September 17th, 2008

You are currently browsing the articles from MS Windows Vista Compatible Software written on September 17th, 2008.

Advanced Windows Debugging on Channel 9

Note: this content originally from http://mygreenpaste.blogspot.com. If you are reading it from some other site, please take the time to visit My Green Paste, Inc. Thank you.

Just a quick note - the authors of Advanced Windows Debugging have been interviewed on MSDN's Channel 9. It's about 43 minutes long, and it's interesting to hear the authors talk about their experiences, the motivation behind the book, the effect of additional layers of abstraction, etc., and go through a handle leak debugging session. Check it out!

Written by Â«/\/\Ã˜|Ã¶Â±Ã²\/Â»Â®Â© on September 17th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on books and deep understanding and debugging and otherSoftware and Windows.

Next Phase of Ad Campaign About to Hit

So there seems to be the rumor running around that we're supposedly cancelling our Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld ads tomorrow. I wouldn't count on anything being "cancelled". It was always the plan to have Jerry Seinfeld in the first phase of the campaign and not a part of every ad. Instead, our Windows Consumer Campaign is moving into the next phase and we did mention previously that you should expect the campaign to evolve. I'll direct you to a post by Stuart Elliott of The New York Times to shed some light on what's next for our ad campaign.

More to come - stay tuned!

Written by Chris Flores on September 17th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Brand and Advertising and Windows Consumer Campaign and otherSoftware and Windows and Featured News.

Windows Live Beta Round-Up & Plug-ins for Windows Live Photo Gallery

Right now as I write this everyone should be enjoying the shiny new Windows Live Betas - available for download at download.live.com. I'd like to take a moment to highlight several blog posts from the Windows Live Product Teams I think folks will be interested in reading.

Tanja, Program Manager for Windows Live Mail, is back on the Windows Live Mail Blog talking about today's Windows Live Mail Beta release. We all know that Windows Live Mail is sporting calendar sync with Windows Live Calendar (currently in Beta at calendar.live.com) but Tanja sheds some light on some specific calendaring features such as the "Add to Calendar" button. When you're reading an email with important information about an event or related to an event all you need to do is click "Add to Calendar" and you can take that information within the email and turn it into an Event in one of your Calendars. She also discusses the Event window where you can set the event to reoccurring, set a start and stop time and more.

Speaking of Windows Live Calendar - tomorrow Thursday Sept. 18 starting around 3PM Pacific Time the Windows Live Calendar Beta will be down for a few hours while the service gets upgraded.

Aaron from the Windows Live Messenger Team posted on the Windows Live Messenger Blog and discusses their Beta release and the features within the new Beta release such as Favorites, Group IM, Personalization, and the What's New feed. Aaron also mentions that the Windows Live Messenger Beta also has the ability to sign in at multiple locations called MPOP (short for Multiple Points of Presence).

The Windows Live Writer Team published a very extensive list of changes and updates in their Beta release. You should definitely check it out if you're a heavy Windows Live Writer.

And the Windows Live Digital Memories Team has posted lists of new features and changes in both the Windows Live Photo Gallery Beta and Windows Live Movie Maker Beta.

And Windows Live Photo Gallery Beta? Yup! Michael Palermiti, Program Manager for Windows Live Photo Gallery, has a blog post up on the Windows Live Dev Blog discussing new extensibility in the Windows Live Photo Gallery Beta. Developers now have a framework to develop publishing plug-ins for Windows Live Photo Gallery.

Matter a fact, Omar Shahine has published a plug-in he created for publishing photos to SmugMug.

When folks create new plug-ins for Windows Live Photo Gallery, the Digital Memories Team will add the plug-ins to this page off their blog. Bookmark it now ;-)

Be sure to check out previous blog post on the Windows Live Betas and outlining what's new in each of the client applications.

Written by Brandon LeBlanc on September 17th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Windows Live Writer and Windows Live Betas and Windows Live Dev and Plug-in and SmugMug and Windows Live Messenger and otherSoftware and Windows Live and Windows Live Photo Gallery and Windows Live Mail and Windows Live Calendar and Featured News.

A little fantasy, the EOS 5D Mk II and the Zeiss Ikon ZI

A few days ago I got a surprise at work. “Hmm, no £60 rebate from the big bad government!” I was due £60 tax rebate like most other people on the basic tax rate (20% these days in the UK) — now not wishing to debate what I think politically of this, I was a bit perturbed. I had already earmarked that £60 towards my car tax which is due at the end of the month. Sadly us normal folk have it in one hand and out the other. But that’s the way it goes and whining about only leads to bitterness, then depression, and then a sense of ineptitude which is pointless.

So duly I queried this. Long and short of this when talking to payroll is that I’ve been paying too much tax for nigh on a year and a half, probably as much as almost 2 years. The reason? When I ditched my old job, I took on odd jobs to tide me through and this was late 2006. I continued one of these odd jobs on when I started my current job. Also, somehow I didn’t hand in my P45. Essentially I have been paying basic rate tax, that’s 22% last year and 20% this tax year with no personal allowance. In other words I have paid tax on every penny I earn. The personal allowance that was tax free last year was £5k odd in my case and now £6k or so. I think. It’s a grey area tax with me, hence why I didn’t notice the problem before.

I was asked, “How do you survive?” — my only answer was you make do, you budget and don’t spend a penny more. So it turns out I have a heft tax rebate on my way.

Doing a bit of calculator prodding I’ve worked out that I have been paid around £150 less than I should have been each month. Of course let’s face it, I didn’t know I was in a tax problem until Monday so chances are I have calculated that wrong too!

So I tried to gauge yesterday what I’d get back this month (for the tax year of 2008/9) and my suggestion of “couple of hundred quid?” was greeted with “Easily. Easily.”

So already spending it in my mind, I was thinking what could I get if I really was underpaid per se by £150 each month since April this year, and that again last year. That comes to a crazy figure of £2700. I’ve never seen such a large sum of money in my life in one go.

Now first of all, if you’re planning of assaulting me on the way to work tomorrow, don’t — I don’t have that money on me.

I doubt seriuously I will get that much, not even a fraction of. But I was thinking what could I do if I got say £500 back. A £1000 back. What about £1500 back? What if I get the whole £2700 smackeroonies?

If I got £500 back, I’d pay off a chunk of my credit card. If I got a grand, I would probably also use all of it on the credit card as in the long run I’d be the winner and debt free. What about £1500 though? Well I figured I’d pay a grand off on the credit card and maybe put the £500 towards a holiday in the sun or put the £500 towards the Voigtlander Bessa R3a I am saving up for.

But what if I got £2700. That’s in another league!

I could if I wanted pay for an EOS 5D Mk II but I have absolutely no interest in doing so. Give or take in most cases resolution wise the 5D Mk II beats 35mm film (except for the best of the best slow print/slide film shots on a tripod where it’s probably about equal) my EOS 3 is a better camera still. Sure it doesn’t record video but that’s not bothered me. Ever. The 45 auto focus points, weather sealing, eye control focus and so forth has though.

I have any interest in buying any digital camera.

So I figured that being the case I would probably pay off my credit card in full, pay off the remainder of my overdraft (paid off a £1000 of it in 8 months — saving is the key!) and if I feel very devilish splash out on a Zeiss Ikon ZI, the big daddy Bessa.

I expect though knowing my past history with money I’d be lucky to buy a Snickersbar.

But at little fantasy is a nice thought once in a while!

Written by lilserenity on September 17th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on otherSoftware and Uncategorized.

Microsoft trademarks “Songsmith” for MySong automatic vocal accompaniment software

This might just be the quickest research project to commercial application transition from Microsoft Research yet.

In late February earlier this year I wrote about a cool Microsoft Research project called “MySong” made in collaboration with the University of Washington full of gifted computer science students. Now seven months later, Microsoft has just filed a trademark application for “Songsmith” for “computer programs for generating background music to accompany singers” - exactly what MySong did.

For those who have forgotten what MySong was about, it was a software application where it autonomously generates a dynamic background melody to accompany any vocal singing you throw at it. Whilst it was still not as dynamic as a real accompanist, but still a good mile ahead of other commercial alternatives on the market today. Oh and it saves you the embarrassment for any real musicians to have to accompany you and your attempt at “SexyBack”.

So far there’s no other evidence as to how Microsoft intends to market “Songsmith”, whether as a freebie MSR download or a cheap casual music program which I’m sure will be quite popular with teenagers either way. Even now I can already imagine the many screeching YouTube videos.

Written by Long Zheng on September 17th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on otherSoftware and blog.

Next Wave of Windows Live Introduced with New Betas

Want to check out what's next for Windows Live? Chris Jones, Corporate Vice President for Windows Live Experience Program Management, has announced today the availability of new Betas for the Windows Live client applications on the Windows Live Wire blog. These Betas showcase significant updates to the client applications in the Windows Live suite introducing the next wave of Windows Live products and services. Chris does a fantastic job explaining the term "wave" and how it's used to describe Windows Live releases. Definitely give his post a read as it discusses some background for Windows Live as it's progressed from 2006 to 2007 to today. Expect regular posts on the Windows Live Wire blog from members of the Windows Live Engineering Team discussing in greater detail specifics on the new stuff coming up for Windows Live.

To download the new Windows Live Betas - just head on over to download.live.com later today and install the betas.

When we talk about the Windows Live suite - we are talking about the following desktop client applications that sit on the user's PC that tap in to the Windows Live services in the "cloud" (the web). These applications are only part of the Windows Live story as they all connect in more than one way to the Windows Live web services. Windows Live represents what is called software + services where software is connected to services on the web. The follow applications are part of the Windows Live suite:

Windows Live Messenger
Windows Live Mail
Windows Live Writer
Windows Live Photo Gallery
Windows Live Movie Maker (NEW)
Windows Live Family Safety

Windows Live Movie Maker is brand new to the Windows Live suite in the next major wave of releases for Windows Live. But I'll talk more about Windows Live Movie Maker in a bit.

An example of how these client applications tap into the Windows Live services in the "cloud" is how the Windows Live client applications handle contacts. A single contacts storage service - called Windows Live Contacts - powers your Messenger contact list and Address Book in Windows Live Hotmail. Your Messenger contact list *is* your Windows Live Contacts. As Chris Jones said in his Windows Live Wire blog entry - these updated Windows Live client applications are "designed to work best when connected to our suite of web-based services". I've got one word for that - w00t!

Ok enough of the technicalities - let's take a look at what's new with the Windows Live client application betas. Keep in mind I'm only going to briefly cover some of these features as this post could get really long if I went in-depth. I'll dive deeper into specific features in later posts.

NOTE: Instead of putting "Beta" at the end of every product name everything here on out is related to the Windows Live Betas being released today and not the RTM Windows Live suite (aka the non-Beta Windows Live apps).

Let's start with Windows Live Messenger. Windows Live Messenger essentially was almost completely redesigned.

By default, the UI sports an all new lighter color scheme. You'll notice that the tabs in Messenger are no longer on the left-hand side. Instead, they now sit in a "Tab Bar" just above the video carousal or banner ad. The Tab Bar can be turned off. You can also have your What's New feed from Windows Live Spaces appear in Windows Live Messenger for you to keep track of what's happening with your friends in Windows Live. You can see the What's New feed on your Windows Live Spaces homepage today.

When you mouse over a contact, Windows Live Messenger now has a neat mouse-over menu that lets you choose a variety of options such as sending a text message to a contact's cell, calling that contact, or viewing their contact card.

TIP: For your most favorite contacts you can drag them to the Favorites category. I use the Favorites category in Messenger for contacts that I instant message with the most.

However one of the biggest changes to Windows Live Messenger is how you can personalize your Messenger experience. I was able to change the way my contact list looks which is great. I am also now able to choose a "scene" for the main window of Messenger. There are several scenes that come with Messenger I was able to choose from. I discovered you can also choose your own scene from photos you have on your PC as well. When I chose a scene - Messenger automatically changed the color of my Messenger windows to match the coloring in the scene I chose.

In the screenshot, you can see I chose one of the desktop wallpapers that came with Windows Vista (the one that is also the background here on the Windows Vista Team Blog). Now what is really neat about choosing a scene for Messenger is that it also changes how the Messenger window looks when you're chatting with a friend. Essentially you can truly change how your contacts "see" you. Because I changed my scene in Messenger to be the Windows Vista energy wallpaper - when I chat with someone on Messenger (who is also running the Beta) their Messenger window will reflect my scene. This is the conversation window I see when I initiate a conversation with the Windows Experience Blog. Take a look:

Windows Live Messenger also lets you choose a Signature Sound that plays for your contacts when you sign-in to Messenger.

There is more than just customization changes to Windows Live Messengers folks will notice with the Beta. Users can now create Groups where they can add up to 20 people for private group instant messaging. Users can now share photos directly within the conversation window which I found to be an excellent new feature.

I can choose multiple photos to share with a Messenger contact and go through the photos with them in the conversation window. Instead of sending photos one by one in Messenger - this is a much easier way share photos with friends. You can either press the "Photos" button in the top left-hand corner of the conversation window or drag and drop photos onto the chat box.

In Windows Live Mail - users will enjoy full calendar sync with Windows Live Calendar. I've been waiting for this feature for a long time and it's very exciting to finally see!

I was able to create new calendars and have them sync up in Windows Live Calendar and vice versa. Windows Live Mail will also import calendars from Windows Calendar in Windows Vista as well which will then also sync up to Windows Live Calendar if you've signed up for the Windows Live Calendar Beta at calendar.live.com.

TIP: In both Windows Live Messenger and Windows Live Mail - you'll notice that contacts display tile (or status "dot") will glow green if they are online, yellow is they are "Away", and red if they are "Busy". If a contact is offline - their status "dot" will be white or their display tile will be faded. The status icons and colors are going to be consistent across Windows Live.

Windows Live Photo Gallery expands on helping users manage their digital photo collections by offering several new features that make managing their photos a lot easier.

Windows Live Photo Gallery now has face-detection technology that helps find people within your photos. When I opened a photo of Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld from one of the new TV ads, Windows Live Photo Gallery detected two people in the photo. I was then able to add people tags to each of the people Windows Live Photo Gallery detected.

When a person is detected, all I needed to do was put my mouse over that person and a list of my Windows Live Contacts appeared. I can choose a person from my Windows Live Contacts or manually add a name. I certainly don't have Bill Gates or Jerry Seinfeld as Windows Live Contacts ;-)

TIP: If Windows Live Photo Gallery is unable to detect some faces, you can add them manually by clicking on "Add people tag". You can then draw a square over a face and choose a people tag for that person.

There are also new options for fixing your photos in Windows Live Photo Gallery in the Beta such as "Straighten photo" and "Black and White Effects".

If a photo is tilted in some awkward way, the "Straighten photo" tool lets you align the photo to fix that tilt. And sometimes you might want to create some old fashioned black and white photos but didn't shoot the photos in black and white - now you can quickly make them black and white in Windows Live Photo Gallery.

Just like with the last release - Windows Live Photo Gallery continues to let you upload your photos to either Windows Live Spaces or Flickr. But under the "Extras" menu you'll notice there is an option to "Create a Photosynth". Consider this like a quick shortcut to creating new Synths for Photosynth. If you have the Photosynth plugin installed on your system, you can jump into creating a Synth right from Windows Live Photo Gallery.

Windows Live Writer continues to be the best (and coolest) blog editing tool on the web.

New UI lets you switch via tabs at the bottom between blog post "edit", "preview", and HTML much more quickly - which is something I find extremely useful as I am always putting embed code in my blog posts and switching between edit and HTML is something I do quite often. Windows Live Writer now also supports being able to upload videos directly to online video services such as Soapbox on MSN Video and YouTube.

Windows Live Movie Maker is the newest addition to the Windows Live suite. This isn't simply Windows Movie Maker from Windows Vista re-branded. Windows Live Movie Maker was, like Windows Live Messenger, pretty much re-designed. Using the familiar Fluent user interface (as seen in Microsoft Office 2007) - or commonly referred to as the "ribbon" UI - Windows Live Movie Maker offers a brand new movie making and editing experience with the average consumer in mind.

Windows Live Movie Maker lets you add audio tracks and video effects to your videos.

Once you edit your videos using Windows Live Movie Maker you can upload those videos directly to Soapbox on MSN Video.

I use Windows Live Movie Maker today to bring in videos I take with my LifeCam VX-7000. I edit them and splice them together and then upload to Soapbox. The VX-7000 shoots some pretty good quality video for uploading to the web. Most webcams today consumers own can shoot some pretty decent video and what better than to use Windows Live Movie Maker to edit those videos and upload them to Soapbox for all to see?

It is important to understand that Windows Live Movie Maker Beta is in the early stage of testing and will of course continue to evolve. Part of getting the Beta in your hands today is getting feedback to shape the product.

And finally we have Windows Live Family Safety. Windows Live Family Safety offers an improved and simplified sign up process makes it easier to configure the service and manage your kids' activities online. Because I don't have kids myself and don't need this application, I don't have much experience with it to-date. But if you have a family, this application is something you should certainly check out especially when you're looking to keep your kids safe while being on the Internet.

Whew. This turned in to a very long post - one of my longest yet. There is some very exciting things happening with Windows Live so it deserves such a long post. I think I've outlined most of the biggest changes you can check out in the Windows Live Betas today. To leave feedback: head on over to the Windows Live Wire blog or go to feedback.live.com.

If there are any specifics within the Windows Live Betas you want to hear more about - let me know!

UPDATE: I've updated the screenshots so they are a bit of a higher quality.

Written by Brandon LeBlanc on September 17th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Windows Live Betas and Windows Live Messenger and Windows Live Writer and Windows Live Wire and Windows Live Movie Maker and otherSoftware and Chris Jones and Windows Live and Betas and Windows Live Photo Gallery and Windows Live Mail and Featured News.