Your guide to interesting stuff
Expect Microsoft to perform a major interface uplift for its homepage soon. The new interface is still in beta and being tested. It sports new navigation system, uses lightboxes extensively and more importantly, it’s standard compliant with tableless design.
So far, it works with Mozilla Firefox very well.
You can view the beta version here.
Quoted Christopher Payne, corporate vice president of Live Search,
“The launch of Live Search is a significant milestone for our services business, with our core search and monetization platform ready for prime time for MSN and Windows Live as well as for partners through syndication deals. We now have the base to weave search through our services in ways that bring value to customers. This is just the beginning. We look forward to continued investment in search to deliver services that bring new levels of control and personalization to the Web experience.”
What happens when you are the richest man on the planet? A computer might be reserved just for you at the tax office of your country to handle your tax calculation, because you might be too wealthy to be handled by the regular computers. Bill Gates, currently the world’s richest man suffers this privilege.
“My tax return in the United States has to be kept on a special computer because their normal computers can’t deal with the numbers,” he said at a Microsoft conference held in Lisbon.
Continue reading ‘Bill Gates too rich for tax computer to handle’
To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the first Windows, Microsoft has unveiled a special limited edition of Windows XP. Dubbed the 20th Anniversary Edition, it will only be available in Japan. Launch date has been set at 9th December and Microsoft is accepting pre-order from 16th November onwards.
The 20th anniversary edition comes with Windows XP with Service Pack 2, replica installation CDs of previous editions of Windows (Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 2000 and Windows ME), Windows box origami, preview edition of Windows Vista, memorial stamps and stickers.
Only 9,999 packages will be available, and the price will be 28,140 Yen (US$235).
Continue reading ‘20th Anniversary Edition Windows XP’
Paul Thurrott of WindowsITPro.com has an exclusive inside news that Microsoft is going to delay the shipment of Windows Vista Beta 2.
The Windows Vista Beta 2 was previously scheduled to be released on December 7, 2005. The delay would push the date to sometime in January or February 2006.
According to a Microsoft representative, the company still remains on track for shipping Windows Vista in the second half of 2006. To cover the lost time caused by the delay of Beta 2, Microsoft would eliminate one of the planned release candidate (RC) milestones that were planned for later in the process.
Continue reading ‘Windows Vista Beta 2 to be delayed’
In an email dated Oct. 30 sent to top Microsoft executives and engineers, Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates said the “This coming ’services wave’ will be very disruptive” and they are now facing competitors who will seize on these approaches and challenge them. He was referring to the Web 2.0 that Microsoft is evidently being left behind the trend.
Dave Winer of scripting.com got his unnamed source to reveal the content of the memo, together with memo from Ray Ozzie, Microsoft CTO.
Here are the excerpts:
Microsoft has always had to anticipate changes in the software business and seize the opportunity to lead.
Ten years ago this December, I wrote a memo entitled The Internet Tidal Wave which described how the internet was going to forever change the landscape of computing. Our products could either prepare for the magnitude of what was to come or risk being swept away. We dedicated ourselves to innovating rapidly and lead the way much to the surprise of many industry pundits who questioned our ability to reinvent our approach of delivering software breakthroughs.
Five years ago we focused our strategy on .NET making a huge bet on XML and Web services. We were a leader in driving these standards and building them into our products and again this has been key to our success. Today, over 92% of the Fortune 100 are utilizing .Net and our current wave of products have XML and Web services at their core and are gaining share because of the bold bet we made back in the year 2000.
Today, the opportunity is to utilize the Internet to make software far more powerful by incorporating a services model which will simplify the work that IT departments and developers have to do while providing new capabilities.
Robert Scoble, the star MSFT blogger call them important memos, he longest he has read since becoming the employee of Microsoft, and “show clear understanding of how the world has changed.”
Continue reading ‘Bill Gates’ memo to key Microsoft employees’
Wonder how the upcoming Microsoft Office 12 is going to look like? Paul of Paul Thurott’s SuperSite for Windows has provided a large number of screenshots of Office 12 Pre-Beta release. The screenshots cover installation, Word 12, Excel 12, PowerPoint 12 and Outlook 12.
Continue reading ‘Office 12 Pre-Beta screenshot galleries’
So the rumor that Microsoft will have an online version of its popular Microsoft Office software is true. Bill Gates said on Tuesday that Microsoft is working on two products, “Windows Live” and “Office Live” that let the company sell online subscription and advertising.
According to Gates, Windows Live is a set of Internet-based personal services, such as e-mail, blogging and instant messaging. Several products have now been showcased and announced at its Live.com Ideas page, which includes Windows Live Mail (which will ultimately replace Hotmail), Windows Live Safety Center, Windows Live Favorites (a social bookmarking tool), Windows Live Messenger (to replace MSN Messenger), Windows OneCare Live and Windows Live Search Mobile. These products are all in beta now, and most of them do not work well in Firefox, yet.
Gates has also unveiled Office Live, which will come in both ad-based and subscription versions to compliment its Microsoft Office desktop productivity suite. Beta version of Microsoft Office Live will launch in early 2006, and you can register now for a beta account when it’s made available (US residents only).
Continue reading ‘Microsoft unveils Windows Live and Office Live’
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