Posted by: kurtsh | September 21, 2005

NEWS: “Microsoft Snapshot Eraser”

We’re working on this thing called the Microsoft Snapshot Eraser.  Someone over at News.com caught wind of it I guess.  The idea is that a layperson could very easily remove objects that they didn’t like in the shot to clean up a picture, while the Microsoft "image completion technology could "fill in the blanks" where the person used to stand with virtually no recognizeable blurs. 
 
It’s a technology being worked on in Microsoft Research and it received the most buzz of any project we submitted at Siggraph this year.  You can anticipate this technology being in the next version of Microsoft’s Digital Image Suite.
 
Here’s News.com’s article:
 
Here’s an article on the technology:

http://research.microsoft.com/research/pubs/view.aspx?type=Publication&id=1475

 

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Posted in Uncategorized

Posted by: kurtsh | September 21, 2005

BETA: Anti-Phishing Addin for MSN Search Toolbar

We just released the beta of the Anti-Phishing Add-in for the MSN Search Toolbar.
 
WHAT IS PHISHING?
For those of you living in a cave, phishing is the act of sending HTML-based emails out to strangers that look like they’re from eBay or Paypal or any other institution in the hopes that the reader will click on a "deceptive" hyperlink in the email.  Usually, this link appears to go to a legitimate site when in reality, the web site is a mockup designed to ask for and collect critical information like a a Visa Credit Card number or a Social Security number or even a Bank login and password.
(You can learn more about "phishing" by going to:  http://safety.msn.com/phishing)
 
WHAT DOES THE MSN ADDIN PHISHING FILTER DO?
The addin for MSN Search Toolbar will protect the user to going to potentially illicit or deceptive sites that disguise themselves as legitimate web sites and really send the user to illegitimate locations just to collect their personal information. 
The Phishing Filter Add-in offers access to the beta version of a new dynamic online service, updated several times an hour to warn you and help protect your personal information from these fraudulent websites by:  
  • Scanning websites you visit and warning you if they are potentially suspicious.
  • Dynamically checking the web sites you visit with up to the hour online information via an online service run by Microsoft and blocking you from sharing personal information if a site is a known phishing website.
(You must have the MSN Search Toolbar already installed to use the Phishing Filter.)
 
A Note on Internet Explorer 7.0 & Anti-phishing:  This technology is basically the same technology that users can expect to get from Internet Explorer 7.0, which will be available to Windows Vista users or Windows XP Service Pack 2 users  in 2006.  There are a few differences:
  • IE7 does opt-in for activating the phishing filter the first time a user goes to a suspicious site. MSN the opt-in is at installation.
  • IE7 will navigate you away from a known phishing page and make you have to navigate there notwithstanding. MSN just blocks your ability to enter data on the page.
  • The way to report a page as phishing is slightly different in each one.

 

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Posted in Beta

Posted by: kurtsh | September 19, 2005

WEBCAST: Windows Server 2003 R2 – Extend Connectivity & Control in your Environment

Windows Server 2003 R2 Webcast Series – Extend Connectivity and Control In Your Environment
Did you know that there is a new version of Windows Server 2003 coming? Did you know there are new features coming in Windows Server 2003 that will help you extend your connectivity and control your management costs? Windows Server 2003 R2 is almost here.  In this webcast series for IT professionals, Microsoft subject matter experts walk through the new R2 enhancements.  For details and to register, visit the webcast series website.
 

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Posted in Training

Posted by: kurtsh | September 19, 2005

EVENT: Microsoft Project Conference 2006!

Get Registered for the Microsoft Office Project Conferences 2006

Microsoft is pleased to announce registration is now open for the Microsoft Office Project Conference 2006! With early bird special discounts on registration until September 30, 2005 you have little reason to wait. To learn more and to get started with registration, please visit www.msprojectconference.com.

Seattle, WA – January 17-19

What You can Expect

  • Information on the next release of Project – Get the deep details on what’s next for Project, including how to deploy, configure, customize and more.
  • Technical and Business Oriented Tracks – Multiple targeted tracks including sessions on Deployment and Configuration, Developer, Organizational Assessment and Planning, Project Management and much more.
  • Best Practice Sharing – A wide variety of best practice discussions and deeply informative sessions led by Microsoft professionals and industry leaders.
  • Outstanding Speakers – Keynote presentations from Microsoft executives
  • Networking opportunities – A large pavilion of leading solution providers exhibitors and over 1200 attendees at the US show and more than 400 in Europe.

Project Conference 2006 US
www.msprojectconference.com.
January 17-19, 2006 Seattle, WA
The biggest and best show yet! Three days dedicated to Project and EPM with eight tracks and over 60 sessions. Plus a special keynote message from Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO.

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Posted in Event

Posted by: kurtsh | September 17, 2005

NEWS: New Windows benefits for customers with Software Assurance

Today, Microsoft is announcing an awesome collection of eight new benefits for Software Assurance customers. Two of those benefits are new platform offerings from our team that will only be available to Software Assurance customers: Windows Vista Enterprise and Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PCs (formerly code named ‘Eiger’).

Windows Vista Enterprise

Windows Vista Enterprise is the SKU that is optimized for the enterprise and available exclusively as a benefit of Software Assurance. It is designed to help large organizations to significantly lower costs and improve the efficiency of their IT resources. Windows Vista Enterprise aids in the protection of sensitive data and intellectual property on lost, stolen or recycled PCs by taking advantage of enabling hardware technologies. It also enables advanced application compatibility scenarios with Virtual PC Express by running legacy applications in a virtual machine.

Out of the box, Windows Vista Professional will dramatically reduce the number of corporate images an IT professional will need to manage by allowing a single system image to span multiple PC configurations and form factors. Windows Vista Enterprise takes that one step further by including all Windows languages for integration into a single worldwide system image for no additional cost – driving down costs and speeding deployments.

Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PCs

Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PCs (formerly code named ‘Eiger’) is designed for enterprise customers concerned with security and manageability of legacy PCs and legacy operating systems, but who are not in a position to replace those PCs. It is an operating system solution based on Windows XP Embedded SP2 and is designed to provide a bridge solution that enables customers to get additional life out of legacy PCs while reducing security risks and improving manageability – and providing an easy upgrade path to new PC hardware running either Windows XP or Windows Vista.

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Posted in Uncategorized

Posted by: kurtsh | September 15, 2005

RELEASE: Windows 2000 SP4 Rollup 1

We rereleased the Windows 2000 SP4 Rollup aka the replacement for SP5.
 
NOT A SERVICE PACK
To be clear, this is NOT the same thing as a Service Pack.  Service Packs are massively regression tested against hundreds of the most commonly used products and services in 1000s of scenarios.  Windows 2000 is however no longer covered by Standard product support, which means that no Service Packs are produced for it. 
 
PATCH BUNDLING ONLY!
This means the only thing you can get are patches.  A "Rollup" is simply the bundling of these patches into a single install for the purposes of ease-of-installation on new servers.  (The patches bundled are recommended, critical, and all security related patches)  We are basically not doing anything but limited testing against patches to see that the patch rectifies the bug.  What the impact is of that fix against applications or the impact of the fix against other patches is not tested – this is why Service Packs are so important.
 
WHITHER WIN2000?
Windows 2000 is in a state called "Extended Support".  Only security related fixes will be created;  non-security related fixes will NOT be implemented or patched unless you have purchased a specific support agreement with Microsoft such as a Extended Hotfix agreement for Win2000 or a Premier Support agreement. (a large scale purchaseable contract with Microsoft that provides direct support for virtually all our products)  Warranty support, design changes, or new features will not be considered regardless of the support level a customer has.
 
Translation:   Start getting off of Windows 2000 now.  It’s over 5 years old and in a year we’re going to release another version of the operating system.  And if you have software that doesn’t run on Windows XP or Windows Server 2003, I suggest you have a strongly worded chat with the ISV that produced it and consider moving to other solutions because, to be frank, we’re simply not going to spend millions of dollars supporting an old product just because some ISV is too lazy or cheap to test and support their product on the newer operating systems. 
 
Windows 95 and NT4.0 are examples of 10 year old products that DON’T EVEN GET SECURITY PATCHED ANY MORE.  If you’re still on those, you’re sitting on a timebomb.  There are known viruses that attack those systems with no available patch or fix other than to move to a more current OS.
 
An explanation of these levels of support are available at this web site:

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Posted in Release

Posted by: kurtsh | September 15, 2005

VIDEO: Bill Gates & Napoleon Dynamite

Annually, we produce some of the videos and sketches that Bill and Steve are known for being in.  I get access to some of these but most of the time they involve external talent, like in one sketch we had Tom Brokaw and Katie Couric, and when this happens, they’re very protective of the content since these folks get paid based on "viewership".
 
But we showed one of these videos and a couple short clips were actually video recorded by Paul Thurott.  I’m quite surprised that he got these out of the convention center as there’s typically no videos allowed.  I’m sure he was provided some "special access" but these videos are usually only for the people attending so, again, I’m very surprised.
 
Nonetheless, if you want to check them out here’s the links – they’re only 30 seconds or so a piece:
VIDEO1:  http://winsupersite.com/files/pdc2005-nap01.wmv
VIDEO2: http://winsupersite.com/files/pdc2005-nap02.wmv

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Posted in Multimedia

Posted by: kurtsh | September 15, 2005

BETA: SQL Server 2005 Sept 2005 Community Technology Preview

I am pleased to announce the launch of the SQL Server 2005 September Community Technology Preview (CTP) Web presence.

Cross-site Links

These sites are live on Microsoft.com:

Microsoft Download Center

·         Enterprise Edition

·         Standard Edition

·         Workgroup Edition

·         Developer Edition

·         Express Edition

·         Books Online standalone

·         Express Edition Documentation and Samples

Microsoft TechNet

·         TechNet home page

·         SQL Server TechCenter home page

·         SQL Server 2005 page on TechCenter

·         Books Online page on TechCenter

MSDN

·         SQL Server Developer Center

·         SQL Server 2005 section on DevCenter

·         SQL Server Express on MSDN

Microsoft.com/sql

·         SQL Server product home page

·         SQL Server Downloads page

·         SQL Server 2005 page

·         SQL Server CTP page

·         SQL Server Express on MSDN

Microsoft BetaPlace

·         BetaPlace login page (must be BetaPlace member to access)

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Posted in Beta

Posted by: kurtsh | September 15, 2005

BETA: Microsoft Expressions Suite

We announced the Microsoft Expressions Suite of 3 tools at the PDC.
 
  • Expression Graphic Designer: 
    This was codenamed Acrylic that enables creative designers to create rich graphics and visual objects to be used by Web Designers or Programmers in their applications.  Think of a tool similar to Corel Draw or Adobe Illustrator with all the power, but the friendliness of Office tools.
  • Expression Interactive Designer:
    This is a tool for integrating visuals or the "presentation layer" of an application with a backend program.  Remember that with Microsoft’s programming paradigm, this can either be a native Windows application or a Web-based application served through the web.  We don’t care.  It’s all done however using the Visual Studio 2005 suite of programming tools.
  • Express Web Designer:
    This is sort of FrontPage’s next evolution… kinda.  It enables people to design and layout presentation environments leveraging the graphic objects created in Graphic Designer, and provides a UI/Presentation layer for Interactive Designer.
Here’s a demo of the Microsoft Expression Family:

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Posted in Beta

Posted by: kurtsh | September 15, 2005

RELEASE: Programming MSN Services

This is way cool.  Anyone will be able to program and extend any of MSN’s services for their own use.  You just KNOW that this site’s gonna be upgraded over the weekend once I can get some time to work on it. <grin>
 
This new developer center showcases the tools and technologies you can use to develop applications that interact with services and data available only on MSN.
  • MSN Search
  • MSN Messenger
  • MSN Virtual Earth
  • MSN Search Toolbar with Windows Desktop Search
  • Extend Start.com with Gadgets
 

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Posted in Release

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