton — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 09:25:22 GMT

Another User interface trick that I am now using from Vishal's blog - it just adds minor touches to Vistas UI.

3D Rotating User Pic in Windows Vista Start Menu

Ave’s 3D UserPic
In the old longhorn 4xxx days, the startmenu user picture was more animated as it was today. Today, we get a cheap alpha-fading effect when you hover over an item: the user picture simply blends with the icon for a while.
Back in the days, the user picture was actually rotating when you had the start menu opened. This application tries to achieve that effect.
Screenshot

ttfn

David

Technorati Tags: Vista Tweaks, Windows Vista, Vista

Glass/ translucent Toast and balloons in Vista from Tweaking with Vishal

David Overton — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 03:17:21 GMT

I got a mail from a MVP asking me to link to his site. This is not that uncommon an experience, but often I can not find anything in common, however Vishal's request is different. I found lots to link about. Added to this is the fact that Steve Clayton recently blogged on something I covered ages ago (Steve's was at Change your Vista logon screen and mine at Vista enhancements and utilities (changing the screen savers, adding extra search functionality, but I've just realised he's not got me on his blog roll!!)

The 1st link is how to go from the "new" opaque balloons translucent ones ala early betas of Vista

Glass Toast: Get longhorn 4xxx style Glassy notification balloons in Windows XP / 2003 and Vista

From this

To this: GlassToast

Download link and more at Glass Toast: Get longhorn 4xxx style Glassy notification balloons in Windows XP / 2003 and Vista | Tweaking with Vishal

ttfn

David

Technorati Tags: Vista Tweaks, Windows Vista, Aero

Photos, photography, JPEG XR, Photosynth, the future of photography and Seadragons - why all the excitement?

David Overton — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 08:42:00 GMT

It's funny working in an industry where if you are not going at 50,000 miles an hour you are considered to be standing still. One area where Microsoft is speeding along is photography. In this post I will explore the announcements, the demos, short and long term products and then the future that lots of people are beginning to see. For me, the fact that people are already seeing such a future and its possibilities is very exciting (both the visions and the fact they are having them without drugs!! (humour))

Look at the recent events:

Raw photo support in 2005 - Microsoft and Imaging Industry Leaders Unveil Support for Digital
Photo HD (which some people thought was a JPEG killer.. tut tut) - HD Photo - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
JPEG XR - JPEG committee supports Photo HD as next gen JPEG TrustedReviews - Official Jpeg Successor Is Microsoft's HD Photo

Now this is all very nice, but so what - a better format for bigger pictures, that could be a bit like FAT disks getting FAT32 format, but it is not. Now read about Photosynth and Seadeagon and you realise that people are not just seeing a HD future, but a future where seeing details and accessing them is much, much easier:

The demos by themselves are awesome -

Chris Koenig : Seadragon and Photosynth
If you haven't already seen Seadragon or Photosynth, then you need to watch this video from TED 07. The speaker, Blaise Aguera y Arcas, is an Architect at Microsoft, and responsible for the Seadragon product.
This is AMAZING technology - absolutely unbelievable what they've been able to do here. You can try out Photosynth for yourself today, but Seadragon itself is not publicly available (I can't wait to get my hands on this Seadragon demo)!

The short term future is described by people like Pete:

Microsoft & Photography - Pete's Eats
I've been a heavy Photoshop user since v2.5 now but thought I'd do some research at Microsoft to see what kinds of things we have to offer too. I have to say, I was pretty surprised at the content I found and thought I should share...

Microsoft Pro Photo - a site devoted to professional photographers with news, blog, articles and events. I've only just started to explore this site myself but I'm pretty impressed so far. One of the recent news items there is announcing a partnership between Phase One and Microsoft.
Microsoft Photo Info - an add-in for Windows Explorer that enables you to see and edit the metadata of an image without opening another application. This is actually pretty handy.
Microsoft Pro Photo Downloads - a download site, linked from the Pro Photo site. Features some great apps, articles and utilities such as Synctoy and various Photoshop workflow pieces.
Microsoft Research Group Shot - use this to create a composite image from a series of photos. I haven't played with this yet, but it's from MS Research so should be worth it...
Photosynth - browse large collections of photo's in 3D. You have to see the videos to get this.
Seadragon - not specifically for photo's, but imagine being able to view large images like this if you're a pro photogrpaher... The speed is amazing and will be seriously useful in a studio environment I think.

So, some pretty good resources so far. I'm sure there are some more hidden depths to explore too...

In fact, the information already available has lead to some people being inspired to write their own tools:

Microsoft Releases SEAMonster "Content-Aware Image Resizing" Utility

In April, I saw SEAMonster demonstrated by one of the Microsoft Research guys. It's hard to quickly explain the amazing differences between simply "cropping or resizing an image" as opposed to "content-aware seam carving" -- so pah-lease:

Watch this quick video!
Download SEAMonster Beta

Can SEADragon be released next?

People are now also seeing further into the future with views on how the world will be different.

Two different perspectives are provide by Steve (my former boss and all things SaaS) and Pete Scargill (IT Chair of the Federation of Small Business and good friend, when we get time to catch up)

Steve Clayton: Geek In Disguise : Kindle is Software + Services

I haven't seen it yet and hear great things already but imagine the Kindle with Microsoft's SeaDragon technology embedded. Maybe it already has something like this but seeing the Blaise demo with Dickens' books made me think it's a match made in heaven. Maybe not though given the ambition to get books down to the device in ~1m and the size of some of the SeaDragon collections I have.

and from Pete who writes for Computing - it is very much worth reading the whole article, however, to give you a taster:

http://peterscargill.computing.co.uk/2007/11/travelling-thro.html

Travelling through time - a 3D tour of the world made real

I’ve just come out of the most AMAZING talk and demo.
This is superficially on the subject of photos – and what we (by that I mean the world) can do with them – I think you’ll find this very interesting, mind-boggling in fact, but you’ll have to bear with me as I take it through in stages – don’t try to skip any.…
Traditionally, most of the more elderly amongst us (myself included) used to go off on holiday, take pictures, take our films along to Boots, get the pictures printed, look at them and then shove them away in a draw to go mouldy.
Then along came digital cameras – the ones that some said “would never replace film” – well, they have, well and truly. So, many people now have digital cameras and go on holiday, take WAY more pictures than ever before… and put them on a disk to go, erm, mouldy. I’ve been taking pictures since the first digital cameras came out – all neatly categorized and stored in directories which no-one will ever see.
<snipped>
then along comes Microsoft Labs at the TechEd conference this week in Barcelona. These chaps been working for some time on something called Seadragon.
Stay with me – I’m making a point and it’s worth it.
So – Consider Google Earth – you can zoom in and out to any part of the world and go in with incredible detail - turned geography lessons upside down I’d imagine – I could not imagine not teaching a kid how to use this tool. Of course, you don’t hold data for the whole world in your PC – no, it’s pulled in from the web only as and when needed – as you zoom in from the entire world view which has very little detail, to someone’s back yard. And this is the key to the next stage.
Now consider a screen with thousands of little thumbnails of pictures, you can zoom into any one, and keep zooming. The only hit your machine is taking is the size of your screen – like Google Earth, it’s pulling in information only as it needs it – on the fly.
So, in the Seadragon demo they zoomed in through hundreds of tiny, side by side photos lying on the screen, into a tiny glossy car advert. But wait, in the corner of the tiny ad as they zoomed in, were some little car images taken at different angles – zoom in – they’re actually hi-res images with text - pages within pages if you like – almost ad-infinitum if need be. In another example one photo when zoomed in turned out to be the entire text of a whole book, chapter by chapter side by side – and you just zoomed in smoothly till you got what you wanted. Think about this for your web site – instead of lots of pages – you have one page – and just keep zooming in on the bits you’re interested in. A completely different way to think of publications.
<snipped>
And none of this is really new – a different slant on microfilm – bigger, better and faster – but then, along comes Photosynth… and here I’m coming to the interesting bit.
What the guys at Microsoft have done is to make software that analyses photos and gives them scoring points for all the features, angles, corners, colours and so on and assign a set of numbers to each photo – all totally automatically of course, no human interaction – making it possible to compare one photo with another and – wait for it – yes, they can actually tell how one photo relates to another and where the photographer stood when he/she took the shot.
So – take a few pictures of your house at various angles – all the way around and fire the photos at the software and it is capable of building a “mental image” of the original shape - and you’re right – they’ve managed to put those flat photos in a virtual 3D space - in the order and orientation that they relate to each other.
To explain – imagine you built a plaster model of your house, and on each wall or corner, stick a photo you’ve taken of the real house, hold it there with a pin, and let’s say you’ve a really nice door - as someone moves up to the door in the photo of the front of the house - well, you can’t do this in a real model – but imagine moving close up to the door, and the photo changes from an image of the front of the house, to the close-up of the door. Imagine an image of the door handle – look toward the handle – image smoothly changes to that image… one could go on ad nauseum.
Don’t get me wrong, we’re not really talking about a guided tour of your house. Taking a slight leap, we’re talking potentially about a guided tour OF THE WORLD!!!!! (minus boring fields and the sea of course)
That’s today, but what’s really exciting is this: Some time ago I saw a demo at a university of a very crude attempt to extract 3D imagery from photos – but this is WAY beyond that. They then briefly showed us a demo - same scenario, a church this time with about six photos. Move around the photos smoothly and you get an idea of the original church – but that was not good enough – all of a sudden the image smoothly moved around the outside of the building in full 3D. Amazingly they have demo software that figures out the original 3D image from the photos and lets you view and pan a complete, solid 3d image! All from a bunch of flat photos and NO human interaction.
Move forward to a different world to the one we have today… let’s say in a few short years at most (and most of this is conjecture on my behalf).
Consider something like Microsoft Virtual Earth – consider a system that lets you zoom down to the ground in full 3D, walk around at ground level in full 3D, up alleys, into shops, to anywhere in the world that Flickr etc have available in images in sufficient number. Not only that but the text that accompanies modern photos (metadata information) is used to tap into Wikipedia as required and extract useful notes for you.
Imagine sitting at the screen, descending to a shop in a street, going into the shop, let’s say a jewelers shop – and as you zoom along the shelves you spot a ring you like. Zoom in and you can see the crystal in every minute detail. Press a button and get complete information about the product – and how long it will take to get to you. Press another – credit card – and it’s yours. Within seconds the images changes on the shelf to “sold out” and everyone else looking in sees that change.
<snipped>

Finally a bit of background reading for those of you want to know more about JPEG XR:

HD Photo to become JPEG XR

Posted By PSN Editorial Staff
A new attempt to provide a higher-end sequel to the ubiquitous JPEG image standard is officially under way.
Source: CNET
Written by Stephan Shankland
The multiple countries participating in the Joint Photographic Experts Group, which created the JPEG standard, have approved an effort to make Microsoft’s HD Photo format a standard called JPEG XR, said Bill Crow, who has led Microsoft’s HD Photo effort and who just took over the company’s Microsoft Live Labs Seadragon imaging project. XR stands for “extended range,” a reference to the format’s ability to show a wider and finer range of tonal gradations and a richer color palette.
“The country vote is done, and it passed,” Crow said. “That means the International JPEG committee has decided to go ahead and create the standard. Now it’s just a process of doing that work,” a process that will begin later this month in a meeting in Kobe, Japan.

thanks and enjoy your photos, today and tomorrow

David

Technorati Tags: Photos, photography, JPEG XR, Photosynth, Seadragon

When digging holes in the garden, watch out for suspicious objects... it might mean you have to get the bomb squad out!!

David Overton — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 22:06:49 GMT

It was a rare weekend, I had agreed to do some digging in my parents garden to put up two arches. Some of you will know my dad - Derek Overton from various SBSC events. They live just over the way from a piece of MOD land that used to be used for all sorts of things and bangs were not unusual. Anyway, we were drilling into the ground when we hit something that should not be there - it was tubular and metallic.

Having joked a bit that "who knows what it could be when around here" Dad decided to call the police. They arrived, examined it, decided since one of them used to be in the army that it could be dangerous, so calls were made to the bomb squad. The bomb squad said it sounded potentially hazardous, so came for a visit :-)

The neighbours were obviously quite interested when we had 2, then 3 police cars out the front of the house and finally the bomb squad van and army folk.

Finally, several hours after the 1st phone call the object was declared safe and that it had not ever have been a threat, but was shaped very similarly to some known ordinance, hence the concern.

Right, back to work and life.

David

Technorati Tags: Personal, Bomb Disposal

Windows Home Server - 120 evaluation CDs, Why get it and what is it about

David Overton — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 22:41:57 GMT

I am sure you have seen me blog about home server before (Windows Home Server is coming ... What can it do-, Microsoft announces Home Server - ever want something like SBS, but targeted at home users with) and others:

ActiveWin - http://www.activewin.com/awin/comments.asp?HeadlineIndex=41455
Firing Squad - http://www.firingsquad.com/news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=18172
Gizmodo - http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/windows-home-server/the-windows-home-server-nitty-gritty-319130.php
Sean Alexander - http://blog.seanalexander.com/2007/11/05/HPMediaSmartServerAvailableForPreorderShippingWin30Days.aspx
PC Retail - http://www.pcretailmag.com/news/28935/Windows-Home-Server-to-launch-today

Well, you can now obtain a 120 day eval if you want to see what it is all about without spending huge amounts of money (approx £5 for shipping in the UK):

Why wait? Order the Windows Home Server 120-Day Evaluation Kit now to protect, connect, and organize your photos, videos, music and more.

For those who want to know more, there is the Home Server website (Windows Home Server) which states the following:

Your Family. Your Stuff. Together.

For Home Users
It's time to brush the digital dust off your captured moments and media—for good. Introducing a simpler, smarter way for families to organize, share and protect photos, videos, music and much more. Windows Home Server brings it all together in a central hub, connecting your home PCs and making it easy to keep and enjoy your family's most important memories. Grandma will love it too.

Windows Home Server Now Available - Microsoft announces HP MediaSmart Server, powered by Windows Home Server software, is now on sale on leading retailer web sites. Order yours today!

See what the excitement is about - Get a snapshot of how Windows Home Server makes digital life easier for your family.

The rave reviews are in - See what people are saying about Windows Home Server. (Hint: It's good news for families.)

Any questions? - The answers are a click away. Check out our handy FAQs.

For Enthusiasts

You've heard the buzz. Now it's time to dive in and build a better digital home life. Learn about the technology, tricks and tools you need to make it happen. Your family will thank you.
Ready, set up, go!
Learn how to install and configure Windows Home Server with our Getting Started Guide, including a product overview, system requirements and troubleshooting tips—everything but a magic wand.
Get the full scoop on features
Read our Reviewer's Guide for complete details on everything from add-ins and backups to remote access and storage. Prepare to be amazed.
Technically Speaking
Go in-depth with these technical briefs, covering all the hot Windows Home Server topics.

Remote Access

Media Sharing (coming soon)

Drive Extender

Home Computer Backup (coming soon)

Home Networking (coming soon)

Care to customize?
Enhance Windows Home Server with the functionality that works for you. The Windows Home Server Software Development Kit (SDK) documentation empowers you to develop custom add-ins and applications. Have fun!
At your service: solutions and support
Need help? Windows Home Server has got you covered with a wide range of resources. Discover troubleshooting articles and answers with a quick search of the Knowledge Base, download helpful documents, find answers about Windows Home Server in the FAQs, and more.
See what's hot in the forums
Be part of the buzz. Check out up-to-the-minute discussions, search for the latest tips or post a question or comment of your own.
We blog, too
Whenever there's a moment to spare, the Windows Home Server team posts news, insights, tips, and tricks on the blog. Learn more about how Windows Home Server is changing digital life for the better.
Our virtual suggestion box
When it comes to finding ways to make Windows Home Server even better, we look to you. To submit and view ideas and suggestions, sign up for the Windows Home Server Connect program.
<snipped - more at site Windows Home Server >

ttfn

David

Technorati Tags: Windows Home Server

How to use OCR (Optical Character Recognition) in Office 2007 (using OneNote or a small tool)

David Overton — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 22:44:36 GMT

As you know I have been away on holiday and I fly away again tomorrow. While I was traveling I asked my dad to send me a recipe for some scones. He was unable to find the OCR tool in Office 2007, but with the help of OneNote 2007 it was very easy. Paste the image you wish to OCR into OneNote and let it do the rest. I found the answer at OneNote 2007: OCR Rocks this researcher's world | Techwillow where there is more information, but in summary:

This is how it works: Take any image of text, paste it into OneNote, right-click on it and select Copy Text from Picture. That's it, you can then paste it anywhere as text. What's more OneNote will automatically OCR and index all your images (if you enable this in the settings) so you can search through your clippings.

Now, of course you might not have OneNote, but that does not mean you don't get scanning. As the project at http://www.codeproject.com/office/modi.asp points out, you can use their code and the Office 2007 scanning tools to make it work too.

ttfn

David

Technorati Tags: Office 2007, OCR

Where is David now and what can Maps.Live.com do?

David Overton — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 23:01:00 GMT

It is that time of year again, so I will be on holiday again in the English Lake District. While Live Writer, my blogging tool, has the ability to show maps (click the map for more information) http://maps.live.com has also improved amazingly.

To show you what I mean, click the link below:

http://maps.live.com/?v=2&sp=Point.t1yfjsgqqygt_Holiday___&encType=1 and you will see a screen like this:

Switch to Hybrid view to see the satellite and road maps:

Zoom to this location by clicking on the pushpin:

Switch to 3D mode by pressing the 3D button (it might have to load a control to your browser) and then hold the Ctrl button and drag the mouse down to see a 3D profile:

Search for pubs in the area and see them on the 3D map:

Now go to London (search for London in the location) and zoom down to start to see the 3D views:

As you zoom in more you can turn on the birds eye photography of London - note on the above picture the glowing square - this is one of the birdseye photos - zoom in more to see the actual photos. You can also see some of the 3D models showing themselves and then how things flip between all the views. The easiest way to see all of this is a little video - have a look at this video. Some of the "jerkiness" on the video is due to the capture - it was very smooth on my PC :-)

ttfn

David

We're Microsoft, we know everything... not

David Overton — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 04:16:07 GMT

I saw this little posting by Darren and it reminded me of several stories. One was the "mobile expert" around Denver this year and the other is the types of mails I sometimes get. I have had mails that say things like:

My computer is not working, can you fix it for me
I am having problems with Outlook
Apple won't support iTunes on Vista, but I want to use it, so can you fix it for me?

and my favourite

I am having a problem where by people can't e-mail me back...... what e-mail address did they give....

What is really so funny about many of these is that they leave no contact details. Just their name. Now, even if I was able to fix their problems (and sometimes I can), without contact details it makes my life much harder to truly resolve the problems.

Am I responsible for Windows Mobile Software?
Today Gareth and I were walking along 16th Mall Street after having had some breakfast and I was wearing my Windows Mobile cap, as you do in Downtown Denver. I guy randomly stopped me and asked me if I worked for Microsoft and I said yes (although what I should’ve said was I work “with” Microsoft and not “for” them)!! He then prceeded to show me his phone and said “Windows Mobile software sucks” and so I explained to him that I personally didn’t write the software. As we walked away he continued by saying that I should get someone in Microsoft to fix it -”of course I’ll get someone right on it and get back to you on it” was my reply!!

Office Rocker! : We're Microsoft, we know everything

No we don't. But that doesn't stop people thinking we are the guys who control the Internet and can bend the IT time and space. Always a pleasure to chat with Jason earlier today as I waited to do my presentation on Office futures. It can be hard to present on the future of technology not just because we are talking about closely guarded secrets and its not because we can't plan, we do - no it's mainly just made harder because we don't actually own a frickin crystal ball.
Jason's story about the customer who lost it with him because he didn't have a 10 year plan for the future of the mobile industry amused me today. As I said to him, you know its bad enough that anyone should get cross when we can't deliver beyond impossible, but maybe it's consoling to think that people's confidence in us is so high that intelligent execs believe we do know the future of the universe and are just being mean about sharing it.
My own anecdote was about when a precocious high school student guessed my alias (rather than search for it on the web) and started IM'ing me. Now, being the affable chap I am (after my morning latte - don't try before) I do tend to happily chat to strangers who IM me out of the blue. However, I do have work to do so after a few days the stalker behavior was getting slightly annoying. So during yet another slightly banal convo I did some research. An unusual surname of the stalker gave me where he lives, his school and his last terms results in maths and english. Revealing this knowledge freaked out the stalker a bit, "how do you know that?" he says. "Well, we're Microsoft, we know everything" I said. No more was ever heard from him.. If only it was true :-)

ttfn

David

Will Halo 3 take over the world.... someone thinks so...

David Overton — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 21:22:44 GMT

http://www.loadingreadyrun.com/videos/view/228

Made me smile :-)

ttfn

David

Technorati Tags: Halo 3, fun

Is Google evil and so what if they are?

David Overton — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 22:37:12 GMT

I saw these two web pages and just found them too compelling. I can tell you more than you might imagine about people who come to my site, but it pales into comparison when you see what Google can store and some of the conditions. Anyone who says "they won't use it" needs to rethink the demands of shareholders to maximise revenue and profit.

I would suggest looking at:

Google Docs and Spreadsheets clause gives pause

For a company whose motto is "Do no evil," it's interesting how often Google's customers suspect them of it

http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/09/14/Google-clause-gives-pause_1.html

and then the "story" at

Radar Fiction - "Scroogled"

Google controls your e-mail, your videos, your calendar, your searches… What if it controlled your life?
By Cory Doctorow

http://www.radaronline.com/from-the-magazine/2007/09/google_fiction_evil_dangerous_surveillance_control_1.php

I then clicked on the I-Spy link on the last page of the Radaronline fiction and was able to find out too much about people I knew in the USA.

Have fun!!

David

Technorati Tags: Google, fun

David and others, slightly drunk, speaking poetry on the South Bank

David Overton — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 08:26:00 GMT

This is just a silly post, but thought I would share:

Of course, not wanting to do it alone, many others also joined in. Did I mention that we were standing on our chairs at a bar under the bridge with a lot of confused people around us?

- Matt Brady was very animated in his performance

- Stephie shows us that the Scottish have romantic hearts

- Danny picked the shortest poem. but picked on people as "characters"

- Steve Clayton decided to do a duet with Stephanie who found it all a bit too much

Halo 3 is Gold - so I post about the trailers and then see that it has released to manufacturing

David Overton — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 06:56:00 GMT

OK, so I just posted about the trailers and now the product is finished according to this "mag" Halo 3 is Gold : Next Generation - Interactive Entertainment Today, Video Game and Industry News

Halo 3 is Gold
The fight is ready to be finished: Halo 3 has gone gold and is heading to manufacturing.

ttfn

David

Technorati Tags: Halo 3, Xbox 360

Halo 3 - Silverlight based build and watch trailers - promo site and fun

David Overton — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 06:51:52 GMT

I'm no great Halo Wiz - why, I don't have the reactions of a 21 year old to beat them in network play, but I do enjoy playing against the cpu inside the box (whenever I join a network match I nearly always end up dead in a few second.. ho hum). Anyway, the graphics of the xbox 360 always impress me as does the UI of some of the games. Halo 3 is coming and there is now a site with great trailer videos, background info and more. For those of you who don't believe that Halo is reality, have a look at some of the film (yes film, not graphics) that was shot and for example, see the Warthog that was used (http://www.bungie.net/images/News/WeeklyUpdate/WarthogB110707.jpg)

Anyway, enjoy the site and enjoy building your own trailers too :-)

ttfn

David

Technorati Tags: xbox 360, Halo 3, trailers

Microsoft Surface Parody joke

David Overton — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 23:05:14 GMT

I saw this and thought I would share it :-)

http://www.sarcasticgamer.com/2007/06/ms-surface-how-we-would-have-done-it.html

ttfn

David

Technorati Tags: Surface, Joke

How unified communications could be with Exchange 2007 and Office Communications Server (OCS)

David Overton — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 12:01:20 GMT

Unified Communications, VoIP, IM, e-mail, messaging, call redirecting, talking to your calendar - so hard to explain in words, so easy to watch in this short demo.

A bit cheesy, but it works

ttfn

David

Technorati Tags: Unified Communications, Exchange 2007, Office Communications Server, VoIP

Microsoft launches beta of "skydrive" - a disk in the cloud (and now you can use it in the UK too)

David Overton — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 11:14:19 GMT

Another "it is here" moment. Skydrive gives you, today, 500MB of storage in the cloud, free of charge. You can set up permissions to control who can read and write files. I love it. In fact, I love it so much that I have put all my demo videos that I recorded recently up there. The Skydrive team blog can be found at http://skydriveteam.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!977F793E846B3C96!124.entry.

Click for the Training Videos to be downloaded as videos.

Top features for me are:

Upload and download documents with permissions on files
Embed file stores in web pages
Drag and drop upload process
Accessible everywhere

For some eye candy:

- Home Screen

- Documents sub folder

- Folder Options

- Change Folder Permissions

- Embed your SkyDrive into your web site

- Drag and drop files for uploading

- The upload process

- Non ActiveX upload page

ttfn

David

Technorati Tags: SkyDrive, Live, SAS

Star Wars art work from Celebration Europe

David Overton — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 23:33:00 GMT

While I was at Star Wars Celebration Europe I managed to spend quite a bit of my unearned bonus on bits of "art". Some I will put pride of place on my wall, others will go in a tube because I don't have enough wall space. Here is what I bought (I just photographed them and then used a tool to remove the perspective from the photos, but don't expect print quality images):

From Steven D Anderson the "Dark Avenger" poster, signed by him and one of 250 (11 / 250) and the little post card of the two ladies with blasters.

Next up was Joe Corroney - I love his work especially since he also does some of the Star Wars comics. He has a web site http://JoeCorroney.com and his Star Wars blog can be found at http://blogs.starwars.com/joecorroney/70. As you can see from the pictures on the left, I was lucky enough to not only get number 20 of 250 from his collection, but also the ORIGINAL PENCIL drawing that made this great poster. WOW, amazing and top. This is my best treasure from this event.

For my sins, the next stand I never actually bought anything, but is easily worth a mention, which is Jake Steel - http://www.jake-art.com. I will be hunting down something from this man soon!

Brian Rood had some fabulous posters, one of which was double sided. I liked his work so much I bought 3 sides (2 posters). The New Hope Posters are 39/250 (on both sides) and the think the Where Science Meets Imagination posters are un-numbered.

Russell Walks had a couple of pieces there, one referencing Cell Block 1138 which I did not buy, but his other ones was very nice - showing characters from all 6 films. He signed his work and posed for a picture with Molly too. We also bought a couple of pencil sketch pieces from him. One of the nicest things about the Boba Fett one is that it was drawn for a celebration with Disney, another passion of mine, so he is carrying a Mickey Mouse autograph book - something truly original.

Jerry Vanderstelt's Yoda was eye catching, so much so that after much deliberation I went back and got it.

There were a few other bits and pieces. One was the 3D posters (a big one and 4 small ones) with a certificate of authenticity.

The last piece I purchased was a long and considered buy. I like canvas prints and here was an awesome picture of Yoda on a large canvas print. I was able to get number 5 off the limited edition run(5/325)!! These are made by ID-WALL (http://www.id-wall.com)

That is it for the Artwork, next I will do the pictures and autographs.

thanks

David

Technorati Tags: Personal, Star Wars, Star Wars Celebration Europe, Art

Star Wars Celebration Europe - How I got to re-shoot the Imperial storming of the Tantive IV and the final movie

David Overton — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 23:32:02 GMT

OK, so still need to do a all up post, but before I do, here is how I got to re-make the video. One item at the event was part of the set for the Tantive IV. The nice director and actors explained how shooting from different angles and by swapping bits out the set could be made to look even bigger etc. They then asked for 6 volunteers to be the "rebels" who die in this shoot. I was lucky enough to be picked, so off I went to wardrobe (yes, a proper costume maker, costumes and props). I quickly put on my rebel uniform with my 5 hapless colleagues and off we went to be briefed. We had to shoot 3 scenes and then these were to be edited into the original film,

Scene 1-

Running down the corridor toward the place we expect the imperials to board. while we are running, an explosion will rock us back (you have to act the explosion) and then on we go.

Scene 2 -

Run into position, line up your sites, then look above and back as you hear a noise and wonder what it is, then focus again on the big door. We had all been given numbers (I was 4) and when you number was called, your time was up. Die, but be careful to do so without falling into the middle as the Stormtroopers (who were volunteers from the 501 Garrison I think) could not see down well and would fall over you and get hurt if you got it wrong.

Scene 3 -

Play dead while Darth Vader comes to get you

Unfortunately there was no way to take the final product home with us, so it was then a phone recording to keep afterwards. Since my little face is hard to see, I have some key shots below and then a link to the movie I recorded very badly at the end.

Scene 1 - David runs on

Scene 2 - David is wearing a heavy hat and all you get to see is the back of him

Scene 2 - that "get your face on the screen" moment, but this short person and the pro actor behind me make my "face on the screen" when looking back, not very "me"

Scene 2 - your death scene - hmm, can you see me... nope!!

Scene 2 - remember that don't fall into the middle - well, someone did, so we got a Stormtrooper - he went down with a big bang and it took quite a while to get him up. In the name of film making he was moved, like a beetle on it's back, to one side while we recorded Scene 3.

The Movie is available as a simple Silverlight stream from http://uksbsguy.com/videos/starwars/default.html (press stop if playing before closing the window) or download it from http://uksbsguy.com/videos/david-starwarsvideo.wmv

ttfn

David

Technorati Tags: Star Wars, Celebration Europe, Tantive IV, Episode IV

Star Wars Celebration Europe Photos on the site

David Overton — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 06:15:00 GMT

Hi,

this is a quick note to say that I could not help myself - I went (sorry, I took my 7 year old daughter) to Celebration Europe. If you don't like Star Wars, then it is best you probably look away now.

I got my (or in some cases Molly's) photo taken with all the stars and characters I could find including Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker), Anthony Daniels (C3PO), Kenny Baker (R2D2), Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca), Ray Parkes (Darth Maul), Matthew Woods (Voice of General Grievas) and some of the leading artists down Artists Alley(picture is of Molly with Bonnie Burton and Tom Hodges) who wrote the book How to Draw Star Wars.

I will post a long blog on the 2 days on "how I got to star in Star Wars", all the art we bought and a full run-down of what we did, but before that I wanted to share with the Star Wars fans out there my pictures - they can be found by going to http://uksbsguy.com/photos/starwars. I have not photographed the artwork yet, but will be doing so, so expect that to go up as well.

ttfn

David

P.S. It was an amazing experience

Technorati Tags: Star Wars, Celebration Europe, Mark Hamill, Luke Skywalker, Anthony Daniels, C3PO, Kenny Baker, R2D2, Peter Mayhew, Chewbacca, Ray Parkes, Darth Maul, Matthew Woods, Voice of General Grievas

Green phone charging from Orange - designed for Glastonbury, but still useful

David Overton — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 23:08:31 GMT

Since I have been posting a few things on being greener, this is something that can help charge your phone on a beech, in the garden on anywhere else.

Orange goes green for festival phone-fueling
“Orange today launched a prototype wind-powered charger capable of delivering a constant supply of green juice despite “the unpredictable English climate”. How? The turbine charges a battery, and it’s from that power pack that the phone’s own battery is charged. It is, of course, a variation of one on humanity’s oldest devices, the windmill, though this time kitted out in suitable, sponsor-friendly colour. The windmil weighs a mere 150g - let’s hope it’s capable of being anchored against strong gusts - and is compact enough to be tucked into a rucksack.”

ttfn

David

Technorati Tags: Climate Change, phone charging

e-Paper update

David Overton — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 23:11:35 GMT

Again from the Trends Blog.

Big, color e-paper
E-paper Still Coming Soon: LG.Philips LCD Teases World With A4 Color Electronic Paper
“This is their all-new, world-first A4 electronic paper, a 4,096-color flexible 14.1-inch page made using “metal foil and plastic substrates rather than glass.” They only use power when the image changes and since they are reflective like real paper, they can be seen perfectly from any angle. Even under direct sunlight.”

Slightly-flexible displays
LOLED: Sony Flexi-OLED Screen Is Trouble Waiting to Happen
“Today Sony showed off some 2.5-inch OLED screens that are capable of being slightly bent. It is made out of a glass substrate and is only .3mm thick. Supposedly the display has been created for lightweight, bigger and “softer” electronics”

Interactive paper
Digital paper with interactivity and sound
“By combining paper with printed graphic codes and electronically conductive ink that is engineered to be sensitive to pressure. When the paper buttons are touched, the sound is played out via the printed speakers.”

ttfn

David

Technorati Tags: e-Paper, trends

Live Earth Concerts - playback available, plus the "how it was made with MSN"

David Overton — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 11:41:09 GMT

On Saturday, 7/07/07, MSN sponsored Live Earth, The Concert for a Climate in Crisis. This 24-hour global event featured more than 150 of the world’s top bands performing on all seven continents, with concerts in Sydney, Tokyo, Shanghai, Istanbul, London, New York, and other cities around the world.

There have been many, many critics of the Live Earth concert ("all the pop stars traveling leaves a huge carbon footprint", "there was not 2 billion people watching", "why should we believe the pop stars", "climate change is not real, not even the scientists can agree"), but even if the world is not about to blow up, surely being better to the planet is good for us, great for our children and sometimes a matter of survival for other people and animals in the more extreme climates.

If you have missed everything that Live Earth was about, go have a look at the SoapBox video here.

An interesting blog on the whole should we shouldn't we explore these types of events can be found at A great review of what it is all about can be found at http://bettinathenomad.wordpress.com/2007/07/09/rocking-it-the-green-way/.

Now that all the concerts have been played out, they can be viewed from the http://liveearth.uk.msn.com/ site. At the Live Earth site, in addition to streaming the performances, the MSN team has posted an extensive collection of interactive media and content that is designed to entertain, educate, and inspire all of us to work together to create a more sustainable environment.

For your personal reading I can recommend http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17950339/ which has some interesting stories about businesses and the community and pledge section on http://liveearth.uk.msn.com/ has some great tips on doing your bit.

My Personal Carbon footprint include a broken boiler last year which meant that I was burning gas through the night and had electric heaters in my house, yet I still seem to fall under the national average for a household, even though we have 2 children and lots of computers. You can calculate yours at http://specials.uk.msn.com/carbonemissionsestimator

I am glad to say that I have already made the switch to low energy light bulbs in chez Overton and we now turn off things we used to put on stand-by ... "yes Mrs Overton, I said we now turn the Media Center Extender OFF in the kitchen, not just turn off the screen!!". We also have good insulation in the house, part fill the kettle for one or two hot drinks, buy local produce, buy energy efficient products and all those other things that are good. This year were even holidaying in the UK, but I can't claim that was us being green that resulted in that - it was that the UK has all we need this year with a 1 year old baby.

Anyway, that will do for today - enjoy the concerts, think about your climate impact and how you can help make the environment nice for us all. After all, Wimbledon was almost a wash out due to the most rain in July!!

ttfn

David

Technorati Tags: Climate Change, Rant, MSN, Live Earth, If you only read one post today

Virtual Earth and Silverlight enable you to hunt aliens in many places

David Overton — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 09:03:09 GMT

This little mashup of Microsoft technologies just shows how things are going to change in the future. You can shoot aliens at any location that has birds eye view (In the UK that includes (Wembley Stadium, Blackpool Tower, Millennium Dome and Brighton Pier)

http://www.andybeaulieu.com/silverlight/DestroyAll/Default.html?latitude=40.689059&longitude=-74.04455

ttfn

David

Technorati Tags: Local.live.com, silverlight

Fantastic looking MiniPC's from Engadget - SA800 is stacked and ready to roll

David Overton — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 19:01:13 GMT

As is always the case, saw this and thought I would pass it on.

Oh modular box of silicon affection, how we love thee. The latest -- the SA800 -- from MiniPC (Japan) is a DIY house of fun packing up to a Core 2 Duo T7600, 2GB of 667MHz DDR2 memory, 2.5-inch 40GB SATA disk, and an Intel 945GT chipset. Want more disk, no problem, stack a 3.5-incher in an extra slab above. Better video with HDMI-out or optical drives? Yup, they've got a stackable component for that and more. Have it your way starting early July in Japan.
MiniPC's SA800 is stacked and ready to roll

Posted Jun 29th 2007 8:57AM by Thomas Ricker
Filed under: Desktops
MiniPC's SA800 is stacked and ready to roll - Engadget

ttfn

David

Technorati Tags: MiniPC, SA800, Stacked

Netstreams is cool, but I am not.... - Nick Whittome - "The Naked MVP"

David Overton — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 05:27:51 GMT

I saw this and having discussed cool a bit I thought I would share a bit - there is more on Nick's blog. Of course, I don't own an iPod or a Audio Port Netstreams thingy, I just use media center, a Media Center Extender and a xBox 360 for my "piped" music and I don't tell my daughter about iPods :-)

Me: “If I get you an iPod, do I become cool again?”
Aoife: “Yes, of course”.
Then it hit me….
Me: “Hang on… you don’t need an iPod, you can plug your mobile phone into the Audio Port in your room and play the tunes from that through the system”.
Aoife: “That makes the NetStreams system cool, not you…”

Netstreams is cool, but I am not.... - Nick Whittome - "The Naked MVP"

ttfn

David

Technorati Tags: Fun, Cool

Windows Home Server Blog : Couldn't have said it better myself - Terry Walsh and the Home Server UK Hero

David Overton — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 00:13:00 GMT

The Home Server team have made a shout out to a UK blogger who has lots of Add-ins and How-Two's for Home Server. Worth a peak!!

Terry Walsh, some dude from the UK who has a blog (We Got Served) all about Windows Home Server, has been doing great things for the community. He's got a list of Add-ins, a bunch of How-Tos, and some great descriptions of the technology of Windows Home Server.

Windows Home Server Blog : Couldn't have said it better myself

ttfn

David

Technorati Tags: Home Server, Add-ins, Developer

Is Microsoft finally getting back a "cool" rap - Popfly, Silverlight, Home Server, Surface?

David Overton — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 08:00:00 GMT

Again, I saw this on the home Server blog and thought it was worth sharing. Not the information about Surface or Home Server - I have commented on those before, but the fact that people are finally saying these products are cool:

Unless you've been hiding in a cave somewhere (or just maybe working really hard this week) you've probably caught some of the incredible buzz for Microsoft Surface, unveiled at the Wall Street Journal's D conference this week. USA Today tech columnist Andrew Kantor says Surface is the "second product in a row (following Windows Home Server) to 'just work,' a la Apple." Kantor wrote about Home Server last week, too:
"Even if you only have a single computer in your home, dedicating an older machine as a WHS is a good idea simply for the protection against hard disk failure and the ability to pool your drives."
ZDNet bloggers Dan Farber and and Larry Dignan also connect Home Server to Surface, saying the two could complement each other. What do you think?

Windows Home Server Blog : Surface

Other than the UI, there are a few cool features. One is the PopFly Explorer for Visual Studio. With it, you can share pats of your Visual Studio projects to PopFly and share them with people. So in some ways, PopFly can act as a group code repository, which if it works the way I think it does, could make for some informative mashups.

Popfly (from an Adobe employee):http://blogs.zdnet.com/Stewart/?p=381

Nevertheless, all gadget lovers will salivate over this new piece of high-tech furniture gadgetry - including me. To quote Butthead, this is the coolest thing I have ever seen!

http://blog.tmcnet.com/blog/tom-keating/microsoft/microsoft-surface-cool.asp

It would be nice to be thought of as cooler :-)

ttfn

David

Technorati Tags: Microsoft, Cool, Popfly, Surface, Silverlight, Home Server

Home Servers that will be look cool in the home and pass the dreaded "partner" test

David Overton — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 22:55:47 GMT

I have a Media Center, Home Server, Xbox, Xbox 360, SBS and other machines in my house. The under TV box hides the Xbox and Media Center, the 360 is in the bedroom and the home server (& SBS box) are in the study. I learnt a long time ago that IF I wanted something like Home Server in the living space I needed it to look good. This is one example of what looking cool might be. There is obviously much more to Home Server, so visit the blog if this is a new area for you.

More Hockey Puck Photos

Heh. Joel just sent me a couple more pics of the "hockey puck". This thing is so amazingly cool that I just have to rant some more about it.
First, we commissioned Carbon Design, a local design firm, to dream up some really cool home server form factors about 2 years ago. After a couple of iterations we narrowed it down to 3 ideas: the cube, the slate, and the hockey puck. Carbon built us a few foam models of each of these as well as a bunch of cool looking renderings. These served us well for while as tools for illustrating the concept to executives and partners.
As CES 2007 approached, late last year, we decided we needed a working prototype. The goals were to build something that was inanely cool looking, stretched the envelope on size, and expressed the idea that Windows Home Server provides a whole house solution. We re-engaged with Carbon to build a working version of the hockey puck. In a very short timeframe they created 3 working models. Each is based on a nano-ITX mainboard from VIA and 2.5" HDDs. Other cool features:

Windows Home Server Blog : More Hockey Puck Photos

ttfn

David

Technorati Tags: Home Server, Cool

Go to MSN today to see a great Office 2007 advert - interact with the web page using a Word 2007 ribbon - today only 12th June

David Overton — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 08:22:00 GMT

This is a quick one - hope along to http://uk.msn.com and today you will be greeted with the Office 2007 ribbon bar. You can change the formatting of the picture or the MSN section at the top using the live preview function of Office 2007.

This will be 24 hours only I am told, so about 14 3/4 hours left!

Image changes as you hover over the formats - available in Office 2007 and now MSN UK for the day!! We also have style changes on the headers.

ttfn

David

Technorati Tags: MSN, Office 2007

If you want to see what imaging, pictures, photosynth or Microsoft Research are doing in this space - go look at this video

David Overton — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 11:29:47 GMT

http://www.clipaday.com/videos/ridiculous-image-technology-coming

You will see Sea dragon, PhotoSynth and see more.

I rate this 10/10!!

ttfn

David

Technorati Tags: PhotoSynth, Seadragon, Microsoft, Research

You know I like sailing, one day I might even own a big boat, but I hope this does not happen to it - ever!

David Overton — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 22:35:14 GMT

This is 110% off topic - http://www.yachtforums.com/forums/general-yachting-discussion/7055-splash.html shows how NOT to launch a multi-million pound boat.

ttfn

David

The BBC has been using Microsoft research technology to do some AMAZING photo "things" with Photosynth

David Overton — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 22:06:53 GMT

No point in me buttering this up, but if you want to see what can be done in 3D with a "bunch of snaps"....

I've been really excited about Photosynth since it was first publicly demo'ed about a year ago. But now you can go and play with it yourself and explore some of Britain's most striking buildings along the way. Photosynth is (for my money) the most exciting thing to happen to digital photography in a long time. And to show it off Microsoft has teamed up with the BBC to offer the previews at http://labs.live.com/photosynth/bbc/. Prepare to be amazed! It's eerily good.

The UsefulTechnology Blog: Photosynth in all its glory

ttfn

David

Technorati Tags: Photosync, bbc

Old but cool News - Sony 9mm OLED display @ 1080p resolution

David Overton — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 22:49:10 GMT

Going through old mails and found this - maybe one day I will get a new screen:

Thin displays
Sony Demos 9mm-thick High-Def OLED Displays
“Look and yearn folks. This here is Sony’s new OLED display. It’s an obscene 9mm thick yet it packs a 1080p resolution along with a 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio. Just as a recap, OLED displays are thinner and brighter than their LCD counterparts and they suck up less power.”

ttfn

David

How I created my popfly carousel

David Overton — Wed, 30 May 2007 20:53:46 GMT

If you go to the blog entry on Microsoft Surface you will be asked to install Microsoft Silverlight. When you do so you will see a carousel effect to show the 12 Surface pictures. As many of you know I am NOT a developer by any means, so I thought I would show you what I had to do to get to the finished product - it is not hard at all.

1st off I signed up for a Popfly account at http://www.popfly.com and was lucky enough to get an account very quickly.

OK, so I dropped 3 blocks onto the screen - one to read the RSS fead of the Surface pictures, one to pull out the picture urls and one to display them. That was it (well I did drag those blue lines across too)

Here is what I put in the RSS feed

Here is what I put in the filter

Here is what I put in the carousel initially (I changed it to a more complex piece of code later to change the screen resolution of the images it pulls down)

that was it. That is why popfly is so simple to combine things together.

ttfn

David

Technorati tags: popfly, mashup, silverlight

WOW!!! Microsoft Surface has just made me say - "I have to have one" and so does everyone else in the family too. This is seriously cool (and not really much to do for most small businesses)

David Overton — Wed, 30 May 2007 09:07:00 GMT

[updated 1:05 with more information and moving silverlight code to a 2nd page]

I'm a difficult person to impress - Silverlight is one technology that impresses me seriously as to the future direction of media and web applications. Now however we have a new platform that I really like the look of - Surface. Have a look at the web site - see the possibilities of this touch and object sensitive device. Put a camera on it and the pictures poor out of it. look at photos and movies on it.

It is just a wow, how cool is that type of device. Maybe I should run some form of competition on the blog and see if anyone wants to win one when they ship!!

For more information go to www.microsoft.com/surface/ with the "Executive Q&A: What the new surface computing category means for Microsoft and consumers" found at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2007/may07/05-29Surface.mspx and the general PR at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2007/may07/05-29MSSurfacePR.mspx. Finally you can see more at http://www.on10.net/Blogs/larry/first-look-microsoft-surfacing-computing/.

I have uploaded some photos to the site, but since I wanted to show how easy Popfly was too so instead have a look at the photos using Silverlight too. [updated to remove silverlight dependency on viewing the blog, however you can click the image to see the carousel working for real]

ttfn

David

Technorati Tags: Surface, SIlverlight, popfly, table

Microsoft Watch - Vista - I Shacked Up with Windows Vista - what happens when a journalist tries Vista and likes it - he makes his Mac Tiger move out for a while :-)

David Overton — Fri, 11 May 2007 21:38:00 GMT

I saw this and the whole article is well worth a read - a good Friday/Saturday/Sunday/Monday read to smile.

I Shacked Up with Windows Vista

Joe Wilcox
Last week, Vista and I started living together again, and Tiger moved into an apartment across the hall. I like Vista, but she's sometimes a tough companion.
Tiger and Vista are both attractive, but my new roomie is just so much more pleasing to look at—and she likes to do fun stuff that's quite different from the cat woman. Over the weekend we did the Vongo together and hung out at the Yahoo Music club. Tiger wouldn't do either.
Vista also is much more social. She loves to nudge her friends and hang out at social clubs MySpace and Live Spaces. She's quite particular about her social calendar, too.

Source: Microsoft Watch - Vista - I Shacked Up with Windows Vista

ttfn

David

Technorati tags: Vista business value, MAC

Which 2007 Office Application Are You?

David Overton — Fri, 04 May 2007 09:57:11 GMT

I did this "Which 2007 Office Application Are You?" and apparently I am Excel

You are Excel 2007!
People trust you to find the right answer. They call you "the wizard" and are in awe of your PivotTable. When you say you love functions, it's understood that you're referring to spreadsheets, not social events. You import and export with ease, always maintaining balance. Thanks to your mastery of numbers, people are constantly asking you for help with their own budgets. With the new Microsoft Office Excel 2007, you'll see how those people can get their own answers - better and faster. They will be amazed that they, too, can create a new chart with only five clicks. You may not have been known as a trendsetter, but your ability to use conditional formatting to "see" new trends was well worth any wait. You can analyze the impressive productivity and efficiency gains in Excel 2007 and prove that the benefits justify the costs. Your favorite new feature in Office 2007 is likely to be the charting feature in Excel 2007.
Try a free 60-day trial of the 2007 Office system by visiting TryMicrosoftOffice.com.

ttfn

David

Technorati Tags: Whihc Office Version are you

bCentral (UK) competition - Win 5 laptops – all with the ‘Wow’ factor of Windows Vista Business and Microsoft Office Small Business 2007 – plus a wide screen TV

David Overton — Thu, 03 May 2007 20:07:24 GMT

I saw that this is closing in a few days - the site has a find a partner link to find SBSC partners by post code and obviously the competition:

Microsoft Small Business Centre - Microsoft Office 2007 small business Edition and Microsoft Windows Vista, the software for your Small Business PC

We’re offering a special prize of 5 laptops – all with the ‘Wow’ factor of Windows Vista Business and Microsoft Office Small Business 2007 – plus a wide screen TV! To win, tell us how the ‘Wow’ factor can help your business.

See Windows Vista Business and Office 2007 in action at your local PC store. PC World, Comet, Staples, John Lewis and Micro Anvika are all running regular demos. For details of demos at your local store, download our schedule.

Find a Partner to help you add the ‘Wow; factor to your IT and upgrade to Windows Vista Business and Microsoft Office Small Business 2007.

ttfn

David

Technorati tags: Win Vista and Office, bCentral

World's first IT support professional - just made me laugh

David Overton — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 12:15:00 GMT

[updated with a URL rather than embedded object]

I got this mailed to me at work and just p**sed myself laughing - even my good lady thought this was fun.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMa3QBqf3t4

ttfn

David

Technorati Tags: Fun, Support, IT Support

View and Search the Windows Vista Registry from the Windows Shell (Explorer) through this Namespace Extensions

David Overton — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 10:42:22 GMT

I came across this due to someone pointing it out internally - talk about awesome.

The Windows Registry Shell Namespace Extension allows Windows Explorer to view and interact with the Windows Registry data via Explorer windows. It demonstrates existing Shell extensibility points like IShellFolder2 and SHCreateShellFolderView and also demonstrates new concepts in Vista including the property system, property schema extensibility, and content indexing via Protocol Handlers. This project is implemented using C++ and ATL.
This release includes all of the latest deltas and addresses the installation issues for systems without VS2005. This is a temporary fix until James finishes the WIX setup. Installation notes: - Download/open the zip file. - If you have VS2005 installed, just double-click RegNamespace.msi. - If you don't have VS2005, run Setup.exe. This will install the necessary VC Redistrubutable.

Source: Windows Vista Registry Shell Namespace Extensions

ttfn

David

Technorati tags: Vista, Windows Vista, Search, Registry

Dreamscapes 3D spinning earth background where lighting changes depending on the time of day - for Vista, amazing!

David Overton — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 23:06:00 GMT

I just have to share some of the pictures my PC created while running Dreamscapes (free from StarDock at http://dream.wincustomize.com/) - this one is of the planet Earth spinning, but the view of the earth changes depending on the time of day, so you get to see the light polution if it is night etc.

It also works well, as you might expect with Flip 3D:

See the tools to produce this and much more at:

http://uksbsguy.com/blogs/doverton/archive/2007/03/26/vista-enhancements-and-utilities-changing-the-screen-savers-adding-extra-search-functionality-to-the-start-menu-objectdock-logon-screen-changer-windows-blinds-and-wim-image-modifier.aspx

http://uksbsguy.com/blogs/doverton/archive/2007/03/26/vista-has-flip-3d-for-changing-applications-well-here-are-some-more-3d-cube-based-virtual-desktop-window-switcher-rotation-based-flip-3d.aspx

http://uksbsguy.com/blogs/doverton/archive/2007/03/26/changing-vista-boot-screens-and-opening-yourself-up-to-rootkits-or-not.aspx

Vista enhancements and utilities (changing the screen savers, adding extra search functionality to the start menu, Objectdock, logon screen changer, Windows Blinds and WIM Image modifier)

David Overton — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 21:10:12 GMT

Changing the screen saver settings: http://tweakvista.com/Article39129.aspx (make ribbons fatter, increase the number of them and so on)

Start++ - search tools from WDS in Vista: http://brandonlive.com/2007/02/22/new-tool-i-made-for-vista-start/

“clear” aero theme for Winblinds for Vista: http://www.skinbase.org/rate.php?skins=32542

Logon Screen changer (free from StarDock when released, part of Object Dock during beta): See http://www.stardock.com/newsitem.asp?id=942 and skins at http://www.wincustomize.com/skins.aspx?libid=65

DreamScenes, Dream Maker and Dynamic Dreams – some free, some charged for, for Ultimate Users: http://dream.wincustomize.com/ and http://www.stardock.com/products/deskscapes/ - these include triggers in the “dreams”

vLite – image tweaking tool: http://www.vlite.net/about.html

ttfn

David

Technorati tags: Vista, Dreamscene, Logon Screen Changer, Dynamic Dreams, vLite

Changing Vista boot screens and opening yourself up to rootkits (or not)

David Overton — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 16:12:22 GMT

I love people who want to customise WIndows Vista and some of my previous posts have covered this, however you can go too far - you can hack the OS. While I understand the desire to "hack" the OS to get customisations, there are better ways. This particular example is where people want to change the boot screen in Vista. The ability to do this will be coming from StarDock soon, but until then people have taken to modifying the existing OS files. THERE IS ALWAYS a change that by downloading someones customised file to your PC and it being loaded so early on in the boot process that it could do nasty things, especially since these files are in now way certified by Microsoft.

A classic example of this can be found here when people want to change the boot logo - this could easily be a social engineering attack. The instructions tell someone to remove the access and security permissions from a core system file, overwrite it with one that might make the system look prettier during boot, but who knows what else will happen as a result of the change? This is also known as a trojan horse - as you accept it through the gates on the assumption that it is a gift from the gods, but infact inside it has lots of the enemies troops.

You have a choice - compromise your system security or wait until StarDock release thier boot screen changer. Is it really worth risking the integrity of your system for a pretty graphic for a few seconds during startup?

http://www.myvistaboot.com/Joomla/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1

Changing the boot screen: http://tweakvista.com/article38970.aspx

Boot screen logo generator: http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=527262

ttfn

David

Vista has Flip 3D for changing applications, well here are some more (3d cube based virtual desktop, Window Switcher, Rotation based flip 3d

David Overton — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 09:14:30 GMT

3d cube based virtual desktop: http://chsalmon.club.fr/index.php?en/Download

Rotation based Flip 3D: http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=529816

Alternative to flip-3d (switcher): http://insentient.net/

UK Vista Community Group - First Meeting - March 28th

David Overton — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 19:58:39 GMT

Vista Squad

The place to discuss Windows Vista and the .NET Framework 3.0.
We're excited to announce the inaugural meeting of the Vista Squad!
The event will be held between 18:15 and 21:15 on Wednesday 28th March 2007 at Microsoft's HQ, Thames Valley Park, Reading.
This will be a great opportunity to meet other members, discuss Vista and see two cracking presentations. If you'd like to come pop your name in a comment and we'll add you to the list.
The line-up is as follows:
18:15-18:30: Refreshments
18:30-18:45: Introduction session to introduce the group, the key people involved and finally our aims and goals – (Ray Booysen, Scott Belton, Robert Knapp)
18:45-19:45: Presentation 1 - Are you ready for Vista - Windows hardware assessment tools (Scott Belton)
19:45-20:15: Break - Food, refreshments and networking
20:15-21:15: Presentation 2 - WCF Introduction– (tbc)
21:15: Roundup and close

Source: Announcements : First Meeting

Games for Windows - Live beta announcement and invitation

David Overton — Sun, 18 Mar 2007 20:20:12 GMT

Are you interested in being part of a select group that is invited to help beta test a new service that lets PC game players connect with their friends on the Xbox through the LIVE gaming network? If you are, please read on.

The registration period for this upcoming beta testing opportunity will only be available for a limited time. To be considered you will need to complete the Games for Windows - Live Beta application survey. Please only submit the survey once. Multiple entries will not improve your chances at being chosen.

If you are interested in participating please direct go to https://connect.microsoft.com/site/sitehome.aspx?SiteID=363

ttfn

David

Microsoft Office 2007 and Windows Vista for Microsoft (UK) Partners' Friends and Family

David Overton — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 22:54:00 GMT

[updated 18th March 08:44am] - The links are working now - hurray

Now before someone goes and shoots this down, we have managed a small discount for Microsoft UK Partners' friends and family. It is not a half price discount or anything close, but if you know someone who was going to buy our software or wanted too, it is now a more attractive price :-)

Microsoft Office 2007 and Windows Vista for your Friends and Family

Are you experiencing the 'WOW' of the new Microsoft Office system and Windows Vista yet? If you are you'll probably want your friends and family to feel it too! To help you spread the WOW factor Microsoft Partner DABS is offering a special price to Microsoft Partners' friends and family on the home-use versions of these exciting new releases*.

Product	Special Friends and Family Price**
Microsoft Office 2007 Home and Student	£85.00
Vista Home Premium	£185.00
Vista Home Premium Upgrade	£123.50

*Please note: These products are not discounted. The products on offer are legitimate software applications for home use only. Prices may change at any time and there is no guarantee of availability. This promotion runs until 30 June 2007.

There’s more info’ and details how to order at https://partner.microsoft.com/uk/40037033. To access these offers Partners will need to log-in to the Partner Portal.

ttfn

David

Technorati tags: Vista, Windows Vista, Offers, Partners, UK

Windows Vista for beginners - new Vista Wallpaper collection by Hamad Darwish

David Overton — Sun, 04 Mar 2007 12:44:00 GMT

I found this great site - http://www.vista4beginners.com - which has some interesting content - first up, some great new wallpapers for Vista - which are great Vistas.

Vista Wallpapers Collection
Fri, 03/02/2007 - 11:46 — admin
Today we are very pleased to announce that our site is hosting a great collection of Windows Vista wallpapers that did not make the cut into the final Vista Collection. The author of these great wallpapers is Hamad Darwish - a talented young man from Kuwait with a passion for photography.
Read more

Source: Windows Vista for beginners | Windows Vista made simple

Technorati tags: Windows Vista, Vista, Wallpaper

Did you know how the world is changing - where the business is and what the future holds - have a look to find out

David Overton — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 22:25:53 GMT

I saw this posted internally http://www.scottmcleod.org/didyouknow.wmv and it reminded me of a talk Ray Kurzweil he once gave giving timelines for many things. It is worth having a poke around his site - http://www.kurzweilai.net/index.html?flash=1 and also at some of his predictions - http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/business/features/future_perfect/trans6.shtml.

By 2009, we won't be carrying around notebook computers or even palmtops you won't see the computers. The visual display's will be written directly onto our retinas from eye glasses and contact lenses so we'll either see a virtual display hovering in air or, even more compellingly, the visual display can overtake our whole visual field of view and create, basically, visual virtual reality.

ttfn

David

The Windows Vista and Office Consumer and Small Business Launch - 30th Jan, The British Library, London, UK.... and some demos you MUST run to understand what ISVs will do with Windows Vista.. and a couple of case studies

David Overton — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 11:33:00 GMT

Finally the day has come and the rest of us (well, you - but I felt that excited anyway) without a Volume License (or if you work at Microsoft) could get and use Windows Vista and the 2007 Office System (known as Office from here on in).

The British Library was chosen as two Leonardo De Vinci codices were being brought together for the 1st time in over 500 years. One was owned by the British Library and the other by Bill Gates, who appeared in person to launch the event. These books, plus other treasures from the British Library can be accessed and downloaded from http://www.bl.uk - I've put some info on how to demo it at British Library Demo of Vista and the Windows Presentation Foundation and the Windows Vista Magazine have put their copy in the same format http://wpf.windowsvistamagazine.co.uk/ttpdownload/browserapp.xbap.

As always I would like to thanks everyone involved - the partners and their customers who helped to shape and deliver Windows Vista and Office and the Windows and Office teams who put up with my rantings and demands and finally (still) invited me to the launch event to see it all so close up.

Anyway, the day in pictures (clicking on the thumbnails will bring up a larger version - some will go "massive" as they quailty is better on those)

The day started with a discussion between the customers, Doug Richard , the customers, the partners and Microsoft - think of this as a "what I'm going to ask you, so don't be scared... unless a great insight grabs me, and then I'll ask you something different" session

The characters includr Richard Abel, with a great reference at http://www.bcentral.co.uk/products/accountancy-firm-aggarwal-profits-from-windows-vista-and-office-2007.mspx?xid=sbissues_020207 then the man in the blue shirt with the beardy is Mike Haigh - Windows Client Supremo for Small and Mid-Market customers. Next to Mike is the man who runs Bradley Photography and who said on stage "Using these tools has saved me time and will result in me saving 2 months in every 12) - his story can be found on bCentral - "A portrait of a small business"

On the other side we have Adrian Barkey from EJC (posing as a thinking man) and then Susanne Dansey (Readycrest) and Scott Dodds (Head of SMS&P within Microsoft, so a very important man). The guys from Portfolio managed to keep out the lime light in these snaps, but their story how they were able to go Green with Office and Vista can be found at http://www.bcentral.co.uk/products/windows-vista-and-microsoft-office-2007-help-portfolio-communications.mspx?xid=sbissues_020207

The on with the main event - which was a media packed frenzy which meant I was not going to get in. However, a spot opened up in the second row, so here are the pictures as it went along:

After the massive TVs carried the videos it started with Gordon Frazer introducing the day, followed by the CEO of British Library and Bill Gates having a chat:

Then we went into the demos for consumers by the Windows Client team, Cynthia, David and Simon (who reminds me of a what not was looking over the wall) and of course a solo piece from Dan of the Feeling, before the groups concert

Then on to the business launch with Doug Richard, quizzing each customer as to the reality of their solutions being "worth it". The session was introduced by Scott Dodds and David Frost of the BCC who shared some amazing stats (such as 40% of businesses don't have a firewall and 50% don't backup daily), but then each customer talked through their solutions, with each using a partner (EJC.IT and Readycrest) with the exception of Bradley Photography who were very IT literate.

Finally the after show party, first with the Windows Vista Magazine and then at an exclusive party in Covent Gardens

ttfn

David

Technorati tags: Vista, Office 2007, Bill Gates, Readycrest, EJC.IT, Small Business, Launch

Vista related Wow or Launch Sites

David Overton — Sat, 03 Feb 2007 22:13:00 GMT

http://windowsvistablog.com/blogs/windowsvista/archive/2007/01/10/the-wow-starts-now.aspx talks about a number of Vista related web sites, so I thought I would start to find them all for you to look at:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/default.mspx - the official Windows Vista site - make sure you look at the 100 reasons to get Vista ;-) Geesh, only 100!!

http://showUsYourWow.com - great site to showcase your "WoW"

http://www.vanishingpointgame.com/ - like puzzles, you'll love this - with the final prize being anything from PC & XBox goodies to a trip into almost space :-)

http://www.microsoft.co.uk/evosupremo/ - test your knowledge and get some great some more great prizes

http://www.clearification.com/ - strange and wacky site, but could be just right for your mind

Problems with Girlfriend 1.0 (&1.2), Fiancee 1.0 and Wife 1.0

David Overton — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 00:01:00 GMT

Again, this was sent to me by my good lady.

This was sent to me by my wife as 2 of 2. The other one can be found at http://uksbsguy.com/blogs/doverton/archive/2007/01/16/problems-with-boyfriend-5-0-husband-1-0-and-nagging-5-3-humour.aspx

Dear Technical Support,
18 months ago, I upgraded to Girlfriend 1.0 from DrinkingMates 4.2, which I had used for years without any trouble. However, there are apparently conflicts between these two products and the only solution was to try and run Girlfriend 1.0 with the sound turned off.

To make matters worse, Girlfriend 1.0 is incompatible with several other applications, such as LadsNightOut 3.1, Football 4.5, and Playboy 6.9.Successive versions of GirlFriend proved no better.

I tried a shareware program, Slapper 2.1, but it had many bugs and left a virus in my system, forcing me to shut down completely for several weeks.

Eventually, I tried to run GirlFriend 1.2 and Girlfriend 1.0 at the same time, only to discover that when these two systems detected each other they caused severe damage to my hardware.

I eventually upgraded to Fiancée 1.0, only to discover that this product soon had to be upgraded further to Wife 1.0. While Wife 1.0 tends to use up all my available resources, it does come bundled with FreeSexPlus and Cleanhouse2007.

Shortly after this upgrade, however, I found that Wife 1.0 could be very unstable and costly to run. Any mistakes I made were automatically stored in Wife 1.0's memory and could not be deleted.

They then resurfaced months later when I had forgotten about them.

Wife 1.0 also has an automatic Diary, Explorer and E-mail filter, and can, without warning, launch TurboStrop and Multi-Whinge. These latter products have no Help files, and I have to try to guess what the problem is.

Additional problems are that Wife 1.0 needs updating regularly, requiring ShoeShop Browser for new attachments and Hairstyle Express which needs to be reinstalled every other week. Also, when Wife 1.0 attaches itself to my Audi TT Convertible hard drive, it often crashes.

Wife 1.0 also comes with an irritating pop-up called MotherInLaw, which can't be turned off. Recently I've been tempted to install Mistress 2007, but there could be problems. A friend of mine has alerted me to the fact that if Wife 1.0 detects Mistress 2007, it tends to delete all of your Money before uninstalling itself.

ttfn

David

Problems with Boyfriend 5.0, Husband 1.0 and Nagging 5.3 (Humour)

David Overton — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 23:59:00 GMT

This was sent to me by my wife as 1 of 2. The other one can be found at http://uksbsguy.com/blogs/doverton/archive/2007/01/17/problems-with-girlfriend-1-0-amp-1-2-fiancee-1-0-and-wife-1-0.aspx

Dear Tech Support:

Last year I upgraded from Boyfriend 5.0 to Husband 1.0 and noticed a distinct slow down in the overall performance, particularly in the Flower and jewellery applications, which operated flawlessly under Boyfriend 5.0.

In addition, Husband 1.0 un-installed many other valuable programs, such as Romance 9.5 and Personal Attention 6.5 and then installed undesirable programs such as: Football 5.0, Rugby 4.3 and Cricket 3.0. Conversation 8.0 no longer runs; it simply crashes the system.

I've tried running Nagging 5.3 to fix these problems, to no avail. What can I do?

Signed, Desperate
*************************************************************
Dear Desperate:

First keep in mind, Boyfriend 5.0 is an Entertainment Package, while Husband 1.0 is an Operating System.

Try entering the command: C:/I-THOUGHT-YOU-LOVED-ME to download Tears 6.2, which should automatically install Guilt 3.0. If that application works as designed, Husband 1.0 should then automatically run the applications Jewellery 2.0 and Flowers 3.5.

But remember, overuse of the above application can cause Husband 1.0 to default to Grumpy Silence 2.5, Happy Hour 7.0, or Beer 6.1. WARNING: Beer 6.1 is a very nasty program that will create Snoring Loudly.

CAUTION: Whatever you do, DO NOT install Mother-in-law. This is not a supported application and will crash Husband 1.0.

In summary, Husband 1.0 is a great program, but it does have limited memory and cannot apply new applications quickly. You might consider buying additional software to improve memory and performance. I personally would recommend Hot Food 3.0 and Lingerie 7.7.

Good Luck, Tech Support

A bit late (from me, not the team), but Happy New Year

David Overton — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 13:29:00 GMT

Our nice Partner Group in the UK wanted to say Happy New Year..

http://blogs.msdn.com/ptstv/archive/2007/01/04/partner-tv-happy-new-year-from-the-uk-partner-group.aspx

ttfn and have a great year.

David

Microsoft announces Home Server - ever want something like SBS, but targeted at home users with home user functionality (i.e. no Exchange, but wizards and tools around storage and media, sharing etc)

David Overton — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 12:56:00 GMT

Finally Microsoft will deliver you a server that sits at home, is ideally suited for everyone in the house to use. It could even find itself into really small businesses in combination with Offie Live (backup and central monitoring provided by Home Server and e-mail, calendar, domain etc provided by Live).

So what is it, well, think SBS, remove Exchange, SQL and ISA, update the wizards and remote access to be applicable for data sharing and a home network (but still keep them), then add some cool features like adding new disks the existing sharing volumes so exapansion is simply slotting in a new disk. This is Quattro, or Q or Home Server and the beta is coming soon too!!

As is always, several people already blogged on it and gave some great links, but go check out the following:

The Press Release

Susan bradley's tour de force and more

Official SBS, Centro & Home Server Blog

2nd Blog

Susanne's hardware find and link to the marketing site

and finally, even Vlad wanted one!!

Now there are a few people who say they don't want a server at home, in any form, which is just fine - don't worry about the product - just because it is there does not mean you have to buy it. For those who do, this is cool... now how can I get on the beta ;-)

ttfn

David