Ralph Abdo, a Microsoft Office program manager, and Bryan Jones, a systems engineer at Windows Live, were identified among the ten victims killed in a plane crash late Sunday near White Pass, Washington. The Cessna 208B was full of skydivers, part of a skydiving weekend. Todd Bishop at the Seattle PI is asking for stories about the victims, if you’d like to share them.
Both Abdo and Jones worked at Microsoft for seven years. Abdo was 27, Jones was 34.
Abdo’s LinkedIn profile says he attended McGill University. He is the owner of a patent for “Provisioning computing services via an on-line networked computing environment”. He posted on Yahoo Groups like this windsurfing one under the name “LetsGoScubaDive“.
October 9th, 2007
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
Corporate |
one comment
If you look in Windows Vista Media Center now, you should see the new Internet TV button. Under there, you’ll get to look at a number of interesting videos, including every single episode of Arrested Development, concerts, movie trailers, music videos, viral videos, sports highlights, news stories and more. All of it is served streaming over the internet, and all of it is free and supported by the occasional ad.
I had the opportunity to talk to some guys from Microsoft about Internet TV at Digital Life, and they explained that this isn’t a full product, but rather a beta test for a bigger setup Microsoft would like to pull off. Basically, they want as many users as possible to try it out, watch as much video as possible, so Microsoft can stress test the system, see what works, and expand it into a full Internet TV platform for Media Center.
I think the whole think works beautifully. Assuming Microsoft can sign up enough content partners, it could provide a ton of free video content for Media Center users. With streaming to Extenders and the Xbox 360, Microsoft will be delivering free content as a major bonus to those who invest in this ecosystem, and it can start selling content as well down the road.
If Microsoft wants to be truly smart, it’ll use this to find a way to deliver extra content to owners of Windows Vista Ultimate as an Ultimate Extra, like free movies, or give them content earlier than everyone else. That’ll settle some of the complainers
photos by abrudtkuhl and @le
October 9th, 2007
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
Vista, Media Center, Windows |
4 comments
The Xbox.com forums has a guide for looking inside your new Xbox 360 console with a flashlight to see if you’ve been blessed with the newer, stable-er, cooler “Falcon” Xbox 360s with 65-nanometer chips. They’ve got instructions and photos, so if you’ve just bought a console, this is how you find out if you’ve won the lucky lottery.
For the moment, it seems that the only consoles confirmed with the new Falcon chips are Halo Edition 360s, but as inventory cycles out, all new consoles should have it. At the least, you can look inside to tell the rest of the forums what’s in the new boxes.
(via Xbox 360 Fanboy)
October 9th, 2007
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
Halo, Xbox 360, Xbox |
no comments
Microsoft detailed the editions and pricing for the upcoming Office 2008, the new version of Microsoft Office coming soon for the Mac. They are:
- Mac Office 2008: Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Entourage (email and scheduling). $399.95/$239.95 upgrade
- Mac Office 2008 Home and Student Edition: Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Entourage, but without the ability to connect to an Exchange email server and Automator support, but with 3 non-commercial licenses. $149.95
- Mac Office 2008 Special Media Edition: Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Entourage, plus Expression Media. $499.95/$299.95 upgrade
Frankly, the cost of the regular edition is obscene, completely not worth a 166% premium over the Home and Student Edition, but only adding Exchange support. Microsoft is penalizing businesses that have invested in Exchange Servers to the tune of $250 per employee, an insult to those customers, and it should reduce the price at least $100, probably $200.
If you could outfit three computers with Office 2008 for $150 without Exchange, or $1200 with Exchange, would you buy it? Of course not, and its ridiculous that Microsoft would think this pricing works. Frankly, the difference between the three licenses and the Exchange support is a fair trade-off, and the Home and Student and standard editions should just cost the same. Unless the standard edition contains another advantage, it’s highway robbery, plain and simple.
October 9th, 2007
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
Apple, Office, Applications |
2 comments
Microsoft shipped the anticipated first update for Windows Home Server, which enhances the usability, out-of-the-box experience, firewall issues, remote access troubleshooting, help with creating user accounts, and improvements in backing up computers that disconnect from the network. They even removed the need to enter the product key if Home Server shipped with your computer and removed the need for a reboot the first time your restore a single file.
They’re also talking about Update Release 1, the next update for Home Server. They will be alternating major and minor releases, with the current release a major one and URI being a minor one, expected for November. Read more about it from Mary Jo.
The winners of the first Code2Fame contest for Home Server add-ins were announced, with Andrew Grant picking up first prize for Whiist. Whiist lets you put HTML pages on a Home Server and run it remotely as a regular web server, and drop photos into a folder to be able to view them over the internet. Second prize was a service for backing up your Home Server to Amazon S3, and third prize was an add-in that pulls text, audio or video from RSS feeds for sharing to Home Server connected devices.
October 9th, 2007
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
Home Server, Server, Windows |
no comments
Released:
Windows Server 2008 Release Candidate 0 was released, and customers and partners can download and test-drive it while Microsoft sees if the code is ready for gold release at the end of the year.
Released:
Windows Vista Service Pack 1 has been released to select beta testers on Microsoft Connect.
Released:
Microsoft also released four patches for Windows Vista, available for download right now by everyone, and they will be part of Vista SP1. The patches are for compatibility and reliability (including extending mobile battery life, stability of wireless networking, shortening startup time), fixes USB problems, updates Media Player 11, an update rollup for Media Center
Released:
Windows XP Service Pack 3 was released to MSDN and TechNet testers, with testing set to complete with final release in the first half of next year.
October 9th, 2007
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
Server, XP, Vista, Windows |
no comments
Turns out there’s an Xbox 360 Elite Accessory Kit, a small package that gets you some 360 accessories, all in black. You get a black wireless controller, black Play and Charge Kit, and a Black battery, all for just $50 if you get it right now at Buy.com. The Kit is normally $70, and a wireless controller is normally $50, so this is a great deal whether you like the black color or not. If it’s your first time using Google Checkout, you can scoop it up for a mere $40.
(via SlickDeals)
October 9th, 2007
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
General |
no comments
The How-To Geek has details on a new feature Outlook 2007 has that you may not have noticed: Overlaying multiple calendars on each other so you can view them in a single view and compare appointments, just like Google Calendar does. Just activate more than one calendar with the check boxes, then click the little arrow in the top left-hand corner to View in Overlay Mode, and you’ll get a real nice means of tracking everything.
(via LifeHacker)
October 9th, 2007
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
Outlook, Applications |
one comment
Gary Price, ever the domain registration sleuth, has unearthed another batch of domains registered by Microsoft. The include domains like liveapis.com (related to APIs for Windows Live), mssandbox.com, Developersurvey.net and startdoingmore.com.
There’s even a second batch, full of domains like 3DMaptour.com, Cycle-on.org (Microsoft’s new bicycle racing organization, duh!), InnovateOnMobile.com and InnovateOnWindowsMobile.com, Microsoftstudentconnect.com and Mssharepointjobs.org. They also had transferred over Antispymobile.com, Excelfordummies.com (I don’t get it? They don’t publish the book?), Gatesproperty.com, MomAgents.com (Microsoft new moms-as-secret-agents initiative), Msndownloads.net, and Skydrive.biz.
Ha! You thought that was all? Nope, there’s another batch, including Discovermediacenter.com, Federatedidentity (Windows Live ID, I assume?), Healthvaultsearch.com*, ZuneJourney.com, Msharepointforums.com and Mapcruncher.org. Microsoft also had transfered to itself ownership of Livesearchmobile.com, Livesearch411.com and Msglobalexpo.com.
* - Related to Windows Live Health, another story I need to catch up on from vacation
October 9th, 2007
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
General |
no comments
Red Octane, the makers of Guitar Hero 3, have announced the pricing for the Xbox 360 edition of the game, which hits stores October 28. Unlike Rock Band, its big competitor, the Guitar Hero 3 bundle (which includes the game and the guitar controller) will come with a wireless guitar, and not cost one cent more than the PS3 bundle. Both the 360 and PS3 editions, with wireless guitars, will cost $100, while the Wii and PS2 editions will cost $90.
So, if Red Octane can produce a wireless 360 controller at no extra cost, why can’t Harmonix for Rock Band? I’ll probably be buying the Rock Band bundle and the Guitar Hero 3 standalone game (total cost: $230) and get the wired Rock Band controller, along with the drums and microphone, or maybe get the Rock Band and Guitar Hero bundles (total cost: $270), which leaves me with a wired guitar (Rock Band), wireless guitar (Guitar Hero), drums and microphone. Or maybe I’ll just get the Rock Band bundle, plus the Rock Band wireless guitar (total cost: $250) and hock the wired guitar on eBay for $40-60, and wait on Guitar Hero.
See how all the bundling plans are making everything needlessly complicated?
October 9th, 2007
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
Sony, Xbox 360, Xbox |
no comments
