Showing posts with label microsoft. Show all posts
Ever sat there looking at your ceiling and wondering what a song made of only sounds from Windows or Apple? Okay, well I might have been alone on this one, but figured that I would let you take a listen and tell me which you think is better! This surprised me to hear how good the music turned out. Not worthy of a standing ovation, but well worth a minute to listen then comment.

Microsoft Windows





Apple OS X



If you haven't heard yet about the Windows 7 release that was on October 20, 2009 then you probably shouldn't be reading anything on my site at all since you don't care about tech in the slightest bit. Window's 7 has built a complete cult following since it cam out with people jumping ship from Vista and XP. There has been so much of a stir-up about the operating system that the Market Share has zoomed off the charts more than ever! At the end of the month Microsoft should have a pace of getting over 4% of the consumers out there. It doesn't sound like much, but when you think about the entire world having billions of people then it sounds just a bit larger. If you want to read a little more detailed information about it then check out this article in Computer World. They get a little deeper into the numbers and information. Which bores me a little. So far, Microsoft has done any previous versions of Windows and Mac OS. This is massive considering how many versions are out there (since they can't seem to get crap right!). My question is, "What will be Apple's come back to try and out sell Microsoft before losing customers?".


Microsoft was holding the Professional Developers Conference (PDC) this week. Today, we were informed that at this conference, huge beta invites were given out. Developers were just itching to get a crack at these major new advances on the previous versions. The new Microsoft Silverlight 4, Microsoft Office 2010, and Sharepoint Server 2010 were the special little gifts that Microsoft gave out for the beta testing. Now developers will start sinking their teeth into these juicy new products! Here is the link to the betas.

If you have been wanting to buy a Xbox360 then right now is the time. That is if you don't want Xbox Live on it. There are so many popping up on Ebay right now that you can actually get one for only 50 bucks! Basically, with the million people that Xbox Live booted, those people are trying to sell them and buy themselves an operational one. Well, it's sad for them, but if you just want to play games at home and feel it's worth the risk of getting a mod then go for it! While there is this dramatic dip in prices it needs to be taken advantage of it. Although, like I said, you have to be willing to take the risk. Ebay has already put statements out to steer people away from buying the consoles right now due to so many modded ones on there that are not stating it is modded.
In December Xbox is getting some new features to get people to stay on the Microsoft Live Gold membership. Maybe because they booted a million customers? Here are the features straight from the horses mouth:



  • Facebook.2 Update your status to share what movie, game or entertainment you’re enjoying, connect with friends, and view their Facebook stream, status updates and photos on the big screen — all seamlessly integrated and custom-built for Xbox 360. You can even compare your Xbox LIVE and Facebook friends lists to see which of your friends are on Xbox LIVE.

  • Zune. Zune video on Xbox LIVE offers a full-fidelity experience with instant-on HD in 1080p and 5.1 channel surround sound. No waiting for downloads or buffering, it’s there at the press of a button. You can also share the experience with up to seven friends through voice chat and Avatar integration on the TV screen — it puts a whole new spin on movie night.

  • Twitter.2 Stay in the know by discovering, posting and replying to tweets right on your Xbox 360. You can even view friend profiles, trends and conversations, or search to see who’s tweeting about your favorite game.

  • Last.fm. 2 Discover more music and explore endless personalized radio stations with Last.fm on Xbox 360. Skip, “ban” or “love” tracks to create your perfect mix. We’ve even built in “Gamer Stations” with game-related types of music selected specifically for the gaming community. (Available in the U.S. and U.K.)



The PDC is gathering in the Los Angeles Convention Center from November 17-19, while being coined "Geek Heaven" by Microsoft. In the past years the PDC has been the place of choice to announce any great new things to arise such as Azure, Cloud, Microsofts .NET, Windows XP, and Windows 7 platforms.

Maybe in the next few day we will learn of something big that is going to happen, so I will be keeping my eyes and ears open for information. Some of the greatest minds of our time will be there including Tomicic (CEO of the Axinom Group), Danny Kim (CTO of FullArmor Corp.), Michael Baker (Technology General Manager of Incite Inc.), and of course a full list of heads from Microsoft.

This should be an exciting meeting with all these fantastic people. The meeting will also break down at a point for people to be in specific meetings that are directed for their exact field of work.
According to Microsoft, they are now going to use comScore to figure out the usefulness of the in game ads. So, now that means they are going to be watching what you are doing to figure out the effectiveness of the ads we are seeing. Feeling the vomit come up my throat as I think about in game ads. Have they not gotten enough of my money and time? I pay for the system, games, and services therefore I should not see ANY ads at ANY time! Not that little ole me really has an opinion in the eyes of Microsoft, but I am not happy about this Press Release!
Not! But, they did recently get accused of adding software to Win7 that was coded using open source code. According to the General Public License (GPL), they are not allowed to use this software for anything that is not used on a freeware basis and openly shared amongst people without any charge. Here is the GPL if you feel like actually reading it all:

TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR COPYING, DISTRIBUTION AND MODIFICATION

0. This License applies to any program or other work which contains a notice placed by the copyright holder saying it may be distributed under the terms of this General Public License. The "Program", below, refers to any such program or work, and a "work based on the Program" means either the Program or any derivative work under copyright law: that is to say, a work containing the Program or a portion of it, either verbatim or with modifications and/or translated into another language. (Hereinafter, translation is included without limitation in the term "modification".) Each licensee is addressed as "you".

Activities other than copying, distribution and modification are not covered by this License; they are outside its scope. The act of running the Program is not restricted, and the output from the Program is covered only if its contents constitute a work based on the Program (independent of having been made by running the Program). Whether that is true depends on what the Program does.

1. You may copy and distribute verbatim copies of the Program's source code as you receive it, in any medium, provided that you conspicuously and appropriately publish on each copy an appropriate copyright notice and disclaimer of warranty; keep intact all the notices that refer to this License and to the absence of any warranty; and give any other recipients of the Program a copy of this License along with the Program.

You may charge a fee for the physical act of transferring a copy, and you may at your option offer warranty protection in exchange for a fee.

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a) You must cause the modified files to carry prominent notices stating that you changed the files and the date of any change.
b) You must cause any work that you distribute or publish, that in whole or in part contains or is derived from the Program or any part thereof, to be licensed as a whole at no charge to all third parties under the terms of this License.
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These requirements apply to the modified work as a whole. If identifiable sections of that work are not derived from the Program, and can be reasonably considered independent and separate works in themselves, then this License, and its terms, do not apply to those sections when you distribute them as separate works. But when you distribute the same sections as part of a whole which is a work based on the Program, the distribution of the whole must be on the terms of this License, whose permissions for other licensees extend to the entire whole, and thus to each and every part regardless of who wrote it.

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In addition, mere aggregation of another work not based on the Program with the Program (or with a work based on the Program) on a volume of a storage or distribution medium does not bring the other work under the scope of this License.

3. You may copy and distribute the Program (or a work based on it, under Section 2) in object code or executable form under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above provided that you also do one of the following:

a) Accompany it with the complete corresponding machine-readable source code, which must be distributed under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above on a medium customarily used for software interchange; or,
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c) Accompany it with the information you received as to the offer to distribute corresponding source code. (This alternative is allowed only for noncommercial distribution and only if you received the program in object code or executable form with such an offer, in accord with Subsection b above.)

The source code for a work means the preferred form of the work for making modifications to it. For an executable work, complete source code means all the source code for all modules it contains, plus any associated interface definition files, plus the scripts used to control compilation and installation of the executable. However, as a special exception, the source code distributed need not include anything that is normally distributed (in either source or binary form) with the major components (compiler, kernel, and so on) of the operating system on which the executable runs, unless that component itself accompanies the executable.

If distribution of executable or object code is made by offering access to copy from a designated place, then offering equivalent access to copy the source code from the same place counts as distribution of the source code, even though third parties are not compelled to copy the source along with the object code.

4. You may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the Program except as expressly provided under this License. Any attempt otherwise to copy, modify, sublicense or distribute the Program is void, and will automatically terminate your rights under this License. However, parties who have received copies, or rights, from you under this License will not have their licenses terminated so long as such parties remain in full compliance.

5. You are not required to accept this License, since you have not signed it. However, nothing else grants you permission to modify or distribute the Program or its derivative works. These actions are prohibited by law if you do not accept this License. Therefore, by modifying or distributing the Program (or any work based on the Program), you indicate your acceptance of this License to do so, and all its terms and conditions for copying, distributing or modifying the Program or works based on it.

6. Each time you redistribute the Program (or any work based on the Program), the recipient automatically receives a license from the original licensor to copy, distribute or modify the Program subject to these terms and conditions. You may not impose any further restrictions on the recipients' exercise of the rights granted herein. You are not responsible for enforcing compliance by third parties to this License.

7. If, as a consequence of a court judgment or allegation of patent infringement or for any other reason (not limited to patent issues), conditions are imposed on you (whether by court order, agreement or otherwise) that contradict the conditions of this License, they do not excuse you from the conditions of this License. If you cannot distribute so as to satisfy simultaneously your obligations under this License and any other pertinent obligations, then as a consequence you may not distribute the Program at all. For example, if a patent license would not permit royalty-free redistribution of the Program by all those who receive copies directly or indirectly through you, then the only way you could satisfy both it and this License would be to refrain entirely from distribution of the Program.

If any portion of this section is held invalid or unenforceable under any particular circumstance, the balance of the section is intended to apply and the section as a whole is intended to apply in other circumstances.

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This section is intended to make thoroughly clear what is believed to be a consequence of the rest of this License.

8. If the distribution and/or use of the Program is restricted in certain countries either by patents or by copyrighted interfaces, the original copyright holder who places the Program under this License may add an explicit geographical distribution limitation excluding those countries, so that distribution is permitted only in or among countries not thus excluded. In such case, this License incorporates the limitation as if written in the body of this License.

9. The Free Software Foundation may publish revised and/or new versions of the General Public License from time to time. Such new versions will be similar in spirit to the present version, but may differ in detail to address new problems or concerns.

Each version is given a distinguishing version number. If the Program specifies a version number of this License which applies to it and "any later version", you have the option of following the terms and conditions either of that version or of any later version published by the Free Software Foundation. If the Program does not specify a version number of this License, you may choose any version ever published by the Free Software Foundation.

10. If you wish to incorporate parts of the Program into other free programs whose distribution conditions are different, write to the author to ask for permission. For software which is copyrighted by the Free Software Foundation, write to the Free Software Foundation; we sometimes make exceptions for this. Our decision will be guided by the two goals of preserving the free status of all derivatives of our free software and of promoting the sharing and reuse of software generally.

Microsoft has since fixed the problem by going to a new software and doing the right thing. Apologizing for the problem, but putting the blame on their third party developers.

Microsoft must have felt a ripple in the sales of games since they decided to ban almost around a million gamers from XBox Live. Most of the bans are due to breaking the Microsoft Terms Of Use through modding or pirating of games. Microsoft has said that the bans can be for a day, week, or permanently depending on the severity. Who knows how they will actually decide what the severity is going to be.

The Director of Programming told CNN.com that they were banned not only for modding, but for cheating too. I know that there has been a few times that during my online games of Halo 3 that there were some cheaters that all of a sudden disappear and I am shot in the back. This almost feels like sweet revenge! Larry Hryb has said,
"The Xbox Live team monitors players for not just cheating, but also for things like threats, racism, profanity, and just being an all around poor sport and ruining the game for others."
Then Microsoft also put out a direct statement,

"commitment to combat piracy and support safer and more secure gameplay for the more than 20 million members of the Xbox Live community remains a top priority. All consumers should know that piracy is illegal and modifying their Xbox 360 console violates the Xbox Live terms of use, will void their warranty and result in a ban from Xbox Live. We can assure you that if an Xbox Live member follows the Xbox Live terms of use, purchased a retail copy of Modern Warfare 2 and played the game on an unmodified Xbox 360, no action will be taken."

But, I know one thing. There were probably a lot of sad gamers out there today especially with the new Call of Duty game that was just released. Now there are a million people that won't be able to play now.


Tracking back and forth to the office is a thing of the past. Microsoft has came out with a beta of Office Live Workspace. Allowing you to save documents online to share with other team members that might be working on the same projects. This let’s several people work on one project at the same time from different places. No longer do you have to carry around all of those flash drives, cds, and dvds when you need to get to a document that is in the process of being worked on.

Since the documents are stored online, in the Microsoft Office Live Database, the items can be pulled up from any computer anywhere in the world. This gives you the freedom to work anytime of the day or night at any place. Given a whopping 5gigs of space to store them too.

What it presumed to be the most powerful part of this new site is the ability to open any Microsoft Word, Excel, or Powerpoint within the browser. There has been many times where I have been at a computer that is not of my own, and the person that owned it did not have Word or Excel on it for me to work on. This gives me the peace of mind that I don’t need to worry about software anymore.

Microsoft has also gone as far as to give anyone that opens a Office Live Account, as a small business, a free professional website to help you get a jump on the internet world. I see several internet companies using this site frequently to do their work at home and telecommute more. Way to go Microsoft on saving gas.

Picture taken from officelive.com

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