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• Windows "Longhorn" Server Beta 3 Ships!!!

  Apr 26, 2007 at 1:56 AM

  Great video.  Any chance that we might get to see the final signoffs of the RTM version?
  

• Office UI - New Licensing Story

  Nov 22, 2006 at 5:50 PM

  Paul D. Murphy wrote:

  

  staceyw wrote: Paul D. Murphy wrote: What a bunch of BS. Microsoft can no more license the look and feel of thier UI than Ford can license the look and feel of the GT. You can license the icons, you can license the code; you can't simply state this layout belongs to me and anyone who wants this layout needs my license. For about 10k I can by a 3rd party shell to fit on a car chasis that will make my car look like a Ford GT. I have no love for the Open Office crowd, but I hope to God they release a ribbon just to challenge you guys on this draconian and absurd move. I'm a big Microsoft fan, but this is nonsense. Paul IIRC, yes you can.  Apple does it, MS does it, you can do it.

  
  
  
  You are just flat wrong dude.  You can license code. You can license copy. You can license icons. You can license all kinds of things that are tangible. You can't simply say 'blue tabs belong to me' so sign my license if you want blue tabs.
  

  
  
  How is this any worse than Apple patenting the "genie effect"?
  
  http://www.appleinsider.com/article.php?id=680
  

• Looking at XNA - Part One

  Nov 21, 2006 at 11:05 PM

  Rory wrote:

  
  

  tranbonium wrote:How about a game that can be played by multiple people on either XBox360 or Windows PCs together?

  
  That said, the 360 team would need to provide a bridge between XBL and the Rest of the World.
  
  While devs don't have to use XBL to create networked games, it's clearly the preferred method.

  
  Didn't I see something from this years E3 about being able to play multiplayer games across XBox360 and Windows Vista with players not even being able to tell what platform the others were using (except that the people using PC's would be kicking *** over the people using XBox's of course).
  
  
  

  Rory wrote:

  Just keep in mind that XNA is brand new - it's something that went from idea to product in six months. That's an amazing turnaround, especially given what was accomplished.

  
  Maybe I'm misunderstanding what you meant there, but I know I saw a little bit of info on XNA more than a year ago (even back in 2004 if I remember correctly).
  
  
  

  Rory wrote:

  I'm going to post the second part of this video as soon as possible, so just keep an eye out for it

  
  I can't wait
  
  I'm not so much interested in the console side of things myself, but I've been interested in game development for a long time but never got beyond making a few small games myself.  I'm really excited to see how XNA is coming along and I think it's just the thing to help me get started on something a bit bigger.
  

• Brian Beckman: Monads, Monoids, and Mort

  Sep 03, 2006 at 2:45 AM

  TommyCarlier wrote:

  Well, we are talking about binary data, as in zeros and ones. So 2²⁰ is more logical.
  1KB = 1024 bytes
  1MB = 1024 KB = 1024 * 1024 bytes
  1GB = 1024 MB = 1024 * 1024 KB = 1024 * 1024 * 1024 bytes
  
  In binary:
  1KB = 100 0000 0000 bytes
  1MB = 1 0000 0000 0000 0000 bytes
  1 GB = 100 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 bytes

  
  
  How is using the wrong values more logical just because we're talking about binary data?  G, M, k, etc. are all decimal prefixes.  What is more logical is to use the binary prefixes (Gi, Mi, Ki, etc.) when talking about binary data.
  
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_prefix
  

• Windows Live Messenger - What. How. Why.

  Jul 13, 2006 at 9:02 PM

  Steev wrote:

  Man, that already exists for the most part.  It's called Windows Messenger
  

  
  
  But if that were the case, my list would've been much longer .  Live messenger does have some nice stuff that Windows Messenger is missing.
  

• Windows Live Messenger - What. How. Why.

  Jul 13, 2006 at 3:06 PM

  How about making a 'lite' version without
  

  • Sharing folders,
  • All those things down the left side of the main messenger window (alerts, etc.),
  • Contact Cards,
  • Backgrounds,
  • Winks,
  • Dynamic Display Pictures,
  • Ads
  • Any of the other useless 'features' I missed.

  Live messenger is great and out of all the messenger clients I've ever used it's definately my favourite.  But it could be so much better without all that extra stuff.  Simplicity and performance should be your two most important features.
  

• Peter Biddle - Bitlocker, Security in Windows Vista

  Jul 11, 2006 at 3:16 PM

  Shark_M wrote:

  What I gather is that maybe you guys will not install or make the backdoors. But you guys will tell governments the vulnerabilities or the weak points that bitLock has, and then governments could then develop their own ways to decrypt a file. It goes back to my question why doesnt bitLocket employ a really good unbreakable encryption algorithm, so no one but the person who owns the pc would be able to read it. THis is similar to TrueCrypt in someway.

  
  

  Ok, how about you design that 'unbreakable' encryption algorithm, and then they'll use it.  The algorithm they use could take billions of years to break on todays hardware - that's good enough for me.
  
  
  
  

  Shark_M wrote:

  So for most people, what is the point of having bitLocker to begin with if the system has vulnterabilities that hackers as well as governmental agencies would be able to utilize to break the encryption? Just making their job a little harder?

  
  

  What vulnerabilities?
  

  
  

  Shark_M wrote:

  Another question how would this impact Anti-Virus software? Would this hinder scanning process to the point that it might take a whole day to scan your hard drives?

  
  

  Why would it?  If you have the keys decryption doesn't take all that long.
  

   

  Shark_M wrote:

  I mean its nice and all to have all my files encrypted so that if someone steals my pc or labtop my data cannot be read. Its a step in the right direction interms of privacy. But this is a sword with two edges if you will. You can give people false sence of security or privacy when the system used has weak points from which interested parties would be able to break the encryption.
  

  
  

  Once again, what weak points are you talking about?
  

• Microsoft Robotics Studio

  Jun 21, 2006 at 12:39 PM

  Wow, great stuff.  This is another video to add to my list of favourites.
  
  Do you guys have anything to do with MS sponsoring the Microsoft Hellhounds Robocup team?  I guess probably not since your team is fairly new and the Hellhounds have been around for a while.  Did you even know about them?  They've been working on getting a .NET system running on the Sony AIBO robots.
  
  Secondly, I was at Robocup last Saturday and Microsoft had a booth there.  But all they were showing was the XBox 360 and Windows Vista Beta 2.  It would've been nice if there could've been something about your work there too, since being Robocup, most of the people there probably would have been more interested in what you're doing than the XBox or Windows Vista.
  
  

  piersh wrote:

  this is brilliant. i especially like the simulation part.
  
  you should host a virtual robot wars/soccer tournament!

  
  
  You might be interested in the Robocup Simulation League.

• Windows Live Mail Desktop beta

  Jun 05, 2006 at 2:53 PM

  Duncan, you're videos always seem to have mono audio and it makes it really painful to watch otherwise great videos .  Any chance you could do something about that?
  

• Omar Shahine - Windows Live Mail

  Jun 04, 2006 at 11:22 AM

  I mostly use Gmail these days, but I still check my hotmail account occasionally to see if anything important has somehow ended up there, etc.  I signed up for the Live Mail beta around January or early February and had a look at it.  At the time I thought it was much better than hotmail, but still had nothing on Gmail.  After seeing this I decided it was time I took a closer look at it again.  I think it's improved quite a lot since I frst looked at it several months ago, but it's still not enough to bring people back from Gmail yet.  These are the main problems I found in 5 minutes of use (some have already been mentioned here):
  
  When I sign in to Windows Live 'Mail' it's because I want to see my mail, so why isn't it the first thing I see?
  
  The ad at the top of the page wastes a lot more space than an ad down the right side would do, especially on wide screens like I'm using.  I'm glad there's only an ad in one place now instead of two, but they picked the wrong one to keep.
  
  Tags are better than folders, surely they should've figured that out by now?
  
  Why don't contacts appear in the word wheel if I type their nickname?  It only seems to work for full name.
  
  If I'm in Calendar and I click on Mail or Contacts, it takes me to Today instead of what I wanted.
  
  Why do I need to control+click (or shift+click) to select multiple emails?  I'd prefer to have check boxes for each email to select/deselect them (being able to do it both ways would be best).  This was mentioned in the video as well as earlier in this thread, but if something that should be just one click requires me to hold down a key as well - that's bad.
  

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