Origami???

Microsoft has anonunced a mini device that people think is going to be the bomb. I wonder how it's going to look. It's a good thing I din't buy a PDA just yet since I wanted to buy for such a long time. A tablet origami is probably better than a PDA.

I went to the project site and it has a promo flash ad running telling me to wait until 3.2.06. Well mark your calendars and visit this URL

Here is a portion of the article I read at red herring

Windows Mobile? Vista?

It is unclear whether Origami will come equipped with Windows Mobile or Windows Vista. It is also unclear whether it will come with a wireless phone, a feature that would put it in competition with smartphones rather than notebooks.



“One of the keys will be the price,” said Roger Kay, president of the market intelligence firm Endpoint Technologies Associates. “If Microsoft intends to sell this device to consumers, it can’t be $1,500 like the other mini-notebooks. It has to be closer to $300. The price point will determine how quickly it takes off.”

“Microsoft has watched Apple stir the music business with the iPod, so this could be a PC that does to the mobile data market what the iPod did in the digital music market,”

RED HERRING | Vista Versions Leaked

RED HERRING | Vista Versions Leaked: "Vista Versions Leaked

Microsoft accidentally posts information about different Windows packages and releases �feature complete� beta version.
February 23, 2006
Microsoft has accidentally posted information about up to eight different versions of its upcoming Windows Vista operating system on a page on its web site the same week it released a �feature complete� beta test version of Vista to developers.

The Redmond software giant has since removed the page from its web site, but it listed SKUs (stock-keeping units) for a starter version, two versions aimed at home users, two versions for businesses, an �ultimate� version, and two versions without Windows Media Player, a requirement that the European Commission has been urging.

The versions include Windows Starter 2007, Windows Vista Business, Windows Vista Enterprise, Windows Vista Home Basic, Windows Vista Home Premium, and Windows Vista Ultimate, according to CNET News.com.

In addition, there will be �N� versions of Windows Vista Home Basic and Windows Vista Home. The company said the posting was for �testing purposes only� to explain why it was removed after it was spotted by web surfers."

the new IE

I just installed IE7 so far so good. :)

Windows Live Expo

Garry Wiseman, product unit manager, and friends take us through a new Windows Live classified service named 'Expo.' We get a demo of this cool new service that helps you buy and sell stuff. A place for you to find things and others to find your things. You can learn more here: http://expo.live.com"

http://channel9.msdn.com/showpost.aspx?postid=162687

Windows Live Expo

Garry Wiseman, product unit manager, and friends take us through a new Windows Live classified service named 'Expo.' We get a demo of this cool new service that helps you buy and sell stuff. A place for you to find things and others to find your things. You can learn more here: http://expo.live.com"

http://channel9.msdn.com/showpost.aspx?postid=162687

Patrick Tisseghem's Blog [MVP SharePoint]

Patrick Tisseghem's Blog [MVP SharePoint]: "Context Menus in WSS 2003
Looking for a technique of providing an integrated context menu in your WSS sites? Gert van Bael has a good posting on it. Thanks Joris for the link.
"

Tip: Right Click => Add DLL to GAC

Jan Tielens' Bloggings [MVP]: "Tip: Right Click => Add DLL to GAC
[Via Patrick Wellink] Easier way to add a DLL to the GAC
Add following text to a .reg file, double click it, voila: you can add assemblies to the GAC with only two mouse clicks! BizTalk and SharePoint developers will love it. Check out the BIA blog post to download the .reg file in a zip.
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\dllfile\shell\gacutil\command]
@='c:\\windows\\Microsoft.NET\\Framework\\v1.1.4322\\gacutil.exe /i \'%1\''"

Microsoft starts Blackberry rival

Microsoft and Vodafone have joined forces to launch a portable email service that intends to rival market leader Blackberry.

In addition to sending and receiving e-mails, Windows Mobile E-mail will enable users to edit Microsoft Word and Excel documents.

The service will be available in the UK, France and Germany next month.

BBC NEWS Business Microsoft starts Blackberry rival

Upcoming BizTalk Classes over the next three months

While checking out the biztalk blog I came across this posting that shows all of the upcoming biztalk classes. Take a look as it is hard to get good training in BizTalk. I remember when I was in India managing a software development project and I wanted to get my coders trained in BizTalk it was very difficult. We had guys on our team that new more than what the trainer could offer we had to look for trainers from other cities which was incredibly expensive.

Eventhough I think that BizTalk2006 is a lot more easier than it's earlier versions it is always good to have an idea of what the tool can do for you before using it. It's a shame we don't have any listed for Chicago...

you can take a look at it by going to the BizTalk Server Product Group Blog : Upcoming BizTalk Classes:

Stock Prices Mixed on Google Report

Stock Prices Mixed on Google Report: "A downbeat report on Google Inc. pulled the Web search engine $15.67 lower to $346.94. The Barron's article said Google's stock price could be cut in half this year amid mounting competition from Microsoft Inc. and Yahoo Inc. Microsoft was off 8 cents at $26.61, and Yahoo slipped 43 cents to $32.08."

I still believe that their stock will be and should $500 in next couple of years. Their competitors are just copying what they do and taking market share. I wish google competitors were as innovative!

Google is the cover story for TIME

For those of you who are just getting to know google it's a good issue I recommend all of you to read this issue it has some nice stories like;

Be A Google Expert

Meet The Google Guys

In Search Of The Real Google
An inside look at how success has changed Larry and Sergey's dream machine. Can they still be the good guys while running a company worth $100 billion?
By ADI IGNATIUS

Google Gets A9 Search Chief

RED HERRING Google Gets A9 Search Chief

Here we go again Google has hired another top guy. They stole Amazons a9.com's ceo. The guy steps down from being a CEO to being a VP at google. Thats crazy but a no brainer. I mean who wouldn't want to work for a company like google.

We know they've hired the guy who created the internet, web scripting language python creator, the guy from microsoft I mean whose next? it's a bunch of nerds at google :) and they are taking over the world unless Microsoft starts giving away things for free. Don't wake up the giant.

Well I think at Microsoft they should probably come up with creative ideas at HR so these people don't get lost to competitors.

Chicago Summer Olympics 2016

Today while driving to work I heard it on the radio that Chicago might bid for the 2016 Olympics it was announced in July last year but I didn't know about this until this meeting.
http://www.gamesbids.com/English/bids/2016.shtml

I think it would be a great thing for the city if we do it right. We don't want to end up like Athens and double the budget by setting up a new infrastructure for the event. That would be shooting ourselves in the foot. I totally think that Chicago has the necessary transportation needs CTA, OHARE, Midway for people to get around the city. And for the Olympic stadium, why do we need one anyway can't we use our current world known structures.

I think we can do this with a good plan. I hope we get this thing.

GO CHICAGO!

Google Book Search

I still don't understand what the difference is between what google offers in their google book search service and a person going to a library finding what they need and making a photocopy of a page and leaving with it.

How does this violate the copyright laws? What are you afraid of? Obviously you don't care about the public rights it must be your own pockets that you are trying to fill if you don't like this service.

Anyway in December, novelist Susan Cheever, a member of the Authors Guild, published an article that is completly wrong and is misleading and as a member of the Support Book Discovery group I would like to ask this person to get her facts straight before making any acusations and publishing articles that are not true.

Please read what google team has to say by clicking here
Google Groups : Support Book Discovery

Get your sites ready to work with the new IE!

Read the IE Blog to see how you can use the API provided
window.external.AddSearchProvider() function on your site.

IEBlog: "In Beta 2 any site can run a simple function prompting the user to add a search provider to IE. This script call will open a dialog giving the user control over what is included in their Toolbar Search Box."

If you haven't downloaded the beta 2 I suggest you go here and check it out.
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/IE/ie7/ie7betaredirect.mspx

NINJAM - Novel Intervallic Network Jamming Architecture for Music - Main

I came accross NINJAM when I was reading about the interview that boingboing.net had with the creator of the open source media player Songbird.

NINJAM is a program to allow people to make real music together via the Internet - now how cool is that! Every participant can hear every other participant. Each user can also tweak their personal mix to his or her liking. NINJAM is cross-platform, with clients available for Mac OS X and Windows.

Read more about NINJAM here
NINJAM - Novel Intervallic Network Jamming Architecture for Music - Main

Super Bowl XL Commercials on Google Video

Wanna watch the Super Bowl XL commercials again but you don't have TiVo.

Well the answer is Google Video for you click here to see all of the commercials.


Super Bowl XL Commercials on Google Video: "Super Bowl XL Commercials"

Chat while checking your gmail

Official Google Blog: "when you log into Gmail you'll find a list of your most important contacts on the left-hand side of the window, and you can chat right away with those who are online. You can also save, search for, and view your chat histories just like your Gmail messages."

How cool is that! :)

The Microsoft® SQL Server Report Pack for Microsoft® Office SharePoint® Portal Server 2003

For those of you trying to analyze the usage of your SPS2003 Portal and you want to know say the top 20 or bottom 20 keywords used for searching and don't have the budget to get a log analyzer such as WebTrends(It works great but it's expensive :)) then I think I have the tool for you the Microsoft® SQL Server Report Pack for Microsoft® Office SharePoint® Portal Server 2003.

The Microsoft SQL Server Report Pack for Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003 is a set of 8 Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Reporting Services reports that work with a sample database of information extracted from a SharePoint Portal Server environment.

Storage Report:Shows a listing of the virtual servers and the number of collections, sites, areas, lists, files and size. Also shows a size distribution and storage usage chart, and a top 20 sites based on size.

Storage Trend Report: Shows four charts illustrating the virtual server storage trend, site collection growth trend, area growth trend and list growth trend.
Site Trend ReportShows hit counts for virtual servers, collections, areas and lists. Also shows the top 20 sites based on hits.

Comprehensive Site Collections Report: Shows the list of site collections, who owns the collection, configurable characteristics about the owner and the date the collection was last accessed.

Detailed Site Collection Report: Shows top 20 pages accessed (based on hit count) for this site collection.

Detailed Page Report: Shows users who have access to the page, when they last accessed it, any referrer URL and number of hits. Also shows two charts illustrating user distribution and referrer distribution.

Best Bet Keyword: Shows top 20, top 10, bottom 10, or bottom 20 keywords used for searching. Also shows which keywords have best bets.

Search Terms: Shows top 20, top 10, bottom 10, or bottom 20 search terms used for searching. Also shows which search terms match a defined keyword.

You can Download the report pack from:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=49159368-544B-4B09-8EED-4844B4E33D3D&displaylang=en

Also I recommend you read Thoms blog as it talks about the IIS Log Parser as well
http://blogs.msdn.com/trobbins/archive/2005/07/12/438112.aspx