Microsoft Hohm Joins Forces With Blue Line Innovations to Help Consumers Track Energy Use Down to the Minute and the Dollar
REDMOND, Wash. — July 27, 2010 — Tracking your energy use and saving money just got easier today. Microsoft and Blue Line Innovations have joined forces to give consumers real-time information about their energy use down to the minute and the dollar. The companies have combined Blue Line’s popular energy tracking device with Microsoft Hohm to give consumers information about their household energy use — and its cost — at a glance, with easy-to-use graphs that show where you can save the most energy and money.
Well, one of the big items floating though the blogosphere today was an posting in YouTube’s daily blog stating that you will now be able to produce up to 15 minute video that you will be able to post to YouTube. So for you guys that bumping up against the limit here is you go. Enjoy!
I’m not sure if there is anything that you can do to protect yourself from this kind of attack except stop using ATM machines. Shimming is the newest con designed to skim our credit card number, PIN and other info when you swipe your card through a reader in an ATM machine.
We have been a partner with both GFI and Sunbelt Technologies for quite a while and have found all of their products of highly professional quality and perform well for what they do. Today’s announcement of the acquisition of Sunbelt Software’s VIPRE product suite adds to GFI’s extensive product list.
GFI Software announced today that it has acquired Sunbelt Software and specifically its VIPRE® product suite. The acquisition will allow GFI to merge VIPRE technology into GFI’s email security and web security solutions group, and will provide GFI with new security products consisting of world-class and innovative technology.
The VIPRE Enterprise product line provides seamless, tightly-integrated endpoint security that delivers antivirus and antispyware protection, desktop firewall, and malicious website filtering technologies to protect against the ever-changing and sophisticated wave of malware in a comprehensive, highly efficient manner.The VIPRE Enterprise product line is only available in English.
You don’t have to be a geek to love it. I don’t know many people who haven’t had the urge to try the Mento and Coke combination. If you are a guy, well, you just love to blow things up. Don’t know why, it’s just genetics I guess. Here’s a YouTube video circulating on Google today produced by EepyBird showing a Coke + Mento powered jet vehicle.
It’s just fun to watch!
Many viruses find their way on to your system through nefarious means. This new malware attack dubbed KHOBE (Kernel HOok Bypassing Engine), bypasses your security by having two snippets of code. One is used as the code to be scanned, and the second is swapped for the initial code once it has been given the green light by your anti-virus software.
Microsoft has released to manufacturing (RTM) its new version of Windows Embedded Standard 7. Not jumping up and down? Well, this product when incorporated into your TV’s and other desktop devices will enable them to be better integrated into all of your media centric systems in your home including, well, your Windows 7 based PC’s through the magic of Windows Media Center. Read on to see what else it can do.
Steve Jobs and company showed off new skills for the iPhone today, such as multiple apps running at one time, plus services like background location and Internet calling, and a new advertising platform called of all things, iAd. The new operating system is going to have 100 new user features. They demonstrated seven of them today calling them their 7 pillars.
The grand celebration for the release of Microsoft Office 2010 will be held in New York City on May 12th, coinciding with The release of SharePoint 2010 as well.
We are a big fan of all of TechSmith’s products, some that cost money and others that free. If you are serious about providing company demo videos, or video tutorials Camtasia Studio is the perfect product for you. Camtasia Studio is a powerful screen recording and editing package that allows you to produce stunning videos of our video projects. You can easily record onscreen activity in front of an audience or from your desk, capture PowerPoint presentations, webcam video, audio and much more. You can then share your videos at any screen size instantly to YouTube, Screencast.com, your webpage or blog, and portable devices like the iPhone.
Friday was a very interesting day because of Microsoft Courier Tablet leak that occurred simultaneously with Apple’s announcement of the iPad’s release date. There has been a lot of hype surrounding iPad and how it is going to be super hit for Apple like the iPhone and iPod products have been for them. But if even half of what the new video that is being presented by engadget is true, this product blows the socks off of the iPad as a useful Professional’s tool.
endgadget’s article describes this device as:
“We're told Courier will function as a "digital journal," and it's designed to be seriously portable: it's under an inch thick, weighs a little over a pound, and isn't much bigger than a 5x7 photo when closed. That's a lot smaller than we expected -- this new picture really puts it into perspective -- and the internals apparently reflect that emphasis on mobility: rather than Windows 7, we're told the Courier is built on Tegra 2 and runs on the same OS as the Zune HD, Pink, and Windows Mobile 7 Series, which we're taking to mean Windows CE 6.”
“… the interface appears to be pen-based and centered around drawing and writing, with built-in handwriting recognition and a corresponding web site that allows access to everything entered into the device in a blog-like format complete with comments.”
“,,,there will be a built-in camera, and there's a headphone jack for media playback. Most interestingly, it looks like the Courier will also serve as Microsoft's e-book device, with a dedicated ecosystem centered around reading.”
The ‘Digital Journal’ Tablet term is a perfect description of the proposed Microsoft Courier Tablet device. Seldom does my partner get so excited about a device but this one Jude said to me that he “would buy this in minute when it becomes available.” This device was initially introduced as a future device last December and has been hinted about at different Microsoft announcement events. With the release of this new video we get a better sense of the capabilities of the device and how it will fit into a busy professional’s lifestyle. So what is so special about it?
The first thing you notice is its dual screen display. This doubles your workspace and the ability to interact between applications and information. When reading a book the experience will be more “book like”. The device is designed around the concept of being used as a journal. It will allow you to compile information from different sources onto pages that can be shared with other members of your team. It will allow you to take pictures with the built-in camera and include those images in your journal pages. The concept of journals is very interesting because you can use it to separate different projects so that you can publish them as separate entities to the group you need to share them with. If you use OneNote or EverNote compare this to the notebook theme in these applications.
I do have some questions about this product that the answers will be very interesting to know. First is battery life. To make this truly useful it will need to be at least 10 hours of continuous use but even longer would be beneficial. Storage is another consideration. If it has an SD card slot, or a USB port that you can plug a USB Flash Drive into, then you have a method of giving yourself unlimited storage and an easy way to back up your data. Either way, this would be truly useful to have available and would give you almost unlimited storage. Another thought would be that it would be highly integrated into a cloud based site, for storage, sharing information and application access. With so much emphasis being placed on web based applications, it makes sense that it will have a tight integration with cloud based applications.
In reading all the information that is coming out about this proposed product, I felt that everything that I wanted out this type of device was being answered. One of my major complaints with the iPad is its lack of a stylus. Granted, Apple’s focus with their device is primarily entertainment Microsoft’s focus is on productivity. The stylus is important in this function. It looks like there will handwriting recognition built-in so the need for a keyboard will be minimal but if you were to turn the unit on its side the one screen could be turned into a keyboard with the second screen being the word processing page. Of course there is no hint of a keyboard so this is all speculation. Being that the unit is only 5x7 this keyboard would be very small indeed.
I made a mockup of what a 5x7 device would look like and I found a couple of things out. First, it is small enough to be easily transportable. It is light. And, for us guys that don’t want to have to start carrying a Man Purse around, it fits easily in the front pocket of my khakis. When you fold it open, you have two of these surfaces to work with. The central area between the screens is used as a docking area that holds information like a visual clipboard, so that you can easily move information and images between applications. Cutting and pasting is done very easily with a combination of both stylus and fingers. Flipping pages is very intuitive using your finger to scroll either horizontally or vertically through the user interface and the different applications. All in all, it blows the iPad out of the water with a much more useful device to the professional worker whether they are a salesperson, designer, serviceman, physician, lawyer or anyone that is an Information Worker.
So, if you can’t tell, I’ll spell it out. I’m very excited about this device concept and hope that the proposed release of it for the Q3/Q4 timeframe is true. This is one of the few new products that I would get in a long line for. I just wish that its release was sooner that what is being proposed. So the question arises, do I go out and get an iPad when it becomes available next month, or do I hold out for the Microsoft Courier. I don’t think that it is that hard of a decision, I really didn’t want the first generation iPad anyway, too many limitations. So if the Microsoft Courier does become a real, available device later this year, I think that in the long run I will much happier with it than the iPad. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens!
Original September leaked video, which was pretty cool in its own right:
Microsoft has announced a scripting vulnerability affecting Windows 2000, XP, and Server 2003 users using Internet Explorer. A dialog pop-up that convinces the user to hit F1, the commonly known "Help" button, could then run code on the machine, which would lead to, well, all kinds of unfortunate things. A patch will arrive, but in the meantime, let no web site direct you to call for help. Original image via Tom's Guide. [Microsoft TechNet via Gizmodo, Lifehacker]
Support for Windows XP with service pack 2 and Vista will be discontinued after July 13 this year. See the complete article at: http://oem.microsoft.com/downloads/ADD54268-AC45-4158-A87E-6C8166D1123E/worldwide/windowsxp/windowsxp_sp2_windowsvista_rtm_eos.pdf
Be sure to take a look at this important deadline that is coming up in a few months.
New TeraStation WSS (Press Release to Buffalo Partners)
Buffalo Releases TeraStation Windows Storage Server Buffalo's new TeraStation Windows Storage Server offers dependability, seamless integration, and one of the best values in networked storage. Windows Storage Server provides businesses a solution that offers no compromise integration into Windows workgroup or domain environments.
The TeraStation WSS features Windows Storage Server 2003 R2 Express Edition and helps businesses store and protect their digital assets. The TeraStation WSS is easy to install and manage, and offers the power of a Windows server operating system to provide a feature rich environment and easy to set up file sharing. With seamless support for protocols such as SMB, NFS, AppleTalk, and Netware, The TeraStation WSS allows data to be shared among different platforms. In addition, native integration with the Active Directory service provides simplified management for customers operating in a Windows domain environment. Available in the following skus: 2.0TB WS-Q2.0TL/R5 4.0TB WS-Q4.0TL/R5
As soon as I found them I couldn't keep myself from downloading these two new applications from NBC. The first one, NBC Olympics, gives you breaking news, video, photos and Facebook and Twitter feeds. On the social front, you can join or create your own groups, look at popular groups and different categories. You have a tab to look at individual sports coverage, favorites and the all important schedule which shows what is going on in when during the day. With the weather not qte porting as well as desired we're already seeing some of events being postponed until conditions get better. The schedule allows you to see what is on TV, what is online, which events are scheduled, when countries are scheduled for different events, and to setup alerts for the events when the metals are presented.
So if you work into the whole Olympic experience and you have an iPhone this is a great application to add to your phone.
The NBC cheer app gives you many options to use your are phone to make noise while you were cheering on your favorite Olympic sports. It is cute but can become quite irritating especially to those around you if they don't have a similar capability. So, if you need a little extra something to route along your favorite event you definitely have to get this app added to your phone. Have fun! Go USA!
You can now manage you DVR remotely using myDVR Manger. Once you have logged in and initialized the application, it will take 24 hours to synchronize to all the DVR units in your home. This program allows you to schedule your DVR to record your favorite TV shows and movies from any where you have Internet access with computer. If you have forgotten to schedule a program you can now access the DVR that you would like to program remotely from your work or other Internet connected computer.
The features include:
Schedule your recordings online
Review your scheduled recordings
Modify a scheduled recording
Modify a series recording
You will need your Comcast username (this is your email account) and password to be able to activate an access this account. You will then be able to access and eventually any DVR that is in your home from a remote desktop. You can even use this application on your home PC to make it a little easier to program your recording schedules.
I will let you know how well this works after I have used it for couple of weeks. You're facing simple and straightforward and I feel this is a great addition to Comcast's capabilities. Good going Comcast!
It never ceases to amaze me how such a sweet, quiet man can play The Game the way Troy does but it is a thing of wonder. He is such a good fit for the Steelers, whose personnel are all the hard work ethic and controlled personal lives type of people. You don’t last long when you don’t fit this mold with the Pittsburgh Steelers. I really think this is even more so then in past years and that this is what brings the team together, working together and the friendships that arise on the team. Team Spirit is what makes an organization click. Picking up where your fellow worker/teammate leaves off is what makes your organization better then the ones that don’t do this. While this doesn’t have the same tone as most of my technical articles it is meant to make us all stop and realize that we are all in this together and where we finish is dependent on how we approach our lives both at home and at work.
Note: almost forgot to put in that the reason Troy appeared on this show was to promote his support for Operation Once in a Lifetime which promotes granting returning Vets there special wish. Much like the Make a Wish Foundation does for children.
LifeSize Communications makes products for PC video communications. In an interesting trend LifeSize announced yesterday that they have agreed to be acquired by Logitech International for $405 million in cash. Logitech plans on LifeSize to continue operating as a separate division under the leadership Craig Malloy the current CEO of LifeSize Communications.
You will be experiencing Microsoft’s Silverlight to access the 2010 Winter Olympics. Posted on Channel 9 by Larry Larsen yesterday, NBC and Microsoft are getting back together for the 2010 Winter Olympics to give you full “DVR control of video, including rewind, sharing and saving clips.” To see more click through to Channel 9.
I am jealously awaiting my invitation to Google Wave, but the reality of it all is that I will probably wait until I have the time to fully focus on it more than I could possibly do now. Gina Trapani with Adam Pash are collaborating on an online guide to Google Wave. It will be interesting to see as time goes by whether they will begin to use Google Wave to communicate together as it becomes more stable. Because Google Wave is evolving every day, the book will be a work in progress that will be continually updated as these changes settle in. They have a series of planned PDF publishing dates over the next year.
Take a quick look to see what Google Wave is about or if you are currently working with this product and want to contribute to the creation of this work, take a look. So pick up on their invitation “to help revise and expand this guide as Wave evolves.”
Friday, July 30, 2010 at 10:53AM 
Microsoft has announced a 
Buffalo's new 
