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Silverlight 2: BETA 2 Releasing
2008-06-04 15:30:00
Silverlight 2 BETA 2 will be releasing later in this week. Silverlight 2 improved over Silverlight 1 by incorporating .NET CLR in it thereby immensely improving the usefulness.. The BETA 2 now takes Silverlight 2 to ?Enterprise Ready? status with a commercial go-live license available? Some improvements included in BETA 2 are: New and improved controls (over 40 new controls - button, check
More About: Beta , Silverlight

Microsoft launching marketplace for Experts
2008-06-03 20:35:00
Microsoft has seemingly launched a new site - http://taskmarket.com/ that is meant as an exchange for freelancers and experts. It is in the lines of international sites like elance.com, getafreelancer.com, guru.com and limeexchange.com At the site, you are required to register with a unique username and provide your paypal ID. The site offers the options to:  Post a Job  Search for Jobs
More About: Microsoft , Experts , Marketplace

Notes from an Internet Marketing Seminar
2008-05-31 11:27:00
These are my notes from an internet marketing seminar I attended. Read through to see if you can figure out who delivered this and i promise you would be surprised :) Topic: Web & New Media: Emerging Trends 183 bn emails sent a day 49 mn internet users in India 7.5 hrs spent on internet/ week (18-35 Males) 1.2 bn searches / month- search increasing at 80% 80% online shop Online
More About: Marketing , Internet , Internet Marketing , Notes , Seminar

Eggs in a basket: Lessons on reliance
2008-05-29 15:13:00
Twitter was down for few days. The micro-blogging soothsayers had nowhere else to go but wait for the service to come back online. However, twitter is simply a service (and prone to failures).. for now, inspite of the numerous times it keeps throwing the cute error messages, people are willing to forgive the outages. my observation to this episode is if the whole ?micro-blogging? ecosystem
More About: Eggs , Basket , Reliance , Lessons

Buy Microsoft Outlook 2007
2008-05-27 17:40:00
One of the most important products of the Microsoft Office suite is Outlook 2007. This email software is basically an email management software but can also act as calendaring software, task, note taking software, contacts manager or conversation tracking software! And in case you want to buy one in India, it isn?t exactly a simple thing as i realised when one of MVPs asked me that question.
More About: Outlook 2007 , Microsoft Outlook

Internet Marketing: Microsoft experiments with User Generated Content
2008-05-27 16:13:00
In any internet marketing or Web 2.0 conference (e.g. BlogCamp Delhi), case studies are often quoted of how great user generated content is. The case studies are mostly geared around how brand X led generation of videos that provided the next BIG idea to the company! Now Microsoft has delved into this internet marketing by launching a video contest at: www.ultimatevideorelay.com. The idea is to
More About: Marketing , Internet , Internet Marketing , Content

Two of my favorite tools updated
2008-05-27 13:02:00
The success of a tool is determined by the no. of people using it :) .. i have two tools that i use everyday: IE7Pro: Internet Explorer quintessential add on. Feeddemon: An industrial quality RSS reader available from Newsgator (for FREE) Both the tools have been updated. While the latest version of IE7Pro is v2.3, FeedDemon RSS reader is at v2.7. if you have been using any of the above
More About: Tools , Favorite

BlogCamp Delhi: Collaboration and learning in Blogosphere
2008-05-25 21:47:00
Everyone knows that blogs are an individual medium. And there are more than 60 mn bloggers in the world... The needs, frustrations, aspirations and thoughts of these 60 mn does have a remarkable similarity? and in delhi we collaborate together at Delhi bloggers & New Media Society (DBNMS): www.delhibloggers.in On Saturday, May 24th, the group in collaboration with IBNMS came together at
More About: Blogosphere , Learning , Collaboration

Google Sites: FREE websites for everyone
2008-05-23 23:01:00
Google Sites is now available separately from Google Apps suite. This means that you no longer need a domain name to set up a site for yourself. Your site will be available at: http://sites.google.com/[your-website]The maximum size available via this service is not mentioned anywhere..This is an excellent service for people starting up trying to setup a website for the first time. The site
More About: Google , Free , Websites

Live Skydrive gets an update
2008-05-22 20:53:00
Today Live Skydrive got an update! And no there is no increase in space provided.. however the service does seem to be becoming more and more of Office Live Workspace :) Most updates seem to be related to adding more metadata to the documents uploaded. The 2 new features in this area are: i was able to add captions and descriptions to the files uploaded on the skydrive. Nice to be able to
More About: Update

Interoperability 2.0: MS Office to support ODF and PDF
2008-05-22 04:42:00
Welcome to real world interoperability that works - Interoperability 2.0. and we have an unlikely harbinger of this effort - Microsoft Corporation. Microsoft has announced that from Office 2007 SP2, it will start supporting other document formats including Open Document Format (ODF) 1.1, Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) 1.5, PDF/A and XML Paper Specification (XPS) - within Word 2007, Excel
More About: Support , Ms Office

Get a prize for sharing ur opinion on Vista SP1 or XP SP3
2008-05-21 21:41:00
Have you used the Vista SP1 or XP SP3 or IE 8 BETA 1 yet? I am pretty sure that you have an opinion on the same :).. Now, for your opinion you can win a prize! The contest at MeraWindows ? The Windows Community for Indians is on! More details available on the  forum. All you need to do is to author a review (good or bad) for these products and submit it before June 15th. The forum admins also
More About: Opinion , Sharing

Microsoft gets into Airline Price Comparison
2008-05-21 21:34:00
Alongwith the Cashback program to encourage online shoppers, Microsoft has also introduced the Farecast search on Live at: http://farecast.live.com Using the farecast search, you can locate the cheapest fares on the web! it also provides comparison with other international travel sites like priceline.com, expedia.com.. If you are in India, there are other travel portals also available as
More About: Price , Comparison , Airline

MS Live Offers CashBack on shopping
2008-05-21 20:31:00
?The Search That Pays You Back? ? is the promise of newly launched Cashback program from Microsoft Live Search.In this program a shopper on the internet can earn cashback on every purchase that he/ she makes on the web provided they used Live Search to get to the site.This is a MARVELOUS program and provides a great value for the consumer. for simply using a search engine, this is a very good
More About: Shopping , Offers

Virtual PC releases SP1: Build a machine inside ur machine today
2008-05-16 11:16:00
Microsoft has released its service pack for the Virtual PC 2007 software. Virtual PC is a Windows software that lets you ?virtualise? computer hardware so that you can run heterogeneous operating systems on your machine ? actually much better than dual booting option? If you followed my twitters, I had been trying to get a VPC running with Windows Server 2008 Standard Core. It was unsuccessful.
More About: Machine , Today , Inside , Build

Educational Tool: Microsoft WorldWide Telescope
2008-05-13 18:00:00
Since morning the twitterosphere has been abuzz with news of how wonderful MS Worldwide Telescope is. Jumping in with enthusiasm, the telescope amazed me a lot. to get the virtual telescope, you need to go to the telescope homepage. this is a resource that astronomy enthusiasts are bound to love. this virtual telescope presents images from various telescopes from around the world and in the space e.g. the Hubble Space Telescope, the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), and the Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS). the experience is very interesting as one can start from any guided tour of a region of the space and then continue to explore on one?s own will. you can not only see the visual interfaces but also X Ray view, hydrogen alpha view etc.. the software minimally needs Win XP SP2 or Vista and .NET 2.0. In addition, the software also needs a live internet connection as it downloads imagery on demand. to get started you can begin with Guided Tours menu ...
More About: Microsoft , Educational , Tool

FREE Windows based Brainstorming Tool
2008-05-12 14:20:00
This qualifies as find of the day! Cayra.Net is a .NET based brainstorming tool that one can use to put down ideas and concepts in a graphical format. If you are a regular Windows user like me, then you have often wondered what tool would qualify as brainstorming tool? Most people end up with One  Note or Visio for that of thing? Cayra gives you a FREE option to capture brainstorming graphically? this is extremely useful if you are working in a team and especially in a distributed team spread geographically. In addition, I have found the mind map to be useful when I am preparing for a talk as well. Technorati tags: mind map, brainstorming
More About: Free , Tool , Brainstorming

Windows XP SP3 Releasing (for final)
2008-05-07 05:54:00
Today MS will be releasing Windows XP SP3 to web. After a false start, this one seems to be thought out well :). XP SP3 was pulled back at the last moment following discovery of a compatiblity issue between Windows XP SP3 and Microsoft Dynamics RMS.. currently a filter mechanism has been developed that doesn?t offer the update on Dynamics RMS customers.. A fix for this issue is already in testing at Microsoft and may be made publicly available this month. Windows XP SP3 can be installed from here.  Windows XP SP3 contains all the previously released updates for Windows XP and a few new features e.g. Network Access Protection.. More information on Windows XP SP3 can be found at: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/window sxp P.S.: Automatic distribution of Windows Vista SP1 is also being resumed as well... Technorati tags: Windows XP, SP3
More About: Final , Windows Xp

Live Messenger now on Facebook
2008-05-06 16:27:00
What are the 2 applications on my machine that are used most often: Microsoft Outlook 2007 Windows Live Messenger Practically i live in these two applications. anything that has to come in or go out has these 2 gateways? and so it makes sense for me to look for gateways into these applications from anywhere people want to connect with me..  and social networking sites are one of the main sources where people want to connect? of late Live Messenger has made available a lot widgets that one can embed in websites, blogs etc? you can see one on the right in this blog that let?s you communicate with me anytime I am online? here is a wonderful application that enables the same for facebook. so now when someone is casually browsing on my profile, he/ she can initiate instant communication with me from the facebook profile page itself by clicking on the ?Begin a conversation? link.. and i will receive the messages sent from here in the Live Messenger that i am using? of ...
More About: Facebook

Use Live Search via SMS on Vodaphone in India
2008-04-30 14:29:00
You are out with your friends and have a need to find something (e.g. chinese restaurant in the vicinity)? what do you do? call a friend? or if ur uber geeky, launch a search using GPRS on live or google? what if ur somewhere between the geekdom and dummyzone? You search for stuff by sending SMS and getting results over SMS as well.. this is SMS Search for Vodafone customers in India powered by Live Search. Vodafone subscribers can simply type in their query as a SMS text message on their mobile handset and send to 55060. . this SMS search will set you back by 30 p/ query (all inclusive) making it cheaper than ur regular SMS at Rs 2/ SMS! However, note that this search is not comprehensive. It appears that it is delivering only city specific information e.g. ?Chinese restaurant delhi?? the local search/directory information is available in 8 major cities including Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune and Ahmedabad with 21 more cities expected to go live so...
More About: Live Search , Vodaphone

OpenXML wins ISO Standardisation and gets Better with Community
2008-04-02 14:54:00
The FINAL verdict on ISO standardisation is out and OpenXML is now an ISO standard. This standardisation process (that has consensus at its heart) has given an overwhelming endorsement (with 86% of voting national bodies) for ratification of OpenXML as an ISO standard. The ISO standardisation process has strengthened the OpenXML standard making it much better than ever before. What is even better is that OpenXML is now in stewardship of the community and NOT ?owned? by any company. The real motives  behind the protectionist ?Open Source? (what a fallacy) lobby now stands exposed.. A lot of countries changed their votes from ?No? to ?Yes? after their comments were addressed during the Ballot Resolution Meeting process. While the LITD 15 Committee at the BIS didn?t endorse the OpenXML standard but the positive endorsement of various industry bodies and India?s leading IT companies prove that OpenXML has opened up a huge business opportunity for everybody! It has the potential to...
More About: Community , Wins

Witness the Academia - Industry divide!
2008-03-21 13:47:00
The latest on the OpenXML ISP Standardisation debate is India?s choice to vote ?NO? for the Open XML to become an ISO Standard by the BIS committee. the voting pattern was - 13 Against, 1 Abstain and 5 For. So who were the 5 voting for the OpenXML ? Microsoft, NASSCOM, TCS, Wipro and Infosys... all of them are BIG IT giants (leaving out MS from this as it is expected to be pro OpenXML) employing thousands of people. A lot of credit for India?s resurgence in the global landscape can be attributed to these IT industries.. Since their businesses come from a variety of technologies (including Oracle, IBM, Microsoft, SAP etc.) these are truly vendor neutral organisations! Now, in Sept 2007 BIS had raised 82 Comments for Open XML. On completion of BRM, all 82 comments from India were resolved by the committee. One would expect the committee to then vote ?YES? for the standard.. So the question is then why would BIS still choose to vote ?NO?? Maybe the answer lies in understanding the psy...
More About: Industry , Witness , Academia

Making Vista Search your PST Files
2008-03-20 14:10:00
Vista can index a lot of files and for some reason it doesn?t index the MS Outlook files.. maybe it is as Outlook is already doing the same.. in case you still want to search PST from Vista Search here is what you can do: Go to the Control Panel Choose "Indexing Options" Click on the "Advanced" button Click on the "File Types" tab Check the checkbox next to "PST" to include it in the search Select the bullet next to the option "Index Properties and File Contents" Click OK and OK again on the message that appears. This is especially useful for information workers like me who have large PST files and are forced to archive from time to time ? indexing the archives would return the information from these forgotten folders as well :) Tip taken from On10.net Technorati tags: Outlook, PST, search
More About: Vista , Files

Microsoft licenses Flash lite for Windows Mobile Devices
2008-03-17 13:12:00
At the recently concluded Mix 08, Microsoft showcased Silverlight 2.0 working on Windows Mobile . In addition, Nokia licensed Silverlight to display on its mobile device. In a recent news, it is said that Microsoft is licensing Flash Lite for display with Windows Mobile Devices. Here's what ZDNET thinks of it: http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=8240 Now i don't think what ZDNET thinks is at all on the mark for the following reasons: it has already being displayed at Mix 08 and I don't doubt that it is going to come out soon. If MS has to dissect Flash lite to learn it, there is no need to license the same. Why wud MS want to make Adobe look relevant, when it is fighting Silverlight war with Flash and Expression suite war with Adobe designer suite? I think: Microsoft will continue to prefer Silverlight for its mobile devices. Flash Lite provides Windows Mobile owners additional avenue of using content. In the new found Interoperability "karma", Microsoft may want various technologies...

OpenXML and ISO standardisation: Community contribution shines
2008-03-17 12:26:00
I have been following Open XML for some time now and have earlier posted my views on why OpenXML maybe good for India? Here's the latest from the OpenXML ISO standardisation process after I made the last post: After India saying "NO" to the standard in Phase I of standardisation process, various worldwide committees (and hopefully Indian as well) participated in the meeting in Geneva to resolve the technical comments made by various committees ( in jargon - "Ballot Resolution Meeting" or BRM). By the end of this mammoth five day meeting, 98.4% of the comments (1011 out of 1027 unique comments raised earlier) were resolved (ISO release on the process). IMHO, this is a true example of community contributing to developing a standard and improving it by collective wisdom. Microsoft has in some terms for the first time come to a platform where it is open to review from various companies and nations...and there has been one good action from BIS, India and that is to make its member's...
More About: Community , Contribution

Office Live Workspace Available NOW
2008-03-06 12:13:00
  Office Live Workspace is now available globally! Microsoft Office users will be able to use the English version of Office Live Workspace beta, a free Web-based extension of Microsoft Office, to save and access their works online and easily collaborate with others, whether they live in Australia or Singapore or India or Canada. When u sign up, you should install an addin to your Office applications. This addin provides an additional menu in Office applications that lets you save and retrieve documents from Workspace directly! This enables multiple people to work on the same document. And you can create various kinds of workspaces to categorise the work you are doing! With the activity pane, you can also track what changes are being made to the document. but saving documents (excel, powerpoint or word docs) isn't the only thing you can do here! Check out this screenshot that shows other things that you can include in your workspace: And using Workspace now comes with a win...

Encouraging Diversity - Women Students from Engg. Colleges: Interested in j
2008-02-26 08:49:00
Microsoft India is going to be conducting an All India Selection Test for women engineers who are completing their courses in year 2008. You have to be from Comp. Science/IT/Information Sciences discipline and completing a recognised BE/B.Tech/ME/M.Tech course. Students interested in appearing for this test will have to submit their resumes at www.merittrac.net/microsoft  with the last date of receiving the application being 1st March 08. This test is being conducted on Saturday 8th March 08  that coincides with the International Women ?s Day across eleven test centers across India. More information on test centers, schedules, contact details for are also available at the above link. However, just clearing the test doesn't get you the Microsoft job. The students clearing this test will go thru the various levels of interviews before being made the offer to join Microsoft. This effort is a part of the diversity campaign within Microsoft. I think this is an "excellent" eff...
More About: Diversity , Colleges

Web 2.0 Storage: Skydrive is now RELEASED!
2008-02-22 09:26:00
Skydrive from Microsoft has now been released! Earlier, the free online space from Microsoft was only released as a BETA in 3 countries (I had written about it here)...with this release, Skydrive is now released to most of the world (officially to 38 countries) and hosts large storage of 5 GB :).. it was earlier only 500 MB when in BETA..i have been sharing documents on this service.. everything has been perfect except when i wanted to share some ZIP files that created some problems.. however, with this release that error also seems to be fixed :)..welcome to web 2.0 storage!Technorati tags: skydrive
More About: Storage , Released

Games Everywhere: XBOX Live & at Zune
2008-02-21 18:16:00
We all love games.. we all love XBOX.. we all love Zune ... and now all of it is coming together... hey wait, I like to write games too.. so be it - one can now author games and run it on Zune and share it on XBOX Live ! I personally think that this is a gaint leap for the Microsoft platform from 2 perspectives: It is community focused. The games that are authored by community members can now be shared on XBOX Live and downloaded for FREE! Interoperability between MS products at a deep level. Zune and XBOX both have direct dependency on the hardware it runs on and by enabling games to be written on both, MS has unlocked huge synergistic benefits.. sometime ago, i was thinking about Zune and wondering why doesn't it take benefit of Silvelight capabilites. going by the direction things are moving it may soon be a reality! One can develop these games using the XNA Game Studio 2.0 toolset for free from http://creators.xna.com .. there are already 7 games available on the XBOX Live fro...
More About: Games , Xbox , Xbox Live

New Version: Microsoft Forums
2008-02-16 06:46:00
Microsoft has been running newsgroups and forums to provide community support for its products.. incidentally, many MVPs come from forums where they are TOP contributors to the forums..but this isn't about MVPs today :)it is about MS forums... to begin with Microsoft used Community Server from Telligent to host its forums. And now they are revamping the same on to its own code.. in the background, there seems to be an entire Community Platform emerging with blogs, tags, forums & wikis within Microsoft.. (very much in line with MSs focus on community).. The new forums are available at:http://forums.msdn.microsoft.com/http: //forums.technet.microsoft.com/http://for ums.community.microsoft.com/However, the older forums are also around and the migration will be done in a phased manner. there are plenty of exciting features in this release:· Dynamic Posting, Quoting and Paging: Now posting, quoting posts and paging in a thread are now all client site events. Users can post replies or ...
More About: Microsoft , Forums , Version