Windows Home Server Power Pack 3 rolling out November 24th: "The name may not exactly suggest any groundbreaking changes, but we’re guessing that most Windows Home Server users with Windows 7 computers will want to upgrade to Power Pack 3 as soon as they can, which we now finally know will be on November 24th. As we’d heard previously, the big news with this update is that it brings Windows Home Server up to speed with its desktop OS counterpart, including support for full backup and restore of Windows 7 computers, Windows 7 Libraries integration, ‘better support’ for netbooks and, of course, a slew of enhancements for Windows Media Center. Best of all, the update is completely free, and should show up via Windows Update as soon as it’s available.

Windows Home Server Power Pack 3 rolling out November 24th originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 19 Nov 2009 14:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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70-244: Supporting and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 Network

Exam number  70-244 
Name of exam   Supporting and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 Network 
Number of questions  0 
Timer  0 minutes 
Passing score  0 
Comments  This is an elective MCSE exam and passing it will earn you an MCP certification.

Don’t be fooled into thinking that this exam covers the same objectives as the old MCSE NT4.0 exams. The fast is that this exam contains many questions based on very recent Knowledge base articles that deal with NT4.0 troubleshooting. Most of these KB articles have been created in year 2000, long after all the MCSE NT 4.0 questions have been written. There many questions that concentrate on various security issues, security configuration.

For more details click here to visit the official exam site.

Also make sure to read FAQ regarding this exam.
 
Windows 2000 MCSE Study System is the accurate and comprehensive guide that covers what successful IT professionals need to know about Windows 2000 for on the job and to pass the exams. Covering ALL 4 CORE EXAMS, this one book is a huge value! Alan Carter not only knows Windows, he knows how to teach it! Most certification books are organized by objectives, but Alan Carter organizes his teaching method by concept, making the material more readable, preparing the candidate for the real world.

70-291: Implementing, Managing, and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Network Infrastructure

Exam number 70-291
Name of exam Implementing, Managing, and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Network Infrastructure
Number of questions 60
Timer 120 minutes
Passing score 75
Comments Exam 70-291 is available August 14, 2003.

When you pass the Implementing, Managing, and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Network Infrastructure exam, you achieve Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) status. You also earn credit toward the following certifications:

Core credit toward Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator (MCSA) on Microsoft Windows Server 2003 certification
Core credit toward Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE) on Microsoft Windows Server 2003 certification
Core credit toward Microsoft Certified Database Administrator (MCDBA) on Microsoft SQL Server 2000 certification

Windows 2000 MCSE Study System is the accurate and comprehensive guide that covers what successful IT professionals need to know about Windows 2000 for on the job and to pass the exams. Covering ALL 4 CORE EXAMS, this one book is a huge value! Alan Carter not only knows Windows, he knows how to teach it! Most certification books are organized by objectives, but Alan Carter organizes his teaching method by concept, making the material more readable, preparing the candidate for the real world.

70-293: Planning and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Network Infrastructure

Exam number  70-293 
Name of exam   Planning and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Network Infrastructure 
Number of questions  60 
Timer  90 minutes 
Passing score  72 
Comments  Exam 70-293 is available August 28, 2003.

Credit Toward Certification
When you pass the Planning and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Network Infrastructure exam, you achieve Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) status. You also earn credit toward the following certifications:

70-293: Planning and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Network Infrastructure

Core credit toward Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE) on Microsoft Windows Server 2003 certification
Elective credit toward Microsoft Certified Database Administrator (MCDBA) on Microsoft SQL Server 2000 certification
 
Windows 2000 MCSE Study System is the accurate and comprehensive guide that covers what successful IT professionals need to know about Windows 2000 for on the job and to pass the exams. Covering ALL 4 CORE EXAMS, this one book is a huge value! Alan Carter not only knows Windows, he knows how to teach it! Most certification books are organized by objectives, but Alan Carter organizes his teaching method by concept, making the material more readable, preparing the candidate for the real world.

Comenta el blog Genbeta, el “mal rato” que pasó Steve Ballmer en la reunión anual de accionistas de Microsoft, por las preguntas que le hicieron determinados accionistas.

Estas preguntas estaban centradas en la necesidad de mejorar en marketing para intentar relanzar la imagen de la compañía.

Creo que para todos es evidente que Microsoft tiene un grave problema de imagen, ya que se le ha asociado la imagen de enemigo del software libre, de elaborar productos más orientados a los resultados de la compañía que a los usuarios, de haber perdido capacidad innovadora (los dos factores anteriores, da un imagen como una empresa que desarrolla productos de una generación anterior), de ser un látigo para la competencia, etc…

A todo lo anterior hay que sumarle otros aspectos como el mal sabor de boca que han dejado algunos productos suyos como es el caso de Windows Vista o Zune.

En lo que respecta al problema de imagen Microsoft no ha sido víctima de nada, sino que esta misma empresa no ha enfocado nada bien sus campañas de marketing, ya que se han olvidado de que tienen competencia (este es el problema de quien está dominando de manera clara un determinado sector, como el de los sistemas operativos, desde hace muchos años). De esto, como he comentado en diferentes artículos se han aprovechado todos sus competidores. Un ejemplo de todo esto lo tenemos con la imagen de enemigo del software libre de Microsoft, tras la cual se han parapetado todas las actuaciones que han realizado gigantes como Apple, Google, Oracle, etc…, que aunque participen o subvencionen algunos proyectos de software libre, sus productos estrella y la línea principal de sus negocios se basan en software propietario puro y duro, que además lo seguirán siendo, salvo sorpresa, por muchos años.

El marketing es fundamental siempre y más en un entorno tan competitivo como en el que se mueve Microsoft. Apple ha sabido manejar muy bien los tiempos del marketing (de hecho tener algo que sea de Apple, se ha asociado a tener algo guay) y lo ha acompañado con productos sensacionales e innovadores, lo cual ha tenido un impacto muy importante en el mercado y, en consecuencia, en el balance de la compañía.

Microsoft debe reaccionar y no sólo en marketing, el entorno ha cambiado y ahora tiene competencia real y fuerte en todos los sectores, hasta incluso en el de los sistemas operativos, con productos de gran calidad y tremendamente innovadores. Si Microsoft no reacciona lo puede pasar muy mal, ya que lo más lógico es que dada la competencia que tiene, por ejemplo, en los sistemas operativos (Mac OS, Linux, próximamente Chrome OS), lo normal es que pierdan cuota de mercado, ya que hay más donde elegir y esa pérdida de cuota de mercado tendrá resultados directos sobre los balances de la compañía.

Yo espero que Microsoft reaccione, ya que necesitamos a esa empresa, necesitamos que exista una competencia viva en el sector, que proporcione innovación y cada vez mejores productos.

El gigante informático Microsoft lanzó este miércoles gratuitamente en Internet la versión de pruebas de su nuevo software de oficina, Office 2010, que por primera vez estará integrado con las redes sociales virtuales.

El anuncio fue hecho en la Conferencia de Desarrolladores Profesionales 2009 (PDC09) que se celebra en Los Ángeles desde el martes y cerrará sus puertas el jueves y donde ya se presentó la versión final del Windows Azure, plataforma de Microsoft para la programación en la “nube”.

La remodelada versión del Office 2010 ofrecerá en su gestor de correos electrónicos Outlook la posibilidad a empresas como Twitter o Facebook de desarrollar una aplicación que habilite el acceso a las cuentas de los usuarios o a sus perfiles.

Hasta el momento, solamente la red empresarial LinkedIn se ha comprometido a tener listo su conexión con Outlook para cuando el Office 2010 salga oficialmente al mercado en la primera mitad del próximo año.

“Se podrá navegar en las actualizaciones de los contactos con los que se tenga comunicación”, dijo a Efe Luis Daniel Soto, director de Nuevas Tecnologías de Microsoft para el área de América Latina.

La aplicación permitirá acceder al perfil público en LinkedIn de quien envía el correo electrónico lo que servirá para tener mayor referencia del desempeño profesional del contacto.

Outlook estará integrado, además, con Windows Live y permitirá la creación de nuevas redes a través del software para desarrolladores SharePoint 2010.

“El modelo no fue pensado específico para hacer algo para unas redes sociales en concreto, sino para que fuese extensible a otras. Por ejemplo en América Latina redes que son más exitosas como Sonico podrán construir y participar en ese esquema”, comentó Soto.

Este directivo de Microsoft aseguró que la compañía está trabajando para contar con las redes sociales más relevantes en el nuevo Outlook y estimó que habrá más conexiones disponibles, además, de LinkedIn para cuando el nuevo Office se ponga a la venta.

“Liberamos la posibilidad para que el creador de cada red social incorpore su funcionalidad. Seguramente habrá múltiples conectores para múltiples redes sociales, algunos serán gratuitos y otros serán comerciales para empresas”, explicó.

Expectativas por el precio

A través de su página web, Microsoft permitió desde este miércoles la descarga gratuita del Office 2010 en su versión de pruebas con el fin de depurar errores antes de su comercialización final, tal y como hicieron con Windows 7, cuyo modelo beta fue revisado por más de 8 millones de usuarios.

La versión web de Office 2010, más sencilla y que no necesita de instalación, es accesible en Internet desde el verano.

Desde Microsoft se asegura que el software de oficina que reemplazará al Office 2007 será más estable y permitirá una navegación mejorada, además de incorporar actualizaciones en su diseño, iconos, logotipo o mayor versatilidad para el empleo de vídeos en su programa de presentaciones PowerPoint.

La compañía no hizo pública la fecha de salida del producto ni su costo.

Además del Office 2010, Microsoft lanzó este miércoles en sus versiones beta el SharePoint Server 2010 y el Silverlight 4, ambos programas para profesionales .

La mayor ovación de la jornada en la PDC09 se la llevó Steven Sinofsky, presidente de la división Windows cuando anunció ante la sorpresa de los presentes que cada uno de los miles de asistentes al evento recibiría gratis un portátil.

El computador de pantalla táctil fue construido conjuntamente por Microsoft y ACER, y no está previsto que salga a la venta.

“El objetivo de este equipo es que los desarrolladores también tengan el hardware necesario para crear este tipo de aplicaciones. No tiene nada especial en sí. Hay muchos que ya cuentan con las mismas funciones que se com

Jag trodde aldrig att jag skulle fastna för Modern Warfare 2. Jag hade inte alls hypat det innan eller ens trott att det skulle vara särskilt bra trots alla lovord som det fått från varenda kotte. Men jag måste erkänna att det är riktigt bra.

I de tidigare Call of Duy-spelen har jag spelat en del multiplayer med mina kompisar som är helt fast i det och då har jag inte alls tyckt att det varit särskilt roligt.

Jag har spelat multiplayern i Modern Warfare 2 också och tycker inte att det är särskilt roligt. Men kampanjen däremot har jag verkligen fastnat för. Jag tänkte lista några av de grejerna som gör att jag numera diggar spelet riktigt mycket.

• Intensiteten – Det känns verkligen som om man är huvudpersonen. Och att man är mitt i en Hollywoodfilm.
• De varierande miljöerna – Ena stunden är man i en hamburgerrestaurang och i andra stunden i ett kallt vinterlandskap för att senare skjuta sönder möblemanget i ett lyxhus i USA.
• Den vackra grafiken – Det är inte så där grått och trist som det ofta kan vara i krigsspel.
• Siktet och responsen i handkontrollen – Styrningen är klockren och det är inte för många knappar att hålla reda på.
• Ett varierat gameplay – Det är inte bara skjuta hej vilt utan ibland blir det lite mer smygarbetonat. I ett uppdrag var jag tvungen att fly på taket och kämpa mot klockan. I ett annat åker man snöskoter.
• Att det utspelar sig i nutid – skönt med ett spel som inte bygger på andra världskriget.

Igår släpptes New Super Mario Bros. Wii och jag tänkte att jag skulle köpa det men det blev inte av. Jag har tillräckligt att göra med Modern Warfare 2 för tillfället men inom en inte allt för snar framtid måste jag skaffa New Super Mario Bros. Wii. Det verkar så grymt kul.

Istället skaffade jag hem Beneath a Steel Sky till min iPod Touch som jag tipsade om igår. Fast jag har ännu inte hunnit testa det än. Jag återkommer med mer intryck från det spelet så fort jag har satt mig in i det mera.

Silly Microsoft. =]

Predicatably, Microsoft lost no time in slamming Google Chrome OS, telling Computerworld,

“From what was shared, it appears to be in the early stages of development,” a Microsoft spokeswoman said via e-mail.

“From our perspective, however, our customers are already voicing their approval of the way Windows 7 just works — across the Web and on the desktop, and on all sizes and types of PCs – purchasing twice as many units of Windows 7 as we’ve sold of any other operating system over a comparable time,” the spokeswoman said.

“The lady doth protest too much, methinks.”

Hamlet | Act III, Scene II

Olá pessoal.

Como eu estou mudando o meu blog para um site, então atualizei as informações.

Segue alguns artigos e vídeos sobre Silverlight.

Usando Javascript e Silverlight

http://www.dowhile.com.br/artigos/silverlight/63-usando-funcao-javascript-em-silverlight-.html

Usando e-mail e Webservice

http://www.dowhile.com.br/artigos/silverlight/60-enviando-e-mail-com-silverlight-parte-ii-.html

http://www.dowhile.com.br/artigos/silverlight/59-enviando-e-mail-com-silverlight-parte-i-.html

Usando linq to sql

http://www.dowhile.com.br/artigos/silverlight/58-populando-datagrid-usando-linq-to-sql-em-silverlight-parte-ii.html

http://www.dowhile.com.br/artigos/silverlight/57-populando-datagrid-usando-linq-to-sql-em-silverlight-parte-i.html

vídeo

Usando Javascript e Silverlight

http://www.dowhile.com.br/videos/silverlight/64-acessando-metodo-csharp-pelo-javascript.html

Abraços

Flávia Moreira

http://www.dowhile.com.br

Hier ist der Beweis, die XBOX 360 macht definitiv krank! 

Microsoft, which seems to always be branching out, started a new website a while ago, called Bing (.com). It’s a search engine, meant to compete with Google.

The surprising thing is that is does a good job, and it may actually be competition for the search giant (which coincidentally is also branching out a fair bit). The home page is a clever, more involved and colourful version of the Google one, but keeps the simplicity. It’ll display a photo in the background, with little links and facts you can click on, but which hide unless you mouse over them. The Web search is very similar, but displays a preview if you mouse over the side of a result. The images search is nice in that it doesn’t display all the somewhat useless information until you mouse over it. They also give more options for image selection, in terms of size, colour, and content.

Possibly the most interesting news is that Bing added a new search feature for videos. You can search videos with ease, and they’re displayed like the images. The cool part is that it displays the length, upload date, and source, without you having to do anything, AND lets you preview it just by mousing over it. Not only that, but you can filter by length, size, resolution, source, and screen type.

The rest is much like all search engines, setting aside perhaps the “News” category, which will find only news results (quite handy actually).

Whether or not you believe that Microsoft is a greedy corporation stealing everyone’s ideas, you should definitely check out Bing. It may not be a brand new idea, but they have used some ingenuity this time and Bing is definitely a contender for favourite search engine, at least for me. Coupled with Windows 7, which is said to be much better than Vista and quite user-friendly, is this the future of Microsoft. if it is, I like it.

Microsoft’s Surface tabletop computer team has graduated from being a pet project of founder Bill Gates to a group that stands up on its own, and contributes back into other parts of Microsoft.

That is the impression that I left with after meeting with Surface General Manager of Software and User Experience Brad Carpenter this week at Microsoft’s Professional Developers Conference (PDC) this week in Los Angeles. Carpenter said that Microsoft had more than four times as many partners for Surface as it did a year ago, and that the team contributed technology to Windows 7, including applications that are installed by computer makers.

While it is true that Surface hasn’t revolutionized how the world interacts with computers yet, Microsoft is very serious about the touch-screen interface. To that point, every PDC attendee received a free touch-screen laptop to write touch-screen applications with.

Silverlight 4 also allows applications to invoke Windows touch screen interfaces, so that online puzzles can become much more interactive. And that’s just the beginning.

Carpenter said that Microsoft is working with partners in over 18 markets to help them design touch screen applications that have high payback on their investment. Some of its development partners have also begun to build components for Surface applications.

At PDC, Microsoft announced that students from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh designed an application that ported Dungeons and Dragons to Surface. A group of German programmers wrote an application that pulls up information from specialized designed business cards.

Some other recent deployments that he cited are with Hardrock Café, Sheraton Hotels and Resorts, and Vodaphone, according to Carpenter.

Surface has momentum, and its tie into Windows 7 keeps it viable. It will remain a niche product, but its successes will help make it a much more common sight at your local mall.

L’evento segue di pochi giorni , sull’andamento di Dynamics nel mondo.Come di consueto per gli eventi di Dynamics in Italia erano presenti alcuni clienti – in questo caso tre: Grom, Piaggio Aero e Slam – che hanno raccontato il loro progetto.

E’ invece la prima volta che a una conferenza Dynamics interviene l’amministratore delegato di Microsoft Italia, segno evidentemente che il business Dynamics comincia ad acquisire una certa massa critica e importanza anche a livello italiano.L’evento infatti è stato introdotto da Pietro Scott Jovane, numero uno di Microsoft in Italia, che nel suo intervento ha sottolineato soprattutto le sinergie tra le soluzioni di Dynamics (gli ERP Ax e Nav e il CRM) e il resto dell’offerta Microsoft.

Scott Jovane ha poi ceduto la parola al direttore di Dynamics Italia Giovanni Stifano, che ha innanzitutto dato alcuni numeri per dare idea delle dimensioni del business Dynamics.A livello mondiale, ha detto Stifano, Dynamics ha 300mila clienti, oltre un milione di utilizzatori finali della soluzione CRM, oltre 10mila partner, e 4 centri di ricerca e sviluppo con investimenti per oltre un miliardo di dollari l’anno.’In Italia invece il fatturato è pressoché raddoppiato negli ultimi tre anni, così come il numero di partner attivi, che sono passati da 40 a 80, mentre i clienti sono saliti da 1.100 a 2.700, di cui 500 nuovi nell’ultimo anno fiscale.

Il Gruppo Volkswagen e il MIT al lavoro su AIDA, un robot in grado di assistere gli automobilisti nella guida meglio di un navigatore

Fonte:
http://www.cwi.it/notizia/19311/2009-11-13/Microsoft-Dynamics-il-punto-in-Italia-2-700-aziende-clienti-e-80-partner.html

Microsoft’s problematic lack of nightly builds for IE.

After Internet Explorer 9 was officially announced this week and a few tidbits on the release were shared by Microsoft, we had the opportunity to talk to Dean Hachamovitch, General Manager for Internet Explorer, to prod him for a little more information.

The overriding theme for IE9, he told us, is delivering a great browser for everyone, especially for developers. The big areas Microsoft is targeting with this release are performance, interoperable standards, and text and graphics. While Hachamovitch made sure not to talk more about IE9 beyond what was already revealed atPDC09, he was quite happy to answer a few of our more general questions regarding Internet Explorer’s future.

We pointed out how all other major browsers (Safari, Chrome, Firefox, and Opera) are much more open about their development process than Internet Explorer. Firefox and Chrome are open source, and both Apple and Opera make updates to their engines regularly available. As a result, developers can thus follow browser progress more easily. Furthermore, IE’s competitors have more frequent major and minor version updates, not to mention nightly builds in some cases. In contrast, IE typically has two betas, a release candidate or two, and then a final release of another major version—and then nothing for months or years. So we asked Hachamovitch what he thought about IE having more frequent releases and the first thing that came out of his mouth was, “God, where to begin.”

“At the core, every browser has some type of release cycle for every build,” Hachamovitch said. “Some of the projects do nightly releases, others don’t. The goal of any prerelease offering is to have a meaningful feedback loop. The value to website developers of having all these drops to keep testing creates some fatigue for them because they keep testing this stream of drops. We’re trying to balance the number of drops to just meaningful drops.”

We pressed on, though. Although many developers may not really care much for nightlies or even point releases, it keeps them in the loop, and keeps them interested. Frequent releases give them an easy way to track progress, even if they also bring many problems and compatibility issues. Hachamovitch doesn’t feel the tradeoff is worth it. “If we’re working on a project together and I’m working on a draft, would you rather see four drafts with 10 or so fixes in each, or just a single one with all the fixes that you can then look over?” he asked us. Frequent releases generate a lot of noise but they do so at the cost of compatibility and stability, he concluded.

This analogy is an interesting one, though we’re not sure it works in the context of a Web developer community. Not every developer will use every nightly, every beta, or even every minor point version. Those that do, however, will blog and write about what they find, disseminate information to the broader community, and give their thoughts about what a given browser company is doing and what it should be doing. It makes for a continuous feedback process, and is an important aspect of the development of other browsers that we feel Microsoft should adopt.

This “low-key hype” isn’t there for Internet Explorer. Even if you were to say that a major release of IE is more significant compared to any of the major releases of the competition, the reality is that every other browser has a more regular release cycle than IE does, and that keeps them relevant. The result is a strong perception that IE is lagging behind, no matter how great the major release versions are.

A broken update system

A closely related problem for IE is its update system. While the browser’s release cycle isn’t strictly tied to the Windows release cycle, it is still dependent on it, and the browser’s updates are pushed through Windows Update. The actual browser doesn’t have its own updating system, and this is a large part of the reason thatover 40 percent of users are still using IE6 and IE7.

While much of this user base consists of corporate users constrained to specific update cycles, the remaining users need to be pushed to update. These are the users who don’t update because they don’t really feel the need, don’t know that there’s such a thing as a new version of their browser, or don’t even know what a browser is. Microsoft has said before that it won’t force its users to upgrade and that the final decision is theirs to make. IE6 will continue to be supported for as long as Windows XP, the ancient OS that it shipped with, is (Extended Support for the operating system ends April 8, 2014). Hachamovitch made sure to point out that Microsoft does not drop support for its older versions as quickly as its competitors do, which again has its ups and downs.

Web developers would love to see these users update away from IE though, and they truly appreciate how the updating system works in other browsers. It allows them to see improvements on a regular basis, and the users of these browsers are also more likely to upgrade if the actual browser prompts them to (especially if it’s more frequently than Microsoft releases updates for IE). It’s even more likely if the browser is by default set to automatically update itself in the background.

Hachamovitch didn’t state so directly, but he didn’t seem interested in the idea of releasing nightly builds or minor version updates on a frequent basis. “I agree with you that people should be running the latest version; there are a lot of reasons to get developers on IE8,” he told Ars. “We’re doing everything we can.”

What Microsoft could do better

We respectfully disagree. There are obvious things that Redmond could be doing but currently is not. Support for old browser versions could be dropped more aggressively. Rather than tying the IE6, IE7, and IE8 lifecycles to Windows XP, Vista, and 7, respectively, which results in the remarkable situation that IE6 will be supported for more than a decade, Microsoft could cut back and give each browser, say, a lifespan of five years after the next major release. This would still be generous (it would mean that IE6 would continue to be supported in some capacity until 2011), but far less extreme than the current policy.

Further, and perhaps most importantly, the existing Windows Update/Microsoft Update infrastructure could be used to push out new versions of IE as a compulsory update, just as is already done with essential security fixes.

Microsoft’s attitude towards IE updates serves to undermine the good work that the IE team is doing. Though IE8 is far from perfect, it is nonetheless a vast improvement over its predecessors—but that matters little if most IE users are still using IE6 and IE7. If developers have to continue to target IE6, their dislike for IE will continue, and Web development will continue to be held back. Building a better browser is only part of the story: people have to use it, too.

Hachamovitch did indicate there was more to come in regard to pushing users towards the latest version of IE, but he wouldn’t get into specifics. We asked him whether IE9 would be available for Windows XP, given thegraphics improvements that rely on technologies only in Windows Vista and Windows 7, but he only said, “we’re not talking about operating system support yet.”

As for what the IE team’s goals were for the Acid3 test, Hachamovitch only disclosed that the marks IE9 will score there is just “a side effect as we deliver progress for developers.” The IE team has always stated that it finds it much more important to implement what developers really want in their browser then making sure the browser can pass a test that doesn’t really cover all the bases anyway.

This stance is not unreasonable; the Acid3 test takes a scattergun approach to the standards it tests, and as such, a high score in Acid3 is not in and of itself indicative of much. For example, though Acid3 tests SVG vector graphics, passing Acid3 does not imply that a browser has complete support of the standard, nor even a useful subset of the standard.

So far, IE8 has been a huge improvement over IE7, and IE7 was a big improvement over IE6, but the fact remains that the opinion of Internet Explorer’s progress in the developer world, deserved or not, is still very low. Is the ability for developers to track progress more valuable than the disruption caused by minor releases, or can Microsoft win back developers by continuing to improve their browser in giant leaps? We think it’s the former.

Microsoft wants Silverlight to be optimized for every platform that it runs on, said Brian Goldfarb, director of developer and user experience platforms at Microsoft, during an interview at the company’s Professional Developers Conference (PDC) on Wednesday (Nov. 18).

Silverlight runs on Mac OS X and Windows; it is available on Linux through Mono Moonlight, an open source project that Microsoft supports. I also expect that Moonlight will be running on Android in near future. Goldfarb explained that it was not enough for Silverlight to “run everywhere,” but that it should “light up” specific platforms.

Microsoft needs to consider screen size and other aspects of a device, which is particularly relevant in the mobile space, he explained. There are also mobile platform features such as SMS, phone dialing, and address books that Silverlight could exploit, he added. That would allow Silverlight applications to be customized for smartphones.

Silverlight 4, which Microsoft announced at PDC, will allow applications to access Windows features, hardware, and the local file system. That allows devices such as Webcams to accessed by Silverlight. However, the same level of optimization is not currently being offering for other platforms.

Microsoft will give Silverlight “trusted” access local resources on Macs, meaning that all features work except for COM integration, Goldfarb said. More work is needed to extend Silverlight for non-Windows platforms, Goldfarb admitted, saying that the company was “thinking around” the concept of extensions.

COM is a Windows technology that enables applications that may have been written in different languages to communicate with each other. Microsoft Office makes heavy use of COM. “We are actively evaluating the best way to get COM like features on other platforms,” Goldfarb wrote in a follow up e-mail.

To that end, the company has started an open source project called Managed Extensibility Framework for .NET and Silverlight. The Mono team is working on an equivalent project, Goldfarb said. He expects that Mono will “accelerate dramatically” in the near future, delivering more features to Linux users.

I expect that anything but Windows will be a second-class Silverlight citizen for some time. But Microsoft is making strides toward delivering an optimized experience on other platforms, and in doing so, will gain a foothold on the Web beyond Windows.

Prohibido no usar el móvil en clase…. ¿es una broma?  No, únicamente es asumir que  es un poco absurdo que los institutos tengan WIFI, los alumnos móviles potentes…y…no promover que los utilicen para obtener y ampliar información. Sí, deben ser búsquedas guiadas y útiles.

“Claro que los profesores no les dicen a sus alumnos que llamen o envíen mensajes de texto; lo que les piden es que naveguen por Internet y busquen información sobre lo que están estudiando o lean los blogs de sus maestros, hagan fotos para algunos de los proyectos de clase, realicen cálculos matemáticos o, incluso, tomen notas.”

En California, Schwarzenegger ha decidido aniquilar los libros de texto:

“Desde el comienzo del nuevo año escolar, en agosto, los estudiantes de ciencias y matemáticas en los institutos de California tendrán acceso a textos on line que han aprobado una revisión de estándares académicos. El gobernador sostiene que los libros de texto digitales se pueden adaptar fácilmente, de manera que el aprendizaje se mantiene al ritmo del progreso.”

Por otra parte, los medios de comunicación llevan 3 meses bombardeando con la idea de que el e-book será el regalo estrella de estas navidades.

Entendiendo por e-book su acepción física, es decir, el aparato lector.

Sin embargo, creo sinceramente que se equivocan totalmente con las previsiones por:

- Estamos en un contexto de crisis y el ebook sigue siendo un producto caro (más de 300 euros).

- No hay una oferta adecuada de contenidos. Las editoriales están actuando muy lentamente por lo que es previsible que suceda lo mismo que con la música y el cine: al no existir una oferta legal a una calidad-precio adecuada, los contenidos piratas ocuparán el mercado.

- El próximo año desembarcarán los dos gigantes: Microsoft y Apple. Microsoft apuesta por un modelo con dos pantallas (el courier) y de Apple se rumorea que una sóla, pero algo más grande. Ellos sí tienen la fuerza mediática y económica para inundar el mercado.

Se rumorea que este es el diseño final de la Tablet de Apple

Microsoft apuesta en su modelo Courier por la doble pantalla

El vídeo del funcionamiento del Courier es impresionante. Auguro que en septiembre del 2011 todos estaremos con uno de estos dos aparatos en clase.

Por una parte Apple ha ganado las últimas batallas en cuanto a diseño y pantallas táctiles, pero Microsoft sigue siendo el gigante en sistemas operativos y programas ofimáticos. ¿Qué modelo se impondrá?

Here’s a rather interesting article I came by.
So, Adobe Flash or Microsoft Silverlight?

The article gives a few technical differencies for Flash and Silverlight, however, I found the programming feature the most interesting.

The scripting language of Flash is Actionscript, that comes with ‘huge, powerful class library for developing online browser-hosted applications and stand-alone desktop applications’.
It can interract with other data bases and languages like JS, XML, PHP, ASP and others.

Completely different with Silverlight. There you can choose from among a number of languages such as Visual C#.Net and Visual Basic.Net, including client-side scripting with JavaScript. C# and VB.NET can be used to write managed code that runs on and uses all of the enhancements and capabilities of Microsoft’s .NET framework.

Why is that important? Firstly, most of programmers are already used to C based scripting, when AS is a completely unique language used only in Flash (although it is based on C, it’s still different), secondly, in my opinion the languages Silverlight uses are more powerful, and programmers can make things that they have always wanted to do in flash. Who knows, maybe one day we will see Halo played from a browser.

However, at the moment Silverlight has alot of cons. For example, it doesn’t compress it’s export files, it only (fully) supports JPG and PNG image formats, it doesn’t work on all OS, and more.

Bom, se você é louco para testar algo Beta, esse é bom, o Office 2010 Beta foi liberado para download, isso mesmo, é só clicar no link na internet: Office 2010!!!

Bom, o que está compensando fazer o Download agora é que o Power Point, você pode apresentar ela pela internet, sem mandar email e tambem fazer apresentações na internet ao vivo! Esse é o ponto matador! Agora é baixar e ver no que dá!

Via: Meio Bit

Why do conventional wisdom and analyst palaver assert as a matter of metaphysical certitude that the launch of Windows 7 will rapidly drive a robust PC refresh cycle?

Dell, in its attempt to move past its startlingly poor quarterly results announced last week, once again pointed to this theoretical groundswell of enterprise spending as the engine for its increasingly more theoretical turnaround. But even as Microsoft touts the record-setting sales pace of Windows 7, new PCs don’t appear to be riding those coattails.

Two reasons why:

• No new hardware required: Unlike previous Microsoft OS platforms, Windows 7 does not require upgraded hardware to run as speced.
• Learning to love lean and mean IT: The corporate recovery, as anemic as it is, is being driven by cost reductions and tighter controls on expenditures. Now that companies are much used to doing more with less — and getting good at it – CTOs and COOs will likely wring more value out of their current systems and upgrade more slowly and cautiously than they have in the past.
• For consumers, PC deals matter more than the OS: While it has made sense to wait for Windows 7 to arrive before buying a new PC, Windows 7 has not been a driver. Cheap netbooks and low-cost laptops are the stars of the consumer space — which has been driving the computer industry recovery – and Windows 7 just comes with it.

Hace unos días aquí mismo checamos unos trailers de The Saboteur este juego que estará en las tiendas el próximo 8 de Diciembre de este lado del planeta.

Desarrollado por EA y el desaparecido Pandemic Studios este juego que se ve esta lleno de mucha acción y aventura.

Lamentamos que este juego no vaya a estar traducido o subtitulado al español ya que EA de España a confirmado que el traslado de los diálogos y textos del inglés al español fue cancelado.

Una pena sin duda.

Fuente | ºlaps3.comº

In October, Microsoft held its SharePoint Conference 2009, where it formally introduced SharePoint 2010 to the world.

Keynotes

A couple keynotes from this conference that are a great place to start to familiarize oneself with the capabilities of SharePoint 20101. First, Microsoft Corporate VP for SharePoint, Jeff Teper, had a keynote where he introduced new business capabilities in the SharePoint 2010 platform. Jeff also provided this excellent blog post on the SharePoint Team Blog outline the key features upcoming in SharePoint 2010.

For the more technically inclined, Steve Balmer’s keynote, which he delivered with Tom Rizzo, Senior Director for SharePoint, is an excellent overview of new development capabilities available for SharePoint 2010 developers.

Taxonomy, Tagging, Folksonomies – these are a few of my favorite things

What most pleases me about SharePoint 2010 – and there are many things truth be told – is the move away from a “nested folders” metaphor for navigating content, towards a navigational paradigm based on tagging, taxonomies, and folksonomies.

Thank goodness! SharePoint 2007 really sucked in this regard IMO. I found it very frustrating to navigate content based primarily on a “nested folder” paradigm. When you combine Microsoft’s new commitment to tagging, social tagging, and taxonomies with their improved features for Communities/Social Computing, you have the basis for a very decent social computing platform IMO.

In Summary

For those that are “deep” into the SharePoint space, the new features in SharePoint can be a bit overwhelming. For users of SharePoint, it’s a bit mind-boggling (for me anyway).

Anyway, lots of great learning resources.

glenn