I got hurt in my right eye when I was trying to pull a stapler from a box with a plier. And I have to undergo a surgery to fix it. All these days I wasn’t been able to post to my blog because of this unexpected situation.
Please keep me in your prayers and as soon as I recover from this surgery I’ll get back to the normal posting habit on my blog.
Sorry my friends. Please be safe.
- Askar
We saw how quick the 1,000 XBox 360’s went off on Week 1 of Amazon’s Customers Vote program. I think it wasn’t even 4 minutes before it said that it’s sold out. I tried my best but couldn’t get one.
Now is Week 2. Not so great of things when compared to Week 1. Here is what they have for week 2.
To me, the Amazon Prime Membership looks cool. I might vote for that. What would you vote for?
On how to vote to get these items at these low prices, check out my previous post.
Go…vote for it…and let’s get the best of every week’s items at these low prices.
If you are upto the standards and you use multiple (extended) monitors at home or work then you should have to have these tools to make life easier. Media Chance has a Task Bar that extends to the second or even the third monitor so that you can have your own Task Bar for each monitors.
Here is what it does,
The cool thing about this tool is that it adds a “Move To” button at the top of each window which will allow you to move the window from one monitor to the other with a click of a button.
It’s a pretty handy tool if you use multiple monitors.
Visit the site here.
Download it from here. (~500KB)
If you are an MSDN Subscriber, head on to fight for bandwidth with every one of your fellow MSDN’ers for Windows Vista. That’s right…Microsoft has released Windows Vista a day earlier than expected. To get the download bits you will need to login with your MSDN subscription credentials and request the proper keys for the installation.
The product key used to install Windows Vista will determine which edition will be installed. The product keys used to install Windows Vista Business N, Windows Vista Home Basic N, and Windows Vista Starter are not currently available.
It looks like MSDN has got only the x86 bits whereas TechNet has got both the x86 and x64 bits.
This single download, which is the file “en_windows_vista_x86_dvd_X12-34293.iso” is an ISO-9660 DVD Image, with a total of 2555 MB, includes the following Windows Vista editions:
Let us know how your install experience was. And enjoy the early Vista experience!!!
So now you’ve bought your Zune player…how about spicing it up with some custom wallpapers? And that too, how about spicing it up with some XBox 360 themed wallpapers?
Visit this site to download some XBox 360 themed wallpapers for your Zune player.
Microsoft chairman Bill Gates said at the annual shareholders meeting on Tuesday that “Microsoft will take Zune even further by connecting Zune to the Windows PC or Xbox, there is a lot more coming there”.
Yes, Microsoft plans to extend the wireless capability of its new Zune device to PCs and the company’s Xbox 360 game console, according to Gates. Zune, Microsoft’s competitor to the iPod, shipped with the capability for users to share photos, videos and music between Zune devices. However, Gates says that eventually Microsoft will connect Zune to other Microsoft products that serve as content and entertainment platforms.
Gates says that Zune’s wireless connectivity is just one way Microsoft is changing how people enjoy and share various multimedia. “We’re changing entertainment from something you do in isolation to connected entertainment,” he says.
Connecting Zune with its Xbox 360 console seems like a logical next step for Microsoft, as the company is promoting both as devices to serve up a variety of multimedia content. Later this month, Microsoft will allow customers to download movies and television programs to their Xbox 360 gaming consoles through the Xbox Live Marketplace, an online store where Xbox users already can purchase game updates and other content.
To facilitate the Xbox video-downloading service, Microsoft signed a deal that allows it to sell or rent an initial 1,000 hours of programming from various broadcasting companies, such as CBS Broadcasting, Viacom’s MTV Networks and Paramount Pictures and Turner Broadcasting System. The company signed similar deals with record labels such as Sub Pop Records to provide some of the initial media on its Zune devices.
Source: ComputerWorld
It’s official. Amazon has confirmed that they have 1,000 of brand new XBox 360’s that are available for sale this Thanksgiving day for $100.
When I blogged about this early on I thought it might be very less in numbers and the lucky ones will get one. But it turns out that Amazon will be offering 1,000 XBox 360’s. That is quite a number. Still I know that it will disappear in few minutes for sure.
To get this you have a part to play. You have to vote on to get one. Read my other post on how to vote your favorite product at Amazon so that it can be made available at these prices.
Go vote. Keep in mind that you can cast your vote each week for the next 4 weeks. Go for it.
You’ve heard about the rumor/speculation that Amazon is planning to sell XBox 360 for $100 this Thanksgiving day. I’ve even blogged about that. Now to add more juice to it here is what Amazon says on their web site. Take a look at the picture on the right.
Yes, Amazon is asking for you to vote before they decide what to put on for this Thanksgiving day. I’d vote for the XBox 360 offer and the 1 year Amazon Prime Membership. Since I can’t vote for both I would rather vote for the XBox 360 deal.
To add a bit more lime to the juice, Amazon says they are going to offer deal like this for the next 4 weeks this holiday season but with each deal the items listed would be different. That makes it even more interesting.
Here is what you have to do to make this deal happen,
Keep in mind that you can vote once every week for the next 4 weeks this holiday season. Bookmark the page and keep a reminder on your Google Calendar (How to bring Google Calendar on to your Windows desktop?) and keep hitting the site at least once a week.
So I ask you, please go ahead and vote for it here.
PS: For XBox 360 vote Amazon says,
Voting ends Tuesday, November 21, and the winning item will be announced Wednesday, November 22. It goes on sale Thanksgiving Day at 2 p.m. Eastern, 11 a.m. Pacific.
Texter™, a new plug-in kind of device for the game controllers from Blue Orb Inc. lets you send text messages from your Playstation® 2 and XBox 360™ game controllers. This would particularly be helpful for the gamers who need to message with their buddies and enemies while they are on the game. It’s particularly useful for XBox™ Live Chat.
It’s kind of a new way of typing without the traditional keyboard. They claim that its 5 times faster than the tradition keyboard typing. I haven’t tried it though so I’m not sure how true the claim is.
The Texter™ also allows you to use your controller to type on a PC!
The Texter™ is currently available for the Playstation® 2 and will soon be available for the Xbox 360.
Visit this page to get an idea of what all these means.
Gizmodo has a nice comparison on Zune vs iPod. Here is a gist of it,
You want a bigger screen: Zune.
You need an all-you-can-eat subscription service: Zune.
You want a store with a larger music library: iPod.
You want a movie and TV store: iPod.
You want contacts, calendar, notes, stopwatch, and iPod Games: iPod.
You want to be different/want something new: Zune.
Xbox 360 owners who purchase music and want streaming: Zune.
Xbox 360 owners who purchase music and don’t want streaming: iPod.
You want a scratch resistant player: Zune.
You want a built-in FM tuner: Zune.
You want a touch-sensitive scroll wheel: iPod.
Read the full article here.
I was at an Office Depot store last night and came across to experience Microsoft’s Zune player, the latest Gizmo. I was following the trend on Zune and have even blogged about it.
I own an iPod 30GB Video and I love it. It’s pretty sleek and the video looks crisp and above all, the all famous, scroll wheel. If at all I complain anything about iPod I would complain my (horrible) experience with iTunes. For some reason it never worked for me in a pleasant way. That’s another reason I was looking at and (eagerly) waiting for Zune to hit the market so that I can see if it’s worth buying it. BTW, I run Windows based OS (XP Pro and XP Media Center Edition) and I’m not sure if that makes any difference.
Anyways, I was attracted with Zune for it’s FM radio capability, wireless sharing and a bit more screen real estate. Even though I hate the color cases of Zune I thought it would be cool. But after my experience at Office Depot I was a bit disappointed with what Zune has to offer. Sure there is FM radio and wireless sharing, but these are the stuffs that made me disappointed,
I haven’t experienced the Zune Market Place but I hope that to be at least better. To me the whole Zune player looked to me like Microsoft just rushed to bring this to the market at the time of holiday shopping. I would rather say they should have taken the time to make it better than just rushing. But again…it’s Microsoft and they have billions on hand. I hope they would make at least Zune2 a better one.
I would hold on to my lovely iPod 30GB Video. Apple…hey…are you there?…can you please make this freaky iTunes work with my Media Center PC? That would be great.
Michael Arlington at TechCrunch reports this,
If you are thinking of buying an Xbox 360 in the next few days, don’t. We’ve gotten information that Amazon may be putting the $300 Xbox 360 bundle on sale for $100 in the next week or so as a promotional move for the holiday season. We don’t know if this will be limited to the Xbox or will include other items, or exactly how many will be put on sale – but it came from a rock solid source.
I’ll keep you posted as this story develops.
In the next two months Yahoo is going to integrate instant messaging with the Yahoo Mail platform. With the new beta platform already being popular among the users this will add a new boost to the already popular email client.
Unlike Gmail with Talk, Yahoo is planning to tightly integrate instant messaging into the UI framework itself to give the users a unified look and feel as Yahoo Mail Beta.
Here is a picture for you to visualize on what that means.
Hope it doesn’t slow down the Yahoo Mail performance. We have to wait and see. But I think this step forward is in the right direction as many times it happens that users can access Yahoo Mail but couldn’t get to the messenger at some places, for example at work. This will greatly resolve that issue.
With all the cool things that Gmail already offers, here are some new features that Gmail team has added to Gmail and is available for you to experience.
Reply on top
No more scrolling to the bottom of a long message to find the “Reply” link. Now there’s a Reply button right on top, along with a lot of other options under the little dropdown arrow.
Embarrassment-reducing new message notifications
Ever replied to a message only to find out that someone sent a better, smarter reply right before you? Now, if someone sends a reply while you’re in the middle of reading a conversation (or replying to it), you’ll get a notification that a new message has arrived. Click “update conversation” to see what you’ve missed.
Forward all
When viewing a conversation, use the new “Forward all” link on the right if you want to forward the entire conversation instead of just one message.
Chat even when your friends are offline
Chatting in Gmail just keeps getting better. Now, if you’re chatting with a friend who goes offline, your friend will be able to see whatever you were typing the next time he or she goes online.
I’m a regular viewer at Channel9. I keep hitting that site at least once a day. It has such great content in video and what I like the most is that they’ve put a human face to the otherwise hidden development team at Microsoft. Even though it had great content I never liked the design of the pages. It always looked to me like they were stuck with the <tr><td> world.
I was surprised to see that they are working on a new redesigned Channel9 which looks much better than the old design. Here is what the home page looks like. (click on the image below for the full image. If you cannot see the image click this link for the full image.)
I particularly like the new layout and also the many different download options. It looks like with the new design you can download Channel9 videos to your iPod, PSP, Windows Media Player and guess what, to Zune as well. That’s plenty of options and surely will make the life of the viewers a lot easy.
Thank you Channel9 team. Keep up the good work.
I’m a big fan of Robert Scoble. For those of you who have no idea of who Robert Scoble is,
He got me addicted to Channel9 and I keep hitting that site at least once a day so far that I can remember. I like his “who are you?” introduction. And lately he got me addicted to his ScobleShow which is another site that I keep hitting it quite often lately. He truly is an inspiration to me.
Anyways, he used to be a kind of guy who posts to his blog consistently but with fewer posts. I just noticed lately that he has started posting it quite often with growing number of posts. That makes it exciting.
Keep posting Robert. And keep posting more videos on ScobleShow. Hope you find the time.
We all work out, we all need re-hydration, we all buy Gatorade…and you know that it’s expensive over a period of time. Yaniverse has a nice, simple, cost effective and do-it-yourself alternative to Gatorade.
Here is the gist of how.
EnerT Ingredients (32 oz or about 1 liter):
Contains:
Estimated Cost:
Compare to 32 oz Gatorade:
PS: Adding a bit of lime on top of lemon will make it taste better to me.
I’ve posted the ingredients up here as I normally feel uncomfortable with the trust factor of external links. But if you want to read the source of the article, visit here.
I don’t remember where I came across this but here is a bit of something to smile about.
An American decided to write a book about famous churches around the world.
So he bought a plane ticket and took a trip to China. On his first day he was inside a church taking photographs when he noticed a golden telephone mounted on the wall with a sign that read “$10,000 per call”.
The American, being intrigued, asked a priest who was strolling by what the telephone was used for. The priest replied that it was a direct line to heaven and that for $10,000 you could talk to God. The American thanked the priest and went along his way.
Next stop was in japan. There, at a very large cathedral, he saw the same golden telephone with the same sign under it. He wondered if this was the same kind of telephone he saw in china and he asked a nearby nun what its purpose was. She told him that it was a direct line to heaven and that for $10,000 he could talk to God. ”O.K., thank you,” said the American.
He then traveled to Russia, Germany, France, Sri Lanka and Pakistan.
In every church he saw the same golden telephone with the same “$10,000 per call” sign under it.
Finally he thought he would stop by at India to see if they have the same phone there as well.He arrived in India, and again, in the first church he entered, there was the same golden telephone, but this time the sign under it read “One Rupee per call.”
The American was surprised so he asked the priest about the sign.
“Father, I’ve traveled all over the world and I’ve seen this same golden telephone in many churches. I’m told that it is a direct line to Heaven and so it was priced at $10,000 per call.
Why is it so cheap here?”The priest smiled and answered, “You’re in India now, son – it’s just a local call”.
For those us who use Firefox day-in and day-out are kind of blessed, particularly when it comes to trying to find something on a page. We just either start typing-in and let Firefox do the inline search and move to the block of text that matches or we “Ctrl + F” and then type-in the text that we want to find. Blessed are the Firefoxers.
Now think about the same experience if you are using Internet Explorer. IE, by default, comes with a modal search dialog that’s pretty much annoying at times of searching thru long pages. Now, blessing arrives for IEers in the form of InlineSearch.
InlineSearch is a free add-on for Internet Explorer that brings into IE the same search experience of Firefox. It pretty much behaves the same as Firefox search. It hijacks only the search shortcut key “Ctrl + F”. What does that mean? That means for those patriotic IEers you can still go back to the traditional IE search by using the Edit menu.
Here are some shortcuts that would be handy when using InlineSearch,
CTRL-F – to open/refresh the search pane
ESC – to close the search pane when in focus
F3 or ENTER – find the next occurrence
SHIFT-F3 – find the previous occurrence (Shift-Enter works too)
You can download InlineSearch from here.
Note: It plays nice with IE versions 5.5 and above.
It seems like by last Friday, November 3rd, at approximately 2:30 PM Microsoft Office Team has signed off on build 4518.1014 as the 2007 Microsoft Office system and has released it to manufacturing.
How you can get Office 2007?
Office 2007 products will be available at retail by early 2007 so you’ll be able to get your hands on them soon. Business customers will be able to get Office 2007 through the volume licensing program before the end of this year.
Red Gate has released a public beta of a new tool, SQL Doc.
SQL Doc is a simple tool for documenting your SQL Server 2000 and SQL Server 2005 databases. You can download this beta from here.
This beta release of SQL Doc includes the following features:
- Document one or many databases
- Produce documentation in HTML, with or without frames
- Includes all cross-database dependencies
- Live preview pane
- Command line access version
Limitations:
As you know, this is a beta release and will probably contain some bugs.
And they claim that the following are the known issues which they claim will be fixed by the final release:
- Menus do not work correctly under Windows Vista
- Connection properties dialog does not always behave correctly when editing an existing project
The picture below will give you an idea of what SQL Doc can do. Click on the picture to view the original size.
Breaking News:
Just few minutes ago, Jim Allchin, Co-President of the Platforms & Services Division at Microsoft , announced that Windows Vista is ready for RTM (Released To Manufacturing). There are no further updates on when it is going to be available for the MSDNeners to download. I’ll keep you updated as soon as I come to know.
Congrats to the folks involved and Congrats Jim!!! Well done!!!
Microsoft just officially released the .NET Framework 3.0 version.
You can download the .NET Framework 3.0 components here:
Note, if you are using Windows Vista the .NET Framework 3.0 Runtime Components are installed by default. For all other operating systems you have to install it manually by clicking on the appropriate links above.
The Readme for the released version of the .NET Framework 3.0 is available here. If you have a previous .NET Framework 3.0 CTP installed, please be sure to review the uninstall instructions. If you have questions about installing the .NET Framework 3.0, please post your questions to the .NET Framework Setup Forum.
ABC27 reports this,
Harrisburg City is getting high-tech help to fight crime.
Sixty small listening devices will be placed on utility poles and buildings in the Allison Hill neighborhood by next Spring. Gun crime has been prevalent in that neighborhood.
The devices can detect the sound of a gunshot, and almost instantly, pinpoint where it came from to within three feet. A radio device then relays the information to police with 10 to 12 seconds.
District Attorney Ed Marsico says the devices should help to cut down on crime. “The single greatest benefit will be response time,” said Marsico. “I also hope there’s a deterrent effect.”
The technology, marketed under the name Secures, will cost 120,000 dollars to buy and install, a price tag covered by two grants. Marsico says after a year, his office could apply for more grant money to purchase additional listening devices.
Similar technology is being used in other cities; such as Houston, Chicago, and Charleston, South Carolina.
Amazon is now offering free one month trial membership to their Amazon Prime program. With an Amazon Prime membership you can get free 2-day shipping on almost all items sold by Amazon.com. I’ve used this program before and it was pretty handy particularly this holiday season.
Here is what you should do to get the free trial,
Have it handy during this holiday season.
The picture says it all. Zune™ is all set to be launched right on time for the holidays 2006. As the image says it is scheduled to be launched by Nov 14, 2006. For a comparable configuration (with iPod) of 30G, Zune is a bit cheaper than iPod, at $249.99. I particularly like the widescreen format even though the click-wheel is a huge miss.
Here are some interesting facts/specs about Zune™, if you care.
Size and Weight
4.4 in. x 2.4 in. x 0.6 in. (h x w x d)
Weight: 5.6 ounces
Battery[2]
Music, up to 14 hours (wireless off), up to 13 hours (wireless on); pictures, up to 4 hours; video, up to 4 hours
Charge Time: 3 hours; 2 hours to 90%
Display
Size: 3.0 inches
Orientation: Vertical and Horizontal
Resolution: 320 x 240 pixels
Audio
Windows Media® Audio Standard (.wma): Up to 320 Kbps, CBR and VBR, up to 48-kHz sample rate
MP3 (.mp3): Up to 320 Kbps, CBR and VBR, up to 48-kHz sample rate
AAC (.mp4, .m4a, .m4b, .mov): Up to 320 Kbps, Low Complexity (LC), up to 48-kHz sample rate
Pictures
JPEG (.jpg): All resolutions (desktop software will automatically convert to 640×480 at sync time)
Video
Windows Media Video (.wmv): Main Profile, CBR or VBR, up to 1.5 Mbps peak video bitrate, 320 x 240 pixels, 30 frames per sec., with Windows Media Audio up to 192 Kbps, 44.1 kHz, stereo audio; Simple Profile, CBR, up to 736 Kbps video bitrate, 320 x 240 pixels, 30 frames per sec., with Windows Media Audio up to 192 Kbps, 44.1 kHz, stereo audio.
Wireless
Connectivity: 802.11 b/g
Range: Up to 30 feet
Language
English
PS: I’ve bought a 30G Video iPod and wasn’t happy with the way it syncs with iTunes. So many times it hangs and I had to sync it multiple times to get the stuff done. I hate that portion of it. I have to wait and see how Zune™ fills in that space. If so then I might give Zune™ a try.
Here is the theme that I use in my laptop lately. It’s called Royale Noir and is based on the Windows Media Center Royale theme, enhanced. I’ve heard that it was developed at the time when Royale (the blue) was developed. But someone at Microsoft thought this is too powerful for them to release it to the public and have since then abandoned/archived it.
I was using the Royale (the blue) theme all these days. It definitely is an improvement over the default XP Luna theme. I keep my Task Bar in the side (to utilize my widescreen laptop real estate) and Royale seems to be too con-complacent with that. With this new Royale Noir theme, it nicely docks the Task Bar to the side and makes it look better than before.
I particularly like the cool dark color rather the bright blue. Also keep in mind that the world is moving to the black Vista in the near future. You know that. So, this is my baby step to get used to the life the way it is.
Since this skin was never released officially there are a few issues with it: the selected items background color doesn’t seem to match the overall theme and the inactive titlebars are too blackish.
But the good news is that it’s been signed by Microsoft and doesn’t require a custom UxTheme.dll patch in case there are any doubts to its authenticity.
If you already have Royale installed, you’ll need to remove it as both of these skins share the same name. But in my case it wasn’t a problem as I’ve named my Windows/Resources/Themes folder to have a Royale Noir subfolder and that tends to play nice with the Blue Royale theme.
Last, but not least, this skin has not been released to anyone outside Microsoft, until now.
Download Royale Noir Theme from here.
I’m not a big time online book (eBook) reading guy. Having said I have to say that I do have few eBooks that I wish I have the time to read. Normally I used to read ‘em (glance at ’em) using our favorite PDF readers (lately I’m pretty much impressed with the FoxIt Reader). It was boring for sure…but hey…we didn’t have a choice. But now I cannot have that excuse.
Adobe Labs lately came up with a flash based eBook Reader and they’ve weirdly named it as “Digital Editions”. The name might be fitting in their books but on my book. I wish they should have chosen a different name which can reflect more of the product than just a fancy name.
Anyway, I had this on my list of items to do for a few days now. I couldn’t find the time to download and review it a bit. Today I got the time and have downloaded the latest beta version of Adobe Digital Editions and have just peaked at an eBook that I wanted to read for a while now. It looks pretty cool to me. The installation was a breeze with “almost no user interaction”. I particularly liked the black background that tend to occupy the whole desktop area when you are in the reading mode. That’s pretty cool to make all the distractions hidden in the background.
Also, I like the way the library has been separated from the current reading pane and the cool thing is that it remembers the last layout when you’ve exited Digital Editions and takes you to that layout which is pretty helpful in places, particularly when reading, when you have a multi-page eBook and wanted to jump directly into where you left off the last time. That’s pretty neat.
Things to keep in mind is that it still is in Beta edition and so things might not have been as sturdy as it is supposed to be. And also I’ve noticed that it was taking around 50 MB of memory space when loaded with around 10 eBooks (only one open at the reading pane). 50 MB is not a big deal if you are on the multi-Gig group but if you are on the multi-Mega group then you might want to watch out as our lovely Foxit Reader (with the same eBook open) took only around 11 MB, which is quite a difference. So you weigh in your options and if you have the infrastructure to go for it then go for it. It surely is a worthy product to keep it in your Frequent Programs list.
You can download Adobe Digital Editions Beta from here.
