From the monthly archives:

December 2008

Running multiple Messenger logins on the same machine

December 23, 2008Link

Thanks be to A-Patch!
The awesomeness that is A-Patch is now out with a version for Windows Live Messenger 9 (the Wave 3 RC version released last week). It’s actually a cut down list of options this time, in order to get it out quickly. But I’m not complaining. I’m really happy. Here’s why:
As well as [...]

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Adobe Infinite Images and Deep Earth

December 22, 2008General

Adobe has been experimenting with it’s own image navigation & stitching together technology, and Infinite Images is the latest demonstration of it (see here for the ReadWriteWeb article).
You, me and every other Microsoft watcher will immediately see shades of Deep Zoom and perhaps a little Photosynth in this.
What’s cool about the the Adobe system [...]

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Sara Ford’s tips come to an end

December 22, 2008Link

In a word: Thanks.
A shame that Sarah’s tips on Visual Studio finished up last Friday. But hey, great things can’t go on for ever (she says, deferring to the wisdom of Axl). I’m really interested to see how she applies all those spare cycles now to CodePlex. There’s going to be some cool [...]

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Live Mesh update on hold, Quality in focus

December 22, 2008Link

I think it’s interesting that the Live Mesh team decided to put their upcoming release on hold (as announced at the start of this month). Here’s their reasoning:
UPDATE: In the world of services, we have blackout periods where no updates are allowed. This is to ensure stability during, e.g., the holiday season when use of [...]

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Werner Vogels – Chief of the Year 2008

December 22, 2008General

Amazon’s CTO – Werner Vogels – has been awarded the Information Week Chief of the Year title. He’s quickly given the credit to his team of course, legend that he is.
Now, it’s easy to be cynical of awards – it seems that sometimes companies/twitter abusers/magazines/etc just create them as a marketing device – but [...]

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Live Sync is Live

December 17, 2008Link

You know, I think I read Sarah Perez’s blog before just about anyone’s these days. She’s even ahead of Mary-Jo, Long Zheng, Steve Clayton, and *gasp*, TechCrunch.
Why? Take today’s post on Live Sync for example. Informative (she explains that Windows Live Sync is the new FolderShare), clarifying (she explains the difference between Live Sync and [...]

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When the chips are down… people play games

December 17, 2008General

Should we be surprised by this Gartner report outlining the second year on year decline in PC chip sales (they’re predicting a 16.3% decline). Intel and AMD must be doing it hard, like, ahem, just about everyone in the IT industry.
Well, not quite. At least games are doing well, with sales of game hardware [...]

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WordPad Zero Day exploit

December 17, 2008General

OMG, panic! But don’t be distracted by that other zero day exploit (you know, the Internet Explorer one), here’s where your security gaze should be firmly focused: WordPad.
It turns out that WordPad has a significant exploit. And by significant, I mean it affects at least one person. I strongly recommend WordPad users (both of you) [...]

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Perception is reality

December 17, 2008Link

I know I’ve harped on this in years gone by, but it needs to be top of mind for developers: Perception is reality.
That is, it doesn’t matter what your app really is/does – all that matters is what your customer thinks your app is/does. That’s why a buggy, semi functional, but awesome looking application can [...]

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Windows Live Essentials refresh

December 17, 2008Link

Yes, it’s still a beta, but they’re looking good. Microsoft has released the latest version of their Live Essentials pack, including Messenger, Mail, Writer, Photo Gallery, Movie Maker, Family Safety, Toolbar and more. Get them here.
My main interest was Windows Live Writer, which is one of my must have applications that just keeps getting better [...]

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BizTalk Server 2009 Beta released

December 15, 2008BizTalk

As Steve Martin announced last week, the beta of BizTalk Server 2009 is now available (download here). BizTalk continues to be one of those great unknowns in the developer space it seems – even with an installed base of over 10,000 customers globally – and releases like this often slip under the radar. However, my [...]

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Microsoft Mobile Momentum

December 15, 2008Link

…seems to be slowing.
Figures released last week show that for the first time, iPhone sales have been higher than Windows Mobile based phone sales. Gartner reports that Apple took a 12.9% stake in the market in Q3, ahead of Microsoft with 11.1%. Both Nokia and Blackberry were ahead with 49.8% and 15.9% respectively.
Canalys [...]

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Microsoft navigates the economic waters carefully

December 15, 2008Link

Microsoft has noted that times are tough, and indicated revenue figures are flattening out (although there may be some hope in the Server and Tools Business). No real surprised there. Tough times call for prudent analysis. They’ve still been hiring, albeit at reduced rates, but are reducing budgets for the coming year.
This of course falls [...]

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Silverlight causing job losses

December 15, 2008Link

Not sure if this is a good thing… depends on who you are I guess.
According to this weird post on the Netflix corporate blog, they are letting go of 50 technical specialists in January due to the success of their Silverlight based player – customer service issues are way down.
Providing more with less. That’s [...]

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Microsoft iPhone Apps

December 13, 2008Link

As Mashable and TechCrunch report, Microsoft is testing the waters with the iPhone App market, releasing a a little app: Seadragon Mobile (here’s the official announcement on the Live Labs blog). The app (available for free on iTunes App Store, allows you to browse Deep Zoom images effortlessly. Check out the simple 42 second demo [...]

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Team System Web site clean up

December 12, 2008Community

I’ve always liked how the Team System team work hard to provide details on what they’re up to. This is becoming more the norm on Microsoft assets (just check out the great job Beth Massi has been doing on the VSTO site for example), and so I shouldn’t be surprised to see just how serious [...]

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Google Chrome leaves beta

December 12, 2008General

I’ve been using Chrome a fair bit lately. Why? It’s fast.
And although people point to its lack of basic features, plug-in architecture (although that is in the works), cross platform support and it’s lack of market share, I for one don’t care, as long as it is fast for browsing. I use Firefox when [...]

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Bogus tips for IT Managers

December 12, 2008Humour

Any blog that has 4 Ps in its title is worth reading in my book. That aside, I’ve been reading Phil Factor’s Phrenetic Phoughts (oh hang on, that’s only 3 Ps – you tricked me with that clever similar sounding thing Phil) for years now. It’s always a classic read.
And for managers like me, his [...]

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