Posted by: kurtsh | June 2, 2005

BETA: Windows Server 2003 R2 Beta releases!

Microsoft has just released a beta version of Windows Server 2003 R2. This new release makes it easier and more cost effective to extend connectivity and control to identities, locations, data and applications throughout and beyond an organization. Windows Server 2003 R2 is an update release of the Windows Server 2003 operating system. Built on Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 1, Windows Server 2003 R2 takes advantage of the stability and security of a proven code base while extending connectivity and control into new areas. Windows Server 2003 R2 offers all the benefits of Windows Server 2003 with SP1 while greatly improving identity and access management, branch server management, storage setup and management, and application development inside and outside an organization’s boundaries. Windows Server 2003 R2 is designed to be slipstreamed into existing Windows Server 2003 environments without re-testing or re-certifying existing roles or applications or upgrading to new Client Access Licenses, easing administrative burden and simplifying deployment and adoption.

Windows Server 2003 R2 builds upon the increased security, reliability and performance provided by Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 1 and demonstrates our commitment to continuously improving the Windows Server platform.  Windows Server 2003 R2 is scheduled for availability in the second half of 2005. Customers with servers covered by Software Assurance or Enterprise Agreements will be eligible to receive R2 at no charge. After R2 is made generally available, customers will receive it automatically when ordering Windows Server 2003 software. All others can purchase the server license to get the R2 functionality.

BETA SOFTWARE:  http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/R2/trial/default.mspx

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Posted in Beta

Posted by: kurtsh | May 31, 2005

TOOL: How to use Sharepoint as a Blog

Wanna setup a blog?  Try Windows Sharepoint Services!

I am in the middle of potentially transitioning my blog to a Windows Sharepoint Services site that I own that has the Sharepoint template for blogging installed on it.

Here are some examples of individuals using Windows Sharepoint Services for Blogging:
LauraJ’s "Using Sharepoint as a Blog" http://blogs.msdn.com/lauraj/archive/2004/03/24/95549.aspx
Sig Weber’s Sharepoint-based Blog: http://www.asaris-matrix.com/sweber/playground/default.aspx?category=SharePoint
Colin Walker’s Sharepoint-based Blog:  http://randomelements.me.uk/
BlueDog’s Sharepoint-based Blog:  http://www.bluedoglimited.com/SharePointThoughts/default.aspx
 "Let’s talk about blogging with Sharepoint" PART 1:  http://www.bluedoglimited.com/SharePointThoughts/ViewPost.aspx?ID=89
 "Let’s talk about blogging with Sharepoint" PART 2:  http://www.bluedoglimited.com/SharePointThoughts/ViewPost.aspx?ID=90
 "Let’s talk about blogging with Sharepoint" PART 3:  http://www.bluedoglimited.com/SharePointThoughts/ViewPost.aspx?ID=91
Stepto’s FP+Sharepoint-based Blog:  http://www.stepto.com/default/default.aspx
Ian Morrish’s Sharepoint-based Blog:  http://www.wssdemo.com/blog/default.aspx
Collution’s Sharepoint Blog:  http://dev.collutions.com/blogs/sample/default.aspx

DOWNLOAD:  Installable Site Definition for Sharepoint Blog:  http://workspaces.gotdotnet.com/cBlog

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Posted in Tools

Posted by: kurtsh | May 31, 2005

TOOL: Audioblender.net, a Sound Recorder replacement for Windows XP

http://www.audioblender.net/

AudioBlender.NET is designed to be used as a freely available replacement for Microsoft’s Sound Recorder. It is a sound recording/editing application that handles many advanced operations of sound editing with an easy-to-use interface. AudioBlender.NET is written in C# with managed DirectX libraries.

Feature List

  • Record audio from a selected input device
  • View graphical representation of sound in the Waveform Display
  • Support for multiple track playback and editing
  • Add/Remove audio effects in real-time
  • Write new audio effects with the Effects API
  • Cut/Copy/Paste functionality to edit sections of audio
  • Undo operations to reverse changes in audio
  • Works with WAV, MP3, and WMA file formats
  • Intuitive User Interface
  • Support for mixing audio clips
  • Rip music from CDs
  • Write tracks to CDs
  • Add 3-D positioning effects

Requirements

  • Personal computer with Intel-compatible processor running Microsoft Windows 2000 or later version.
  • Pentium III (or equivalent) processor or better
  • .NET Framework v1.1
  • Microsoft DirectX 9.0
  • 256 MB minimum System Memory
  • 10 MB hard drive space for software installation
  • Recommended 1 GB for audio editing/storage

 

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Posted in Tools

Posted by: kurtsh | May 31, 2005

NOT NEWS: IE7.0 won’t be available for Win2000

File this in the ‘duh’ file, but IE7.0 WON’T be available for Windows 2000 users.  Attached is the IEBlog entry that highlights this point.

http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2005/05/27/422721.aspx

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Posted in Product

Posted by: kurtsh | May 30, 2005

NEWS: Microsoft gives beta testers FREE copy of Win XP Pro x64

Thanking testers for their hard work debugging Windows XP x64 Edition, Microsoft will be offering beta participants a full retail copy of the 64-bit operating system in downloadable form. Windows Beta Team officials said product keys and download links were being prepared, and would be sent to testers within a few weeks.

"As a small measure of our appreciation for your help in testing Windows Server SP1 and Windows x64 on the Technical Beta, we are offering active participants a complimentary full copy of Windows Professional x64 Edition," read an e-mail sent to testers." This will be done as a downloadable ISO file only, but will be a licensed copy of Windows Professional x64 Edition. (i.e. not an eval copy)"

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Posted in Uncategorized

Posted by: kurtsh | May 30, 2005

QUESTION: Is your short-term memory disappearing like mine?

[This is a somewhat odd blogpost but bear with me]
About 5 years ago, I noticed that my short term memory was disappearing.

When I say disappearing, I mean that I couldn’t even remember things that I needed to do for 5 minutes before I forgot them.  My memory loss steadily got worse over the next 5 years to the point where I couldn’t remember things for 30 seconds – this is one of the reasons I got so heavily into PDAs to write down what I might forget.

Originally, I kept this to myself.  I hypothesized that my "brain" had gotten full… or that I’d suffered some sort of exhaustion related ailment… or that my apartment had a gas leak in it and caused some sort of brain damage.  (No joke – I actually checked into this)  But then I contacted people throughout Microsoft and discovered that many other Microsoft full time employees had been experiencing the same problem.  In fact, when I thought about it, my memory had been just fine up until I joined Microsoft in 1995.

Then I read this article:
Alarming Effect E-Mail Has on Your Brain
"We have no idea what you’re supposed to do about this, but a British study by TNS Research commissioned by Hewlett Packard concludes that workers who are distracted by frequent phone calls, e-mails, and text messages actually suffer a greater loss of IQ than someone who smokes marijuana, report The Guardian and UK’s Press Association."
http://channels.netscape.com/ns/tech/package.jsp?name=fte/emailandiq/emailandiq

Here’s a few other articles:
E-mails ‘hurt IQ more than pot’
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/04/22/text.iq/

Abuse of technology can reduce UK workers’ intelligence
http://h41131.www4.hp.com/uk/en/pr/UKen22042005142004.html

Guide to Avoiding Info-Mania
http://h40059.www4.hp.com/featurestories/infomania.html

Microsoft’s philosophy about "information overload" is simple:  You need to be able to control and manage the interruptions that occur during the work day to optimize your productivity.

One of the biggest culprits in causing workplace productivity disruption is email.  It dawned on me that until I started working at Microsoft, I had never read 250+ emails and written 100+ emails a day.

Now combine that with this article:
Addicted to e-mail? You’re not alone
If you find you’re checking e-mail about as often as you inhale, you’re not alone. Be it on vacation, at the wheels or straight out of bed, an American e-mail user finds it difficult to resist its lure for long, according to a study released Thursday by America Online.
http://news.com.com/Addicted+to+e-mail+Youre+not+alone/2100-1032_3-5721638.html?part=rss&tag=5721638&subj=news

…and you can see the danger here.

For those of you interested, I’m personally working on a presentation about "Mitigating Workday Disruption for your Intellectual Health".  Those of you at Countrywide will need to be using Outlook to take advantage of this presentation being that all of the optimizations that I’ve learned are rooted in our tools.

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Posted in News and politics

Posted by: kurtsh | May 30, 2005

TOOLS: Optimizing Windows XP Professional

For some time now, I’ve been doing a presentatioin called "Optimizing Windows XP Professional".  I’ve posted the presentation at http://www.evilkoala.org/download/optimizing_winxp.ppt along with the tools that I mention. 

In the presentation I talk about how to optimize:

  • Boot time
  • Shutdown time
  • TCP/IP stack
  • Hard drive accesses
  • File system performance
  • General Display performance
  • General OS performance
  • Video adapter I/O performance
  • Browser performance
  • etc.

One tool is called Connection Booster at http://www.evilkoala.org/download/TZConnectionBooster26.zip.   It does a nice job of resetting various registry parameters for the Windows XP TCP stack to optimize network performance for whatever the speed of the current Intenet connection is. 

The rest of the tools are located at http://www.evilkoala.org/download/optimizingwinxp.zip.  Warning:  It’s 38MB.

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Posted in Tools

Posted by: kurtsh | May 26, 2005

TOOL: Netcraft “Anti-phishing” Toolbar for Internet Explorer

Interesting toolbar for Internet Explorer:  The Netcraft "anti-phishing" toolbar that checks every Internet location you go to and warns you if you’re hitting a phishing site.  Also if you find a phishing site, you can immediately report it.

http://toolbar.netcraft.com/

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Posted in Uncategorized

Posted by: kurtsh | May 26, 2005

NEWS: Mappoint Location Service gaining customers!

It looks like we’re making traction with our cellphone-based location server!

For those of you who haven’t seen it, Mappoint Location Server is a very cool server that enables companies that use cellphone to track the movement of their personnel through cell phone location-based services technology (similar to GPS), combined with geographical maps provided by Mappoint. 

The result is a low cost GPS system that:
– tracks where shipments are along their route
– where people are in the field
– enables look ups over a web browser.

http://news.com.com/2100-1039_3-5709298.html

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Posted in Product

Posted by: kurtsh | May 26, 2005

RELEASE: Microsoft Speech Server 2004 R2 releases!

Microsoft updated its server software platform for speech-enabled applications this week with an R2 version of Microsoft Speech Server 2004.
The key new features of Microsoft Speech Server 2004 R2 are support for all-in-one server configurations and support for U.S. Spanish and Canadian French speakers at no extra cost in the original version designed for U.S. English speakers.

The new version also enjoys expanded telephony boards coverage and VoIP support from industry partners including Aculab, Brooktrout Inc., Eicon Networks and Vail Systems Inc.

http://www.microsoft.com/speech/

 

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Posted in Product

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