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<img alt="" height="1" width="1"> Vista SP1: Still lagging behind the Linux desktop eWeek, NY - 30 minutes ago Like the HP Pavilion, it started life as a Windows Media Center PC. Now, I did not expect either system to be great with Vista. Neither one has the horses ... More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

:D So I get home from another boring day at the office (mainly caused by literally having nothing to do). And what do I find? Well, okay I do find a stack of moo cards, which I ordered for myself. But aside from that I find a parcel from Amazon! (Pics to follow when I get bluetooth working between phone and lappy) Amazon is remaining inscrutable, so it's up to you guys to come clean. Who's responsible for putting a big smile on my face? I have my own theories... Right, now I'm off to figure out why bluetooth works in other people's accounts. Woo hoo!!!! :D:D:D More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

Listen to this two-part series as Bryan von Axelson talks with industry experts Kimberly Tripp and Paul S. Randall about what’s new in SQL 2008.* Part One focuses on Security and Availability Eric Ostrowski - Your Show Host and TechNet Radio Producer Bryan Von Axelson – IT Pro Evangelist Kimberly L. Tripp - Kimberly L. Tripp is a SQL Server MVP and a Microsoft Regional Director and has worked with computers since 1985. Her career with database technologies began with IBM in 1988 and with Microsoft SQL Server in 1990. Since 1995, Kimberly has worked as a Speaker, Writer, Trainer and Consultant for her own company SYSolutions, Inc. (aka SQLskills.com). Kimberly is a writer/editor for SQL Server Magazine; was a founding writer for T-SQL Solutions magazine; was a technical contributor for the SQL Server 2000 Resource Kit; and co-authored the MSPress title SQL Server 2000 High Availability Kimberly has presented lectures and seminars at Microsoft TechEd and other SQL Server-related events since 1996 and is consistently top-rated both on quality of technical content and presentation style. Paul S. Randal - Paul S. Randal is the Managing Director of SQLskills.com, which he runs with his wife Kimberly L. Tripp.* Paul started in the industry in 1994 working for DEC on the VMS file system and its check/repair tools (the equivalent of chkdsk for NTFS. In 1999 he moved to Microsoft to work on SQL Server, specifically on DBCC. For SQL Server 2000, he concentrated on index fragmentation - well, removing it!* In 2007, after 8.5 years on the SQL Server team, Paul left Microsoft to join Kimberly running SQLskills.com and pursuing his new-found passion for presenting and consulting. Paul regularly presents at conferences and user groups around the world on high-availability, disaster recovery, database maintenance, and Storage Engine internals. * Listen to the podcast(MP3) Listen to the podcast(WMA) More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

http://ms-os.com/ ZDNet <img alt="" height="1" width="1"> A real-world Vista challenge: Can this Sony Vaio be saved? ZDNet - Mar 2, 2008 Jeremy has done an excellent job of chronicling his experiences with Windows Vista running on a pricey high-end Sony Vaio. In a word, it has sucked. ... More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

The app I've inherited maintenance for (VB .Net 2.0 Windows Service) reads various text files. It was writtin using the Microsoft.VisualBasic.FileIO.TextFieldParser class. When the code gets here: Using parser As New TextFieldParser(currentFile) it may throw an exception if the file hasn't been completely written. (It's a folder monitor service) So, my two questions: For testing purposes, what's a quick/easy way to set a file as in use to trigger the exception? I'd like to check for in use, and then wait for a second or two, try again, and if it's still not available then fail. How can I check if a file is in use? More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

<img alt="" height="1" width="1"> Are Vista prices low enough yet? Not compared to Apple's OS-X Computerworld, MA - 23 minutes ago Microsoft's price cuts on Windows Vista last Thursday seem to be designed to make the most difference where it's the least important – to give the software ... More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

In this video, you'll see demos of some unique ways to alter the search experience including - Collaborative Search - searching and annotating with multiple people - Co-Search - multiple people using the same computer with multiple mice and mobile phones for input devices - Search Bar - Enables a single person to keep track of their search results Listen to the podcast(MP3) Listen to the podcast(WMA) Download the Video Watch the Video More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

The goal of this Techfest project is to help revitalize chipset architecture research by enabling academia to build new chip architectures without the expense of fabricating custom chips. Listen to the podcast(MP3) Listen to the podcast(WMA) Download the Video Watch the Video More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

Starz Entertainment, the providers of premium TV channels like Starz and Encore and Vongo downloadable movies has built their entire media infrastructure around Windows Media.* Stephen Smith, Director of Media System Integration walks us through the entire workflow and architecture of the system that they built.* This is a 3-part series, first showing the hardware, then the architecture, then the software that they built. In this second part focusing on the architecture, Stephen takes whiteboards out their entire media architecture that is based on a 200 terabyte SAN of Windows Media digital masters.* Using Windows Workflow Foundation*to automate the application of *DirectShow filters to Windows Media files, Starz has built a media delivery pipeline that lets them create media in a variety of formats. Listen to the podcast(MP3) Listen to the podcast(WMA) Download the Video Watch the Video More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

What if*you could build a*microchip that was power efficient enough to run a small Web server and host Web services that enabled it to monitor or change it's state, all using 2AA batteries that could run for years? Feng's team is building exactly that, a series of prototype sensors that can be used to do things like monitor electricity efficiency and usage over time to help reduce costs and be more green and you can programatically control them in Visual Studio like you would any Web service. Listen to the podcast(MP3) Listen to the podcast(WMA) Download the Video Watch the Video More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

Privacy Integrated Queries is a system that enables you to use any LINQ-enabled provider to query and analyze sensitive data (medical data, search logs, financial data) without revealing sensitive information. Watch the video to see a demo of it in action using MSN Search logs Listen to the podcast(MP3) Listen to the podcast(WMA) Download the Video Watch the Video More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

<img alt="" height="1" width="1"> Vista SP1 - Benchmarking round-up ZDNet - Mar 3, 2008 Given that I’ve made numerous posts relating to benchmarking Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) on this blog over the past few weeks I thought that many ... More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

Lifetime DVD to Mobile is an All-in-One solution to create Mobile Phone 3GP movies from DVDs, TV shows and downloaded videos. The software combines DVD to Mobile Converter and 3GP Video Converter in one package for discounted price. The software is easy to use. It features superb video audio quality and the fastest conversion techniques availabe on the market (Up to 3x faster). Lifetime DVD to Mobile easy converts all popular video formats such as AVI, DivX/Xvid, WMV, RM, MPG, MOV, MPEG (and many more) videos into Mobile Phone 3GP format. Watch movies on the road. Support all mobile phones with 3GP video capability. The software is very easy to use. It compresses a full lengh movie into small size which can be fitted in a 128MB memory card. Carry your movie theater on the go! Watch movies anywhere, anytime - a new life style http://www.iphone-software.org/download/b09/dvdtomobile.exe More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

http://ms-os.com/ CNET Blogs <img alt="" height="1" width="1"> Place shortcuts to your favorite folders in Windows' common dialogs CNET Blogs, CA - 7 hours ago Adding folders to the Favorite Links list in Vista common dialog boxes is straight-forward. Start by opening Windows Explorer and navigating to the Links ... More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

<img alt="" height="1" width="1"> Wal-Mart: Microsoft should kill Vista Home Basic Computerworld, MA - 9 minutes ago As I point out in another blog, in an August 10, 2005 email Microsoft Director Rajesh Srinivasan refers to Vista Home Basic as "Windows 2006," so Microsoft ... More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

<img alt="" height="1" width="1"> Windows Vista Ultimate SP1 delayed Register, UK - 3 minutes ago White said on his blog that Vista Ultimate users shouldn't worry. "The language packs are on their way. We will have more information on exactly when very ... More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

I'm looking for a powerbrick that'll turn off all connected appliances when my PC goes into (S3) sleep mode, so that I can automatically switch my monitor and speakers on and off when I wake my computer or put it in sleep mode. I'm aware that there are bricks that switch appliances off when the computer goes off, but I'm specifically looking for one that works with S3/4 sleep mode. Anyone know of such a thing? More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

Corona is infamous for his diametrically opposed position against Microsoft. Many aspects of his often - at times - incoherent position, open him to wide spread ridicule. I, however try and keep as open a mind as anyone, but am beginning to find that there is great merit in some of his assertions. Take e.g., http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article3478146.ece there is a great deal in this article where in truth corona_coder could say, "I told you so!" Corona's problem, is his indefatigable, inexorable position against M$ (as he would put it), and inability to applaud Microsoft's successful operations. The web is a very exciting place now, with 'software as a service' gaining popularity (justifiably so). My advice, is to embrace WCF fully, and know the in's-and-out's of this technology, because from a Microsoft Based developer point of view, this will be the adhesive that allows smart and web clients to resolve the geographical blur that is developing. Microsoft has a problem where they are having to play catch-up in a lot of areas (orders of magnitude ahead in others), but someone at some point should have thought of this, especially as they are the premier Office Software Supplier. I think the rigidity in not wanting to touch something like office has been the problem. Companies stand to save a small fortunes with this. If for example, they decide to use open office (as most people scarcely use Word - or the other way around) and they use email heavily.* The crux of the matter is, that you can determine what software to put on a machine with really fine granularity. I think it's fairer (and more economical) to allow end users to choose what they want to use, rather than foisting Office on you with its hefty price tag. This plays into the hand of corona_coder's free OS argument as well. I can think of dozens of companies that could run Linux, use Open Office, get their important messaging dealt with via office web and use their own in-house software application. The cost savings against the 'glitz, glamour and pizzaz' of Vista/WPF means that business will choose the cheaper option. Thank goodness for choice, because Google is doing everyone a favour here by being competitive and encroaching upon MS's territory. Had this not been the case (as before), we'd all be paying though the nose for propriatary solutions, solving what are sometimes basic problems. More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

I am currently in Seattle attending SharePoint Conference 2008.Is anyone of you here in Seattle right now? You can email me at milo at b5media.com and maybe we could grab a cup of coffeee.Tags: MicrosoftShare This More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

Is anyone using S3 to back up files? If so, what client software do you use? More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

Cheaper Vista Means Cheaper Yahoo! (Fool)Windows Vista Price Cuts Are Historic, But Not Significant (InformationWeek)Windows Vista Hack Circulating (InformationWeek)Tags: Microsoft, Vista, WindowsShare This More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

In case you have accidentally removed your administrative privileges, you can use the hidden administrator account in Windows Vista by following the steps below:1. Search and run the command prompt as administrator2. Type “net users administrator /active:yes”3. Log-off and you can now login as an administrator with no password4. Add administrative rights to you account5. [...] More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

Adrian over at ZDNet has completed an in-depth comparison of installing Windows Vista SP1 and some of them are as follows:Overall, the system feels quicker. There’s a snappy feeling to carrying out tasks (although this system was no slouch under Vista RTM!). Navigating network shares is a lot faster. Remote Desktop Connection is a lot [...] More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

It was found out that top executives of Microsoft were also having problems with Windows Vista as revealed during the US case in court.Mike Nash was quoted as saying “burned” so badly by compatibility issues he was left with “a $2100 email machine”. Steven Sinofsky, Windows executive, struggled to get his home computer running in [...] More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds

* I use* DiectoryService.dll to do the operations as add, edit , and delete attributes and entries in LDAP, But*I have a problem in getting opertional attriutes (createTimestamp and modifyTimestamp )*of the entry on LDAP**using C#.NET2, *can someone help me in getting these attributes !! * thanx More... View All Our Microsoft Related Feeds