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Intel Corp. today is set to unveil a new browser extension that allows users create client-side mashups as they browse the Web. The tool promises to help users enhance sites they visit with customized information ranging from geographical data to the leg room available on specific airplanes.

The new Intel Mash Maker is made up of various widgets that can understand the meaning of the Web site they are on and enhance existing content based on a user’s preferences and interests, Intel said. The company will launch a public beta of the technology Tuesday at the O’Reilly Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco.

Full Article – http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9079320&source=rss_news10

On top of the Grand Piano and Firefly game they’ve already released, it appears the Microsoft Surface team have been hard at work developing even more sample applications as well as updates to existing applications for the Surface.

I found these photos taken by Jean-Luc David, a Microsoft Canada employee who I presume was visiting the Redmond campus last week and had a chance to play with the Surface with some of these new applications loaded. Here’s a couple highlights.

Full Article – http://www.istartedsomething.com/20080418/pictures-of-new-and-updated-surface-demo-apps/

So I guess this is what you call teaching an old dog new tricks. A couple of days ago Microsoft released a new update for Windows Vista that adds additional wireless support and functionality to the operating system through a “feature pack”. Specifically it adds support for Bluetooth 2.1, a new “Unified Pairing” interface as well as “Windows Connect Now” updates and can only be installed on Vista SP1.

This is interesting to me not because any of the features above, but because up until now, the client version of Windows has never had “feature packs”. We have hotfixes, security patches, service packs and rollups, but not feature packs. What are they?

Full Article – http://www.istartedsomething.com/20080418/microsoft-releases-first-windows-vista-feature-pack/

Don’t look now, but Microsoft is finally working to tune up its Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) site. The effort promises to resolve long-running frustrations developers have encountered working with the online library and resource.

Redmond Developer News has learned that Microsoft has assembled a task force to determine how it can improve MSDN, a site that aggregates much of Microsoft’s technical content for developers. The task force, which spent much of this week in New York interviewing developers, made a stop last night at the monthly meeting of the NYC .NET Developer’s Group held in Microsoft’s New York offices. The task force revealed its effort to a group of more than 100 people attending the meeting.

“There’s great content there. It’s very thorough, but from a practical standpoint, it doesn’t really meet people’s needs,” said Brian Hsi, a product manager involved in the effort, who made his pitch at the meeting. “It’s kind of static. It’s really a library at the end of the day.”

Full Article – http://entmag.com/news/rss.asp?editorialsid=9773#1

A change is coming for users that access Hotmail with Outlook Express. Outlook Express uses a protocol called DAV (Distributed Authoring and Versioning protocol) to access a Windows Live™ Hotmail® e-mail account. DAV, like POP3 or IMAP, is the way that a mail client communicates with a web-based mail server.

As of June 30, 2008, Microsoft is disabling the DAV protocol and you will no longer be able to access your Hotmail Inbox via Outlook Express. As an alternative, we recommend that you download Windows Live Mail, a free desktop e-mail client that has the familiarity of Outlook Express and much more.

This next generation of free e-mail software will allow you to easily manage multiple e-mail accounts—including Windows Live Hotmail, plus other e-mail accounts that support POP3/IMAP. Better yet, Windows Live Mail integrates well with other Windows Live services, and downloads in minutes. After you provide your user name and password, you will automatically be linked to your Hotmail account, providing continued access to your email and contacts.

Full Article – http://emailsupport.spaces.live.com/Blog/cns!5D6F5A79A79B6708!5359.entry

Recently I became rather intrigued with Hyper-V’s Limit Processor Functionality (LPF) function. One little checkbox became such an obsession that I start wasting hours of my time trying to find out exactly what it does. The dialogue says, “Limit processor functionality to run an older operating system such as Windows NT on this virtual machine”.

That sounds pretty plausible because the newer multiple core processors with hardware accelerated virtualization were not around in the old days these operating systems were around.

Simple I thought. I’d find a selection of system information tools and run those with the check box flagged and without. I’d then compare the processor details and get the answer. So I chose three popular tools I thought would help me out. They were Everest, SiSoft Sandra and CPU-Z. They actually ended up adding to my confusion!

Full Article – http://blogs.dirteam.com/blogs/natashamocke/archive/2008/04/19/the-mystery-of-hyper-v-s-limit-processor-functionality-part-1.aspx

Recently I became rather intrigued with Hyper-V’s Limit Processor Functionality (LPF) function. One little checkbox became such an obsession that I start wasting hours of my time trying to find out exactly what it does. The dialogue says, “Limit processor functionality to run an older operating system such as Windows NT on this virtual machine”.

That sounds pretty plausible because the newer multiple core processors with hardware accelerated virtualization were not around in the old days these operating systems were around.

Simple I thought. I’d find a selection of system information tools and run those with the check box flagged and without. I’d then compare the processor details and get the answer. So I chose three popular tools I thought would help me out. They were Everest, SiSoft Sandra and CPU-Z. They actually ended up adding to my confusion!

Full Article – http://blogs.dirteam.com/blogs/natashamocke/archive/2008/04/19/the-mystery-of-hyper-v-s-limit-processor-functionality-part-1.aspx

New elements of Live Search continue to roll out, the latest at http://search.live.com. Future updates will hopefully be coming soon, making the rest of the live pages match.

Google is typically tight-lipped about it the inner workings of its search business, but there are a few nuggets worth looking at in a Popular Mechanics interview with Udi Manber, the Google vice president who oversees search quality. Among them: Google rejiggered its search algorithm 450 times last year.

The job of the algorithm is to best match Web pages with people’s search terms. One tweak the company tried last week was increasing the “diversity” of search results so the listed Web pages would cover a broader scope in an attempt to compensate for the ambiguities of search terms, he said.

And while some might see the industry of search engine optimization (SEO), which strives to get Web sites higher placement on search sites, as gaming the system, Manber said that at least a basic amount would make his life easier.

Full Article – http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9921148-7.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5

In an email sent out to Windows Live users, Microsoft today announced that from mid-April, personalised Live.com pages will be available from http://my.live.com. Just last week, the title of the page switched to “Windows Live Personalized Experience”, suggesting that it may very well be seeing some actual feature updates soon.

Now with home.live.com, my.live.com and live.com, its now slightly easier for end-users to know exactly what page they should be using for different purposes. Add My MSN into the mix though (there’s an update on the way for that too), and it seems like we have too many pages trying to achieve the same aim. Full email is after the jump.

Dear Windows Live user,
Starting in mid April, we have a new URL for your Live.com Personalized Page! You can now access your personalized page by signing in with your Windows Live ID directly at http://my.live.com.
Visit http://my.live.com today to view your personalized page and make our new URL your Homepage, or add it to your Favorites.
You can continue to use Live Search from within your personalized page, or you can search directly from www.live.com.
While you are on your personalized page, please visit the new Directory under the Add Stuff link.
Thanks,
The Windows Live Team

Full Article – Liveside

Nvidia has a Microsoft-like market share in the workstation market and judging by this latest announcement, the company has no intentions of giving up share anytime soon. The new Quadro FX 4700 X2 is based on the G92GL GPU, which is used in different variants for the Quadro FX 3700, GeForce 8800GT, 8800 GTS 512, as well as the (upcoming) 9800 GTS, 9800 GTX and 9800 GX2. In the world of Quadro cards, this chip debuted as Quadro FX 3700.

Both of the GPUs used for the 4700 X2 have their own gigabyte of video memory for a grand total of 2048 MB.

Full Article – http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/36992/139/

Microsoft has been quietly building a platform to help its own product teams — and ultimately, those from other companies — turn product planning more of a science and less of a black art.

Microsoft calls the test bed the Microsoft Experimentation Platform (ExP). Here is how the EXP team describes its mission on its Web site:

“The Experimentation Platform enables product groups at Microsoft and later on will enable developers using Windows Live to innovate using controlled experiments with live users. The platform enables testing new ideas quickly using the best-known scientific method for establishing causality between a feature and its effects: randomized experimental design. The basic methodology in controlled experiments is to expose a percentage of users to a new treatment, measure the effect on metrics of interest, and run statistical tests to determine whether the differences are statistically significant, thus establishing causality.”

Full Article – http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=1342

Many of the changes made in Microsoft Windows Vista SP1 occur behind the scenes and were designed to improve performance. As such, they may not be readily apparent unless you’re actively seeking them out and using a stop watch. Many Vista users were hoping for a few, possibly dramatic, changes in the graphical user interface. However, those types of changes just weren’t part of Microsoft’s plan for service pack 1.

Even so, there are indeed some changes in Windows Vista SP1 that you can actually see.

In this edition of the Windows Vista Report, I’ll take a look at a few of these visible changes in SP1 and explore some of the advantages and disadvantage of these changes. As I do, I’ll offer some comparisons between the original release to manufacturing (RTM) version of the update and the SP1 version.

This blog post is available in the PDF format in a TechRepublic download.

Full Article – http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/window-on-windows/?p=662

The downtime experienced by Windows Server 2003 increased 25 percent to nine hours per server per year, while the reliability of mainstream server-based Linux distributions improved significantly, according to a Yankee Group survey.

The research firm’s survey also noted a significant rise in enterprise interest in Ubuntu, previously known primarily as a desktop operating system.

The 2007-2008 Global Server Operating System Reliability Survey presents a substantially different picture compared to the results of the last such survey in 2006, in which Windows administrators reported less downtime than their counterparts who used Linux — a result that stirred up controversy at the time.

Over 2007 and 2008, Linux distributions from Red Hat and Novell increased reliability by an average of 75 percent, respondents to the survey said.

Full Article – http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/hardware/soa/Windows-Server-reliability-crashes-in-2007/0,130061702,339288227,00.htm?feed=rss

In the Server Core installation option, there is a way to remove the server roles and optional features from the disk, to free up more space. In addition to reducing disk usage, this could be used to ensure an administrator doesn’t add a role or feature to a server that is supposed to perform a fixed function.

Warning: This is a one way operation, once you remove a role or feature there is NO way to bring it back. If you realize later that you need the role or feature the only option is to reinstall.

To do this:

1. Run: pkgmgr /up:

2. Reboot – you can remove multiple packages before rebooting.

3. Wait about 30 minutes for the disk cleanup to occur.

You will then see the disk space used by the role or feature is freed up, oclist will no longer show the role or feature as being available, and trying to install it using ocsetup will result in an error. Once again, read the warning above – there is no way to put the role or feature back, it is permanently gone from the system.

The role and feature packages available for removal are:

· Microsoft-Hyper-V-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.0.6001.18000

· Microsoft-Windows-BLB-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.0.6001.18000

· Microsoft-Windows-DFSN-ServerCore~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.0.6001.18000

· Microsoft-Windows-DFSR-ServerEdition-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.0.6001.18000

· Microsoft-Windows-DhcpServerCore-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.0.6001.18000

· Microsoft-Windows-DirectoryServices-ADAM-SrvFnd-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.0.6001.18000

· Microsoft-Windows-DirectoryServices-DomainController-SrvFnd-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.0.6001.18000

· Microsoft-Windows-DNS-Server-Core-Role-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.0.6001.18000

· Microsoft-Windows-FailoverCluster-Core-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.0.6001.18000

· Microsoft-Windows-FileReplication-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.0.6001.18000

· Microsoft-Windows-IIS-WebServer-Core-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.0.6001.18000

· Microsoft-Windows-Internet-Naming-Service-SC-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.0.6001.18000

· Microsoft-Windows-MultipathIo-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.0.6001.18000

· Microsoft-Windows-NetworkLoadBalancingHeadlessServer-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.0.6001.18000

· Microsoft-Windows-NFS-ServerFoundation-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.0.6001.18000

· Microsoft-Windows-Printing-ServerCore-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.0.6001.18000

· Microsoft-Windows-QWAVE-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.0.6001.18000

· Microsoft-Windows-RemovableStorageManagementCore-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.0.6001.18000

· Microsoft-Windows-SecureStartup-OC-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.0.6001.18000

· Microsoft-Windows-SNMP-SC-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.0.6001.18000

· Microsoft-Windows-SUA-Core-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.0.6001.18000

· Microsoft-Windows-Telnet-Client-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.0.6001.18000

If you are running on an x86 box, change the amd64 above to x86.

In addition to the roles and features listed in oclist, it is also possible to remove IME support as well as the supporting fonts by removing the following packages:

· Microsoft-Windows-ServerCore-EA-IME-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.0.6001.18000

· Microsoft-Windows-ServerCore-EA-Fonts-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.0.6001.18000

Removing these will reduce the on disk footprint by ~200MB.