Kurt Shintaku's Blog

WHITEPAPER:  How to Optimize Microsoft Windows Server 2003 for HP Proliant Servers
http://internet.ziffdavis.com/hp/wpapers/optimizing_Microsoft%20_Windows_Server_2003.pdf

WHITEPAPER:  Implementing Microsoft Windows Server 2003 on HP Proliant Servers
http://internet.ziffdavis.com/hp/wpapers/Win2003_upgrade_WP.pdf

Nuff said.

March 6-9, 2005
San Diego Convention Center
San Diego, California, United States
http://www.microsoft.com/BusinessSolutions/convergence.aspx

Welcome to Convergence 2005, the premier event for Microsoft Business Solutions customers. Each year we come together for an intense four days of sharing ideas and exploring ways that will increase the efficiency of your business now and in the future. Thank you for joining us. Convergence 2005 promises to be our most exciting event ever. You will be busy from the moment you arrive—from the opening sessions and plentiful networking opportunities to the hands-on labs and in-depth solutions sessions. You’ll also be treated to compelling presentations from Microsoft’s most inspiring executives, including Bill Gates and Doug Burgum. This is your conference, so we encourage you make the most of it. Widen your circle of contacts. Expand your knowledge base. Identify new business opportunities. Convergence is about creating memorable experiences that can help unlock your true business potential. It’s where issues become answers. And in 2005, it’s where business is headed. 

What is "Arcade"?  Well, its an XBox disc that contains the original Ms Pac Man on it for playing on your XBox.  But more importantly, it requires XBox Live, and connects to the XBox Live Arcade network.  This network allows you to try/demo over 180 different games like Tetris (a 18 game compilation of Tetris versions), Bejeweled, and other puzzle like games.  If you like the game you can buy it for anywhere from $4.95 to $9.95 and you get it permanently on your XBox hard drive. 

For the record, my fiance LOVES "Arcade".   The puzzle games are really great for folks that like non-violent, thinking type games.

Many of you already know about this tool but for those of you who don’t, Maxthon is an AMAZING tool for Internet Explorer.  It’s the greatest thing since sliced bread and you can bet that Internet Explorer 7.0 will encompass a lot of its features.

So for all the people whining about Internet Explorer’s lack of Tabbed Browsing:  WAKE UP.  It’s been available forever through Maxthon/MyIE2 and other IE extensions – you just haven’t been looking for a solution.

There’s even a slew of plug ins that enable the user to:

• Download Manager
• Mouse gesture-based navigation
• Flash animation blocking
• FlashGet integration (download accelerator)
• Reenable browser features disabled through web page scripts
• Map Hotkeys (Ctrl-1, etc) to any browser functions for mouse-less navigation
• Disable flying ads
• Proximatron integration
• …

…and it’s totally free.  Not to mention only a 1.5MB install.

DOWNLOAD: http://www.maxthon.com

Windows XP Professional 64-bit for x64 Extended Systems Release Candidate 2 released.  It’s very solid and contains most drivers for the common devices and peripherals.  The comments made online by users have been very positive.

Download & register your copy at:
http://microsoft.order-9.com/winxp64/handoff.asp?id=dl

Here’s a discussion:
http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail/Microsoft_Windows_XP_Professional_x64_Edition/1107880537/1

A question I got recently was, "Where’s the Enterprise Deployment Pack for Windows Media Player 10?"  See, there’s a Windows Media Player 9 Enterprise Deployment Pack that’s downloadable, but not one for 10.

So, I asked.  Turns out that the Enterprise Deployment Pack for WMP10 is going to be available sometime this half of the year.  They’ve working on it but I have no idea when it’ll be available.  I’ll post when it’s made available.

I think I might have found something better.  In my pursuit, of finding the ultimate Hard Drive visualization clean up tool, I’ve found another that I think tops WinDirStat.  (See previous post)

It’s called SpaceMonger.  It takes a good 90-120 seconds to index 40GB of data but it eventually comes back with the most functional, most beautiful graphical representation of you hard drive – with right mouse ‘delete’, ‘open’, ‘refresh’, etc.

It’s not a colorful as WinDirStat but it appears to be more functional.  And functionality is what it’s all about, right?

Check it out.  It’s free.

http://www.werkema.com/software/spacemonger.html