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<img alt="" height="1" width="1"> Windows updates galore: The latest on SPs, FPs and UEs ZDNet Blogs - 9 minutes ago On April 23, Microsoft began rolling out via its Automatic Update mechanism SP1 for Windows Vista. According to a posting on the Windows Vista Team Blog by ... More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

Hello, Just interested if anybody is using WCF yet? I'm converting a half written .NET remoting solution to WCF and not having a lot of fun. My .NET remoting solution was business objects so Tenant -Fields -Properties -Methods ok cool, simple but some of the methods on my remoting solution where to be run on the client and not on the server, so I might have a custom sort method for example, this was not a core method and just for the UI's use really. But on WCF I have to mark all the properties and methods which are callable from a client, well I don’t want to have a Sort method exposed by the server because that code should be run on the client. I'm sure I’m just misunderstanding a concept and they're is a way around it but the answer isn't in the book "Pro WCF" by "Peiris Mulder" and it's rather frustrating. It seems the sites I’m looking at are simple duplicates of the magical "Add(int a, int b) or TellTheTime() methods which are great when you want a sneak peak of WCF but not when you’re trying to write a real-life app. Anyway, that’s my first experience on WCF. Don't get me wrong WCF is the future, what you can't do with WCF isn't worth doing in terms of scalability and reliability. How are you getting on with WCF then? More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

Check out the technical preview of Microsoft's new cloud computing effort, Live Mesh! More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

Hi all Just wondered what packet sniffing software others use and would recommend.* I'm not really interested in sophisticated network traffic analysis etc, my main requirement is simply ability to view incoming/outgoing HTTP in ascii, with basic stats. I can of course find various options on Web, but would appreciate any feedback regarding what works best for others. More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

I feel like my mind is thicker than cement, because I just can not see how to specify a SQL Server 2005 database on a server, to a DataContext object.* I want to run a stored procedure I've written in one of the databases, so I've created a LINQ to SQL Class object in my VS 2008 project and then dragged my SP onto the design surface.* It went ahead and generated the strongly typed DataContext class, which is cool and all that, but every example I find describing accessing a SQL Server database using the DataContext class, or some drived class like my new strongly typed DataContext class, always shows the .MDF file as being on the local machine!* That certainly is not the case here, where the SQL database sits on our Windows 2003 server, but my .dbml and related files sit on my development machine.* I am certain I don't have direct access to the SQL .MDF file on the server, so I don't know what I'm supposed to use when calling the strongly typed DataContext class's constructor.* So, how do I specify that .MDF file on the server that I don't have access to? I'm working on putting this code into a WCF service I'm writing, so once I'm done developing it on my machine I'll deploy it to the server, and at that time I'll want to change the connection strong to point to the .MDF file, because it will by then be local to the server.* So how do I configure it so that I can change how the WCF service will access it when I'm testing it on my PC and deploying it to the server? More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

A deceptively simple and yet amazingly cool DHTML application http://simile.mit.edu/timeline/ It really shows that there is life left in DHTML. http://simile.mit.edu/timeline/images/sundial.png More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

As reported by Jack Schofield and his fake pipe .... http://ms-os.com/Themes/AlmostGlass/images/icon-quote.gif MSN wrote: As of August 31, 2008, we will no longer be able to support theretrieval of license keys for the songs you purchased from MSN Music orthe authorization of additional computers. License keys alreadyobtained as of August 31, 2008 will continue to allow you to listen tosongs on all the computers that you previously authorized for service So that's it. When you buy a new computer, your music collection is lost. I'm hoping that MS will do the right thing, and replace their customers files with DRM-free ones. More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

<img alt="" height="1" width="1"> New Ultimate Extras prove distinctly underwhelming PC Pro, UK - 46 minutes ago Vista team blog, which at least showed an admirable smattering of self-deprecation by introducing the Extras with the line: "If you're running Windows Vista ... Microsoft releases new Vista Ultimate Extras, Hell freezes over HEXUS.net Vole stuns with Ultimate Extras Inquirer all 4 news articles More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

Who likes him, his car and his dog dog? More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

<img alt="" height="1" width="1"> Tips and Tricks on Rolling Out Windows Server 2008 NetworkWorld.com, MA - 12 hours ago Windows Server 2008 is easily the broadest and deepest product I've ever seen from Microsoft, and my recent blog posts have just been designed to flag some ... More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080422/D90740K80.html See, there were WMD's out there waiting for some crazy madman to unleash them on us! And they were procured through eBay! wtf. More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

Microsoft to weave Web 'Mesh' for data, devices and applications - Computerworld <img alt="" height="1" width="1"> Microsoft to weave Web 'Mesh' for data, devices and applications Computerworld, MA - 27 minutes ago Initially, the technology preview will only have a user interface in English and will support only Windows Vista and XP machines, but Microsoft said it is ... More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

<img alt="" height="1" width="1"> Windows meshes with the web ElectricNews.net, Ireland - 9 minutes ago It will initially be available to users of Vista and XP, and during the 'technology preview', users will get 5GB of storage. Microsoft's move is just one in ... More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

I have almost 600 GB of Music, Videos, and Virtual Hard Disks that I need to move to my new HP laptop. My problem is I was using a MacBook Pro and the USB Hard Disk is formatted with the Mac OSX file system. Is their a way to*mount the USB Hard Disk on Windows? I'm running Vista Ultimate with*SP1 More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

An interesting article on* dull jobs.* What is the point of existence if things get to the stage where to avoid error in a dull job your are tied to a computer that alerts you? Surely just by the fact that you are connected to said device, you relax even further because the machine will do the work. Computing sometimes makes me feel very uneasy. It will soon get to the stage where developers are either involved in ethical computing or unethical. More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

WTF?! Well I have no idea how this one is going to play out. If you remember, PA Semi are a group of boffins who Apple was within a gnat's (I need to watch my language) width of buying, when they dumped IBM's line of PPC chips.So the question is, why now? Surely, his Royal Jobsness hasn't fallen out with Intel already? Is the threat of unapproved clones enough to send him hollering back to the PPC? No, this is probably about the mobile devices, but then again that begs the question; isn't the Intel stuff good enough? More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

<img alt="" height="1" width="1"> Tips and Tricks on Rolling Out Windows Server 2008 NetworkWorld.com, MA - 1 hour ago Windows Server 2008 is easily the broadest and deepest product I've ever seen from Microsoft, and my recent blog posts have just been designed to flag some ... More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

Microsoft to weave Web 'Mesh' for data, devices and applications - Computerworld <img alt="" height="1" width="1"> Microsoft to weave Web 'Mesh' for data, devices and applications Computerworld, MA - 1 hour ago The technology preview will initially only have a user interface in English, and it initially supports only Windows Vista and XP machines, but Microsoft ... More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

http://ms-os.com/ CNET News.com <img alt="" height="1" width="1"> Report: 'Vista capable' lawsuit can move forward CNET News.com, CA - 29 minutes ago The case revolves around customers' complaints that PCs they bought had been advertised as "Windows Vista capable," but turned out to be capable of running ... More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

Live Mesh integrates a smart client with a services cloud to make your files, devices and social mesh available wherever you are.* Developing it required solving two of the hardest problems around – building scalable and cost-efficient services, and developing a robust synch model with a local client API.* We sat down with architect Abolade Gbadegesin to hear what approach he took to designing Live Mesh. For more information, go to*Mesh.com. For more Live Mesh coverage: - Watch the interview with Ray Ozzie introducing Live Mesh - Watch the demo of the Live Mesh application on Channel 10* Listen to the podcast(MP3) Listen to the podcast(WMA) Download the Video Watch the Video More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

In his first Channel9 interview, Ray Ozzie, Microsoft's Chief Software Architect*sits down with Jon Udell to talk about Live Mesh, a new technology and platform that enables synchronization*and storage "to the cloud." You'll hear about the history of Live Mesh, how it has been influenced by Ray's previous work on products like Groove and Lotus Notes. Ray also discusses the core technology that forms the basis for Live Mesh including REST APIs, XML, and synchronization APIs that enable you sync your Mesh across multiple devices.* For more information, go to*Mesh.com For more Live Mesh coverage: - Watch the demo of the Live Mesh application on Channel 10* - Watch an interview with Abolade Gbadegesin on Live Mesh Architecture Listen to the podcast(MP3) Listen to the podcast(WMA) Download the Video Watch the Video More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

Ray Ozzie makes his Channel 9 debut tonight. Over the next few days we'll have a bunch of content focussing on Live Mesh and the platform you will be able to build upon.* Tonight in addition to the Ray Ozzie interview, we have an architectural overview of Mesh and over on Channel 10 we have a hands on demo with Nic. Lots more content to come over the next few days like a Going Deep on Mesh with Charles. On a thread the other day someone asked for more content like the .NET Show. The Ray Ozzie interview was filmed in our new studio. We hope use it for much more content soon and Robert Hess will be one of the personalities to definitely put it throught its paces. Enjoy! -Jeff More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

Ray Ozzie's first appearance on Channel 9 and it's a good one. Jon Udell interviews him on the just announced Live Mesh. The best part about Live Mesh is not only that it's a platform, but that the REST API's are so easy to use...it's a lot to take in and I can start imagine a new class of applications that can take advantage of this....what would you build? More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

Hey folks, Jeremy Mazner from the Live Mesh team has been kind enough to give Channel 9 members priority access to joining the Live Mesh Technical Preview. If you're interested in trying it out, go here*to*be*one of the first people to try the Live Mesh application hands on :) PS: Thanks Jeremy! More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

If you’re a developer, there’s an easy way to give your eyes a rest and make yourself more productive. Use the Consolas font Microsoft developed specifically for you. When we began work on a project to create a new set of fonts which would take maximum advantage of ClearType, we decided to develop a fixed-pitch font for developers - because no one ever thought of their needs, and we realized a highly-readable fixed-width font would make their lives a lot easier. We call them the C* fonts because their names all begin with C (for ClearType), and we spent a lot of research and development time making them as readable as possible. Look at the difference Consolas makes, for instance, in the CMD.EXE window. Here’s what the standard 8 x 12 pixel raster font looks like… http://ieblog.members.winisp.net/images/CMD.png … and here’s Consolas http://ieblog.members.winisp.net/images/consolasCMD.png You’ll see Consolas doesn’t get you as many lines on a screen – but it’s so much clearer and better to read that it’s well worth the tradeoff. http://ieblog.members.winisp.net/images/properties.png Bryn Spears on the Internet Explorer team gave me the following simple instructions to turn on Consolas in the CMD Window: reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Console\TrueTypeFont" /v 00 /d Consolas logoff Note: In Windows Vista, you need to run the reg command from an elevated command prompt. When you log back in, Consolas will be an option in the “Command Prompt” Properties. (n.b., Bryn tells me it actually shows up before you relog, but it won’t work.) You can install Consolas on your Windows system even if you don’t have Vista or Office 2007 with a free download from Microsoft.com The Windows International fonts team is working on another version that’ll support Vietnamese, and also the line draw characters that we made to support the console window. Bill Hill Program Manager Internet Explorer Edit: changed logout to logoff http://blogs.msdn.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=8416942 More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds