If you're in the Indianapolis area and are interested in Microsoft Vista (or any other MS products), check out the IWUG site for an opportunity to get together for a first ever Loadfest!

This particular event is BYOC, but there is a great Windows Server 2003 R2 Technical Drilldown session scheduled for May 11, 2006! Hope to see you there! 

From the IWUG site - "You read correctly, folks. We're announcing (though on short notice!) the first-ever IWUG "Loadfest". What's a "Loadfest"? Well, a "Loadfest" is essentially an opportunity for several of you geeks to get together, bring your machines and get some hands-on experience loading a product on your own machine.

It was a no-brainer choosing the product for our first "Loadfest" - Windows Vista. Join us on April 27th, 2006 at Parkwood Four, 500 E. 96th St. for a few hours of fun, geek camaraderie and pizza/drinks. Detailed information is included below - we are limited to the capacity of this event, so please register by sending an e-mail to info@iwug.net with the subject "VISTA LOADFEST". We'll confirm your participation and hold a spot for you on the 27th."

Roudybob mentions an InformationWeek article on MS "Carmine".  Interesting read as I am just now experimenting with Virtual Server R2 (free now).

I was on the fence on whether to go VMWare GSX Server or MS, but if MS can get this together, I'll stay with VS R2.

I got my email link to download and install the new version of Media Player with URGE integrated! (Media Player Version 11.0.5358.4827)

I signed up and have begun testing and really like the new interface. The album view for the library is nice as it displays all of the album art for your folders and the search feature is really fast!

Some things I like most:

1.There's a search bar located at the upper right hand corner and you can search for any artist, song title, album and it narrows the search as you type until you reach your destination (Vista-style indexing)

2. MP3 player (device) setup was easy and my MuVo N200 was correctly recognized right away and the sync list popped up on the right column. The options are to "Drag items here to sync, or Click Here to shuffle music to my device". Shuffle just grabs misc. titles and really creates a decent mix with no effort, with just enough files to fill your player.

3.When signing up for the 14 day trial, there's actually an option to skip billing info so you can enjoy 2 free weeks without automatically being billed at the end of the trial period. After signup, the 'buy for .99' tab turns to 'download' and then to 'added to library' after it's downloaded. Very slick. The properties tab on the tune also displays the terms of the download- (ex. this song cannot be burned to CD, this song can be synced to device 2 more time, this song can be played until 6-6-2006.) DRM works… oh yay!

4. There are some really cool radio stations and they are, in fact, CD quality. Some of the ones I listened to were 'Rebel Girls', 'ANTI', 'Hair Band' and 'MTV2 Headbanger's Ball'. None of the stations buffered, even for a second. Very nice.

If I DO end up paying for a service, I think this will be the one. Very good job Microsoft! Nice…we've been waiting for an iTunes competitor.

Full list of D/L links and serials for Microsoft Office 2007 Beta apps here! (- Thanks Max Thrane!)

I have most, but for someone who need ‘em, get em before they’re gone!

Verified working links 7/11/06…

Exchange 2007 Beta - If you didn’t notice and hadn’t heard, Microsoft released the public beta for Exchange Server 2007.  Information that can be found at:
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2006/jul06/07-24ExchangeFFESPR.mspx.  The actual Exchange Server 2007 beta 2 is available for download at: http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/beta2.

Microsoft has made available the Windows Vista Product Guide and the Security Guide for download from the TechEd site.  Both guides are packed with information.  The product guide is a comprehensive feature-by-feature guide to Windows Vista. With contributions from people who actually worked on the product, this is the definitive resource to learn about Windows Vista. The product guide has a very nice table that describes all the differences between each version of Vista.  The Windows Vista Security Guide provides recommendations and tools to further harden Windows Vista.  The security guide also comes with the GPOAccelerator tool and an Excel spreadsheet with all the available policy settings in Vista.