Closed Socket Tech News.: 03/01/2006

Large group of questions answered about the forthcoming Vista, direct from the mouth of Microsoft.
Interesting Q's include the various versions that will be released, as well as a general "system requirements" that seems to be "any computer released within the last 3 years, with a RAM upgrade".
The Official Microsoft Connections Blog : Windows Vista FAQ (Most Common Questions from the Small Business Summit): "Windows Vista FAQ (Most Common Questions from the Small Business Summit)"

Finally, a real date for the launch of Vista. Couldn't be sooner, I'm bored with solving problems with XP already. Not like it's been 5 years or anything, oh.. wait.
It's 'Official': Windows Vista to Launch in November: "There have been rumors galore about exactly when Microsoft plans to ship Windows Vista. We've heard everything from August to October. Microsoft spokespeople have favored a 'latter half of 2006' due-date answer, when asked. But from the 'Official Microsoft Connections' event blog we now have an official month: It's November, folks. Just in case the post disappears, here's what it says: 'This is the year… the year that Microsoft releases the newest version of Windows. Yes, Vista will be released in November of this year.' The release-to-manufacturing date will be earlier, obviously. We'd say early fall, if we were wagering."

Free web-based remote control software. Very nice alternative to the subscription based offerings.
LogMeIn Basic review by PC Magazine: "LogMeIn operates along the same lines as GoToMyPC. Once you install the software on a PC, you can access that machine from almost any browser on the Web. (It works best on browsers that support ActiveX or Java, but it can also do remote control by constantly sending screenshots�far from ideal, but a lot better than nothing). Unlike GoToMyPC, even the free version of the app lets you access an unlimited number of machines."

Microsoft has released Office Live as a limited open beta. To those that are chosen, a free trial with a free domain name and other tools are available.
Microsoft Office Live: "Create an effective Web site and more:
Your own domain name
(for example, www.northwindtraders.com)
Easy-to-use design tools
Five e-mail accounts
Web site traffic reports "

New Web 2.0 site that allows you to make presentations and publicize them. Very cool idea, but hopefully they will add the ability to password protect content, otherwise, they're missing out on a huge amount of customers.
Thumbstacks.com - Live presentations on the web!: "With Thumbstacks.com, you can make presentations - like slideshows, or outlines - right in your web browser. When you're done, you can share your presentations with anyone, anywhere, just by sending them a link. "

Microsoft is working on a very cool new technology that allows you to see the street level view of cities, similar to Google Earth.
It's still very much a beta (read bugy) but shows some awesome potential.
Windows Live Local - Virtual Earth Technology Preview

Looks like Google is branching into even more venues. Big surprise there, but this looks different (in a good way) from their usual visual style.

TechCrunch: "Google�s long delayed new Ajax calendar application, which will be called �CL2? (the CL2 login screen is here). It was only a matter of time before someone broke down and leaked these - as far as I know these screen shots are the first on the public web. "

The Podcast Network lists tons of podcasts, with many tech based ones as well.
Check out the great content.
The Podcast Network: "The Podcast Network is one of the best resources for finding quality audio content that you can listen to when you want, where you want and on any device you want. Being the first commercial podcast network in the world, we are dedicated to creating the best and most diverse content available and presenting it here for your listening pleasure. Find the content you want in our channel bar, subscribe...and enjoy. "

Very very well done spoof of The Simpson intro.

Google Video of the Day Videoblog: Free, funny video clips from Google Video: Home videos, cat videos, music videos, download videos: "This is one of the coolest things I've ever seen. Somebody put a lot of work and love into this. I knew this was on YouTube already, but Ulf Sj�str�m brought it to my attention that it's on Google Video. Thanks!

Live Action Simpsons"

Full list of the keyboard shortcuts available in Office programs.
Jensen Harris: An Office User Interface Blog : The Keyboard At Your Command: "To save you time, I've compiled the list of guides to keyboard shortcuts for all of the Office programs. Don't miss the 'Show All' link at the top of each page which formats the page in a way suitable for printing. "

Office 12 (Office 2007) makes use of "The Ribbon" extensively as the new interface "Task List" pane. In recent versions of Office, the Task Pane would appear on the right side and show you common tasks that could quickly be reached from that menu. With the overhaul of the user interface of Office 12, the Task Pane has mostly been integrated into the new Ribbon.
Personally, I think the interface in Office 12 is going to be quite a shock to many users and cause a lot of unnecessary support calls.
Jensen Harris: An Office User Interface Blog : Enter the Ribbon: "One of the core components of the new user experience is something we call the 'Ribbon.' The Ribbon is a strip across the top of the window that exposes what the program can do. Here's an example of what a Ribbon looks like:"

Windows Vista will include a tool to give you real world numbers on how fast (or slow) your system is, as well as tips on how to improve performance.

Why Windows Vista Won't Suck: "That's not all, of course. Microsoft has made it their aim to make life easier on developers by improving and simplifying the way software interfaces with the system and the underlying hardware. Naturally, performance has been a major concern, too.

click on image for full view"

One of the greatest Anti-Mac plugs ever. Very funny.
[Geeks are Sexy] technology news: "Why Mac computers suck? This guy seems to know why. Funny stuff. I thought that the part about using norton for data recovery was quite funny. Just click on the play sign to look at it."

Completely unrelated to Tech, but this site is too good to not link to. The really scary part is that he doesn't make these up.
Scary Personals: "Some personal ads are just begging to be made fun of.
That's where we come in. "

Google has setup a portal page that allows you to install all of their products from one area. Click the installer, choose your settings, get it all. THey also threw in Ad-aware, Norton AV, and Adobe Reader.
Google Pack: "Google Pack is:
Essential: Enjoy safe, useful software for your computer
Simple: Download and install everything in just a few clicks
Customizable: Choose only the software you want
Up to date: Get updates and new software via Google Updater
Learn more "

Looks like they have thought of the ability to specify when you want to check for new feeds. Very nice.
Microsoft Team RSS Blog : Part 3: Read and Manage Feeds: "Refresh You can change how often you want IE7 to check if there is new content available. By default it is set to once a day. This is fine for websites that don�t update their content all the time. For sites that change frequently, you may want to consider setting the refresh rate to something smaller like every 4 hours. Please don't set a feed to check too frequently, especially if the feed doesn�t update often. That�s unnecessary checking, and websites won�t be happy about it."

New feature coming in IE7 that allows it to handle your RSS subscriptions. The feature includes a somewhat scary "feature" tho, as it downloads feeds even if IE isn't running. I'm really hoping there's a way to turn that off (or at least schedule it). Yes, I know RSS feeds are not malicous, but I can't think of a good reason to not have the option to be able to schedule it.
Microsoft Team RSS Blog : Part 2: Discover and Subscribe to Feeds: "There are two modes to the Feed Reading page: preview and subscribed mode. In preview mode, you see the feed that is live on the website. This is a pretty static experience. By subscribing to the feed, IE7 automatically checks the website (even if IE7 isn�t running) to see if there are new updates on a scheduled basis � for instance, IE7 can check every 4 hours to see if there is new content available for the msnbc.com feed. If IE7 finds that there is new content, IE7 automatically downloads the new content, and it is available for your reading in the Feed Reading page."

Very nice tool here for solving the "saving your settings" screen taking an extraordinarily long time, or various errors that occur during logoff.

Download details: User Profile Hive Cleanup Service: "The User Profile Hive Cleanup service helps to ensure user sessions are completely terminated when a user logs off. System processes and applications occasionally maintain connections to registry keys in the user profile after a user logs off. In those cases the user session is prevented from completely ending. This can result in problems when using Roaming User Profiles in a server environment or when using locked profiles as implemented through the Shared Computer Toolkit for Windows XP."

Microsoft has a new page up outlining the some of the differences between the 5 versions of the forthcoming Windows Vista.
Initially, it looks like the Enterprise version doesn't include everything that the Home Premium version does. While this may sound like a bad thing, in reality, there's a ton of stuff that business PCs don't need, as it gives users a chance to not be productive, as well as, the increased potential for software conflicts.
Windows Vista: The Versions: "The five different versions of Windows Vista are designed to fit the way you intend to use your PC:"

Outlook 12 appears to be taking away alot of the complexity involved in setting up email accounts.
Outlook 12 : Let�s Start Again: Account Configuration: "Part 1: Exchange Accounts. For customers who use Microsoft Exchange �12,� Outlook will automatically detect your account information from the Active Directory and an Exchange 12 web service during account setup. This information tells Outlook your Exchange server name, your email address, any configuration options your admin has set for you, including RPC over HTTP settings, etc. Outlook can also detect basic account information from older versions of Exchange, as long as the customer�s computer is in the same domain as the Exchange server.
This makes Exchange configuration really simple for most customers. No more server names. No more arcane settings.
Part 2: POP & IMAP Accounts. While the account configuration details are often confusing for regular users, they�re pretty predictable for experts. For example, if your email address (given to you by your ISP) is john_doe@isp.com, then there�s a good chance that your POP3 server is something like mail.isp.com and your SMTP server is probably something like smtp.isp.com.
With Outlook 12, the customer needs to just type in his or her name, email address, and password. Outlook then tries several predictable combinations of server addresses, SPA, and server ports (995, 993, and 587 for secure connections, 110, 143, and 25 for unsecure connections) until it finds a configuration that works. It tries the combinations in a prioritized order, so for most ISPs the correct combination is often detected very quickly."

Want to take advantage of the new SATA drives but need to still support SCSI? SASCSI is finally getting standardized and will support both types of drives. While SATA drives are cheaper, the proven track record of SCSI will be utilized with this new technology.
Ace's Hardware - General Message Board: "Serial Attached Small Computer System Interface (SASCSI) info"

Closed Socket Tech News.

3/29/2006

3/22/2006

3/21/2006

3/20/2006

3/12/2006

3/8/2006

3/6/2006

3/5/2006

3/4/2006

3/3/2006

3/2/2006

3/1/2006

About Me

Links

Previous Posts

Archives