Record Screencast Videos with Microsoft Office Community Clips

Cool little tool...

"Microsoft has introduced a basic screencasting software for Windows (free, of course) that can capture all your desktop activity including the keystrokes and audio."

Click Here to read the rest of the post. Or Click Here to download the Community Clips

Microsoft delays release of Windows XP SP3

"April 29, 2008

Microsoft has delayed the release of a third service pack for Windows XP, blaming a "compatibility issue" between the software and a retail-chain-management application.

Microsoft had said last week that it completed development on Windows XP SP3 (Service Pack 3) and that it would be available via its software-update services on Tuesday. However, incompatibilities discovered in the past several days between an application called Microsoft Dynamics RMS and both Windows XP SP3 and Windows Vista Service Pack 1 will force the company to hold off on releasing the software. Dynamics RMS is a retail-chain-management software for SMBs. "

Click here to read the rest of the article

XP SP3 Available on April 29th

"April 21, 2008 (Computerworld) As expected, Microsoft Corp. today announced that it has finished work on Windows XP Service Pack 3 and released it to computer makers and volume licensing customers.

"Windows XP has released to manufacturing," said Chris Keroack, the service pack's release manager, in a message posted to a TechNet support forum Monday at around 1 p.m. EDT. "Windows XP SP3 bits are now working their way through our manufacturing channels to be available to OEM and enterprise customers."

Last week, the Neowin.net Web site reported that Microsoft would declare XP SP3 as RTM (release to manufacturing) today and follow up by posting it for download on its Web site and through Windows Update April 29. "

Click here to read the rest of the article

xUnit.net - Unit Testing for .NET

"In the 5 years since the release of NUnit 2.0, there have been millions of lines of code written using the various unit testing frameworks for .NET. About a year ago it became clear to myself and Brad Wilson that there were some very clear patterns of success (and failure) with the tools we were using for writing tests. Rather than repeating guidance about "do X" or "don't do Y", it seemed like it was the right time to reconsider the framework itself and see if we could codify some of those rules.

Additionally, the .NET framework itself has evolved a lot since its v1 release in early 2002. Being able to leverage some of the new framework features can help us write clearer tests.

Another aspect of change that we wanted to affect was bringing the testing framework more closely in line with the .NET platform. Many of the decisions we made, which we enumerate below, were driven by this desire. We wanted an architecture which is built specifically for programmer testing (specifically Test-Driven Development), which can also be very easily extended to support other kinds of testing (like automated acceptance tests).

Finally, there have been advances in other unit test library implementations that have not really surfaced in the .NET community.

While any one of these reasons would not necessarily have been sufficient to create a new testing framework, the combination of them all made us want to undertake a new project: xUnit.net."

Click here to find out more about xUnit.net

5 easy ways to commit career suicide

:) Good information for everyone to remember...

"April 24, 2008 (Computerworld) BANG! Without warning, the rifle discharged, tearing a hole through the floorboard of the car of an Army colonel. The rifle belonged to a young lieutenant who had been invited to go hunting with the colonel.

Though no one was hurt, the incident left everyone in the car shaken. Worse, the lieutenant hindered his own promotion, according to executive coach Bruce Sillers, who was a member of that same battalion at the time of the incident.

You may never have committed as grave a faux pas as this lieutenant, and if so, be thankful. Nonetheless, we're all capable of making mistakes that can send us straight to the career doghouse. Here are five big no-nos to watch out for. "

Click here to read the rest of the article.

Optimus Maximus Keyboard

For the low low price of: $1,589.99



http://www.thinkgeek.com/computing/input/9836/

Windows XP SP3 Released to Manufacturing

"Today we are happy to announce that Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) has released to manufacturing (RTM). Windows XP SP3 bits are now working their way through our manufacturing channels to be available to OEM and Enterprise customers.

We are also in the final stages of preparing for release to the web (i.e. you!) on April 29th, via Windows Update and the Microsoft Download Center. Online documentation for Windows XP SP3, such as Microsoft Knowledge Base articles and the Microsoft TechNet Windows XP TechCenter, will be updated then. For customers who use Windows XP at home, Windows XP SP3 Automatic Update distribution for users at home will begin in early summer. "

http://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=3214173&SiteID=17

http://www.realtechnews.com/posts/5616

SQL 2005 SP3 Announced!

"Yesterday, Francois Ajenstat, Microsoft 's director of SQL Server marketing, announced that Microsoft will deliver SQL Server 2005 SP3 after the release to manufacturing of SQL Server 2008, which is currently slated for Q3. "

Click here to read the rest of the post.

The 500,000 GB MP3 Player?

"Can you even imagine an MP3 player with a 500,000 GB capacity? It’s pretty much beyond belief. The most generous player today can only hold around 40,000 songs – they’d hardly make a dent on this.

The thing is, it could easily happen. Scientists at the University of Glasgow have created a nanotechnology breakthrough that could increase storage capacity by 150,000 times. It could mean 500,000 GB on a single chip and inch square. "

Click here to read the rest of the article

Mono project takes Silverlight step closer to Adobe AIR

"Miguel de Icaza, who heads up the open-source Mono project, has provided an update on a project to create Silverlight applications that run out of the browser, moving a small step toward what Adobe Systems offers with AIR.

Mono is an open-source implementation of Microsoft's .Net framework. It lets developers use Microsoft tools and languages, like C#, to write applications that run on Windows, Linux, or MacOS.

Part of the Mono project is Moonlight, an implementation of Silverlight that runs on Linux. Silverlight is a browser plug-in for rich Internet applications. "

Click here to read the rest of the article

New Google Earth Features

Cool stuff...

25 radical network research projects you should know about

Some interesting stuff going on out there...

My favorites...

1. Exploiting T-rays
Who needs electricity to run superfast computers when there's terahertz radiation, or T-rays? University of Utah engineers have reached deep into the electromagnetic spectrum to find this new way to build circuits for computers that would run a thousand times faster than today's gigahertz-speed computers. The development involves creation of waveguides to send and manipulate T-rays, also known as far-infrared light.

12. Really, really fast wireless
Scientists at the Georgia Electronic Design Center (GEDC) at the Georgia Institute of Technology have designed a system that can transfer data at 5Gbps at a range of 5 meters.

Joy Laskar, the GEDC's director, says many of the products designed for the 60GHz band initially will be marketed to consumers for home use, because businesses are more likely to take wait-and-see attitudes with new technology that hasn't yet proved reliable. Even so, he says he can imagine several business applications for multigigabit networks, especially in the field of large-scale data transfer. "Imagine that you have a portable device that's essentially an evolved iPod that has hundreds of gigs of storage," he says. "One scenario would be to have several kiosks around an office that could wirelessly send information to your device."

Separately, a team of engineers at Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) is taking a new approach to phased-array antennas that the developers say could enable an ultra-wideband device to do the job of five regular antennas.

The Fragmented Aperture Antenna has already demonstrated a 33-to-1 bandwidth, blowing by the 10-to-1 ratio of conventional systems. Researchers say a 100-to-1 ratio might not be far off for use in radar and communications environments.

"We have taken a first step to making circuits that can harness or guide terahertz radiation," says Ajay Nahata, study leader and associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, in a statement. "Eventually – in a minimum of 10 years – this will allow the development of superfast circuits, computers and communications."

22. Pushing 100Gbps copper networks
Penn State engineers are trying to push relatively short Category-7 copper cables to support digital data speeds up to 100Gbps.The idea would be to enable copper cables within a room or building, perhaps being used to interconnect servers, to handle data rates typically reserved for fiber-optic links. The trick has been coming up with a transmitter/receiver that uses error correcting and equalizing methods to can cancel interference better than traditional systems.

"A rate of 100 gigabit over 70 meters is definitely possible, and we are working on extending that to 100 meters, or about 328 feet," said Ali Enteshari, graduate student in electrical engineering, in a statement. "However, the design of a 100 gigabit modem might not be physically realizable at this time as it is technology limited. We are providing a roadmap to design a high-speed modem for 100 gigabits."

Mohsen Kavehrad , a professor of electrical engineering at Penn State, says his team is working with NEXANS, the company that makes the cable. "These are the current, new generation of Ethernet cables," he says.

Click here to read the rest of the list.

TweakNow

http://www.tweaknow.com/WinSecret.html

Are extra laptop features worth it?

"In the automotive world, the real money is made in the options packages. Fancy hubcaps, satellite radio, two-tone paint? Thank you very much, dealers will say, as they pocket sometimes more money than they made selling you the car.

Though buying a new laptop online doesn't involve engaging in negotiations with a dealer, you still have a number of options to choose from. And with business laptops costing as much as $2,000, adding a few extras can push the price quite a bit higher. Some features are decidedly optional, while others are becoming de rigueur. Which are worth the money? Let's take a gander."

Click here to read the rest of the article

Open Source to Overtake Enterprises by 2012

"By 2012, more than 90 percent of enterprises will use open source in direct or embedded forms," predicts a Gartner report, The State of Open Source 2008, which sees a "stealth" impact for the technology in embedded form: "Users who reject open source for technical, legal or business reasons might find themselves unintentionally using open source despite their opposition."

Click here to read the rest of the article

Google App Engine

Interesting...

"Google isn’t just talking about hosting applications in the cloud any more. Tonight at 9pm PT they’re launching Google App Engine (Update: The site is live) an ambitious new project that offers a full-stack, hosted, automatically scalable web application platform consisting of Python application servers, BigTable database access (anticipated here and here) and GFS data store services. "

Click here to read the rest of the article

Five reasons to ditch the Mac and return to PCs

Five reasons why the CTO of nCircle bucked the trend and gave up on his Intel dual-core-based MacBook Pro

By Robert Lemos
Timothy Keanini, chief technology officer of nCircle, loves Macs -- just not in his company (a maker of network security and compliance management tools).

Keanini has been both a Mac user and a Mac developer during the past five years. Starting in 2001, he brought Macs into his 100-person company, starting with an Apple G4 notebook for himself, because he believed the user-friendly interface and ability to work in a Unix-like environment would help productivity among the engineering team.

So Keanini, who handled IT decisions until the company grew large enough to bring in a director of IT in 2005, encouraged and officially supported nCircle's approximately 40 engineers using MacBooks.

"The rest of our company was Windows, but engineering was mainly Macs because of me," he says.

But ultimately, instead of productivity gains, dealing with compatibility issues between the Macs used by the engineers and the PCs running Windows used by the line-of-business people in the office slowed down work and resulted in communications issues, he says. "

Click here to read the rest of the article

GOOG-411

For anyone who travels and has a cell phone, you will certainly have the occasion for needing “directory assistance/411”. Currently every time you call “411” from your cell phone you will be charged per call ($1.50 per call for Verizon customers). So if you call somewhat often it can start adding up fairly quickly.

I came across Google’s version of “411” last week called GOOG-411. Their version is absolutely FREE! So, go ahead and program their 800 number into your cell phone for the next time that you need assistance. The number is: 1-800-GOOG-411 (1-800-466-4411).

Click here to watch a short demo video on GOOG-411.

MacBook: Hacked in Two Minutes!

Didn't even make it a full round! Tisk tisk...

It may be the quickest $10,000 Charlie Miller ever earned.
He took the first of three laptop computers -- and a $10,000 cash prize -- Thursday after breaking into a MacBook Air at the CanSecWest security conference's PWN 2 OWN hacking contest.

Show organizers offered a Sony Vaio, Fujitsu U810 and the MacBook as prizes, saying that they could be won by anybody at the show who could find a way to hack into each of them and read the contents of a file on the system, using a previously undisclosed "0day" attack.

Nobody was able to hack into the systems on the first day of the contest when contestants were only allowed to attack the computers over the network, but on Thursday the rules were relaxed so that attackers could direct contest organizers using the computers to do things like visit Web sites or open e-mail messages.

The MacBook was the only system to be hacked by Thursday, however, the word on the show floor is that the Linux and Vista systems will meet with some serious challenges on Friday.

Click here for full story

Administration Pack for IIS 7.0 Released

Administration Pack for IIS 7.0 is a Technical Preview release by the IIS team to help you administer your IIS 7.0 server.

This release is comprised of 7 IIS modules designed to help with a variety of admin tasks. All of the modules are a toolset to help you be more productive when using IIS Manager. Functionality varies from increased configuration editing capabilities to managing SQL databases to viewing reports about your server.

Click here to view

The Best Online Tools To Help You Know Everything About Web Sites

This is a great article with lots of good resources... click here for full article

My favorites are:

http://www.yougetsignal.com/tools/web-sites-on-web-server/

http://builtwith.com/