Karthik.K's Online Space! » Microsoft

An OS built on Microsoft Silverlight

Karthik.K — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 14:07:02 +0000

I’m posting this quick blogpost now. I just came across this awesome OS that was built on Microsoft Silverlight. And this is what it is all about the all new SolveOS

SilveOS.com is a Silverlight operating system (sometimes called a Web OS or a Webtop or a cloud computer). It brings the convenience and comfort you know from classical desktop applications into your browser. SilveOS.com gives you a familiar work interface that looks the same whether you’re working at your home computer, or remotely from a borrowed or public computer. System hosts all of your data and applications on the web so that they are accessible from Internet browser and not tied down locally to any one. You can launch applications right away without installation and it will be executed in draggable and resizable windows.

Hope you like it! I liked this concept a lot!

Download Windows 7 SP1 Public Beta now

Karthik.K — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 02:33:52 +0000

As expected, Microsoft has released the public beta of Windows 7 Service Pack 1. This SP1 includes the much hyped RemoteFX. RemoteFX allows host based 3D rendering, allowing users to access a remote computer and experience the multimedia content in their system.

The new SP1 has all the up-to-date hot fixes that were released and also adds support for USB 3.0 [Probably]. The Windows 7 Service Pack 1 can be downloaded here at Tech Evaluation Center.

Microsoft Virtualization R2 Solutions eBook – Download Now!

Karthik.K — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 12:17:41 +0000

Microsoft Press has released an eBook on the Microsoft Virtualization technology. This eBook also covers a variety of topics, which includes Microsoft Remote Desktop services in Windows Server 2008, Microsoft Virtual Desktop Infrastructure, Microsoft Application Virtualization 4.5, Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization, Windows Virtual PC and Windows XP Mode, System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008, and Microsoft’s private and public cloud computing platforms.

These are the following chapters in the eBook:

Chapter 1: Why Virtualization?.
Chapter 2: Server Virtualization.
Chapter 3: Local Desktop Virtualization.
Chapter 4: Remote Desktop Virtualization.
Chapter 5: Virtualization Management.
Chapter 6: Cloud Computing.

This eBook has been authored by the MVP, Mitch Tulloch.

You can download the eBook here, which is available in two versions:

XPS version: Download Here

PDF Version: Download Here

Free Upgrade to Office 2010 from Office 2007 (Technology Guarantee Program)

Karthik.K — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 17:24:59 +0000

We all know that the much awaited Microsoft Office 2010 is ready to hit the software market very soon. As a mark of this step, its now in its RTM stage. The Rumor is that Office 2010 will be officially released to manufacturing on April 2010, while Microsoft promises that Office 2010 will hit the retail stores on June 2010.

To avoid affecting sales of Office 2007 in the immediate months waiting for imminent release of Office 2010, Microsoft looks set to offer Office 2010 Technology Guarantee Program, similar to Windows 7 Upgrade Options and Windows Vista Technology Guarantee Program, which provides free upgrade to Office 2010 when it’s officially released to GA (general availability) for newly purchased Office 2007.

According to a blog post (has since been deleted, but still accessible via Google Cache) by Charles Van Heusen, a Microsoft’s Technology Specialist on Microsoft U.S. Partner Community (ts2community.com), Microsoft Office 2010 Technology Guarantee Program will allow customer who buys qualifying Office 2007 product (with or without a new PC) from an authorized reseller between March 5 – September 30, 2010 to download and receive the corresponding Office 2010 for free, complete with activation product key. The retail prices of Office 2010 has also been revealed.

Good news is that end-user doesn’t have to worry about whether the PC can run Office 2010 after upgrading, as Office 2010 system requirements generally is the same for both Office 2007 and Office 2010. Which means the computer that can run Office 2007 can run Office 2010 too.

Generally, customers who intend to take advantage of the free Office 2010 upgrade program has to do the following:

Purchase or buy a qualifying Office 2007 product (with or without a new PC) from an authorized reseller between March 5 – September 30, 2010.
Install and activate Office 2007 by September 30, 2010.
Request the free upgrade to Office 2010 by October 31, 2010.
Office 2010 can be downloaded for free when it’s generally available, or customers can order a DVD for a fee.

The qualifying Office 2007 suite products and the corresponding free upgrade path to Office 2010 suite SKU:

Office Home and Student 2007 -> Office Home & Student 2010
Office Standard 2007 -> Office Home and Business 2010
Office Small Business 2007 -> Office Professional 2010
Office Professional 2007 -> Office Professional 2010
Microsoft Publisher 2007 -> Microsoft Publisher 2010

In addition, the free Office 2010 upgrade product key must be requested by October 31, 2010 using the activated Office 2007 product Key and dated sales receipt. And, only one Office 2010 product per qualifying Office 2007 purchase, and the free upgrade licenses is limited to a maximum of twenty-five upgrades per person.

Thanks to My Digital Life for the info.

Microsoft Office 2010 RTM Escrow Build 14.0.4734.1000 Details Leaked

Karthik.K — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 13:11:10 +0000

Now, that’s interesting. Microsoft Office 2010 pricing details and system requirements have already leaked. Now once again we have some more information from a reliable source about the almost final build of the much anticipated Microsoft product. The RTM Escrow Build 14.0.4734.1000 has already been rolled out to Microsoft employees.

Here are some information that I’ve collected from various reliable sources and blogs:

14.0.4734.1000 RTM Escrow

14.0.4730.1007 pre-RTM Escrow

14.0.4730.1006

14.0.4709.1000

14.0.4702.1000

14.0.4615.1000

14.0.4605.1000

14.0.4536.1000

14.0.4517.1000

14.0.4514.1009 BETA-2

14.0.4514.1004

14.0.4514.1003

14.0.4417.1000 BETA-1

14.0.4302.1000 BETA-1

14.0.4006.1110

14.0.4006.1010 TECHNICAL PREVIEW

14.0.3524.1003

Let’s see if this build leaks.

List of Microsoft Twitter profiles

Karthik.K — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 08:24:37 +0000

Hey all,

Being a Microsoft enthusiast, I follow a lot of twitter profiles of Microsoft. I just created a list for Microsoft in my twitter account, and thought I would share with you all. Here goes the long list of Microsoft Twitter profiles:

@MSWindows – Microsoft Windows
@ie – Internet Explorer
@Bing – Bing Search
@bingcashback – Bing Cash back
@bizspark – Microsoft BizSpark
@zunemarketplace – Zune Marketplace
@wmdev – Windows Mobile Development Team
@windowsmobile – Windows Mobile
@MicrosoftUP – Microsoft Unlimited Potential
@microsofttag – Microsoft Tag
Office_Live – Office Live Team
@officelabs – Microsoft Office Labs
@adCenterBlog – Microsoft adCenter
@MicrsftTech4All – Microsoft Accessibility team
@MicrosoftStore – The Microsoft Store
@MicrosoftPress – Microsoft Press
@Microsoft_Green – roheline Microsoft
@MSOfficeResKit – Microsoft Office Resource Kit Team
@Microsoft_Xbox – Xbox
@MSMyPhone – Microsoft My Phone Team
@msaccess – Microsoft Access
@WindowsLive – Microsoft Windows Live
@liveframework – Windows Live Framework
@livemesh – Windows Live Mesh
@wlmessenger – Windows Live Messenger
@SharePoint – SharePoint
@SilverlightNews – Silverlight News
@fixit4me – Microsoft Fix It
@Live_at_edu – Microsoft Live@edu
@MSSurface – Microsoft Surface
@ZuneInsider – Zune Insider blog
@ch9 – Channel 9
@ch10 – Channel 10
@ch8 – Channel 8
@tnedge – TechNet Edge
@mixonline – Mix Online
@MIX09 – The MIX09 (others @MIX07, @MIX08 and @PDC08)
@AskTechNetUK – TechNet UK
@SiteNamedDesire – A Website Named Desire
@MSDN – MSDN team
@codeplex – Microsoft’s CodePlex
@MSExpression – Microsoft Expression
@XNACommunity – XNA Creators Club
@MSAdvertising – Microsoft Advertising
@msPartner – Microsoft Partner Programm
@MSFTResearch – Microsoft Research
@MSRobotics - Microsoft Robotics
@bizspark – Microsoft BizSpark
@XAMLEvents – Silverlight Events
@projectrosetta – from Flash to Silverlight
@MVPAwardProgram – MVP Award Program
@Micrsoft_EDU – Microsoft EDU
@ContinuumShow – Microsoft Client Continuum

Please feel free to post some twitter profiles of Microsoft if I have left something!

Muscle-Computer Interfaces (muCIs) – Microsoft Research Project

Karthik.K — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 19:35:49 +0000

Microsoft research is not resting and is continuously proving to be innovative. Microsoft Research’s new project concentrates on Muscle Based input to computers, which typically uses the electrical signals that our forearms produce. The electrical signals are read by a special device attached to the person’s arms. These signals are compared with the gestures stored and the computer is made to react accordingly!

This project seems to be pretty interesting and I think it will revolutionize the way people interact with their lovely computers. The current model in research provides Six Electromyography Sensors (EMG) placed on a person’s upper right forearms, which serves as the input. Despite these, 2 other additional sensors are also provided at the person’s upper left forearm to recognize person’s hand squeezes.

Event though the detection may be approximately good, the Software must be trained before it can be used. The algorithm used now is the standard Machine learning algorithm, which uses three aspects of EMG:

1. Magnitude of the person’s activity

2. Wave patterns

3. Rate of the activity of muscle

It is also told that once the software knows or understands your gesture, it can determine approx. 80% of your input commands. And this really seems to be pretty cool! The team consisting 7 great people, says that their aim is to provide seamless interaction between the user and the computer with ease. And I really wish that this is going to go big in a very little time. The following video shows a small demo of the research project:

I’m really excited and hoping to get my muscle working on this technology if I get a chance!

Imagine Cup 2010 – Poland

Karthik.K — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 13:06:34 +0000

"I wish there had been an Imagine Cup when I was growing up. It gets people involved in seeing that software is changing the world."

- Bill Gates
Chairman, Microsoft Corp

With this note, starts the World’s biggest student technology competition – Imagine Cup 2010, which is to be held in Poland. Imagine Cup is one way Microsoft is encouraging young people to apply their imagination, their passion, and their creativity to bring to life technology innovations that can make a difference in the world – today.

Imagine Cup, providing a very neat battle for the technical brains, is now in its 8th year! The last year’s Imagine Cup had 300,000 students across 142 countries who participated in Imagine Cup. Many students think that Imagine Cup is a very big global competition and I might fail to win if I participate. But that’s not the fact. Imagine Cup serves students with a lot of information and resources with which students can learn, play and have fun all around!

And now, its time for you students to get started and register for Imagine Cup 2010 and choose your battle. .

Click here to register!

All the best!

Imagine Cup 2010 Poland – Introductory Video!

Connect SQL Azure and SQL Management Studio

Karthik.K — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 16:25:39 +0000

I was meddling with SQL Azure for a while now and was trying to connect from SQL Management Studio. Follow the steps below, which i used to establish a connection between SQL Azure and SQL Management Studio:

Note: You will have to have access to SQL Azure CTP. If not, navigate to http://lx.azure.microsoft.com/

Open up the SQL Management Studio 2008
Cancel the login dialog box that would pop up
Create a ‘New Query’
Now, select the Database engine
Enter the FQDN which you got for SQL Azure server. If you don’t find that, obtain one from the SQL Azure portal.
Enter the login name (@servername) and also your password
Now, select Options
Enter the database name. This is the DB that you would have created. It may be the master or any other database that you have.
Click on connect

Viola!! You are now connected with SQL Azure from your SQL Management Studio 2008. I initially experienced some problems and came to know that it can be rectified, checking the following:

Check the database name, user name, password and Server name
Check the firewall settings. (Your firewall should allow 1433)

If you have got any query, please feel free to comment here! Would love to help you people! Rock On!

Microsoft Plans for the largest ever patch !

Karthik.K — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 05:21:19 +0000

Its been for a while that Microsoft was working on this patches. And now, Microsoft will deliver its largest-ever number of security updates on Tuesday to fix 13 flaws in every version of Windows, as well as Internet Explorer (IE), Office, SQL Server, important developer tools and Forefront Security client software. Among the updates will be the first for the final, or release to manufacturing, code of Windows 7, Microsoft’s newest operating system. The 13 updates have been planned for next week, eight of them tagged as ‘critical,’ beat the previous record of 12 updates shipped in February 2007 and again in October 2008. And I believe that Windows is getting stronger with these patches.