Oct 17

Microsoft reveals Data Explorer tool, gets into the sorbet business (video)

Posted in: cloud, enterprise, Microsoft, research, Today's Chili, video, Windows

Redmond houses quite a few little teams beavering away on quirky projects and one of those has just gone public with its latest creation. It’s codenamed “Data Explorer”, which perhaps isn’t an ideal codename since it describes exactly what the enterprise-focused service does. Instead of manually searching and copying data into a report, Data Explorer pulls information from SQL databases, spreadsheets and other “random sources” that could be relevant, and then attempts to “clean it up, transform it, merge it together and then publish it out” as a coherent report. You can learn more and sign up for the beta at the source link, or click past the break to watch a Microsoft exec demo the tool using a real-world case study — we found it a bit dense, but you’ll be fine as long as you remember that kids love frozen yogurt.

Continue reading Microsoft reveals Data Explorer tool, gets into the sorbet business (video)

Microsoft reveals Data Explorer tool, gets into the sorbet business (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 17 Oct 2011 10:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Oct 16

Public Vista SP1 Release Candidate by Mid-December?

Posted in: Microsoft, Release Date, Software, Today's Chili, Windows

This article was written on November 29, 2007 by CyberNet.

Vista Fix Patch Mary Jo Foley has tapped some of her sources to try and get information regarding Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1), and it appears that she didn’t come up empty handed this time around. Her sources said that Vista SP1 RC will be in the hands of testers as early as next week, and that the public will be able to get a taste of it the following week. I’m definitely down with that if it works out that way.

Some of you may have already taken advantage of the trick to get Vista SP1 via Windows Update, but that will not be the same build as the Release Candidate. The most current known Vista SP1 build is 6001.17042, but Foley said that Microsoft is running 6001.17051 internally. I suspect that Microsoft has gotten valuable feedback from the thousands of designated testers, and by this point Vista SP1 is probably near production quality.

I put together the image above as a reminder not to disturb the Microsoft engineers at work. We wouldn’t want Vista SP1 to suck as much as Vista currently does. Sorry, I couldn’t help myself. ;)

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Oct 16

Free Kaspersky AntiVirus after $50 Rebates!

Posted in: Apple, Microsoft, Screenshots, Software, Today's Chili

This article was written on March 30, 2007 by CyberNet.

KasperskyAmazon (only in the United States) is currently offering the Kaspersky Antivirus for free (actually $-0.01) after you mail in two rebates that are each worth $25. I know, rebates are a pain but it might just be worth it knowing that you are using one of the highest rated antivirus applications available. Amazon also offers free shipping on this item and you’ll actually be receiving a boxed version of it…not just a download link.

The rebates from Amazon will both be valid on purchases until April 7, 2007 so you still have a little bit of time to think about it. They’ll need to be postmarked (a.k.a. mailed out) within 30 days of your purchase which means you can’t just put it on the backburner and forget about it for a few months.

If you don’t mind having a limited feature set you could always download the always free AOL Active Virus Shield which is powered by Kaspersky Antivirus. That will give you great protection, but you will have to find a way to survive knowing you have an application by sponsored by AOL on your computer. :)

Note: There is an update available on Kaspersky’s website so that the antivirus software works with Windows Vista. The version that Amazon is offering only says that it is XP compatible but the update will also make it compatible with Vista.

Get Kaspersky Antivirus for free from Amazon

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Oct 16

Best Buy Gets Two Weeks of Apple TV all to Themselves

Posted in: Apple, Microsoft, Screenshots, Today's Chili

This article was written on March 22, 2007 by CyberNet.

BestbuyappleSomehow, Best Buy managed to persuade Apple into giving them two weeks of the Apple TV all to themselves! As we mentioned yesterday, Apple TVs just started shipping. The deal that Best Buy formed with Apple gives them two weeks to sell the unit before any other retailer (other than the Apple store of course)!

However, during this initial two weeks of exclusivity, Best Buy will be given a limited number, only 3,000 units. With over 800 stores and only 3,000 units? Hmm… I’ll let you do the math with this one. If you’re really wanting an Apple TV, and you don’t have an Apple Store nearby (most people don’t), you’re probably better off purchasing online. Chances are, your Best Buy will only be given one or two, if any.

Source: News.com

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Oct 16

Windows Live Writer Beta 2: New Inline Spell Checking & Tables

Posted in: Apple, Freeware, Microsoft, Pre-Release, Screenshots, Software, Today's Chili

This article was written on May 30, 2007 by CyberNet.

Windows Live WriterThe Windows Live Writer team just posted the Beta 2 which is now available for you to download. It has a handsome list of new features, but nothing I hadn’t really seen in a blog editor before:

  • Inline spell checking
  • Table editing
  • Ability to add categories
  • Page authoring for WordPress and TypePad
  • Support for excerpts and extended entries
  • Improved hyperlinking and image insertion
  • Paste Special
  • Automatic synchronization of local and online edits
  • Integration with Windows Live Gallery
  • Support for Blogger Labels
  • New look and feel
  • Available in 6 languages
  • Improved accessibility and keyboard support

My first impression of the new Live Writer was…wow! It looks amazing, and if appearance counts for anything it blows the other blog editors out of the water. It is sharp, sophisticated, and most of all, usable.

Windows Live Writer
Click to Enlarge

The inline spell checking and table manager are awesome features that will surely come in handy. Unfortunately it still doesn’t appear to support the XHTML standards, but I’m sure many of the Live Writer users don’t know what that is.

I played with it a little more, and two things I thought you might like to see is the appearance of the right-click menu for the spell checker, and what you can actually do with the tables. Here are two screenshots that will sum that up well:

Windows Live Writer Windows Live Writer

When creating the table, it asks you for all of the basic information just as if you were creating it in a word processor:

Windows Live Writer

As you can see there are a lot of great things available with the new Live Writer, and you should consider giving it a shot. Personally, I’m a huge fan of Post2Blog which coincidentally turned to freeware the other day. It is a great application that has a ton of features, but I would have to say that Live Writer looks better and is a little simpler to use.

So what’s it missing? Despite Live Writer supporting plug-ins, I still think there are some things that should be built-in. Some of these things might be available via a plug-in, but this is what I would like to see Live Writer shipped with:

  • XHTML standards compliance
  • Table options (a.k.a. the stuff from the Table Menu) should open in the sidebar like they do when you click on an image.
  • Customize the order of the categories (I don’t know of any blogging software that does this though).
  • Enable Auto-saving by default. I don’t know who wouldn’t like the assurance that their documents are constantly being saved?
  • Align buttons! If I want to center some text, I shouldn’t be going to the Format -> Align menu. That takes way to long. There should be buttons to do this. Also, what about the shortcut keys for aligning things, such as Ctrl+E for centering?
  • I’m not sure about this one, but maybe make the sidebar expand/contract when you hover over it? That way it saves space and is still extremely easy to get to.
  • I would like to create snippets as well. That way some of the repetitive things aren’t so…well, repetitive. This is great for people who guest blog and always conclude each post with a short summary of who they are.

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Oct 15

Windows 7 overtakes XP globally, Vista found weeping in a corner

Posted in: mac os x, MacOsX, marketshare, Microsoft, operating system, OperatingSystem, os, statistics, Today's Chili, Windows, windows 7, Windows XP, Windows7

According to StatCounter, it’s taken roughly two years for Redmond’s latest to surpass XP and become the world’s most popular operating system. October 2011 marks the first time that Windows 7 has overtaken XP globally, with a 40 percent share of the market versus the latter’s 38. As for Vista, it’s been holding steady at around 11. Not that it’s much of a surprise, as in North America, Windows 7 took the crown back in April of this year. Rounding out the top five, are OS X (though it’s not clear whether that captures all of Cupertino’s beasts) and Linux, which come in at 7 and 0.82 percent respectively. But don’t take our word for it, hop on over to the source links and get your interactive chart on.

[Thanks, Pipera]

Windows 7 overtakes XP globally, Vista found weeping in a corner originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 15 Oct 2011 13:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Oct 15

Apple Error Reveals 8-core Mac Pro

Posted in: Apple, Microsoft, Screenshots, Today's Chili

This article was written on March 13, 2007 by CyberNet.

A nice surprise recently appeared on the online UK Apple Store that confirms what people have been saying all along. Late last night and early today while searching for “Mac Pro,” the first result displayed an option that said “Now quad-core or 8–core processing power.”The image below is a screenshot of the listing from Tuaw.com who managed to get there before it was taken down.

Applequad

Not too long after the buzz started to get around the Web, the entire UK store went down which tells us this wasn’t intentional, and when it came back up the listing was gone. When Intel announced their quad core processor, it was clear that at some point someone would make the move and introduce computers with 8–core processing power.

Apple is probably really close to releasing the 8–core as expected. It was just last month that MacScoop reported that along with the black 24–inch iMac, there would also be the 8–core Mac Pro coming in March sometime.

People have been waiting for this option for months, and soon they’ll be able to get all 8 cores.

Just for fun I decided to configure the most expensive Mac Pro possible, and it turned out one seriously loaded computer at a grand total of $18,125.00. Once the 8–core is available, I wonder if we can push it over $20,000? :) (Specs below)

  • Two 3.0GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon
  • (4) 750GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s hard drives
  • 16GB (8 x 2GB) of memory
  • NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500 512MB, Stereo 3D (2 x dual-link DVI)
  • (2) Apple Cinema HD Display (30″ flat panel)
  • Plus general accessories that they offer like keyboard/wireless mighty mouse

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Oct 14

CyberNotes: PhraseExpress 4 Officially the Ultimate Time Saver?

Posted in: Apple, CyberNotes, Features, Freeware, Microsoft, Screenshots, Software, Today's Chili

This article was written on May 01, 2007 by CyberNet.

CyberNotes
Time Saving Tuesday

We have raved about the free PhraseExpress software before, and we are going to do it again! They recently released version 4 of their application, and the enhancements it has will make you so much more productive that you’ll be wondering how you got by without using it!

The concept behind PhraseExpress is extremely simple: you type some text in an application and PhraseExpress will automatically replace that text with something else. When would that be useful? Well, I’m sure you use abbreviations all of the time without even thinking about it. Take for example a chat conversation where you type messages like BRB (be right back) or TTYL (talk to you later). You probably use those abbreviations because they are faster to type, but you can setup PhraseExpress to automatically kick the habit of sending abbreviated phrases!

The newest version of PhraseExpress has all sorts of enhancements that take the program beyond just being a simple text replacement utility:

  • Formatted text and bitmaps: This is great news for people who have signatures that they automatically want inserted when composing an email or document. I’ll explain more about this below.
    PhraseExpress
  • Automatic spelling corrections: This is just like Microsoft Word because PhraseExpress will automatically correct misspellings of thousands of the most common words. Having this feature when composing emails or typing comments in a browser is extremely handy!
  • Assign multiple phrases to an Autotext: With this feature you can essentially have multiple phrases assigned to a single “keyword.” Whenever you type that keyword you will be presented with a drop-down menu for you to select which phrase you would like inserted:
    PhraseExpress
  • Assign multiple Autotexts to a phrase: This is the opposite of the previous bullet because this lets you setup multiple Autotexts (or keywords as I like to call them) for a single phrase. This is useful if you have a hard time remembering what Autotext you assigned to a phrase. An example of this is seen below with the default “.com” auto replacement that is setup. If you mistype “.com” with any of the variations listed it will automatically correct it for you.
    PhraseExpress

There is a whole lot more that is new in PhraseExpress 4, but what I have listed above are the most beneficial for me. There are a few kinks that I have noticed with the formatted text and bitmaps addition though:

  • To copy a Bitmap image or formatted text into a signature you actually need to highlight it in either a browser or in a document. Then click on the PhraseExpress icon in the System Tray and select the “Create new phrase” option. This will prompt you with a dialog box to save the highlighted text, but you need to make sure the “Save text formatting” box is checked. Click here for more detailed instructions.
  • Saving formatting in Firefox doesn’t seem to work, so you’ll either need to use Internet Explorer or an application that supports text formatting/bitmaps if you want to save anything besides for a plain text phrase.
  • When originally seeing the image support feature I must have bypassed the word “Bitmap” in the description. I spent about 15 minutes trying to get a JPEG image to be saved in an email signature, but it just wouldn’t work. I’m guessing that the image must be saved in the Bitmap format for this feature to work properly.

There’s a lot more that you can do in PhraseExpress, which are all explained more in the manual. Here are a few of the tips that might be the most helpful for you:

Download PhraseExpress 4

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Oct 14

Microsoft doles out the dough to Nokia and Samsung, plans Mango marketing bonanza for year’s end

Posted in: mango, marketing, Microsoft, mobilepostcross, nokia, partnership, samsung, steve ballmer, Today's Chili, windows phone, WindowsPhone

Know who loves it when other OEMs call him big poppa? Ballmer, that’s who. So much so that he’s opened up the company’s coffers to Nokia and Samsung for a holiday blitz of Mango marketing. Hold onto your hats though, it’s no carte blanche access to Redmond’s Gringotts. According to a report on Mobile Magazine, inside sources claim MS has set aside ₤28 million (about $44 million) for the endeavor, with about ₤20 million of that reserved for Nokia’s first Windows Phone 7.5 handset. This joint marketing effort is reportedly a broader extension of the cooperative agreements all parties agreed to, ensuring future WP devices get the media saturation they deserve. So, keep your eyes peeled this upcoming winter. We have a feeling you won’t be able to escape the commercial onslaught, anyway.

Microsoft doles out the dough to Nokia and Samsung, plans Mango marketing bonanza for year’s end originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 14 Oct 2011 15:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Oct 14

Halo 3 Multiplayer Beta Coming May 16th (Video)

Posted in: Apple, gaming, Microsoft, Screenshots, Today's Chili, xbox

This article was written on April 10, 2007 by CyberNet.

Microsoft made an announcement this morning that the Halo 3 Multiplayer Beta will debut on Xbox Live May 16th and will run through June 6th. This is a big moment for any Halo fan, and here is what Bungie says the Beta will include:

  • The Beta itself consists of three maps – Valhalla, High Ground and Snowbound – graphically improved since our first MP screenshots – and all three will be playable in Matchmaking only (that is after all, what we’re Beta testing here). All three maps are suitable for a wide variety of gameplay types, and you will have the chance to try all manner of game types, familiar and new.
  • There are a number of new features you’ll get to test out – including a new grenade type, a completely different class of weapon and some of the enhanced online functionality we plan to bring to the game – but it should be noted, a lot of secret features are hidden in this Beta. We’re keeping a lot of our powder dry for Fall. In May, when your firing the Spiker, sniping vehicles with the Spartan Laser and sticking fools with the Brute Spike grenade, remember that it’s just a peek-a-boo fraction of what’s to come.
  • There will also be new guns, vehicles and gameplay features to try – including the mysterious “X-Button” functionality. But you don’t have to wait to find out what that is, since you can now view part of its functionality in our latest Vidoc, “Is Quisnam Protero Damno!” a long look at the making of Halo 3’s Multiplayer game.

If that isn’t enough info to grab your attention, then maybe this 7–minute video on the making of Halo 3 will strike your interest:

There is a lot of interesting stuff that they demonstrate in the video, such as the “Man Cannon” which replaces the teleportation devices from Halo 1 and 2. At first I thought it would be a little weird, but I was sold when they showed a person shooting someone else coming out of the Man Cannon (check it out about 3 minutes and 35 seconds into the video).

It’s going to be tough to make it better than Halo 1 and 2, but I think they are definitely on the right track!

Source: Kotaku

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