Paul Mooney

Orcas March CTP

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Visual Studio code name “Orcas” delivers on Microsoft’s vision of smart client applications by enabling developers to rapidly create connected applications that deliver the highest quality rich user experiences. This new version enables any size organization to rapidly create more secure, manageable, and more reliable applications that take advantage of Windows Vista and the 2007 Office System. By building these new types of applications, organizations will find it easier than ever before to capture and analyze information so that they can make effective business decisions.

The LINQ Project: this CTP represents a major milestone in the LINQ project.

Rush Hour Relief

Stuck in traffic?

Windows Vista Sky Suprise

Check-out Sky Surprise for some Windows Vista fun, info about FREE T Mobile HotSpot Wi-Fi and a Jefferson Starship concert in Austin Texas on March 14.

Hey, I'm going to be in Austin TX on March 14, that's the day after SXSW Interactive.

MSDN Evaluation Center

MSDN Evaluation Center

Welcome to the MSDN Evaluation Center, the central location for all Microsoft developer product trials and beta evaluations. Try a product before you buy it or test the latest beta to see what is in store for the next release. Start at the beginning of the evaluation process and follow the new products as they go through to the final releases. Remember to check back often as new products will be added as they become available.

Intuitive Med Search

Microsoft Demonstrates Further Commitment to Healthcare Market With Planned Acquisition of Web Search Company

According to an October 2006 study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project,
8 million people in the United States go online for health information every day, and 53 percent of health-seekers said a recent search had an impact on how they take care of themselves or someone else. Yet 22 percent of respondents said they felt frustrated by a lack of information or an inability to find what they were looking for.


Now Microsoft needs to acquire someone who can write better Press Release titles.

Contextual Ads

An Ad Upstart Forces Google to Open Up a Little

Contextual ads generated about $2 billion in revenue last year, in the trade they are called CPC ads. CPM ads have earned much more revenue, but remember that blogs depend on an audience that subscribes via an RSS Reader, if you read a blogs feed you will never see their CPM ads, yet the big money blogs say they are getting subscribers and page-views. How do they do it?

Eighty percent of my audience subscribes to my feed and consequently don't add a single page-view to my CPM ad revenue.

.Net Micro Framework

Announcing .NET Micro Framework 2.0: Download the SDK today

The Microsoft .NET Micro Framework the OS formally know as SPOT is an environment that extends the advantages of Microsoft .NET and the toolset in the Microsoft Visual Studio development system into a class of smaller, less expensive, and more resource-constrained devices than previously possible with other Microsoft embedded offerings.

What is .NET Micro Framework?

What can you do with the .Net Micro Framework?
MSN Direct/.NET Micro Framework Video.

Want to learn more about the .Net Micro Framework from the people who built it? Go to MEDC 2007 and be welcomed into this exciting community.

Two For the Price of One, a chance to attend MIX07 and MEDC.

MEDC 2007 Blog.

Movable Contex

Six Apart spins like a Whirling Dervish

I've refrained from blogging about Six Apart lately, because I have nothing positive to say about them or their products right now, but I'm afraid I can't let their latest marketing email pass without calling bullshit.

Six Apart customer response from Anil Dash;

There's a lot to respond to here, and I can't go point-to-point (candidly, I think it's a rather shoddy blogosphere tradition to fisk messages, because you're necessarily taking things out of context) but I do want to respond to many of the issues you raise.

Then he blogs about what a wonderful world it would be, but note the context, he's changing the subject.
 
The Old Boys Club is for Losers

The writing is on the wall, how much longer can Movable Type survive as a pay service when WordPress is free?

GotDotNet Phase Out

GotDotNet  - 11/29/00 - 7/19//07

Microsoft will phase out all GotDotNet  functionality by July 2007. They will phase out features according to this schedule. During the phase-out requests for features or pages that are no longer available will render enough information for you to understand what has changed. If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact the GotDotNet Support team.

Gotdotnet & the 7 year switch - to CodePlex!

An Ode To GotDotNet 

This blog, MSDN blogs and all the Microsoft community sites owe a debt of gratitude to GotDotNet. So many projects that become Products, so many contacts that became friendships.

I'd like to suggest that we evolve the site into a video showcase for ISV Partners and all their cool DotNet solutions.

Google Apps

Google Introduces New Business Version of Popular Hosted Applications

New! Google Apps Premier Edition  - Free trial until April 30th

Google today introduced Google Apps Premier Edition, a new version of Google’s hosted services for communication and collaboration designed for businesses of all sizes. Google Apps Premier Edition is available for $50 per user account per year, and includes phone support, additional storage, and a new set of administration and business integration capabilities.

I'm a Microsoft Partner, I use Google Apps on my company site and it's a good service, but I'm not giving up Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote.

iPhone, uPhone, rPhone

Cisco and Apple Reach Agreement on iPhone Trademark

The Silicon Valley faithful are mum this morning, no one is digging for the truth to this story. I'm going to guess a big institutional investor that has a huge stake in both companies stepped in and explained the forces of the universe to them.

NYC Code Camp

NYC Code Camp II

Code Camps are grass roots developer conferences, free of charge to attendees and open to presenters of all stripes and experience.

Get ready for another Code Camp NYC, to be held at Microsoft's offices in Midtown Manhattan - 1290 Avenue of the Americas between 51st/52nd Streets  on Saturday, March 3rd, 2007 from 9am - 6pm. This is an all-day event with refreshments served, including a developer's power lunch pizza and soda.

The talks are now listed and registration is open. See you there!

Nvidia Windows Vista 64 WHQL Drivers

ForceWare Release 100
Version: 100.65
Release Date: February 20, 2007
WHQL Driver


NVIDIA is committed to supporting Microsoft Windows Vista on current and previous GPU generations. It's important to us that you have an excellent experience through the Vista transition, and driver development is the highest priority in our company.

I've been waiting for Nvidia 64bit video drivers for over three years.....
I enrolled in the 64bit Windows Vista beta program, but never could get my Nvidia video card to work....

SharePoint and AJAX

ASP.NET AJAX and SharePoint

Scott Guthrie blogged about ASP.NET AJAX within SharePoint 2007 solutions and the SharePoint team recently blogged about their plans with ASP.NET AJAX 

We now have the largest SharePoint User Group in the World in NYC, wonder if we could ever get Scott to stop by and talk all about Writing Custom Web Parts for SharePoint 2007 and AJAX.

Free Deployment Tools

Microsoft Delivers Final Versions of Free Deployment Tools for Windows Vista

Microsoft has announced the availability of six new deployment tools that will help expedite businesses’ migration to Windows Vista.  

Microsoft Solution Accelerator for Business Desktop Deployment (BDD) 2007,
Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT) 5.0,
Windows Vista Hardware Assessment 1.0, 
Volume Activation Management Tool,
Key Management Service for Windows Server 2003

Today I attended the forth NYC Windows Vista Launch, now we are all ready to get to work.

SQL Server 2005 SP2

SQL Server 2005 SP2 Now Available

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2 (SP2) enables SQL Server 2005 customers to take advantage of the enhancements within Windows Vista and the 2007 Office system. Specific enhancements include, but are not limited to:

•	Enhanced BI Capabilities
•	Interoperability Enhancements
•	Performance and Manageability Enhancements

Review what's new in SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2 for information on new or improved features in Analysis Services, Database Engine, Integration Services, Reporting Services, and Shared Tools.

Virtual PC 2007

Virtual PC 2007 for Windows Vista has arrived!

Save time and money as Virtual PC allows you to maintain the compatibility of legacy and custom applications during migration to new operating systems and increases the efficiency of support, development, and training staffs.

With Microsoft Virtual PC 2007, you can create and run one or more virtual machines, each with its own operating system, on a single computer. This provides you with the flexibility to use different operating systems on one physical computer.

For more information about the ways you can use virtual machines, see Virtual PC.

Did You Know?

Here is another informative video, it's only a few minutes long so have a look. Did you know is about stats and facts and where we're going.

Digital Communications

Amazing video created by Michael Wesch, PhD,

For me, cultural anthropology is a continuous exercise in expanding my mind and my empathy, building primarily from one simple principle: everything is connected. This is true on many levels. First, everything including the environment, technology, economy, social structure, politics, religion, art and more are all interconnected. As I tried to illustrate in the video, this means that a change in one area (such as the way we communicate) can have a profound effect on everything else, including family, love, and our sense of being itself.

Michael is from Kansas, that place we all fly over on the way from New York to California....

A Brief Interview with Michael Wesch (The Creator of That Wonderful Video...)

How Far Will You Go?

Microsoft tries to recruit me

From: Mike (Search Wizards) V-MIKE@MICROSOFT.COM
To: ESR@THYRSUS.COM

Eric,

I am a member of the Microsoft Central Sourcing Team. Microsoft is
seeking world class engineers to help create products that help people
and businesses throughout the world realize their full potential.

Your name and contact info was brought to my attention as someone who
could potentially be a contributor at Microsoft.  I would love an
opportunity to speak with you in detail about your interest in a career
at Microsoft, along with your experience, background and qualifications.
I would be happy to answer any questions  that  you may have and  can
also provide you with any information  I have available in regard to the position-s  and work life at Microsoft.
You can learn more about our vision for the New World of Work.

Additionally, if you are aware of any current or previous colleagues
who might also be interested in opportunities at Microsoft, I would be happy to speak with them as well.   Referrals are always welcome, and are greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance and I look forward to an opportunity to speak to you in the near future

Best regards,
Mike

Something is seriously broken when a Microsoft recruiter reaches out to Eric S Raymond, why not ask Steve Jobs if he's looking for a new challenge?