Microsoft announced this week that it will begin providing on-demand access to the full versions of retail video games. That means titles like BioShock (6 Ggigabytes) and Mass Effect (7 GB) can be downloaded through the Xbox Live online gaming service, which has more than 17 million members. The growth of these type of bandwidth-draining services has been a major driver in Microsoft’s decision to build its own content delivery network.

This news is hot on the heels of the planned purchase of a new Chicago Data-center worth 185 Million.

Jeff Cohen, the general manager of Microsoft’s Edge Computing Network, discussed the company’s content delivery infrastructure in his May 11 keynote at the first Content Delivery Summit. Cohen said video delivery accounted for just 10 percent of Microsoft’s content delivery in 2007, but has since grown to 40 percent, consuming as much bandwidth as the company’s “large file” downloads of software and security updates.

“The content is exploding,” Cohen said at the event, part of Streaming Media East. But the barrier to entry for the CDN market is steep. ”It takes a huge amount of capital to get into this space, even for Microsoft.”

That’s why Microsoft uses its Edge Content Network to deliver about 40 percent of the content on its network, while farming out the remaining 60 percent to existing CDN partners including Akamai (AKAM), Limelight Networks (LLNW), Level 3 (LVLT) and ChinaCache.

Microsoft, in a mysterious move, have offered anyone with a valid shipping address in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, a free TechNet Professional subscription.

As Neowin points out, it may well not be for absolutely everyone, but it does appear to be so. Confirmation will be needed from Microsoft but as of yet, they are not commenting on this. Still, if it works for you, you will have access to a wealth of Office, Windows and Dynamics software for three months for absolutely nothing.

Once you make your way through the online “ordering” process, you will receive an email confirmation shortly afterwards. This will provide you with download links and your access information to begin downloading.

Hmmph looks like the rest of us miss out.

This post was retrieved from Zack W’s blog @ http://blogs.zdnet.com/igeneration (check it out)- hopefully he dosen’t mind

[Update]: Ars Technica is reporting that this offer may not be for one year as first thought, but only three months. Never-the-less, it’s best to get in early and make the most of this while you can.

[Update 2]: It appears as though there are errors in requesting keys and we are hearing that this offer may have been limited to a select few rather than public. Microsoft has not officially responded to requests for comment. (Neowin)

Check out Kristan Keeny’s Site for latest update

Hi there,

Wow 2 Blog posts within a week…whats up with that?
Regardless of this miracle Microsoft just let the guys on the SP2 Beta that its RTM’ed and available for download-Here’s an excerpt of what they said to us:

Hello SP2 Beta testers…The following message was released…

 

Today we are proud to announce the launch of Service Pack 2 for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008.  Service Pack 2 (SP2) represents the latest step in Microsoft’s commitment to continuous improvement.  It includes all of the updates that have been delivered since SP1, as well as support for new types of hardware and emerging hardware standards.  And since it comes with a single installer for both Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, SP2 will be easy for IT Pros to manage, deploy, and support.  For an overview of the changes introduced in SP2 check out the notable changes document.

 

Consumers with Windows Vista SP1 don’t need to do anything special to get SP2; simply turn on Windows Update and sometime during the coming months your computer will download and prompt you to install SP2.  Business customers with Windows Vista will find that the transition to Windows 7 will be significantly more straightforward due to the high degree of compatibility between Windows Vista and Windows 7.  If your Windows Vista SP1 deployment is already underway we recommend you continue with SP1 as planned.  Then you can deploy SP2 using your systems management infrastructure.  If you are in the early stages of deployment or still planning Windows Vista deployment our best advice is that you plan on testing and deploying Windows Vista SP2. 

 

So there you have it…Go grab a copy from Technet and check out the notable changes here:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd335036.aspx

Regards,

Patrick Squire

Wow long time no post…

Today whilst opening up the default MSN homepage in I.E I was stunned to find that it had been hacked by “Peace Crew”.

I asked Nathan Mercer at MSFT what the story was and apparently the Hijackers stole the DNS entry from their registrar and redirected.

Windows Server had no part to play in this incident the attackers simply took the site down at a higher level. Looks like not everyone is immune to hackers then huh.

http://www.msn.co.nz

An output of their DNS entries shows:

Edit: Appears to be fixed now

Edit2: Looks like they took over a raft of New Zealand websites including WindowsLive.co.nz, MSN.co.nz, Microsoft.co.nz, Hotmail.co.nz, Live.co.nz next to HSBC.co.nz, Sony.co.nz, Coca-Cola.co.nz, Xerox.co.nz, Fanta.co.nz, F-Secure.co.nz and BitDefender.co.nz. (http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=3185)

Hey All!!

Do you want to get certified, but it’s too expensive? I have great news for you! From now till  April 31st, you can get a 10% discount off Microsoft certification exams. To get the 10% discount, just follow the easy steps below:

1. Go to http://www.learnandcertify.com/

2. Use the voucher code: MY3909BC

3. Schedule an exam and you are ready to go!

Again, this offer ends on April 31st, so what are you waiting for? Get certified now! And the above voucher is only for Malaysia.

Hey there,

A short blog post - But check out the list of Win 7 Secrets over at Tim Sneaths MSDN blog… Its deff worth a read!!!

(Little secrets built into Win 7 that increase productivity and make it a more easier/powerful tool to use .  )

http://blogs.msdn.com/tims/archive/2009/01/12/the-bumper-list-of-windows-7-secrets.aspx