MIX 09 Announced
PDC’s just out of the way and it’s already time to start thinking about MIX. I saw this logo on the website and thought we were going to be expected to run a 10K in the desert. Fortunately it’s 10K of storage and a challenge to do as much as you can with only 10k. There’s also the traditional restyle challenge to redesign the MIX home page. Both challenges carry prizes including entry to MIX 09 and hotel accommodation.
Location: The Venetian Hotel, Las Vegas (no surprises these)
Dates: 18-20th March
Website: http://2009.visitmix.com/
Workshops already announced:
- Black Belt Web Standards (Nate Koechley / Molly Holzschlag)
- Harmonizing Designer / Developer Workflow (Robby Ingebretsen / Rick Barraza, Jose Fajardo and Michael Wolf)
Sessions already announced
- C# for Designers (AGI)
- Escaping Flatland in Application Design: Visualizing Data (Peter Eckert — projekt202; Eric Gould Bear — projekt202)
- From Concept to Production: Design Workflow with Microsoft Expression Studio (Christian Schormann — Microsoft Corporation)
- The Future of Microsoft Expression Blend (Doug Olson — Microsoft Corporation)
- Go Beyond Best Practices: Evolving Next Practices to Prosper in the 21st Century (Lou Carbone)
- Improving UX through Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) (Christian Thilmany — Microsoft Corporation; Chris Bernard — Microsoft Corporation)
- Interaction Techniques Using the Wii Remote (and Other HCI Projects) (Johnny Lee — Microsoft Corporation)
- Making Wireframes Work (Bill Scott)
- Microsoft Expression Web: No Platform Left Behind (Wayne Smith — Microsoft Corporation)
- Microsoft Surface: Designing for a New Interactive Era (Joseph Fletcher)
- Optimizing Your Applications with Touch
- The Way of the Whiteboard: Persuading with Pictures (Dan Roam — Digital Roam, Inc.)
- Web Form Design (Luke Wrobleski — Yahoo! Inc.)
Source- MSDN Blog
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Social Bookmarking Plugin for Windows Live Writer
Here is another version of my Social Bookmark Plug-in for Windows Live Writer. Based on the previous feedback I have changed a few things. The script errors that used to come in WLW due to the embedded scripts won’t bother you anymore. Besides, there are 4 more book marking sites incorporated, namely…
Microsoft Social
Microsoft Expression
Microsoft MSDN
Microsoft Technet
Install the plug-in from…
Once done click on Insert -> Bookmarking Tags (Ensure that your WLW is running as an Administrator!)
Select the book-marking sites that you prefer and click on Save My Favorite…
Click on Done
Try hovering on the icons above…
And when you click on it, it would automatically take you to the Bookmarking site and fill up the details…
Source- .net scraps
Adding Live Search Maps As An Internet Explorer Search Provider
If you have Internet Explorer 7, you may be aware of the ability to add custom search providers to your browser. This allows you to add not just Live, Google and Yahoo!, but the likes of specific web site searches such as ESPN, Facebook or Target (yes, the retailer)! I figured there’s enough map lovers out there who may just want to search the Virtual Earth-based consumer site Live Search Maps right from the comfort of their own browser. So, how do you do it?
Well, first make sure you have IE 7. It might work on IE 8, but I’ve yet to return to it since Beta 1 when Virtual Earth 3D didn’t work right - I AM the team’s evangelist and this stuff MUST work right when I demo it! Well, in the browser search box, click the down arrow and you’ll see a list of the currently installed providers. It’s important to clarify that you need to select the Internet Explorer Search Box and not the Live Toolbar, MSN Toolbar, Google Toolbar, Yahoo! Toolbar, etc, etc. Only the Internet Explorer Search Box does this write up pertain to.
Next, click the "Find More Providers" link from the list. This will transport you to the Windows "Add Search Providers to Internet Explorer" list page. You’ll see a list of providers you can just click to add to your Internet Explorer Search Box. We’ll be creating our own, so after you’ve added your favorites continue reading.
Source- Virtual Earth Blog
New Microsoft Licensing and Support for Virtualization
If you’re running Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) in a virtualized environment or if you’re planning on doing so in the future, you’ll want to be aware of this, and since this involves changes to our support policy I wanted to share it with all of you here. My own personal one line summary would be that if you’re running one of the applications mentioned in KB957006 then you’ll get the same level of product support in a virtualized environment that you would get in non-virtual environments, plus we’ve made licensing easier to accommodate these scenarios.
Here is a link to the announcement that went out this morning:
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/080819/aqtu037.html?.v=60
There are a few Knowledge Base articles mentioned but the big ones are below:
957006 - Microsoft server software and supported virtualization environments
Source- Technet Blog
VMWare PowerShell Cmdlets Released (And Opportunity to Win $$$$)
VMWare offically released their PowerShell cmdlets in a ship vehicle called the VMWare Infrastructure (VI) Toolkit. What could be better than that? Yup - you guessed it - it’s FREE!! Check out the details HERE.
Download the free toolkit HERE.
Free! What could be better than that? Well they could pay you to use it. 
Well … actually, it’s almost that good. VMWare is holding a Scripting Contest for the best scripts using the VI toolkit. The winner will receive an all-expense paid trip to VMWorld 2008 Las Vegas or $5,000! This is a great opportunity to show off your PowerShell skills and profit thereby. Is this a wonderful world or what! Check out the details HERE.
Vegas … hmmmm. All expense paid trip to Vegas …. hmmmm. I wonder if that would include the divorce lawyer. I’m not sure they though that one out. ha ha!
Congratulations on the great job VMWare!
Jeffrey Snover [MSFT]
Windows Management Partner Architect
Visit the Windows PowerShell Team blog at: http://blogs.msdn.com/PowerShell
Visit the Windows PowerShell ScriptCenter at: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/scriptcenter/hubs/msh.mspx
Source- Powershell Team Blog
Minimise Me
Minimise Me is a new collaboration between Microsoft and MRM Worldwide (UK) which lets Windows Live Messenger users create their own personalized avatar which can then be used as a profile picture. Once you launch this app, you can customize all aspects of the character – from the eyes to the hair and even the accessories.
The avatars that this service creates remind me of the ones that Yahoo currently offers, except that with these “minimised me’s”, you’ll also get a set of personalized emoticons based on the character you create, too.
After you’re finished creating the avatar, you can add it to WLM. The Minimise Me site will actually install the profile picture and the emoticons into WLM for you. Or, if you would prefer to download the image yourself, you can choose click on the “Help with download” link to access the 96×96 file itself.
Source We Got Served
Microsoft crowbars Live Search into Facebook
Microsoft has traded its exclusive deal to plaster Facebook with banner advertising for the right to pump Google-style contextual search ads on the profit-lite website. The switcheroo was tossed into yesterday’s attempt by Steve Ballmer to convince analysts that he’s still the world’s top chair-flinging sweaty software kingpin in the wake of the Yahoo! bid debacle.
Boydroid CEO Mark Zuckerberg claims that he isn’t interested in making money and that his once-buzzy firm is focused on “adding value” for users. The truth however is that Facebook needs to demonstrate to its real customers and chiefs - advertisers and venture capitalists - that it is anything more valuable than a complicated web spam generator. Especially after the world was shocked - shocked! - to discover the site isn’t really worth $15bn.
View: The Reg
Microsoft testing self-serve AdSense rival
Microsoft is ready to start expanding its AdCenter engine to allow at least some publishers to include contextual advertising from Microsoft on their site.
According to a letter detailing the program and published on TechCrunch, Microsoft is doing a pilot program that allows smaller publishers to use contextual advertising from Microsoft, putting it potentially in competition with Google’s AdSense and Yahoo’s publisher network.
In a statement provided to CNET News on Thursday, Microsoft confirmed the trial.
“Microsoft’s self-serve advertising offering for publishers is still under development and is currently in a private pilot phase, being tested by select publishers who met the participation requirements,” Microsoft said. “The private pilot phase began earlier this year.”
Microsoft pointed publishers interested in the pilot to sign up for the trial.
Source- CNet
